tihvavy of ^he t:heolc0ical Seminar;? 
 
 PRINCETON • NEW JERSEY 
 
 'd^^D- 
 
 John M. ^rebs donation 
 
 BX 6333 .S6 S3 1856 
 Spurgeon, C. H. 1834-1892 
 "The modern Whitfield." 
 
,.;.••: Bl^iikii.: 
 
 MiNIGTLR OF NlW PaPK StRH 
 
 
"THE MODERN WHITFIELD." 
 
 SERMONS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 REY. C. H: SPUPvGEOX, 
 
 OF LONDON; 
 
 WITU AN 
 
 INTRODUCTION AND SKETCH OF HIS LIFE, 
 
 Br E. L. jVIAGOON. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 SHELDON, BLAKEMAN AND COMPANY, 
 
 CHICAGO : S. C. GREGGS AND COMPANY. 
 
 IIICIDIOND : AVORTIIAM AND COTRELL. 
 B L'RLINO TO N, IOWA: 11. II. II AAV LEV. 
 
 1856. 
 
LITUOTYPED BY THE AMERICAN STEREOTYPE COMPANY, 
 23 Ph(EN!x BtiLDiSG, Boston. 
 
 PT?T\TF.n BY D. S. FORD AND CO. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 INTRODUCTION, Page 5 
 
 SERMON I. — Sovereignty and Salvation, . . . 1 
 
 II. — The Bible, 23 
 
 " III. — The Personality of tde Holy Ghost, . 45 
 
 " rV. — Tde Comforter, CG 
 
 ** V. — Christ Crucified, 85 
 
 '* VI. — TnE Power of the Holy Guost, . 112 
 
 '' VII. — TiiE CnuRcn of Christ, . . . 134 
 
 " Vin.— The Eternal Name, .... 154 
 
 *' IX. — Paul's First Prayer, 170 
 
 " X. — Joseph Attacked by the Archers, . . 192 
 " XI. — The Tomb of Jesus, .... 211 
 
 " XII. — The Carnal Mind Enmity against God, . 230 
 •' XIII. — Christ's People — Imitators of IIim, . 252 
 " XIV. — Thoughts on the Last Battle, . . . 274 
 " XV. — Heaven and Hell, . . . 29G 
 
 8 
 
i 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 '■ "^-HSOLOGIGL 
 
 i* 
 
 In perusing the present Tolume of Sermons, tlie reader will 
 nowhere find their author rising in a chilling fog of lugubrious 
 cant, or simpering out inane formalism after the following mode : 
 « Dearly beloved brethren, and my esteemed and respected 
 friends : Permit me to invite your serious and solemn attention 
 to that portion of celestial truth which you will find recorded 
 in the one hundred and seventy-seventh verse of the sixty- 
 ninth chapter of Saint Ichabod's sixteenth epistle to the Sim- 
 pletons." On the contrary, he comes directly before the people, 
 impelled by something acutely felt, and which needs to be 
 speedily uttered, so that he may, as soon as possible, pass on to 
 a yet fresher and wider space, wherein he may think more and 
 speak better to the accumulating crowds, who always press 
 towards frank hearts and free lips. Without doubt, in this 
 instance, we have to do with one who uses his own observing 
 and reflecting powers, while he reverently seeks divine aid, and 
 is as original in his conceptions as he is untrammeled in their 
 utterance. Let us glance at the biography of our preacher, 
 the scene of his preaching, and the- chief elements of his 
 power. 
 
 Rev. C. H. Spurgeon was bom at Kelvedon, in Essex, on 
 the 19th of June, 1834. His father and grandfather are both 
 living, and are Independent ministers. It is further stated in 
 the London " Patriot," that the subject of this sketch received 
 his early education at Colchester, and also passed a year in the 
 Agiicultural College at Maidstone, where he added to his 
 previous knowledge some insight into natural science. Thus 
 1* (^) 
 
VI INTRODUCTION. 
 
 equipped, lie begun tlie business of life as usher in a school at 
 Newmarket ; Avhence he removed to Cambridge, where he held 
 u similar appointment in a day school, employing the imipler 
 leisure thus secured in improving his own mind. While at 
 Newmarket,he began to address the Sunday-school children, 
 and that in such a style as attracted grown-up hearers. At 
 Cambridge the practice was continued, with the addition of 
 Sunday evening sermons in the surrounding villages. The 
 Baptist church, at Waterbeach, called this young Timothy to 
 be their pastor. He accepted the invitation ; and, while the 
 chapel was crowded, the church was doubled under his min- 
 istry. On the week-days, eleven villages shared the advantage 
 of liis sermons, which, in one year, amounted to as many as 
 there are days in the year. In January, 1854, Mr. Spurgeon 
 was invited to undertake the pastorate of the Baptist church in 
 New Park street. Not content with discharging the duties of 
 that office, he preaches in many other places during the week. 
 
 New Park street Chapel stands on the Surrey side of the 
 Thames, near Southwark Bridge, a locality which the untrav- 
 elled hereabouts will better understand by being told that it 
 almost exactly corresponds with the Brooklyn end of Catherine 
 Ferry. It was on this spot that the great expositor Gill, and 
 the hymnologist Rippon, preached and sung to successive gen- 
 erations long before the advent of the present popular preacher 
 and his immense auditory. The edifice now occupied is a plain 
 and substantial one, with a portico of eight debased Ionic col- 
 umns, in pairs, carrying a heavy romanesque story, and otherwise 
 nearly as uncouth as modern church architecture in genei'al, 
 and "dissenting" chapels in particular. But, like its huge 
 neighbor, Barclay and Perkins' brewery, it has the merit of 
 great size, and certainly should be regarded as of much more 
 salutary use. 
 
 As in almost all the great cities of Europe and America, the 
 old and empty churches of London are at the east end, while 
 all the thrift is "progressing" towai'ds the west. But stiff 
 
INTRODUCTION. VU 
 
 formality remains inflexible to the last gasp in its ancient seats, 
 where once a week a few pedestrians, in threadbare dignity, 
 and a still smaller few powdered and puffing aristocrats, 
 mounted in coaches of tarnished splendor, fantastically embel- 
 lished by flunkeys in livery, scatter their pomposity in solitary 
 quadrangles, on whose cushioned seats, in high-backed ex- 
 clusiveness, they drowsily " assist " obsequious parsons, whose 
 "livings," on Sundays at least, are in the midst of a most 
 sparse population. But, before the first cobweb is brushed from 
 private velvet by the pew unlockers of antiquated churches, 
 the vast area of compact seats in this chapel at New Park 
 street is besieged by eager and oft-recurring crowds. Says a 
 visitor : " Proceed thither, as the writer did on Sabbath evening, 
 the 23d of September, and you will find all the avenues to the 
 chapel thronged with people, although it may be half an hour 
 before the time for the commencement of the service. If you 
 should chance to be admitted by the side door, you will find 
 the building already three-parts filled, and feel some compassion 
 for those who are waiting for admission, but are certain not to 
 get in. At twenty minutes past six the front doors are opened, 
 and a rush commences ; but it is speedily over, for the chapel 
 is full ; not only the seats, but every inch of standing room 
 being occupied, and the gates have to be closed, with several 
 hundred people outside. Mr. Spurgeon then ascends the 
 pulpit, and reads the hymn which is to be sung, prefacing it, 
 if the circumstances admit, with some striking remark, which 
 at once arrests the attention of his audience. The special 
 Sunday evening alluded to here, he began : ' We will sing a 
 battle hymn to-night, friends, to stir our spirits,' and then went 
 
 on: 
 
 • Am I a soldier of the cross, 
 
 A follower of the Lamb; 
 And shall I fear to own his cause, 
 
 Or blush to speak his name? ' 
 ' Sure I must fight if I would reign,' &c. 
 
 "The hymn concluded, which was sung by the entire audience, 
 
VIU INTRODUCTION. 
 
 and ^villl proper spirit ; althon;:li, as might be expected, with 
 little scientiiic aljility, the occupant of the pulpit read the 
 following ])assages of Holy TVrit, and gave utterance to the 
 accompanying popular exposition." 
 
 The singing may not have been performed with the ex- 
 quisitely insipid elegance which characterizes the majority of 
 our quartette clioirs, whose extraordinary " execution " is a 
 poor compensation for the deatli of all the vital power and 
 moral profit of sacred song. Good singing is more divine than 
 poor preaching, and the former is expressed only in the sym- 
 pathetic tones of an entire congi'egation, however diversified ; 
 just as the latter is sure to drizzle down from pulpit heights 
 with most stultifying effect, when the whole soul of the speaker, 
 if he has one, is forced to employ only a few feeble muscles 
 about the front teeth, instead of a simultaneous utterance 
 through the whole body, mind, and heart. What do those 
 thousands of earnest, honest, and eager worshippers care for 
 incomprehensible demi-semiquavers of operatic fancies at one 
 end of the sanctuary ? They feel that, when secular days with 
 their exhausting toils are past. Heaven vouchsafes to them, 
 creatures of an immortality, as well as unto beasts of the field 
 and birds of the air, the privilege of making melodious the 
 blessed day of rest ; and they come before the Lord with 
 singing, tliat they may breathe forth their own notes of 
 gladness — inartificial it may be, but sincere nevertheless. 
 
 The preliminary exposition is not less profound, nor lacking 
 in practicalness, because of its popular form. We have perused 
 many specimens of such, and can easily conceive the sublime 
 aspect presented by that sea of upturned faces, and the thrilling 
 interest with which each rousing or subduing sentence is heard, 
 as it stings the obdurate with aphoristic pungency, or, with 
 melting pathos, soothes gentler souls. In such circumstances, 
 there is no disposition to scan fine combinations of words, nor 
 does the aroused listener pause to estimate the relative value 
 of more material grandeurs. Chaste architecture and choice 
 
INTRODUCTION. IX 
 
 melody are by no means incompatible "with efficient minis- 
 trations at God's altar; but there is gi-eat danger lest the 
 ambition wliich covets adventitious attractions around evan- 
 gelical worship, should gradually become content to see the 
 blandishments of art exhibited, rather than cause the naked 
 truth to be enforced. And especially is such danger imminent 
 in this country, where monumental falsehood abounds in tlie 
 edifices we dedicate to the true God. In storehouses for traffic 
 and the vehicles of commerce we are original, and in the van 
 of nations, because our endeavors are really earnest in that 
 direction ; but in church-building, especially in large towTis, we 
 are merely imitative, and earth groans under absurd abortions, 
 being burdened. Every petty organization professing primitive 
 humility, has its special symbol of structural pride, usually built 
 in the " Ionic style," with classical colonnades, surmounted by 
 feudal towers, and blank walls relieved with inextricable 
 labyrinths of suggestive arcades and long-drawn aisles. The 
 chief aspiration appears to aim at an immense perspective 
 back of the pulpit, where fresco daubs are tortured mto un- 
 mitigated mendacity, at least sixty yards long in appearance, 
 and wliich seems designed to illustrate the correctness" of 
 outline and justness of tone which characterize the learned 
 length of much modern preaching. Worse still, if it be pos- 
 sible, is the vitiating influence of our ignorant and lidiculous 
 attempts at " Gothic " building. Buttresses of painted brick, 
 foliated spaces of dirty plaster, canopies of crumbling stucco, 
 and white-pine turrets grinning on the exterior ; and pillars, 
 arches, groinings inside, w^ithout the shadow of one true 
 foliation or accurate moulding, from sham pavements to em- 
 bossed roofs, all shams as well, painted to imitate stones the 
 most solid and woods the most rare, are not only tolerated, but 
 ignorantly admired, by our upper circles ; so that you often 
 meet entire churches, of the first importance, covered all over, 
 without and within, w^ith nothing but structural falsehoods, an 
 aggregate of base and degradmg ecclesiological lies. TTe have 
 
X INTRODUCTION. 
 
 no space in this connection to treat the miserable influence of 
 perverted and prostituted arcliltecture as it deserves, but will 
 only add the following suggestion. Go through the entire 
 Christian world, and you will find that the moral power of any 
 given congregation will be nearly in an inverse ratio to the 
 amount of counterfeited art in the place of their assembling ; 
 and that the stupidity of their preacher will bear an exact 
 proportion to the soft thickness and florid ostentation of the 
 pulpit decorations. 
 
 Having thus briefly glanced at Mr. Spurgeon's biography, 
 and the scene of his stated labors, let us proceed to notice more 
 particularly the elements of his professional influence. If we 
 mistake not, he is pre-eminently intelligent, independent, and 
 honest in purpose, as a servant of Jesus Christ ; and, so long as 
 he remains such, no degree of success, however great, ought to 
 be regarded as being either wonderful or dangerous. 
 
 In the first place, Mr. Spurgeon is an intelligent man. His 
 personal influence implies this, and his published works prove 
 it. Fools abound, it is true ; but it is hard to find a whole 
 community of them, even in London or New York. Religious 
 people may not always acquire the most ponderous erudition; 
 but such knowledge as they do possess, is of a sort the least 
 likely to be imposed upon by a charlatan. The heart of a 
 humble disciple of Jesus is more sagacious than the head of 
 any unsanctified philosopher ; it will sooner revolt from plausible 
 imbecility, and most tenaciously cleave to the supreme excel- 
 lence it adores. Heaven vouchsafed the effulgence of lofty 
 science for the guidance which benighted Magi required ; but 
 the more ethereal wisdom of lowly shepherds at the same time 
 poured light upon their unfaltering feet, and recognized angelic 
 tidings from the sublimest skies. 
 
 IMr. Spurgeon began the assiduous study of books at an early 
 pei-iod, and evidently has ever since been a comprehensive 
 reader of whatever he deems of practical use. But he did not 
 heap books so high about his boyhood as to exclude nature 
 
INTEODUCTION. XI 
 
 from a loving and ennobling view. Every realm of elegance 
 and grandeur has been laid mider contribution to enlarge and 
 embellish his intellect. Hence the richness and variety of 
 illustration which so much enhance the beauty and force of his 
 public discourse. In body and mind, he appears redolent of 
 health ; and this has resulted mainly from habitual intercourse 
 with natural charms. His studies at Colchester, and in the 
 Agricultural College at Maidstone, doubtless did much to feed 
 his ardent love of learning, and, especially, to enlarge his 
 knowledge of natural science. As usher in the school at New- 
 market, and afterwards, while acquitting himself of like func- 
 tions at Cambridge, he accumulated no small amount of literary 
 treasure ; but his best acquisitions were secured in the early 
 and accurate knowledge of human nature, which, tlirough 
 juvenile discipline in diversified life, Providence caused him to 
 possess. He was no pet of indulgent fortune, famiharized with 
 golden spoons, and fondled in the lap of effeminate ease. Nor 
 was he cautiously secluded in the hot-house of supercilious 
 pedantry, to eat and sleep out a regular course of Jiic^ hcec, hoc, 
 with the plus excellence of sines and cosines, under the auspices 
 of some erudite ignoramus, whose potency for turning the 
 world upside down himself, and whose aptness to teach others 
 how such work is done, consists mainly in a diminutive quantity 
 of antique roots in a perfumed head, a pair of green spectacles 
 on a pimpled nose, and two Hly hands buried near dyspeptic 
 bowels. Nor was our " candidate for holy orders " blessed with 
 the three years of consummate sermonizing, which usually 
 succeeds the seven years of classical perfectness. Instead of 
 all this, the young athlete was dashing at eveiy barrier to 
 liberal culture, exploring every source of sound wisdom, and 
 fitting to each faculty and limb the rugged but flexible armor 
 best suited to the varied necessities of a practical life. 
 
 Before he left Cambridge, while the dignitaries of the uni- 
 versity and town were enjoying their lettered content, Mr. 
 Spurgeon was wont frequently to address Sunday-schools, in 
 
XU INTRODUCTION. 
 
 season and out of season — to visit the neigliboring villnges, 
 uliere descending day, as well as opening morn, found liini still 
 busy in refreshing the weary and spiritually destitute. Young 
 as tliis Timothy w^as when the Baptist church at AVaterbeach 
 called him to tlie pastorate, he not only statedly met the claims 
 of his own jiarticular flock, but eleven other communities shared 
 in his weekly mini?«trations, amongst whom he is said to have 
 preached as many extra sermons as there are days in the year. 
 Such an alumnus, we think, graduates with pretty high honors, 
 and goes forth to his life-battle limited to the elficacy of no 
 puny pocket-pistol of one barrel, loaded and discharged only by 
 routine, and of too small a calibre to either kick or hit hard. 
 Turks inscribe the choicest sentences of the Koran upon their 
 swords, that the most important maxims of their religion may 
 be illustrated in the closest alliance with effective blows. "What 
 right have you to boast of your sheepskin diploma, and claim 
 precedence in the ranks of honor on account of college privi- 
 leges, if your parent or patron, who paid dearly for the same, 
 can say of the result only as Aaron once lamented with vain 
 regret, — "I cast gold into the fire, and there came out this 
 calf? " All honor to the generous founders and accomplished 
 teachers of colleges ; but let no one, in or out of them, claim 
 respect any further than, with his own brains and heart, he 
 proves himself to be respectable. How much can do stands 
 in your boots ? If any, go ahead ; but if none, then shut up. 
 True education does not resemble the passive process of a 
 medicinal bath — something soaked in; it is mind educed — led 
 forth. The candidate for the sacred ministry, or who is des- 
 tined to any other sphere of professional life, that does not 
 early form the habit, and persistingly exercise the right, of 
 making books, schools, professors, and all their appliances his 
 own, by an ovennastering subordination to self-development, 
 will never be of more utility than a milliner's show-block, 
 bearing a constant change of fiishions outside, and nothing 
 original within ; useful only while invested by the industry of 
 others, and even at the best but a simple blockhead stilL 
 
INTRODUCTION. XIU 
 
 Read some of Mr. Spurgeon's statements toucliing liis early y 
 education, whicli at once assert the source of its greatest worth, 
 and exemphfy the beauty of its blessed influence. Says he : 
 "When I hear sweet syllables fall from many lips, keeping 
 measure and time, then I feel elevated, and, forgetting for a 
 time every being terrestrial, I soar aloft towards heaven." He 
 represents himself as having " delighted in the musty old folios 
 which many of his brethren have upon their library shelves," 
 and, '^ as for new books, he leaves them to others." To the 
 Bible, he ascribes the discipline of his mental faculties, as well 
 as his knowledge of divine truth. Once, he declares, he put 
 all his knowledge together in glorious confusion ; but now he 
 has a shelf in his head for everything, and, whatever he reads 
 or hears, he knows where to stow it away. " Ever smce I 
 have known Christ, I have put Christ jn the centre as my sim, 
 and each secular science revolves around it as a planet, while 
 the minor sciences are sateUites to their planets." He can 
 learn everything now ; and, from his own experience, he exhorts 
 thus : " O young man ! build thy studio on Calvary ! There 
 raise thine observatory, and scan, by faith, the lofty things of 
 nature ! Take thee a hermit's cell in the garden of Geth- 
 semane, and lave thy brow with the waters of Siloa ! " Li one 
 of his sermons, he remarks that " the man of one book is often 
 more intelligent than the man of fifty." In recommending 
 pointed preaching, he makes a remark, which illustrates his own 
 habit of wide wandering for material, connected with the power 
 of sudden and concentrated use. " It is not the sheet light- 
 ning, seen in all places, that takes effect ; but it is the forked 
 flash that smites the temple, or scorches the tree." Another 
 remark sets forth the spontaneity of this rare preacher's 
 thoughts, and the graceful freshness with which they emanate 
 from his heart and lips. " There is much virtue which is hke 
 the juice of the grape, which has to be squeezed before you 
 get it ; not like the generous drop of the honeycomb, distilling 
 willingly and freely." 
 2 
 
XIV INTRODUCTION. 
 
 It is justly remarked, by an English critic, that tlie " manly 
 tone of Mr. Spurgeon's mind might be illustrated from the 
 admirable thoughts which he expresses on the connection 
 between the diffusion of the gospel and the increase of civil 
 liberty. His graphic skill in delineating character, might be 
 demonstrated from liis life-like pictures of the prejudiced Jew 
 and the scoffing Greek of modern times ; his unspai-ing fidehty, 
 from the sarcastic severity with which he rebukes the neglect 
 of the Bible by modem professors ; his powers of personifi- 
 cation and dramatic presentation, from the scene which he 
 paints between the dying Christian and death, or between 
 Christ and justice, and the justified sinner; his refined skill in 
 the treatment of a delicate subject, in the veiled yet impressive 
 description of the trial of Joseph ; the use that he can make 
 of a single metaphor, by his powerful comparison of the sinner 
 to ' Mazeppa, bound on the wild horse of his lust, galloping on 
 with hell's wolves behind him,' till stopped and hberated by a 
 Mighty Hand." It is indeed well for the church and world 
 that, " somehow, God does choose the last men ; he does not 
 care for the diamond, but he picks up the pebble-stones ; for 
 he is able, out of stones, to raise up children unto Abraham." 
 Many other instances might be given, which indicate the most 
 diversified and delicate observation. " Bright-eyed cheerfulness 
 and airy-footed love," are among his fine phrases. Winter is 
 described as not killing the flowers, but as " coating them with 
 the ermine of its snows." Again, the sun is not quenched, but 
 is behind the clouds, " brewing up summer ; and, when he 
 Cometh forth again, he will have made those clouds fit to di'op 
 in April showers, all of them mothers of the sweet May 
 flowers." Saul is depicted as " bespattered with the blood of 
 Stephen." God " puts our prayers, like rose-leaves, between 
 the pages of his book of remembrance ; and, when the volume 
 is opened at last, there shall be a precious fragrance springing 
 up therefrom." " There is one thing," the sinner is told, "that 
 doth outstrip the telegraph: * Before they call, T will answer; 
 
INTRODUCTION. XV 
 
 and, while they are yet speaking, I will hear.' " The memory 
 mfected by the fall is described as " suffering the glorious 
 timbers from the forest of Lebanon to swim down the stream 
 of oblivion ; but she stopped all the drift that floateth from the 
 foul city of Sodom." It is in no feeble diction that the preacher 
 speaks of the lightning " splitting the clouds and rending the 
 heavens " ; of " the Mighty Hand wherein the callow comets 
 are brooded by the sun ; " and of the very spheres stopping 
 their music while God speaks vdih his wondrous deep bass 
 voice." Sometimes he attains a still more impressive grandeur, 
 as when he exclaims : " Did you ever walk the centuries, and 
 mark the rise and fall of various empires of unbelief"? or, 
 when supposing the extinction of Christianity by infidels, he 
 would " hang the world in mournmg, and make the sea the 
 chief mourner, with its dirge of howling winds, and its ^vild 
 death-march of disordered waves." 
 
 But no single passage will better indicate the nature and 
 spu'it of JMr. Spurgeon's education, than the following extract 
 from his sennon on "The People's Christ." It is not re- 
 printed entire in the present volume, since it has been so much 
 mutilated by the fragments thence derived to redeem the 
 poverty of our introduction. The preacher affirms that " Jesus 
 Christ was one of the people m his doctrine. His gospel 
 never was the philosopher's gospel, for it is not abstruse 
 enough. It will not consent to be buried in hard words and 
 technical phrases : it is so simple, that he who can spell over, 
 * He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved,' may have a 
 saving knowledge of it. Hence, worldly-wise men scorn the f 
 science of truth, and sneeringly say, * why, even a blacksmith 
 can preach now-a-days, and men who were at the plough-tail 
 may turn preachers * ; while priestcraft demands, ' What right 
 have they to do any such thing, unauthorized by us ' ? O ! 
 sad case that gospel truth should be slighted because of its 
 plainness, and that my Master should be despised because he 
 will not be exclusive — will not be monopolized by men of 
 
XVI INTRODUCTION. 
 
 talent and erudition. .Jesus is the ignorant man's Christ as 
 mucji as the learned man's Christ ; for he hath chosen ' the 
 base things of the world, and the things that are despised.' 
 Ah ! much as I love true science and real education, I mourn 
 and grieve that our ministers are so much diluting the Word 
 of God with philosophy, desiring to be intellectual preachers, 
 delivering model sermons, well fitted for a room full of college 
 students and professors of theology, but of no use to the 
 masses, being destitute of simplicity, warmth, earnestness, or 
 even solid gospel matter. I fear our college training is but a 
 poor gain to our churches, since it often serves to wean the 
 young man's sympathies from the people, and wed them to 
 the fewy the intellectual, and wealthy of the church. It is 
 good to be a fellow-citizen in the republic of letters, but better 
 far to be an able minister of the kingdom of heaven. It is 
 good to be able, like some great minds, to attract the mighty ; 
 but the more useful man will still be he, who, like Whitfield, 
 uses * market language '; for it is a sad fact that high places and 
 the gospel seldom well agree ; and, moreover, be it known, that 
 the doctrine of Christ is the doctrine of the people. It Avas not 
 meant to be the gospel of a caste, a clique, or any one class of 
 the community. The covenant of grace is not ordered for men 
 of one peculiar grade, but some of all sorts are included. A 
 few there w^ere of rich, that followed Jesus in his own day, as 
 there are now. Mary, and Martha, and Lazarus were well to 
 do, and there was the wife of Herod's steward, with some more 
 of the nobility. These, however, were but a few : his congi'e- 
 gation were made up of the lower orders, — the masses, the 
 multitude. * The common people heard him gladly ' ; and his 
 doctrine was one which did not allow of distinction, but put all 
 men as sinners naturally, on an equality in the sight of God. 
 One is your father, ' one is your master, even Christ, and all 
 ye are brethren.' These were words which he taught to his 
 disciples, while, in his own person, he was the mirror of hu- 
 mility, and proved himself the friend of earth's poor sons, and 
 
I N T R D U' C T I O N . XVii 
 
 the lover of mankind. O ye purse proud ! O ye who cannot 
 touch the poor, even with your white gloves ! Ah ! ye with 
 your mitres and your croziers ! Ah ! ye with your cathedrals 
 and splendid ornaments ! This is the man whom ye call 
 Master — the people's Christ — one of the people ! And yet 
 ye look down with scorn upon the people — ye despise them. 
 What are they in your opinion ? The common herd — the 
 multitude. Out on ye ! Call yourselves no more the ministers 
 of Christ. How can ye be, unless, descending from your 
 pomp and youi* dignity, ye come amongst the poor, and visit 
 them — ye come amongst our teeming population, and preach 
 to them the gospel of Christ Jesus. "We believe you to be the 
 descendants of the fishermen ? Ah ! no, until ye doff your gran- 
 deur, and, like the fishermen, come out — the people's men — 
 and preach to the people, speak to the people, instead of 
 lolling on your splendid seats, and making yourselves rich at 
 the expense of your pluralities ! Christ's ministers should be 
 the friends of manhood at large, remembering that their Master 
 was the people's Christ. Rejoice, O rejoice, ye multitudes ! 
 Rejoice ! rejoice ! for Christ was one of the people." 
 
 Sometimes Mr. Spurgeon indulges in more copious allusions 
 to classical incidents, wliich indicate the riches of mental stores 
 at his command ; but these are always employed in the same 
 self-obvious subordination to the cause he pleads. Take the 
 following example, from a beautiful sermon on the words: 
 " And so He giveth his beloved sleep." It opens thus : " The 
 sleep of the body is the gift of God. So said Homer of old, 
 when he described it as descendin^j from the clouds, and restin^^ 
 on the tents of the warriors around old Troy. And so sang 
 Virgil, when he spoke of Palinurus faUing asleep upon the 
 prow of the sliip. Sleep is the gift of God. We think that 
 we lay our heads upon our pillows, and compose our bodies 
 in a peaceful posture, and that, therefore, we naturally and 
 necessarily sleep. But it is not so. Sleep is the gift of God ; 
 and not a man would close his eyes, did not God put his finders 
 2* 
 
XVlll INTRODUCTION. 
 
 on his eyelids — did not the Almighty send a soft and balmy 1 
 influence over his frame, which lulled his thoughts into .], 
 quiescence, making him enter into that blissful state of rest 
 which we call sleep. True, there be some drugs and narcotics 
 whereby men can poison themselves well nigh to death, and 
 then call it sleep ; but the sleep of the healtby body is the gift 
 of God. lie bestows it ; he rocks the cradle for us every 
 night ; he draws the curtain of darkness ; he bids the sun slmt 
 up his burning eyes ; and then he comes and says : * Sleep, 
 sleep, my child ! I give thee sleep.' Have you not known 
 what it is, at times, to lay upon your bed and strive to slumber? 
 And, as it is said of Darius, so might it be said of you : * The 
 king sent for his musicians, but his sleep went from him.' You 
 have attempted it, but } ou could not do it ; it is beyond your 
 power to procure a healthy repose. You imagine, if you fix 
 your mind upon a certain subject until it shall engross 3'our 
 attention, you will then sleep ; but you find yourself unable to 
 do so. Ten thousand tilings drive tlirough your brain, as if 
 the whole earth were agitated before you. You see all tilings 
 you ever belield, dancing in a wild phantasmagoria before your 
 eyes. You close your eyes, but still you see ; and there be 
 things in your ear, and head, and brain, which will not let you 
 sleep. It is God alone who alike seals up the sea-boy's eyes 
 upon the giddy mast, and gives the monarch rest ; for, with all 
 appliances and means to boot, he could not rest without the aid 
 of God. It is God who steeps the mind in I.ethe, and bids 
 us slumber, that our bodies niay be refreshed, so that, for 
 to-moT-row's toil, we mav rise recruit«id and strencrtliened. O, 
 my friends, how thankful should we be for sleep ! Sleep is the 
 best j»l)ysician that I know of. Sleep hath healed more pains 
 of wearied bones than the most eminent physicians upon earth. 
 It is the best medicine ; the choicest thing of all the names 
 which are written in the lists of pharmacy. There is nothing 
 like to sleep ! "What a mercy it is that it belongs alike to alii 
 God does not make sleep the boon of the rich man ; he does 
 
INTRODUCTION. XIX 
 
 not give it merely to the noble, or the rich, so that they can 
 keep it a peculiar luxury for themselves ; but he bestows it 
 upon all. Yes, if there be a difference, the sleep of the 
 laboring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much." 
 
 The best education is well stated by our preacher, when he 
 says, that " nothing makes a man have a big heart like a great 
 trial." And his own preparatory study is still further indicated^ 
 in a discourse on the immutability of God. " He who often 
 thinks of God, will have a larger mind than he who simply 
 plods around this narrow globe. He may be a naturalist, 
 botisting of his ability to dissect a beetle, anatomize a fly, or 
 arrange insects or animals in classes, with well nigh unut- 
 terable names ; he may be a geologist, able to discourse of the 
 megatherium and the plesiosaurus, and all kinds of extinct 
 animals ; he may imagine that his science, whatever it is, 
 ennobles and enlarges his mind. I dare say it does ; but, after 
 all, the most excellent study for expanding the soul is the 
 science of Christ and him crucified, and the knowledge of the 
 Godhead in the glorious Trinity." Again, he says : " Talk of 
 decrees ? I will tell you of a decree — ' He that believeth not 
 shall be damned.' " 
 
 The reader will probably regard the foregoing remarks as 
 striking exponents of the natural intelligence possessed by Mr 
 Spurgeon, sulEciently illustrative of the early and varied culture 
 he has acquired. We proceed, secondly, to array the proofs 
 of what, in our judgment, is still more auspicious of professional 
 success — Ills independence. 
 
 y A preacher is not divinely called and elevated to be a facile 
 weathercock, turned by the wind ; but, like a tow^er of strengtL 
 in scenes of danger, not less luminous than resolute, he is to 
 turn the winds. It is fortunate for the interests of commerce, 
 that the pharos-keeper is usually compelled, by the circum- 
 stances of his position, to trim his light alone, and pour its 
 effulgence in his own undictated style. If all interested parties, 
 on sea and shore, could but have their individual say as to the 
 
XX INTRODUCTION. 
 
 best mode of doing the business, a great cloud of impertinent 
 advisers would soon extinguish both the light-master and his 
 lamps. This is analogous to the effect produced on those 
 theological students, whose tide of self-relying talent may never 
 flood above the low water-mark of docile mediocrity. They 
 go before their class, and its professor of homiletics, and submit 
 a sermon for criticism. The most original thoughts will be the 
 first condemned; on the same principle that, when several 
 neighboring brethren preach at the same association, the dullest 
 will be the most heartily congratulated by the rest, because he 
 has least disturbed their stolid pride. Those who prefer to go 
 on stilts, do not like the firm and forward tread of more intent 
 travellers ; but exhibit then- nearest approach to manly energy 
 in spasmodic denunciations of those who will not move as 
 artificially as themselves. 
 
 Mr. Spurgeon exercises great influence in London, because 
 he made his advent therein fresh from the quiet fields of 
 accurate observation and independent thought. He seems to 
 be more than mlling to serve anybody, in any reasonable way, 
 without the slightest air of assumption in his manner ; but 
 there does not happen to be cash or coercion enough in the 
 great metropolis to create a particular track, in which alone he 
 shall walk and talk. In a discourse on 1 John, v. 4, he says : 
 " A very kind friend has told me, that, while I was preaching 
 in Exeter Hall, I ought to pay deference to the varied opinions 
 of my hearers ; that, albeit I may be a Calvinist and a Baptist, 
 I should recollect that there are a variety of creeds here. 
 Now, if I were to preach nothing but what would please the 
 whole lot of you, what on earth should I do ? I preach what 
 I believe to be true ; and if the omission of a single trutli that 
 I believe would make me king of England throughout eternity, 
 I would not leave it out. Those who do not like what I say, 
 have the option of leaving it. They come here, I suppose, to 
 please themselves ; and, if the truth does not please them, they 
 can leave it. I will never be afraid that an honest Briti.>h 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXl 
 
 audience will turn away from the man who does not stick, and 
 stutter, and stammer, in speaking the truth. Well, now, about 
 this great biilh. I am going to say, perhaps, a harsh thing ; 
 but I heard it said by .Mr. Jay iirst of all. Some say a new 
 birth takes place in infant baptism ; but I remember that ven- 
 erable i)atriarch saying, < Popery is a lie, Puseyism is a lie, 
 baptismal regeneration is a UeJ So it is. It is a lie so pal- 
 bable, that I can scarcely imagine the preachers of it have any 
 brains in their heads at all. It is so absurd, upon tlie very 
 face of it, that a man who believes it, puts himself below the 
 range of a common-sense man. Believe that every child, by 
 a drop of water, is born again ! Then that man that you see 
 in the ring, as a prize-fighter, is born again, because those sanc- 
 tified drops once fell upon his infi\nt forehead ! Another man 
 swears ; behold him drunk, and reeling about the streets. He 
 is born again ! A pretty bom again that is ! I thmk he wants 
 to be bom again another time." 
 
 Perhaps nowhere on earth is reverence for wealth and the 
 worship of rank so intense and all-pervading as throughout the 
 realms of British mind. To strike boldly at that popular 
 passion requires no small courage on the part of one who is 
 dependent on voluntary support. But this deep cash-feeling, 
 so especially influential in metropolitan society, is made to 
 wince keenly under Mr. Spurgeon's sarcasm. " In England a 
 sovereign will not speak to a shilling, a shilling will not notice j 
 a sixpence, and a sixpence will sneer at a penny." In a vivid 
 dialogue respecting the cruelties practised on Jesus, the inter- 
 locutor, personated by the preacher, exclaims : " Why did you 
 say, ' Crucify him ' ? ' Because Rabbi Simeon gave me a shekel 
 to help the clamor.' So the multitude were much won by the 
 money and influence of the priests ; but they were glad to hear 
 Cln-ist, after all." And the last paragraph of the sermon on 
 "The People's Christ," is as follows: "Ye proud ones! 1 have 
 a word for you. Ye delicate ones, whose footsteps must not 
 touch the ground. Y"e who look down in scorn upon youi- fellow 
 
XXll INTRODUCTION. 
 
 mortals — proud worms, despising your fellow-worms, because ye 
 are somewhat more showily dressed ! What think ye of tins ? 
 The man of the people is to save you, if you are saved at all ; 
 the Christ of the crowd, the Christ of the mass, the Christ of 
 the people — he is to be your Saviour! Thou must stoop, 
 proud man ! thou must bow, proud lady ! thou must lay aside 
 thy pomp, or else thou wilt ne'er be saved ; for the Saviour of 
 the people must be thy Saviour. But to the poor trembling 
 sinner, w^hose pride is gone, I repeat the comforting assurance. 
 Wouldst thou shun sin ? Wouldst thou avoid the curse ? 
 My Master tells me to say this morning — * Come unto me, all 
 ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.* 
 I remember the saying of a good old saint. Some one was 
 talking about the mercy and love of Jesus, and concluded by 
 saying, *Ah ! is it not astonishing ? ' She said, ' No, not at all.' 
 But they said it was. ^ Why,' she said, * it is just like hmi ; it 
 is just like him ! ' You say, can you believe such a thing of a 
 person ? ' Oh ! yes,' it may be said, * that is just liis nature.' 
 So you, perhaps, cannot believe that Clu'ist would save you, 
 guilty creature as you are. I tell you, it is just like liim. lie 
 saved Saul — he saved me — he may save you. Yea, what is 
 more, he will save you, for ' whosoever cometh unto him, he 
 will in no wise cast out.' " 
 
 True independence of character is not stubbornness. Sound 
 and useful oaks can bend to the softest zephyr, as well as resist 
 the fiercest tornado ; but rotten and hollow ones are most in- 
 sensible to kindly influences, and the stiffest always. Mr. 
 Spurgeon finds no difficulty in enjoying the amenities of social 
 life, even to the utmost extent compatible with innocent hilarity. 
 For instance, some five hundred of his friends chartered the 
 good ship " Mars," and went down to " Rosherville," another 
 " Staten Island," where they had a right nice time. The young 
 pastor was called out for a speech, and he gave them a jolly 
 account of a recent preaching tour in Scotland. A limpid 
 current of genial humor always emanates from and flows fast 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXlll 
 
 by the granite foundation of superior cLaracter. The staid 
 sons of the Doric North at fii-st seemed to him to be all made 
 oi Wenham ice. " They could not understand my hot, fiery 
 speeches at all, having been accustomed to hear dry disquisi- 
 tions from learned Scottish divines. I knew that you must 
 often enter the heart by ridicule. Tender hearts may be en- 
 tered by pathos, but hard hearts must be touched by something 
 telHng and singular ; so I thought I would make some of my 
 singularities prominent, and say one or two of those things 
 that you all know I do say now and then. I tried to provoke 
 them to a smile, but they would not laugh, perhaps conceiving 
 it to be a sin. I tried again, however, and I actually made 
 one of them smile. Then I thought my triumph had begun. 
 There came a shaking among the dry bones, and the dust came 
 upon them. That dust, my hearers, was tobacco dust — snuff; 
 ^r they passed their snuff-boxes round, and in a small wooden 
 spoon they spooned the snuff to their noses. The Scotch are 
 by far too ' cannie ' to waste any of their snuff, so they use 
 spoons for it instead of their fingers (laughter). As I pro- 
 gressed, I found the people began to be more moved ; more 
 snuff was taken ; and I took it as a sign of their being really 
 interested, when they began to pass their boxes every five 
 minutes. At last, I saw that not only could they smile, but 
 they could weep. When I began to tell them something about 
 our Lord Jesus Christ, of him crucified, I found their hearts 
 were moved, and their souls touched. I had only said those 
 other things that I might by some means gain access to their 
 hearts, and very gratified was I to find that some good had 
 followed from what I said. Many persons know that on my 
 road home I was exposed to a very imminent danger. I crossed 
 the river Clyde in a ferry. The man who had the management 
 of the boat had taken ' a wee drap o' the cratur,' and was not 
 able to manage it at all ; and had put twenty-six persons into 
 a boat that had ought to have contained far less. I have been 
 informed by one or two ladies that a report was current that I 
 
XXIV INTRODUCTION. 
 
 was thrown into the water and fished up by the hair of my 
 head. Now, that was not so. TVe were simply in danger ; but, 
 by a Httle management and expostuhition, which was resented 
 by oaths and curses, we came safe to land — thanks to that God 
 who, both on sea and land, cares for his people ! I hatl engaged 
 to preach at Bradford, in Yorkshire. I made first a journey 
 to Lake Windermere, round which I sailed, and greatly enjoyed 
 the beauties of its scene-ry. I went to Bradford ; and on Sab- 
 bath morning I found that they had engaged the Music Hall, 
 which holds, they say, a thousand persons more than Exeter 
 Hall. Instead of being able to contain the crowds who came 
 on the Sunday, about as many had to go away as were accom- 
 modated. In the evening, the streets presented a solid blockade 
 of living men and women. The place was crammed to excess, 
 and I had scarcely room to walk about to deliver what I had 
 to say to the people. At the end of the day, I was delighted 1# 
 find that not only had they been instructed, but they had given 
 £144 towards the Sabbath-schools connected with the place at 
 which I was engaged. From that place I went to Stockton-on- 
 Tees, and there again preached the Word of God to a very 
 numerous congregation. I journeyed on still further, to Edin- 
 burgh, and in Queen-street Hall, notwithstanding the most 
 pouring rains, more crowds w^ere assembled. There I was 
 very much delighted, after the sermon, to meet with an officer 
 of one of her majesty's regiments, who stepped up to me, and, 
 taking me by the hand, said, ' For twenty years I have served* 
 her majesty, but never, until I first stepped into Dr. Wardlaw's 
 chapel, at Glasgow, had I heard the Word of God to my profit. 
 But now I am enlisted in the army of the King of kings. The 
 Lord God of hosts bless you! — the King of kings be with 
 you! — the God of Jacob help you everywhere!' I blessed 
 the man, and I retired to rest, conscious that, if I had done 
 nothing else, yet, perhaps, one of the heroes of the Crimea, 
 who had not turned his back in the day of battle, was yet 
 found to be numbered among the soldiers of the King of kings. 
 
INTllODUCTION. XXV 
 
 On the second Sabbath I preached again in Glasgow. In the 
 morning I preached at Dr. Frazer's Independent chapel. 
 There I found there was a necessity for a much larger chapel 
 to hold all the people. They crowded everpvhere ; but I was 
 still prepared to preach to them at Dr. King's chapel, the United 
 Presbyterian. I found more people still. It held about 2500 ; 
 and the editor of one of the papers told me that 20,000 persons 
 Avent away, unable to obtain admission. Once more I received 
 the helf) of my mighty Master, and there I preached his truth. 
 Very much sui'prised was I to find, one morning, great bills 
 sticking all about Glasgow, with these two announcements, m 
 the largest ij])e: 'The Rev. C. H. Spurgeon — the huge 
 common sewer.' ' I wondered how I could be a ' huge common 
 sewer;' and I could not understand the matter, till I found that 
 in a certain paper there were two articles, one upon me, and 
 the other upon the river Thames ; and one, therefore, was 
 called * The Rev. C. H. Spurgeon,' and the other ' The huge 
 common sewer.' (Laughter.) "Wliether I am a huge sewer 
 or not, I cannot tell ; all I know is, that it made the paper sell, 
 tmd I suppose that is all the gentlemen of the press very often 
 require. On the Thursday, on coming away, about a hundred 
 persons came to meet me at the mansion of Mr. Anderson. 
 There I bade them all farewell, with many expressions of 
 regi'et that I should have to go away at all, under the promise 
 that I would come once a year, backed up with Paddy's an- 
 nouncement, that once a year should be made every six months. 
 (Laughter.) I have promised to go and see them once a year. 
 They are a noble nation, and have treated me better than I 
 deserve — surely it was for my Master's sake; and I hope 
 when I shall go there again God Almighty will bless the 
 services, and render them very effectual to the good of that 
 people. I don't know how it is — I have never sought the 
 applause of men — I speak to you now as I never spoke to 
 any peoj^le in the world ; I feel I am among my own family, 
 and I have no reason to use reserve with you ; I speak with you 
 
 3 
 
XXVI INTRODUCTION. 
 
 as I would not speak with the common people of the world — 
 I know not how it is that I should be known. I suppose it is 
 because the people of New Park-street are so good, that people 
 think that I must be as good as they are. However, if God 
 has given me any favor in the eyes of the people, it is for me 
 to use that favor ; not to be exalted above measure concerning 
 it, but to thank God for it, and go on using it. No man can 
 say worse things of me than have been said. No man can hurt 
 my feelings by anything they say against me. They have said 
 all that they ever can ; and I shall always say, ' Borrowed, my 
 lord,' after everything that may be said in future. One very 
 good minister of the gospel tells me I never was converted ; 
 what I am now I shall be to the day of my death. I am 
 extremely obliged to him for his charity ; I love him very 
 much for the information. However, I believe if I am not 
 converted there is yet hoj^e for me still, and J will try if I 
 cannot find that hope in the blood of Jesus Christ. At the 
 same time, no more good tilings can be said of me than have 
 been said. While I am extremely obliged to my friends for 
 all they say that is good concerning me, I would rather that 
 they should leave me alone. I do not want anything good said 
 of me at all. I have been pufied oif as being a Whitfield, the 
 greatest preacher of the age, which certainly I am not, and 
 never professed to be. I am a great deal more like anything 
 else you like to mention than that. But if people persist in 
 saying so many bad things of me, I suppose my friends must 
 be allowed the liberty of saying the good things; and I will 
 mix them together, and drink both bitter and sweet, so that 
 there M'ill be no taste at all. Now, my friends, I have spoken 
 to you for a few minutes, not by way of instruction, but simply 
 of amusement. Some people object to anybody's laughing 
 who calls himself a Christian. There is no commandment in 
 the Bible which says ' Thou shalt not laugh.' There is no 
 commandment which says 'Thou shalt not eat tliy dinner.' 
 Therefore I eat my dinner; therefore I laugh; therefore I 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXVil 
 
 come down to Rosherville Gardens to spend a liappy day with 
 a select company ; and I am happy to fmd myself in your 
 midst, and to enjoy myself to-day. The time is now up, and 
 I must conclude, hoping to see you soon again at the pier-head. 
 (Laughter and applause.)" 
 
