fifc of A COURSE OF LECTURES DEHVEBED AT ALL SAINTS', MAEGARET STEEET, IN LENT, 1864. BY THE REV. T. T. CARTER, M.A., RECTOR OF CLEWKE, 13EBKS. KgSSa Hi Ex Libris C. K. OGDEN \J THE LIFE OF SACRIFICE. anm ai IT tttum DELIVERED REV. T. T. CARTER, M.A., RECTOR OF CLEWER, BERKS. Seconti LONDON : JOSEPH MASTERS, ALDERSGATE STREET, AND NEW BOND STREET. MDCCCLXVII. LONDON : PRINTED DY JOSEPH MASTERS AND SON. ALDERSOATK STREET. CONTENTS LECTURE I. PAGE THE DEATH- VAIL .... 1 LECTURE II. THE RETURN OF LIGHT 17 LECTURE III. THE RANSOMED LIFE 33 LECTURE IV. THE DIYINE COMMUNION .51 LECTURE V. THE TRAINING OF THE ELECT . . . . . 67 A LECTURE VI. REST IN GOD . . 87 LECTURE I. THE DEATH-VAIL. ISAIAH xxv. 7. " AND HE WELL DESTROY IN THIS MOUNTAIN THE FACE OF THE COYEBING CAST OVEB ALL PEOPLE, AND THE VAIL THAT IS SPREAD OTEE ALL NATIONS." THE final triumph of our LORD through His Incarna- tion meeting and overcoming death, is the subject of the prophecy of which this verse forms a part. The vail meant is the mortuary vail, the covering spread over the face of a deceased person ; and it is applied to the condition of mankind separated from GOD, the spiritual death which after the Fall spread itself over the whole human race. The explanation of the figure is given in the verse immediately following, where the idea is simply expressed, " He will swallow up death in victory." The spreading of this vail of death over the face of man, hiding from him the vision of GOD, is clearly described in the history of the Fall, and was foretold as the direct consequence of disobedience. " In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die." 1 But how death, with its manifold con- sequences of sorrow, was ever suffered to arise within the creation of GOD, this is not revealed. All those 1 Gen. ii. 17. ill. B 2 THE DEATH-VAIL. [LECT. deep searching of heart, which so often perplex and sadden us, as to the causes of the misery brooding over man's earthly state, the bodily sufferings, the deeper spiritual anguish, how they could have entered within the realms of the kingdom of GOD, how they are to be reconciled with the goodness of GOD, ques- tionings arising often from one's own trials, oftener still perhaps, and more keenly, from the trials of others, and so difficult wholly to put aside, find no real answer in the Scriptures. The only reply that echoes through its pages is that, which S. Paul gave to some who doubted the justice of the punishment inflicted on the wicked, and the favour shown to the elect ; " 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 ?" 1 The Bible is not meant to answer questions which had already arisen before the creation of man. It is a record of GOD'S dispensations to man since man's creation, not of those which had preceded it, and there- fore affecting pre-existent states of being. Death evidently existed on the earth among the creatures, be- fore man's creation. The consequence of the fall of our race was but to spread over man the terrible destiny which, from whatever cause, had already found its entrance among other creatures. The Scriptures find this awful mystery already in existence, as part of a pre-existing state, and they leave it among the other secrets of GOD, which will find their solution here- after. All that we are assured of is, that although GOD suffered death to spread over mankind, as a punish- ment of sin, yet He " made not death, neither hath He pleasure in the destruction of the living. For He 1 Bom. ix. 20. I.] THE DEATH-VAIL. 3 created all things that they might have their being ; and the generations of the world were healthful, and there is no poison of destruction in them, nor the king- dom of death upon the earth : (for righteousness is im- mortal :) but ungodly men with their works and words called it to them." 1 It is, moreover, part of the mystery of death, that it does not exist of itself alone, but is the effect of another and a greater power. Behind it appears and acts on us a living person, of whom Death is the shadow or vital breath. Death is, as it were, a creature springing out of the fall of the angelic nature, the dreadful plague which had its original source in Satan. Scripture is express on this point. It tells us of " him that hath the power of death, that is the devil." 2 This same truth is also involved in the statement that our LORD, when crucified, by His Cross " spoiled principalities and powers, and made a show of them openly, triumph- ing over them in it." 3 For He spoiled them of their prey, in delivering from their grasp those who were " dead in their sins," but being " quickened together with Him," 4 were thus rescued from their power, the death by which they were held being overcome and done away. Death, therefore, is not the whole of the woe of the fallen ; it is merely the consequence of a greater woe, the consequence of man having fallen under the power of the Evil Spirit, whose hand spread the vail of horror and darkness over the face of humanity, in the fatal hour when man shared his sin. That Satan had some mysterious power on the earth, extending also to the vegetable and the animal king- 1 Wisd. i. 1316. 2 Heb. ii. 14. 3 Col. ii. 15. 4 Col. ii. 13. B 2 4 TI1E DEATH-VAIL. [LECT. doms, and thus gained the means of approaching man so as to hold communion with him and tempt him to his ruin, is evident from the history of the Fall. His influence upon the serpent and through the tree of knowledge, gave him the opportunity he desired of addressing Eve. There is evidence, moreover, in the Scriptures, that before the creation of man, Satan held some high pre-eminence in this world. The state of the earth before the present creation, " without form and void, and darkness on the face of the deep," 1 does not read like a work of GOD, but rather like a ruin of some better work. Probably it was the result of the fall of the angels, the wreck of the storm which, over- throwing them, left its scars even on this solid globe. The descriptions given in Holy Scripture of Satan, as the " god of this world ;" 2 "the ruler of the darkness of this world ;" 3 " the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of dis- obedience," 4 leading them " captive at his will ;" 5 and again, as " the strong man armed keeping his palace," 8 unquestionably involve the ideas of pre-eminence, and rule. These texts also prove that although his glory perished in his fall, and he was dislodged from the pre-eminence which he once held, he yet partially at least resumed his hold upon the earth and its inha- bitants, when, through his deceit, they joined him against GOD in a like transgression. But the causes of Satan's power, and of his sin, and of death, its dark and dreadful doom, are alike shrouded in the secrets of eternity antecedent to the history of man ; and the Bible stretches not back into that pre-existent state. It opens assuming the existing facts of sin, of forfeited 1 Gen. i. 2. 2 2 Cor. iv. 4. 8 Eph. ii. 2. * Eph. ii. 2. 6 2 Tim. ii. 26. S. Luke xi. 21. I.] THE DEATH-VAIL. 5 vocations, and of death. It finds them, it does not account for them ; it only shows how the plague was caught, and spread among mankind. But it has been a prevailing tradition, and there are passages in Holy Scripture clearly harmonizing with the belief, that the fall of the angels was involved in their resisting GOD'S purpose of becoming Incarnate in man's nature, rather than in their own. It has been believed that the purpose of GOD to take, not " the nature of angels," but " the seed of Abraham ;' n that "He," CHRIST, as Man, "in all things should have the pre-eminence ;" 2 " that in Him," as Man, all " the fulness of the Godhead should dwell bodily ;" 3 " that by Him," as Man, " the FATHER would recon- cile all things to Himself, whether they be things on earth, or things in Heaven," 4 that these designs of unutterable glory destined to be fulfilled in our nature, in preference to their own, awakened in them that resistance, the fruit of pride, to which Scripture avowedly ascribes their fall, pride maddening these great " principalities, and powers," 5 against GOD, and precipitating them against His irresistible will before which they hopelessly fell. The supposition that this pride was stirred by the announcement of GOD'S purpose to raise up man nearest to Himself, may account for that dire and relentless enmity with which they assaulted man as soon as he was formed, and for the subtle deceits with which they have ever sought the ruin specially of every one distinguished by the favour of GOD, as well as for the malice and restless hostility which rose to its height in compassing the destruction of Him Who i Heb. ii. 16. 2 Col. i. 18. 3 Col. ii. 9. 4 Col. i. 20. 5 Eph. vi. 12. 