 We have thus presented as much testimony as our space 
 will permit, by wliich a judgment may be fonned of Mr 
 Spurgeon's intellectual endowments and personal independence, 
 It remams to speak of his appai-ent honesty of purpose, as the 
 crowning guarantee of professional success. It is in this latter 
 trait, we think, that a proper solution may be found of the 
 problem of this preacher's extraordinary influence. The able 
 editor of the Glasgow Examiner says of him, that " Ills 
 preaching is altogether peculiar, and not very easily described. 
 Probably the following may convey to the reader some idea of 
 it. Some preachers owe much to their "personnel^ or presence 
 in the pulpit. Before they open their mouths, there is some- 
 thing about them wliich causes a sort of awe and respect to 
 creep over the audience. The appearance of this preacher 
 may be said to be interesting, rather than commanding. He is 
 quite a youth, and his countenance bopsh. He is under, 
 rather than over, the middle size, and has few or none of the 
 physical advantages of the orator in his appearance. But 
 what he lacks in appearance, he has in reality. Soon as he 
 commences to speak, tones of richest melody are heard. A 
 voice, full, sweet, and musical, falls on every ear, and awakens 
 agreeable emotions in every soul in which there is a sympathy 
 for sounds. That most excellent of voices is imder perfect 
 control, and can whisper or thunder at the wish of its possessor. 
 And there is poetry in every feature, and every movement, as 
 well as music in the voice. The countenance speaks — the 
 entire form sympathizes. The action is in complete unison 
 with the sentiments, and the eye listens scarcely less than the 
 ear to the sweetly flowing oratory. But, among the thirty 
 thousand English preachers, and the three thousand Scotch 
 
XXVlll INTRODUCTION. 
 
 ones, there are many sweet voices, as well as this, and many 
 who have studied the art of speaking with the greatest assi- 
 duity, and yet they fail to attract an audience. Mr. Spurgeon 
 is more than a ' voice crying ' ; he has rare powers of 
 observation, recollection, assimilation, and creation. His field 
 of observation is wide and varied. lie seems to have opened 
 his eyes to nature in all its varieties, to science in all its 
 discoveries, and to literature in all its departments. Everything 
 which the eye of man can look upon, or the ear hear, seems to 
 liave made an indelible impression on his mental powers. The 
 impression is not only distinctly made, but ineradically main- 
 tained. Every mountain, every valley, every book, every 
 sentence, which has once come in his way, becomes forever 
 fixed in his recollection. And not only fixed, but becomes the 
 material on which marvellous powers of assimilation vigorously 
 operate. Out of the forms of beauty which his eyes see, other 
 still lovelier forms are created. The loveliest natm-al landscape 
 is adorned with additional beauty, by the aid of a refined and 
 chastened fancy. The thoughts that have come floating doAvn 
 from the long bygone ages are placed in the crucible of his 
 mind, and, purged of the objectionable, come out bearing his 
 own image and superscription. There is evidently in him 
 great power of assimilative genius, and occasional indications 
 of even a higher order of genius — even that wliich creates 
 fresh and new forms of beauty, which bear the distinct mark 
 of his own mind. 
 
 " These higher qualities are evidently greatly aided by a close 
 study of the graces of speaking. The natural had been aided 
 by study — the gifts of the orator by the graces. Despite an 
 occasional neglect of all the laws of logic and ratiocination, 
 there are evidently a thorough knowledge and appreciation of 
 both. The negligee sometimes forms a pleasing contrast with 
 the precise. The bow, drawn at a venture, may send the arrow 
 more direct to the mark tlian the bow drawn according to the 
 strictest rnles." 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXIX 
 
 The same writer elsewhere adds : " There are, in the pub- 
 lished discourses of our author, sentences and sentiments which 
 miglit have been spared ; but there are, also, strong redeeming 
 qualities. There are vigorous thought, sound doctrine, and 
 earnest appeal ; and, considering the extreme youth of the 
 preacher, and his great popularity, the small amount of the 
 objectionable is probably the most peculiar feature of them. 
 Parties anxious to fmd fault, can be at no loss to find out what 
 they reckon blemishes in his matter and manner ; but it might 
 be difficult for them to say any one thing, for or against him, 
 but what has been already said. The English press has gone 
 the entire length, in both its praise and its censure. lie has 
 been denounced as mean in stature, inexpressive in coun- 
 tenance, and contemptible in intellect. On the same day, his 
 personnel has been extolled as attractive, his intellectual power 
 tremendous, and his oratory overwhelming. He has heard 
 voices innumerable denouncing Imn, and voices innumerable 
 admiring him. Many a pen has been dipped in gall by jealous 
 rivals, and many a pen in honey by generous critics. All this 
 has been said, and all this written, and Mr. Spurgeon still lives, 
 and lives in the affection of thousands. The crowds which 
 congregated on Sabbath last to hear him in this city, were not 
 greater than the crowds that every Sabbath ilock to his 
 meeting-house in London. He heeds not his accusers ; he has 
 no time to receive the gratulations of his friends, but preaches 
 on ; and, as he preaches, the printing-press takes up the subject, 
 and gives it a circulation much wider than human voice can 
 reach." 
 
 In the address at Rosherville, quoted from above, Mr. Spur- 
 geon refeiTed to his labors at Glasgow in an ingenuous way, 
 which clearly indicates an honesty of purpose, of sufficient 
 depth and momentum to overcome all minor considerations, and 
 which urges him right onward in resolute attempts to do good. 
 " Li the evening, I went to Dr. "Wardlaw's chapel. I dared 
 not recollect what classic words had once been spoken there, 
 
XXX INTRODUCTION. 
 
 or what sweet, musical tones had once been lieard from tho 
 lips of that eminent minister. Though a child, I mounted that 
 pulpit; but with the greatest dif%uhy possible, from the simple 
 reason that crowds of people blocked the way. I believe I 
 was several minutes forcing my way to the pulpit. It was a 
 glorious sight to see the masses moving doAMi tlie streets to tlie 
 place of worship ; but, at the same time, who couhl prevent a 
 feeling of deep solemnity ? I then preached to them, and I 
 believe them to have been pretty well pleased. For myself, I 
 felt that 1 had the presence of my God, and I rejoiced when, 
 111 those sweet Scotch psalms, they extolled the name of the 
 blessed God. However, I found afterwards that 1 had not got 
 on quite as well as I had thought ; for, in the Christian NeivSy 
 I discovered that I had thrown out platitudes and old anti- 
 Arminianisms in the evening, at Dr. Wardlaw's — had disgusted 
 an audience of Dr. Patterson's, and had altogetlier shown 
 myself to be a great buifoon, and everything else that was 
 worthless. I jiocketed the information for my own benefit, and 
 was pleased to fmd that, the week after, I was simply called a 
 spoiled boy, of mediocre abilities, who had gained celebrity by 
 ^eat puffing and blustering, and who, like an early gooseberry, 
 or an overgrown cucumber, would go back to the nihility from 
 whence he sprung, ' unwept, unhonored, and unsung.' I thought 
 it would be a great sparing of catgut and of lungs, if I should 
 die altogether unsung. I had been abused from so many other 
 quarters, that, whatever the Christian News (styled by me the 
 Unchristian News) might say, I did not feel at aU hurt by it ; 
 but just pardoned the insult, and went about my work, 
 preaching my Master's gospel as before." 
 
 The arrangement of Mr. Spurgeon's sermons is simple and 
 textual. The outline forms a natural contour of the theme, and 
 is scarcely less striking than the facts, arguments, and illus- 
 trations employed to elucidate and enforce its leading truths. 
 As he uses no notes, he is sometimes quite episodical in the 
 course of his demonstrations ; but he never diverges so far as 
 
INTRODUCTION, XXXI 
 
 to be unable, in a moment, to recover his position, with en- 
 lianced interest and ease. There is about him that frank, 
 open-heartiness of manner, which hesitates not to express the 
 most starthng opinions, and which, combined with his intense 
 sympathy with the masses, gives its possessor a sublime 
 fascination over the popular heart. Twelve thousand listen 
 to him at one time in the open field ; and yet, with all this 
 success, there seems to be but little or nothing about him of 
 self-conceit. " Recollect," he says, " who I am, and what I 
 am — a child, having httle education, little learning, ability, or 
 talent." "Without the Spirit of God, I feel I am utterly 
 unable to speak to you. I have not those gifts and talents 
 which qualify men to speak ; I need an afflatus from on liigli ; 
 otherwise, I stand like other men, and have nought to say. 
 May that be given me, for without it I am dumb ! " Give him 
 the pohte and the noble — give him influence and under- 
 standing, and he should fail ; but give him his own praying 
 people, "meeting m such multitudes to pray to God for a 
 blessing," and he will " overcome hell itself." 
 
 This introduction has already become extended beyond the 
 limits at first designed. But we wish to present our friend in 
 the light of his own true character, and that can be understood 
 only by comparing the diversified expressions of his earnest 
 and unsophisticated spirit. A few of these we have gleaned 
 from occasional discourses not embraced in the present collec- 
 tion, as we wish the reader to meet with fresh pleasure and 
 profit on each succeeding page. Moreover, we have presented 
 herewith criticisms from emment pens in the service of almost 
 every evangelical creed, and cannot better close our summary 
 of opinions and facts, than by appending the following extract 
 from an EngUsh correspondent to the Independent, of this city, 
 lie lately wrote thus : 
 
 " Great orators, whether pulpit, platform, or senatorial, make 
 many friends and many foes. This being inevitable, we are at 
 no loss to account for the applause and comtumely which have 
 
XXxii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 been profusely heaped upon the young minister, the Rev. C. H. 
 Spurgeon, whose appearance and labors in the metropolis have 
 excited in all religious circles, and even beyond them, attention 
 and surprise, and in some instances, unbounded admiration. 
 Scarcely more than a youth in years, comparitively untutored, 
 and without a name, he enters the greatest city in the world, 
 and, almost simultaneously, commands audiences larger than 
 have usually listened to her most favored preachers. Almost 
 daily has he occupied pulpits in various parts of town and 
 country, and everywhere been greeted by overflowing con- 
 gregations. 
 
 "As might be expected, many who have listened to him have 
 gone away to speak ill of his name, while others, and by far 
 the greater number, have been instructed by his arguments, 
 melted by his appeals, and stimulated by his earnestness. 
 There have been seen among his hearers ministers of mark, 
 of nearly every section of the Christian church ; laymen, well 
 known in all circles as the supporters of the benevolent and 
 evangehcal institutions of the day ; citizens of renown, from the 
 chief magistrate down to the parish beadle ; and Holyoake, 
 the editor of the Infidel serial. The Reasoner, has, by his own 
 confession, been among his hearers. That the man who causes 
 such a furore must possess some power not commonly found 
 in men of his profession, will only be doubted by his prejudiced 
 detractors. Whether that power be physical, intellectual, or 
 moral, or a happy blending of them all, is, perhaps, a question 
 not yet ripe for decision. 
 
 " It cannot be disputed that Mr. Spurgeon is, in various 
 respects, an extraordinary man. Never, since the days of 
 George Whitfield and Edward Irving, has any minister of 
 religion acquired so great a reputation as this Baptist preacher 
 in so short a time. Here is a mere youth — a perfect stripling, 
 only twenty-one years of age — incomparably the most popular 
 preacher of the day. There is no man in Great Britain who 
 could di'aw such immense audiences ; and none who, in his 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXXIU 
 
 happiest efforts, can so completely entliral the attention, and 
 deMght the minds of his hearers. While the enlargement of 
 his chapel in New Park-street was taking place, Mr. Spurgeon 
 preached in Exeter Hall ; but this spacious buildhig soon 
 proved far too small to hold the crowds who thronged to hear 
 the youthful Boanerges. It was no unusual sight, on a Sunday 
 evening, to see placai'ds put up outside the building, announcing 
 that the hall was full, and that no more could be admitted. 
 Since the enlargement of his chapel, which is now capable of 
 holding 1800 people, it has been found necessary for the pohce 
 to be present at every service, and the pew-holders are ad- 
 mitted, by ticket, tlirough a side-door. This accomplished, at 
 ten minutes prior to the commencement of the service, the front 
 doors are opened, and a rush commences ; but it is speedily 
 over, for the chapel is full — not only the seats, but every inch 
 of standing-room being occupied; and the gates have to be 
 closed, with an immense crowd of disappointed expectant 
 hearers outside. 
 
 "Although some of Mr. Spurgeon's vilifiers speak of his 
 irreverence and ■v^dtticisms, your correspondent, when he lis- 
 tened to the youthful evangelist, was especially impressed with 
 the stillness and solemnity pervading the entire service. Some 
 of his appeals to the conscience, some of his remonstrances 
 with the careless, constituted specimens of a very high order 
 of oratorical j^ower. When pronouncing the doom of those 
 who live and die in a state, of impenitence, he makes hundreds 
 of his congi'egation quail and quake in their seats. He places 
 their awful destiny in such vivid colors before their eyes, that 
 they almost imagine they are already in the regions of darkness 
 and despair. In his preface to a volume of sermons just pub- 
 hshed, he tells us that such has been the impression produced 
 by some of his sermons, that he has ascertained upwards of 
 twenty cases of conversion as the result of one discourse, to say 
 notliing of those instances of a saving change wrought on his 
 
XXXIV INTRODUCTION. 
 
 hearers, wliicli will be unknown, until the world to come has 
 made its unportant and unexpected revelation. 
 
 "AVlien this able and eloquent preacher first made his 
 appearance in the horizon of the religious world, and dazzled 
 the masses in London by his brilliancy, many feared that he 
 either might get intoxicated by the large draughts of popularity 
 which he had daily to drink, or that he would not be able, 
 owing to the want of variety, to sustain the reputation he had 
 so suddenly acquired. Neither result has happened. What- 
 ever may be his defect, either as a man, or as a preacher of the 
 gospel, it is due to him to state that he has not been spoiled by 
 popular applause. Constitutionally, he has no small amount 
 of self-esteem; but, so far from its growing with his daily 
 extendmg fame, he appears to be more humble and more 
 subdued than when he first burst on our astonished gaze. 
 And, with regard to the fear that his excellence as a preacher 
 would not be sustained, the event has proved the groundlessness 
 of such an apprehension. There is no fallmg off whatever. 
 On the contrary, he is, in not a few respects, improving with 
 the lapse of time. His striking originality can be seen to 
 greater advantage than at first. There is no sameness in his 
 sermons. The variety of his matter — not, of course, as regards 
 his doctrines, but as relates to his expositions, illustrations, and 
 applications of divine truth — is as great as ever. 
 
 " Mr. Spurgeon has been thought, by many, to entertain and 
 advocate the crude views of the Ayjoer-Calvinists. He may, 
 at times, lay himself open to such a charge ; but, we verily 
 believe, he has in truth little sympathy with those of the class 
 referred to — his offer of a free gospel, and appeals to the 
 sinner, being sufficient evidence in the matter with all who 
 know anything of the preachers of the Dr. Ci'isp school. It 
 cannot be doubted that he holds Calvinistic views of Chris- 
 tianity, and proclaims this doctrine strongly and boldly, thus 
 presenting himself and his preaching as a conspicuous mark for 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXXV 
 
 controversial censure. But there is a, courageous and trans- 
 parent consistency characterizing the man and his mission, that 
 ought, most assuredly, to neutralize all unfair and bitter 
 criticism. 
 
 '• It must be evident to all \vho have read Mr. Spurgeon's 
 sermons, that he is no superficial thinker. He has long been a 
 diligent and earnest seeker after truth, and is theoretically and 
 experimentally acquainted with much of the deep spirituality 
 of divine truth. He must have studied profoundly Leighton's 
 As-ritings and Weslej^s h}Tims ; for he has much of the experi- 
 ence of Wesley, and a high degree of the spirituality of 
 Leighton. Some have said that William Jay, of Bath, and 
 Robert Hall, of Bristol, are the models on Avhich lie has sought 
 to mould his style of address ; but he needs the logical acumen 
 of the one, and the polislied elegance of diction which charac- 
 terized the other. He has, however, their better quahties of 
 thorough devotion to the service of the gospel, and a power and 
 pathos far transcending theirs. But he is too originally con- 
 stituted to be an imitator, and is more likely to found a style 
 of his own, than to imitate that of another. True, he has 
 much of Rowland Hill's quaintness of illustration, and not 
 unfrequently provokes a smile by some startling expression, or 
 fioTire ; but the general seriousness and earnestness of his tone 
 and manner forbid any feeling of levity ; and if, occasionally, 
 his humor excites a passing smile, tlie depth of his pathos 
 more frequently draws tears from the greater part of his 
 congregation." 
 
 Brother, all hail ! This last drop of ink hastens into words, 
 which may perchance meet your eye, amidst the dust and 
 exhausting strife incident to that great arena of your spiritual 
 gladiatorship. Well, let them assure you of fraternal sjTnpatliy 
 at ten thousand altars in far-off climes. When the prospective 
 issue of your glowing thoughts was here announced, orders for 
 tlie same were promptly returned from every section of our 
 
XXXvi INTRODUCTION. 
 
 republic ; and soon you will be read, as your continued use- 
 fulness is fervently desired, in homes of affluence and cabins 
 of industry, spread under the care of our common Father, 
 from the Eastern Atlantic to the great Pacific of the West. 
 May Grace still bind thee in humble allegiance to the cross, 
 and render thee yet more radiant, for the benefit of a dark and 
 perishing world. elm. 
 
 New-Yoek, June 2, 185G. 
 
SERMON I. 
 
 SOVEREIGNTY AND SALVATION. 
 
 '• Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is 
 none else." — Isaiah xlv. 22. 
 
 Six years ago to-day, as near as possible at this very 
 hour of the day, I was " in the gall of bitterness and 
 in the bonds of iniquity," but had yet, by divine grace, 
 been led to feel the bitterness of that bondage, and to 
 cry out by reason of the soreness of its slavery. Seek- 
 ing rest, and finding none, I stepped within the house 
 of God, and sat there, afraid to look upward, lest I 
 should be utterly cut off, and lest his fierce WTath 
 should consume me. The minister rose in his pulpit, 
 and, as I have done this morning, read this text, " Look 
 unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: 
 for I am God, and there is none else." I looked that 
 moment; the grace of faith was vouchsafed to me in 
 the self-same instant; and now I think I can say with 
 truth, 
 
 " Ere since by faith I saw the stream 
 His flowing wounds supply, 
 Redeeming love has been my theme, 
 And shall be till I die." 
 1* 
 
2 SERMONS. 
 
 I sliall never forget that day, while memory holds its 
 place ; nor can I help repeating this text whenever I 
 remember that hour when first I knew the Lord. How 
 strangely gracious I How wonderfully and marvel- 
 lously kind, that he who heard these words so little 
 time ago for his own soul's profit, should now ad- 
 dress you this morning as his hearers from the same 
 text, in the full and confident hope that some poor 
 sinner within these walls may hear the glad tidings of 
 salvation for himself also, and may to-day, on tliis 6th 
 of January, be " turned from darkness to light, and 
 from the power of Satan unto God ! " 
 
 If it were within the range of human capacity to 
 conceive a time when God dwelt alone, without his 
 creatures, we should then have one of the grandest and 
 most stupendous ideas of God. There was a season 
 when as yet the sun had never run his race, nor com- 
 menced flinging his golden rays across space, to glad- 
 den the earth. There was an era when no stars 
 sparkled in the firmament, for there was no sea of 
 azure in which they might float. There was a time 
 when all that we now behold of God's great universe 
 was yet unborn, slumbering within the mind of God, 
 as yet uncreate and non-existent ; yet there was God, 
 and he was " over all blessed for ever ; " though no 
 seraphs hymned his praises, though no strong-winged 
 cherubs flashed like lightning to do his high behests, 
 though he was without a retinue, yet he sat as a king on 
 his throne, the mighty God, for ever to be worshipped 
 — the Dread Supreme, in solemn silence dwcUing by 
 himself in vast immensity, making of the placid clouds 
 his canopy, and the light from his own countenance 
 forming the brightness of his glory. God was, and 
 
SOVEREIGNTY AND SALVATION. 3 
 
 God is. From the beginning God was God; ere 
 worlds had beginning, he was "from everlasting to 
 everlasting." Now, when it pleased him to create his 
 creatures, does it not strike you how infinitely those 
 creatures must have been below himself? If you are 
 potters, and you fashion upon the wheel a vessel, shall 
 that piece of clay arrogate to itself equality with you ? 
 Nay, at what a distance will it be from you, because 
 you have been in part its creator. So when the Al- 
 mighty formed his creatures, was it not consummate 
 impudence, that they should venture for a moment to 
 compare themselves with him? Yet that arch traitor, 
 that leader of rebels, Satan, sought to climb to the 
 high throne of God, soon to find his aim too high, and 
 hell itself not low enough wherein to -escape divine 
 vengeance. He knows that God is " God alone." 
 Since the world was created, man has imitated Satan ; 
 the creature of a day, the ephemera of an hour, has 
 sought to match itself \\dth the Eternal. Hence it has 
 ever been one of the objects of the great Jehovah, to 
 teach mankind that he is God, and beside him there is 
 none else. This is the lesson he has been teaching the 
 world since it went astray from him. He has been 
 busying himself in breaking down the high places, in 
 exalting the valleys, in casting down imaginations and 
 lofty looks, that all the world might 
 
 " Know that the Lord is God alone, 
 He can create, and he destroy. ' ' 
 
 This morning we shall attempt to show you, in the 
 first place, liow God has been teacJiing' this great lesson 
 to the ivorld — that he is God, and beside him there is 
 none else ; and then, secondly,-^// e special way in lohich 
 he designs to teach it in the matter of salvation — " Look 
 
4 SERMONS. 
 
 unto me, and be ye saved : for I am God, and there 
 is none else." 
 
 I. First, then, How has God been teaching this 
 
 LESSON TO MANKIND? 
 
 We reply, he has taught it, first of all, to false Gods, 
 and to the idolaters who have boived before them. Man, 
 in his wickedness and sin, has set up a block of wood 
 and stone to be liis maker, and has bowed before it. 
 He hath fashioned for himself out of a goodly tree an 
 image made unto the lilceness of mortal man, or of the 
 fishes of the sea, or of creeping things of the earth, and 
 he has prostrated his body, and his soul too, before that 
 creature of his own hands, calling it god, while it had 
 neither eyes to see, nor hands to handle, nor ears to 
 hear! But how hath God poured contempt on the 
 ancient gods of the heathen ? Where are they now ? 
 Are they so much as known ? Where are those false 
 deities before whom the multitudes of Nineveh pros- 
 trated themselves? Ask the moles and the bats, 
 whose companions they are ; or ask the mounds be- 
 neath which they are buried; or go where the idle 
 gazer walketh through the museum — see them there as 
 curiosities, and smile to think tliat men should ever 
 bow before such gods as these. And where are the 
 gods of Persia? Where are they? The fires are 
 quenched, and the fire-worshipper hath almost ceased 
 out of the earth. Where are the gods of Greece — 
 those gods adorned with poetry, and hymned in the 
 most sublime odes? Where are they? They are 
 gone. Who talks of them now, but as things that 
 vere of yore ? Jupiter — doth any one bow before 
 him ? and who is he that adores Saturn ? They are 
 passed away, and they are forgotten. And where are 
 
SOVEREIONTy AND SALVATION. 5 
 
 the gods of Rome? Doth Janus now command the 
 temple ? or do the vestal virgins now feed their perpet- 
 ual fires ? Are there any now that bow before these 
 gods ? No, they have lost their tlirones. And where 
 are the gods of the South Sea Islands — those bloody 
 demons before whom wretched creatures prostrated 
 their bodies ? They have well nigh become extinct. 
 Ask the inhabitants of China and Polynesia where 
 are the gods before which they bowed? Ask, and 
 echo says ask, and ask again. They are cast down 
 from their thrones ; they are hurled from their pedes- 
 tals ; their chariots are broken, their sceptres are burnt 
 in the fire, their glories are departed ; God hath gotten 
 unto himself the victory over false gods, and taught 
 their worshippers that he is God, and that beside him 
 there is none else. Are their gods still worshipped, or 
 idols before which the nations bow themselves? Wait 
 but a little while, and ye shall see them fall. Cruel 
 Juggernaut, whose car still crushes in its motion the 
 foolish ones who throw themselves before it, shall yet 
 be the object of derision ; and the most noted idols, 
 such as Budha, and Brahma, and Vishnu, shall yet 
 stoop themselves to the earth, and men shall tread 
 them down as mire in the streets ; for God will teach 
 all men that he is God, and that there is none else. 
 
 Mark ye, yet again, how God has taught this truth to 
 empires. Empires have risen up, and have been the 
 gods of the era ; their kings and princes have taken to 
 themselves high titles, and have been worshipped by 
 the multitude. But ask the empires whether there is 
 any beside God? Do you not think you hear the boast- 
 ing soliloquy of Babylon — " I sit as a queen, and am 
 no widow ; I shall see no sorrow ; I am god, and there 
 1» 
 
6 SERMONS. 
 
 is none beside nie?" And think ye not now, if ye 
 walk over ruined Babylon, that ye will meet aught 
 save the solemn spirit of the Bible, standing like a 
 prophet gray with age, and telling you that there is one 
 God, and that beside him there is none else ? Go ye 
 to Babylon, covered with its sand, the sand of its own 
 ruins ; stand ye on the mounds of Nineveh, and let the 
 voice come up — " There is one God, and empires sink 
 before him ; there is only one Potentate, and the 
 princes and kings of the earth, with their dynasties and 
 thrones, are shaken by the tramplmg of his foot." Go, 
 seat yourselves in the temples of Greece ; mark ye 
 there what proud words Alexander once did speak ; but 
 now, where is he, and where his empire too ? Sit on 
 the ruined arches of the bridge of Carthage, or wallv 
 ye through the desolated theatres of Rome, and ye will 
 hear a voice in the wild wind amid those ruins — "I 
 am God, and there is none else." " O city, thou didst 
 call thyself eternal ; I have made thee melt away lilve 
 dew. Thou saidst ' I sit on seven hills, and I shall last 
 forever ; ' I have made thee crumble, and thou art now 
 a miserable and contemptible place, coinpafed w^ith 
 what thou wast. Thou wast once stone, thou madest 
 thyself; I have made thee stone again, and brought 
 thee low." O I how has God taught monarchies and 
 empires that have set. themselves up like new king- 
 doms of heaven, that he is God, and that there is none 
 else! 
 
 Again : how has he taught this great truth lo mon- 
 archs I There are some who have been most proud 
 that have had to learn it in a way more hard than 
 others. Take, for instance, Nebuchadnezzar. His 
 crown is on his head, his purple robe is over his 
 
SOVEREIGNTY AND SALVATION. 7 
 
 shoulders ; he walks through proud Babylon, and says, 
 "Is not this great Babylon which I have builded?" 
 Do you see that creature in the field there ? It is a 
 man. " A man ? " say you ; its hair has grown like 
 eagle's feathers, and its nails like bird's claws ; it walk- 
 eth on all-fours, and eateth grass, like an ox ; it is 
 driven out from men. That is the monarch who said 
 — "Is not this great Babylon that I have builded?" 
 And now he is restored to Babylon's palace, that he 
 may " bless the Most High who is able to abase those 
 that walk in pride." Remember another monarch. 
 Look at Herod. He sits in the midst of his people, 
 and he speaks. Hear ye the impious shout ? " It is 
 the voice of dod," they cry, "and not the voice of 
 man." The proud monarch gives not God the glory ; 
 he affects the God, and seems to shake the spheres, 
 imagining himself divine. There is a worm that 
 creepeth into his body, and yet another, and another ; 
 and ere thai; sun has set, he is eaten up of worms. 
 Ah I monarch ! thou thoughtest of being a God, and 
 worms have eaten thee! Thou hast thought of being 
 more than man ; and what art thou ? Less than man, 
 for worms consume thee, and thou art the prey of cor- 
 ruption. Thus God humbleth the proud; thus he 
 abaseth the mighty. We might give you instances 
 from modern history ; but the death of a king is all- 
 sufficient to teach this one lesson, if men would but 
 learn it. When kings die, and in funeral pomp are 
 carried to the grave, we are taught the lesson — "I am 
 God, and beside me there is none else." When we 
 hear of revolutions, and the shaking of empires — 
 when we see old dynasties ti'emble, and gray-haired 
 monarchs driven from their thrones, then it is that Jehovah 
 
.8 SERMONS. 
 
 seems to put his foot upon land and sea, and with his 
 hand uplifted cries — "Hear! ye inhabitants of the 
 earth ! Ye are but as grasshoppers ; * I am God, and 
 beside me there is none else.' " 
 
 Again : our God has had much to do to teach this 
 lesson to the luise men of this world; for as rank, pomp, 
 and power, have set themselves up in the place of God, 
 so has wisdom ; and one of the greatest enemies of 
 Deity has always been the wisdom of man. The wis- 
 dom of man will not see God. Professing themselves 
 to be wise, wise men have become fools. But have ye 
 not noticed, in reading history, how God has abased 
 the pride of wisdom ? In ages long gone by, he sent 
 mighty minds into the world, who devised systems of 
 philosophy. " These systems," they said, " will last for- 
 ever." Their pupils thought them infallible, and 
 therefore wrote their sayings on enduring parchment, 
 saying, " This book will last forever ; succeeding gen- 
 erations of men will read it, and to the last man that 
 book shall be handed down, as the epitome of wis- 
 dom." " Ah I but," said God, " that book of yours 
 shall be seen to be folly, ere another hundred years have 
 rolled away." And so the mighty thoughts of Socra- 
 tes, and the wisdom of Solon, are utterly forgotten 
 now ; and could we hear them speak, the veriest child 
 in our school would laugh to think that he under- 
 standeth more of philosophy than they. But when 
 man has found the vanity of one system, his eyes have 
 sparkled at another ; if Aristotle will not suffice, here 
 is Bacon; now I shall know everything; and he sets to 
 work, and says that this new philosophy is to last for- 
 ever. He lays his stones with fair colors, and he 
 thinks that every truth he piles up is a precious imper- 
 
SOVEREIGNTY AND SA;:.VATI0N. 9 
 
 ishable truth. But, alas ! another century comes, and 
 it is found to be " wood, hay, and stubble." A new 
 sect of philosophers rise up, who refute their predeces- 
 sors. So too we have wise men in this day — wise secu- 
 ralists, and so on, who fancy they have obtained the 
 truth ; but within another fifty years — and mark that 
 ^vord — tliis hair shall not be silvered over with gray, 
 until the last of that race shall have perished, and that 
 man shall be thought a fool that was ever connected 
 \\ith such a race. Systems of infidelity pass away 
 like a dew-drop before the sun ; for God says, " I am 
 God, and beside me there is none else." This Bible is 
 the stone that shall break in powder philosophy; this is 
 the mighty battering-ram that shall dash all systems of 
 philosophy in pieces ; this is the stone that a woman 
 may yet hurl upon the head of every Abimelech, and 
 he shall utterly be destroyed. O Church of GodI fear 
 not ; thou shalt do wonders ; \\'ise men shall be con- 
 founded, and thou shalt know, and they too, that he is 
 God, and that beside him there is none else. 
 
 "Surely," says one, ^'the church of God does not 
 need to be taught this." Yes, we answer, she does ; 
 for of all beings, those whom God has made the ob- 
 jects of his grace are perhaps the most apt to forget 
 this cardinal truth, that he is God, and that beside him 
 there is none else. How did the church in Canaan for- 
 get it, when they bowed before other gods, and there- 
 fore he brought against tliem mighty kings and princes, 
 and afflicted them sore. How did Israel forget it; and 
 he carried them away captive into Babylon. And 
 what Israel did, in Canaan and in Babylon, that we do 
 now. We too, too often, forget that he is God, and 
 beside him there is none else. Doth not the Christian 
 
10 SERMONS. 
 
 know what I mean, when I tell him this great fact ? 
 For hath he not done it himself? In certain times 
 prosperity has come upon him ; soft gales have blown 
 his bark along, just where liis wild will wished to steer; 
 and he has said within himself: " Now I have peace, 
 now I have happiness, now the object I wished for is 
 within my grasp, now I will say. Sit down, my soul, 
 and take thy rest; eat, drink, and be merry; these 
 things will well content me ; make thou these thy god, 
 be thou blessed and happy." But have we not seen 
 our God dash the goblet to the earth, spill the sweet 
 wine, and instead thereof fill it wdth gall ? and as he 
 has given it to us, he has said — "Drink it, ch'ink it: 
 you have thought to find a god on earth, but drain the 
 cu}) and know its bitterness." When we have drunk 
 it, nauseous the draught was, and we have cried, " Ah! 
 God, I will drink no more from these things ; thou art 
 God, and beside thee there is none else." And ah! 
 how often, too, have we devised schemes for the future, 
 without asking God's permission! Men have said, 
 like those foolish ones whom James mentioned, " We 
 will do such-and-such things on the morrow ; we 
 will buy and sell and get gain," whereas they knew 
 not what was to be on the morrow, for long ere the 
 mon-ow came they were unable to buy and sell ; death 
 had claimed them, and a small span of earth held all 
 their frame. God teaches his people every day, by 
 sickness, by aflliction, by depression of spirits, by the 
 forsakings of God, by the loss of the Spirit for a sea- 
 son, by the lackings of the joys of his countenance, 
 that he is God, and that beside him there is none else. 
 And we must not forget that there are some special 
 servants of God raised up to do great works, who in a 
 
SOVEREIGNTY AND SALVATION. 11 
 
 peculiar manner have to learn this lesson. Let a man, 
 for instance, be called to the great work of preaching 
 the gospel. He is successful ; God helps him ; thou- 
 sands wait at his feet, and multitudes hang upon his 
 lips ; as truly as that man is a man, he will have a 
 tendency to be exalted above measure, and too much 
 will he begin to look to liimself, and too little to his 
 God. Let men speak who know, and what they know 
 let them speak ; and they will say, " It is true, it is 
 most true." If God gives us a special mission, we 
 generally begin to take some honor and glory to our- 
 selves. But in the review of the eminent saints of 
 God, have you never observed how God has made 
 them feel that he was God, and beside him there was 
 none else ? Poor Paul might have thought himself a 
 god, and been puffed up above measure, by reason of 
 the greatness of his revelation, had there not been a 
 thorn in the flesh. But Paul could feel that he was 
 not a god, for he had a thorn in the flesh, and gods 
 could not have thorns in the flesh. Sometimes God 
 teaches the minister, by denying him help on special 
 occasions. We come up into our pulpits, and say, 
 " Oh I I wish I could have a good day to-day I " We 
 begin to labor; we have been just as earnest in prayer, 
 and just as indefatigable ; but it is hke a blind horse 
 turning round a mill, or like Samson with Delilah : 
 we shake our vain limbs wdth vast surprise, " make 
 feeble fight," and vn.n no victories. We are made to 
 see that the Lord is God, and that beside him there is 
 none else. Very frequently God teaches this to the 
 minister, by leading him to see his own sinful nature. 
 He will have such an insight into his own wicked and 
 abominable heart, that he wiU feel as he comes up the 
 
12 SERMONS. 
 
 pulpit stairs that he does not deserve so much as to 
 sit in his pew, much less to preach to his fellows. 
 Although we feel always joy in the declaration of 
 God's Word, yet we have known what it is to totter 
 on the ])ulpit steps, under a sense that the chief of sin- 
 ners should scarcely be allowed to preach to others. 
 Ah I beloved, I do not think he will be very successful 
 as a minister who is not taken into the depths and 
 blackness of his own soul, and made to exclaim, 
 " Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is 
 this grace given, that I should preach among the Gen- 
 tiles the unsearchable riches of Christ." There is 
 another antidote w^hich God applies in the case of 
 ministers. If he does not deal with them personally, 
 he raises up a host of enemies, that it may be seen that 
 he is God, and God alone. An esteemed friend sent 
 me, yesterday, a valuable old MS. of one of George 
 Whitfield's hymns which was sung on Kennington 
 Common. It is a splendid hymn, thoroughly Whit- 
 fieldian all through. It showed that his reliance was 
 wholly on the Lord, and that God was within him. 
 What I will a man subject Jiimself to the calumnies of 
 the multitude, wiU he toil and work day after day un- 
 necessarily, will he stand up Sabbath after Sabbath 
 and preach the gospel and have his name maligned 
 and slandered, if he has not the grace of God in him ? 
 For myself, I can say, that were it not that the love of 
 Christ constrained me, this hour might be the last that 
 1 should preach, so far as the ease of the thing is con- 
 cerned. " Necessity is laid upon us ; yea, woe is unto 
 us if we preach not the gospel." But that opposition, 
 through which God carries his servants, leads them to 
 see at once that he is God, and that there is none else. 
 
SOVEREIGNTY AND SALVATION. 
 
 13 
 
 If every one applauded, if all were gratified, we should 
 think ourselves God; but, when they hiss and hoot, we 
 turn to our God, and cry, 
 
 *< If on my face, for thy dear name, 
 Shame and reproach should be, 
 I '11 hail reproach and welcome shame 
 If thou 'It remember me." 
 
 II. This brings lis to the second portion of our dis- 
 course. Salvation is God's greatest work ; and, there- 
 fore, in his greatest w^ork, he speciaUy teaches us this 
 lesson, That he is God, and that beside him there is 
 none else. Our text tells us hoiu he teaches it. He 
 says, " Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends 
 of the earth." He shows us that he is God, and that 
 beside him there is none else, in three ways. First, by 
 the person to whom he dkects us : " Look unto me, 
 and be ye saved." Secondly, by the means he teUs us 
 • to use to obtain mercy : " Look," simply, " Look." And 
 thirdly, by the persons whom he caUs to " look :" " Look 
 unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth:' 
 
 1. First, to whom does God tell us to look for salva- 
 tion ? O, does it not lower the pride of man, when we 
 hear the Lord say, " Look unto me, and be ye saved, 
 all the ends of the earth ? " It is not, " Look to your 
 priest, and be ye saved:" if you did, there would be 
 another god, and beside liim there would be some 
 one else. It is not " Look to yomself:"if so, then 
 there would be a being who might arrogate some of 
 the praise of salvation. But it is " Look unto me." 
 How frequently you who are coming to Christ look to 
 yoLU-selves. " O I " you say, " I do not repent enough.'^^ 
 That is looking to yourself. » I do not believe enough." 
 2 
 
14 SERMONS. 
 
 That is looking to yourself. " 1 am too unworthy." 
 That is looking to yourself. " I cannot discover," says 
 another, " that I have any righteousness." It is quite 
 • right to say that you have not any righteousness ; but 
 it is quite wTong to look for any. It is, " Look unto 
 ???e." God will have you turn your eye off yourself 
 and look unto him. The hardest thing in the world 
 is to turn a man's eye off himself; as long as he lives, 
 he always has a predilection to turn his eyes inside, 
 and look at himself; whereas God says, " Look unto 
 me." From the cross of Calvary, where the bleeding 
 hands of Jesus drop mercy ; from the garden of Geth- 
 semane, w^here the bleeding pores of the Saviour sweat 
 pardons, the cry comes, " Look unto me, and be ye 
 saved, all the ends of the earth." From Calvary's 
 summit, where Jesus cries, "It is finished," I hear a 
 shout, " Look, and be saved." But there comes a vile 
 cry from our soul, " Nay, look to yourself! look to 
 yourself!" Ah, my hearer, look to yourself, and you 
 will be damned. That certainly will come of it. As 
 long as you look to yourself there is no hope for you. 
 It is not a consideration of w^hat you are, but a consid- 
 eration of what God is, and what Christ is, that can 
 save you. It is looking from yourself to Jesus. O ! 
 there be men that quite misunderstand the gospel ; 
 they think that righteousness qualifies them to come 
 to Christ ; whereas sin is the only qualification for a 
 man to come to Jesus. Good old Crisp says, " Right- 
 eousness keeps me from Christ: the whole have no 
 need of a physician, but they that are sick. Sin makes 
 me come to Jesus, when sin is felt ; and, in coming to 
 Christ, the more sin I have the more cause I have to 
 hope for mercy." David said, and it was a strange 
 
SOVEREIGNTY AND SALVATION. 15 
 
 thing, too, " Have mercy upon me, for mine iniquity is 
 great." But, David, why did not you say that it was 
 little ? Because, David knew that the bigger his sins 
 were the better reason for askinsj mercv. The more 
 vile a man is, the more eagerly I invite him to believe 
 in Jesus. A sense of sin is all we have to look for as 
 ministers. We preach to sinners ; and let us know 
 that a man will take the title of sinner to himself, and 
 we then say to him, " Look unto Christ, and ye shall 
 be saved." " Look," this is aU he demands of thee, 
 and even this he gives thee. If thou lookest to thy- 
 self thou art damned ; thou art a vile miscreant, filled 
 with loathsomeness, corrupt and corrupting others. 
 But look thou here — seest thou that man hanging on 
 the cross ? Dost thou behold his agonized head drop- 
 ping meeldy down upon his breast? Dost thou see 
 that thorny crown, causing drops of blood to trickle 
 down his cheeks? Dost thou see his hands pierced 
 and rent, and his blest feet, supporting the weight of 
 his own frame, rent well nigh in twain with the cruel 
 naUs? Sinner! dost thou hear him shriek, " Eloi, Eloi, 
 lama sabbacthani " ? Dost thou hear him cry, " It is 
 finished ? " Dost thou mark his head hang down in 
 death ? Seest thou that side pierced with the spear, 
 and the body taken from the cross ? O, come thou 
 hither ! Those hands were nailed for thee ; those feet 
 gushed gore for thee ; that side was opened wide for 
 thee ; and if thou wantest to know how thou canst 
 find mercy, there it is. " Look I " " Look unto me I " 
 Look no longer to Moses. Look no longer to Sinai. 
 Come thou here and look to Calvary, to Calvary's 
 victim, and to Joseph's grave. And look thou yonder^ 
 to the man who near the throne sits with his Father^ 
 
16 SERMONS. 
 
 crowned with light and immortality. " Look, sinner,'^ 
 he says, this morning, to you, " Look unto me, and be 
 ye saved." It is in this way God teaches that there is 
 none beside him ; because he makes us look entirely 
 to him, and utterly away from ourselves. 
 
 2. But the second thought is, the means of salvation. 
 It is, " Look unto me, and be ye saved." You have 
 often observed, I am sure, that many people are fond 
 of an inti'icate worship, an involved religion, one they 
 can hardly understand. They cannot endure worship 
 so simple as ours. Then they must have a man dressed 
 in white, and a man dressed in black ; then they must 
 have what they call an altar and a chancel. After a 
 little while, that will not suffice, and they must have 
 flower-pots and candles. The clergyman then becomes 
 a priest, and he must have a variegated dress, with a 
 cross on it. So it goes on : what is simply a plate 
 becomes a paten, and what was once a cup becomes a 
 chalice ; and the more complicated the ceremonies are, 
 the better they like them. They hke their minister to 
 stand like a superior being. The world likes a religion 
 they cannot comprehend. But have you never noticed 
 how gloriously simple the Bible is ? It will not have 
 any of your nonsense ; it speaks plain, and nothing 
 but plain things. " Look ! " There is not an uncon- 
 verted man who likes this, " Look unto Christ, and be 
 ye saved." No, he comes to Clmst like Naaman to 
 Elijah ; and, when it is said, " Go, wash in Jordan," he 
 replies, " I veriJy thought he would come and put liis 
 hand on the place, and call on the name of his God. 
 But the idea of telling me to wash in Jordan, what a 
 ridiculous thing I Anybody could do that!" If the 
 prophet had bidden him to do some gi'eat thing, would 
 
SOVEREIGNTY AND SALVATION. 17 
 
 he not have done it ? Ah ! certainly he would. And 
 if, this morning, I could preach that any one who 
 walked from here to Bath without his shoes and stock- 
 ing<, or did some impossible thing, should be saved, 
 you would start off to-morrow morning before break- 
 fast. K it would take me seven years to describe the 
 way of salvation, I am sure you would all long to hear 
 it. If only one learned doctor could tell the way to 
 heaven, how would he be run after I And if it were 
 in hard words, wdth a few scraps of Latin and Greek, 
 it would be all the better. But it is a simple gospel 
 that we have to preach. It is only " Look I " " Ah I " 
 you say, " is that the gospel ? I shall not pay any at- 
 tention to that." But why has God ordered you to do 
 such a simple thing ? Just to take down your pride, 
 and to show you that he is God, and that beside him 
 there is none else. O, mark how simple the way of 
 salvation is. It is, " Look I look ! look ! " Four letters, 
 and two of them aUlve ! " Look unto me, and be ye 
 saved, all the ends of the earth." Some divines want 
 a week to teU what you are to do to be saved ; but 
 God the Holy Ghost only wants four letters to do it. 
 " Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the 
 earth." How simple is that way of salvation ! and O, 
 how instantaneous ! It takes us some time to move 
 our hand, but a look does not require a moment. So 
 a sinner believes in a moment ; and the moment that 
 sinner believes and trusts in liis crucified God for par- 
 don, at once he receives salvation in full through liis 
 blood. There may be one that came in here this morn- 
 ing unjustified in his conscience, that will go out jus- 
 tified rather than others. There may be some here, 
 filthy sinners one moment, pardoned the next. It is 
 
18 SERMONS. 
 
 done in an instant. " Look ! look I look I " And how 
 universal is it ! Because, wherever I am, however far 
 olf, it just says, " Look ! " It does not say I am to 
 see ; it only says, " Look I " If we look on a thing in 
 the dark, we cannot see it ; but we have done what we 
 were told. So, if a sinner only looks to Jesus, he will 
 save him ; for Jesus in the dark is as good as Jesus in 
 the light ; and Jesus, when you cannot see him, is as 
 good as Jesus when you can. It is only, " Look I " 
 " Ah ! " says one, " I have been trying to see Jesus this 
 year, but I have not seen him." It does not say, see him, 
 but " Look unto him." And it says that they who 
 looked were lightened. If there is an obstacle before 
 you, and you only look in the right direction, it is suf- 
 ficient. " Look unto me." It is not seeing Christ so 
 much as looking after him. The will after Christ, the 
 wish after Christ, the desire after Christ, the trusting in 
 Christ, the hanging on Christ, that is what is wanted. 
 " Look ! look ! look I " Ah ! if the man bitten by the 
 serpent had turned his sightless eyeballs towards the 
 brazen serpent, though he had not seen it, he would 
 still have had his life restored. It is looking, not 
 seeing, that saves the sinner. 
 
 We say again, how this humbles a man ! There is 
 a gentleman who says, " Well, if it had been a thou- 
 sand pounds that would have saved me, I would have 
 thouiglit nothing of it." But your gold and silver is 
 cankered ; it is good for nothing. " Then, am I to be 
 saved just the same as my servant Betty ? " Yes, just 
 the same : there is no other way of salvation for you. 
 That is to show man that Jehovah is God, and that 
 beside him there is none else. The wise man says, 
 " If it had been to work the most wonderful problem, or 
 
SOVEREIGNTY AND SALVATION. 19 
 
 to solve the greatest mystery, I would have done it. 
 May I not have some mysterious gospel ? May I not 
 believe in some mysterious religion ? " No ; it is 
 " Look ! " " What ! am I to be saved just like that 
 Ragged- School boy, who can't read his letters ? " Yes, 
 you must, or you wiU. not be saved at all. Another 
 says, " I have been very moral and upright ; I have ob- 
 ser\^ed aU the laws of the land ; and, if there is any- 
 thing else to do, I will do it. I will eat only fish on 
 Fridays, and keep aU the fasts of the church, if that 
 will save me." No, sir, that wdll not save you : your 
 good works are good for nothing. " What ! must I be 
 saved in the same way as a harlot or a drunkard ? " 
 Yes, sir; there is only one way of salvation for all. 
 " He hath concluded all in unbelief, that he might have 
 mercy upon all." He hath passed a sentence of con- 
 demnation on all, that the free ^ace of God might 
 come upon many to salvation. " Look I look ! look I " 
 This is the simple method of salvation. " Look unto 
 me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth." 
 
 But, lastly, mark how God has cut down the pride 
 of man, and has exalted himself b?/ the persons ivhom 
 he has called to look. " Look unto me, and be ye 
 saved, all the ends of the earth." When the Jew heard 
 Isaiah say that, " Ah I " he exclaimed, " you ought to 
 have said. Look unto me, O Jerusalem, and be saved. 
 That would have been right. But those Gentile dogs, 
 are they to look and be saved ? " " Yes," says God ; 
 " I \\411 show you Jews, that, though I have given you 
 many privileges, I will exalt others above you ; I can 
 do as I ^\dll wdth my own." 
 
 Now, who are the ends of the earth ? Why, there 
 are poor heathen nations now that are very few de- 
 
20 
 
 SERMOiNS. 
 
 grces removed from brutes, uncivilized and untaught ; 
 but if t might go and tread the desert, and find the 
 Bushman in his kraal, or go to the South Seas and find 
 a cannibal, I would say to the cannibal or the Bushman, 
 " Look unto Jesus, and be ye saved, all the ends of the 
 earth." They are some of " the ends of the earth," 
 and the gospel is sent as much to them as to the polite 
 Grecians, the refined Romans, or the educated Britons. 
 But 1 think " the ends of the earth " imply those who 
 have gone the farthest away from Christ. I say, 
 drunkard, that means you. You have been staggering 
 back, till you have got right to the ends of the earth ; 
 you have almost had delirium tremens ; you cannot be 
 much worse. There is not a man breathing worse 
 than you. Is there ? Ah ! but God, in order to hum- 
 ble your pride, says to you, " Look unto me, and be ye 
 saved." There is another who has lived a life of 
 infamy and sin, until she has ruined herself, and even 
 Satan seems to sweep her out at the back door ; but 
 God says, " Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the 
 ends of the earth." Methinks I see one tremblins: 
 here, and saying, " Ah, 1 have not been one of these, 
 sir, but I have been something worse ; for I have at- 
 tended the house of God, and I have stifled convictions, 
 and put off all thoughts of Jesus, and now I think he 
 will never have mercy on me." You are one of them. 
 " Ends of the earth ! " So long as I find any who feel 
 like that, I can tell them that they are " the ends of the 
 earth." " But," says another, " I am so peculiar ; if I 
 did not feel as I do, it would be all very well ; but I 
 feel that my case is a peculiar one." That is all right ; 
 they are a peculiar people. You will do. But another 
 one says, " There is nobody in the world like me ; T do 
 
SOVEREIGNTY AND SALVATION. 21 
 
 not ihink you will find a being under the sun that has 
 so many calls, and put them all away, and so many 
 sins on liis head. Besides, I have guilt that I should 
 not like to confess to any living creature." One of 
 " the ends of the earth " again ; therefore, all I have to 
 do is to cry out, in the Master's name, " Look 
 unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth : 
 for I am God, and there is none else." But thou sayest, 
 sin will not let thee look. I tell thee, sin will be re- 
 moved the moment thou dost look. " But I dare not ; 
 he ivill condemn me; I fear to look^ lie will con- 
 demn thee more if thou dost not look. Fear, then, 
 and look ; but do not let thy fearing keep thee from 
 looking. " But he ivill cast me out.^^ Try him. " But 
 I cannot see him.^^ I tell you, it is not seeing, but look- 
 ing. " But my eyes are so fixed on the earthy so earthly^ 
 so worldly r Ah I but, poor soul, he giveth power to 
 look and live. He saith, " Look unto me, and be ye 
 saved, all the ends of the earth." 
 
 Take this, dear friends, for a new year's text, both 
 ye who love the Lord, and ye who are only looking for 
 the first time. Christian ! in all thy troubles through 
 this year, look unto God and be saved. In all thy 
 trials and afflictions, look unto Christ, and find deliv- 
 erance. In all thine agony, poor soul, in all thy re- 
 pentance for thy guilt, look unto Christ, and find par- 
 don. This year remember to put thine eyes heaven- 
 ward, and thine heart heavenward, too. Remember, 
 this day, that thou bind round thyself a golden chain, 
 and put one link of it in the staple in heaven. Look 
 unto Clirist; fear not. There is no stumbUng wiien a 
 man walks with his eyes up to Jesus. He that looked 
 at the stars fell into the ditch; but he that looks at 
 
22 
 
 SERMONS. 
 
 Christ walks safely. Keep your eyes up all the year 
 long. " Look unto him^ and be ye saved ; " and remem- 
 ber that "/ie is God, and beside him there is none else." 
 And thou, poor trembler, what sayest thou? Wilt 
 thou begin the year by looldng unto him ? You know 
 how sinful you are this morning ; you know how filthy 
 you are ; and yet it is possible that, before you open 
 your pew door, and get into the aisle, you will be as 
 justified as the apostles before the throne of God. It 
 is possible that, ere your foot treads the threshold of 
 your door, you will have lost the burden that has been on 
 your back, and you will go on your way, singing, " I am 
 forgiven, I am forgiven; I am a miracle of.grace^^ this 
 day is my spiritual bnthday." O, that it might be 
 such to many of you, that at last I might say, " Here 
 am T, and the children thou hast given me." Hear 
 this, convinced sinner! " TMs poor man cried, and 
 the Lord delivered him out of his distresses." O, taste 
 and see that the Lord is good ! Now believe on him ; 
 now cast thy guilty soul upon his righteousness ; now^ 
 plunge thy black soul into the bath of his blood ; now 
 put thy naked soul at the door of the wardrobe of his 
 righteousness ; now seat thy famished soul at the feast 
 of plenty. Now " Look ! " How simple does it seem I 
 And yet it is the hardest thing in the world to bring 
 men to. They never will do it, till constraining grace 
 makes them. Yet there it is, "Look!" Go thou 
 away w^th that thought. " Look unto me, and be ye 
 ^^aved, all the ends of the ec -th: for I am God, and 
 there is none else." 
 
SERMON II 
 
 THE BIBLE. 
 
 " 1 have written to him the great things of my law, but they were couutea as a strange 
 thmg." — IIOSEA viii. 12. 
 
 This is God's complaint against Ephraim. It is no 
 mean proof of his goodness, that he stoops to rebuke 
 his erring creatures ; it is a great argument of his gra- 
 cious disposition, that he bows his head to notice terres- 
 trial affairs. He might, if he pleased, wrap himself 
 wdth night as with a garment ; he might put the stars 
 around his wrist for bracelets, and bind the suns around 
 Ms brow for a coronet ; he might dwell alone, far, far 
 above this world, up in the seventh heaven, and look 
 down with calm and silent indifference upon all the do- 
 ings of Ms creatures ; he might do as the heathens sup- 
 posed their Jove did, sit in perpetual silence, sometimes 
 noddhig Ms awful head to make the fates move as he 
 pleased, but never taking thought of the little things 
 of earth, disposing of them as beneath his notice, en- 
 grossed within Ms own being, swallowed up withm Mm- 
 self, living alone and retired; and I, as one of Ms 
 creatures, might stand by night upon a mountain-top, 
 
 (23) 
 
24 SERxMONS. 
 
 and look upon the silent stars and say, " Ye are the 
 eyes of God, but ye look not down on me ; your light 
 is the gift of his omnipotence, but your rays are not 
 smiles of love to me. God, the mighty Creator, has 
 forgotten me ; I am a despicable drop in the ocean of 
 creation, a sear-leaf in the forest of beings, an atom in 
 the mountain of existence. He knows me not; I am 
 alone, alone, alone." But it is not so, beloved. Our 
 God is of another order. He notices every one of us ; 
 there is not a sparrow or a worm but is found in his 
 decrees. There is not a person upon whom his eye is 
 not fixed. Our most secret acts are known to him. 
 "Whatsoever we do, or bear, or suffer, the eye of God 
 still rests upon us, and we are beneath his smile — for 
 we are his people ; or beneath his frown — for we have 
 erred from him. 
 
 Oh I how ten-thousand-fold merciful is God, that, 
 looking down upon the race of man, he does not smite 
 it out of existence. We see from our text that God 
 looks upon man ; for he says of Ephraim, " I have 
 written to him the great tilings of my law, but they 
 were counted as a strange thing." But see how, when 
 he observes the sin of man, he does not dash him away 
 and spurn him with his foot ; he does not shake him by 
 the neck over the gulf of hell, until his brain doth reel 
 and then drop him forever ; but rather, he comes down 
 from heaven to plead with his creatures ; he argues with 
 them ; he puts himself, as it were, upon a level with the 
 sinner — states his gi'ievances and pleads his claim. O 
 Ephraim, I have written unto thee the gi*eat things of 
 my law, but they have been unto thee as a strange 
 thing I I come here to-night in God's stead, my friends, 
 to plead w^ith you as God's ambassador, to charge many 
 
THE BIBLE. 25 
 
 of you with a siii ; to lay it to your hearts by the power 
 of the Spirit, so that you may be convinced of sin, of 
 righteousness, and of a judgment to come. The crime 
 I charge you with is the sin of the text. God has writ- 
 ten to you the great things of his law, but they have 
 been unto you as a strange thing. It is concerning this 
 blessed book, the Bible, that I mean to speak to-night. 
 Here lies my text — this Word of God. Here is the 
 theme of my discourse, a theme which demands more 
 eloquence than I possess ; a subject upon which a thou- 
 sand orators might speak at once ; a mighty, vast, and 
 comprehensive theme, which might engross all elo- 
 quence throughout eternity, and still it would remain 
 unexhausted. 
 
 Concerning the Bible, I have three things to say to- 
 night, and they are all in my text. First, its author, 
 "/ have written;" secondly, its subjects — the great 
 tilings of God's law; and thirdly, its common treat- 
 ment — it has been accounted by most men a strange 
 thing. 
 
 I. Fii'st, then, concerning this book: Who is the au- 
 thor? The text says that it is God. "7 have \\Titten to 
 him the great things of my law." Here lies my Bible — 
 who WTote it ? I open it, and find it consists of a series 
 of ti-acts. The first five tracts were written by a man 
 called Moses ; I turn on, and I find others. Sometimes 
 I see David is the penman, at other times Solomon. 
 Here I read IVIicah, then Amos, then Hosea. As I turn 
 further on, to the more luminous pages of the New Tes- 
 tament, I see Matthew, Mark, LulvC, and John, Paul, 
 Peter, James, and others ; but when I shut up the book, 
 I ask myself, who is the author of it ? Do these men 
 jointly claim the authorship ? Are they the compos- 
 
26 SERMONS. 
 
 itors of this massive volume ? Do Ihey between them- 
 selves divide the honor ? Om* holy religion answers, 
 No ! This volmne is the WTiting of the living God : 
 each letter was penned with an Almighty finger ; each 
 word in it dropped from the everlasting lips ; each sen- 
 tence was dictated by the Holy Spirit. Albeit, that 
 Moses was employed to write his histories with his fiery 
 pen, God guided that pen. It may be that David 
 touched his harp, and let sweet Psalms of melody drop 
 from his fingers ; but God moved his hands over the liv- 
 ing strings of his golden harp. It may be that Solomon 
 sang canticles of love, or gave forth words of consum- 
 mate wdsdom, but God directed his lips, and made the 
 preacher eloquent. If I follow the thundering Nahum, 
 when his horses plough the waters, or Habaklvuk, when 
 he sees the tents of Cushan in aflliction ; if I read 
 Malachi, when the earth is burning like an oven ; if I 
 tm'n to the smooth page of John, who tells of love, or 
 the rugged, fiery chapters of Peter, who speaks of fire 
 devouring God's enemies ; if I turn to Jude, who 
 launches forth anathemas upon the foes of God, every- 
 where I find God speaking ; it is God's voice, not man's ; 
 the words are God's words, the words of the Eternal, 
 the Invisible, the Almighty, the Jehovah of this earth. 
 This Bible is God's Bible, and when I see it, I seem to 
 hear a voice springing up from it, saying, " I am the 
 book of God; man, read me. I am God's ^vriting; 
 open my leaf, for I was penned by God ; read it, for he 
 is my author, and you will see him visible and manifest 
 everjrvvhere." " I have \witten to him the g^:eat things 
 of my law." 
 
 How do you know that God wrote the book ? That 
 is just what I shall not try to prove to you. I could if 
 
THE BIBLE. 27 
 
 I pleased, to a demonstration, for there are arguments 
 enough, there are reasons enough, did I care to occupy 
 your time to-night in bringing them before you ; but I 
 shall do no- such thing. I might tell you, if I pleased, 
 that the grandeur of the style is above that of any mor- 
 tal WTiting, and that all the poets who have ever existed 
 could not, with all their works united, give us such sub- 
 lime poetry and such mighty language as is to be found 
 in the Scriptures. I iriight insist upon it, that the sub- 
 jects of wliich it treats are beyond the human intellect; 
 that man could never have invented the grand doctrines 
 of a Trinity in the Godhead ; man could not have told 
 us anything of the creation of the universe ; he could 
 never have been the author of the majestic idea of 
 Providence — that all things are ordered according to the 
 will of one great Supreme Being, and work together 
 for good. I might enlarge upon its honesty, since it 
 tells the faults of its WTiters ; its unity, since it never 
 belies itself; its master simplicity, that he who runs 
 may read it ; and I might mention a hundi'ed more 
 things, which would aU prove, to a demonstration, that 
 the book is of God. But I come not here to prove it. 
 I am a Christian minister, and you are Christians, or 
 profess to be so ; and there is never any necessity for 
 Christian ministers to make a point of bringing forward 
 Infidel arguments in order to answer them. It is the 
 greatest folly in the world. Infidels, poor creatures, do 
 not know their own arguments till we tell them, and 
 then they glean their blunted shafts to shoot them at 
 the shield of truth again. It is folly to bring for^vard 
 these firebrands of hell, even if we are well prepared to 
 quench them. Let men of the world learn error of 
 themselves ; do not let us be propagators of their false- 
 
28 SERMONS. 
 
 hoods. True, there are some preachers who are short of 
 stock, and want them to fill up; but God's own chosen 
 men need not do that ; they are taught of God, and 
 God supplies them with matter, with language, wdth 
 power. There may be some one here to-night who has 
 come without faith, a man of reason, a free-thinker. 
 With him I have no argument at all. I profess not to 
 stand here as a controversialist, but as a preacher of 
 things that I know and feel. But I too have been like 
 him. There was an evil hour when once I shipped the 
 anchor of my faith ; I cut the cable of my belief ; I no 
 longer moored myself hard by the coasts of Revelation; 
 I allowed my vessel to drift before the wind ; I said to 
 reason, "Be thou my captain;" I said to my own brain, 
 " Be thou my rudder ; " and I started on my mad voyage. 
 Thank God, it is all over now ; but I will tell you its 
 brief history. It was one hurried sailing over the tem- 
 pestuous ocean of free thought. I went on, and as I 
 went, the skies began to darken ; but to make up for 
 that deficiency, the waters were brilliant with corrusca- 
 tions of brilliancy. I saw sparks flying upward that 
 pleased me, and I thought, " If this be free thought, it 
 is a happy thing." INIy thoughts seemed gems, and I 
 scattered stars with both my hands ; but anon, instead 
 of these corruscations of glory, I saw giim fiends, fierce 
 and horrible, start up from the waters, and as I dashed 
 on, they gnashed their teeth, and grinned upon me; 
 they seized the prow of my ship and di'agged me on, 
 while I, in part, gloried at the rapidity of my motion, 
 but yet shuddered at the terrific rate with which I 
 passed the old land-marks of my faith. As I hurried 
 forward, with an awful speed, I began to doubt my very 
 existence ; I doubted if there were a world, I doubted 
 
THE BIBLE. 29 
 
 if there were such a thing as myself. I went to the 
 very verge of the dreary realms of mibelief. I went to 
 the very bottom of the sea of Infidelity. I doubted 
 everytliing. But here the devil foiled himself: for the 
 very extravagance of the doubt, proved its absurdity. 
 Just when I saw the bottom of that sea, there came a 
 voice which said, " And can this doubt be true ? " At 
 this very thought I awoke. I started from that death- 
 dream, which, God knows, might have damned my soul, 
 and ruined this, my body, if I had not awoke. When 
 I arose, faith took the helm ; from that moment I doubt- 
 ed not. Faith steered me back ; faith cried, " Away, 
 away I " I cast my anchor on Calvary ; I lifted my eye 
 to God ; and here I am, " alive, and out of hell." There- 
 fore, I speak what I do know. I have sailed that per- 
 ilous voyage ; I have come safe to land. Ask me again 
 to be an Infidel ! No ; I have tried it ; it was sweet at 
 first, but bitter afterwards. Now, lashed to God's gos- 
 pel more firmly than eve^ standing as on a rock of ada- 
 mant, I defy the arguments of hell to move me ; for " I 
 know in whom I have believed, and am persuaded that 
 he is able to keep that which I have committed mito 
 him." But I shall neither plead nor argue this night. 
 You profess to be Christian men, or else you would 
 not be here. Your professions may be lies ; w^hat you 
 say you are, may be the very contrary to what you 
 really are ; but stUl I suppose you all admit that this is 
 the Word of God. A thought or tsvo then upon it. 
 " I have written to him the great things of my law." 
 
 First, my friends, stand over this volume, and admire 
 its autliority. This is no common book. It is not the 
 sayings of the sages of Greece ; here are not the utter- 
 ances of philosophers of past ages. If these words 
 
30 SERMONS. 
 
 were written by man, we might reject them ; but O 
 let me think the solemn thought, that this book is 
 God's handwriting — that these words are God's! Let 
 me look at its date ; it is dated from the hills of 
 heaven. Let me look at its letters ; they flash glory on 
 my eye. Let me read the chapters ; they are big with 
 meaning and mysteries unknown. Let me turn over 
 the prophecies ; they are pregnant with unthought-of 
 wonders. Oh, book of books I And wast thou writ- 
 ten by my God? Then will I bow before thee. Thou 
 book of vast authority I thou art a proclamation from 
 the Emperor of Heaven ; far be it from me to exercise 
 rny reason in contradicting thee. Reason, thy place is 
 to stand and find out what this volume means, not to 
 tell what this book ought to say. Come thou, my rea- 
 son, my intellect, sit thou down and listen, for these 
 words are the words of God. I do not know how to 
 enlarge on this thought. Oh! if you could ever re- 
 member that this Bible was actually and really wi'itten 
 by God. Oh! if ye had been let into the secret cham- 
 bers of heaven, if ye had beheld God grasping his pen 
 and writing down these letters — then surely ye would 
 respect them ; but they are just as much God's harid- 
 WTiting as if you had seen God wTite them. This 
 Bible is a book of authority ; it is an authorized book, 
 for God has written it. Oh ! tremble, tremble, lest any 
 of you despise it ; mark its authority, for it is the Word 
 of God. 
 
 Then, since God wrote it, mark its truthfulness. If 
 I had written it, there would be worms of critics who 
 would at once swarm on it, and would cover it with 
 their evil spawn ; had I written it, there would be men 
 who would ))ull it to pieces at once, and perha})s quite 
 
THE BIBLE. 31 
 
 right too. But this is the Word of God; come, search, 
 ye critics, and find a flaw; examine it, from its Genesis 
 to its Revelation, and find an error. This is a vein of 
 pure gold, unalloyed by quartz, or any earthly sub- 
 stance. This is a star without a speck ; a sun without 
 a blot ; a light without darlaiess ; a moon without its 
 paleness; a glory without a dimness. O Bible! it 
 cannot be said of any other book, that it is perfect and 
 pure ; but of thee we can declare all wisdom is gath- 
 ered up in thee, without a particle of folly. This is 
 the judge that ends the strife, where wit and reason 
 fail. This is the book untainted by any error ; but is 
 pure, unalloyed, perfect truth. Why? Because God 
 "v^Tote it. Ah I charge God with error if ye please ; tell 
 him that his book is not what it ought to be. I have 
 heard men, with prudish and mock-modesty, who 
 would like to alter the Bible ; and (I almost blush to 
 say it) I have heard ministers alter God's Bible, be- 
 cause they were afraid of it. Have you never heard a 
 man say, " He that believeth and is baptized, shall be 
 saved; but he that believeth not" — what does the 
 Bible say ? — " Shall be dajimedy But that does not 
 happen to be polite enough, so they say, " Shall be con- 
 demned.^'' Gentlemen, pull the velvet out of your 
 mouths ; speak God's word ; we want none of your 
 alterations. I have heard men in prayer, instead of 
 saying, " Make your calling and election sure," say 
 " Make your calling and salvation sure." Pity they 
 were not born when God lived, far — far back, that 
 they might have taught God how to write. Oh, im- 
 pudence beyond all bounds ! Oh, full-blown self-con- 
 ceit! To attempt to dictate to the All-wise — to teach 
 the Omniscient, and instruct the Eternal. Strange 
 
32 SERMONS. 
 
 that there should be men so vile as to use the penknife 
 of Jehoiakim, to cut out passages of the word, be- 
 cause they are unpalatable. O ye who dislike certain 
 portions of Holy Writ, rest assured that your taste is 
 corrupt, and that God will not stay for your little opin- 
 ion. Your dislike is the very reason why God wTote 
 it, because you ought not to be suited ; you have no 
 right to be pleased. God wrote what you do not like ; 
 he WTote the truth. Oh! let us bend in reverence 
 before it, for God inspired it. It is pure truth. Here 
 from this fountain gushes aqua vitce — the water of 
 life, without a single particle of earth ; here from tliis 
 sun there cometh forth rays of radiance, without the 
 mixture of darkness. Blessed Bible I thou art all truth. 
 Yet once more, before we leave this point, let us 
 stop and consider the merciful nature of God, in hav- 
 ing written us a Bible at all. Ah, he might have left 
 us without it, to grope our dark way, as blind men 
 seek the wall ; he might have suffered us to w^ander on 
 with the star of reason as our only guide. I recollect 
 a story of JMr. Hume, who so constantly affirmed that the 
 light of reason is abundantly sufficient. Being at a 
 good minister's house one evening, he had been dis- 
 cussing the question, and declaring his firm belief in 
 the sufficiency of the light of nature. On leaving, the 
 minister offered to hold him a candle to light him down 
 the steps. He said, " No ; the light of nature would be 
 enough ; the moon would do." It so happened that the 
 moon was covered with a cloud, and he fell down the 
 steps. " Ah ! " said the minister, " you had better have 
 had a little light from above, after all, Mr. Hume." So, 
 supposing the light of nature to be sufficient, we had bet- 
 ter have a little light from above too, and then we shall 
 
THE BIBLE. 33 
 
 be sure to be right. Better have two lights than only 
 one. The light of c^.ttion is a bright light. God 
 may be seen in the stars ; his name is written in gilt 
 letters on the brow of night ; you may discover his 
 glory in the ocean waves, yea, in the trees of the field ; 
 but it is better to read it in two books than in one. 
 You will fijid it here more clearly revealed ; for he has 
 wnritten this book himself, and he has given you the 
 key to understand it, if you have the Holy Spirit. Ah, 
 beloved, let us thanls: God for this Bible ; let us love 
 it ; let us count it more precious than much fine gold. 
 
 But let me say one thing, before I pass on to the 
 second point. If this be the Word of God, what will 
 become of some of you who have not read it for the 
 last month ? " Month, sir ! I have not read it for this 
 year." Ay, there are some of you who have not read 
 it at all. Most people treat the Bible very politely. 
 They have a small pocket volume, neatly bound ; they 
 put a white pocket-handlverchief round it and carry it 
 to their places of worship ; when they get home, they 
 lay it up in a drawer till next Smiday morning; then it 
 comes out again for a little bit of a treat, and goes to 
 chapel ; that is all the poor Bible gets in the way of 
 an airing. That is your style of entertaining this 
 heavenly messenger. There is dust enough on some 
 of your Bibles to write "damnation" wdth your 
 fingers. There are some of you who have not turned 
 over your Bibles for a long, long, long while, and what 
 tliink you ? I tell you blunt words, but true words. 
 What will God say at last ? When you shall come 
 before him, he shall say, " Did you read my Bible ? " 
 a jYq^^ a I \\rrote you a letter of mercy ; did you read it ? " 
 " iYo." " Rebel I I have sent thee a letter inviting thee to 
 
34 SERMONS. 
 
 me ; didst thou ever read it ? " " Lord^ I never broke 
 the seal; I kept it shut npP " Wretch!" says God, "then, 
 thou deservest hell, if I sent thee a loving epistle, and 
 thou wouldst not even break the seal ; what shall I do 
 unto thee ? " Oh, let it not be so with you. Be Bible- 
 readers ; be Bible-searchers. 
 
 II. Our second point is: The subjects on ivliich the 
 Bible treats. The words of the text are these : " I 
 have WTitten to him the great tilings of my law." The 
 Bible treats of great things, and of great things only. 
 There is nothing in tliis Bible wiiich is unimportant. 
 Every verse in it has a solemn meaning ; and if we 
 have not found it out yet, we hope yet to do it. You 
 have seen mummies, wrapped round and round with 
 folds of linen. Well, God's Bible is like that ; it is a 
 vast roll of white linen, woven in the loom of truth ; so 
 you will have to continue unwinding it, roU after roU, 
 before you get the real meaning of it from the very 
 depth ; and, when you have found, as you think, a 
 part of the meaning, you will still need to keep on 
 unwinding, unwinding, and all eternity you will be 
 unwinding the words of tliis wondrous volume. Yet 
 there is nothing in the Bible but great things. Let 
 me divide, so as to be more brief. First, all things 
 in this Bible are great; but, secondly, some things 
 are the greatest of all. 
 
 All things in the Bible are great. Some people think 
 it does not matter what doctrines you believe ; that it 
 is immaterial what chm'ch you attend ; that all denomi- 
 nations are alike. Well, I dislike Mi's. Bigotry above 
 almost all people in the world, and I never give her 
 any compliment or praise ; but there is another woman 
 I hate equally as much, and that is Mrs. Latitudinari- 
 
THE BIBLE. 35 
 
 aiiism — a well-known character, who has made the dis- 
 covery that all of us are alike. Now, I believe that a 
 man may be saved in any church. Some have been 
 saved in the Church of Rome — a few blessed men 
 whose names I could mention here. I know, blessed 
 be God, that multitudes are saved in the Church of 
 England : she has a host of pious, praying men in her 
 midst. I think that all sections of Protestant Christians 
 have a remnant according to the election of grace ; and 
 they had need to have, some of them, a little salt, for 
 otherwise they would go to corruption. But when I 
 say that, do you imagine that I think them all on a 
 level ? Are they all alike truthful ? One sect says 
 infant baptism is right ; another says it is WTong ; yet 
 you say they are both right. I cannot see that. One 
 teaches we are saved by free ^j^icg ; another says that 
 we are not, but are saved by free wiR ; and yet you be- 
 lieve they are both right. I do not understand that. 
 One says that God loves his people, and never leaves 
 off loving them ; another says that he did not love his 
 people before they loved him — that he often loves them, 
 and then ceases to love them, and turns them away. 
 They may be both right in the main ; but can they both 
 be right when one says " Yes," and the other says " No?" 
 I must have a pair of spectacles, to enable me to look 
 backwards and forwards at the same time, before I can 
 see that. It cannot be, sirs, that they are both right. 
 But some say they differ upon non-essentials. This 
 text says, " I have \vritten to him the g-j'cat things of 
 my law." There is nothing in God's Bible which is 
 not great. Did ever any of you sit down to see w^hich 
 was the purest religion ? " Oh," say you, " we never 
 took the trouble. We went just where our father and 
 
36 
 
 SERMONS. 
 
 mother went." Ah I that is a profound reason indeed. 
 You went where your father and mother did. I thought 
 you were sensible people ; I did n't tliink you went 
 where other people pulled you, but went of your own 
 selves. I love my parents above all that breathe, and 
 the very thought that they believed a thing to be true, 
 helps me to think it is coiTCct; but I have not followed 
 them ; I belong to a different denomination, and I thank 
 God I do. I can receive them as Christian brethren 
 and sisters ; but I never thought that, because they 
 happened to be one thing, I was to be the same. No 
 such thing. God gave me brains, and I will use them ; 
 and if you have any intellect, use it too. Never say it 
 does n't matter. Whatever God has put here is of emi- 
 nent importance : he would not have written a thing 
 that was indifferent. Whatever is here is of some 
 value ; therefore, search all questions, try all by the 
 Word of God. I am not afraid to have what I preach 
 tried by this book. Only give me a fair field and no 
 favor, and this book ; if I say anything contrary to it, 
 I will withdraw it the next Sabbath-day. By this I 
 stand, by this I fall. Search and see ; but don't say, 
 " it does not matter." If God says a thing, it always 
 must be of importance. 
 
 yBut, wiiile all things in God's word are important, 
 all are not equally important. There are certain funda- 
 mental and vital truths which must be believed, or 
 otherwise no man would be saved. If you want to 
 know what you must believe, if ye would be saved, 
 you will find the great things of God's law between 
 these two covers ; they are all contained here. As a 
 sort of digest or summary of the great things of law, I 
 remember an old friend of mine once saying, " Ah! you 
 
THK BIBLE. 37 
 
 preach the three R's, and God will always bless you." 
 I said, " What are the three R's ? " and he answered, 
 '• Ruin, redemption, and regeneration." They contain 
 the sum and substance of divinity. R. for ruin. We 
 were all ruined in the fall; we were all lost when Adam 
 sinned, and we are all ruined by our own transgres- 
 sions ; we are all ruined by our own evil hearts, and 
 our own wicked w ills ; and we all shall be ruined, un- 
 less grace saves us. Then there is a second R. for 
 redemption. We are ransomed by the blood of Christ, 
 a lamb without blemish and without spot ; we are res- 
 cued by his power; we are ransomed by his merits; 
 we are redeemed by his strength. Then there is R. 
 for regeneration. If wc would be pardoned, we must 
 also be- regenerated; for no man can partake of re- 
 demption unless he is regenerate. Let him be as 
 good as he pleases ; let him serve God, as he imagines, 
 as much as he likes ; unless he is f egenerate, and has a 
 new heart, a new birth, he will still be in the fu:st R. 
 that is ruin. These things contain an epitome of the 
 gospel. I believe there is a better epitome in the five 
 points of Galvanism: — Election according to the fore 
 knowledge of God; the natural depravity and sinfulness 
 of man; particular redemption by the blood of Christ; 
 effectual calling by the power of the Spirit ; and ulti- 
 mate perseverance by the efforts of God's might. I think 
 all those need to be believed, in order to salvation ; but I 
 should not like to WTite a creed like the Athanasian, 
 beginning w^itli " W'hosoever shall be saved, before all 
 things it is necessary that he should hold the Catholic 
 faith, which faith is this," — when I got so far, I should 
 stop, because I should not know what to \\Tite. I hold 
 the catholic faith of the Bible, the w^hole Bible, and 
 
 4 
 
38 SKRMONS. 
 
 nothing but the Bible. It is not for me to draw up 
 creeds ; but I ask you to search the Scriptures, for this 
 is the word of life.> 
 
 God says, " I have wTitten to him the great things 
 of my law." Do you doubt their greatness ? Do ye 
 think they are not worth your attention ? Reflect a 
 moment, man. Where art thou standing now ? 
 
 *' Lo, on a narrow neck of land, 
 
 'Twixt two unbounded seas I stand ; 
 
 An inch of time, a moment's space, 
 
 May lodge me in yon heavenly place. 
 
 Or shut me up in hell." 
 
 I recollect standing on a seashore once, upon a narrow 
 neck of land, thoughtless that the tide might come up. 
 The tide kept continually washing up on either side, 
 and, WTapped in thoughts, I still stood there, until at 
 last there was the greatest difficulty in getting on shore. 
 You and I stand each day on a narrow neck, and there 
 is one wave coming up there ; see, how near it is to 
 your foot ; and lo I another follows at every tick of the 
 clock ; " our hearts, like muffled di'ums, are beating 
 funeral marches to the tomb." We are always tending 
 downwards to the grave each moment that we live 
 TJiis hook tells me that if I am converted, when I die, 
 there is a heaven of joy and love to receive me; it tells 
 me that angels' pinions shall be stretched, and I, borne 
 by strong cherubic wings, shall out-soar the lightning, 
 and mount beyond the stars, up to the throne of God, 
 to dwell forever. 
 
 " Far from a world of grief and sin 
 With God eternally shut in." 
 
 Oh ! it makes the hot tear start from my eye, it makes 
 
Tin: 131 BLi:. 
 
 39 
 
 my heart, too big for this my body, and my brain whirls 
 at the thought of 
 
 "Jerusalem, my happy home, 
 Name ever dear to rac." 
 
 Oh ! that sweet scene beyond the clouds ; sweet fields 
 arrayed in living green, and rivers of delight. Are not 
 these great things ? But then, poor unregenerate soul, 
 the Bible says, if thou art lost, thou art lost forever ', it 
 tells thee that if thou diest mthout Christ, without God, 
 there is no hope for thee ; that there is no place without a 
 gleam of hope, where thou shalt read, in burning letters, 
 « Ye knew your duty, but ye did it not ; " it tells you, that 
 ye shall be driven from his presence with a "depart, ye 
 cursed." Are not these great things? Yes, sirs, as 
 heaven is desirable, as hell is terrible, as time is short, 
 as eternfty is infinite, as the soul is precious, as pain is 
 to be shunned, as heaven is to be sought, as God is 
 eternal, and as his words are sure, these are great 
 things, things ye ought to listen to. 
 
 III. Our last point is: The treatment which the poor 
 Bible receives in this icorld ; it is accounted a strange 
 thing. What does that mean — the Bible accounted a 
 strange thing? Li the first place, it means that it is 
 very strange to some people, because they never read it. 
 I remember reading, on one occasion, the sacred story 
 of David and GoUath, and there was a person present, 
 positively grown up to years of maturity, who said to 
 me, "Dear me I what an interesting story; what book 
 is that in ? " And I recollect a person once coming to 
 me in private ; I spoke to her about her soul, she told 
 me how deeply she felt, how she had a desire to serve 
 God, but she found another law in her members. T 
 
40 SERMONS. 
 
 turned to a joassage in Romans, and read to her, " The 
 good that I would I do not ; and the evil which I would 
 not that I do ! " She said, " Is that in the Bible ? I did 
 not know it." I did not blame her, because she had no 
 ^nterest in the Bible till then ; but I did wonder that 
 there could be found persons who knew nothing about 
 such a passage. Ah ! you know more about your ledg- 
 ers than your Bible ; you know more about your day- 
 books than what God has written ; many of you will 
 read a novel from beginning to end, and what have you 
 got ? A mouthful of froth when you have done. But 
 you cannot read the Bible ; that solid, lasting, substan- 
 tial, and satisfying food goes uneaten, locked up in the 
 cupboard of neglect ; while anytliing that man WTites, 
 a catch of the day, is greedily devoured. " I have writ- 
 ten to him the great things of my law, but they were 
 counted as a strange thing." Ye have never read it. 
 I bring the broad charge against you. Perhaps, ye say, 
 I ought not to charge you with any such thing. I al- 
 ways think it better to have a worse opinion of you 
 than too good an one. I charge you with this : you do 
 not read your Bibles. Some of you never have read it 
 through. I know I speak what your heart must say is 
 honest truth. You are not Bible readers. You say 
 you have the Bible in your houses ; do I tliink you are 
 such heathens as not to have a Bible ? But when did 
 you read it last ? How do you know that your specta- 
 cles, which you have lost, have not been there for the 
 last three years ? Many people have not turned over 
 its pages for a long time, and God might say unto them, 
 " I have WTitten unto you the great tilings of my law, 
 but they have been accounted unto you a strange 
 thing." 
 
THE BIBLE. 41 
 
 Others there be who read the Bible ; but when they 
 read it, they say it is so horribly dry. That young man 
 over there says it is a "bore ;" that is the word he uses. 
 He says, " My mother says to me, when you go up to 
 town, read a chapter every day. Well, I thought I 
 would please her, and I said I would. I am sure I wish 
 I had not. I did not read a chapter yesterday, or the 
 day before. We were so busy, I could not help it." 
 You do not love the Bible, do you ? " No, there is no- 
 thing in it which is interesting." Ah, I thought so. But 
 a little while ago / could not see anything in it. Do 
 you know why ? Blind men cannot see, can they ? 
 But when the Spirit touches the scales of the eyes, they 
 fall off; and when he puts eye-salve on, then the Bible 
 becomes precious. I remember a minister who went 
 to see an old lady, and he thought he would give her 
 some precious promises out of the word of God. Turn- 
 ing to one, he saw written in the margin " P.," and he 
 asked, " What does this mean ? " " That means precious, 
 sir." Further down, he saw " T. and P.," and he asked 
 what the letters meant. " That," she said, "means tried 
 and proved, for I have tried and proved it." If you 
 have tried God's word and proved it — if it is precious 
 to your soul, then you are Christains ; but those per- 
 sons who despise the Bible, have " neither part nor lot 
 in the matter." If it is dry to you, you will be dry at 
 last in hell. If you do not esteem it as better than 
 your necessary food, there is no hope for you ; for you 
 lack the greatest evidence of your Christianity. 
 
 Alas I alas ! the worst case is to come. There are 
 some people who hate the Bible, as well as despise it. 
 Is there such an one stepped in here ? Some of you 
 said, " Let us go and hear what the young preacher has 
 
42 SERMONS. 
 
 to say to us." This is what he has to say to you: " Be- 
 hold, ye despisers, and wonder and perish." This is 
 what he hath to say to you : " The wicked shall be 
 turned into hell, and all that forget God." And this, 
 again he has to say to you : " Behold, there shall come 
 in the last days, mockers, like yourselves, walking after 
 your own lusts." But more : he tells you to-night that 
 if you are saved, you must find salvation here. There- 
 fore, despise not the Bible ; but search it, read it, and 
 come unto it. Rest thee well assured, O scorner, that 
 thy laughs cannot alter truth, thy jests cannot avert 
 tliine inevitable doom. Though in thy hardihood thou 
 shouldst make a league with death, and sign a covenant 
 with hell — yet swift justice shall o'ertake thee, and 
 strong vengeance strike thee low. In vain dost thou jeer 
 and mock, for eternal verities are mightier than thy 
 sophisti'ies, nor can thy smart sayings alter the divine 
 truth of a single word of this volume of Revelation. 
 Oh ! why dost thou quarrel with thy best friend, and 
 ill-treat thy only refuge ? There yet remains hope, even 
 for the scorner. Hope in a Saviour's veins. Hope in the 
 Father's mercy. Hope in the Holy Spirit's omnipotent 
 agency. 
 
 I have done when I have said one word. My friend, 
 the philosopher, says it may be very well for me to 
 urge people to read the Bible; but he thinks there 
 are a great many sciences far more interesting and 
 useful than theology. Extremely obliged to you for 
 your opinion^ sir. What science do you mean ? The 
 science of dissecting beetles and arranging butter- 
 flies ? " No," you say, " certainly not." The science, 
 then, of arranging stones, and telling us of the strata 
 of the earth ? "No, not exactly that." Which science, 
 
THE BIBLE. ' 43 
 
 then ? " Oh, all scicnccv' say you, "arc better than the 
 science of the Bible." Ah I sir, that is your opinion ; 
 and it is because you are far from God, that you say 
 so. But the science of Jesus Christ is the most excel- 
 lent of sciences. Let no one turn away from the Bible 
 because it is not a book of learning and wisdom. It is. 
 Would ye know astronomy ? It is here : it tells you 
 of the Sun of Righteousness and the Star of Bethle- 
 hem. Would you know botany ? It is here : it tells 
 you of the plant of renown — the Lily of the Valley, 
 and the Rose of Sharon. Would you know geology 
 and mineralogy ? You shall learn it here : for you may 
 read of the Rock of Ages, and the White Stone with 
 the name engi*aven thereon, which no man knoweth 
 saving he that receiveth it. Would ye study history ? 
 Here is the most ancient of all the records of the his- 
 tory of the human race. Whate'er your science is, 
 come and bend o'er this book ; your science is here. 
 Come and di'ink out of this fair fount of knowledge 
 and wisdom, and ye shall find yourselves made wise 
 unto salvation. Wise and foolish, babes and men, 
 gray-headed sires, youths and maidens — I speak to 
 you, I plead with you, I beg of you respect your 
 Bibles, and search them out, for in them ye think ye 
 have eternal life, and these are they which testify of 
 Christ. 
 
 I have done. Let us go home and practice what we 
 have heard. I have heard of a woman, w^ho, when she 
 was asked what she remembered of the minister's ser- 
 mon, said, " 1 don't recollect anything of it. It was 
 about short weights and bad measures, and I did n't 
 recollect anything but to go home and burn the bushel." 
 So, if you will remember to go home and burn the bushel, 
 
14 . SERMONS. 
 
 if you will recollect to go home and read your Bibles. 
 I shall have said enough. And may God, in his infinite 
 mercy, when you read your Bibles, poiu into your soul 
 the illuminating rays of the Sun of Righteousness, by 
 the agency of the ever-adorable Spirit ; then you will 
 read to your profit and to your soul's salvation. 
 We may say of The Bible : 
 
 ** God's cabinet of revealed counsel 't is ! 
 Where weal and woe, are ordered so 
 That every man may know which shall be his ; 
 Unless his own mistake, false application make 
 
 It is the index to eternity. 
 
 He cannot miss of endless bliss. 
 
 That takes this chart to steer by, 
 
 Nor can he be mistook, that speaketh by tliis book. 
 
 It is the book of God. What if I should 
 
 Say, God of books, let him that looks 
 
 Angry at that expression, as too bold, 
 
 His thoughts in silence smother, till he find such another." 
 
SEllMON III. 
 
 THE rEllSOxNALITY OF THE HOLY GHOST. 
 
 " And I will pray the Father, and he shall give 3'ou another Comforter, that be may 
 abide with you forever ; even the Spirit of truth ; whom the world cannot receive, be- 
 cause it seeth him not, neither knoweth him ; but ye know him ; for he dwelleth with 
 you, and shall be in you." — Johx xiv. 16, 17. 
 
 You \\dll be surprised to hear me announce that I do 
 not intend this morning to say anything about the 
 Holy Spirit as the Comforter. I propose to reserve 
 that for another discourse.* In this discourse I shall 
 endeavor to explain and enforce certain other doctrines, 
 wliich I believe are plainly taught in this text, and 
 which I hope God the Holy Gho.>^t may make profita- 
 ble to our souls. Old John Newton once said, that 
 there were some books which he could not read — they 
 were good and sound enough ; but, said he, " they are 
 books of halfpence ; you have to take so much in 
 quantity before you have any value ; there are other 
 books of silver and others of gold, but I have one 
 book that is a book of bank-notes ; and every leaf is a 
 bank-note of immense value." So I found with this 
 text, that I had a bank-note of so large a sum that I 
 
 * See next Sermon. 
 
 (45) 
 
46 SERMONS. 
 
 could not tell it out all this morning. I should have to 
 keep you several hours before I could unfold to you the 
 whole value of this precious promise, one of the last 
 which Christ gave to his people. 
 
 I invite your attention to tliis passage because we 
 shall find in it some instruction on four points : first, 
 concerning the true and proper personality of the Holy 
 Ghost; secondly, concerning the united agency of the 
 glorious Three persons in the work of our salvation ; 
 thirdly, we shall find something to establish the doctrine 
 of the in-dwelling of the Holy Ghost in the souls of 
 all believers ; and fourthly, we shall find out the reason 
 why the carnal mind rejects the Holy Ghost. 
 
 I. First of all, w^e shall have some little instruction 
 concerning the proper personality of the Holy Spirit. 
 We are so much accustomed to tallv about the influ- 
 ence of the Holy Ghost and his sacred operations and 
 graces, that we are apt to forget that the Holy Spirit is 
 truly and actually a person — that he is a subsistence 
 — an existence ; or, as we Trinitarians usually say, one 
 person in the essence of the Godhead. I am afraid 
 that, though we do not know it, we have acquired the 
 habit of regarding the Holy Ghost as an emanation 
 flowing from the Father and the Son, but not as being 
 actually a person himself. I know it is not easy to 
 cany about in om* mind the idea of the Holy Spirit as 
 a person. I can think of the Father as a person, 
 because his acts are such as I can understand. I see 
 him hang the world in ether ; I behold him swaddling 
 a new-born sea in bands of darkness ; I know it is he 
 who formed the drops of hail, who leadeth forth the stars 
 by their hosts, and calleth them by their name ; I can con- 
 ceive of him as a person, because I behold his operations. 
 
PERSONALITY OF TlIP: HOLY GHOST. 47 
 
 I can realize Jesus, the Son of Man, as a real person, be- 
 cause he is bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh. 
 It takes no great stretch of my imagination to picture 
 the babe in Bethlehem, or behold the "man of sorrows 
 and acquainted with grief," or the king of martyrs, as 
 he was persecuted in Pilate's hall, or nailed to the ac- 
 cursed tree for our sins. Nor do I find it difficult at 
 times to realize the person of my Jesus sitting on his 
 throne in heaven ; or girt with clouds and wearing the 
 diadem of all creation, calling the earth to judgment, 
 and summoning us to hear our final sentence. But, 
 when I come to deal with the Holy Ghost, his opera- 
 tions are so mysterious, his doings are so secret, his 
 acts are so removed from everything that is of sense, 
 and of the body, that I cannot so easily get the idea 
 of his being a person ; but a person he is. God the 
 Holy Ghost is not an influence, an emanation, a stream 
 of something flowing from the Father; but he is as 
 much an actual person as either God the Son, or God 
 the Father. I shall attempt this morning a little to 
 establish the doctrine, and to show you the truth of it 
 — that God the Holy Spirit is afitually a person. 
 