6 THE DEATH-VAIL. [LECT. at last appeared, accomplishing the Divine purpose of the Incarnation which had at first awakened their daring and proud antagonism. This same truth explains to us the original intended destiny of man, and the reason of the solemn charge given to our first father. He was put into the garden of Eden, to " dress it, and to keep it." 1 Mark the ex- press injunction, " keep it," keep it evidently against the expected attacks of a designing foe, keep his home, the scene of his development, and so his own life, safe from the destroyer ; and for what ? Surely for a noble destiny man was urged to be faithful. He was to keep himself pure, to observe the law of his vocation, and the purpose of his Creator, to use his powers for their ordained ends, to be faithful to the light within him for a fixed period of time, as a probation, with the certain prospect that he would then be united with GOD, and become the head of the creatures, the central being in whom all the glory of the creation would meet, the one creature in whom alone GOD would abide by a personal union. GOD needed to select one creature to be the basis on which to build up, and embody, the transcendent idea of a union between Himself, the Uncreated, and created natures ; and for this amazing blessedness and glory He predestinated man. To correspond with this design, to fit himself for it, when the fulness of time should come, was the meaning of the charge to " keep" himself, and his earthly home, safe against the encroachments of the fallen angel who had rebelled against this Divine purpose. Moreover it was intended that the evil which had entered the creation of GOD, should be subdued through man, as GOD'S chosen agent in the contest. GOD 1 Gen. ii. 15. I.] THE DEATH-TAIL. 7 purposed to destroy the power of evil, not by a direct exercise of His own power, but through the instru- mentality of a creature whom He would endue with supernatural strength for this end. Man may possibly have been raised up " to resist the devil," not for his own sake only, but for the glory of GOD, for the sake of the entire creation. That Satan is finally to fall under CHRIST, as Man ; that already overcome by Him in the flesh, he is at last to be " bruised in his head/' the very seat of life, by the " Seed of the woman ;" that the final condemnation upon him and his host, is to be pronounced by the Saints who, enthroned with CHRIST, shall "judge Angels," 1 these truths already proclaimed in the Scriptures, point to the fact that the human conquest of Satan, and the overthrow of evil by man, was part of his original destiny. What he failed to do in himself, he will at last accomplish in CHRIST. The purpose of GOD will not be overruled, nor will the worlds which Satan's transgressions ruined, fail to be rescued from the curse, though in order to accomplish the Divine purpose, humanity must be raised above itself by the indwelling and inworking of GOD. It is generally thought that the visions foreshadow- ing the Incarnation, granted to holy men under the earlier dispensations, were only types to teach the world at large the certainty of the glory that should afterwards be fulfilled. They were undoubtedly given for this end. They were revealed to men who had kept their lives, at least in their main end, true, men of faith, of prayer and self-sacrifice, who thus prepared however imperfectly, were capable of the Divine illu- mination, in order that they might see by faith and 1 1 Cor. vi. 3. 8 THE DEATH-TAIL. [LECT. teach to others, the union of humanity with the God- head, as its final destiny of bliss, the certainty of the glory reserved for them, what they should personally possess, as their own future joy, and with themselves, all who should inherit the same faith. But this was not the only purpose of those visions. They also had power to sustain those who beheld them in patient suffering under the assaults of their mortal foe, enabling them to "endure, as seeing the Invisible;" 1 "faith," being to them " the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen," 2 guiding and sustaining them on their way during their trial-hour. Thus to Noah, when his faith and patience had been fully proved, the rainbow shone forth, his token of the light from heaven glittering through the watery drops of earth, the light of Godhead radiant in the tears of suffering Humanity, the Incarnation manifest in the Passion. Thus Abraham, so wonderfully upheld in lofty communings with GOD, " exulted," 3 as he beheld in the history of his " son, his only son, Isaac, whom he loved," 4 the manifestation of a more glorious life, to be fulfilled in his greater Offspring, even the " Day" of CHRIST, which " he saw, and was glad." Thus, again, Jacob, although a lonely fugitive, yet bearing in his person the promise, the sacred heritage of his race, while he lay on the open waste with a stone for his pillow, in the visions of the night was gladdened 1 Heb. li. 27. Heb. xi. 1. 8 S. John viii. 56, rj, lit. " he looked with eager exultation and desire to behold My day." a^a\- \iaia, prffl gaudio exulto ; hence, gestio, desiderio alicujus rei fe- ror. Schleus. " The particle, tva, often serves to connect verbs of willing and desiring in New Testament words." Words, in loc. 4 Gen. xxii. 2. I.] THE DEATH- VAIL. 9 as he beheld the union of heaven and earth, through the mystic ladder with its train of " angels, ascending and descending j" 1 himself at its foot, the symbol of Humanity prostrate in its helplessness, and standing above it the very and true GOD, as One preparing to descend ; the two Natures separated for a time, but about to become one, and then to abide unchangeably one for ever. Thus again, Moses called forth from among his brethren to bear the burden of the rebel- lions of a " stiffnecked and gainsaying people," was strengthened for this momentous charge, by the vision of GOD, so vividly bright, that long after his descent from the Mount, his face shone with the radiance of the Presence, in which he abode " forty days and forty nights," so that " the people could not behold him for the glory of his countenance." 2 These are instances of the great truth, that even under the imperfect forms of the earlier covenant, the servants of GOD were sus- tained by the assurance of the Divine Nature entering within the sphere of Humanity, within their own personal life, breaking through and destroying the vail of death spread over the nations. Even the anticipa- tion of this sure blessedness was enough to nurture, and sustain a faith which could overcome the world. The Saints of old thus lived upon the promise which, reflecting back the glory of our LORD'S manifestation in the flesh, brightened their path of trial, and upheld them in their long waiting. It was their life, although the promise could not be fulfilled, till in the fulness of time One was found, so pure, so perfectly corresponding to the will of GOD, that He could in her unite Him- self with our nature. The glory of Mary, why hence- forth all generations call her blessed, is because through 1 Gren. xxviii. 12. 2 2 Cor. iii. 7. 10 THB DEATH-VAIL. [LECT. her pre-eminent sanctity the union of the Godhead and the manhood could find in her a fitting tabernacle. There was the fulfilment of the Divine purpose, because there was the fulfilment of the necessary fitness. She was " highly favoured," because she was found so faithful to the wonderful grace given to her, that the love of GOD toward the creatures could reach its highest development through her, its fitting channel and instrument. It is the peculiar characteristic of our nature, that the presence of a higher being than our own is needed for its rest and its happiness. It would seem that the nature of Angels is more self-existent, feeding upon GOD indeed, and sustained by GOD, while ever behold- ing His Face, and so living in His light ; but not admitting the indwelling of GOD, not needing GOD as an inward Presence, to be, as it were, the complement of their nature. It is not so with man ; " It is not good for man to be alone." The union with the creature, which is the first application of this saying, is but the type of a higher union, which alone can meet a yet deeper need. Man's nature needs a higher nature than itself, to be its stay, its peace. A higher Presence than its own must enter within it, to become a part of itself, or there is a void, a loneliness. " As the hart desireth the water-brooks, so longeth my soul after Thee, O GOD ; my soul is athirst for GOD," is the inspired expression of this profound craving. These words do not imply a desire merely to see GOD, but a secret craving even to receive GOD into man's very nature, to indwell in him, as hunger de- sires food to satisfy it. So absolute is this law of man's needing a higher being to rule and to possess him, that if the Divine Presence reign not within the soul, I.] THE DEATH- VAIL. 11 this fearful consequence ensues, where GOD cannot be, where union with GOD, the intended Indweller of our nature, is hindered, there the soul falls, by a fatal necessity, under subjection to the Angel who still 1 " worketh in the children of disobedience." This is the burden of that fearful parable, where our LORD describes the soul " empty, swept, and garnished," 2 and the spirit, after " walking through dry places," entering in "to dwell there:" empty, because man's nature is not meant to be alone, cannot live in himself alone, is not complete in himself. There is a void, and a higher Presence must pervade and fill it. If this Indweller be not GOD, who can it be ? This parable it is our LORD'S own account of the terrible alter- native answers the question, none but Satan. Of one man alone is it said in the Book of GOD that, " after the sop, Satan entered into him ;" 3 but this isolated case is recorded only because it was the most momentous instance of a law which prevails wherever the vail of spiritual death is hopelessly spread over the soul, and departs not. The dark vail may abide, or may return, and then it becomes " the second death," 4 in those who are " twice dead," 5 to be the unchanging gloom of an endless separation from GOD ; when the soul, buried in the everlasting abyss, indwelt by lost angels, shares with them their last destiny of woe, as the true development of a like sin, and of com- munion with them in the innermost seat of life, bind- ing the two together in a common alienation from GOD. As in the realms of light the indwelling Pre- sence of the ever Blessed GOD abides within the saints, 1 Eph. ii. 2. 