 The first proof we shall gather from the pool of holy 
 baptism. Let me take you down, as I have taken 
 others, into the pool now concealed, but which I \vish 
 were always open to your view. Let me take you to 
 the baptismal font, where believers put on the name of 
 the Lord Jesus, and you shall hear me pronounce the 
 solemn words, " I baptize thee in the name," — mark, 
 " in the name," not names — " of the Father, and of 
 the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." Every one who is 
 baptized according to the true form laid down in Scrip- 
 ture, must be a Trinitarian : otherwise his baptism is a 
 
48 SERMONS. 
 
 farce and a lie, and he himself is found a deceivei and 
 a hypocrite before God. As the Father is mentioned, 
 and as the Son is mentioned, so is the Holy Ghost; 
 and the whole is summed up as being a Trinity in 
 unity, by its being said, not the names, but the 
 " name," the glorious name, the Jehovah name, "of the 
 Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." Let 
 me remind you that the same thing occurs each time 
 you are dismissed from this house of prayer. In pro- 
 nouncing the solemn closing benediction, we involve 
 on your behalf the love of Jesus Christ, the ,grace of 
 the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit ; and 
 thus, according to the apostolic manner, we make a 
 manifest distinction between the persons, showing that 
 we believe the Father to be a person, the Son to be a 
 person, and the Holy Ghost to be a person. Were 
 there no other proofs in Scriptm'e, I thinlv these would 
 be sufficient for every sensible man. He would see 
 that if the Holy Spirit were a mere iniiuence, he would 
 not be mentioned in conjunction with two, whom we all 
 confess to be actual and proper persons. 
 
 A second argument arises from the fact, that the 
 Holy Ghost has actually made difterent appearances 
 on earth. The Great Spirit has manifested himself to 
 man : he has put on a form, so that, whilst he has not 
 been beheld by mortal men, he has been so veiled in 
 an appearance that he was seen, so far as that appear- 
 ance was concerned, by the eyes of all beholders. See 
 you Jesus Christ our Saviour? There is the river Jor- 
 dan, with its shelving banks and its willows weeping 
 at its side. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, descends 
 into the stream, and the holy Baptist John plunges him 
 into the waves. The doors of heaven are opened ; a 
 
PERSONALITY OF TlIC HOLY GHOST. 49 
 
 miraculous appearance presents itself; a bright light 
 shiueth from the sky, brighter than the sun in all its 
 grandeur, and down in a flood of glory descends some- 
 thing which you recognize to be a dove. It rests on 
 Jesus — it sits upon his sacred head, and as the old 
 painters put a halo round the brow of Jesus, so did the 
 Holy Ghost shed a resplendence around the face of 
 him who came to fulfil all righteousness, and therefore 
 commenced with the ordinance of baptism. The Holy 
 Ghost was seen as a dove, to mark his purity and his 
 gentleness, and he came down like a dove from heaven 
 to show that it is from heaven alone that he descend- 
 eth. Nor is this the only time when the Holy Ghost 
 has been manifest in a visible shape. You see that 
 company of disciples gathered together in an upper 
 room ; they are waiting for some promised blessing, 
 and bye-and-bye it shall come. Hark! there is a sound 
 as of a rushing, mighty wind ; it fills all the house 
 where they are sitting, and astonished, they look around 
 them, wondering what will come next. Soon a bright 
 light appears, shining upon the heads of each : cloven 
 tongues of fire sat upon them. What were these mar- 
 vellous appearances of wind and flame but a display 
 of the Holy Ghost in his proper person? I say the 
 fact of an appearance manifests that he must be a per- 
 son. An influence could not appear — an attribute 
 could not appear : we cannot see attributes — we can- 
 not behold influences. The Holy Ghost must, then, 
 have been a person ; since he was beheld by mortal 
 eyes, and came under the cognizance of mortal sense. 
 
 Another proof is from the fact, that personal quali- 
 ties are in Scripture ascribed to the Holy Ghost. First, 
 let me read to you a text in which the Holy Ghost is 
 
50 SERMONS. 
 
 spoken of as having understanding. In the 1st Epistle 
 to the Corinthians, chap, ii., you will read, " But as it 
 is written, eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath 
 it entered into the heart of man, the things which God 
 hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath 
 revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit 
 searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For 
 what man knoweth the tilings of a man, save the spuit 
 of man which is in him? Even so the things of God 
 loioweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Here you 
 see an understanding — a power of knowledge is as- 
 cribed to the Holy Ghost. Now, if there be any per- 
 sons here whose minds are of so preposterous a com- 
 plexion that they would ascribe one attribute to another, 
 and would speak of a mere influence having under- 
 standing, then I give up all the argument. But I 
 believe every rational man will admit, that when any- 
 thing is spoken of as having an understanding, it must 
 be an existence — it must, in fact, be a person. In the 
 12tli chapter, v. 10, of the same Epistle, you will find 
 a ivill ascribed to the Holy Spirit. " But all these 
 worketh that one and the self-same spirit, dividing to 
 every man severally as he will." So it is plain that the 
 Spirit has a will. He does not come from God simply 
 at God's will, but he has a will of his own, which is 
 always in keeping with the will of the infinite Jehovah, 
 but is, nevertheless, distinct and separate ; therefore, I 
 say he is a person. In another text, poiver is ascribed 
 to the Holy Ghost, and power is a thing which can only 
 be ascribed to an existence. In Rom. xv. 13, it is writ- 
 ten, " Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and 
 peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope through 
 the power of the Holy Ghost." I need not insist upon 
 
I'ERSONALITV OK THE HOLY GilOST. 51 
 
 it, because it is self-evident, that wherever you ilnd un- 
 derstanding, will, and power, you must also find an 
 existence ; it cannot be a mere attribute, it cannot be a 
 metaphor, it cannot be a personified influence ; but it 
 must be a person. 
 
 But I have a proof, wliich, perhaps, \vi\\ be more tel- 
 ling upon you than any other. Acts and deeds are as- 
 cribed to the Holy Ghost; therefore, he must be a person. 
 You read in the first chapter of the Book of Genesis, 
 that the Spirit brooded over the surface of the earth, 
 when it was as yet all disorder and confusion. This 
 world was once a mass of chaotic matter ; there was 
 no order ; it was like the valley of darlmess and of the 
 shadow of death. God the IToly Ghost spread liis 
 ^\dngs over it; he sowed the seeds of life in it; the germs 
 from which all beings sprang were implanted by him ; 
 he impregnated the earth so that it became capable of 
 life. Now, it must have been a person who brought 
 order out of confusion : it must have been an existence 
 who hovered over this world and made it what it now 
 is. But do we not read in Scripture something more 
 of the Holy Ghost ? Yes, we are told that " holy men 
 of old spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.' 
 When Moses penned the Pentateuch, the Holy Ghost 
 moved his hand ; when David ^\Tote the Psalms, and 
 discoursed sweet music on his harp, it was the Holy 
 Spirit that gave his fingers their seraphic motion ; when 
 Solomon dropped from his lips the words of the pro- 
 verbs of wisdom, or when he hymned the Canticles of 
 love, it was the Ploly Ghost who gave him words 
 of knowledge and hymns of rapture. Ah I and what 
 fire was that which touched the lips of the eloquent 
 Isaiah ? What hand was that which came upon Daniel ? 
 
52 SERMONS. 
 
 What might was that which made Jeremiah so 
 plaintive in his grief? or what was that which winged 
 Ezekiel and made him, hke an eagle, soar into mys- 
 teries aloft, and see the Mighty Unknown beyond oiu* 
 reach ? Who was it that made Amos, the herdsman, 
 a prophet? who taught the rugged Haggai to pro- 
 nounce his thundering sentences? who showed Ha- 
 bakkuk the horses of Jehovah marching through the 
 waters ? or who kindled the burning eloquence of Na- 
 hum ? who caused Malachi to close up the book with 
 the muttering of the word curse ? Who was it in each 
 of these save the Holy Ghost ? and must it not have 
 been a person who spake in and through these ancient 
 witnesses? We must believe it. We cannot avoid 
 believing it when we read that " holy men of old spake 
 as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." And when 
 has the Holy Ghost ceased to have an influence upon 
 men ? We find that still he deals with his ministers 
 and with all his saints. Turn to the Acts, and you will 
 find that the Holy Ghost said, '' Separate me Paul and 
 Barnabas for the work." I never heard of an attribute 
 saying such a thing. The Holy Spirit said to Peter, 
 " Go to the Centurion, and what I have cleansed, that 
 call not thou common." The Holy Ghost caught away 
 Philip after he had baptized the Eunuch, and carried 
 him away to another place ; and the Holy Ghost said 
 to Paul, " Thou shalt not go into that city, but shall 
 turn into another." And we know that the Holy 
 Ghost was lied unto by Ananias and Sapphira, when 
 it was said, " Thou hast, not lied unto man, but unto 
 God." Again, that power which we feel every day, 
 who are called to preach — that wondrous spell which 
 makes our lips so potent — that power which gives us 
 
PERSONALITY OF THE HOLY GHOST. /jf 
 
 thouirhts wliich are like birds from a far-off region, not 
 the natives of our soul — that influence which I some- 
 times strangely feel, which, if it does not give me poetry 
 and eloquence, gives me a might 1 never felt before, 
 and lifts me above my fellow-man — that majesty with 
 which he clothes his ministers, till in the midst of the 
 battle they cry aha! like the war horse of Job, and 
 move themselves like leviathans in the water — that 
 power wliich gives us might over men. and causes 
 them to sit and listen as if their ears were chained, as 
 if they were entranced by the power of some magi- 
 cian's wand — that power must come from a person ; it 
 must come from the Holy Ghost. 
 
 But is it not said in Scripture, and do we not feel it, 
 dear bretluren, that it is the Holy Ghost who regenerates 
 the soul ? It is the Holy Ghost who quickens us. 
 " You hath he quickened who were dead iii trespasses 
 and sins." It is the Holy Spirit who imparts the first 
 germ of life, convincing us of sin, of righteousness, 
 and of judgment to come. And is it not the Holy 
 Spirit, who, after that flame is kindled, still fans it with 
 the breath of his mouth and keeps it alive ? Its author 
 is its preserver. Oh I can it be said that it is the Holy 
 Ghost who strives in men's souls ; that it is the Holy 
 Ghost who brings them to the foot of Sinai, and then 
 guides them into the sweet place that is called Calvary 
 — can it be said that he does all these things, and yet 
 is not a person ? It may be said, but it must be said 
 by fools ; for he never can be a wise man who can con- 
 sider that these things can be done by any other than a 
 glorious person — a divine existence. 
 
 Allow me to give you one more proof, and I shall 
 have done. Certain feehngs are ascribed to the Holy 
 
54 .SERMONS. 
 
 Ghost, which can only be understood upon the supposi- 
 tion that he is actually a person. In the 4th chapter of 
 Ephesians, v. 30, it is said that the Holy Ghost can 
 be grieved : " Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, 
 whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption." 
 In Isaiah, chap. Ixiii. v. 10, it is said that the Holy 
 Ghost can be vexed : "But they rebelled, and vexed his 
 Holy Spirit ; therefore he was turned to be their enemy, 
 and he fought against them." In Acts, chap. vii. v. 51, 
 you read that the Holy Ghost can be resisted : " Ye 
 stiff-necked and uncircumcized in heart and ears, ye do 
 always resist the Holy Ghost ; as your fathers did, so 
 do ye." And in the 5th chapter, v. 9, of the same book, 
 you will find that the Holy Ghost may be tempted. We 
 are there informed that Peter said to Ananias and Saf>- 
 phira, " How is it that ye have agreed together to tempt 
 the Spirit of the Lord ? " Now, these things could 
 not be emotions which might be ascribed to a quality 
 or an emanation ; they must be understood to relate to 
 a person ; an influence could not be grieved ; it must be 
 a person who can be grieved, vexed, or resisted. 
 
 And now, dear brethren, I think I have fully estab- 
 lished the point of the personality of the Holy Ghost ; 
 allow me now, most earnestly, to impress upon you 
 the absolute necessity of being sound upon the doctrine 
 of the Trinity. I knew a man, a good minister of Jesus 
 Christ he is now, and I believe he was before he turned 
 his eyes unto heresy — he began to doubt the glorious 
 divinity of our blessed Lord, and for years did he 
 preach the heterodox doctrine, until one day he hap- 
 pened to hear a very eccentric old minister preaching 
 from the text, " But there the glorious Lord shall be 
 unto us a place of broad rivers and streams, wherein 
 
TERSONALITY OF THE HOLY GHOST. 55 
 
 shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship 
 pass thereby. Thy tacklings are loosed; they could 
 not well strengthen their mast, they could not spread 
 the sail." " Now," said the old minister, "you give up 
 the Trinity, and your tacklings are loosed, you cannot 
 strengthen your masts. Once give up the doctrine of 
 three persons, and your tacklings are all gone ; your 
 mast, which ought to be a support to your vessel, is a 
 rickety one, and shakes." A gospel without a Trin- 
 ity! it is a pyramid built upon its apex. A gospel 
 without the Trinity ! it is a rope of sand that cannot 
 hold together. A gospel without the Trinity! then, 
 indeed, Satan can overturn it. But, give me a gospel 
 with the Trinity, and the might of hell cannot pre- 
 vail against it; no man can any more overthrow it 
 than a bubble could split a rock, or a feather break in 
 halves a mountain. Get the thought of the three per- 
 sons, and you have the marrow of all divinity. Only 
 know the Father, and know the Son, and know the 
 Holy Ghost to be one, and all things will appear clear. 
 This is the golden key to the secrets of nature ; this is 
 the silken clue of the labyrinths of mystery, and he 
 who understands this, will soon understand as much as 
 mortals e'er can know. 
 
 11. Now for our second point — the united agency 
 of the three persons in the work of our salvation. Look 
 at the text, and you will fmd all the three persons 
 mentioned. " I " — that is the Son — " will pray the 
 Father, and he shall give you another Comforter." 
 There are the three persons mentioned, all of them 
 doing somethmg for our salvation. " I will pray," 
 says the Son. " I will send," says the Father. " I 
 will comfort," says the Holy Ghost. Now, let us, for 
 
56 SERMONS. 
 
 a few moments, discourse upon this wondrous theme — 
 the unity of the three persons with regard to the great 
 purpose of the salvation of the elect. When God first 
 made man, he said, " Let us make man," not let me, 
 but, " Let us make man in our own image." The 
 covenant Elohim said to each other, " Let us unitedly- 
 become the creator of man." " So, when in ages far 
 gone by, in eternity, they said, " Let us save man ; " it 
 was not the Father who said, " Let me save man," 
 but the three persons conjointly said, with one consent, 
 " Let us save man." It is to me a source of sweet 
 comfort to think that it is not one person of the Trinity 
 that is engaged for my salvation ; it is not simply one 
 person of the Godhead who vows that he will redeem 
 me ; but it is a glorious trio of Godlike ones, and the 
 three declare, unitedly, " We will save man." 
 
 Now, observe here, that each person is spoken of as 
 performing a separate office. " I will pray," says the 
 Son ; that is intercession. " I will send," says the Fa- 
 ther ; that is donation. " I will comfort," says the 
 Holy Spirit ; that is supernatural influence. O ! if it 
 were possible for us to see the three persons of the God- 
 head, we should behold one of them standing before 
 the throne, with outstretched hands, crying day and 
 night, " O Lord, how long? " We should see one girt 
 with Urim and Thummim, precious stones, on which 
 are written the twelve names of the tribes of Israel ; 
 we should behold liim, crying unto his Father, " Forget 
 not thy promises, forget not thy covenant ; " we should 
 hear him make mention of our sorrows, and tell forth 
 our griefs on our behalf, for he is our intercessor. And 
 could we behold the Father, we should not see him a 
 listless and idle spectator of the intercession of the Son, 
 
PERSONALITY OF THE HOLY GHOST. 57 
 
 but we should see him with attentive ear listening to 
 every word of Jesus, and granting every petition. 
 Where is the Holy Spirit all the while ? Is he lying 
 idle ? O no ; he is floating over the earth, and when 
 he sees a weary soul, he says, " Come to Jesus, he will 
 give you rest;" when he beholds an eye filled with 
 tears, he wipes away the tears, and bids the mourner 
 look for comfort on the cross ; when he sees the tem- 
 pest-tossed believer, he takes the helm of his soul and 
 speaks the word of consolation ; he helj^eth the broken 
 in heart, and bindeth up then* wounds ; and, ever on 
 his mission of mercy, he flies around the world, being 
 ever^'Avhere present. Behold, how the three persons 
 work together. Do not then say, " I am grateful to 
 the Son " — so you ought to be, but God the Son no 
 more saves you than God the Father. Do not imagine 
 that God the Father is a great tyrant, and that God 
 the Son had to die to make him merciful. It was not 
 to make the Father's love flow towards his people. 
 Oh no. One loves as much as the other ; the three 
 are conjoined in the great purpose of rescuing the elect 
 from damnation. 
 
 But you must notice another thing in my text, which 
 will show the blessed unity of the three — the one 
 person promises to the other. The Son says, " I will 
 pray the Father." " Very well," the disciples may 
 have said, " We can trust you for that." " And he 
 vnR send you." You see, here is the Son signing a 
 bond on behalf of the Father. " He will send you 
 another Comforter." There is a bond on behalf of 
 the Holy Spirit too. " And he will abide with you 
 forever." One person speaks for the other, and how 
 could they, if there were any disagreement between 
 
58 SERMONS. 
 
 them ? If one wished to save, and the other not, 
 they could not promise on another's behalf. But what- 
 ever the Son says, the Father listens to ; whatever the 
 Father promises, the Holy Ghost works; and, what- 
 ever the Holy Ghost injects into the soul, that God 
 the Father fulfils. So, the three together mutually 
 promise on one another's behalf. There is a bond with 
 three names appended — Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. 
 By three immutable things, as well as by two, the 
 Christian is secured beyond the reach of death and 
 hell. A Trinity of securities, because there is a Trinity 
 of God. 
 
 in. Our third point is, the indivelling of the Holy 
 Ghost in believers. Now, beloved, these first two things 
 have been matters of pure doctrine ; this is the subject 
 of experience. The indwelling of the Holy Ghost is 
 a subject so profound, and so having to do with the 
 inner man, that no soul will be able truly and really to 
 comprehend what I say, unless it has been taught of 
 God. I have heard of an old minister, who told a 
 fellow of one of the Cambridge colleges, that he un- 
 derstood a language that he never learnt in all his life. 
 " I have not," he said, " even a smattering of Greek, 
 and I Ivuow no Latin, but thanli God, I can talk the 
 language of Canaan, and that is more than you can." 
 So, beloved, I shall now have to talk a little of the lan- 
 guage of Canaan. If you cannot comprehend me, I 
 am much afraid it is because you are not of Israelitish 
 extraction; you are not a child of God, nor an inheritor 
 of the kingdom of heaven. 
 
 We are told in the text, that Jesus would send the 
 Comforter, who would abide in the saints forever ; who 
 would dwell with them, and be in them. Old Ignatius, 
 
PERSONALITY OF TIIK HOLY GHOST. 59 
 
 the mart^T, used to call himself Theophorus, or the God- 
 bearer, " because," said he, " I bear about with me the 
 Holy Ghost." And truly every Christian is a God- 
 bearer. " Know ye not that ye are the temples of the 
 Holy Ghost ? for he dwelleth in you." That man is 
 no Cliristian who is not the subject of the indwelling 
 of the Holy Spirit ; he may talk well, he may under- 
 stand theology, and be a sound Calvinist ; he will be 
 the child of nature finely dressed, but not the living 
 child. He may be a man of so profound an intellect, 
 so gigantic a soul, so comprehensive a mind, and so 
 lofty an imagination, that he may dive into all the se- 
 crets of nature, may know the path which the eagle's 
 eye hath not seen, and go into depths where the ken of 
 mortals reacheth not, but he shall not be a Clu'istian 
 with all his knowledge, he shall not be a son of God with 
 all liis researches, unless he understands what it is to 
 have the Holy Ghost dwelling in him, and abiding in 
 him ; yea, and that forever. 
 
 Some people call this fanaticism, and they say, " You 
 are a Quaker , why not follow George Fox ? " Well, 
 we would not mind that much : we would follow any 
 one who followed the Holy Ghost. Even he, with all 
 his eccentricities, I doubt not, was, in many cases, ac- 
 tually inspired by the Holy Spirit ; and whenever I find 
 a man in whom there rests the Spirit of God, the 
 spirit within me leaps to hear the spirit within him, and 
 we feel that we are one. The Spirit of God in one 
 Christian soul recognizes the Spirit in another. I re- 
 collect talking ^\'ith a good man, as I believe he was, 
 who was insisting that it was impossible for us to know 
 whether we had the Holy Spirit within us or not. I 
 should like him to be here this morning, because I would 
 
60 SERMONS. 
 
 read this verse to him, " But ye know him, for he dwel- 
 leth with you, and shall be in you." Ah! you think 
 you cannot tell whether you have the Holy Spirit or not. 
 Can I tell whether I am alive or not ? If I were 
 touched by electricity, could I tell whether I was or 
 not ? I suppose I should ; the shock would be strong 
 enough to make me know where I stood. So, if I 
 have God within me — if I have Deity tabernacling 
 in my breast — if I have God the Holy Ghost resting 
 in my heart, and making a temple of my body, do you 
 think I shall know it? Call ye it fanaticism if you 
 will, but I trust that there are some of us who know 
 what it is to be always, or generally, under the influ- 
 ence of the Holy Spirit — always in one sense, gener- 
 aUy in another. When we have difficulties, we ask the 
 direction of the Holy Ghost. When we do not under- 
 stand a portion of Holy Scripture, we ask God the 
 Holy Ghost to shine upon us. When we are depressed, 
 the Holy Ghost comforts us. You cannot tell what 
 the wondrous power of the indwelling of the Holy 
 Ghost is ; how it pulls back the hand of the saint when 
 he would touch the forbidden thing; how it prompts 
 him to make a covenant with his eyes ; how it binds 
 his feet, lest they should fall in a slippery way ; how 
 it restrains his heart, and keeps him from temptation. 
 O ye, who know nothing of the indwelling of the Holy 
 Ghost, despise it not. O despise not the Holy Ghost, 
 for it is the unpardonable sin. " He that speaketh a 
 word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him, 
 but he that speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall 
 never be forgiven him, either in this life, or that which 
 is to come." So saith the Word of God. Therefore, 
 
PERSONALITY OF THE HOLY GHOST. 
 
 61 
 
 tremble, lest in anything ye despise the influences of 
 the Holy Spirit. 
 
 But before closing this point, there is one little word 
 that pleases me very much, that is " forever." You 
 knew I should not miss that ; you were certain I could 
 not let it go without obser^^ation. " Abide with you 
 forever." I w^ish I could get an Ai-minian here to fin- 
 ish my sermon. I fancy I see Mm taking that word 
 " forever." He would say, " for — forever ; " he would 
 have to stammer and stutter; for he could never get it 
 out all at once. He might stand and puU it about, 
 and at last he would have to say, "the translation is 
 ^^Tong." And then I suppose the poor man would 
 have to prove that the original was wrong too. Ah I 
 but blessed be God we can read it — " He shall abide 
 with you forever." Once give me the Holy Ghost, and 
 I shall never lose him tUl "forever" has run out; till 
 eternity has spun its everlasting rounds. 
 
 IV. Now we have to close up with a brief remark 
 on the reason why the world rejects the Holy Ghost. 
 It is said, " Whom the world cannot receive, because 
 it seeth him not, neither know^eth him." You know 
 what is sometimes meant by "the world" — those 
 whom God in his wondrous sovereignty passed over 
 when he chose his people : the preterite ones ; those 
 passed over in God's wondrous preterition — not the 
 reprobates who were condemned to damnation by 
 some awful decree; but those passed over by God, 
 when he chose out his elect. These cannot receive the 
 Spirit. Again, it means all in a carnal state are not 
 able to procure themselves this divine influence; and, 
 ihu^ it is true, " Whom the w^orld cannot receive." 
 The umegenerate world of sinners despises the 
 
62 SERMONS. 
 
 Holy Ghost, " because it sceth him not." Yes, I be- 
 lieve this is the great secret why many laugh at the 
 idea of the existence of the Holy Ghost — because 
 they see him not. You tell the worldling,'" I have the 
 Holy Ghost within me." He says, " I cannot see it." 
 He wants it to be something tangible — a thing he can 
 recognize with his senses. Have you ever heard the 
 argument used by a good old Christian against an 
 Infidel doctor ? The doctor said there was no soul, 
 and asked, " Did you ever see a soul ? " " No," said 
 the Christian. "Did you ever hear a soul?" "No." 
 " Did you ever smell a soul ? " " No." " Did you ever 
 taste a soul ? " " No." " Did you ever feel a soul ? " 
 " Yes," said the man — "I feel I have one within me." 
 " Well," said the doctor, " there are four senses against 
 one ; you have only one on your side." " Very well," 
 said the Christian, "Did you ever see a pain? " "No." 
 " Did you ever hear a pain ? " " No." " Did you ever 
 smell a pain? " " No." " Did you ever taste a pain?" 
 " No." " Did you ever feel a pain ? " " Yes." " And 
 that is quite enough, I suppose, to prove there is a 
 pain ? " " Yes." So the worldling says there is no 
 Holy Ghost, because he cannot see it. Well, but we 
 feel it. You say that is fanaticism, and that we never 
 felt it. Suppose you tell me that honey is bitter, I 
 reply, " No, I am sure you cannot have tasted it ; taste 
 it and try." So with the Holy Ghost ; if you did but 
 feel his inlluence, you would no longer say there is no 
 Holy Spirit, because you cannot see it. Ai*e there not 
 many things, even in nature, which we cannot see? 
 Did you ever see the wind ? No ; but ye know there 
 is wind, when ye behold the hurricane tossing Jhe 
 waves about, and rending down the habitations of 
 
PERSONALITY OF THE HOLY GHOST. 03 
 
 men ; or when, in the soft evening zephyr, it kisses the 
 iiowers, and maJceth dew-ch'ops hang in pearly coronets 
 around the rose. Did ye ever see electricity ? No ; 
 but ye know there is such a thing, for it travels along 
 the wires for thousands of miles, and carries our mes- 
 sages; though you cannot see the thing itself, you 
 know there is such a thing. So you must believe there 
 is a Holy Ghost working in us, both to will and to do, 
 even though it is beyond our senses. 
 
 But the last reason why worldly men laugh at the 
 doctrine of the Holy Spirit, is, because they do not 
 know it. If they know it by heartfelt experience, and 
 if they recognized its agency in the soul ; if they had 
 ever been touched by it ; if they had been made to 
 tremble under a sense of sin ; if they had had their 
 hearts melted, they would never have doubted the exist- 
 ence of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 And now, beloved, it says, " He dwelleth with you, 
 and shall be in you.'' We vdW close up with that 
 sweet recollection —the Holy Ghost dwells in all 
 believers, and shall be with them. 
 
 One word of comment and advice to the saints of 
 God, and to sinners, and I have done. Saints of the 
 Lord I ye have this morning heard that God the Holy 
 Ghost is a person ; ye have had it proved to your 
 souls. What follows from this ? Why, it followeth 
 how earnest ye should be in prayer to the Holy Spirit, 
 as well as for the Holy Spirit. Let me say that this 
 is an inference that you should lift up your prayers to 
 the Holy Ghost : that you should cry earnestly unto 
 him ; for he is able to do exceeding abundantly above 
 all you can speak or think. See this mass of people. 
 What is to convert it? See this crowd. Who is to 
 
64 SERMONS. 
 
 make my influence permeate through the mass ? You 
 know this place now has a mighty influence, and, God 
 blessing us, it will have an influence not only upon this 
 city, but upon England at large ; for we now employ 
 the press as well as the pulpit ; and certainly, I should 
 say, before the close of the year, more than two hundred 
 thousand of my productions will be scattered through 
 the land — words uttered by my lips, or WTitten by my 
 pen. But how can this influence be rendered for good? 
 How shall God's glory be promoted by it? Only by 
 incessant prayer for the Holy Spirit; by constantly 
 cafling down the influence of the Holy Ghost upon us ; 
 we want him to rest upon every page that is printed, 
 and upon every word that is uttered. Let us then be 
 doubly earnest in pleading with the Holy Ghost, that 
 he would come and own our labors ; that the whole 
 church at large may be revived thereby, and not 
 ourselves only, but the whole world share in the 
 benefit. 
 
 Then, to the ungodly, I have this one closing word 
 to say. Ever be careful how you speak of the Holy 
 Ghost. I do not know what the unpardonable sin is, 
 and I do not think any man understands it ; but it is 
 something like this : " He that speaketh a word 
 against the Holy Ghost, it shall never be forgiven him." 
 I do not know what that means; but tread carefully! 
 There is danger; there is a pit which our ignorance 
 has covered by sand ; tread carefully ! you may be in it 
 before the next hour. If there is any strife in your 
 heart to-day, perhaps you will go to the ale-house and 
 forget it. Perhaps there is some voice speaking in 
 your soul, and you will put it away. I do not tell you 
 you will be resisting the Holy Ghost, and committing 
 
PERSONALITY OF THE HOLY GHOST. 65 
 
 the unpardonable sin ; but it is somewhere there. Be 
 very carefuh O there is no crime on earth, so black 
 as the crime against the Holy Spirit I Ye may blas- 
 pheme the Father, and ye shall be damned for it, unless 
 ye repent; ye may blaspheme the Sen, and hell shall 
 be your portion, unless ye are forgiven ; but blaspheme 
 the Holy Ghost, and thus saith the Lord: "There is 
 no forgiveness, either in this world nor in the world 
 which is to come." I cannot tell you what it is ; I do 
 not profess to understand it ; but there it is. It is the 
 danger signal ; stop ! man, stop ! If thou hast despised 
 the Holy Spirit — if thou hast laughed at his revelations, 
 and scorned what Christians call his influence, I beseech 
 thee, stop I This morning seriously deUberate. Perhaps 
 some of you have actually committed the unpardonable 
 sin ; stop I Let fear stop you ; sit down. Do not drive on 
 so rashly as you have done, Jehu I O slacken your 
 reins I Thou who art such a profligate in sin — thou 
 who hast uttered such hard words against the Trinity, 
 stop ! Ah, it makes us all stop. It makes us all draw 
 up, and say, " Have I not perhaps so done ? " Let us 
 think of this ; and let us not at any time trifle either 
 with the w^ords or the acts of God the Holy Ghost. 
 
 6» 
 
SERMON IV. 
 
 THE COMFORTER. 
 
 " But the Comforter, ivhich is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send iu my name, 
 he shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I 
 have said unto you.' — John xiv. 26. 
 
 Good old Simeon called Jesus the consolation of 
 Israel ; and so he was. Before his actual appearance, 
 his name was the day-star ; cheering the darkness, and 
 prophetic of the rising sun. To him they looked with 
 the same hope which cheers the nightly watcher, when 
 from the lonely castle-top he sees the fairest of the 
 stars, and hails her as the usher of the morn. When 
 he was on earth, he must have been the consolation of 
 all those who were privileged to be his companions. 
 We can imagine how readily the disciples would run 
 to Christ to tell him of their griefs, and how sweetly, 
 with that matchless intonation of his voice, he would 
 speak to them, and bid their fears be gone. Like chil- 
 dren, they would consider him as their Father ; and to 
 him every want, every groan, every sorrow, every agony, 
 would at once be carried ; and he, like a wise physician, 
 had a balm for every wound ; he had mingled a cordial 
 for their every care ; and readily did he dispense some 
 
 (GG) 
 
THE COMFORTER. G7 
 
 mighty remedy to allay all the fever of their troubles. 
 Oh I it must have been sweet to have lived with Christ. 
 Surely, sorrows were then but joys in masks, because 
 they gave an opportunity to go to Jesus to have them 
 removed. Oh I would to God, some of us may say, 
 that we could have lain our weary heads upon the 
 bosom of Jesus, and that our birth had been in that 
 happy era, when we might have heard his kind voice, 
 and seen his kind look, when he said, " Let the weary 
 ones come unto me." 
 
 But now he w^as about to die. Great prophecies 
 were to be fulfilled ; and great purposes were to be an- 
 swered; and therefore, Jesus must go. It behoved him 
 to suffer, that he might be made a propitiation for our 
 sins. It behoved him to slumber in the dust awhile, 
 that he might perfume the chamber of the grave to 
 make it — 
 
 *' No more a cliarncl house to fence 
 The relics of lost innocence." 
 
 It behoved him to have a resurrection, that we, who 
 shall one day be the dead in Christ, might rise first, and 
 in glorious bodies stand upon earth. And it behoved him 
 that he should ascend up on high, that he might lead 
 captivity captive; that he might chain the fiends of hell; 
 that he might lash them to his chariot-wheels, and drag 
 them up high heaven's hill, to make them feel a second 
 overthrow from his right arm, when he should dash 
 them from the pinnacles of heaven down to the deeper 
 depths beneath. " It is right I should go away from 
 you," said Jesus, " for if I go not away, the Comforter 
 ^vill not come." Jesus must go. Weep, ye disciples : 
 Jesus must be gone. Mourn, ye poor ones, who are to 
 
68 SERMOxNS. 
 
 be left without a Comforter. But hear how Idndly 
 Jesus speaks : " I will not leave you comfortless, I will 
 pray the Father, and he shall send you another Com- 
 forter, who shall be with you, and shall dwell in you 
 forever." He would not leave those few poor sheep 
 alone in the wilderness ; he would not desert his child- 
 ren, and leave them fatherless. Albeit that he had a 
 mighty mission which did fill his heart and hand ; albeit 
 he had so much to perform, that we might have thought 
 that even his gigantic intellect would be overburdened; 
 albeit he had so much to suffer, that we might suppose 
 his whole soul to be concentrated upon the thought of 
 the sufferings to be endured. Yet it was not so ; before 
 he left, he gave soothing words of comfort; like the 
 good Samaritan, he poured in oil and wine, and we 
 see what he promised : " I will send you another Com- 
 forter — one who shall be just what I have been, yea, 
 even more ; who shall console you in your sorrows, re- 
 move your doubts, comfort you in your afflictions, and 
 stand as my vicar on earth, to do that which I would 
 have done had I tarried with you." 
 
 Before I discourse of the Holy Ghost as the Com- 
 forter, I must make one or tw^o remarks on the dif- 
 ferent translations of the word rendered " Comforter." 
 The Rhemish translation, which you are aware is 
 adopted by Roman Catholics, has left the word un- 
 translated, and gives it " Paraclete." " But the Para- 
 clete, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will 
 send in my name, he shall teach you all things." This 
 is the original Greek word, and it has some other mean- 
 ings beside " Comforter." Sometimes it means the 
 monitor or instructor : " I will send you another moni- 
 tor, another teacher." Frequently it means "Advo- 
 
TUB COMFORTKR. "^ 
 
 cate • " but the most common moaning of the word is 
 
 that \vlmh we have here : I will «end you another Com- 
 
 fornr" However, we cannot pa.s over tho.e other 
 
 ixo interpretations without saying .omethi.ig upon 
 
 *'' "Twill send you another teacher." Jesus Christ had 
 been the official teacher of his saints whilst on earth 
 Tbey called no man Rabbi except Chr.st. They sat a 
 no" men's feet to learn their doctrines; but they had 
 them direct from the lips of him who " spake as never 
 man spake." " And now," says he, "when I am gone 
 where shall you find the great infallible teacher? bhall 
 I set you up a pope at Rome, to whom you shall go 
 and who shall be your infaUible oracle ? Shall 1 g.ve 
 YOU the councils of the church to be held to dec.de all 
 knotty points?" Christ said no such thing. "lam 
 the infallible paraclete, or teacher, and when I am gone 
 I will send you another teacher, and he shall be the per- 
 son who is to explain Scripture; he shall be the author- 
 itative oracle of God, who shall make f ^-'^'hrng 
 Ught, who shall unravel mysteries, who sliall unUvist aU 
 knot of revelation, and shall make you understand 
 what you could not discover, had it not been for h.s 
 influence." And, beloved, no man ever learns anything 
 aright, unless he is taught of the Spirit, ^ou riyay 
 learn election, and you may know it so t^hat ycm shall 
 be damned by it, if you are not taught of the Holy 
 Ghost ; for I have known some who have learned e^ 
 tion to their soul's destruction: they have learned it so 
 that they said they were of the elect, -■^«'7' !_h;>j!'f,'^ 
 no marks, no evidences, and no works of the Hoy 
 Ghost in their souls. There is a way of learning tru h 
 ■m Satan-s college, and holding it in licentiousness , 
 
70 SERMONS. 
 
 if SO, it shall be to your souls as poison to your veins, 
 and prove your everlasting ruin. No man can know 
 Jesuis Christ unless he is taught of God. There is no 
 doctrine of the Bible which can be safely, thoroughly, 
 and truly learned, except by the agency of the one author- 
 itative teacher. Ah I tell me not of systems of divinity ; 
 tell me not of schemes of theology ; tell me not of in- 
 fallible commentators, or most learned and most arro- 
 gant doctors ; but tell me of the Great Teacher, who 
 shall instruct us, the sons of God, and shall make us 
 wise to understand all things. He is the Teacher ; it 
 matters not what this man or that man says ; I rest on 
 no man's boasting authority, nor will you. Ye are not 
 to be carried away with the craftiness of men, nor 
 sleight of words ; this is the authoritative oracle — the 
 Holy Ghost resting in the hearts of his children. 
 
 The other translation is advocate. Have you ever 
 thought how the Holy Ghost can be said to be an ad- 
 vocate ? You know Jesus Christ is called the wonder- 
 ful, the counsellor, the mighty God ; but how can the 
 Holy Ghost be said to be an advocate ? I suppose it 
 is thus : he is an advocate on earth to plead against the 
 enemies of the cross. How was it that Paul could so 
 ably plead before FelLx and Agrippa ? How was it 
 that the Apostles stood unawed before the magistrates, 
 and confessed their Lord ? How has it come to pass, 
 that in all times God's ministers have been made fearless 
 as lions, and their brows have been firmer than brass ; 
 their hearts sterner than steel, and their words like the 
 language of God ? Why, it was simply for this reason : 
 that it was not the man who pleaded, but it was God 
 the Holy Ghost pleading through him. Have you? 
 never seen an earnest minister, with hands uplifted 
 
THE COMFOIITER. 71 
 
 and eyes dropping tears, pleading with the sons of men ? 
 Have you never admired that portrait from the hand 
 of old John Bmiyan ? — a grave person with eyes lifted 
 up to heaven, the best of books in his hand, the law of 
 truth ^^^:itten on his lips, the world behind his back, 
 standing as if he pleaded with men, and a crown of 
 gold hanging over his head. Who gave that minister so 
 blessed a manner, and such goodly matter ? Whence 
 came his skill ? Did he acquire it in the college ? Did 
 he learn it in the seminary ? Ah, no. He learned it 
 of the God of Jacob ; he learned it of the Holy Ghost; 
 for the Holy Ghost is the great counsellor who teaches 
 us how to advocate his cause aright. 
 
 But, besides this, the Holy Ghost is the advocate in 
 men's hearts. Ah ! I have known men reject a doctrine 
 until the Holy Ghost began to illuminate them. We 
 who are the advocates of the truth, are often very poor 
 pleaders ; we spoil our cause by the words we use ; but 
 it is a mercy that the brief is in the hand of a special 
 pleader, who wiU advocate successfully, and overcome 
 the sinner's opposition. Did you ever know him fail 
 once ? Brethren, I speak to your souls : has not God 
 in old times convinced you of sin ? Did not the Holy 
 Ghost come and prove that you were guilty, although 
 no minister could ever get you out of your self-right- 
 eousness ? Did he not advocate Christ's righteousness? 
 Did he not stand and tell you that your works were 
 filthy rags ? And when you had well-nigh still refused to 
 listen to his voice, did he not fetch hell's drum and make 
 it sound about your ears ; bidding you look through the 
 vista of future years, and see the throne set, and the books 
 open, and the sword brandished, and hell burning, and 
 fiends howling, and the damned shrieking forever ? And 
 
72 SERMOxXS. 
 
 did he not convince you of the judgment to come ? He 
 is a mighty advocate when he pleads in the soul, of sin, 
 of righteousness, and of the judgment to come. Bles- 
 sed advocate I plead in my heart ; plead with my con- 
 science. When I sin, make conscience bold to tell me 
 of it; when I err, make conscience speak at once; and 
 when I turn aside to crooked ways, then advocate the 
 cause of righteousness, and bid me sit down in con- 
 fusion, knowing my guiltiness in the sight of God. 
 
 But there is yet another sense in which the Holy 
 Ghost advocates, and that is, he advocates our cause 
 with Jesus Christ, with groanings that cannot be ut- 
 tered. O my soul I thou art ready to burst within me. 
 O my heart! thou art swelled with grief. The hot 
 tide of my emotion would well-nigh overflood the chan- 
 nels of my veins. I long to speak, but the very desire 
 chains my tongue. I wish to pray, but the fervency of 
 my feeling curbs my language. There is a groaning 
 within that cannot be uttered. Do you know who can 
 utter that gi'oaning ? who can understand it, and Vv^ho 
 can put it into heavenly language, and utter it in a ce- 
 lestial tongue, so that Christ can hear it? O yes; it 
 is God the Holy Spirit ; he advocates our cause with 
 Christ, and then Christ advocates it with his Father. 
 He is the advocate who maketh intercession for us, 
 with groanings that cannot be uttered. 
 
 Having thus explained the Spirit's office as a teacher 
 and advocate, we now come to the translation of our 
 version, the Comforter ; and here I shall have three di- 
 visions : first, the comforter ; secondly, the comfort ; and 
 thu'dly, the comforted. 
 
 I. First, then, the Comforter. Briefly let me run 
 over in my mind, and in your minds too, the character- 
 
THE COMFORTER. 73 
 
 istics of this glorious Comforter. Let me tell you some 
 of the attributes of his comfort, so that you may un- 
 derstand how well adapted he is to your case. 
 
 And first, we will remark that God the Holy Ghost 
 is a very loving Comforter. I am in distress, and I want 
 consolation. Some passer by hears of my sorrow, and 
 he steps within, sits down, and essays to cheer me ; he 
 speaks soothing words, but he loves me not ; he is a 
 stranger ; he knows me not at all ; he has only come in 
 to try his skill. And what is the consequence ? HLis 
 words run o'er me like oil upon a slab of marble ; they 
 are like the pattering rain upon the rock ; they do not 
 break my grief; it stands unmoved as adamant, because 
 he has no love for me. But let some one who loves me 
 dear as his own life, come and plead with me, then truly 
 his words are music ; they taste like honey : he knows the 
 password of the doors of my heart, and my ear is atten- 
 tive to every word : I catch the intonation of each sylla- 
 ble as it falls, for it is like the harmony of the harps of 
 heaven. Oh ! there is a voice in love, it speaks a lan- 
 guage which is its own : it has an idiom and a brogue 
 which none can mimic; wisdom cannot imitate it; 
 oratory cannot attain unto it ; it is love alone which 
 can reach the mourning heart ; love is the only hand- 
 kerchief which can w^ipe the mourner's tears away. 
 And is not the Holy Ghost a loving comforter ? Dost 
 thou know, O saint, how much the Holy Spirit loves 
 thee? Canst thou measure the love of the Spirit? 
 Dost thou know how great is the affection of his soul 
 towards thee? Go measure heaven w^ith thy span; 
 go weigh the mountains in the scales; go take the 
 ocean's w^ater, and tell each drop ; go comit the sand 
 upon the sea's wide shore ; and when thou hast accom- 
 
 7 
 
74 SERMONS. 
 
 plished this, thou canst tell how much he loveth thee. 
 He has loved thee long, he has loved thee well, he 
 loved thee ever, and he still shall love thee ; surely he 
 is the person to comfort thee, because he loves. Admit 
 him, then, to your heart, O Christian, that he may com- 
 fort you in your distress. 
 
 But next, he is a faithful Comforter. Love some- 
 times proveth unfaithful. " Oh ! sharper than a ser- 
 pent's tooth " is an unfaithful friend ! Oh ! far more 
 bitter than the gall of bitterness, to have a friend turn 
 from me in my distress ! Oh I woe of woes, to have 
 one who loves me in my prosperity, forsake me in the 
 dark day of my trouble. Sad indeed ; but such is not 
 God's Spirit. He ever loves, and loves even to the 
 end — a faithful Comforter. Child of God, you are in 
 trouble. A little while ago, you found him a sweet 
 and loving Comforter; you obtained relief from him 
 when others were but broken cisterns ; he sheltered you 
 in liis bosom, and carried you in his arms. Oh, where- 
 fore dost thou distrust him now? Away with thy fears ; 
 for he is a faithful Comforter. " Ah I but," thou sayest, 
 " I fear I shall be sick, and shall be deprived of his 
 ordinances." Nevertheless, he shall visit thee on thy 
 sick bed, and sit by thy side, to give thee consolation. 
 " Ah ! but I have distresses greater than you can con- 
 ceive of; wave upon wave roUeth over me; deep call- 
 eth unto deep, at the noise of the Eternal's water- 
 spouts." Nevertheless, he ^^dll be faithful to his promise. 
 " Ah ! but I have sinned." So thou hast, but sin can- 
 not sever thee from his love ; he loves thee still. Think 
 not, O poor downcast child of God, because the scars 
 of thine old sins have marred thy beauty, that he loves 
 thee less because of that blemish. O no ! He loved 
 
Tin: COMFORTER. 70 
 
 thee when he foreknew thy sin ; he loved thee with the 
 knowledge of what the aggregate of thy wickedness 
 would be ; and he does not love thee less now. Come 
 to him in all boldness of faith ; tell him thou hast grieved 
 Mm, and he will forget thy wandering, and will receive 
 thee again; the kisses of liis love shall be bestowed 
 upon thee, and the arms of his grace shall embrace 
 thee. He is faithful : trust him, he w^ill never deceive 
 you ; trust Mm, he will never leave you. 
 
 Again, he is an univearied Comforter. I have some- 
 times tried to comfort persons, and have been tired. 
 You, now and then, meet Avith the case of a nervous 
 person. You ask, " What is your trouble ?" You are 
 told; and you essay, if possible, to remove it; but 
 while you are preparing your artillery to battle the trou- 
 ble, you find that it has shifted its quarters, and is oc- 
 cupying quite a different position. You change your 
 argument and begin again ; but lo, it is again gone, 
 and you are bewildered. You feel lil^e Hercules, cut- 
 ting off the ever-growing heads of the Hydra, and you 
 give up your task in despair. You meet with persons 
 whom it is impossible to comfort, reminding one of the 
 man who locked Mmself up in fetters, and threw the 
 key away, so that nobody could unlock him. I have 
 found some in the fetters of despair. " O, I am the 
 man," say they, " that has seen affliction ; pity me, pity 
 me, O, my friends ; " and the more you try to comfort 
 such people, the worse they get; and, therefore, out of 
 all heart, we leave them to wander alone, among the 
 tombs of their former joys. But the Holy Ghost is 
 never out of heart mth those whom he wishes to com- 
 fort. He attempts to comfort us, and we run away 
 from the sweet cordial ; he gives some sweet draught 
 
76 SERMONS. 
 
 to cure us, and we will not drink it ; he gives some 
 wondrous potion to charm away all our troubles, and 
 we put it away from us. Still he pursues us; and 
 though we say that we will not be comforted, he says 
 we shall be, and when he has said, he does it; he is not 
 to be wearied by all our sins, nor by all our murmur- 
 ings. 
 
 And oh, how ivise a Comforter is the Holy Ghost. 
 Job had comforters, and I think he spoke the truth, 
 when he said, " Miserable comforters are ye all." But 
 I dare say they esteemed themselves wise ; and when 
 the young man Elihu rose to speak, they thought he 
 had a world of impudence. Were they not " grave 
 and reverend seniors ? " Did not they comprehend his 
 grief and sorrow ? If they could not comfort him, who 
 could ? But they did not find out the cause. They 
 thought he was not really a child of God, that he was 
 self-righteous, and they gave him the wrong physic. It 
 is a bad case when the doctor mistakes a disease, and 
 gives a WTong prescription, and so, perhaps, kills the 
 patient. Sometimes, when we go and visit people, we 
 mistake their disease ; we want to comfort them on 
 this point, whereas they do not require any such com- 
 fort at all, and they would be better left alone, than 
 spoiled by such unwise comforters as we are. But oh, 
 how wise the Holy Spirit is ! he takes the soul, lays it 
 on the table, and dissects it in a moment ; he finds out 
 the root of the matter, he sees where the complaint is, 
 and then he applies the knife where something is re- 
 quired to be taken away, or puts a plaster where the 
 sore is ; and he never mistakes. O, how wise is the 
 blessed Holy Ghost ; from every comforter I turn and 
 
TUE COMFORTER. 77 
 
 leave them all, for thou art he who alone givest the 
 wisest consolation. 
 
 Then mark, how safe a Comforter the Holy Ghost is. 
 All comfort is not safe, mark that. There is a young 
 man over there very melancholy. You know how he 
 became so. He stepped into the house of God and 
 heard a powerful preacher, and the word was blessed. 
 and convinced him of sin. When he went home, his 
 father and the rest found there was something different 
 about him, " Oh," they said, "John is mad, he is crazy; " 
 and what said his mother ? " Send him into the coun- 
 try for a week ; let him go to the ball, or the theatre." 
 John, did you find any comfort there ? " Ah, no; thej 
 made me worse, for while I was there, I thought hell 
 might open and swallow me up." Did you find any 
 relief in the gayeties of the world? "No," say you, 
 " I thought it was idle waste of time." Alas ! this is 
 miserable comfort, but it is the comfort of the world- 
 ling; and, when a Christian gets into distress, how 
 many v^nW. recommend him this remedy and the other. 
 "Go and hear IVIr. So-and-so preach;" "have a few 
 friends at your house;" "read such-and-such a consol- 
 ing volume ; " and very likely it is the most misafe ad- 
 vice in the world. The devil will sometimes come to 
 men's souls as a false comforter; and he will say to 
 the soul, " what need is there to make all this ado about 
 repentance ? you are no worse than other people ; " and 
 he wiU try to make the soul believe, that what is pre- 
 sumption, is the real assurance of the Holy Ghost; thus 
 he deceives many by false comfort. Ah! there have 
 been many, like infants, destroyed by elixirs, given to 
 lull them to sleep ; many have been ruined by the cry 
 of " peace, peace," when there is no peace ; hearing 
 
78 
 
 SERMONS. 
 
 gentle things, when they ought to be stirred to the quick. 
 Cleopatra's asp was brought in a basket of flowers ; 
 and men's ruin often lurks in fair and sweet speeches. 
 But the Holy Ghost's comfort is safe, and you may 
 rest on it. Let him speak the word, and there is a 
 reality about it ; let him give the cup of consolation, 
 and you may drink it to the bottom; for in its depths 
 there are no dregs, nothing to intoxicate or ruin, it is all 
 safe. 
 
 Moreover, the Holy Ghost is an active Comforter: he 
 does not comfort by words, but by deeds. Some com- 
 fort by, " Be ye warmed, and be ye filled, giving no- 
 thing." But the Holy Ghost gives, he intercedes with 
 Jesus ; he gives us promises, he gives us grace, and so 
 he comforts us. Mark again, he is always a successful 
 Comforter; he never attempts what he cannot accom- 
 plish. 
 
 Then, to close up, he is an ever-present Comforter, so 
 that you never have to send for him. Your God is al- 
 ways near you ; and when you need comfort in your 
 distress, behold the word is nigh thee ; it is in thy mouth, 
 and in thy heart. He is an ever-present help in time 
 of ti'ouble. I wish I had time to expand these thoughts, 
 but I cannot. 
 
 11. The second thing is, the comfort. Now^, there 
 are some persons w^ho make a gi-eat mistake about the 
 influence of the Holy Spirit. A foolish man who had 
 a fancy to preach in a certain pulpit, though in truth 
 he was quite incapable of the duty, called upon the 
 minister, and assured him solemnly, that it had been 
 revealed to him by the Holy Ghost that he was to preach 
 in his pulpit. " Very well," said the minister, "I sup- 
 pose I must not doubt your assertion, but as it has not 
 
THE COMFORTER. 79 
 
 been revealed to me that I am to let you preach, you 
 must go your way, until it is." I have heard many 
 fanatical persons say the Holy Spirit revealed this and 
 that to them. Now, that is very generally revealed non- 
 sense. The Holy Ghost does not reveal anything fresh 
 now. He brings old things to our remembrance. " He 
 shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your 
 remembrance, whatsoever I have told you." The canon 
 of revelation is closed, there is no more to be added ; 
 God does not give a fresh revelation, but he rivets the 
 old one. When it has been forgotten, and laid in 
 the dusty chamber of our memory, he fetches it out and 
 cleans the picture, but does not paint a new one. There 
 are no new doctrines, but the old ones are often revived. 
 It is not, I say, by any new revelation that the Spirit 
 comforts. He does so by telling us old things over 
 again ; he brings a fresh lamp to manifest the treasures 
 liidden in Scripture; he unlocks the strong chests in 
 which the truth has long lain, and he points to secret 
 ch^bers filled with untold riches ; but he coins no 
 more, for enough is done. Believer! there is enough in 
 the Bible for thee to live upon forever. If thou shouldst 
 outnumber the years of Methuselah, there would be no 
 need for a fresh revelation; if thou shouldst live till 
 Christ should come upon the earth, there would be no 
 necessity for the addition of a single word; if thou 
 shouldst go down as deep as Jonah, or even descend as 
 David said he did, into the belly of hell, still there 
 would be enough in the Bible to comfort thee without 
 a supplementary sentence. But Christ says, " He shall 
 take of mine, and show it unto you." Now, let me 
 just tell you briefly, what it is the Holy Ghost tells us. 
 Ah! does he not whisper to the heart, " Saint, be of 
 
so SERMONS. 
 
 good cheer — there is one who died for thee; look to 
 Calvary, behold his wounds, see the torrent gushing 
 from his side — there is thy purchaser, and thou art se- 
 cure. He loves thee with an everlasting love, and this 
 chastisement is meant for thy good; each stroke is 
 working thy healing; by the blueness of the wound thy 
 soul is made better." " Whom he loveth he chasteneth, 
 and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth." Doubt 
 not his grace, because of thy tribulation ; but believe 
 that he loveth thee as much in seasons of trouble, as 
 in times of happiness. And then, moreover, he says, 
 " What is all thy suffering compared with that of thy 
 Lord's ? or what, when weighed in the scales of Jesus' 
 agonies, is all thy distress ? " And especially at times 
 does the Holy Ghost take back the veil of heaven, and 
 lets the soul behold the glory of the upper world I Then 
 it is that the saint can say, " O thou art a Comforter 
 to me!" 
 
 " Let cares like a wild deluge come, 
 And storms of sorrow fall ; 
 May I but safely reach my home, ^ 
 
 My God, my heaven, my all." 
 
 Some of you could follow, were I to tell of manifesta- 
 tions of heaven. You, too, have left sun, moon, and 
 stars at your feet, while, in your flight, outstripping the 
 tardy lightning, you have seemed to enter the gates of 
 pearl, and tread the golden streets, borne aloft on wings 
 of the Spirit. But here we must not trust ourselves; 
 lest, lost in reverie, we forget our theme. 
 
 HI. And now, thirdly, who are the comforted per- 
 sons? I like, you know, at the end of my sermon to 
 cry out, " Divide ! divide I " There are two parties 
 here — some who are comforted, and others who are 
 
THE COMFORTER. 81 
 
 the comfortless ones — some who have received the 
 consolations of the Holy Ghost, and some who have 
 not. Now let us try and sift you, and see which is the 
 chaff, and w^hich is the wheat ; and may God grant 
 that some of the chaff may, this night, be transformed 
 into his wheat! 
 
 You may say, " How am I to know whether I am a 
 recipient of the comfort of the Holy Ghost?" You 
 may know it by one rule. If you have received one 
 blessing from God, you \vill receive all other blessings 
 too. Let me explain myself. If I could come here as 
 an auctioneer, and sell the gospel off in lots, I should 
 dispose of it all. If I could say, here is justification 
 through the blood of Christ — free; giving away, 
 gratis ; many a one would say, " I will have justifica- 
 tion ; give it me : I wish to be justified ; I wish to be 
 pardoned." Suppose I took sanctification, the giving 
 up of all sin, a thorough change of heart, leaving off 
 drunkenness and swearing ; many would say, " I don't 
 want that ; I should like to go to heaven, but I do not 
 want that holiness ; I should like to be saved at last, 
 but I should like to have my drink still ; I should like 
 to enter glory, but then I must have an oath or two 
 on the road." Nay, but, sinner, if thou hast one bless- 
 ing, thou shalt have all. God vA\\ never divide the 
 gospel. He will not give justification to that man, 
 and sanctification to another — pardon to one and holi- 
 ness to another. No, it all goes together. Whom he 
 calls, them he justifies ; whom he justifies, them he 
 sanctifies ; and whom he sanctifies, them he also glori- 
 fies. O I if I could lay down nothing but the comforts 
 of the gospel, ye would fly to them as flies do to honey. 
 When ye come to be ill, ye send for the clergyman. 
 
82 SERMONS. • 
 
 Ah ! you all want your minister then to come and give 
 you consoling words. But, if he be an honest man, he 
 will not give some of you a particle of consolation. 
 He will not commence pouring oil when the knife 
 would be better. I want to make a man feel his sins 
 before I dare tell him anything about Christ. I want 
 to probe into his soul and make him feel that he is lost 
 before I tell him anything about the purchased bless- 
 ing. It is the ruin of many to tell them, " Now just 
 believe on Christ, and that is all you have to do." If, 
 instead of dying, they get better, they rise up white- 
 washed hypocrites — that is aU. I have heard of a 
 city missionary who kept a record of two thousand 
 persons who were supposed to be on their death-bed, 
 but recovered, and whom he should have put down as 
 converted persons had they died ; and how many do 
 you think lived a Christian life afterwards out of the 
 two thousand? Not two. Positively he could only 
 find one who was found to live afterwards in the fear 
 of God. Is it not horrible that when men and women 
 come to die, they should cry, " comfort, comfort ? " and 
 that hence their friends conclude that they are children 
 of God, while, after all, they have no right to consola- 
 tion, but are intruders upon the enclosed grounds of the 
 blessed God. O God, may these people ever be kept 
 from having comfort when they have no right to it ! 
 Have you the other blessings? Have you had the con- 
 viction of sin ? Have you ever felt your guilt before 
 God ? Have your souls been humbled at Jesus' feet ? 
 And have you been made to look to Calvary alone for 
 your refuge ? If not, you have no right to consolation. 
 Do not take an atom of it. The Spirit is a convincer 
 before he is a Comforter; and you must have the other 
 
THE COMFORTER. 83 
 
 operations of the Holy Spirit, before you can derive 
 anything from this. 
 
 And now I have done. You have heard what this 
 babbler hath said once more. What has it been? 
 Something about the Comforter. But let me ask you, 
 before you go, what do you know about the Comfor- 
 ter ? Each one of you, before descending the steps of 
 this chapel, let this solemn question thrill through your 
 souls — What do you know of the Comforter? O! 
 poor souls, if ye know not the Comforter, I wall tell 
 you what you shall know. ^ You shall know the Judge! 
 If ye know not the Comforter on earth, ye shall know 
 the Condcmner in the next world, who shall cry, " De- 
 part, ye cursed, into everlasting fire in hell." WeU 
 might Whitfield call out, " O earth, earth, earth, hear 
 the word of the Lord!" If ye were to live here for- 
 ever, ye might slight the gospel ; if ye had a lease of 
 your lives, ye might despise the Comforter. But, sirs, 
 ye must die. Since last we met together, probably 
 some have gone to their long last home; and ere 
 we meet again in this sanctuary, some here will 
 be amongst the glorified above, or amongst the 
 damned below. Which will it be? Let your soul 
 answer. If to-night you fell down dead in your pews, 
 or where you are standing in the gallery, where would 
 you be ? in heaven or in hell? Ah! deceive not your- 
 selves ; let conscience have its perfect work ; and if, in 
 the sight of God, you are obliged to say, " I tremble 
 and fear lest my portion should be wdth unbelievers," 
 listen one moment, and then I have done wdth thee. 
 " He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, and 
 he that believeth not shall be damned." Weary sinner, 
 hellish sinner, thoa who art the devil's castaway, repro- 
 
84 SERMONS. 
 
 bate, profligate, harlot, robber, thief, adulterer, fornica- 
 tor, drunkard, swearer, Sabbath-breaker — list! I speak 
 to thee as well as to the rest. I exempt no man. God 
 hath said there is no exemption here. " Wliosoevcr be- 
 lieveth on the name of Jesus Christ shall be saved." 
 Sin is no barrier : thy guilt is no obstacle. Whosoever 
 — though he were as black as Satan, though he were 
 filthy as a fiend — whosoever this night believes, shall 
 have every sin forgiven, shall have every crime effaced ; 
 shall have every iniquity blotted out ; shall be saved in 
 the Lord Jesus Christ, and shall stand in heaven safe 
 and secure. That is the glorious gospel. God apply 
 it to your hearts, and give you faith in Jesus ! 
 
 ** "We have listened to the preacher — 
 Truth by him has now been shown ; 
 But we want a greater teacher, 
 From the everlasting throne : 
 APPLICATION 
 Is the work of God alone.^* 
 
SERMON V. 
 
 CHRIST CRUCIFIED. 
 
 " But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling-block, and unto the 
 Greeks foolishness ; but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Chris^^e 
 power of God, and the wisdom of God." — 1 Cor. i. 23, 24. ■\'T~ 
 
 What contempt hath God poured upon the wisdom 
 of this world ! How hath he brought it to nought, and 
 made it appear as nothing. He has allowed it to work 
 out its own conclusions, and prove its own folly. Men 
 boasted that they were wise; they said that they could 
 find out God to perfection ; and in order that their folly 
 might be refuted once and forever, God gave them the 
 opportunity of so doing. He said, " Worldly wisdom, 
 I will try thee. Thou sayest that thou art mighty, that 
 thine intellect is vast and comprehensive, that thine eye 
 is keen, and thou canst find all secrets ; now, behold, 
 I try thee; I give thee one great problem to solve. 
 Here is the universe ; stars make its canopy, fields and 
 flowers adorn it, and the floods roll o'er its surface ; my 
 name is written therein ; the invisible things of God 
 may be clearly seen in the things which are made." 
 "Philosophy, I give thee this problem — find me out. 
 Here are my works — find me out. Discover in the 
 
 8 ^85^ 
 
86 SERMONS. 
 
 wondrous world which I have made, the way to wor- 
 ship me acceptably. I give thee space enough to do it 
 — there are data enough. Behold the clouds, the earth, 
 and the stars. I give thee time enough ; I will give 
 thee four thousand years, and I will not interfere ; but 
 thou shalt do as thou wilt with thine own world. I will 
 give thee men enough ; for I will make great minds and 
 vast, whom thou shalt call lords of earth ; thou shalt 
 have orators, thou shalt have philosophers. Find me 
 out, O reason ; find me out, O wisdom ; find me out, if 
 thou canst ; find me out unto perfection ; and if thou 
 canst not, then shut thy mouth forever, and then will I 
 teach thee that the wisdom of God is wiser than the 
 wisdom of man; yea, that the foolishness of God is 
 wiser than men." And how did the wisdom of man 
 work out the problem? How did wisdom perform her 
 feat? Look upon t\\^ heathen nations; there you see 
 the result of wisdom's researches. In the time of Jesus 
 Christ, you might have beheld the earth covered with 
 the slime of pollution, a Sodom on a large scale — cor- 
 rupt, filthy, depraved ; indulging in vices which we dare 
 not mention ; revelling in lust too abominable even for 
 our imagination to dwell upon for a moment. "We find 
 the men prostrating themselves before blocks of wood 
 and stone, adoring ten thousand gods more vicious 
 than themselves. We find, in fact, that reason wrote 
 out her lines with a finger covered with blood and filth, 
 and that she forever cut herself out from all her glory 
 by the vile deeds she did. She would not worship God. 
 She would not bow down to him who is " clearly seen," 
 but she worsliipped any creature — the reptile that 
 crawled, the crocodile, the viper — everything might be 
 a god •; but not, forsooth, the God of heaven. Vice 
 
CHRIST CRUCIFIED. 87 
 
 might be made into a ceremony, the greatest crime 
 might be exalted into a religion; but true worship she 
 knew nothing of. Poor reason! poor wisdom I how art 
 thou fallen from heaven; like Lucifer, thou son of the 
 morning I thou art lost; thou hast \\Titten out thy con- 
 clusion, but a conclusion of consummate folly. " After 
 that in the \\dsdom of God, the world by wisdom knew 
 not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preach- 
 ing to save them that believe." 
 
 Wisdom had had its time, and time enough ; it had 
 done its all, and that was Uttle enough ; it had made 
 the world worse than it was before it stepped upon it, 
 and "now," says God, "foolishness shall overcome 
 wisdom ; now ignorance, as ye call it, shall sweep away 
 science ; now (saith God,) humble, child-lilvc faith shall 
 crumble to the dust all the colossal systems your hands 
 have piled." He calls his warriors. Christ puts his 
 trumpet to his mouth, and up come the warriors, clad in 
 fishermen's garb, with the brogue of the lake of Galilee 
 —poor humble mariners. Here are the warriors, O 
 wdsdom,that are to confound thee ; these are the heroes 
 who shall overcome thy proud philosophers ; these men 
 are to plant their standard upon thy ruined walls, and 
 bid them fall forever ; these men and their successors 
 are to exalt a gospel in the world which ye may laugh 
 at as absurd, which ye may sneer at as folly, but which 
 shaU be exalted above the hills, and shall be glorious 
 even to the highest heavens. Since that day, God has 
 always raised up successors of the apostles. I claim 
 to be aisuccessor of the apostles; not by any lineal 
 descent, but because I have the same roU and charter 
 as any apostle, and am as much called to preach the 
 gospel as Paul himself; if not as much owned by the 
 
88 SERMONS. 
 
 conversion of sinners, yet, in a measure, blessed of God ; 
 and, therefore, here I stand, foolish as Paul might be, 
 foolish as Peter, or any of those fishermen ; but still 
 with the might of God I grasp the sword of truth, 
 coming here to "preach Christ and him crucified, unto 
 the Jews a stumbling-block, and unto the Greeks fool- 
 ishness ; but unto them which are called, both Jews and 
 Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of 
 God." 
 w^ Before I enter upon our text, let me very briefly teU 
 you what I believe preaching Christ and him crucified 
 is. My friends, I do not believe it is preaching Christ 
 and him crucified, to give people a batch of philoso- 
 phy every Sunday morning and evening, and neglect 
 the truths of this Holy Book. I do not belie ve it is 
 preaching Christ and him crucified, to leave out the 
 main cardinal doctrines of the Word of God, and 
 preach a religion which is all a mist and a haze, with- 
 out any definite truths whatever. I take it that man 
 does not preach Christ and him crucified, who can get 
 through a sermon without mentioning Christ's name 
 once ; nor does that man preach Christ and him cruci- 
 fied, who leaves out the Holy Spirit's work, who never 
 says a word about the Holy Ghost, so that indeed the 
 hearers might say, " We do not so much as know 
 whether there be a Holy Ghost." And I have my own 
 private opinion, that there is no such thing as preach- 
 ing Christ and him crucified, unless you preach what 
 now-a-days is called Calvinism. I have my own ideas, 
 and those I always state boldly. It is a nickname to 
 call it Calvanism. Calvinism is the gospel, and nothing 
 else. I do not believe we can preach the gospel, if we 
 do not preach justification by faith without works ; nor 
 
CHRIST CRUCIFIED. 89 
 
 unless we preach the sovereignty of God in his dispen- 
 sation of grace ; nor unless we exalt the electing, un- 
 changeable, eternal, immutable, conquering love of Je- 
 hovah; nor, I think, can we preach the gospel, unless 
 we base it upon the peculiar redemption which Christ 
 made for his elect and chosen people ; nor can I com- 
 prehend a gospel which lets saints fall away after they 
 are called, and suffers the children of God to be burned 
 in the fires of damnation, after having believed. Such 
 a gospel I abhor. The gospel of the Bible is not such 
 a gospel as that. We preach Clirist and him crucified 
 in a different fashion, and to all gainsayers we reply, 
 " We have not so learned Christ." 
 
 There are three things in the text: first, a gospel re- 
 jected, " Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling-block, 
 and to the Greeks foolishness ; " secondly, a gospel tri- 
 umphant, " unto those who are called, both Jews and 
 Greeks ; " and thirdly, a gospel admired ; it is to them 
 who are called " the power of God and the wisdom of 
 God." 
 
 I. First, we have here a gospel rejected. One would 
 have imagined that, when God sent his gospel to men, 
 all men would meekly listen, and humbly receive its 
 truths. We should have thought that God's ministers 
 had but to proclaim that life is brought to light by the 
 gospel, and that Christ is come to save sinners, and 
 every ear would be attentive, every eye would be fLxed, 
 and every heart would be wide open to receive the 
 truth. We should have said, judging favorably of our 
 fellow-creatures, that there would not exist in the 
 world a monster so vile, so depraved, so polluted, as to 
 put so much as a stone in the way of the progress of 
 truth ; we could not have conceived such a thing ; yet 
 8* 
 
90 SERMONS. 
 
 that conception is the truth. When the gospel was 
 preached, instead of being accepted and admired, one 
 universal hiss went up to heaven ; men could not bear 
 it ; its first preacher they dragged to the brow of the 
 hill, and would have sent him down headlong; yea, 
 they did more — they nailed him to the cross, and there 
 they let him languish out his dyiiig life in agony such 
 as no man hath borne since. All his chosen ministers 
 have been hated and abhorred by worldlings ; instead 
 of being listened to, they have been scoffed at ; treated 
 as if they were the ofTscouring of all things, and the 
 very scum of mankind. Look at the holy men in the 
 old times, how they were driven from city to city, perse- 
 cuted, afflicted, tormented, stoned to death, wherever 
 the enemy had power to do so. Those friends of men, 
 those real philanthropists, who came with hearts big 
 with love, and hands fuU of mercy, and lips pregnant 
 with celestial fire, and souls that burned with holy in- 
 fluence ; those men were treated as if they were spies 
 in the camp, as if they were deserters from the com- 
 mon cause of mankind ; as if they were enemies, and 
 not, as they truly were, the best of friends. Do not 
 suppose, my friends, that men like the gospel any bet- 
 ter now than they did then. There is an idea that you 
 are growing better. I do not believe it. You are 
 growing worse. In many respects men may be better, 
 — outwardly better ; but the heart witliin is still the 
 same. The human heart of to-day dissected, would 
 be just like the human heart a thousand years ago ; the 
 gaU of bitterness within that breast of yours, is just as 
 bitter as the gall of bitterness in that of Simon of old. 
 We have in our hearts the same latent opposition to 
 
CHRIST CRUCIFIED. 91 
 
 the truth of God ; and hence we fmd men, even as of 
 old, who scorn Ihe gospel. 
 
 I shall, in speaking of the gospel rejected, endeavor 
 to point out the two classes of persons who equally 
 despise the truth. The Jews make it a stumbling- 
 block, and the Greeks account it foolishness. Now 
 these iwo very respectable gentlemen — the Jew and 
 the Greek — I am not going to make these ancient indi- 
 viduals the object of my condemnation, but I look upon 
 them as members of a great parliament, representa- 
 tives of a great constituency, and I shall attempt to 
 show that, if all the race of Jews were cut off, there 
 would be still a great number in the world who would 
 answer to the name of Jews, to whom Christ is a 
 stumbling-block ; and that if Greece were swallowed 
 up by some earthquake, and ceased to be a nation, 
 there would still be the Greek unto whom the gospel 
 would be foolishness. I shall simply introduce the 
 Jew and the Greek, and let them speak a moment to 
 you, in order that you may see the gentlemen who rep- 
 resent you ; the representative men ; the persons who 
 stand for many of you, who as yet are not called by 
 di^dne grace. 
 
 The first is a Jew to him the gospel is a stumbling- 
 block. A respectable man the Jew was in his day; all 
 formal religion was concenti-ated in his person ; he 
 went up to the temple very devoutly ; he tithed all he 
 had, even to the mint and the cummin. You would 
 see him fasting twice in the week, with a face all 
 marked with sadness and sorrow. If you looked at 
 him, he had the law between his eyes ; there was the 
 phylactery, and the borders of his garments of amazing 
 width, that he might never be supposed to be a Gentile 
 
92 SERMONS. 
 
 dog ; that no one might ever conceive that he was not 
 an Hebrew of pure descent. He. had a holy ancestry ; 
 he came of a pious family ; a right good man was he. 
 He could not like those Sadducees at all, who had no 
 religion. He was thoroughly a religious man ; he stood 
 up for his synagogue ; he would not have that temple 
 on Mount Gerizim ; he could not bear the Samaritans, 
 he had no dealings with them ; he was a religionist of 
 the first order, a man of the very finest kind ; a speci- 
 men of a man who is a moralist, and who loves the 
 ceremonies of the law. Accordingly, when he heard 
 about Christ, he asked who Christ was. " The Son of 
 a carpenter." Ah ! " The son of a carpenter, and his 
 mother's name was Mary, and his father's name 
 Joseph." " That of itself is presumption enough," said 
 he ; " positive proof, in fact, that he cannot be the Mes- 
 siah." And what does he say ? Why, he says, " Woe 
 unto you. Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites." " That 
 won't do." Moreover, he says, " It is not by the works 
 of the flesh that any man can enter into the kingdom 
 of heaven." The Jew tied a double knot in his phy- 
 lactery at once ; he thought he would have the borders 
 of his garment made twice as broad. He bow to the 
 Nazarene I No, no ; and if so much as a disciple 
 crossed the street, he thought the place polluted, and 
 would not tread in his steps. Do you think he would 
 give up his old father's religion, the religion which 
 came from Mount Sinai, that old religion that lay in the 
 ark and the overshadowing cherubim ? He give that 
 up ! not he. A vile imposter — that is all Christ was 
 in his eyes. He thought so. " A stumbling-block to 
 me ; I cannot hear about it ; I will not listen to it." 
 Accordingly, he turned a deaf ear to all the preacher's 
 
CHRIST CRUCIFIED. 93 
 
 eloquence, and listened not at all. Farewell, old Jew ! 
 Thou sleepest with thy fathers, and thy generation is a 
 wandering race, still walking the earth. Farewell I 1 
 have done with thee. Alas ! poor wretch, that Christ, 
 who was thy stumbling-block, shall be thy judge, and 
 on thy head shall be that loud curse. " His blood be 
 on us and on our childi*en." But I am going to find 
 out Mr. Jew here in Exeter Hall — persons who 
 answer to his description — to whom Jesus Christ is a 
 stumbling-block. Let me introduce you to yourselves, 
 some of you. You were of a pious family too, were 
 you not ? Yes. And you have a religion which you 
 love ; you love it so far as the chrysalis of it goes, the 
 outside, the covering, the husk. You would not have 
 one rubric altered, nor one of those dear old arches 
 taken down, nor the stained glass removed, for all the 
 world ; and any man who should say a word against 
 such things, you would set down as a heretic at once. 
 Or, perhaps, you do not go to such a place of worship, 
 but you love some plain old meeting-house, where your 
 forefathers worshipped, called a dissenting chapel. Ah I 
 it is a beautiful plain place ; you love it, you love its 
 ordinances, you love its exterior ; and if any one spoke 
 against the place, how vexed you would feel. You 
 think that what they do there, they ought to do every- 
 where ; in fact, your church is a model one ; the place 
 where you go is exactly the sort of place for everybody ; 
 and if I were to ask you why you hope to go to 
 heaven, you w^ould perhaps say, "Because I am a Bap- 
 tist," or, " Because I am an Episcopalian," or whatever 
 other sect you belong to. There is yourself; I know 
 Jesus Christ will be to you a stumbling-block. If I 
 come and tell you, that all your going to the house of 
 
94 SERMONS. 
 
 God is good for notliing ; if I tell you that all tliose 
 many times you have been singing and praying, all pass 
 for nothing in the sight of God, because you are a hypo- 
 crite and a formalist. If I tell you that your heart is 
 not right with God, and that unless it is so, all the 
 external is good for nothing, I know what you will say, 
 — "I shan't hear that young man again." It is a 
 stumbling-block. If you had stepped in anywhere 
 where you had heard formalism exalted : if you had 
 been told " this must you do, and this other must you 
 do, and then you will be saved," you would highly ap- 
 prove of it. But how many are there externally reli- 
 gious, with w^hose characters you could find no fault, 
 but who have never had the regenerating influence of 
 the Holy Ghost ; who never were made to lie prostrate 
 on their face before Calvary's cross ; who never turned 
 a wistful eye to yonder Saviour crucified ; who never 
 put their trust in him that was slain for the sons of 
 men. They love a superficial religion, but when a man 
 talks deeper than that, they set it down for cant. You 
 may love all that is external about religion, just as you 
 may love a man for his clothes — caring nothing for 
 the man himself. If so, I know you are one of those 
 w^ho reject the gospel. You wall hear me preach ; and 
 while I speak about the externals, you will hear me 
 with attention ; whilst I plead for morality, and argue 
 against drunkenness, or show the heinousness of Sab- 
 bath-breaking, all well and good ; but if once I say, 
 " Except ye be converted, and become as little children, 
 ye can in no w^se enter into the kingdom of God ; " if 
 once I tell you that you must be elected of God : that you 
 must be purchased with the Saviour's blood — that you 
 must be converted by the Holy Ghost — you say, " He 
 
CHRIST CRUCIFIED. 
 
 d5 
 
 is a fanatic ! Away with him, away with him I We do 
 not want to hear that any more." Christ crucified, is 
 to the Jew — the ceremonialist — a stiimbUng-block- 
 
 But there is another specimen of this Jew to be 
 found. He is thoroughly orthodox in his sentiments. 
 As for forms and ceremonies, he thinks nothing about 
 them. He goes to a place of worship where he learns 
 sound doctrine. He will hear nothmg but what is true. 
 He likes that we should have good works and morality 
 He is a good man, and no one can find fault with him. 
 Here he is, regular in his Sunday pew. In the market 
 he walks before men in all honesty — so you would 
 imao-ine. Ask him about any doctrine, and he can 
 give you a disquisition upon it. In fact, he could 
 vrciie a treatise upon anything in the Bible, and a great 
 many things besides. He knows almost everything ; 
 and here, up in this dark attic of the head, his religion 
 has taken up its abode ; he has a best parlor down in 
 his heart, but his religion never goes there — that is 
 shut against it. He has money in there — Mammon, 
 worldiness; or he has something else — self-love, pride. 
 Perhaps he loves to hear experimental preaching ; he 
 admu-es it all ; in fact, he loves anything that is sound. 
 But then, he has not any sound in himself ; or rather, it 
 is all sound, and there is no substance. He likes to 
 hear true doctrine ; but it never penetrates his inner 
 man. You never see him weep. Preach to him about 
 Christ crucified, a glorious subject, and you never see 
 a tear roll down his cheek ; tell him of the mighty in- 
 fluence of the Holy Ghost — he admires you for it, but 
 he never had the hand of the Holy Spirit on his soul ; 
 tell him about communion with God, plunging in God- 
 head's deepest sea, and being lost in its immensity — the 
 
96 SERMONS. 
 
 man loves to hear, but he never experiences, he has 
 never communed \vith Christ ; and accordingly, when 
 you once begin to strilie home ; when you lay him on 
 the table, take out your dissecting knife, begin to cut 
 him up, and show him his own heart, let him see what 
 it is by nature, and what it must become by ^ace — the 
 man starts, he cannot stand that ; he wants none of 
 that — Christ received in the heart, and accepted. Al- 
 beit that he loves it enough in the head, 't is to him a 
 stumbling-block, and he casts it away. Do you see 
 yourselves here, my friends ? See yourselves as others 
 see you ? See yourselves as God sees you ? For so it 
 is, here be many to wiiom Christ is as much a stum- 
 bling-block now as ever he was. O ye formalists ! I 
 speak to you ; O ye who have the nutshell, but abhor 
 the kernel ; O ye who like the trappings and the dress, 
 but care not for that fair virgin who is clothed there- 
 with ; O ye who like the paint and the tinsel, but abhor 
 the solid gold, I speak to you ; I ask you, does your 
 religion give you solid comfort? Can you stare death 
 in the face with it, and say, " 1 know that my Redeemer 
 liveth ? " Can you close your eyes at night, and your 
 vesper song shall be : 
 
 " I to the end must endure, 
 As sure as the earnest is given? " 
 
 Can you bless God for affliction ? Can you plunge in, 
 accoutred as ye are, and swim through all the floods 
 of trial? Can you march triumphant through the 
 lion's den, laugh at aflliction, and bid defiance to hell ? 
 Can you ? No ! Your gospel is an efleminate thing — 
 a thing of words and sounds, and not of power. Cast 
 It from you, I beseech you ; it is not worth your keep- 
 
CHRIST CRUCIFIKD. 97 
 
 iiig; and when you come before the throne of God, 
 you will find it will fail you, and fail you so that you 
 shall never find another ; for lost, ruined, destroyed, ye 
 shall fnid that Christ, who is now (j^uvdulor^ a stum- 
 bling-block, will be yom- judge. 
 
 I have fomid out the Jevv^, and I have now to dis- 
 cover the Greek. He is a person of quite a different 
 exterior to the Jew. As to the phylactery, to him it is 
 all rubbish ; and as to the broad hemmed garment, he 
 despises it. He does not care for the forms of religion ; 
 he has an intense aversion, in fact, to broad-brimmed 
 hats, or to everything which looks iilve out^vard show. 
 He likes eloquence; he admires a smart saying; he 
 loves a quaint expression ; he lilies to read the last new 
 book ; he is a Greek, and to him the gospel is foolish- 
 ness. The Greelc is a gentleman found everywhere, 
 now-a-days; manufactured sometimes in colleges, con- 
 stantly made in schools, produced everj.'Avhere. He is 
 on the exchange, in the market; he keeps a shop, 
 rides in a caniage ; he is noble, a gentleman; he is 
 ever^-^vhere, even in court. He is thoroughly wise. 
 Ask him anything, and he Imows it. Ask for a quota- 
 tion from any of the old poets, or any one else, and he 
 can give it you. If you are a Mohammedan, and plead 
 the claims of your religion, he will hear you very pa- 
 tiently. But if you are a Cliristian, and taUi to him of 
 Jesus Christ, '' Stop your cant," he says, " I don't want 
 to hear an^1;liing about that." Tliis Grecian gentleman 
 believes all philosophy except the true one ; he studies 
 all wisdom except the wisdom of God; he likes all 
 learning except spiritual learning ; he loves everything 
 except that which God approves; he likes everything 
 which man makes, and nothing which comes from God ; 
 
 9 
 
98 SERMONS. 
 
 it is foolishness to him, confounded foolishness. You 
 have only to discourse about one doctrine in the Bible, 
 and he shuts his ears ; he \vishes no longer for your 
 company — it is foolishness. I have met tliis gentleman 
 a great many times. Once, when I saw him, he told 
 me he did not believe in any religion at all ; and when 
 I said I did, and had a hope that when I died I should 
 go to heaven, he said he dared say it was very comfort- 
 able, but he did not believe in religion, and that he was 
 sure it was best to live as nature dictated. Another 
 time he spoke well of all religions, and believed they 
 were very good in their place, and all true ; and he had 
 no doubt that, if a man were sincere in any kind of 
 religion, he would be all right at last. I told him I did 
 not think so, and that I believed there was but one re- 
 ligion revealed of God — the religion of God's elect, 
 the religion which is the gift of Jesus. He then said I 
 was a bigot, and wished me good morning. It was to 
 him foolishness. He had nothing to do with me at all. 
 He either hked no religion, or every religion. Another 
 time I held him by the coat button, and I discussed 
 with him a little about faith. He said, " It is all very 
 well, I beHeve that is true Protestant doctrine." But 
 presently I said something about election, and he said, 
 " I don't like that ; many people have preached that 
 and turned it to bad account." I then hinted some- 
 thing about free grace ; but that he could not endm*e, 
 it was to him foolishness. He was a polished Greek, 
 and thought that if he were not chosen, he ought to be. 
 He never liked that passage, " God hath chosen the 
 foolish things of this world to confomid the wise, and 
 the things which are not, to bring to nought things that 
 are." He thought it was very discreditable to the Bi- 
 
CHRIST CRUCIFIED. 99 
 
 ble ; and when the book was revised, he had no doubt 
 it would be cut out. To such a man — for he is here 
 this morning, very likely come to hear this reed shaken 
 of the wind — I have to say this: Ah I thou wise 
 man, full of worldly wisdom ; thy wisdom wall stand 
 thee here, but what wilt thou do in the swellings of 
 Jordan ? Philosophy may do well for thee to lean 
 upon whilst thou walkest through this world; but 
 the river is deep, and thou wilt want something 
 more than that. If thou hast not the arm of the 
 Most High to hold thee up in the flood and cheer 
 thee with promises, thou wilt sink, man; with all 
 thy philosophy, thou wilt sink ; with all thy learning, 
 thou shalt suik, and be washed into that awful ocean 
 of eternal torment, where thou shalt be forever. Ah ! 
 Greeks, it may be foolishness to you, but ye shall see 
 the man your judge, and then shall ye rue the day 
 that e'er ye said that God's gospel was foolishness. 
 
 II. Having spoken thus far upon the gospel rejected^ 
 I shall now briefly speak upon the gospel triumphant. 
 " Unto us who are called, both Jews and Greeks, it is 
 the power of God, and the msdom of God." Yonder 
 man rejects the gospel, despises grace, and laughs at it 
 as a delusion. Here is another man who laughed at it 
 too ; but God will fetch him down upon Ms knees. 
 Clurist shall not die for nothing. The Holy Ghost shall 
 not strive in vain. God hath said, " My word shall not 
 return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which 
 I pleas', and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent 
 it." ^ He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall 
 be a] andantly satisfied." If one sinner is not saved, 
 ano ler shall be. The Jew and the Greek shall never 
 d^ pulate licaven. The choirs of glory shall not lose 
 
100 SERMONS. 
 
 a single songster' by all the opposition of Jews and 
 Greeks; for God hath said it; some shall be called; 
 some shall be saved ; some shall be rescued. 
 
 '• Perisli the virtue, as it ought, abhorred, 
 And the fool with it, ■who insults his Lord. 
 The atonement a Redeemer's love has -wrought 
 Is not for you — the righteous need it not. 
 See'st thou yon harlot wooing all she meets, 
 The worn-out nuisance of the public streets, 
 Herself from morn to night, from night to morn. 
 Her own abhorrence, and as much your scorn: 
 The gracious shower, unlimited and free. 
 Shall fall on her, when Heaven denies it thee. 
 Of all that wisdom dictates, this the drift. 
 That man is dead in sin, and life a gift." 
 
 K the righteous and good are not saved, if they re- 
 ject the gospel, there are others who are to be called, 
 others who shall be rescued ; for Christ will not lose the 
 merits of his agonies, or the purchase of his blood. 
 " Unto us IV ho are called^ I received a note this week 
 asking me to explain that word, called ; because in one 
 passage it says, " many are called but few are chosen," 
 while in another it appears that all who are called must 
 be chosen. Now, let me observe that there are two 
 calls. As my old friend, John Bunyan, says, the hen 
 has two calls, the common cluck, which she gives daily 
 and hourly, and the special one, which she means for 
 her little chickens. So there is a general call, a call made 
 to every man ; every man hears it. Many are called by it ; 
 all you are called this morning in that sense, but very few 
 are chosen. The other is a special call, the children's 
 caU. You know how the bell sounds over the work- 
 shop, to call the men to work — that is a general call. 
 A father goes to the door and calls out, "John, it is 
 
CHRIST CRUCIFIED. 101 
 
 dinner-time " — that is the special call. Many are called 
 with the general call, but they are not chosen; the 
 special call is for the children only, and that is what 
 is meant in the text, " Unto us who are called, both 
 Jews and Greeks, the power of God and the wisdom 
 of God." That call is always a special one. While 
 I stand here and call men, nobody comes; while I 
 preach to sinners miiversally, no good is done ; it is 
 like the sheet lightning you sometimes see on the sum- 
 mer's evening, beautiful, grand ; but whoever heard of 
 anything being struck by it ? But the special call is 
 the forked flash from heaven ; it strikes somewhere ; it 
 is the arrow sent in between the joints of the harness. 
 The call which saves is like that of Jesus, when he 
 said " Mary," and she said unto him " Rabboni." Do 
 you know anything about that special call, my beloved ? 
 Did Jesus ever call you by name ? Canst thou recol- 
 lect the hour when he whispered thy name in thine 
 ear, when he said, " Come to me ? " If so, you will 
 grant the truth of what I am going to say next about 
 it — that it is an effectual call. There is no resisting it. 
 When God calls, with his special call, there is no stand- 
 ing out. Ah I I know I laughed at religion; I des- 
 pised, I abhorred it; but that call I Oh, I would not 
 come. But God said, " Thou shalt come. All that 
 the Father giveth to me shall come." " Lord, I will 
 not." " But thou shalt," said God. And I have gone 
 up to God's house sometimes almost with a resolution 
 that I would not listen, but listen I must. Oh, how the 
 word came into my soul ! Was there a power of re- 
 sistance ? No ; I was thrown down ; each bone seemed 
 to be broken ; I was saved by effectual grace. I ap- 
 peal to your experience, my friends When God took 
 
102 
 
 SERMONS. 
 
 you in hand, could you withstand him ? You stood 
 against your minister times enough. Sickness did not 
 break you down ; disease did not bring you to God's 
 feet ; eloquence did not convince you ; but when God 
 puts his hand to the work, ah! then what a change. 
 Like Saul, ^vilh his horses going to Damascus, that 
 voice from heaven said, " 1 am Jesus whom thou jper- 
 secutest." " Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me ? " 
 There was no going fm'ther then. That was an effect- 
 ual call. Like that, again, which Jesus gave to Zac- 
 cheus, when he was up in the tree ; stepping under the 
 tree, he said, "Zaccheus, come down, to-day I must 
 abide in thv house." Zaccheus was taken in the net ; 
 he heard his own name ; the call sank into his soul ; 
 he could not stop up in the tree, for an almighty im- 
 pulse drew him down. And 1 could tell you some 
 singular instances of persons going to the house of 
 God and having their characters described, limned out 
 to perfection, so that they have said, " He is painting 
 me, he is painting me." Just as I might say to that 
 young rnan here, who stole his master's gloves yester- 
 day, that Jesus calls him to repentance. It may be 
 that there is such a person here ; and when the call 
 comes to a peculiar character, it generally comes with 
 a special power. God gives his ministers a brush, and 
 shows them how to use it in painting Hfe-like portraits, 
 and t):us the sinner hears the special call. I cannot 
 give the special call ; God alone can give it, and I leave 
 it with him. Some must be called. Jew and Greek 
 may laugh, but still there are some who are called, both 
 Jews and Greeks. 
 
 Then, to close up this second point, it is a great mercy 
 that many a Jew has been made to drop his self 
 
CHRIST CRUCIFIED. 103 
 
 righteousness ; many a legalist has been made to drop 
 his legalism, and come to Christ ; and many a Greek 
 has bowed his genius at the throne of God's gospel. 
 We have a few such. As Cowper says: 
 
 "We boast some rich ones -whom the gospel sways. 
 And one who wears a coronet, and prays; 
 Like gleanings of an olive tree they show, 
 Here and there one upon the topmost bough." 
 
 III. Now we come to om- third point, a gospel ad- 
 mired; unto to us who are called of God, it is the 
 power of God, and the wisdom of God. Now, beloved, 
 this must be a matter of pure experience bet^veen your 
 souls and God. If you are called of God this morn- 
 ino-, vou will know it. I know there arc times when a 
 Christian has to say, 
 
 '' 'T is 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? " 
 
 But, if a man never in his life knew himself to be a 
 Christian, he never was a Christian. If he never had 
 a moment of confidence, when he could say, " Now I 
 know in whom I have believed," I think I do not utter 
 a harsh thing when I say, that that man could not have 
 been born again ; for I do not understand how a man 
 can be born again and not know it ; I do not under- 
 stand how a man can be lolled and then made alive 
 ao-ain, and not know it; how a man can pass from 
 death unto life, and not know it ; how a man can be 
 brought out of darkness into marvellous liberty without 
 knowins it. I am sure I Imow it when I shout out 
 my old verse : 
 
104 SERMONS. 
 
 *' Now freed from sin, I walk at large, 
 My Saviour's blood 's my full discharge ; 
 At his dear feet content I lay, 
 A sinner saved, and homage pay." 
 
 There are moments when the eyes glisten with joy : 
 and we can say, " we are persuaded, confident, certain." 
 I do not wish to distress any one who is under doubt. 
 Often gloomy doubts will prevail ; there are seasons 
 when you fear you have not been called, when you 
 doubt your interest in Christ. Ah ! what a mercy it is 
 that it is not your hold of Christ that saves you, but 
 his hold of you ! What a sweet fact that it is not 
 how you grasp his hand, but his grasp of yours, that 
 saves you. Yet I think you ought to know, some time 
 or other, whether you are called of God. If so, you 
 will follow me in the next part of my discourse, which 
 is a matter of pure experience ; unto us who are saved, 
 it is " Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of 
 God." 
 