2 S. Mattb. xii.,44. 3 S. John xiii. 27. 4 Eev. ii. 11. 5 S. Jude 12. 12 THE DEATH-TAIL. [LECT. filling them with His fulness, directing and ruling them with a perpetual inspiration ; even so where this Presence is wanting, within the folds of the vail of death, the lost soul is inhabited, pervaded, and ruled by the Angel of darkness, held captive by him for ever at his will. These facts concerning our state reveal the secret of the struggle of life ever going on within us. Some, craving after the Divine vision, longing for union with GOD, having the one pervading desire to cast off the vail of separation which keeps the soul from seeing GOD, and possessing GOD, are striving to fulfil their vocation, to keep the way of the LORD, to discipline and train themselves, to bring every thought into sub- jection, to perfect holiness, to live by faith ; and for what end ? Not for its own sake ; oh, no ! Not as if aught in one's own nature, however high, however holy, could satisfy itself, or be one's end ; but in order that they may be fitted for the Divine union, and that more and more of the Divine indwelling may possess them, as they become more assimilated to It in mind and will ; and that this may hereafter be perfected, the soul's chiefest bliss, its truest glory. Such persons look for intimations of the Divine will wherever they may be found, for revelations of truth, and laws of love ever developing into new and enlarged forms of grace, and fresh methods of spiritual amendment, living by rules of spiritual discipline, and striving to overcome sin, all sin, so that the vail of death may continually be kept back, and finally destroyed ; that the power of evil, which continually seeks to re-assert its ancient hold, may be resisted at every attempt ; that through the precious Blood ever pleaded, and the grace of sa- craments, the Divine aid, thus invoked, may be ever I.] THE DEATH-VAIL. 13 ensured to stay back the surges of the dreadful tides of sin, the subtle deceits of him who " hath the power of death, "^knowing that as there is a continual endeavour to destroy us, there must be a continual energy of life to force the Evil one afar off. Such is one side of the history of human society, secretly it may be, but surely working out its appointed destiny in the midst of us, a destiny of final beatitude irreversible, because the LORD, Who is the Truth, hath spoken it. There is another side of human life, to the conse- quences of which we cannot shut our eyes. When evil is openly allowed, and known disobedience ad- mitted, none can doubt the results. The danger of self-deceit lies rather in the less palpable forms of sin. When evil customs are pleaded as an excuse for lax indulgence ; when excitement succeeds excitement ; when pleasure is ever first sought, or business followed as eagerly as pleasure ; when the necessity of station, or use, or example, or mere weakness, is supposed a sufficient plea for questionable courses ; when the soul scarcely ventures to look forward to the future, and all serious weighing of the momentous questions involved in it, all reckoning of consequences, is day after day postponed ; when even although there may be no dis- tinct and palpable sin on which you can put your finger, (for of manifest transgressions the consequence is certain,) yet without any outward stamp of wicked- ness there is no spiritual rule over the life, striving to subject the life to the will of GOD, no high aim sus- tained, no earnestness, no strength or sincerity of religious purpose, no self-sacrifice, no self-restraint over the weak points of character, no consistency with any high aim, no secret deep fervour of confession, and prayer and communion with GOD, what can we 14 THE DEATH-VAIL. [LECT. suppose to be the real inner life of such souls ? Must it not be that the Evil one, however imperceptibly, is using either the weak indulgence of passion, or the specious conventional usages of a mere worldly mo- rality, to withdraw them from GOD, steadily influencing them by the human traditions which in general society have taken the place of the stern uncompromising laws of the Divine life, and thus even in the Christian world re-asserting his ancient hold within the empty chamber of man's nature, perhaps all the more readily because there is no startling sin forcing on the con- science the necessity of repentance, the very ease and fearlessness of these children of the more polished world only ensuring more fatally the truth that " the face of the covering cast over all people" has " blinded their eyes, lest the light of the glorious Gospel of CHRIST, Who is the Image of GOD, should shine upon them ?' M Holy Scripture employs a fearful expression when it speaks of " servants " 2 of sin, or rather taking the full and proper sense of the original word, " slaves" of sin. There may be slaves bound by silken cords, and by trammels of courtly ease, as well as by ruder and seemingly stronger bonds; but let it be considered, how truly a thoughtless indulgence, an allowed weak- ness, some heedless impulse of self, may be an en- croachment of Satan, an avenue for more fatal assaults, such as he has ever sought as his chosen mode of ap- proach ; and that he is still " the god of this world," to overcome whom is possible only through the energy of the life of GOD reigning within the soul. The eventful struggle between the two sides of hu- man life, is felt more or less within all hearts ; the strife between nature and grace, between the pleadings 1 2 Cor. iv. 4. 2 Rom. vi. 20. I.] THE DEATH-TAIL. 15 of human weakness and the exactions of the Divine perfections. The life of the natural self is ever tend- ing to unite itself with the enemy of GOD, yielding readily to his seductions, and thus sinking under his control, while the darkness of the covering cast over the nations, gathers around the soul, shutting out the holy light, and clouding over the natural conscience, so that at last the soul yields itself a ready prey to sins from which it once shrunk back with horror. It is only the light of GOD which can break through the darkness, the indwelling Life of One Who is mighty to save, revealing to the soul its own shame, awaken- ing it to its real danger, and stirring a new and Divine energy to overmaster its natural sloth and love of ease, lest it perish. This power from above can alone dissi- pate the fatal cloud, and establish within the reign of righteousness and peace. " The plague has begun," 1 and everywhere prevails around us. It has been stayed back in us, its power weakened, its fatal doom atoned ; its death, it may be, to the end restrained, to be gradually wholly removed from our being, and destroyed, and be as though it had never been. But this salvation can be ours, only if the sacred Presence, the Priest of the everlasting covenant Himself, stand within us, " between the living and the dead," between the old and the new natures, between the ever struggling efforts of the flesh still abiding in us, and the spirit of the new and glorious life which His love has breathed into us ; and wholly restore us to His own Likeness, that we may be one with Himself everlastingly. To Him, with the FATHER and the HOLY GHOST, be all glory and praise for ever. Amen. 1 Numbers xvi. 46. LECTURE II. THE KETUKN OF LIGHT. HJBB. ii. 14, 15. " THAT THROUGH DEATH HE MIGHT DESTROY HIM THAT HAD THE POWER OF DEATH, THAT IS THE DETIL ; AND DELIVER THEM WHO THROUGH TEAR OF DEATH WERE ALL THEIR LIFETIME SUBJECT TO BONDAGE." IT has been observed in the previous lecture that some of the profoundest mysteries touching our present state are not explained in Holy Scripture, but are left as mysteries. They lie far back beyond the creation of man, and revelation is concerned with the history of man. These pre-existent principles therefore are to be accepted in simplicity of trust, as we silently bow our intellect before GOD, and conform our thoughts to the conviction, that what perfect Wisdom has done or suffered to be, will hereafter be "justified of all her children." Another instance of this same kind is found in the text. It is not revealed, nor is it possible for us to understand, what yet the text clearly affirms, that death is undone by death, the death of the innocent over- coming the death of the guilty, and delivering from it. We have no knowledge of the reasons on which this principle rests. But the text is clear that our LORD III. C 18 THE BETUBtf OF LIGHT. [LECT. destroyed "him that had the power of death, that is the Devil," not by His power simply, nor simply by the merit of His Passion, but by means of death. The sacrifice of the innocent life was the means of redemp- tion from the doom of death. Our LORD'S offering of Himself did not obtain it, till that sacrifice was com- pleted in death. Scripture is express on this point. S. Paul says ; " For this cause He is the Mediator of the New Testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. For where a tes- tament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator." 1 And so again in the Colossians ; " He hath forgiven you all trespasses, blotting out the hand- writing of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His Cross ; and having spoiled principalities and powers, made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it," i.e., in the Cross, the instrument of death. 2 So fixed and absolute is this principle, that even our LORD Himself was not exempt from it. It was by virtue of His sacrificial death that He obtained His own heavenly inheritance. " By His own Blood," saith S. Paul, i.e., by virtue of His own Death, " He entered in once into the Holy Place, having obtained eternal redemption for us." 3 And this is what our LORD intended, when He said ; " For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they all may be sanctified through the truth." 4 Some interpret the term, sanctify, to mean ' offer Himself in death as a sacrifice ;' others, * con- secrate and perfect Himself.' Both interpretations are %1 Heb. ix. 15, 16. Col. ii. 1315. 8 Heb. ix. 12. * 8. John xvii. 19. II.] THE EETUEN OF LIGHT. 19 true. They are but different sides of one truth. The two ideas coalesce in one. He perfected Himself by means of His dying. His sacrificial death was the ground of His accepted consecration of Himself. It was through the vail of His own torn flesh that He passed into His eternal life. He broke through into the abyss of Godhead by rending the mortal shroud that enveloped His earthly life. This same mysterious law pervades all Scripture. Abraham was the commencement of the covenanted life given to Israel, as CHRIST was the commencement of our new Divine Nature. Now the crowning act of Abraham's faith, that which sealed his acceptance as the head of the chosen people, was the offering up his son, Isaac, to death. That event is often regarded as being merely a trial of Abraham's faith, to see whether he could give up the dearest object of his natural love, as well as his greatest spiritual treasure. It was the testing of the Saint, to see whether as he had given up his father, his land, his settled home, he could also give up the child of promise. As he laid his son on the altar, he had thoroughly weaned his soul from earth. The struggle was over; for he had entirely surrendered him in intent, though his actual death was spared. But there is also another aspect under which this event is to be viewed, one that affected not Abraham only, but all his race. Abraham was, as the head of his family, a sacrificing priest, and he was to offer the costliest sacrifice, that out of it the elect seed should spring. The seed of Israel was to arise out of one who had been given up to death. Abraham was per- mitted indeed to offer the ram caught in the thicket, instead of his own son, because Isaac was not the c 2 20 THE BETUEK OP LIGHT. [LECT. human life which could redeem the world. But as the members of CHRIST'S Body are formed out of His Death, so the race of Israel arose out of the offering up in proffered death of their progenitor. It was on this offering being made by Abraham, that the pro- mise was sealed with the final assurance ; " Because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son ; that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea- shore ; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." 1 The redemption of the first-born which prevailed in Israel, as a universal and essential law, was a continua- tion of the same mystery. Every first-born, being a male, must be redeemed, and the first-born male was the representative of the entire family. In him all the members were redeemed. They must be redeemed by sacrifice, or they would be cut off. It was through the proffered death of its representative, that every family in Israel preserved its life within the Covenant. Again, the grandest and most complete deliverance of the people of Israel, as a nation, was from the bond- age in Egypt. The people had at the time fallen back from the faith of their fathers. They had been corrupted by the Egyptians. They had begun to join in their idolatries, and, as the fatal consequence, had lost the Divine Presence. When they were delivered, it was through sacrifice. Blood was to be sprinkled as the only security against the destroyer. And as they passed out of their doors that awful night be- tween the blood-stained doorposts of their houses, the Divine Presence, so long withdrawn, returned. 1 Gen. xiii. 1618. II.] THE BETTTBN OP LIGHT. 21 The glory enfolded in the pillar of the cloud went be- fore them, and It afterwards forsook them not. They rose to life again through that death of the Paschal Sacrifice. The same law was observed whenever an Israelite sinned against the Covenant. Only through death could the sinner be spared the consequences of his sin. A substitute was permitted to take the place of his own life ; but death alone could expiate, and himself must lead the victim to the door of the sanc- tuary. He must himself lay his hand on its head, confess his sins over it, and having thus identified himself with it, he must slay it, and its blood be sprinkled upon him. He must thus stand before GOD, identified with the dead victim accepted in sacrifice in his stead. The penitent was then re- admitted to the sanctuary through the accepted sacrifice. Only thus through death accepted in the sanctuary of GOD, with which he had been made one, he could resume the share which he had forfeited in the life of the Co- venant. Consider the unceasing sacrifice of life offered within the Temple in Jerusalem. Year after year, through successive centuries, the countless hecatombs were be- ing offered up. The costly shedding of life never ceased, the altar perpetually steaming with the smoke which arose from the embers of the slaughtered vic- tims. And for what purpose was this vast expendi- ture of blood ? It will be said, " they were types of the great Offering of the latter days, to which all re- velation looked, which was to take away the sins of the world." True ; but this only changes the subject of the mystery. Why that Death ? Moreover, in these sacrifices of the typical victims, there was manifestly 22 THE BETUBN OP LIGHT. [LECT. a virtue of their own, a limited efficacy in cleansing away certain sins within that lower, that preparatory covenant ; for S. Paul says ; " If the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the un- clean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh; how much more shall the Blood of CHRIST, Who through the Eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to GOD, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living GOD."' They were themselves a me- dium of remission for certain transgressions, as well as the foreshadowing of the one true Lamb of GOD. They were also serving to establish in the heart of mankind the great principle, that through death, through innocent life, life without blemish and with- out spot, offered in sacrifice, the dead should live, the vail of the covering cast over all people be de- stroyed. The unceasing deaths of these countless vic- tims were the ever-renewed assertions of this momen- tous principle. Pity must have been stirred in the heart of the devout Israelite, at the thought of offering up the in- nocent life, as the consequence of his own transgres- sion. Every tender sense must have been wounded, as he struck the blow, which saved himself at the cost of another's life ; but it was his only hope " Without the shedding of blood is no remission." 2 There was no breaking through the cloud that hid from him the holy light of GOD, except by sacrifice. We are accus- tomed to point to the Death of CHRIST, as the most wonderful exhibition of Divine love, and we awake to tears the reviving tenderness of the penitent at the sight of the Divine Sorrow. We discern in the last sufferings of the Passion a moving picture of what we 1 Heb. ii. 18. 2 Heb. ix. 22. II.] THE EETUEN OF LIGHT. 