 The gospel is, to the true believer, a thing of power. 
 It is Christ, the power of God. Power, sir! Aye, 
 there is a power in God's gospel. Power, sir ! Aye, a 
 mighty power. Once I, like Mazeppa, bound on the 
 wild horse of my lust, bound hand and foot, incapable 
 of resistance, was galloping on with hell's wolves be- 
 hind me, howling for my body and my soul, as their 
 just and lawful prey. There came a mighty hand 
 which stopped that wild horse, cut my bands, set me 
 down, and brought me into liberty. Is there power, 
 sir ? Aye, there is power ; and he who has felt it, must 
 acknowledge it. There was a time when I lived in the 
 strong old castle of my sins, and rested on my works. 
 There came ci trumpeter to the door, and bade me 
 
CHRiaT CRUCIFIlilD. 105 
 
 open it. I with anger chid him from the porch, and 
 said he ne'er should enter. There came a goodly per- 
 sonage, with loving countenance ; his hands were 
 marked with scars, where nails were driven, and his 
 feet had nail-prints too ; he lifted up his cross, using it 
 as a hammer ; at the first blow the gate of my preju- 
 dice shook ; at the second it trembled more, at the tliird 
 down it fell, and in he came ; and he said, " Arise, and 
 stand upon thy feet, for I have loved thee with an ever- 
 lasting love." A thing of power! Ah I it is a thing 
 of power. I have felt it here, in this heart ; I have the 
 witness of the Spirit within, and laiow it is a thing of 
 might, because it has conquered me ; it has bowed me 
 down. 
 
 *' Ills fre e ^race a lone, from tlie first to the last, 
 Hath won my affection, and held my soul fast." 
 
 The gospel, to the Christian, is a thing of power. 
 What is it that makes the young man devote himself, 
 as a missionary, to the cause of God, to leave father 
 and mother, and go into distant lands ? It is a thing 
 of power that does it ; it is the gospel. What is it 
 that constrains yonder minister, in the midst of the 
 cholera, to climb up that creaking staircase, and stand 
 by the bed of some dying creature who has that dire 
 disease ? It must be a thing of power which leads 
 him to venture his life ; it is love of the cross of Christ 
 which bids him do it. W^hat is that which enables 
 one man to stand up before a multitude of his fellows, 
 all unprepared it may be, but determined that he will 
 speak nothing but Christ, and him crucified ? What 
 is it that enables him to cry, like the war horse of Job, 
 in battle. Aha I and move glorious in might? It is a 
 
106 SERMONS. 
 
 thing of powfer that does it : it is Christ crucified. And 
 what emboldens that timid female to walk down that 
 dark lane some wet evening, that she may go and sit 
 beside the victim of a contagious fever? What 
 strengthens her to go through that den of thieves, and 
 pass by the profligate and profane ? What influences 
 her to enter into that charnel house of death, and there 
 sit down and whisper words of comfort ? Does gold 
 make her do it ? They are too poor to give her gold. 
 Does fame make her do it ? She shall never be known 
 nor written among the mighty women of this earth. 
 What makes her do it ? Is it love of merit ? No ; she 
 knows she has no desert before high heaven. What 
 impels her to it ? It is the power, the thing of power ; 
 it is the cross of Christ : she loves it, and she there- 
 fore says, 
 
 " Were the "whole realm of nature mine, 
 That were a present far to o small ; 
 Love so amazing, so divine, 
 Demands my soul, my life, my all." 
 
 But I behold another scene. A martyr is going to 
 the stake ; the halbert men are around him ; the crowds 
 are mocking, but he is marching steadily on. See, 
 they bind him, with a chain around his middle, to the 
 stake ; they heap faggot& all about him ; the flame is 
 lighted up ; listen to his words : " Bless the Lord, O 
 my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name." 
 The flames are kindling round his legs ; the fu-e is 
 burning him even to the bone ; see him lift up his hands 
 and say, " I know that my Redeemer liveth, and though 
 the fire devour this body, yet in my flesh shall I see the 
 Lord." Behold him clutch the stake and kiss it, as if 
 he loved it, and hear him say, " For every chain of iron 
 
 Ml 
 
CHRIST CRUCIFIED. 107 
 
 that man girdeth me with, God shall give me a chain 
 ol gold ; for all these faggots, and this ignominy and 
 shame, he shall increase the weight of my eternal 
 glory." See all the under parts of his body are con- 
 sumed ; still he lives in the torture ; at last he bows 
 himself, and the upper part of his body falls over ; and 
 as he falls you hear him say, '' Into thy hands I com- 
 mend my Spirit." What wondrous magic was on him, 
 sirs? What made that man strong? What helped 
 him to bear that cruelty ? What made him stand un- 
 moved in the flames ? It was tlie thing of power ; it 
 was the cross of Jesus crucified. For " unto us who 
 are saved it is the power of God." 
 
 But behold another scene far different. There is no 
 crowd there; it is a silent room. There is a poor 
 pallet, a lonely bed : a physician standing by. There 
 is a young girl : her face is blanched by consumption ; 
 long hath the worm eaten her cheek, and though some- 
 times the flush came, it was the death flush of the de- 
 ceitful consumption. There she lieth, weak, pale, 
 wan, worn, dying, yet behold a smile upon her face, as 
 if she had seen an angel. She speaketh, and there is 
 music in her voice. Joan of Arc of old was not half 
 so mighty as that girl. She is wrestling with dragons 
 on her death-bed ; but see her composure, and hear her 
 dying sonnet : 
 
 " Jesus, lover of my soul, 
 Let me to thy bosom fly, 
 While the nearer waters roll, 
 While the tempest still is high. 
 Hide me, my Saviour, hide. 
 Till this storm of life be past. 
 Safe into the haven guide, 
 receive ray soul at last." 
 
108 . SERMONS. 
 
 And with a smile she shuts her eye on earth, and opens 
 it in heaven. What enables her to die like that? It 
 is the thing of power ; it is the cross ; it is Jesus 
 cruciiied. 
 
 I have little time to discourse upon the other point, 
 and it be far from me to weary you by a lengthened 
 and prosy sermon, but we must glance at the other 
 statement : Cln-ist is, to the called ones, the wisdom of 
 God as well as the power of God. To a believer, the gos- 
 pel is the perfection of wisdom, and if it appear not so to 
 the ungodly, it is because of the perversion of judg- 
 ment consequent on their depravity. 
 
 An idea has long possessed the public mind, that a 
 religious man can scarcely be a wise man. It has been 
 the custom to talk of Infidels, Atheists, and Deists, as 
 men of deep thought and comprehensive intellect ; and 
 to tremble for the Christian controversialist, as if he 
 must surely fall by the hand of his enemy. But this 
 is purely a mistake ; for the gospel is the sum of wis- 
 dom ; an epitome of knowledge ; a treasure-house of 
 truth ; and a revelation of mysterious secrets. In it 
 we see how justice and mercy may be married ; here 
 we behold inexorable law entirely satisfied, and sove- 
 reign love bearing away the sinner in triumph. Our 
 meditation upon it enlarges the mind ; and as it opens 
 to our soul in successive flashes of glory, we stand 
 astonished at the profound wisdom manifest in it. Ah, 
 dear friends! if ye seek wisdom, ye shall see it dis- 
 played in all its greatness ; not in the balancing of the 
 clouds, nor the firmness of earth's foundations ; not in 
 the measured march of the armies of the sky, nor in 
 the perpetual motions of the waves of the sea ; not in 
 vegetation with all its fairy forms of beauty, nor in 
 
CHRIST CRUCIFIED. 109 
 
 the animal with its marvellous tissue of nerve, and 
 vein, and sinew; nor even in man, that last and loftiest 
 work of the Creator. But turn aside and see this 
 great sight I — an incarnate God upon the cross; a sub- 
 stitute atoning for mortal guilt ; a sacrifice satisfying 
 the vengeance of Heaven, and delivering the rebellious 
 siinier. Here is essential wisdom ; enthroned, crowned, 
 glorified. Admire, ye men of earth, if ye be not blind; 
 and ye who glory in your learning bend your heads in 
 reverence, and own that all your sldll could not have 
 devised a gospel at once so just to God, so safe to 
 man. 
 
 Remember, my friends, that while the gospel is in 
 itself wisdom, it also confers wisdom on its students ; 
 she teaches young men wisdom and discretion, and 
 gives understanding to the simple. A man who is a 
 beheving admirer and a hearty lover of the truth as it 
 is in Jesus, is in a right place to follow with advantage 
 any other branch of science. I confess I have a shelf 
 in my head for everything now. Whatever I read I 
 know where to put it ; whatever I learn I know where 
 to stow it away. Once when I read books, I put all 
 my knowledge together in glorious confusion ; but ever 
 since I have known Clirist, I have put Christ in the 
 centre as my sun, and each science revolves round it 
 like a planet, wliile minor sciences are satellites to these 
 planets. Christ is to me the wisdom of God. I can 
 learn everything now. The science of Christ crucified 
 is the most excellent of sciences, she is to me the wis- 
 dom of God. O, young man, build thy studio on 
 Calvary I there raise thine observatory, and scan by 
 faith the lofty things of nature. Take thee a hermit's 
 cell in the garden of Getlisemane, and lave thy brow 
 10 
 
110 SERMONS. 
 
 with the waters of Siloa. Let the Bible be thy stan- 
 dard classic — thy last appeal in matters of contention^ 
 Let its light be thine illumination, and thou shalt be- 
 come more wise than Plato, more truly learned than 
 the seven sages of antiquity. 
 
 And now, my dear friends, solemnly and earnestly, 
 as in the sight of God, I appeal to you. You are 
 gathered here this morning, I know, from different mo- 
 tives ; some of you have come from curiosity ; others 
 of you are my regular hearers ; some have come from 
 one place and some from another. What have you 
 heard me say this morning? I have told you of two 
 classes of persons who reject Christ; the religionist, 
 who has a religion of form and nothing else ; and the 
 man of the world, who calls our gospel foolishness. 
 Now, put your hand upon your heart, and ask your- 
 self this morning, " Am I one of these ? " If you are, 
 then walk the earth in all your pride ; then go as you 
 came in : but know that for all this the Lord shall 
 bring thee unto judgment ; know thou that thy joys 
 and delights shall vanish like a dream, " and, like the 
 baseless fabric of a vision," be swept away forever. 
 Know thou this, moreover, O man, that one day in the 
 halls of Satan, down in heU, I perhaps may see thee 
 amongst those myriad spirits who revolve forevei in a 
 perpetual circle with their hands upon their hearts. If 
 thine hand be transparent, and thy flesh transparent, I 
 shall look through thy hand and flesh, and see thy heart 
 within. And how shall I see it ? Set in a case of fire 
 — in a case of fire I And there thou shalt revolve for- 
 ever with the worm gnawing within thy heart, which 
 ne'er shall die — a case of fire around thy never-dying, 
 ever-tortured heart. Good God! let not these men 
 
CHRIST criuciFii:D. Ill 
 
 still reject and despise Christ ; but let this be the time 
 when they shall be called. 
 
 To the rest of you \vho are called, I need say noth- 
 ing. The longer you live, the more powerful will you 
 find the gospel to be; the more deeply Christ-taught 
 you are, the more you live under the constant influence 
 of the Holy Spmt, the more you will know the gospe] 
 to be a thing of power, and the more also will you un- 
 derstand it to be a thing of wisdom. May every bles- 
 sing rest upon you ; and may God come up with us in 
 the evening I 
 
SERMON VI. 
 
 THE POWER OF THE HOLY GHOST. 
 
 " The power of the Holy Ghost."— Rom. xv. 13. 
 
 Power is the special and peculiar prerogative of 
 God, and God alone. " Twice have I heard this ; that 
 power belongeth unto God." God is God ; and power 
 belongeth to him. If he delegates a portion of it to 
 his creatures, yet still it is his power. The sun, al- 
 though he is "like a bridegroom coming out of his 
 chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run his race," 
 yet has no power to perform his motions except as God 
 directs him. The stars, although they travel in their 
 orbits, and none could stay them, yet have neither might 
 nor force, except that which God daily infuses into 
 them. The tall archangel, near his throne, who out- 
 shines a comet in its blaze, though he is one of those 
 who excel in strength, and hearken to the voice of the 
 commands of God, yet has no might except that which 
 his Maker gives to him. As for Leviathan, who so 
 maketh the sea to boil like a pot, that one would think 
 the deep were hoary ; as for Behemoth, who drinketh 
 up Jordan at a draught, and boasteth that he can snuff 
 
 (112) 
 
rOWtR OF THE HOLY GHOST. IIU 
 
 up rivers ; as for those majestic creatures that are found 
 on earth, they owe their strength to him who fashioned 
 their bones of steel, and made their sinews of brass. 
 And when we think of man, if he has might or power, 
 it is so small and insignificant, that we can scarcely call 
 it such ; yea, when it is at its greatest — when he sways 
 his sceptre, when he commands hosts, when he rules 
 nations — still the power belongeth unto God ; and it 
 is true, " Twdce have I heard this, that power belongeth 
 unto God." This exclusive prerogative of God, is to 
 be found in each of the tlu-ee persons of the glorious 
 Trinity. The Father hath power; for by his word 
 were the heavens made, and all the hosts of them ; by 
 Ms strength all things stand, and through him they ful- 
 fil their destiny. The Son hath power; for, like his 
 Father, he is the Creator of all things ; " Without him 
 was not anything made that was made," and " by him 
 all things consist." And the Holy Spirit hath power. 
 It is concerning the power of the Holy Ghost that I 
 shall speak this morning ; and may you have a prac- 
 tical exemplification of that attribute in your own 
 hearts, when you shall feel that the influence of the Holy 
 Ghost is being poured out upon me, so that I am speak- 
 ing the words of the living God to your souls, and be- 
 stowed upon you when you are feeling the effects of 
 it in your own spirits. 
 
 We shall look at the power of the Holy Ghost in 
 three ways this morning. First, the ontiuard and visible 
 displays of it; second, //^e inward and spiritual mani- 
 festations of it ; and third, the future and expected 
 works thereof. The power of the Spirit will thus, I 
 trust, be made clearly present to your souls. 
 
 I. First, then, we are to view the power of the Spirit 
 
 10* 
 
114 SERMONS. 
 
 in the oiUivard and visible displays of it. The power 
 of the Spirit has not been dormant ; it has exerted it- 
 self. Much has been done by the Spirit of God al- 
 ready ; more than could have been accomplished by 
 any being except the Infinite, Eternal, Almighty Je- 
 hovah, of whom the Holy Spirit is one person. There 
 are four works which are the outward and manifest 
 signs of the power of the Spirit ; creation works ; re- 
 surrection works ; works of attestation, or of witness ; 
 and works of fflace. Of each of these works I shall 
 speak very briefly. 
 
 1. First, the Spirit has manifested the omnipotence 
 of his power in creation works; for though not very 
 frequently in Scripture, yet sometimes creation is as- 
 cribed to the Holy Ghost, as well as to the Father and 
 the Son. The creation of the heavens above us, is said 
 to be the work of God's Spu'it. This you will see at 
 once by referring to the sacred Scriptm-es, Job xxvi. 13th 
 verse, " By his Spirit he hath garnished the heavens ; 
 his hand hath formed the crooked serpent." All the 
 stars of heaven are said to have been placed aloft by 
 the Spirit, and one particular constellation called the 
 *' crooked serpent," is specially pointed out as his handi- 
 work. He looseth the bands of Orion ; he bindeth the 
 sweet influences of the Pleiades, and binds Arcturus 
 with his suns. He made all those stars that shine in 
 heaven. The heavens were garnished by his hands, 
 and he formed the crooked serpent by his might. So, 
 also, in those continued acts of creation which are still 
 performed in the world ; as the bringing forth of man 
 and animals, their birth and generation. These are 
 ascribed also to the Holy Ghost. K you look at the 
 104th Psalm, at the 29th verse you will read, " Thou 
 
POWER OF THE HOLY GHOST. 115 
 
 LiJost thy face, they are troubled; thou takest away 
 their breath, they die, and return to their dust Thou 
 sendest forth thy Spirit, they arc created; and thou re- 
 newest the face of the earth." So that the creafon of 
 every man is the wk of the Spirit; and the creation 
 of all life, and all flesh-existence in this wld, is as 
 much to be ascribed to the po^ver of the Spirit, as the 
 first garnishing of the heavens, or the ff "°>^'"S "^ *J; 
 crooked serpent. But if you look in the first chap e 
 of Genesis, you wiU there see more particularly set 
 forth that peculiar operation of po^ver upon the unu-er«° 
 which was put forth by the Holy Spirit; you wiU then 
 Icover what was his special work. In the 2d verse 
 of the first chapter of Genesis, we read » And the earth 
 wasNvithout form, and void; and darkness was upon 
 the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God -oved 
 upon the face of the waters." We know not hovwe- 
 mote the period of the creation of tins globe may be- 
 Trtainly many milUons of years before the time of 
 Adam. Our planet has passed through various stage 
 of existence, and different lands of creatuxes have hvcd 
 on its surface, aU of which have been fashioned by 
 God. But before that era came, wherein man should 
 be its principal tenant and monarch, the Creator gave 
 UP the world to confusion. He aUowed the inward 
 foes to burst up from beneath, and melt all the solid 
 matter, so that aU kinds of substances were commingled 
 Tone vast mass of disorder. The only name you 
 could give to the world then, was, that it was a chaotic 
 Iss ol matter ; what it should be you could not guess 
 or define. It was entirely "without form and ^o d, 
 and darkness was upon the face of the deep. The 
 Spirit came, and stretching his broad wmgs, bade the 
 
116 SERMONS. 
 
 darkness disperse, and as he moved over it, all the dif- 
 ferent portions of matter came into their places, and it 
 was no longer "without form, and void ;" but became 
 round, like its sister planets, and moved, singing the 
 liigh praises of God — not discordantly, as it had done 
 before, but as one great note in the vast scale of crea- 
 tion. Milton very beautifully describes this work of 
 the Spirit, in thus bringing order out of confusion, when 
 the King of Glory, in his powerful Word and Spirit, 
 came to create new worlds : 
 
 ** On heavenly ground they stood j and from the shore 
 They view'd the vast immeasurable abyss 
 Outrageous as a sea, dark, wasteful, wild. 
 Up from the bottom turn'd by furious winds 
 And surging waves, as mountains, to assault 
 Heaven's height, and with the centre mix the pole. 
 
 •' Silence, ye troubled waves, and thou deep, peace, 
 Said then the Omnific Word ; your discord end. 
 
 Then on the watery calm 
 flis brooding wings the Spirit of God outspread 
 And vital virtue infused, and vital warmth 
 Throughout the fluid mass." 
 
 This you see, then, is the power of the Spirit. Could 
 we have seen that earth all in confusion, we should 
 have said, "Who can make a world out of this?" The 
 answer would have been, " The power of the Spirit 
 can do it. By the simple spreading of his dove-lilve 
 wings, he can make all the things come together. Upon 
 that there shall be order where there was nought but 
 confusion." Nor is this all the power of the Spirit. 
 We have seen some of his works in creation. But 
 there was one particular instance of creation in which 
 the Holy Spirit was more especially concerned; viz., 
 
rOWEK OF TIIC IIOLV GHOST. 117 
 
 the fonnatiou of the body of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 Though our Lord Jesus Christ was born of a woman, 
 and made in the likeness of sinful llesh, yet, the power 
 that begat him was entirely in God the Holy Spirit — 
 as the Scriptures express it, " The Holy One of Israel 
 shall overshadow thee." He was begotten, as the Apos- 
 tles' Creed says, begotten of the Holy Ghost. " That 
 holy thing which is born of thee shall be called the Son 
 of the Highest." The corporeal frame of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ was a master-piece of the Holy Spirit. I 
 suppose his body to have excelled all others in beauty; 
 to have been like that of the first man, the very pat- 
 tern of what the body is to be in heaven, v^hen it shall 
 shine forth in all its glory. That fabric, in all its beauty 
 and perfection, was modelled by the Spirit. " In his 
 book were all the members written, when as yet there 
 were none of them." He fashioned and formed liim ; 
 and here again we have another instance of the crea- 
 tive energy of the Spirit. 
 
 2. A second manifestation of the Holy Spirit's 
 power is to be found in the resurrection of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ. If ye have ever studied this subject, ye 
 have perhaps been rather perplexed to find that some- 
 times the resurrection of Christ is ascribed to himself. 
 By his own power and godhead he could not be held 
 by the bond of death, but as he willingly gave up his 
 life he had power to take it again. In another portion 
 of Scripture, you find it ascribed to God the Father : 
 " He raised him up from the dead : " " Him hath God 
 the Father exalted." And many other passages of 
 similar import. But, again, it is said in Scripture that 
 Jesus Christ was raised by the Holy Spurit. Now, all 
 these things were true. He was raised by the Father 
 
118 SERMONS. 
 
 because the Father said, " Loose the prisoner — let him 
 go. Justice is satisfied. My law requires no more 
 satisfaction — vengeance has had its due — let him go." 
 Here he gave an official message which deUvered Jesus 
 fi"om the grave. He was raised by his own majesty 
 and power, because he had a right to come out ; and he 
 felt he had, and therefore " burst the bonds of death : 
 he could be no longer holden of them." But he was 
 raised by the Spirit as to that energy which his mortal 
 frame received, by the which it rose again from the grave 
 after having lain there for three days and nights. If 
 you want proofs of this you must open your Bibles 
 again, 1 Peter, iii. 18. " For Christ also hath once suf- 
 fered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might 
 bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but 
 quickened by the Spirit." And a further proof you 
 may find in Romans, viii. 11. (I love sometimes to be 
 textual, for I believe the great fault of Christians is that 
 they do not search the Scriptures enough, and I will 
 make them search them when they are here if they do 
 not do so anywhere else.) " But if the Spirit of him 
 that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he 
 that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken 
 your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you." 
 The resurrection of Christ, then, was effected by the 
 agency of the Spirit ! and here we have a noble illus- 
 tration of his omnipotence. Could you have stepped, 
 as angels did, into the grave of Jesus, and seen his 
 sleeping body, you would have found it cold as any 
 other corpse. Lift up the hand ; it falls by the side. 
 Look at the eye ; it is glazed. And there is a death- 
 thrust which must have annihilated life. See his 
 hands: the blood distills not from them. They are 
 
rOWKR OF THK IIOT.Y GHOST. 
 
 119 
 
 cold and motionless. Can that body live ? Can it 
 start up ? Yes ; and be an illustration of the might of 
 the Spirit. For when the power of the Spirit came on 
 him, as it was when it fell upon the dry bones of the 
 valley, " he arose in the majesty of his divinity, and, 
 briglit and shining, astonished the watchmen so that 
 Ihey fled away; yea, he arose no more to die, but to 
 live forever, King of kings and Prince of the kings of 
 
 the earth." 
 
 3. The third of the works of the Holy Spirit, which 
 have so wonderfully demonstrated his power, are alies- 
 talion works. I mean by this, works of ^\dtnessing. 
 When Jesus Christ went into the stream of baptism in 
 the river Jordan, the Holy Spirit descended upon him 
 like a dove, and proclaimed him God's beloved son. 
 That was what I style an attestation work. And when 
 after\vards Jesus Christ raised the dead, when he 
 healed the leper, when he spoke to diseases and they 
 fled apace, when demons rushed in thousands from 
 those who were possessed of them, it was done by 
 the power of the Spirit. The Spirit dwelt in Jesus 
 ^^thout measure, and by that power aU those mir- 
 acles were worked. These were attestation works. 
 ''And when Jesus Christ was gone, you will remem- 
 ber that master attestation of the Spirit, when he 
 came like a rushing mighty wind upon the assem- 
 bled apostles, and cloven tongues sat upon them ; and 
 you wall remember how he attested their ministry, 
 by giving them to speak with tongues as he gave them 
 utterance; and how, also, miraculous deeds were 
 wTought by them, how they taught, how Peter raised 
 Dorcas, how he breathed life into Enticus, how great 
 deeds were wTought by the apostles as well as then 
 
120 
 
 -^^^ SERMONS. 
 
 Master — SO that "mighty signs and wonders were 
 done by the Holy Ghost, and many believed thereby." 
 Who wm doubt the power of the Holy Spirit after 
 that? Ah! those Socinians who deny the existence 
 of the Holy Ghost and his absolute personality, what 
 will they do when we get them on creation, resurrec- 
 tion, and attestation? They must rush in the very 
 teeth of Scripture. But mark! it is a stone upon 
 which if any man fall he shaU be bruised ; but if it fall 
 upon him, as it will do if he resists it, it shall grind 
 hmi to powder. The Holy Spirit has power omnipo- 
 tent, even the power of God. 
 
 4. Once more, if we want another outward and 
 visible sign of the power of the Spirit, we may look at 
 the works ofj'ra^e,. Behold a city where a soothsayer 
 hath the power — who has given out himself to be 
 some gi-eat one — a Philip enters it and preaches the 
 Word of God ; straightaway a Simon Magus loses his 
 power and himself seeks for the power of the Spkit 
 to be given to him, fancying it might be purchased 
 with money. See, in modern times, a country where 
 the mhabitants Hve in miserable wigwams, feeding on 
 reptiles and the meanest creatures ; observe them bow- 
 ing down before their idols and worshipping their false** 
 gods, and so plunged in superstition, so degraded and 
 debased, that it became a question whether they had 
 souls or not; behold a Moffat go with the Word of 
 God m his hand, hear him preach as the Spii-it gives 
 him utterance, and accompanies that Word with power 
 They cast aside their idols — they hate and abhor their 
 fonner lusts; they build houses, wherein they dwell; 
 they become clothed, and in their right mind. They 
 break the bow, and cut the spear m sunder ; the unciv- 
 
POWER OF THE HOLY GHOST. 121 
 
 ilizod became civilized; the savage becomes polite; he 
 who knew nothing begins to read the Scriptures: thus 
 out of the mouths of Hottentots God attests the power 
 of his mighty Spirit. Take a household in this city 
 
 — and we could guide you to many such — the father 
 is a drunkard; he has been the most desperate of 
 characters ; see him in his madness, and you might just 
 as well meet an unchained tiger as meet such a man. 
 He seems as if he could rend a man to pieces who 
 should offend him. INIark his wife. She, too, has a 
 spirit in her, and when he treats her ill she can resist 
 him ; many broils have been seen in that house, and 
 often has the neighborhood been disturbed by the noise 
 created there. As for the poor little children — see 
 them in their rags and nakedness, poor untaught tilings. 
 Untaught, did I say? They are taught and v/ell 
 taught in the devil's school, and are growing up to be 
 the heirs of damnation. But some one whom God has 
 blessed by his Spirit is guided to the house. He may 
 be but an humble city missionary, perhaps, but he speaks 
 to such a one : Oh ! says he, come and listen to the 
 voice of God. Whether it is by his own agency, or a 
 minister's preaching, the Word, w4iich is quick and 
 powerful, cuts to the sinner's heart. The tears run 
 down his cheeks — such as had never been seen before. 
 He shakes and quivers. The strong man bows down 
 
 — the mighty man trembles — and those knees that 
 never shook besrin to Iciiock toofether. That heart 
 
 o o 
 
 which never quailed before now begins to shake before 
 the power of the Spirit. He sits down on an humble 
 bench by the penitent ; he lets his knees bend, whilst 
 his lips utter a child's prayer; but, whilst a child's 
 prayer, a prayer of a child of God. He becomes a 
 11 
 
122 SERMONS. 
 
 changed character. Mark the reformation in his house I 
 That wife of his becomes the decent matron. Those 
 children are the credit of the house, and in due time 
 they grow up liice olive branches round his table, adorn- 
 ing his house like polished stones. Pass by the house 
 — no noise or broils, but songs of Zion. See him — no 
 drunken revelry ; he has drained his last cup, and, now 
 foreswearing it, he comes to God and is his servant. 
 Now, you will not hear at midnight the bacchanalian 
 shout ; but should there be a noise, it will be the sound 
 of the solemn hymn of praise to God. And, now, is- 
 there not such a thing as the power of the Spirit? 
 Yes ! and these must have witnessed it, and seen it. I 
 know a village, once perhaps the most profane in Eng- 
 land — a village inundated by drunkenness and de- 
 bauchery of the worst Idnd, where it was impossible 
 almost for an honest ti'aveller to stop in the public house 
 without being annoyed by blasphemy ; a place noted for 
 incendiaries and robbers. One man, the ringleader of all, 
 listened to the voice of God. That man's heart was 
 broken. The whole gang came to hear the gospel 
 preached, and they sat and seemed to reverence the 
 preacher as if he were a God, and not a man. These 
 men became changed and reformed; and every one 
 who knows the place affirms that such a change had 
 never been wrought but by the power of the Holy 
 Ghost. Let the gospel be preached and the Spirit 
 poured out, and you will see that it has such power to 
 change the conscience, to ameliorate the conduct, to 
 raise the debased, to chastise and to curb the wicked- 
 ness of the race, that you must glory in it. I say, 
 there is nought like the power of the Spirit. Only let 
 
 
rOWEIl or THE HOLY GHOST. 123 
 
 that come, and, indeed, everything can be accom- 
 plished. 
 
 II. Now for the second point, the inward and spirit- 
 iml power of the Holy Spirit. What I have already 
 spoken of may be seen; what I am about to speak of 
 must be felt, and no man will apprehend what I say 
 with truth unless he has felt it. The other, even the 
 Infidel must confess ; the other, the greatest blasphemer 
 cannot deny, if he speaks the truth ; but tliis is what 
 the one will laugh at as enthusiasm, and what the other 
 will say is but the invention of our fevered fancies. 
 However, we have a more sure word of testimony than 
 all that they may say. We have a witness within. 
 We know it is the truth, and we are not afraid to speak 
 of the inward spiritual power of the Holy Ghost. Let 
 us notice t^vo or three tilings wherein the inward and 
 spiritual power of the Holy Ghost is very greatly to be 
 seen and extolled. 
 
 First, in that the Holy Ghost has a power over men's 
 hearts. Now, men's hearts are very hard to affect. If 
 you want to get at them for any worldly object, you 
 can do it. A cheating world can win man's heart ; a 
 little gold can win man's heart ; a trump of fame and 
 a little clamor of -applause can win man's heart. But 
 there is not a minister breatliing that can win man's 
 heart himself. He can win his ears and make them 
 listen; he can win his eyes, and fix those eyes upon 
 him ; he can win the attention, but the heart is very 
 slippery. Yes ! the heart is a fish that troubles all gos- 
 pel fishermen to hold. You may sometimes pull it 
 almost all out of the water ; but, slimy as an eel, it slip- 
 peth between your fingers, and you have not captured 
 it after all. Many a man has fancied that he has caught 
 
124 SERMONS. 
 
 the heart, but has been disappointed. It would take a 
 strong hunter to overtake the hart on the mountains. 
 It is too fleet for human foot to approach. The Spirit 
 alone has power over man's heart. Do you ever try 
 your power on a heart? If any man thinks that a min- 
 ister can convert tlie soul, I wish he would try. Let 
 him go and be a Sabbath-school teacher. He shall take 
 his class, he shall have the best books that can be ob- 
 tained, he shall have the best rules, he shall draw his 
 lines of circumvallation about his spiritual Sebastopol, 
 he shall take the best boy in his class, and if he is not 
 tired in a week I shall be very much mistaken. Let 
 him spend four or five Sabbaths in trying ; but he wdll 
 say, "the young fellow is incorrigible." Let Mm try 
 another. And he will have to try another, and another, 
 and another, before he will manage to convert one. He 
 will soon find "it is not by might nor power, but by 
 my Spirit, saith the Lord." Can a minister convert ? 
 Can he touch the heart ? David said, " Your hearts 
 are as fat as grease." Aye, that is quite true ; and we 
 cannot get through so much grease at all. Our sword 
 cannot get at the heart, it is encased in so much fatness; 
 it is harder than a nether millstone. Many a good old 
 Jerusalem blade has been blunted against the hard heart. 
 Many a piece of the true steel that God has put into 
 the hands of his servants has had the edge tmuied by 
 being set up against the sinner's heart. We cannot 
 reach the soul, but the Holy Spirit can. " My beloved 
 can put in his hand by the hole in the door, and my 
 bowels will move for sin." He can give a sense of 
 blood-bought pardon that shall dissolve a heart of stone. 
 He can 
 
 
rOWER OF THE HOLY GHOST. 125 
 
 " Speak with that voice which wakes the dead. 
 And bids the sinner rise; 
 And makes the guilty conscience dread 
 The death that never dies." 
 
 He can make Sinai's thunders audible ; yea, and he can 
 make the sweet whisperings of Calvary enter into the 
 soui. He has power over the heart of man. And 
 here is a glorious proof of the omnipotence of the 
 Spirit that he has rule over the heart. 
 \ But if there is one thing more stubborn than the 
 heart, it is the ivill " My lord Will-be-will," as Bun- 
 yan calls him in his " Holy War,^' is a fellow who will 
 not easily be bent. The will, especially in some men, 
 is a very stubborn thing ; and in all men, if the will is 
 once stnred up to opposition, there is nothing can be 
 done wdth them. Free-will somebody believes in. 
 Free-will many dream of. Free-will I wherever is that 
 to be found ? Once there was Free-wdll in Paradise, 
 and a terrible mess Free-will made there ; for it spoiled 
 all Paradise and turned Adam out of the garden. Free- 
 \\all was once in heaven; but it turned the glorious 
 archangel out, and a third part of the stars of heaven 
 fell into the abyss. I want nothing to do with Free- 
 will, but I will try to see whether I have got a Free-wdll 
 within. And I find I have. Very free will to evil, but 
 very poor will to that which is good. Free-will enough 
 when I sin, but when I would do good, evil is present 
 with me, and how to do that which I would I find not. 
 Yet some boast of Free-will. I wonder whether those 
 who believe in it have any more power over persons' 
 wills than I have? I know I have not any. I find the 
 old proverb very true, " One man can bring a horse to 
 the water, but a hundi'cd cannot make liim drink." I 
 
126 SERMONS. 
 
 find that I can bring you all to the water, and a great 
 many more than can get into this chapel; but I cannot 
 make you drink ; and I don't think a hundred ministers 
 could make you drink. I have read old Rowland Hill, 
 and Whitfield, and several others, to see what they did ; 
 but I cannot discover a plan of turning your wills. I 
 cannot coax you, and you will not yield by any manner 
 of means. I do not tliink any man has power over his 
 fellow-creature's will, but the Spirit of God has. " I 
 will make them willing in the day of my power." He 
 maketh the unwilling sinner so willing that he is impet- 
 uous after the gospel ; he who was obstinate now hur- 
 ries to the cross. He who laughed at Jesus now hangs 
 on his mercy ; and he who would not believe is now 
 made by the Holy Spirit to do it, not only willingly, 
 but eagerly ; he is happy, is glad to do it, rejoices in the 
 sound of Jesus' name, and delights to run in the way 
 of God's commandments. The Holy Spirit has power 
 over the will. > 
 
 And yet there is one thing more which I think is rather 
 worse than the will. You will guess what I mean. The 
 will is somewhat worse than the heart to bend, but 
 there is one thing that excels the will in its naughti- 
 ness, and that is the imagination. I hope that my will 
 is managed by Divine Grace. But I am afraid my 
 imagination is not at times. Those who have a fan- 
 share of imagination know what a difficult thing it is 
 to control. You cannot restrain it. It will break the 
 reins. You will never be able to manage it. The im- 
 agination will sometimes fly up to God with such a 
 power that eagles' wings cannot match it. It some- 
 times has such might that it can almost see the King 
 in his beauty, and the land which is very far off. With 
 
powi:r of the holy ghost. 127 
 
 regard to myself, my imagination will sometimes take 
 me over the gates of iron, across that infinite unknown, 
 to the very gates of pearl, and discovers the blessed 
 glorified. But, if it is potent one way, it is another : for 
 my imagination has taken me down to the vilest ken- 
 nels and sewers of earth. It has given me thoughts so 
 dreadful, that, while I could not avoid them, yet I was 
 thoroughly horrified at them. These thoughts will 
 come ; and when I feel in the holiest frame, the most 
 devoted to God, and the most earnest in prayer, it often 
 happens that that is the very time when the plague 
 breaks out the worst But I rejoice and tliink of one 
 thing, that I can cry out when this imagination comes 
 upon me. I know it is said in the Book of Leviticus, 
 when an act of evil was committed, if the maiden cried 
 out against it, then her life was to be spared. So it is 
 with the Christian. If he cries out, there is hope. Can 
 you chain your imagination ? No ; but the power of 
 the Holy Ghost can. Ah, it shall do it I and it does do 
 it at last, it does it even on earth. 
 
 III. But the last thing was, the future and desired 
 effects; for, after all, though the Holy Spirit has done so 
 much, he cannot say, " It is finished." Jesus Christ 
 could exclaim concerning his own labor, "It is fin- 
 ished." But the Holy Spirit cannot say that. He has 
 more to do yet: and until the consummation of all 
 things, when the Son himself becomes subject to the 
 Father, it shall not be said by the Holy Spirit, " It is 
 finished." What, then, has the Holy Spirit to do ? 
 
 First, he has to perfect us in holiness. There are t\vo 
 kinds of perfection which a Christian needs : one is the 
 perfection of justification in the person of Jesus ; and 
 the other is, the perfection of sanctification worked in 
 
128 SERMONS. 
 
 him by the Holy Spirit. At present corruption still 
 rests even in the breasts of the regenerate. At present 
 the heart is partially impure. At present there are still 
 lusts and evil imaginations. But, oh! my soul re- 
 joices to know that the day is coming when God shall 
 finish the work which he has begun ; and he shall pre- 
 sent my soul, not only perfect in Christ, but perfect in 
 the Spirit, without spot or blemish, or any such thing. 
 And is it true that this poor depraved heart is to become 
 as holy as that of God ? And is it true that this poor 
 spirit, wliich often cries, " O wretched man that I am, 
 who shall deliver me from the body of this sin and 
 death!" shall get rid of sin and death? — I shall have 
 no evil things to vex my ears, and no unholy thoughts 
 to disturb my peace. Oh happy hour ! may it be 
 hastened ! Just before I die sanctification will be fin- 
 ished ; but not till that moment shall I ever claim per- 
 fection in myself. But at that moment when I depart, 
 my spmt shall have its last baptism in the Holy Spirit's 
 fire. It shall be put in the crucible for its last trying in 
 the furnace ; and then, free from all dross, and fine, like 
 a wedge of pure gold, it shall be presented at the feet 
 of God without the least degree of dross or mixture. 
 O glorious hour! O blessed moment! Methinks I 
 long to die if there were no heaven, if I might but have 
 that last purification, and come up from Jordan's stream 
 most white from the washing. Oh! to be washed 
 white, clean, pure, perfect ! Not an angel more pure 
 than I shall be — yea, not God himself more holy! 
 And I shall be able to say, in a double sense, " Great 
 God, I am clean — through Jesus' blood I am clean, 
 through the Spirit's work I am clean too!" Must 
 
rowER OF Tin: HOLY ghost. 129 
 
 )ou not extol the power of the Holy Ghost in thus 
 malving us fit to stand before our Father in lieaven ? 
 
 Another great work of the Holy Spirit, which is not 
 accomplished is, the bring-ing on, of the lalter-day glorij. 
 In a few more years — I know not when, I know not 
 how — the Holy Spirit will be poured out in a far dif- 
 ferent style from the present. There are diversities of 
 operations ; and during the last few years it has been 
 the case that the diversified operations have consisted 
 in very little pouring out of the Spirit. Ministers have 
 gone on in dull routine, continually preaching — preach- 
 ing — preaching, and little good has been done. I do 
 hope that perhaps a fresh era has dawned upon us, and 
 that there is a better pouring out of the Spirit even 
 now. For the hour is coming, and it may be even now 
 is, when the Holy Ghost shall be poured out again in 
 such a wonderful manner, that many shall run to and 
 fro, and knowledge shall be increased — the knowledge 
 of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover 
 the surface of the great deep ; when his kingdom shall 
 come, and his will shall be done on earth even as it is 
 in heaven. We are not going to be dragging on for- 
 ever like Pharoah, with the wheels off his chariot. My 
 heart exults, and my eyes flash with the thouglit that 
 very likely I shall live to see the out-pouring of the 
 Spirit ; when "the sons and the daughters of God again 
 shall prophesy, and the young men shall see visions, 
 and the old men shall dream dreams." Perhaps there 
 shall be no miraculous gifts — for they will not be re- 
 quired^ but yet there shall be such a miraculous amount 
 of holiness, such an extraordinary fervor of prayer, such 
 a real communion with God, and so much vital religion, 
 and such a spread of the doctrines of the cross, that 
 
130 SERMONS. 
 
 every one will see that verily the Spirit is poured out 
 like water, and the rains are descending from above. 
 For that let us pray ; let us continually labor for it, 
 and seek it of God. 
 
 One more work of the Spirit, which will especially 
 manifest his power — the general resurrection. We 
 have reason to believe from Scripture, that the resurrec- 
 tion of the dead, whilst it w^ill be effected by the voice 
 of God and of his Word, (the Son,) shall also be brought 
 about by the Spirit. That same power which raised 
 Jesus Christ from the dead, shall also quicken your 
 mortal bodies. The power of the resurrection is, per- 
 haps, one of the finest proofs of the works of the Spirit. 
 Ah I my friends, if this earth could but have its mantle 
 torn away for a little while, if the green sod could 
 be cut from it, and we could look about six feet deep 
 into its bowels, what a world it would seem ! What 
 should we see ? Bones, carcasses, rottenness, worms, 
 corruption. And you would say, Can these dry bones 
 live? Can they start up? Yes! "in a moment! in 
 the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, the dead 
 shall be raised." He speaks ; they are alive ! See them 
 scattered ! bone comes to his bone ! See them naked ; 
 flesh comes upon them ! See them still lifeless ; " Come 
 from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these 
 slain!" When the wind of the Holy Spirit comes, 
 they live ; and they stand upon their feet an exceeding 
 great army. 
 
 I have thus attempted to speak of the power of the 
 Spirit, and I trust I have shown it to you. We must 
 no^v have a moment or two for practical inference. The 
 Spirit IS very poAverful, Christian! What do you infer 
 
POWER OF THE HOLY GHOST. 131 
 
 from that fact ? Why, that you never need distrust 
 the power of God to carry you to heaven. O how that 
 sweet verse was laid to my soul yesterday I 
 
 " His tried Almighty arm 
 
 Is raised for your defence ; 
 'V^'here is the power can reach you there ? 
 Or what can pluck you thence ? ' ' 
 
 The power of the Holy Spkit is your bulwark, and all 
 his omnipotence defends you. Can your enemies over- 
 come omnipotence ? then they can conquer you. Can 
 they WTestle with Deity, and hurl him to the ground ? 
 then they might conquer you. For the power of the 
 Spirit is our power; the power of the Spirit is our 
 might. 
 
 Once again, Christians, if tliis is the power of the 
 Spirit, ^vhy should you doubt anything? There is your 
 son. There is that wife of yours, for whom you have 
 supplicated so frequently ; do not doubt the Spirit's 
 power. " Though he tarry, wait for him." There is 
 thy husband, O holy woman ! and thou hast \\'Testled 
 for his soul. And though he is ever so hardened and 
 desperate a ^vretch, and treats thee ill, there is power in 
 the Spirit. And, O ye who have come from barren 
 churches, with scarcely a leaf upon the tree, do not 
 doubt the power of the Spirit to raise you up. For it 
 shall be a " pasture for flocks, a den of wild asses," 
 open but deserted, mitil the Spirit is poured out from 
 on high. And then the parched ground shall be made a 
 pool, and the thirsty land springs of water ; and in the 
 habitations of dragons, where each lay shall be grass 
 with reeds and rushes. And, O ye members of Park- 
 
9 
 
 132 SERMONS. 
 
 street! ye who remember what your God has done for you 
 especially, never distrust the power of the Spirit. Ye 
 have seen the wilderness blossom like Carmel, ye have 
 seen the desert blossom like the rose ; trust him for the 
 future. Then go out and labor with this conviction, 
 that the power of the Holy Ghost is able to do any- 
 thing. Go to your Sunday-school ; go to your tract 
 distribution ; go to your missionary enterprise ; go to 
 your preaching in your rooms, with the conviction that 
 the power of the Spirit is our great help. 
 
 And now, lastly, to you sinners. What is there to 
 be said to you about this power of the Spirit ? Why, 
 to me, there is some hope for some of you. I cannot 
 save you ; I cannot get at you. I make you cry some- 
 times — you wipe your eyes, and it is all over. But I 
 know my Master can. That is my consolation. Chief 
 of sinners, there is hope for thee! This power can save 
 you as well as anybody else. It is able to break your 
 heart, though it is an iron one ; to maKC your eyes run 
 with tears, though they have been like rocks before. 
 His power is able this morning, if he will, to change 
 your heart, to turn the current of all your ideas ; to 
 make you at once a child of God, to justify you in 
 Christ. There is power enough in the Holy Spirit. 
 Ye are not straightened in him, but in your own bowels. 
 He is able to bring sinners to Jesus ; he is able to make 
 you willing in the day of his power. Are you willing 
 this morning? Has he gone so far as to make you 
 desire his name ; to make you wish for Jesus ? Then, 
 O sinner ! whilst he draws you, say, " Draw me, I am 
 wretched without thee." Follow him, follow him ; and, 
 while he leads, tread you in his footsteps, and rejoice 
 
POWER OF Tin: HOLY GHOST. lo3 
 
 that he has begun a good work in you, for there is an 
 evidence that he will continue it even unto the end. 
 And, O desponding one ! put thy trust in the power of 
 the Spirit. Rest on the blood of Jesus, and thy soul 
 is safe, not only now, but throughout et^^rnity. God 
 bless you, my hearers. Amen. 
 
 12 
 
SERMON YII. 
 
 THE C nunc II or CHRIST. 
 
 " And I will make thorn and the places round about my hill a blessing-, and I will 
 cause the shower to come down in his season ; there shall be showers of blessing." — 
 EZEKIEL xxxiv. 26. 
 