23 ourselves had deserved, and accept the truth that the SON of GOD is dying a penal death in our own stead. We look to His offering of Himself, moreover, as the grandest display of heroic fortitude, and supernatural patience, raising the very idea of Humanity, by its noble expression of highest self-sacrifice. All these modes of viewing the Cross of JESUS are true ; but are they the whole truth ? These are but subjective modes of viewing it. They act only on our own mind and heart. They have only reference to ourselves. These views fall short of the main virtue of the Sacrifice. They leave out one whole momentous side of the great Mystery. They omit the greatest mystery of all, the whole objective part, the stupendous truth, that the Death of the GoD-Man acted on the unseen world ; that it affected the Eternal Godhead ; that it removed, destroyed the power of death that lay on the whole world, and overcame " him that had the power of death, that is, the devil ;" that because of that death life broke through, and dispersed the shroud that would have otherwise for ever enveloped the guilty dead. Consider how this truth is preserved in the institu- tion which perpetuates the Sacrifice of the Cross. Mark the exceeding care with which, in the forms of the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, JESUS represents Himself as still in death, while through It He opens for us the way of eternal life. The Flesh and Blood were separately ordained, and are separately given. Think not for a moment that there is no meaning, no principle involved in the careful separation of the two species. JESUS is indeed living in the Blessed Sacra- ment. He is present, the entire Living CHRIST. His Divinity and His Humanity are in a profound mystery made one with each of the separated species. His 24 THE BETUBK OF LIGHT. [LEOT. Presence in the Sacrament is a state of life, a state far beyond the realm of death. He is therein superna- turally and intensely living with the whole inherent Essence of His Godhead indissolubly united for ever with His glorified Humanity. But nevertheless, the truth of His death is preserved in the order of the Institution. The Sacrament was instituted in re- membrance of His Death and Passion, and the sepa- rated Flesh and Blood in the two distinct species are the means through which we partake of His present Life. It is through death we pass into the hidden life. It is still the Death of the Crucified that we present and plead, as we offer sacrifice to GOD for the removal of the vail that covers our faces, and hides GOD from us. It is still through eating and drinking of this Death, that we enter into the abyss of the Living Godhead. We taste His Death in the separation of His Flesh and Blood, while in Each we are feeding upon eternal Life. The same principle of passing from death unto life, pervades all the inner nature of Christianity, and dis- tinguishes it from all former dispensations. Circum- cision was the mark of the old Covenant, and was merely the putting away of the filth of the flesh. It aimed at a partial cleansing of the old nature. It was an amelioration of the state of the flesh. It would be untrue to deny all efficacy to the ordinances of the old law. But they left the old nature ; they left man still in the flesh. They could give no new, no Divine Nature ; they did not raise man into a different order of being from that in which he was born. They did not impart a supernatural life rising above the pre- sent, living for other worlds, soaring ever upwards, and II.] THE EETTJEN OF LIGHT. 25 never resting, never satisfied, till man transformed be- come one with GOD. They recognized the flesh as still abiding, and only sought to cleanse away some measure of its sinfulness. Still to " sit under the vine, and under the fig tree," was the highest promise. To " dwell in the land" safely, was the end of the dispensa- tion. To keep the flesh under the restraint of the moral law, was the highest requirement ; to do what that law ordained, the utmost development of humanity contemplated. On the other hand, Baptism, which re- presents the new Covenant, is the very death and burial of the flesh. " Buried with Him in Baptism, wherein also ye are risen with Him, through the faith of the operation of GOD, Who hath raised Him from the dead." 1 Again, we " were baptized unto His death." 2 The charter of our Covenant is clear. " If we are planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His Resurrection." 3 There is, therefore, not merely a cleansing of the flesh con- templated and accomplished in Baptism, but a rising above it, through the grace of the new Covenant. The flesh is counted as a thing already condemned to die, stricken with death, already dying. It is smitten, and is being superseded by the power of the new life which has entered into it. It is done away already, as no longer a law and end of life. It is to be borne with, till it altogether pass away ; but it is renounced, and the seal of death is stamped upon it. What yet lives of the flesh, lives only to be subdued to the Spirit, to be chastened, to be crucified. This explains S. Peter's description of the power of Baptism, as contrasted with that of circumcision. " Not," he says, " the putting away of the filth of the flesh," which was the 1 Col. ii. 12. 2 Eom. vi. 3. 3 Bom. vi. 5. 26 THE EETUEN OT LIOHT. [LECT. utmost result of circumcision ; " but the answer," the response, the cry, " of a good," a renewed, a purified " conscience toward GOD ;"' the intensely energetic rising and witness before GOD of the new-born spirit, instinct and speaking with Divine virtue, through the dying out of the powers and substance of the old nature. It is the resurrection life, already begun in us ; the " first resurrection" from the dead. The new-born spirit, responding to GOD, Who called it into being ; that which is of GOD owning and rejoicing in the claims of GOD is all that Baptism recognizes. The flesh hangs about us still yet awhile ; but its law is no longer indul- gence, but mortification. The order is express, " make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof." 2 And it is only as the flesh is chastened, and the Spirit more and more emancipated, that the truly developed humanity springs into life. Each subdual of the linger- ing cravings of the condemned nature, is the triumph of the Divine Nature. We eat, but we eat in haste ; it is the LORD'S Passover. The flesh needs for a time its appointed sustenance ; but it feeds, as it were, stand- ing, " with loins girded, and shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand ;" 3 for it hastens on the pre- destined march, fleeing from Egypt, lest it miss the passage to the holy land. We watch the flesh as an enemy. We hail the gradual extinction of its pas- sions. We live a new and truer life only as its strug- gling links are loosened. We rise into the fulfilment of our better aspirations, only as " we bear about in our body the dying of the LORD JESUS, that the life also of JESUS may be made manifest in our mortal bodies." 4 1 1 S. Pet. iii. 21. 8 Bom. xiii. 14. 3 Eiod. xii. 11. * 2 Cor. iv. 10. II.] THE BETUEN Or LIGHT. 27 Many look with terror to the approaching crisis of actual death. Why should it be so regarded ? It will be but the accomplishment of what long ago was wrought in us in mystery. It will be but the closing struggle of the spirit, our true life, against the flesh, the cause of our suffering and our sin. It will be only the putting off for ever of the last hold which Satan has over us, through the lusts of the flesh. It will be the merciful separating off of what has been so long re- nounced ; the laying in a peaceful slumber to be re- fashioned, what has been so long a snare, a burden, an occasion of enmity to GOD, a hindrance to " all that is pure and lovely." The flesh cannot be reformed, till it is dissolved. It is condemned as irreclaimable in itself. It may be subdued, regulated, and chastened ; it cannot be fashioned after the image of CHRIST, till it is put off, and swallowed up of life. " Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die," 1 and death is but the last and crowning act of the long and many self-sacrifices, in each of which the new-born spirit has exulted. Should we not then welcome death even with all its sorrows, as that of which all our true Christian life has been a delighted anticipation ? It is through death, and death only, that our spiritual nature can breathe freely, and go forth like the " bird out of the snare of the fowler," to live in perfect freedom its own true life. Let us consider briefly some of the practical conclu- sions of the principles on which we have been dwelling. 1. We here learn the pressing need of the Sacrifice we continually offer on our altars. As we offer It, we are actually taking our covenanted part in destroying 1 1 Cor. xv. 36. 28 THE BETURN OF LIGHT. [LECT. " death, and him that hath the power of death." With each renewed offering we are removing the vail, the covering which is laid on the face of all people. The Eucharistic Sacrifice is the pleading, the applying the Death of CHRIST for the remission of sin, and all the benefits of His Passion, for the whole body of the re- deemed, both for the quick and the dead. It is the ordained memorial of the great Sacrifice of the Cross, left for us to perpetuate ; and as we offer It, we bring the whole power of that meritorious Sacrifice, which It represents and commemorates, before the Eyes of the FATHER. The whole vital power of the Atonement was contained and embodied for ever in the one per- fect " Sacrifice, Oblation, and Satisfaction, for the sins of the whole world," once offered ; but the accomplish- ment of what was thus purchased, was to be set in motion, as it were, and applied only in time, in suc- cessive and continual memorial, and ever renewed pleadings. The death-vail was potentially, not abso- lutely, destroyed by the Sacrifice of the Cross. It still covers us. The power which the sacrifice of the Cross possesses to destroy it, needs to be drawn forth and brought into act through the continual presentation of the sacrificed Humanity, " the Lamb as it had been slain," 1 before the Throne by CHRIST Himself, and concurrently with this heavenly Oblation by the mysti- cal offering of the same Victim by the Priests standing at the earthly altar. The sacrifices of Israel consisted of three parts. There was the living victim, and on it was placed the bread or fine flour, and the wine. These all were offered together, and the sweet savour from the combined elements went up for a memorial before the LORD. The same principle of sacrifice is continued 1 Bev. v. 6. II.] THE RETUBN OF LIGHT. 29 now, as in all ages since the first covenant was ordained. There is visibly before us on our altars the Bread or fine flour, and there is the Wine. Is there not also for us as for the Israelites, the living Victim ? Yes, surely ! He is there, though unseen. He is mystically united with the consecrated symbols, that through them He may become one with us. Of Communion, which is the crowning act of our mystical offering, I shall need to speak hereafter. But if thou wouldest bring out the virtue of the hidden life of the Divine Victim for thyself, or cause its virtue to bear upon others' lives, urge before GOD unceasingly and with unquestion- ing faith the appointed memorial Sacrifice. If thou wouldest stretch out thy hands, thy heart, to reach other worlds, and bring to bear on them, and them that dwell therein, the full benefits of the Passion, offer, plead earnestly before the FATHER the One accepted Oblation of His Beloved SON. If thou wouldest stay back and remove the vail that ever seeks to return and overspread all people, thy own life, all true life ; if thou wouldest weaken more and more, and finally overcome and cast out for ever, him that seeks to spread the dreadful power of darkness over GOD'S fair creation, over all who are GOD'S, cease not to pre- sent, to unite thyself with, the all-availing Sacrifice, which fills the heaven and the earth with its sweet savour, reconciling GOD and man, " yea, all things unto Himself, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven." 1 2. We here learn how to regard the trials, whether of body or of spirit, which gradually wear our life away. They are GOD'S own chosen means of fulfilling what we have already professed to be our true vocation. i Col. i. 20. 80 THB RETURN OF LIGHT. [LECT. They are the necessary accomplishment of that sen- tence on the flesh, which ever since we knew CHRIST, has been the object of our fondest desire, that dying with Him, we may rise with Him ; that through the daily Cross, the daily resurrection may be ours ; that " the sentence of death" being in us, the power of the Divine life may triumph in us. Shall we murmur at these strokes, which are verily the unloosening of the bonds to set the captive spirit free ? Shall we regret the gradual decay, which is but the passing off of the gloom of the night before the dawn of the everlasting Day ? Would we check the progress of our dissolution, if we could ? All that bows the vigour of our fleshly frame, all that consumes away the spirits and strength of the sensitive soul, are in truth but the travail pangs of the perfected deliverance of the Divine Nature strug- gling within us, as in a womb, for its heavenly deve- lopment. Be not then unwilling to yield up the flesh to this slowly advancing death, which must increase, until its end be accomplished, " until the day break, and the shadows flee away." 3. Once more. Amid all the charms which deck this present world, all its exquisite beauty, all its in- tense interest, all its wonderful contrivances, all the love shed abroad over it, let us never forget that the curse of death is on all we see or feel, and only as that curse is accomplished, can this heaven and earth be transformed into " the new heaven, and the new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." Ours is an age which boasts that Christianity is doing what it never did be- fore. It is giving refinement to society, peace to the nations, liberty to the slave, i.e., it is making for man a better home, a safer resting place on this side the II.] THE BETUBN OF LIGHT. 31 grave. 1 But all the while the world is the world still. We may indeed rejoice, and bless GOD for the secon- dary results of His redeeming love manifested in every improvement of society. Nevertheless, to leave the world inwardly, if not outwardly, and to witness against it, is still the same necessity as ever. It is still our main work to prepare man for his grave, and lay him down to rest with a joyful hope of a blessed resurrec- tion, far more than to smooth the pillow around his head, while in his sickness he still lingers here. What rest had CHRIST on earth ? He could not take for His home a world not yet purged by fire, a creation still under the curse. He passed through the world as a rejected pilgrim. All His earthly life speaks of sacrifice, because nothing here was to Him the real life. We cannot with all our toil, remove from this earth the primeval doom ; " Thorns and thistles it shall bring forth to thee." We cannot with all our refine- ments, nor even with our religion, so change society, but that the true followers of CHRIST shall still be, though in it, yet not of it. It will still be the death- shroud, out of which the emancipated CHRIST in every man will rejoice to pass, rising to His. native heavens. It may reach its highest climax of virtue, of happi- ness, of peace ; but after its greatest developments, it must still be purged in the sacrifice and sacrament of death, before it can become " the Kingdom of our LORD, and of His CHRIST." This yet lingering gloom that broods over our earthly state must be wholly dissipated, before the Light of . the beatific Vision can shine in upon the ransomed world. We 1 These thoughts were suggested by a passage in " Jukes on the Offerings." 32 THE BETUBN OP LIGHT. "cannot see GOD and live," until in His own " Light we shall see Light." Hasten then the time, O LORD, and cut short Thy work in righteousness. " Even so, come, LORD JESUS." But yet " patience must have its perfect work, that we may be perfect, and entire, wanting nothing." Help us thus in patience to " possess" our " souls." Help us even to " make friends of the mammon of unrigh- teousness," while the fatal doom, running out its des- tined course, is being purged away ; that the death- strokes of our trial hour may be transformed into a gracious discipline, and out of the refiner's fire we may come forth " to offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness," that, arrayed in robes made white in the Blood of the Lamb, we may be accepted for ever in the Great Day of His Appearing. Amen. LECTURE III. THE EANSOMED LIFE. EOM. xii. 1. " I BESEECH YOU, THEREFORE, BRETHREN, BY THE MERCIES OF GOD, THAT YE PRESENT YOUR BODIES A LIVING SACRIFICE, HOLY, ACCEPTABLE TJNTO GOD, WHICH IS YOUB REASONABLE 8ERYICE." IT was shown in the preceding Lecture, that by a law the reasons of which are not explained to us, reve- lation not reaching back to principles which were in operation before the creation of man the death of the innocent victim does away the death of the guilty ; and that, according to this law, CHRIST by His Death has removed the veil of death from man, destroying, not death only, but " him also that hath the power of death, that is, the devil, and delivered them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage." 1 It was shown, moreover, that, according to the laws of the Covenant of Israel, the guilty person, being identified with the victim, was accepted as the victim was accepted, and that, sharing its death in a mystery, he thereby shared also its acceptance, the victim's death being viewed as his own, the curse of his own death 1 Heb. ii. 14, 15. III. D 34 THE BANSOMED LUE. [LECT. thus passing away, and himself mystically raised to life again in the recovered light of GOD. This ground of acceptance, embodied in the symbolical covenant, is the assurance and type of our acceptance through the Sacrifice of the Death of CHRIST. Sprinkled with His Blood, we stand before GOD clothed with all His merits, identified with Himself, and endued with all His acceptableness. The covering of death is through CHRIST thus broken through, and we pass within the realms of life with all its recovered powers, now be- come our own. This is our redemption, our bringing back from the land of the enemy. To the world at large, to men living in sin, or in lax undisciplined habits, this is the whole aspect of Christianity which they comprehend. They see the one fact of remission of sins through the Blood of CHRIST, and to this idea of forgiveness they limit their view of Christianity ; they cannot see be- yond it. Often the dying man with his last breath expresses this idea as the ultimate end to which human hope can aspire, or the last prayers of failing nature supplicate. But the redemption of Israel was not the whole of the history of Israel ; it was but the beginning of their true life. The Red Sea passed, and Egypt left behind them, their life had but begun. The journeyings in the wilderness, the settlement in the holy land, lay be- fore them. In like manner, not in redemption alone consists the whole view of Christianity. What we have already considered is but its Exodus. We have seen how the shroud of death is removed from the face of man ; how man arises from his bier. But the whole of life has then to be lived. He was thus raised up only in order that he might with his revived powers III.] THE RANSOMED LIFE. 35 present his body a " living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto GOD, which is his reasonable service." The one idea is an advance beyond the other. The first is the raising out of death, after which follows the offering up of the risen life. Can we limit our view to the one, and ignore the other, which is, in fact, the very end and purpose for which we are raised from the dead ? It is to be most carefully noted, that the appoint- ment of the sacrifices which were to be continually offered by the children of Israel, followed the Exodus. 