 The chapter (Ezek. xxxiv.) that I read at the com- 
 mencement of the service is a prophetical one ; and, I 
 take it, it has relation, not to the condition of the Jews 
 during the captivity and their subsequent happiness 
 when they should return to their land, but to a state 
 into wiiich they should fall after they had been, restored 
 to their country under Nehemiah and Ezra, and in 
 which state they still continue to the present day. The 
 prophet tells us that the shepherds then, instead of 
 feeding the flock, fed themselves ; they trod the grass, 
 instead of allowing the sheep to eat it, and they fouled 
 the waters with their feet. That is an exact descrip- 
 tion of the state of Judea after the captivity ; for then 
 there arose the Scribes and Pharisees, who took the 
 key of knowledge, and wouki not enter themselves nor 
 allow others to enter ; who laid heavy burdens on 
 men's shoulders, and would not touch them with one 
 of their fingers ; who made religion to consist entirely 
 
 (134) 
 
Tin: CHURCH of ciirist. 135 
 
 in sacrifices and ceremonies, and imposed such a bur- 
 den on the people, that they cried out, " What a weari- 
 ness it is I" That same evil has continued with the 
 poor Jews to the present day ; and should you read the 
 nonsense of the Talmud and the Gemara, and see the 
 burdens they laid upon them, you would say, " Verily, 
 they have idle shepherds ; " they give the sheep no 
 food ; they trouble them with fanciful superstitions and 
 silly views, and instead of telling them that the Messiah 
 is already come, they delude them with the idea that 
 there is a Messiah yet to come, who shall restore Judea, 
 and raise it to its glory. The Lord pronounces a curse 
 upon these Pharisees and Rabbis, these who " thrust 
 with side and with shoulder," those evil shepherds who 
 will not suffer the sheep to lie down, neither will feed 
 them with good pastiu^e. But, after having described 
 this state, he prophecies better times for the poor Jew. 
 The day is coming when the careless shepherds shall be 
 as nought ; when the power of the Rabbis shall cease, 
 when the traditions of the Mishna and the Talmud 
 shall be cast aside. The hour is approaching, when 
 the tribes shall go up to their own country ; when 
 Judea, so long a howling wilderness, shall once more 
 blossom like the rose ; when, if the temple itself be 
 not restored, yet on Zion's hill shall be raised some 
 Christian building, where the chants of solemn praise 
 shall be heard, as erst of old the Psalms of David were 
 sung in the tabernacle. Not long shall it be, ere they 
 shall come — shall come from distant lands, where'er 
 they rest or roam ; and she who has been the offscour- 
 ing of all things, whose name has been a proverb and 
 a by^vord, shall become the glory of all lands. De- 
 jected Zion shall raise her head, shaking herself from 
 
136 SERMONS. 
 
 dust, and darkness, and the dead. Then shall the Lord 
 feed his people, and make them and the places round 
 about his hill a blessing. I think we do not attach suf- 
 ficient importance to the restoration of the Jews. We 
 do not tliink enough of it. But certainly, if there is 
 anything promised in the Bible it is this. I imagine 
 that you cannot read the Bible without seeing clearly 
 that there is to be an actual restoration of the children 
 of Israel. " Thither they shall go up ; they shall come 
 with weeping unto Zion, and with supplications unto 
 Jerusalem." May that happy day soon come! For 
 when the Jews are restored, then the fulness of the 
 Gentiles shall be gathered in ; and as soon as they 
 return, then Jesus will come upon Mount Zion to reign 
 with his ancients gloriously, and the halcyon days of 
 the Millennium shall then dawn ; we shall then know 
 every man to be a brother and a friend ; Christ shall 
 rule, with universal sway. 
 
 This, then, is the meaning of the text ; that God 
 would make Jerusalem and the places round about his 
 hill a blessing. I shall not, however, use it so this 
 morning, but I shall use it in a more confined sense — 
 or, perhaps, in a more enlarged sense — as it applies to 
 the church of Jesus Christ, and to this particular church 
 with which you and I stand connected. " I will make 
 them and the places round about my hill a blessing; 
 and I will cause the shower to come down in his sea- 
 son ; there shall be showers of blessing." 
 
 There are two things here spoken of. Fu'st, Christ'' s 
 church is to be a blessing ; secondly, Chris fs church is 
 to be blessed. These two things you will find in the 
 different sentences of the text. 
 
 I. First, Christ's church is to be a blessing. " I will 
 
TUE CHURCH OF CHRIST. 137 
 
 make them and the places round about my hill a bless- 
 ing." The object of God, in choosing a people before 
 all worlds, was not only to save that people, but 
 through them to confer essential benefits upon the 
 whole human race. When he chose Abraham, he did 
 not elect him simply to be God's friend, and the recip- 
 ient of peculiar privileges; but he chose him to make 
 him, as it were, the conservator of truth. He was to 
 be the ark in which the truth should be hidden. He 
 was to be the keeper of the covenant in behalf of the 
 whole world ; and when God chooses any men by his 
 sovereign-electing grace, and makes them Christ's, he 
 does it not only for theur own sake, that they may be 
 saved, but for the world's sake. For, know ye not that 
 " ye are the light of the world ? " — « A city set upon a 
 hill, which cannot be hid ? " " Ye are the salt of the 
 earth ; " and when God makes you salt, it is not only 
 that ye may have salt in yourselves, but that like salt 
 ye may preserve the whole mass. If he makes you 
 leaven, it is that, like the little leaven, you may leaven 
 the whole lump. Salvation is not a selfish thing; God 
 does not give it for us to keep to ourselves, but that we 
 may thereby be made the means of blessing to others ; 
 and the great day shall declare that there is not a man 
 living on the surface of the earth but has received a 
 blessing in some way or other through God's gift of the 
 gospel. The very keeping of the wicked in life, and 
 granting of the reprieve, was purchased with the death 
 of Jesus ; and through his suff'erings and death, the 
 temporal blessings which both we and they enjoy are 
 bestowed on us. The gospel was sent that it might 
 first bless those that embrace it, and then expand, so as 
 to make them a blessing to the whole human race. 
 12* 
 
188 
 
 SEU.MOXS. 
 
 In thus speaking of the church as a blessing, we 
 shall notice three things. First, here is divinitij — "i 
 will make them a blessing;" secondly, here is pennon- 
 a/ if// of religion — " I will make Uiem a blessing;" and 
 thirdly, here is the development of religion — "and the 
 places round about my hill." 
 
 1. First, with regard to this blessing which God will 
 cause his church to be, here is divinity. It is God the 
 everlasting Jehovah speaking : he says, " / will make 
 them a blessing." None of us can bless others unless 
 God has first blessed us. We need divine workman- 
 ship. " I will make them a blessing by helping them, 
 and by constraining them." God makes his people a 
 blessing by helping them. What can we do without 
 God's help ? I stand and preach to thousands, or it 
 may be hundreds ; what have I done, unless a greater 
 than man has been in the pulpit with me ? I work in 
 the Sabbath-schools ; what can I do, unless the Master 
 is there, teaching the children with me ? We want 
 God's aid in every position ; and once give us that 
 assistance, and there is no telling with how little labor 
 we may become a blessing. Ah I a few words some- 
 times will be more of a blessing than a w'hole sermon. 
 You take some little prattler on your knee ; and some 
 few words that you say to him he remembers, and 
 makes use of in after years. I knew a gray-headed 
 old man, who was in the habit of doing this. He 
 once took a boy to a certain tree, and said, " Now, 
 John, you kneel down at that tree, and I will kneel 
 down with you." He knelt down and prayed, and 
 asked God to convert him and save his soul. " Now," 
 said he, " perhaps you will come to this tree again ; 
 and if you are not converted, you will remember that I 
 
THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. 139 
 
 asked under this tree that God would save your soul." 
 That young man went away, and forgot the old man's 
 prayer ; but it chanced as God would have it that he 
 walked down that field again, and saw a tree. It 
 seemed as if the old man's name was cut in the bark. 
 He recollected what he prayed for, and that the prayer 
 was not fulfilled; but he dare not pass the tree without 
 kneeling down to pray himself; and there was his spir- 
 itual birthplace. The simplest observation of the 
 Christian shall be made a blessing, if God help him. 
 " His leaf also shall not wither " — the simplest word 
 he speaks shall be treasured up ; " and whatsoever he 
 doeth shall prosper." 
 
 But there is constraint here. " I will make them a 
 blessing." I ^^ill give them to be a blessing ; I ^^ill 
 constrain them to be a blessing. I can say myself, that 
 I never did anything which was a blessing to my fellow 
 creatures, without feeling compelled to do it. I thought 
 of sroins: to a Sabbath school to teach. On a certain 
 day, some one called — asked me — begged me — prayed 
 me to take his class. I could not refuse to go ; and 
 there I was held, hand and foot, by the superintendent, 
 and was compelled to go on. I was asked to address 
 the children ; I thought I could not, but no one else 
 was there to do it, so I stood up and stumbled out a 
 few words. And I recollect the first^occasion on which 
 I attempted to preach to the people — I am sure I had 
 no wish to do it — but there was no one else in the 
 place, and the congregation must go away without a 
 single word of warning or address. How could I suf- 
 fer it ? I felt forced to addi*ess them. And so it has 
 been with whatever I have laid my hand to. I have 
 always felt a kind of impulse which I could not resist ; 
 
140 SERMONS. [] 
 
 but, moreover, felt placed by Providence in such a posi- 
 tion, that I had no wish to avoid the duty, and if I had 
 desired it, could not have helped myself. And so it is 
 with God's people. If they will go through their lives, 
 wherever they have been made a blessing, they will 
 fmd that God seems to have thrust them into the vine- 
 yard. Such-and-such a man was once rich. What 
 good was he in the world ? He did but loll in his car- 
 riage ; he did but little good, and was of little service 
 to his fellow-creatures. Says God, " I will make him 
 a blessing : " so he strips away his riches, and brings 
 him into low circumstances. He is then brought into 
 association with the poor, and his superior education 
 and intellect make him a blessing to them. God makes 
 him a blessing. Another man was naturally very 
 timid ; he would not pray at the prayer meeting, he 
 would hardly like to join the church : soon he gets into 
 a position in which he cannot help himself. " I will 
 7)iake him a blessing." And as sure as ever you are a 
 servant of God, he will make you a blessing. He will 
 have none of his gold in the lump ; he will hammer it 
 out, and make it a blessing. I verily believe there are 
 some in my congi'egation, to whom God has given 
 power to preach his name : they do not know it, per- 
 haps, but God will make it known by-and-by. I would 
 have every man look and see, whether God is making 
 him do a certain thing; and when once he feels the im- 
 pulse, let him by no means ever check it. I am some- 
 what of a believer in the doctrine of the Quakers, as 
 to the impulses of the Spirit, and I fear lest I should 
 check one of them. If a thought crosses my mind, 
 " Go to such a person's house," I always like to do it, 
 because I do not know but what it may be from the 
 
TIIK CHURCH OF CHRIST. 141 
 
 Spirit. I understand this verse to mean something like 
 that. " I will make them a blessing." I will force 
 them to do good. If I cannot make a sweet scent 
 come from them in any other way, I will ])Ound them 
 in the mortar of aflliction. If they have seed, and the 
 seed cannot be scattered in any other way, I will send 
 a rough wind to blow the downy seed ever^-Avhere." 
 " I will make them a blessing." If you have never 
 been viade a blessing to any one, depend upon it you 
 are not a child of God ; for Jehovah says, " I will make 
 them a blessinsr." 
 
 2. But notice, next, the personality of the blessing. 
 " I will make llirm a blessing." " I will make each 
 member of the chuj'ch a blessing." Many people come 
 up to the house of prayer, where the church assembles : 
 and you say, " WeD, what are you doing at such-and- 
 such a place where you attend? " " Well, loe are doing 
 so-and-so." " How do you spell we?" " It is a plain 
 monosyllable," say you. Yes, but do you put / in 
 " we ? " " No." There are a great many people who 
 could easily spell "we" without an /in it; for though 
 they say, " We have been doing so-and-so," they do not 
 say, " How much have I done ? Did I do anything in 
 it ? Yes ; this chapel has been enlarged ; what did I 
 subscribe? Twopence!" Of course it is done. Those 
 who paid the money have done it. " We preach the 
 gospel." Do we, indeed ? " Yes, we sit in our pew and 
 listen a little, and do not pray for a blessing. We have 
 got such a large Sunday school." Did you ever teach 
 in it ? " We have got a very good working society." 
 Did you ever go to work in it ? That is not the way 
 to spell "we." It is, "I will make Mewi a blessing." 
 When Jerusalem was built every man began nearest 
 
142 SERMONS. 
 
 his own house. That is where you must begin to build 
 or do something. Do not let us tell a lie about it. K 
 we do not have some share in the building, if we neither 
 handle the trowel nor the spear, let us not talk about 
 our church ; for the text says, " I will make them a bless- 
 ing," every one of them. 
 
 "But, sir, what can I do? I am nothing but a 
 father at home; I am so full of business, I can only see 
 my children a little." But in your business, do you 
 ever have any servants ? " No ; I am a servant my- 
 self." You have fellow-servants ? " No ; I work alone." 
 Do you work alone, then, and live alone, like a monk 
 in a cell ? I don't believe that. But you have fellow- 
 servants at w ork ; cannot you say a word to their con- 
 science? "I don't like to intrude religion into busi- 
 ness." Quite right, too; so say I; when I am at 
 business, let it be business ; when you are at religion, 
 let it be religion. But do you never have an oppor- 
 tunity ? Why, you cannot go into an omnibus, or a 
 railway carriage, but w^hat you can say something for 
 Jesus Christ. I have found it so, and I don't believe I 
 am different from other people. Cannot do anything? 
 Caimot you put a tract in your hat, and drop it where 
 you go? Cannot you speak a word to a child? 
 Where does this man come from, that cannot do any- 
 thing? There is a spider on the wall; but he taketh 
 hold on kings' palaces, and spinneth his web to rid the 
 world of noxious flies. There is a nettle in the corner 
 of the churchyard ; but the physician tells me it has 
 its virtues. There is a tiny star in the sky ; but that 
 is noted in the chart, and the mariner looks at it. There 
 is an insect under water ; but it builds a rock. God 
 made all these things for something ; but here is a man 
 
TllE*Cl!L'RCn OF CIIKIST. 143 
 
 that God made, and gave him nothing at all to do I I 
 do not believe it God never makes useless things ; he 
 has no superfluous workmanship. I care not what you 
 are ; you have somewhat to do. And oh I may God 
 show you what it is, and then make you do it, by 
 the wondrous compulsion of his providence and his 
 grace. 
 
 3. But we have to notice, in the third place, the de- 
 velopment of gospel blessing. "I will make them a 
 blessing;" but it does not end there. " And the places 
 round about my hill." Religion is an expansive thing. 
 When it begins in the heart, at first it is like a tiny 
 gi'ain of mustard seed ; but it gradually increases, and 
 becomes a great tree, so that the birds of the air lodge 
 in the branches thereof. A man cannot be relisfious to 
 himself. "No man liveth to himself, and no man dieth 
 to himself." You have heard a score of times, that if 
 you do but drop a pebble in a brook it causes a small 
 rmg at first, then another outside of that, and then 
 another, and then another, till the influence of the peb- 
 ble is perceptible over the entire bosom of the water. 
 So it is when God makes his people a blessing. " I 
 will make a minister a blessing to one or two ; I will 
 then make him a blessing to a hundred ; 1 will then 
 make him a blessing to thousands ; and then I will 
 make those thousands a blessing. I will make each 
 one individually a blessing, and when I have done that, 
 I will make all the places round about a blessing. " I 
 will make them a blessing." I hope we shall never 
 be satisfied, as members of Park-street, until we are 
 a blessing, not only to ourselves, but to all the places 
 round about our hill. What are the places round about 
 our hill ? I think they are, first, our agencies ; sec- 
 
144 SERMONS, • 
 
 ondly, our neighborhood; thirdly, the churches adjacent 
 to us. 
 
 Fu'st, there are our agencies. There is our Sabbath- 
 school : how near that is to our hill ? I speak a gi*eat 
 deal about this, because I want it to be brought into 
 notice. I intend to preach a practical sermon this 
 morning, to move some of you to come and teach in 
 the Sabbath-school ; for there we require some suitable 
 men, to " come up to the help of the Lord, to the help 
 of the Lord against the mighty." Therefore I men- 
 tion the Sabbath-school as a place very near to the 
 hill ; it ought to be just at the very foot of it ; yea, it 
 ought to be so near the hill that very many may pass 
 from it to the church. Then there is our Visiting and 
 Christian Instruction Society, which we have for the vis- 
 iting of this neighborhood. I trust that has been made a 
 blessing. God has sent among us a man who labors zeal- 
 ously and earnestly in visiting the sick. I have, as the 
 superintendent of my beloved brother, the missionary, a 
 regular account of his labors ; liis report has most highly 
 gratified me, and I am able to bear testimony to the fact, 
 that he is very efficiently laboring around us. I want 
 that society to have all your sympathy and strength. 
 I consider him as a Joshua, with whom you are to go 
 forth by hundi'cds to those who live in the neighbor- 
 hood. Do you know what dark places there are? 
 Walk down a street a little to the right. See the shops 
 open on a Sunday. Some, thank God, that used to 
 open them, now come and worship with us. We shall 
 have more yet ; for " the earth is the Lord's and the 
 fulness thereof," and why should not we have it ? My 
 brethren, as you visit the sick, or disti'ibute tracts from 
 door to door, make this your prayer — that this society, 
 
THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. 145 
 
 being one of the places round about oiu: hill, may be 
 made a blessing ! Let me not forget any agency con- 
 nected with this church. There are several more which 
 are places round about our hill ; and the Lord has just 
 put it into my heart to fashion other societies, which 
 shall be made a blessing to this hill, and in a little 
 w^hile you shall hear thereof. We have several brethren 
 in tliis congregation to whom God has given a mouth 
 of utterance ; these are about to form themselves into 
 a society for proclaiming the Word of God. Where 
 God has so blessed his church, and made us to be 
 so noted and named amongst the people, why should 
 we not keep on ? We have been brought up to a great 
 pitch of ferv'ency and love; now is the time for doing 
 something. While the iron is hot, why not strike and 
 fashion it ? I believe we have the materials, not only 
 for making a church here that shall be the glory of the 
 Baptist Churches in London," but for making churches 
 everyAvhere throughout the metropolis ; and we have 
 more schemes on hand, which, matured by sober judg- 
 ment, and backed by prudence, shall yet make this 
 metropolis more honored than it has been by the 
 sound of the pure gospel and the proclamation of the 
 pure Word of God. May God make all our agencies 
 — the places round about our hill — a blessing. 
 
 But next, there is the neighborhood. 1 am paralyzed 
 sometimes, when I think that we are of so little service 
 to the neighborhood, though this is a green oasis in the 
 midst of a great spiritual desert. Just at the back of 
 us we could find you hundreds of Roman Catholics, 
 and men of the very worst character ; and it is sad to 
 think that we cannot make this place a blessing to 
 them. It is made a great blessing to you, my hearers, 
 
 18 
 
146 SERMONS. 
 
 but you do not come from this district; you come from 
 anywhere and nowhere, some of you, I suppose. Peo- 
 ple say, " There is something doing in that chapel ; 
 look at the crowd ; but we cannot get in I " This one 
 thing 1 ask — never come here to gratify your curiosity. 
 You that are members of other congregations, just 
 consider it your duty to stay at home. There are many 
 stray sheep about. 1 would rather have them than 
 you. Keep your own place. I do not want to rob 
 other ministers. Do not come here from charity. We 
 are much obliged to you for your kindly intentions ; 
 but we would rather have your room than your com- 
 pany, if ye are members of other churches. We want 
 sinners to come — sinners of every sort ; but do not let 
 us have that sort of men whose ears arc everlastingly 
 itching for some new preacher ; who are saying, " I 
 want something else, I want something else." Oh ! do, 
 I beseech you, for God's sake, be of some good ; and 
 if you are running about from one place to another, 
 you can never expect to be. Do ye know what is said 
 of rolling stones ? Ah ! ye have heard of that. They 
 " gather no moss." Now, don't be rolling stones, but 
 keep at home. God, however, so help us, as to make 
 us a blessing to the neighborhood ! I long to see some- 
 thing done lor the people around. We must open our 
 arms to them : we must go out into the open air to 
 them ; we must and will preach God's gospel to them. 
 Let, then, the people around listen to the word of the 
 gospel ; and may it be said, " That place is the cathe- 
 dral of Southwark ! " So it is now. Out of it goes a 
 blessing ; God is pouring out a blessing upon it. 
 
 What else do we mean by the places round about 
 our hill ? We mean, the churches adjacent. I cannot 
 
THI-: CHURCH OF CHRIST. 147 
 
 but rejoice in the prosperity of many churches around 
 us ; but as our beloved brother, IVIr. Sherman, said, last 
 Thursday morning, " It is not invidious to say, that 
 there are very few churches that are in a prosperous 
 state, and that, taldng the churches at large, they are in 
 a deplorable condition. It is only here and there," said 
 he, "that God is pouring out Ms Spirit; but most of 
 the churches are lying. Like barges at Blackfi'iar's 
 Bridge when the tide is down — right in the mud ; 
 and all the king's horses and all the king's men cannot 
 pull them off, till the tide comes and sets them afloat." 
 Who can tell, then, what good may be done by this 
 church? If there is a light in this candlestick, let 
 others come and light their candles by it. If there is a 
 flame here, let the flame spread, until all the neighbor- 
 ing churches shall be lit up with the glory. Then, 
 indeed, shall we be made the rejoicing of the earth; 
 for there is never a revival in one spot, but it shall 
 affect others. Who shall tell, then, where it shall 
 end ? 
 
 "• Fly abroad, thou mighty gospel ; 
 Win and conquer, never cease." 
 
 And it never will cease, when God once makes the 
 places round about his hill a blessing. 
 
 II. The second point is, that God's people are not 
 only to be a blessing, but they are to he blessed. For 
 read the second part of the verse. " And I will cause 
 the shower to come down in his season ; there shall be 
 showers of blessing." It is somewhat singular, as a 
 prognostication of the showers of blessings we hope 
 to receive here, that God sent us showers on the first 
 day of opening. If I were a believer in omens, I 
 
148 SERMOx\S. 
 
 should pray, that as it rained the first day, so may it 
 rain every day since. When it stops may the chapel 
 be shut up ; for we only want it open so long as show- 
 ers o f ffl'ace continue to descend. 
 
 First, here is sovereign mercy. Listen to these words : 
 " I will give them the shower in its season." Is it not 
 sovereign, divine mercy ; for who can say, " I will give 
 them showers," except God? Can the false prophet 
 who walks amongst the benighted Hottentots? He 
 says he is a rain-maker, and can give them showers; 
 but can he do it ? Is there an imperial monarch, or 
 the most learned man on earth, who can say, " I will 
 give them the showers in their season?" No ; there is 
 only one fist wherein all the clouds are held ; there is 
 only one hand in which all the channels of the mighty 
 ocean above the firmament are contained; there is only 
 one voice that can speak to the clouds, and bid them 
 beget the rain. " Out of whose womb came the ice? 
 and the hoary frost of heaven, who hath gendered it ?" 
 " Who sendeth down the rain upon the earth ? who 
 scattereth the showers upon the green herb ? Do not I, 
 the Lord ?" Who else could do it ? Is not rain in 
 God's power ? and who could send it, except him ? 
 We know that Catholics pretend that they can get 
 grace without getting it from God directly; for they 
 believe that God puts all his grace into the pope, and 
 then that runs down into smaller pipes, called cardinals 
 and bishops, through which it runs into the priests; 
 and, by turning the tap with a shilling, you can get as 
 much^grace as you like. But it is not so with God's 
 grace. He says, " I will give them showers." Grace 
 is the gift of God, and is not to be created by man. 
 
 Notice, next, it is needed grace. " I will give them 
 
'flic CHURCH OF CHRIST. 149 
 
 showers." Wliat would the ground do without show- 
 ers ? You may break the clods, you may sow your 
 seeds ; but what can you do without the rain ? Ah I 
 you may prepare your barn, and sharpen your sickles ; 
 but yoiu- sickles will be rusted before ypu have any 
 wheat, unless there are showers. They are needed. So 
 is the divine blessing. 
 
 *' In vain Apollos sow the seed, 
 And Paul may plant in vain ; 
 
 In vain you come here, in vain you labor, in vain you 
 give your money : 
 
 •' Till God the plenteous shower bestows, 
 And sends salvation down. ' ' 
 
 Then, next, it is plenteous grace. " I will send them 
 showers." It does not say, " I will send them drops," 
 but " I will send them showers." " It seldom rains but it 
 pours." So it is with grace. If God gives a blessing, 
 he usually gives it in such a measure that there is not 
 room enough to receive it. Where are w^e going to 
 hold God's blessing that we have obtained already ? I 
 told the people on Thursday that God had promised 
 us, that if we brought the tithes into the storehouse, he 
 would send us such a blessing that we would not have 
 room to hold it. We have tried it, and the promise 
 has been fulfilled, as it always wiU be as long as we 
 rely upon it. Plenteous ^ace! Ah! we shall want 
 plenteous grace, my friends ; plenteous grace to keep us 
 humble, plenteous grace to make us prayerful, plente- 
 ous grace to make us EoTy, plenteous grace to make us 
 zealous, plenteous grace to make us truthful, plenteous 
 grace to preserv^e us through this life, and at last to 
 13* 
 
150 SERMONS. 
 
 land us in heaven. We cannot do without showers of 
 grace. How many are there here that have been dry- 
 in a shower of grace ? Why, there is a shower of 
 grace here ; but how is it that it does not fall on some 
 of the people ? It is because they put up the umbrella 
 of their prejudice; and though they sit 'here, even as 
 God's people sit, even when it rains, they have such a 
 prejudice against God's Word, they do not want to 
 hear it, they do not want to love it, and it runs off 
 again. Nevertheless, the showers are there ; and we 
 will thank God for them where they do fall. 
 
 Again, it is seasonable grace. " I will give them 
 the shower in its season." There is nothing like sea- 
 sonable grace. There are fruits, you know, that are 
 best in their season, and they are not good at any other 
 time ; and there are graces that are good in their sea- 
 son, but we do not always requu'e them. A person 
 vexes and irritates me ; I want grace just at that mo- 
 ment to be patient: I have not got it, and I get angry; 
 ten minutes after I am ever so patient ; but 1 have not 
 had grace in its season. The promise is, " I will give 
 them the shower in its season." Ah I poor waiting 
 soul, what is thy season this morning ? Is it the sea- 
 son of drought ? Then that is the season for showers. 
 Is it a season of great heaviness and black clouds? 
 Then that is the season for showers. What is your 
 season this morning, business man ? Lost money all 
 the week, have you? Now is the season to ask for 
 showers. It is night-time ; now the dew falls. The 
 dew does not fall in the day — it falls in the night ; the 
 night of affliction, trial, and trouble. There stands the 
 promise ; only go and plead it. '* I will give them the 
 shower in its season." 
 
THE CHURCH OF CilUIST. 151 
 
 We have one thought more, and then we have done. 
 Here is a varied blessing. " I will give thee shoivers 
 of blessing." The word is in the plural. All kinds of 
 blessings God will send. The rain is all of one kind 
 when it comes ; but grace is not all of one kind, or it 
 does not produce the same effect. When God sends 
 rain upon the church, he " sends showers of blessing." 
 There are some ministers who thinli, that if there is a 
 shower on their church, God will ^end a shower of 
 work. Yes, but if he does, he will send a shower of 
 comfort. Others think that God will send a shower of 
 gospel truth. Yes, but if he sends that, he will send a 
 shower of gospel holiness. For all God's blessings go 
 together. They are like the sweet sister graces that 
 danced hand in hand. God sends showers of blessings. 
 If he gives comforting grace, he will also give convert- 
 ing grace ; if he makes the trumpet blow for the bank- 
 rupt sinner, he will also make it sound a shout of joy 
 for the sinner that is pardoned and forgiven. He will 
 send " showers of blessing." 
 '^ Now, then, there is a promise in that Bible. We 
 have tried to explain and enlarge upon it. What shall 
 we do with it ? 
 
 '* In that book there hidden lies 
 A pearl of price unknown.'* 
 
 Well, we have examined this rich promise ; we as a 
 church are looking at it; we are saying, " Is that ours?" 
 I tb-ink most of the members will say, " It is ; for God 
 has po^ired out upon us showers of blessing in their 
 season." Well, then, if the promise is ours the pre- 
 cept is ours, as much as the promise. Ought we not 
 I to ask God to continue to make us a blessing ? Some 
 
152 SERMONS. 
 
 say I did so-and-so when I was a young man ; but sup- 
 posing you are fifty, you are not an old man now. Is 
 there not something you can do ? It is aU very well to 
 taUv about what you have done; but what are you 
 doing now ? I know what it is with some of you ; 
 you shined brightly once, but your candle has not been 
 snuffed lately, and so it does not shine so well. May 
 God take away some of the worldly cares, and snuff 
 the candles a little ! You know there were snuffers 
 and snuffer-trays provided in the temple for all the can- 
 dles, but no extinguishers ; and if there should be a 
 poor candle here this morning, with a terrific snuff, that 
 has not given a light for a long while, you will have no 
 extinguisher from me, but I hope you will always have 
 a snuffing. I thought the first time when I came to 
 the lamps this morning it would be to snuff them. 
 That has been the intention of mv sermon — to snuff 
 you a little — to set you to work for Jesus Christ. O 
 Zion, shake thyself from the dust ! O Christian, raise 
 thyself from thy slumbers I Warrior, put on thy 
 armor! Soldier, grasp thy sword! The captain sounds 
 the alarm of war. O sluggard! why sleepest thou? 
 O heir of heaven, has not Jesus done so much for thee, 
 that thou shouldst live to him ? O beloved brethren, 
 purchased with redeeming mercies, girt about with 
 loving-ldndness and with tenderness, 
 
 *' Now for a shout of sacred joy,'* 
 
 and after that, to the battle! The little seed has gi'own 
 to this : who knoweth what it shall be ? Onl^ let us 
 together strive, without variance. Let us labor for 
 Jesus. Never did men have so fair an opportunity, for 
 the last hundred years. " There is a time that, taken 
 
THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. 153 
 
 at the flood, leads on to fortune." Sliall you take it at 
 the flood? Over the bar, at the harbor's mouth! O 
 ship of heaven, let thy sails be out ; led not thy can- 
 vas be furled ; and the wind will blow us across the 
 seas of difficulty that lie before us. O I that the latter 
 day might have its dawning even in this despised habi- 
 tation I O my God I from this place cause the first 
 wave to spring, which shall move another, and then 
 another, till the last great wave shall sweep over the 
 sands of time, and dash against the rocks of eternity, 
 echoing as it falls, "Hallelujah! Hallelujah! HaUelu- 
 jah! the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth ! " 
 
SEEMON VIII. 
 
 THE ETERNAL NAME. 
 
 " His name shall endure forever." — Psalm Ixxii. 17. 
 
 No one here requires to be told that this is the name 
 of Jesus Christ, which " shall endure forever." Men 
 have said of many of their works, " they shall endure 
 forever;" but how much have they been disappointed! 
 In the age succeeding the flood, they made the brick, 
 they gathered the slime, and when they had piled old 
 Babel's tower, they said, " This shall last forever." 
 But God confounded their language ; they finished it 
 not. By his lightnings he destroyed it, and left it a 
 monument of their folly. Old Pharoah and the Egyp- 
 tian monarchs heaped up their pyramids, and they said, 
 " They shall stand forever," and so indeed they do stand; 
 but the time is approaching when age shall devour even 
 these. So with all the proudest works of man, whether 
 they have been his temples or his monarchies, he has 
 wnritten " everlasting " on them ; but God has ordained 
 their end, and they have passed away. The most stable 
 things have been evanescent as shadows and the bub- 
 bles of an hour, speedily destroyed at God's bidding. 
 Where is Nineveh, and where is Babylon ? Where the 
 
 (154) 
 
THE ETERNAL NAME. 155 
 
 cities of Persia ? Where are the high places of Edom ? 
 W here are INIoab, and the princes of Ammon ? Where 
 are the temples or the heroes of Greece ? Where the 
 millions that passed from the gates of Thebes ? Where 
 are the hosts of Xerxes, or where the vast armies of 
 the Roman emperors ? Have they not passed away ? 
 And though in their pride they said, " This monarchy 
 is an everlasting one ; tills queen of the seven liills shall 
 be called the eternal city," its pride is dimmed ; and 
 she who sat alone, and said, " I shall be no widow, but 
 a queen forever," she hath fallen, hath fallen, and in a 
 little while she shall sink like a millstone in the flood, 
 her name being a curse and a byword, and her site the 
 habitation of dragons and of ov/ls. Man calls his works 
 eternal — God calls them fleeting; man conceives that 
 they are built of rock — God says, " Nay, sand, or worse 
 than that — they are air." Man says he erects them 
 for eternity — God blows but for a moment, and where 
 are they ? Juike baseless fabrics of a vision, they are 
 passed and gone forever. 
 
 It is pleasant, then, to find that there is one thing 
 which is to last forever. Concerning that one thing we 
 hope to speak to-night, if God will enable me to preach, 
 and you to hear. " His name shall endure forever." 
 First, the religion sanctified by his name shall endure 
 forever ; secondly, the honor of his name shall endure 
 forever; and thirdly, ^/(e saving, comforting power of 
 his name shall endure forever. 
 
 I. First, the religion of. the name of Jesus is to endure 
 forever. When imposters forged their delusions, they 
 had hopes that peradventure they might in some distant 
 age carry the world before them ; and if they saw a few 
 followers gather around their standard, who offered in- 
 
156 SERMONS. 
 
 cense at their shrine, then they smiled, and said, *' M}' 
 religion shall outshine the stars and last through eter- 
 nity." But how mistaken have they been I How many 
 false systems have started up and passed away ! Why, 
 some of us have seen, even in our short lifetime, sects 
 that rose lilve Jonah's gourd, in a single night, and passed 
 away as swiftly. We, too, have beheld prophets rise, 
 who have had their hour — yea, they have had their 
 day, as dogs all have ; but, like the dogs, their day has 
 passed away, and the imposter, where is he? And 
 the arch-deceiver, where is he ? Gone and ceased. 
 Specially might I say this of the various systems of 
 Infidelity. Within a hundred and fifty years, how has 
 the boasted power of reason changed ! It has piled up 
 one thing, and then another day it has laughed at its 
 own handiwork, demolished its own castle, and con- 
 structed another, and the next day a third. It has a 
 thousand dresses. Once it came forth like a fool with 
 its bells, heralded by Voltake ; then it came out a 
 braggard bully, like Tom Paine ; then it changed its 
 course, and assumed another shape, till, forsooth, we 
 have it in the base, bestial seculiarism of the present 
 day, which looks for nought but the earth, keeps its 
 nose upon the ground, and like the beast, thinks this 
 world is enough ; or looks for another tlnrough seeldng 
 this. Why, before one hair on this head shall be gray, 
 the last secularist shall have passed away ; before many 
 of us are fifty years of age, a new Infidelity shall come, 
 and to those who say, " Where will saints be ? " we 
 can turn round and say, " Where are you ? " And 
 they will answer, " We have altered our names." They 
 will have altered their name, assumed a fresh shape, 
 put on a new form of evil, but still their nature will be 
 
THE ETERNAL NAME. 157 
 
 the same ; opposing Christ, and endeavoring to blas- 
 plf^me his truths. On all their systems of religion, or 
 non-religion — for that is a system too — it may be 
 \\Titten, "Evanescent; fading as the flower, fleeting 
 as the meteor, frail and unreal as a vapor." But of 
 Christ's religion, it shall be said, " His name shall en- 
 dure forever." Let me now say a few things — not to 
 prove it, for that I do not wish to do — but to give you 
 some hints whereby, possibly, I may one day prove it 
 to other people, that Jesus Christ's religion must inev- 
 itably endure forever. 
 
 And first, we ask those who think it shall pass away, 
 ti'lipn was there a time when it did not exist? Wc' 
 ask them whether they can point their finger to a period 
 when the religion of Jesus was an unheard-of thing? 
 " Yes," they wdll reply, " before the days of Christ and 
 his apostles." But we answer, " Nay, Bethlehem was 
 not the birthplace of the gospel ; though Jesus was 
 born there, there was a gospel long before the bh-th of 
 Jesus, and a preached one too ; although not preached 
 in all its simplicity and plainness, as we hear it now. 
 There was a gospel in the wilderness of Sinai, although 
 it might be confused with the smoke of the incense, 
 and only to be seen through slaughtered victims ; yet, 
 there was a gospel there." Yea, more, we take them 
 back to the fair trees of Eden, where the fruits per- 
 petually ripened, and summer always rested, and amid 
 these groves we tell them there was a gospel, and we 
 let them hear the voice of God, as he spoke to recreant 
 man, and said, " The seed of the woman shall bruise 
 the seq^ent's head." And having taken them thus 
 far back, we ask, " Where were false religions born ? 
 Where was their cradle ?" They point us to Mecca, 
 14 
 
158 SERMONS. 
 
 or they turn their fingers to Rome, or they speak of 
 Confucius, or the dogmas of Budha. But we say, y^u 
 only go baclv to a distant obscurity ; we take you to 
 the primeval age ; we dii'ect you to the days of purity ; 
 we take you back to the time when Adam first trod 
 the earth ; and then we ask you whether it is not likely 
 that, as the first-born, it will not also be the last to die ? 
 and as it was born so early, and still exists, whilst a 
 thousand ephemera have become extinct, whether it 
 does not look most possible, that when all others shall 
 have perished, like the bubble upon the wave, this only 
 shall swim, lilte a good ship upon the ocean, and still 
 •shall bear its myriad souls, not to the land of shades, 
 but across the river of death to the plains of heaven? 
 
 We ask next, supposing Christ's gospel to become 
 extinct, what religion is to svpplant it ? We inquire of 
 the wise man, who says Christianity is soon to die, 
 " Pray, sir, what religion are we to have in its stead ? 
 Are we to have the delusions of the heathen, who bow 
 before their gods, and worship images of wood and 
 stone ? Will ye have the orgies of Bacchus, or the ob- 
 scenities of Venus? Would ye see your daughters 
 once more bowing down before Thammuz, or perform- 
 ing obscene rites as of old?" Nay, ye would not 
 endure such things ; ye would say, " It must not be 
 tolerated by civilized men." Then what would ye 
 have? Would }^e have Romanism and its supersti- 
 tions ? Ye will say, " No, God help us, never." They 
 may do what they please with Britain ; but she is 
 too wise to take old Popery back again, while Smith- 
 field lasts, and there is one of the signs of martyrs 
 there ; aye, while there breathes a man who marks him- 
 self a freeman, and swears by the constitution of Old 
 
THE ETERNAL NAME. 159 
 
 England, we cannot take Popery back again. She 
 may be rampant with lier superstitions and her priest- 
 craft ; but ^\ath one consent my hearers reply, " We 
 will not have Popery." Then what will ye choose? 
 Shall it be Mahometanism ? Will ye choose that, 
 with all its fables, its wickedness and libidinousness ? 
 I will not tell you of it. Nor will I mention the ac- 
 cursed imposture of the West that has lately arisen. 
 We will not allow Polygamy, while there are men to 
 be found who love the social circle, and cannot see it 
 invaded. We would not wish, when God hath given 
 to man one \\'ife, that he should drag in twenty, as the 
 companions of that one. We cannot prefer Mormon- 
 ism ; we will not, and we shall not. Then what shall 
 we have in the place of Christianity? "Infidelity," 
 you cry, do you, sirs ? And would you have that ? 
 Then what would be the consequence? What do 
 many of them promote ? Communist views, and the 
 real disruption of all society as at present established. 
 Would you desire Reigns of Terror here, as they had 
 in France ? Do you wish to see all society shattered, 
 and men wandering like monster icebergs on the sea, 
 dashing against each other, and being at last utterly 
 destroyed ? God save us from Infidelity ! What can 
 you have, then? Nought. There is nothing to sup- 
 plant Christianity. What religion shall overcome it? 
 There is not one to be compared with it. If we tread 
 the globe round, and search from Britain to Japan, 
 there shall be no religion found, so just to God, so safe 
 to man. 
 
 We ask the enemy once more, suppose a religion 
 were to be found wliich would be preferable to the one 
 we love, by tvhat means ivould you crush ours ? How 
 
160 SERMONS. 
 
 would you get rid of the religion of Jesus ? and how 
 would you extinguish his name? Surely, sirs, ye 
 would never think of the old practice of persecution, 
 would you? Would ye once more try the efficacy of 
 stakes and fires, to burn out the name of Jesus ? 
 Would ye give us the boots and instruments of tor- 
 ture ? Try it, sirs, and ye shall not quench Christianity. 
 Each martyr, dipping his finger in his blood, would 
 ^vrite its honors on the heavens as he died ; and the very 
 flame that mounted up to heaven would emblazon the 
 skies with the name of Jesus. Persecution has been 
 tried. Turn to the Alps ; 1(^ the valleys of Piedmont 
 speak ; let Switzerland testify ; let France, with its St. 
 Bartholomew; let England, with all its massacres, 
 speak. And if ye have not crushed it yet, shall ye 
 hope to do it ? Shall ye ? Nay, a thousand are to be 
 found, and ten thousand if it were necessary, who are 
 willing to march to the stake to-morrow: and when 
 they are burned, if ye could take up their hearts, ye would 
 oee engraven upon each of them the name of Jesus. 
 *' His name shall endure forever ; " for how can ye destroy 
 our love to it ? " Ah, but," ye say, " we would try gen- 
 tler means than that." Well, what would ye attempt ? 
 Would ye invent a better religion ? We bid you do it, 
 and let us hear it ; we have not yet so much as believed 
 you capable of such a discovery. What then ? Would 
 ye wake up one that should deceive us and lead us astray ? 
 We bid you do it ; for it is not possible to deceive the 
 elect. Ye may deceive the multitude, but God's elect 
 shall not be led astray. They have tried us. Have they 
 not given us Popery ? Have they not assailed us with 
 Puseyism ? Are they not tempting us with Armin- 
 ianism by the wholesale? And do we therefore 
 
THE ETERNAL NAME. 161 
 
 renounce Goers truth? No: we have taken this for 
 our motto, and by it we will stand. " The Bible, the 
 whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible," is still the 
 religion of Protestants ; and the selfsame truth which 
 moved the lips of Chrysostom the old doctrine that 
 ravished the heart of Augustine, the old faith which 
 Athanasius declared, the good old doctrine that Calvin 
 preached, is our gospel now, and God helping us, we 
 will stand by it till we die. How will ye quench it ? 
 If ye wdsh to do it, where can ye find the means ? It 
 is not in your power. Aha I aha! aha! we laugh you 
 to scorn. 
 
 But you will quench it, will you ? You will try it, 
 do you say ? And you hope you will accomplish your 
 puq:)Ose ? Yes. I know you will, when you have 
 annihilated the sun ; when you have quenched the 
 moon with drops of your tears ; when you have 
 dried up the sea with your drinking. Then shall ye do 
 it. And yet ye say ye will. 
 
 And next, I ask you, suppose you did, ivhat ivould be- 
 come of the world then ? Ah I were I eloquent to-night, 
 I might perhaps tell you. If I could borrow the lan- 
 guage of a Robert Hall, I might hang the world in 
 mourning; I might make the sea the great chief- 
 mourner, with its dirge of howling winds, and its wild 
 death-march of disordered waves; I might clothe all 
 nature, not in words of green, but in garments of 
 sombre blackness ; I would bid hurricanes howl the 
 solemn wailing — that death-shriek of a world — for 
 what would become of us, if we should lose the gos- 
 pel ? As for me, I tell you fairly, I would cry, " Let 
 me begone I " I would have no wish to be here with- 
 out my Lord ; and if the gospel be not true, I should 
 u* 
 
162 SERMOxNS. 
 
 bless God to annihilate me this instant; fori would 
 not care to live if ye would destroy the name of Jesus 
 Christ. But that would not be all, that one man should 
 be miserable, for there are thousands and thousands 
 who can speak as I do. Again, what would become 
 of civilization if ye could take Christianity away? 
 Where would be the hope of a perpetual peace? 
 "Where governments ? Where your Sabbath-schools ? 
 Where all your societies? Where everything that 
 ameliorates the condition of man, reforms his manners, 
 and moralizes his character ? Where ? Let echo ans- 
 wer, " Where ?" They would be gone, and not a scrap 
 of them would be left. And where, O men, would be 
 your hope of heaven ? And where the knowledge of 
 eternity? W^here a help across the river death? 
 Where a heaven ? And where bliss everlasting ? All 
 were gone if his name did not endure forever. But we 
 are sure of it, we know it, we affirm it, w^e declare it ; 
 we believe, and ever will, that " his name shall endure 
 forever," — aye, forever! let who will try to stop it. 
 
 This is my first point ; I shall have to speak with 
 rather bated breath upon the second, although I feel so 
 warm within as well as w^ithout, that I would to God 1 
 could speak with all my strength, as I might do. 
 
 II. But, secondly, as his religion, so the honor of his 
 name is to last forever. Voltaire said he lived in the 
 twilight of Christianity. He meant a lie; he spoke the 
 truth. He did live in its twilight ; but it was the twi- 
 light before the morning — not the t\vilight of the 
 evening, as he meant to say ; for the morning comes, 
 when the light of the sun shall break upon us in its 
 truest glory. The scorners have said that we should 
 soon forget to honor Christ, and that one day no man 
 
THE ETERNAL NAME. 
 