1 They were ordained after the deliverance from bondage, the flight from death, the standing on the further shore, and the joyful song when Miriam took her timbrel, and, at the head of the choir of Israel, praised the LORD Who had " triumphed gloriously," the con- quered foe being drowned in the depths of the sea. The laws of sacrifice revealed to the Israelites in the Book of Leviticus, were revealed subsequently to this deliverance. Whatever, therefore, those elaborate sa- crifices, recorded in the Book of Leviticus, teach, they teach to those who are already redeemed : they assume the redemption as a past and accomplished fact, and on the very ground of redemption enforce the further truth. The sacrifices of the Covenant were not the preliminary of its institution, but the expression of its enduring life. They were visible forms of an inner life to be preserved by their means in communion with GOD, as the result of the new relation in which His people now stood to Him. Their importance may be certainly inferred, among the Patriarchs, by the fact that whenever they settled in a fresh spot, they built an Altar to the LORD ; among their children, the Israelites, 1 The appointment of the Altar is given, Exod. xxvii. ; that of the Sacrifices, Levit. i. vii. D 2 36 THE BANSOMEJ) LIFE. [LEOT. because in all their wanderings they were required to carry their Altar with them, and when arrived within the precincts of the promised land, guard it with strictest jealousy. Moreover the minute details of these sacrifices, and their careful enforcement, the consequence of failing to offer being, that such a soul was "cut off from the people," all tended to prove their momentous importance. It is true, that the Prophets spoke continually of the worthlessness of sacrifice. "To obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams." 1 " Bring no more vain oblations ; incense is an abomi- nation unto Me," 2 &c. Such indignant remonstrances, however, abounding in the writings of the Prophets, only implied that the inner spirit which should have accompanied the act of sacrifice, was absent. They were vain only because of this defect. Could sacri- fices, when rightly offered, be vain, when they were described as being a "sweet savour to the LORD?" Of Noah's sacrifice, e.g., after his going forth from the Ark, it is said ; " And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in His heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake." 3 So important in their bearings on actual life were the ordinances regarding sacrifice, that even the animals chosen for the use of the Altar were significant. They had relation to the disposition of the offerer. The ani- mals preferred were the bullock, the lamb, and the turtle dove. Can we suppose for a moment that there was no vital truth involved in this choice of the crea- tures, when our LORD took for Himself, and still retains even in Heaven, a name derived from the animal specially chosen for sacrifice as representing 1 1 Sam. iv. 22. 3 Isa. i. 13. - 3 Gen. viii. 21. III.] THE EANSOMED LIFE. 37 Himself about to be offered. He is for ever "the LAMB of GOD." The chosen animals were intended by their characteristic qualities to show the spirit in which sacrifice should be offered. The bullock repre- sented active patient service : the lamb, silent unmur- muring submission : the turtle dove, gentleness and innocence. It is commonly, but erroneously, supposed that the sacrifices of the Levitical Law related only to the remission of sin. Of the six different kinds of sacrifice ordained for common use among the Israelites, two only had reference to sin, the sin-offering and the trespass-offering, the latter atoning for actual trans- gression, the former for the general sinfulness of nature. In the other sacrifices sin was not mentioned. In- deed they could not be offered by one who was in a state of sin. They were the offerings of the redeemed, the purified, the faithful Israelite, offering without constraint, of his voluntary will, meeting GOD in holi- ness and peaceful communion, only desiring a further grace, and ' seeking to glorify Him with acceptable service. They were distinguished from all other sacri- fices, as the sacrifices of a " sweet savour." The dis- tinction was strongly marked. Sin-offerings, though offered and slain, yet could not be burnt within the sanctuary; they must be carried without the camp. Our LORD, on this account, being a sin-offering, was crucified without the city. Such sacrifices were cast out as hateful both in the sight of GOD and man, because sin was in them. But the other sacrifices those of " sweet savour" were burnt on the Altar within the Holy place, and went up to Heaven within the circle of GOD'S immediate Presence, and were 38 THE BANSOMED LIFE. [l/ECT. borne into the very Holiest place through the veil, reaching the very Mercy Seat whereon GOD abode. In the sacrifices for sin, man being under a curse satisfied the offended Justice of GOD. But in the other sacrifices, the sacrifices of " sweet savour," man, already redeemed from the curse, satisfied a holy and loving requirement of GOD, Who desired the service of His ransomed creature. Further, it is to be noted that these sacrifices " of sweet savour" stand first in the Book of Leviticus. The book opens with them, and only after them do we read of the sin, and trespass offerings. The reason of the order is clear. The sacrifices of " sweet savour" were the proper offerings, those which were to be expected from the redeemed. Sin, or trespass, is a strange thing in the redeemed. Sacrifices for their atonement were added to meet the requirement, should it arise : but for the delivered soul to sin again ; for those who had been brought out from a hard bondage " by miracles and signs, by a mighty Hand and by a stretched out Arm ;" by the Divine Presence " in the pillar of cloud by day" and " the pillar of fire by night," for such to sin again, was not to be the ordinary, the expected state. The sacrifices of " sweet savour," the free-will offerings of the ransomed soul giving itself and its all more and more to its Redeemer, this was the true, the expected result. The cleans- ing away of fresh sin, of renewed transgression, was indeed provided for ; but was kept, as it were, in the background, as what neither GOD nor man should first contemplate. Of these sacrifices of " sweet savour" the first and the most common was the burnt- offering. After being offered, it was slain, thus marking the necessity III.] THE BANSOMED LIFE. 39 of death. It was then cut into its several pieces and laid in order upon the Altar, thus expressing the offering up of every several part of the devoted life. It was then kindled by the sacred fire which had descended from heaven, and which never was suffered to go out. There in its several parts, whole, yet divided, it lay burning. Every portion sent up its sacred steam of " sweet savour," circling and spreading throughout the Sanctuary. Every portion was wholly consumed. No part whatever was taken, or left to be eaten. All was given up to GOD. The entire oblation arose before His Presence, wafted within the inner circles of His secret veiled Abode. It passed away into Him, and was lost to all outward consciousness of the crea- ture. But it lived before Him to be the token, the embodiment of a wholly offered life, voluntarily given up and consumed in the delight of pleasing GOD, of being lost in GOD. The stated morning and evening sacrifices of Israel, which, for fifteen centuries were offered daily at nine o'clock and three o'clock, unceasingly, these were burnt-offerings. They were the offerings of the collec- tive people of Israel. They were offered in their name, and in their stead. Wherever an Israelite wandered, he had still his part in that daily burnt-offering. He was thus continually represented within the Sanctuary of GOD. He was ever laid there before GOD'S immediate Dwelling-place, ever consumed in the desire of being wholly GOD'S, of ever losing himself and his works in the unsparing offering of a sacrificed life. Every faith- ful Israelite could thus associate himself, and be thus unceasingly identified with, the ever-accepted daily sacrifice. Unceasing the sacrifice was ; for on the embers yet smoking of the morning burnt-offering 40 THE BAN SOME D LIFE. [LECT. were laid in order the pieces of the evening sacrifice, and on the yet smouldering ashes of the evening obla- tion those of the morning. All through the night rose up the steam of " sweet savour," day and night telling each other of the ever renewed act of a per- petual offering to GOD. And in this visible form each Israelite, far or near, was offering himself, through his representatives, before his GOD. It was a remarkable arrangement, peculiar to the burnt-offering, no other sacrifice admitting of the pro- vision, that it could be offered by a stranger, one not of the seed of Abraham, nor adopted into the privileges of his race. A stranger could take this part, though debarred all other, in the established ordinances of the Covenant. There was great significance in this pro- vision ; for it involved a momentous truth. All the other sacrifices, the sin-offerings and the peace-offer- ings, were strictly covenant sacrifices. They were grounded on special promises, peculiar and confined to the covenanted children of Israel. They could there- fore be offered only by those who were within the Covenant. The burnt-offering, on the contrary, repre- sented a universal truth, one common to all humanity. All humanity, all created life, has its proper end in offering itself up to GOD. The creature's life is true only as it is consumed in this unceasing self-dedication. While the sanctuary of Israel was shut jealously against all nations as to its peculiar privileges, it yet proclaimed abroad to all people this irreversible truth of the original and universal call to all men everywhere alike, that life is given to the creature only to be offered in this reasonable service to its Creator. Moreover, there was for the Israelites the remark- able ordinance of a double sacrifice, bringing out yet III.] TUB EANSOMED LIFE. 41 more distinctly the difference between the sin, and the pure, offering. It was appointed to be used in the purification of women after childbirth, and in cleansing the leper. When the Blessed Virgin presented the Holy Child in the Temple, she bore " a pair of turtle doves," as her offering, according to the law. Of these two victims one was offered as a sin-offering, the other, after being dipped in the blood of the sin-offering, as a burnt- offering. First the sin-offering was made, and then the burnt-offering sprinkled with its blood. The two combined together expressed the two sides of human life in its relation to GOD, and met the two most vital necessities of every child of man in his present fallen state. Man needs an atonement that his sin may be put away, and himself reconciled to GOD. This necessity was met by the sin-offering. He needs, also, to present himself as a willing sacrifice to GOD after his sin-offering has been accepted ; this was the object and expression of the burnt-offering. Under this same twofold aspect our LORD'S sacrifice of His own Life manifested itself, and consequently the double offering at His Presentation in the Temple had its application to Himself. His course of suffering, His Passion and Death, as an Atonement, was exhibited in the one turtle dove, offered as a sin-offering. His everlasting glory arising out of His most precious Death, to live for ever before the FATHER as a per- petual Oblation, this was exhibited in the other turtle dove, first steeped, as He was, in blood, and then to be consumed as " a sweet savour" unto GOD. Consider, now, how these great eternal truths are exhibited in our continual Sacrifice of the Holy Eu- charist. Their several lines converge and meet at our 42 THE BANBOMED LIFE. [LECT. Altar Service, embodying all the offerings and services which we have contemplated in the typical ritual of Israel. First, there is the sin-offering, the Memorial of the Death of CHRIST presented before the FATHER, in the separated, sundered Elements of His Body and His Blood. We bear and plead this dying of our LORD JESUS before GOD as our own, and in uniting ourselves with this solemn act of Sacrifice for the world's redemption, and our own, we are accepted. Then follows the reception, 1 the feeding, and then the union with His life in Its assimilation with our own, the interpenetrating, the abiding of the Holy Flesh and the Holy Blood within our very bodies and our very souls. Having been identified with the accepted Sacri- fice for sin, we are by actual reception made One with His Life. Then follows the third stage of the Mystery. Already filled and instinct with the Sacred Humanity of JESUS, Which Itself is filled and instinct with His GODHEAD, " we" then, in the language of our Post- Communion prayer, " offer and present ourselves, our souls and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, and lively sacrifice unto GOD." This is the burnt-offering. The surrender of one's own self becomes capable of being accepted, because steeped in the Blood of CHRIST Which is in us ; and being alive with His Living Presence within us, we are thenceforward fitted to be kindled with the Divine fire of an all-consuming love, in holy services and increasing self-oblation, ever ascend- ing until wholly lost in GOD, our true covenanted Life. And there is this further blessedness attached to our 1 The view of that portion of the Levitical covenant which regards the feeding on the Sacrifice, will come under consideration in the following Lecture. III.] THE KANSOMED LIFE. 43 Communion, the type of which we have seen in the daily sacrifices of Israel, that even when absent from our Altars, wandering far away, or laid in sickness, or our lot cast in the more barren regions of the spiritual world, we are still being presented before GOD, wher- ever the Holy Sacrifice is being offered ; we are still offering ourselves up in the oblations of our brethren ; we are still in that one selfsame act united, as with them, so with the One Lamb of GOD ; we are dying in Him, we are living in Him, we are accepted in Him ; whether living or departed, if within the mystical Body of CHRIST, we are still together, one with another, still ever represented, still ever being offered, still ever being accepted with every renewed pledge of love, still presenting ourselves, our souls and bodies, wherever and whenever that Holy Sacrifice is offered, because we are still in Him Who is offered, and He in us, together with all who are in Him, in One Communion. It is but one Altar, but One Holy Flesh, but One Spirit, as there is but " One LORD, One GOD, and FATHER of all, Who is above all, and through all, and in you all." 1 A few practical reflections only may be added to close our subject. To speak the language of type. When Israel was in Egypt, they knew nothing beyond the paschal sacri- fice, the flight, the deliverance from death. Israel had afterwards to learn, when the deep Red Sea lay be- tween them and Egypt, the laws of the perpetual burnt- offering, and the ever onward march under the guidance of the pillar of the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, while they were offering their unceasing 1 Ephes. iv. 6. 44 THE RANSOMED LIFE. [LECT. sacrifices of sweet savour, more and more completely dedicating themselves unto GOD. To speak the language of simple Christian truth. The Christian, while standing at the lowest point of his development, of the first illuminations of the Spirit, knows only of the hurried flight from sin, and the ransoming from death, and the one aspect of CHRIST'S sacrifice as It redeems the lost. But the believer, as he develops his first idea, as he stands successively on higher and ever rising ground, with advancing illumina- tions of the Spirit, the immediate fear of death being past, learns the laws of self-sacrifice, the unceasing offering of his life to GOD, and the perpetual guiding of the Holy Light, in which he ever seeks to make his offering of himself more and more perfect. In the onward moving of GOD he is led further and further away from his former state, the self which he had fed and indulged, being laid in all its several parts in order upon the Altar, self dying, CHRIST living, self becoming less and less to oneself, CHRIST becoming more and more one's life, life becoming less and less one's own, more and more His Who bought it at a great price. And as the Israelite who loved much, would seek out the most costly sacrifice, so, as love's desires grow and love ever grows through the un- ceasing sacrifice of self, the soul seeks more and more of costliest offerings to offer to its GOD. To the ransomed Christian, as to the Israelite, the timbrel, and the dance of triumph, and the song of joy on the Red Sea shore, were not the closing of the march of victory and miraculous power ; they were rather its commencement, its first opening scene, the beginning of its triumphs, the first step in the recovered freedom of the rescued soul. III.] THE BANSOMED LIFE. 45 2. It is a grievous error to suppose that such offer- ings of a gracious life in the redeemed, are not of worth in themselves. There is a theology which teaches that we honour CHRIST the more, the more we disparage human works. It represents works as valuable merely because they betoken faith ; that as proofs of faith in CHRIST they are precious, not in themselves. This system regards faithful services, only as tokens of something else, not as pleasing before GOD on their own account. And yet Holy Scripture is simple and positive in its assertions. It tells us that to present our bodies a living sacrifice, is not only a holy offer- ing, but is also " acceptable unto GOD." The term, acceptable, 1 involves the idea of what is " well pleas- ing," " causing gratification," " stirring delight.'* It answers to " the sweet savour," that which caused a movement of approving love and gladness in the Heart of GOD. And surely it gives the greater honour to our LORD, that the human nature which He Him- self wears, as His own, is in itself, through His grace, become capable of pleasing GOD, in all who are true to Him, and the more that CHRIST is in us and one with us, the more pleasing. We need not attribute a desert to our works, as though they could earn any- thing as due because of them, when we attribute to them a power of gratifying GOD, as the fulfilment of His own idea and the accomplishment of His own grace. They can exist only through His grace. They are in truth His own works in us : " It is GOD that worketh in us both to will and to do of His good plea- 1 " eua/j6