 16; 
 
 should acknowledge him. Now, we assert again, ii 
 the words of my text, "His name shall endure forever,' 
 as to the honor of it. Yes, I will tell you how long i 
 will endure. As long as on this earth there is a sinne> 
 who has been reclaimed by omnipotent grace, Christ'? 
 name shall endure ; as long as there is a Mary ready tc 
 wash his feet with tears and wipe them with the hai 
 of her head ; as long as there breathes a chief of sin 
 ners who has washed himself in the fountain opener 
 for sin and for uncleanness ; as long as there exists & 
 Christian who has put his faith in Jesus, and found 
 him his delight, his refuge, his stay, his shield, his song, 
 and his joy, there will be no fear that Jesus' name will 
 cease to be heard. We can never give up that name. 
 We let the Unitarian take the gospel without a god- 
 head in it; we let him deny Jesus Christ; but as long 
 as Clu-istians, true Christians, live, as long as we taste 
 that the Lord is gracious, have manifestations of his 
 love, sights of his face, whispers of his mercy, assurances 
 of his affection, promises of his grace, hopes of his 
 blessing, we cannot cease to honor his name. But if 
 all these were gone — if ive were to cease to sing his 
 praise, would Jesus Christ's name be forgotten then? 
 No; the stones would sing, the hills would be an or- 
 chestra, the mountains would skip like rams, and the 
 little hUls like lambs ; for is he not their creator ? And 
 if these lips, and the lips of all mortals were dumb at 
 once, there are creatures enough in this wide world 
 besides. Why, the sun would lead the chorus; the 
 moon would play upon her silver harp, and sweetly 
 sing to her music; stars would dance in their measured 
 coi^ses; the shoreless depths of ether would become 
 the home of songs; and the void immensity would 
 
164 SERMOiNS. 
 
 burst out into one great shout, " Thou art the glorious 
 Son of God ; great is thy majesty, and infinite thy 
 power." Can Christ's name be forgotten ? No ; it is 
 painted on the skies ; it is wTitten on the floods ; the 
 winds whisper it ; the tempests howl it ; the seas chant 
 it ; the stars shine it ; the beasts low it ; the thunders 
 proclaim it ; earth shouts it ; heaven echoes it. But if 
 that w^ere gone — if this great universe should all sub- 
 side in God, just as a moment's foam subsides into the 
 wave that bears it and is lost forever — would his name 
 be forgotten then ? No. 'Turn your eyes up yonder ; 
 see heaven's terra firma. " Who are these that are 
 arrayed in white, and whence came they ? " " These 
 are they that came out of great tribulation ; they have 
 w^ashed their robes, and made them white in the blood 
 of the Lamb ; therefore they are before the throne of 
 God, and praise him day and night in his temple." 
 And if these were gone ; if the last harp of the glori- 
 fied had been touched with the last fingers ; if the last 
 praise of the saints had ceased ; if the last hallelujah 
 had echoed through the then deserted vaults of heaven, 
 for they ^vould be gloomy then; if the last immortal 
 had been buried in his grave, if graves there might be 
 for immortals — would his praise cease then ? No, by 
 heaven I no ; for yonder stand the angels ; they too sing 
 liis glory ; to him the cherubim and seraphim do cry 
 without ceasing, when they mention his name, in that 
 thrice holy chorus, " Holy, holy, holy. Lord God of 
 armies." But if these were perished — if angels had 
 been swept away, if the wing of seraph never flapped 
 the ether, if the voice of the cherub never sung his 
 flaming sonnet, if the living creatures ceased their ever- 
 lasting chorus, if the measured symphonies of glory 
 
THE ETERNAL NAME. 165 
 
 were extinct in silence, would his name then be lost ? 
 Ah I no ; for as God upon the throne he sits, the ever- 
 lasting One, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. And 
 if the universe were all annihilated, still would his 
 name be heard, for the Father would hear it, and the 
 Spirit would hear it, and, deeply graven on immortal 
 marble in the rocks of ages, it would stand — Jesus the 
 Son of God, co-equal with his Father. " His name 
 shall endure forever." 
 
 IH. And so shall the poiver of his name. Do you 
 inquire what this is ? Let me tell you. Seest thou 
 yonder thief hanging upon the cross? Behold the 
 fiends at the foot thereof, wdth open mouths ; charming 
 themselves with the sweet thought, that another soul 
 shall give them meat in hell. Behold the death-bird, 
 fluttering his wings o'er the poor wTetch's head ; ven- 
 geance passes by and stamps him for her own; deep on 
 his breast is written " a condemned sinner ; " on his 
 brow is the clammy sweat, expressed from him by 
 agony and death. Look in his heart : it is filthy with 
 the crust of years of sin ; the smoke of lust is hanging 
 within in black festoons of darkness ; his whole heart 
 is hell condensed. Now, look at him. He is dying. 
 One foot seems to be in hell; the other hangs tottering 
 in life — only kept by a nail. There is a power in 
 Jesus' eye. That thief looks : he whispers, " Lord, re- 
 member me." Turn your eye again there. Do you 
 see that thief? Where is the clammy sweat? It is 
 there. Where is that horrid anguish ? It is not there. 
 Positively there is a smile upon his lips. The fiends of 
 hell, where are they ? There are none : but a bright 
 seraph is present, with his wings outspread, and his 
 hands ready to snatch that soul, now a precious jew<>l, 
 
166 SERMONS. 
 
 and bear it aloft to the palace of the gi-eat King. 
 Look within his heart ; it is white wdth purity. Look 
 at his breast ; it is not written " condemned," but 
 "justified." Look in the book of life: his name is 
 graven there. Look on Jesus' heart : there on one of 
 the precious stones he bears that poor thief's name. 
 Yea, once more, look ! seest thou that bright one amid 
 the glorified, clearer than the sun, and fair as the moon? 
 That is the thief! That is the power of Jesus; and 
 that power shall endm*e forever. He who saved the 
 thief can save the last man who shall ever live ; for 
 still 
 
 *' There is a fountain filled with blood, 
 Drawn from Immanuers veins; 
 And sinners plunged beneath that flood 
 Lose all their guilty stains. 
 
 The dying thief rejoic'd to see 
 
 The fountain in his day; 
 may I there, tho' vile as he. 
 
 Wash all my sins away! 
 
 Dear dying Lamb! that precious blood 
 
 Shall never lose its power, 
 Till all the ransom 'd church of God 
 
 Be saved to sin no more." 
 
 His powerful "name shall endure forever." 
 
 Nor is that all the power of his name. Let me take 
 you to another scene, and ye shall witness somewhat 
 else. There on that^ deathbed lies a saint; no gloom 
 is on his brow, no terror on his face ; weakly but pla- 
 cidly he smiles ; he groans, perhaps, but yet he sings. 
 He sighs now and then, but oftener he shouts. Stand 
 by him. " INIy brother, what makes thee look in death's 
 face with such joy?" "Jesus," he whispers. What 
 
TlUi ETERNAL NAME. 167 
 
 makes thee so placid and calm? " The name of Jesus." 
 See, he forgets everything I Ask him a question ; he 
 cannot answer it — he does not understand you. Still 
 he smiles. His wife comes, inquiring, "Do you know 
 my name ? " He answers, " No." His dearest friend 
 requests him to remember his intimacy. " I know you 
 not," he says. "Whisper in his ear, " Do you know the 
 name of Jesus?" and his eyes flash glory, and his face 
 beams heaven, and his lips speak sonnets, and his heart 
 bursts with eternity ; for he hears the name of Jesus, 
 and that name shall endure forever. He who landed 
 one in heaven will land me there. Come on, death. I 
 \\'ill mention Clirist's name there. O grave I this shall 
 be my glory, the name of Jesus I Hell-dog ! this shall 
 be thy death — for the sting of death is extracted — 
 Christ our Lord." " His name shall endure forever." 
 I had a hundred particulars to give you ; but my 
 voice fails, so I had better stop. You will not require 
 more of me to-night ; you perceive the difficulty I feel 
 in speaking each word. May God send it home to your 
 souls ! I am not particiilarly anxious about my own 
 name, w^hether that shall endure forever or not, pro- 
 vided it is recorded in my Master's book. George 
 Whitfield, when asked whether he would found a de- 
 nomination, said, " No ; Brother John Wesley may do 
 as he pleases, but let my name perish ; let Christ's 
 name last forever." Amen to that I Let my name 
 perish; but let Christ's name last forever. I shall be, 
 quite contented for you to go away and forget me. I 
 shall not see the faces of half of you again, I dare say ; 
 you may never be persuaded to step within the walls of 
 a conventicle ; you w^ill think it perhaps not respectable 
 enough to come to a Baptist meeting. Well, I do not 
 
168 SERMONS. 
 
 ! 
 
 say we are a very respectable people ; we don't profess 
 to be ; but this one thing we do profess, we love our 
 Bibles ; and if it is not respectable to do so, we do not 
 care to be had in esteem. But we do not know that 
 we are so disreputable after all ; for 1 believe, if 1 may 
 state my own opinion, that if Protestant Christendom 
 were counted out of that door — not merely every real 
 Christian, but every professor — I believe the Poedo- 
 Baptists would have no very great majority to boast of. 
 We are not, after all, such a very small, disreputable 
 sect. Regard us in England, we may be; but take 
 America, and Jamaica, and the West Indies, and 
 include those who are Baptists in principle though not 
 openly so, and we surrender to none, not even to the 
 estabUshed church of this countiy, in numbers. That, 
 however, we care very little about ; for I say of the 
 Baptist name, let it perish, but let Christ's name last 
 forever. I look forward with pleasure to the day when 
 there will not be a Baptist living. I hope they ^\all 
 soon be gone. You will say. Why ? Because when 
 everybody else sees baptism by»immersion, we shall be r 
 immersed into all sects, and our sect will be gone. 
 Once give us the predominance, and we are not a sect 
 any longer. A man may be a Churchman, or a Wes- 
 leyan, or an Independent, and yet be a Baptist. So 
 that I say, I hope the Baptist name will soon perish ; 
 but let Christ's name last forever. Yea, and yet again; 
 much as I love dear Old England, I do not believe she 
 will ever perish. No, Britain I thou shalt never perish, 
 for the flag of Old England is nailed to the mast by 
 the prayers of Christians, by the efforts of Sunday- 
 schools and her pious men. But, I say, let even Eng- 
 land's name perish; let her be merged in one gi-eat 
 
THE ETERNAI, NA.Mi;. Jgf) 
 
 brotliorlioocl ; let us liave no England, and no Franco 
 and no Russia, and no Turkey, but let us have Chri-- 
 fendom ; and I say, heartily from my soul, let nations 
 and national distinctions perish, but let Christ's name 
 last forever. Perhaps there is only one thing on earth 
 that I love better than the last I have mentioned, and 
 that IS the pure doctrine of unadulterated Calvinism, 
 ifutif that be UTong — if there be anything in that 
 which ,s false -I, for one, say, let that perish too, and 
 let Christ s name last forever. .Tesus! Jesus! Jesus' 
 Jesus ! " Crown him Lord of all ! " You will not hear 
 me say anjihing else. These are my last words in 
 Kxeter Hall for this time. Jesus! Jesus! Jesus! 
 Crown him Lord of all. 
 
 16 
 
SEllMON IX. 
 
 PAUL'S FIRST PRAYER. 
 
 " For behold he prayelh." — Acts ix. 11. 
 
 God has many methods of quenching persecution. 
 He will not suffer his church to be injured by its ene- 
 mies, or overwhelmed by its foes ; and he is not short 
 of means for turning aside the way of the wicked, or 
 of turning it upside down. In t\vo ways he usually 
 accomplishes his end ; sometimes by the confusion of 
 the persecutor, and at others in a more blessed manner, " 
 by his conversion. Sometimes, he confuses and con- 
 founds his enemies ; he makes the diviner mad ; he lets 
 the man who comes against him be utterly destroyed, 
 suffers him to drive on to his own destruction, and then 
 at last turns round in triumphant derision upon the 
 man who hoped to have said ahal aha! to the church 
 of God. But at other times, as in this case, he con- 
 verts the persecutor. Thus, he transforms the foe into 
 a friend ; he maJces the man who was a warrior against 
 the gospel a soldier for it. Out of darkness he bringeth 
 forth light ; out of the eater he getteth honey ; yea, out 
 of stony hearts lie raiscth up children unto Abraham. I 
 
 (HO) J 
 
Paul's first trayeu. 171 
 
 Such was the case with Saul. A more furious bigot it 
 is impossible to conceive. He had been bespattered 
 with the blood of Stephen, when they stoned him to 
 death ; so officious was he in his cruelty, that the men 
 left tlieir clothes in the charge of a young man named 
 Saul. Living at Jerusalem, in the college of Gamaliel, 
 lie constantly came in contact with the disciples of the 
 Man of Nazareth ; he laughed at them, he reviled them 
 as they passed along the street ; he procured enactments 
 against them, and put them to death ; and now, as a 
 crowning point, this welur-wolf, having tasted blood, 
 becomes exceeding mad, determines to go to Damascus, 
 that he may glut himself with the gore of men and 
 women ; that he may bind the Christians, and bring 
 them to Jerusalem, there to suffer what he considered 
 to be a just punishment for their heresy, and departure 
 &om their ancient religion. But oh, how marvellous 
 was the power of God! Jesus stays this man in his 
 mad career ; just as with his lance in rest he was dash- 
 ing against Christ. Christ met him, unhorsed him, 
 threw him on the ground, and questioned him, " Saul, 
 Saul, why persecutest thou me ? " He then graciously 
 removed his rebellious heart — gave him a new heart 
 and a right spirit — turned his aim and object — led 
 him to Damascus — laid him prostrate for three days 
 and nights — spoke to him — made mystic sounds go 
 murmuring through his ears — set his whole soul on 
 fire ; and when at last he started up from that three 
 days' trance, and began to pray, then it was that Jesus 
 from heaven descended, came in a vision to Ananias, 
 and said, " Arise, and go into the street which is called 
 Straight, and inquire in the house of Judas for one 
 called Saul, of Tarsus ; for, behold, he prayeth." 
 
172 SERMONS. 
 
 Fkst, our text was an announcement ; " Behold, he 
 prayeth." Secondly, it was an argument ; " For, be- 
 hold, he prayeth." Then, to conclude, we will try to 
 make an application of our text to your hearts. Though 
 application is the work of God alone, we will trust that 
 he will be pleased to make that application wliile the 
 word is preached this morning, 
 
 I. First, here was an announcement ; " Go to the 
 house of Saul of Tarsus ; for behold, he prayeth." 
 Without any preface, let me say, that this was the an- 
 nouncement of a fact which was noticed in heaven ; 
 which was joyous to the angels ; which was astonish- 
 ing to Ananias, and which was a novelty to Saul 
 liimself. 
 
 It was the announcement of an effect loUich ivas no- 
 ticed in heaven. Poor Saul had been led to cry for 
 mercy, and the moment he began to pray, God begaft 
 to hear. Do you not notice, in reading the chapter, 
 what attention God paid to Saul ? He knew the street 
 where he lived ; " Go to the street that is called Straighiy 
 He knew the house where he resided ; " Inquire at the 
 house of Judas.^^ He knew his name ; it was Saul. He 
 knew the place where he came from ; " Inquire for 
 Saul of Tarsus.^^ And he knew that he had prayed. 
 " Behold, he prayeth.^^ Oh! it is a glorious fact, tha 
 prayers are noticed in heaven. The poor oroken-hearted 
 sinner, climbing up to his chamber, bends his knee, but 
 can only utter his wailing in the language of sighs and 
 tears. Lol that gi*oan has made all the harps of heaven 
 thrill with music ; that tear has been caught by God, 
 and })ut into the lachrymatory of heaven, to be per- 
 petually preserved. The suppliant, whose fears prevent 
 his words, will be well understood by the Most High. 
 
Paul's first prayer. 17t» 
 
 He may only shed one hasty tear ; but " prayer is tlie 
 falling of a tear." Tears are the diamonds of heaven; 
 sighs'are a part of the music of Jehovah's tlurone; for 
 though prayers be 
 
 «* The simplest form of speech 
 That iufant lips can try ; '* 
 
 so are they likewise the 
 
 " Sublimest strains that reach 
 The majesty on high." 
 
 Let me dilate on this thought a moment. Prayers 
 are noticed in heaven. Oh I I know what is the case 
 with many of you. You think, " If I turn to God, if 
 I seek him, surely I am so inconsiderable a being, so 
 guilty and vile, that it cannot be imagined he would 
 take any notice of me." INIy friends, harbor no such 
 heathenish ideas. Oiu: God is no god who sits in one 
 perpetual dream; nor doth he clothe liimself in such 
 thick darkness that he cannot see; he is not like Baal 
 who heareth not. True, he may not regard battles ; 
 he cares not for the pomp and pageantry of langs; he 
 listens not to the swell of martial music ; he regards 
 not the triumph and the pride of man ; but whenever 
 there is a heart big with sorrow, wherever there is an 
 eye suffused with tears, wherever there is a lip quiver- 
 incr with agony, wherever there is a deep groan, or a 
 penitential sigh, the ear of Jehovah is ^^dde open; he 
 marks it down in the registry of his memory; he puts 
 our prayers, like rose leaves, bet\veen the pages of his 
 book of remembrance, and when the volume is opened 
 at last, there shall be a precious fragrance springing up 
 therefrom. Oh I poor sinner, of the blackest and vilest 
 
 15* 
 
174 SERMONS. 
 
 character, thy prayers are heard, and even now God 
 hath said of thee, " Behold, he prayeth." Where was 
 it ? In a barn ? Where was it ? In the closet ? Was 
 it at thy bedside this morning, or in this hall ? Art 
 thou now glancing thine eye to heaven ? Speak, poor 
 heart ; did I hear thy lips just now mutter out, " God 
 have mercy upon me, a sinner ? " I tell thee, sinner, 
 there is one thing which doth outstrip the telegraph. 
 You know we can now send a message and receive an 
 answer in a few moments ; but I read of something in 
 the Bible more swift than the electric fluid. " Before 
 they call I will answer, and while they are speaking I 
 will hear." So, then, poor sinner, thou art noticed ; yea, 
 thou art heard by him that sitteth on the throne. 
 
 Again, this was the announcement of a fact joyous 
 to heaven. Our text is prefaced with " Behold," for 
 doubtless, our Saviour himself regarded it with joy. 
 Once only do we read of a smile resting upon the 
 countenance of Jesus, when lifting up his eye to heaven, 
 he exclaimed, " I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven 
 and earth, because thou hast hid these things from 
 the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto 
 babes ; even so, Father ; for so it seemed good in thy 
 sight." The Shepherd of our souls rejoices in the vision 
 of his sheep securely folded, he triumphs in spirit when 
 he brings a wanderer home. I conceive that when he 
 spoke these words to Ananias, one of the smiles of 
 Paradise must have shone from his eyes. " Behold," 
 I have won the heart of my enemy, I have saved my | 
 persecutor, even now he is bending the knee at my 
 footstool, " Behold, he prayeth." Jesus himself led 
 the song, rejoicing over the new convert with singing. 
 Jesus Christ was glad and rejoiced more over that lost 
 
PAULAS FIRST PRAYER. 175 
 
 sheep tlian over ninety and nine that went not astray. 
 And angels rejoiced too. Why, when one of God's 
 elect is born, angels stand around his cradle. He grows 
 up, and runs into sin ; angels follow him, tracking him 
 all his way ; they gaze with sorrow upon his many 
 wanderings ; the fair Peri drops a tear whene'er that 
 loved one sins. Presently the man is brought under 
 the sound of the gospel. The angel says, " Behold, he 
 begins to hear." He waits a little while, the word sinks 
 into his heart, a tear runs down his cheek, and at last 
 he cries from his inmost soul, " God have mercy upon 
 me I " See I the angel claps his wings, up he flies to 
 heaven, and says, "Brethren angels, list tome, * Be- 
 hold, he prayeth.' " Then they set heaven's bells 
 ringing; they have a jubilee in glory; again they shout 
 with gladsome voices, for verily I tell you, "there is 
 joy in heaven among the angels of God over one 
 sinner that repenteth." They watch us till we pray, 
 and when we pray, they say, " Behold, he prayeth." 
 Moreover, my dear friends, there may be other spirits 
 in heaven that rejoice, besides the angels. Those per- 
 sons are our friends who have gone before us. I have 
 not many relations in heaven, but I have one whom I 
 dearly love, who, I doubt not, often prayed for me, for 
 she nursed me when I was a child and brought me up 
 during part of my infancy, and now she sits before the 
 throne in glory — suddenly snatched away. I fancy 
 she looked upon her darling grandson, and as she saw 
 him in the ways of sin, and vice, and folly, she could 
 not look with sorrow, for there are no tears in the eyes 
 of glorified ones ; she could not look with regret, be- 
 cause they cannot know such a feeling before the 
 throne of God ; but ah I that moment when, by sover- 
 
176 SERMONS. 
 
 eigu grace, I was constrained to pray, when all alone I 
 bent my knee and \\Testled, methinks I see her as she 
 said, " Behold, he prayeth ; behold he prayeth." Oh I I 
 can picture her countenance. She seemed to have tsvo 
 heavens for a moment, a double bliss, a heaven in me 
 as well as in herself — when she could say, " Behold, he 
 prayeth." Ah ! young man, there is your mother walk- 
 ing the golden streets. She is looking down upon you 
 this hour. She nursed you; on her breast you lay 
 when but a child, and she consecrated you to Jesus 
 Christ. From heaven, she has been watching you with 
 that intense anxiety which is compatible with happi- 
 ness ; this morning she is looldng upon you. What 
 sayest thou, young man ? Does Christ by his Spkit 
 say in thine heart, " Come unto me ?" Dost thou drop 
 the tear of repentance ? Methinks I see thy mother as 
 she cries, " Behold, he prayeth." Once more she bends 
 before the throne of God and says, " I thank thee, O 
 thou ever gracious One, that he who was my child on 
 earth, has now become thy child in light." 
 
 But, if there is one in heaven who has more joy than 
 another over the conversion of a sinner, it is a minister, 
 one of God's true ministers. O, my hearers, ye little 
 think how God's true ministers do love your souls. 
 Perhaps ye think it is easy work to stand here and 
 preach to you. God knows, if that were all, it were 
 easy work ; but when we think that when we speak to 
 you, your salvation or damnation, in some measure, 
 depends upon what we say — when we reflect that if 
 we are unfaithful watchmen, your blood will God 
 require at out hands — O, good God! when I reflect 
 that I have preached to thousands in my lifetime, many 
 thousands, and have perhaps said many things I ought 
 
Paul's first puayeu. 177 
 
 not to have said, it startles me, it makes me shake and 
 tremble. Luther said he could face liis enemies, but 
 could not go up his pulpit stairs without his knees 
 knocking together. Preaching is not child's play; it is 
 not a thing to be done without labor and anxiety j it is 
 solemn work; it is awful work, if you view it in its 
 relation to eternity. Ah ! how God's minister prays 
 for you ! If you might have listened und?r the eaves 
 of his chamber window, you would have heard him 
 groaning every Sunday night over his sermons because 
 he had not spoken with more effect; you would have 
 heard him pleading with God, " Who hath believed our 
 report ? To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed ?" 
 Ah, when he observes you from his rest in heaven — 
 when he sees you praying, how will he clap his hands 
 and say, " Behold the child thou hast given me ! behold, 
 he prays." I am sure w4ien we see one brought to 
 know the Lord, we feel very much like one who has 
 saved a fellow-creature from being drowned. There is 
 a poor man in the flood ; he is going down, he is sink- 
 ing, he must be drowned; but I spring in, grasp him 
 firmly, lift him on the shore, and lay him on the ground: 
 the physician comes ; he looks at him, he puts his hand 
 upon him, and says, " I am afraid he is dead." We 
 apply all the means in our power, we do what we can 
 to restore life. I feel that I have been that man's deli- 
 verer, and oh, how I stoop down and put my ear 
 beside his mouth I At last I say, " he breathes ! he 
 breathes I" What pleasure there is in that thought! 
 He breathes ; there is life still. So when we find a 
 man praying, we shout — he breathes ; he is not dead • 
 he is alive ; for while a man prays he is not dead in 
 trespasses and sins, but is brought to life, is quickened 
 
178 SERMONS. 
 
 by the power of the Spirit. " Behold he prayeth." 
 This was joyful news in heaven, as well as being j 
 noticed by God. 
 
 Then, in the next place, this was an event most aslon- 
 ishing to men. Ananias lifted up both his hands in 
 amazement. " O my Lord, I should have thought any- 
 body would pray but that man ! Is it possible ?" I do 
 not know Eow it is with other ministers, but sometimes 
 I look upon such-and-such individuals in the congrega- 
 tion, and I say, " Well, they are very hopeful ; I think 
 I shall have them. I trust there is a work going on, 
 and hope soon to hear them tell what the Lord has 
 done for their souls." Soon, perhaps, I see nothing of 
 them, and miss them altogether ; but instead thereof, 
 my good Master sends me one of whom I had no hope 
 — an outcast, a drunkard, a reprobate, to the praise of 
 the glory of his gi'ace. Then I lift up my hands in 
 astonishment, thinking " I should have thought of any- 
 body rather than you." I remember a circumstance 
 which occurred a little while ago. There was a poor 
 man about sixty years old ; he had been a rough sailor, 
 one of the worst men in the village ; it was his custom 
 to drink, and he seemed to be delighted when he was 
 cursing and swearing. He came into the chapel, how- 
 ever, one Sabbath day, when one nearly related to me 
 was preaching from the text concerning Jesus weeping 
 over Jerusalem. And the poor man thought, " What ! 
 did Jesus Christ ever weep over such a wretch as I j 
 am ? " He thought he was too bad for Christ to care i 
 for him. At last he came to the minister, and said, 
 " Sir, sixty years have I been sailing under the standard 
 of the devil ; it is time I should have a new owner ; I 
 want to scuttle the old ship and sink her altogether! 
 
tail's FIRJ>T I'UAVKIi. 179 
 
 then I t?hall have a new one, and I shall sail under the 
 colors of Prince Immanuel." Ever since that moment 
 that man has been a praying character, walking before 
 God ill all sincerity. Yet, he was the very last man 
 you would have thought of. Somehow God does 
 choose the last men ; he does not care for the diamond, 
 but he picks up the pebble-stones, for he is able, out of 
 " stones, to raise up children unto Abraham." God is 
 more wise than the chemist : he not only refines gold, 
 but he transmutes base metal into precious jewels ; he 
 takes the filthiest and the vilest, and fashions them into 
 glorious beings, makes them saints, whereas they have 
 been sinners, and sanctifies them, whereas they have 
 been unholy. 
 
 The conversion of Saul was a strange thing ; but, 
 beloved, was it stranger than that you and I should 
 have been Christians? Let me ask you if anybody 
 had told you, a few years ago, that you would belong 
 to a chm'ch and be numbered with the children of God, 
 what would you have said ? " Stuff and nonsense ! I 
 am not one of your canting Methodists ; I am not 
 going to have any reUgion; I love to think and do as I 
 like." Did not you and I say so ? and how on earth 
 did we get here ? "When we look at the change that 
 has passed over us, it appears like a dream. God has 
 left many in our families who were better than we 
 were, and w^hy has he chosen us ? Oh ! is it not strange ? 
 Might we not lift up our hands in astonishment, as 
 Ananias did, and say, " Behold, behold, behold : it is a 
 miracle on earth, a wonder in heaven?" 
 
 The last thing I have to say here, is tliis — this fact 
 urns a noveUy to Saul himself. " Behold he prayeth." 
 What is there novel in that ? Saul used to go up to 
 
180 SERMONS. 
 
 the temple twiee a day, at the hour of prayer. If you 
 could have accompanied hhn, you would have heard 
 him speak beautifully, in words like these : " Lord, I 
 thank thee T am not as other men are ; I am not an 
 extortioner, nor a publican ; I fast twice in the week, 
 and give tithes of all I possess ;" and so on. Oh! you 
 might have found him pouring out a fine oration before 
 the throne of God. And yet it saith, " Behold he pray- 
 eth." What ! had he never prayed before ? No, 
 never. All he had ever done before went for nothing ; 
 it was not prayer. I have heard of an old gentleman, 
 who was taught when a child to pray, " Pray God bless 
 my father and mother," and he kept on praying the 
 same thing for seventy years, when his parents were 
 both dead. After that it pleased God, in his infinite 
 mercy, to touch his heart, and he was led to see that 
 notwithstanding his constancy to his forms, he had not 
 been praying at all ; he often said his prayers, but never 
 prayed. So it was with Saul. He had pronounced 
 his magniloquent orations, but they were all good-for- 
 nothing. He had prayed his long prayers for a pre- 
 tence ; it had all been a failure. Now comes a true 
 petition, and it is said, " Behold he prayeth." Do you 
 see that man trying to obtain a hearing from his Maker ? 
 How he stands I He speaks Latin and blank verse 
 before the Almighty's throne; but God sits in calm 
 indifierence, paying no attention. Then the man tries 
 a difierent style ; procures a book, and, bending his 
 knee again, prays in a delightful form the best old 
 prayer that could ever be put together; but the Most 
 High disregards his empty formalities. At last the 
 poor creature throws the book away, forgets his blank 
 verse, and says, " O Lord, hear, for Christ's sake." 
 
Paul's first prayer. 181 
 
 « Hear him," says God, " I have heard him." There is 
 the mercy thou hast sought. One hearty prayer is bet- 
 ter than ten thousand forms. One prayer coming from 
 the soul is better than a myriad cold readings. As for 
 prayers that spring from the mouth and head only, God 
 abhors them ; he loves those that come deep from the 
 heart. Perhaps I should be impudent if I were to say 
 that there are hundreds here this morning who never 
 prayed once in their lives. There are some of you 
 who never did. There is one young man over there, 
 who told his parents when he left them, that he should 
 alw^ays go through his form of prayer every morning 
 and night. But he is ashamed, and he has left it off. 
 Well, young man, what w^ill you do when you come 
 to die ? Will you have " the watchword at the gates 
 of death?" Will you "enter heaven by prayer?" 
 No, you ^^^ll not ; you will be driven from his presence, 
 and be cast away. 
 
 11. Secondly, we have here an argumenL ^' For, 
 
 behold he prayeth." It was an argument, first of all, 
 
 for Ananias' safety. Poor Ananias was afraid to go to 
 
 Saul ; he thought it was very much like stepping into a 
 
 lion's den. " If I go to his house," he thought, " the 
 
 moment he sees me, he will take me to Jerusalem at 
 
 once, for I am one of Christ's disciples ; I dare not go." 
 
 God says, " Behold he prayeth." " Well," says Ananias, 
 
 " that is enough for me. If he is a praying man, he will 
 
 not hurt me ; if he is a man of real devotion, I am safe." 
 
 Be sure you may always trust a praying man. I do 
 
 not know how it is, but even ungodly men always pay 
 
 a reverence to a sincere Christian. A master likes to 
 
 have a praying ser^^ant after all ; if he does not regard 
 
 relidon himself, he likes to have a pious servant, and 
 
 ^6' 
 
 16 
 
182 SERMONS. 
 
 he will trust him rather than any other. True, there are 
 some of your professedly praying people that have not! 
 a bit of prayer in them. But whenever you find a| 
 really praying man, trust him with untold gold; for if 
 he really prays, you need not be afraid of him. He 
 who communes with God in secret, may be trusted in 
 public. I always feel safe with a man who is a visitor 
 at the mercy-seat. I have heard an anecdote of tw'o 
 gentlemen travelling together, somewhere in Switzer- 
 land. Presently they came into the midst of the forests ; 
 and you know the gloomy tales the people tell about 
 the inns there, how dangerous it is to lodge in them. 
 One of them, an Infidel, said to the other, who was a 
 Christian, " I don't like stopping here at all ; it is very 
 dangerous indeed." " "Well," said the other, " let us 
 try." So they went into a house ; but it looked so sus- 
 picious that neither of them lilvcd it ; and they thought 
 they would prefer being at home in England. Pre- 
 sently the landlord said, " Gentlemen, I always read and 
 pray with my family before going to bed ; will you al- 
 low me to do so to-night ?" " Yes," they said, " with 
 the greatest pleasure." When they went up stairs, the 
 Infidel said, " I am not at all afraid now. " Why?" 
 said the Chi'istian. " Because om' host has prayed." 
 " Oh I" said the other, " then it seems, after all, you 
 think something of religion ; because a man prays, you 
 can go to sleep in his house." ^ And it was marvellous 
 how both of them did sleep. Sweet dreams they had, 
 for they felt that where the house had been roofed by 
 prayer, and walled with devotion, there could not be 
 found a man living that would commit an injury to 
 them. This, then, was an argument to Ananias, that 
 he might go with safety to Saul's house. 
 
Paul's first prayer. 183 
 
 But more than this. Here was an argument for 
 PauVs sincerity. Secret prayer is one of the best tests 
 of sincere religion. If Jesus had said to Ananias, 
 " Behold he preacheth," Ananias would have said, 
 " that he may do, and yet be a deceiver." If he had 
 said, " He has gone to a meeting of the church," Ana- 
 nias would have said, " He may enter there as a wolf 
 in sheep's clothing." But when he said, " Behold he 
 prays," that was argument enough. A young person 
 comes and tells me about what he has felt and what he 
 has been doing. At last I say, " kneel down and pray." 
 " I would much rather not." " Never mind, you shall." 
 Down he falls on his knees, he has hardly a word to 
 say ; he begins groaning and crying, and there he stays 
 on his knees till at last he stammers out, " Lord have 
 mercy upon me a sinner ; I am the greatest of sinners ; 
 have mercy upon me !" Then I am a little more satis- 
 fied, and I say, " I did not mind all your talk, I wanted 
 your prayers." But oh ! if I could trace him home ; if 
 I could see liim go and pray alone, then I should feel 
 sure ; for he who prays in private is a real Christian. 
 The mere reading of a book of daily devotion will not 
 prove you a child of God ; if you pray in private, then 
 you have a sincere religion ; a little religion, if sincere, is 
 better than mountains of pretence. Home piety is the 
 best piety. Praying will make you leave off sinning, 
 or sinning w^ill make you leave off praying. Prayer in 
 the heart proves the reality of conversion. A man may 
 be sincere, but sincerely wrong. Paul was sincerely 
 right. " Behold he prayeth " was the best argument 
 that his religion was right. If any one should ask me 
 for an epitome of the Christian religion, I should say 
 it is in that one word — " prayer." If I should be asked, 
 
184 SERMONS. 
 
 " What will take in the whole of Christian experience ?" 
 I should answer, " prayer." A man must have been 
 convinced of sin before he could pray ; he must have 
 had some hope that there was mercy for him before he 
 could pray. In fact, all the Christian virtues are locked 
 up in that word, prayer. Do but teil me you are a man 
 of prayer, and I will reply at once, " Sir, I have no 
 doubt of the reality, as well as the sincerity, of your 
 religion." 
 
 But one more thought, and I will leave this subject. 
 // IV as a proof of this man^s election^ for you read direct- 
 ly afterwards, " Behold, he is a chosen vessel." I often 
 find people troubling themselves about the doctrine 
 of election. Every now and then I get a letter from 
 somebody or other taking me to task for preaching elec- 
 tion. All the answer I can give is, " There it is in the 
 Bible ; go and ask my Master why he put it there. I 
 cannot help it. I am only a serving man, and I tell you 
 the message from above. If I were a footman I should 
 not alter my Master's message at the door. I happen 
 to be an ambassador of heaven and I dare not alter the 
 message I have received. If it is wrong, send up to 
 head-quarters. There it is, and I cannot alter it." This 
 much let me say in explanation. Some say, " How 
 can I discover w^hether I am God's elect ? I am afraid 
 I am not God's elect." Do you pray ? If it can be 
 said, " Behold he prayeth," it can also be said, " Be- 
 hold he is a chosen vessel." Have you faith ? If so, 
 you are elect. Those are the marks of election. If 
 you have none of these, you have no grounds for con- 
 cluding that you belong to the peculiar people of God. 
 Have you a desire to believe ? Have you a wish to 
 love Christ. Have you the millionth part of a desire 
 
Paul's first tuaylir. 185 
 
 to come to Christ ? And is it a practical desire ? Docs 
 it lead you to offer earnest, tearful supplication ? If so, 
 never be afraid of non-election ; for whoever prays with 
 sincerity, is ordained of God before the foundation of 
 the world, that he should be holy and without blame 
 before Christ in love. 
 
 III. Now for the application. A word or two with 
 you, my dear friends, before I send you away this morn- 
 ing. I regret that I cannot better enter into the sub- 
 ject ; but my glorious INIaster requires of each of us 
 according to what \ve have, not according to what we 
 have not. I am deeply conscious that I fail in urging 
 home the truth so solemnly as I ought; nevertheless, 
 "my work is with God and my judgment with my 
 God," and the last day shall reveal that my eifor lay in 
 judgment, but not in sincere affection for souls. 
 
 First, allow me to address the children of God. Do 
 you not see, my dear brethren, that the best mark of 
 cur being sons of God is to be found in our devotion ? 
 " Behold he prayeth." Well, then, does it not follow, 
 as a natural consequence, that the more we are found 
 in prayer the brighter will our evidences be. Perhaps 
 you have lost your evidence tliis morning ; you do not 
 know whether you are a child of God or not ; I will 
 tell you where you lost your confidence — you lost it in 
 your closet. Whenever a Cluristian backslides, his 
 wandering commences in his closet. I speak what I 
 have felt. I have often gone back from God — never so 
 as to fall finally, I know, but I have often lost that sweet 
 savour of his love which I once enjoyed. I have had 
 to cry, 
 
 *' Those peaceful hours I once enjoyed, 
 ITuw sweet their memory still ! 
 But they have left an aching roiJ, 
 1 G* The world can never fill. ' ' 
 
186 SERMONS. 
 
 I have gone up to God's house to preach, without 
 either fire or energy; I liave read the Bible, and there 
 has been no light upon it ; I have tried to have commu- 
 nion with God, but all has been a failure. Shall I tell 
 where that commenced ! It commenced in my closet. 
 I had ceased, in a measm*e, to pray. Here I stand, and 
 do confess my faults ; I do acknowledge that whenever 
 I depart from God it is there it doth begin. O Chris- 
 tians, would you be happy ? Be much in prayer. 
 Would ye be victorious ? Be much in prayer. 
 
 *' Restraining prayer, we cease to fight, 
 Prayer makes the Christians armor bright." 
 
 Mrs. Berry used to say, " I would not be hired out of 
 my closet for a thousand worlds." Mr. Jay said, " If 
 the twetve apostles were living near you, and you had 
 access to them, if this intercourse drew you from the 
 closet, they would prove a real injury to your souls." 
 Prayer is the ship wliich bringeth home the richest 
 freight. It is the soil which yields the most abundant 
 harvest. Brother, when you rise in the morning yoiu: 
 business so presses, that with a hurried word or two, 
 down you go into the world, and at night, jaded and 
 tired, you give God the fag end of the day. The con- 
 sequence is, that you have no communion with him. 
 The reason we have not more ti*ue religion now, is 
 because we have not more prayer. Sirs, I have no 
 opinion of the churcl]es of the present day that do not 
 pray. I go from chapel to chapel in this metropolis, 
 and I see pretty good congregations ; but I go to their 
 prayer-meetings on a week evening, and I see a dozen 
 persons. Can God bless us, can he pom* out his Spirit 
 upon us, while such things as these exist? He could, 
 but it would not be according to the order of his dis- 
 
Paul's first prayer. 187 
 
 pensations, for he says, " When Zion travails she brings 
 forth cliildren." Go to your churches and chapels with 
 this thought, that you want more prayer. Many of 
 you have no business here this morning. You ought 
 to be in your own places of worship. I do not want 
 to steal away the people from other chapels; there are 
 enough to hear me without them. But though you 
 have sinned this morning, hear while you are here, as 
 much to your profit as possible. Go home and say to 
 your minister, " Sir, we must have more prayer." Urge 
 the people to more prayer. Have a prayer-meeting, 
 even if -you have it all to yourself ; and if you are 
 asked how many were present, you can say, " Four." 
 " Four ! how so ? " " Why, there was myself, and 
 God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy 
 Ghost ; and we have had a rich and real communion 
 together." We must have an outpouring of real devo- 
 tion, or else what is to become of many of our churches ? 
 O ! may God awaken us all, and stir us up to 
 pray, for when we pray we shall be victorious. I 
 should like to take you, this morning, as Samson did 
 the foxes, tie the firebrands of prayer to you, and send 
 you in among the shocks of corn till you burn the 
 whole up. I should like to make a conflagration by 
 my words, and to set all the churches on fire, till the 
 whole has smoked like a sacrifice to God's throne. If 
 you pray, you have a proof that you are m Christian ; 
 the less you pray, the less reason have you to believe 
 your Christianity ; and if you have neglected to pray 
 altogether, then you have ceased to breathe, and you 
 may be afraid that you never did breathe at all. 
 
 And now, my last word is to the ungodly. O, sirs! 
 I could fain wdsh myself any^vhere but here ; for if it 
 
188 SERMONS. 
 
 be solemn work to address the godly, how much more 
 when I come to deal with you. We fear lest, on the 
 one hand, we should so speak to you as to make you 
 trust in your own strength ; while, on the other hand, 
 we tremble lest we should lull you into the sleep of 
 sloth and security. I believe most of us feel some diffi- 
 culty as to the most fit manner to preach to you — not 
 that we doubt but that the gospel is to be preached — 
 but our desire is so to do it, that we may win your 
 souls. I feel like a watchman, who, while guarding a 
 city, is oppressed with sleep ; how earnestly does he 
 strive to arouse himself, while infirmity would over- 
 come him. The remembrance of liis responsibility 
 bestirs liim. His is no lack of ivill^ but of power ; and 
 so I hope all the watchmen of the Lord are anxious to 
 be faithful, while, at the same time, they know their 
 imperfection. Truly the minister of Christ will feel 
 like the old keeper of Eddystone lighthouse ; life was 
 failing fast, but summoning all his strength, he crept 
 round once more to trim the lights before he died. O 
 may the Holy Spirit enable us to keep the beacon -fire 
 blazing, to warn you of the rocks, shoals, and quick- 
 sands, which surround you, and may we ever guide 
 you to Jesus, and not to free-will or creature merit. If 
 my friends knew how anxiously I have sought divine 
 direction in the important matter of preaching to sin- 
 ners, they would not feel as some of them do, when 
 they fancy I address them wrongly. I want to do as 
 God bids me, and if he tells me to speak to the dry 
 bones and they shall live, I must do it, even if it does 
 not please others ; otherw^ise I should be condemned in 
 my own conscience, and condemned of God. Now, 
 with all the solemnity that man can summon, let me 
 
Paul's first prayi:r. 189 
 
 say that a prayerless soul is a Cliristless soul. As the • 
 Lord liveth, you who never prayed are without God, 
 without hope, and strangers from the commonwealth 
 of Israel. You who never know what a gi'oan is, or a 
 falling tear, are destitute of vital godliness. Let me 
 ask you, sirs, whether you have ever thought in what 
 an awful state you are ? You are far from God, and 
 therefore God is angry with you ; for " God is angry 
 wdth the wdcked every day." O, sinner! lift thine eyes 
 and behold the frowning countenance of God, for he is 
 angry with you. And I beseech you, as you love your- 
 selves, just for one moment contemplate what will 
 become of you, if living as you are ye should at last 
 die without prayer. Don't think that one prayer on your 
 deathbed w411 save you. Deathbed prayer is a death- 
 bed farce generally, and passes for nothing ; it is a coin 
 that will not ring in heaven, but is stamped by hypoc- 
 risy, and made of base metal. Take heed, sirs. Let 
 me ask you, if you have never prayed, what will you 
 do? It were a good thmg for you, if death were an 
 eternal sleep ; but it is not. If you find yourself in 
 hell, oh, the racks and pains! But I will not harrow up 
 your feelings by attempting to describe them. May 
 God grant you never may feel the torments of the lost. 
 Only conceive that poor ^^Tetch in the llames who is 
 saying, " O for one drop of water, to cool my parched 
 tongue ! " See Iiovnt his tongue hangs from between 
 his blistered lips! how it excoriates and burns the roof 
 of his mouth, as if it were a fn-ebrand. Behold him 
 crying for a di-op of water. I will not picture the 
 scene. Suffice it for me to close up by saying, that the 
 hell of hells will be to thee, poor sinner, the thought 
 that it is to be forever. Thou wilt look up there on 
 
190 SERMONS. 
 
 the throne of God, and it shall be \\Tiltcn "forever I '^ 
 When the damned jingle the burning kons of their tor- 
 ments, they shall say " forever ! " When they howl, 
 echo cries " forever ! " 
 
 " ' Forever ' is written on tlicir racks, 
 ' Forever ' on their chains ; 
 * Forever ' burneth in the fire, 
 * Forever ' ever reigns. ' ' 
 
 Doleful thought ! " If I could but get out, then I 
 should be happy. If there were a hope of deliverance, 
 then I might be peaceful ; but I am here forever I " 
 Sirs, if ye would escape eternal torments, if ye would 
 be found amongst the numbers of the blessed, the road 
 to heaven can only be found by prayer — by prayer to 
 Jesus, by prayer for the Spirit, by supplication at his 
 mercy seat. " Turn ye, turn ye, wiiy w^ill ye die, O 
 house of Israel ? As I Live, saith the Lord, I have 
 no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, but had 
 rather that he should turn unto me and live." " The 
 Lord is gracious and full of compassion." Let us go 
 unto him and say, " He shall heal our backslidings, he 
 shall love us freely and forgive us graciously, for his 
 Son's name's sake." Oh ! if I may but win one soul 
 to-day, I will go home contented. If I may but gain 
 tw^enty, then I will rejoice. The more I have, the more 
 crowns I shall wear. "Wear ! No, I will take them all 
 at once, and cast them at Jesus' feet, and say, " Not 
 unto me, but unto thy name be all the glory, forever." 
 
 *' Prayer was appointed to convey 
 The blessings God designs to give ; 
 Long as they live, should Christians pray, 
 For only while they pray, they live. 
 
Paul's first prayer. 191 
 
 *' And wilt thou still in silence lie, 
 
 When Christ stands waiting for thy prayer ? 
 My soul, thou hast a friend on high, 
 Arise, and try thine interest there. 
 
 'T is prayer supports the soul that's weak, 
 Though thought be broken, language lame ; 
 Pray, if thou canst, or canst not speak, 
 But pray with faith in Jesu's name." 
 
SEllMON X.. 
 
 JOSEPH ATTACKED BY THE ARCHERS. 
 
 "The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot a^ Aim, and hated him; but his bow 
 abode in strength; and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the 
 mighty God of Jacob; from thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel." — Genesis xliy. 
 23, 24. 
 
 It must have been a fine sight to see the hoary- 
 headed Jacob sitting up in his bed whilst he bestowed 
 his parting benediction upon his twelve sons. He had 
 been noble in many instances during his life — at the 
 sleeping place of Bethel, the brook of Jabbok, and the 
 halting of Peniel. He had been a glorious old man ; 
 one before whom we might bow down with reverence, 
 and truly say, " There were giants in those days." But 
 his closing scene was the best. I think if ever he stood 
 out more illustrious than at any other time, if his head 
 was at any one season more than another, enchcled 
 with a halo of glory, it was when he came to die. Like 
 the sun at setting, he seemed then to be the greater in 
 brilliance, tinging the clouds of his weakness with the 
 glory of grace within. Like good wine, which runs 
 clear to the very bottom, unalloyed by dregs, so did 
 Jacob till his dying hom* continue to sing of love, of 
 mercy, and of goodness, past and future. Like the 
 
 (102) 
 
JOSEPH ATTACKED BY THE ARCHERS. 193 
 
 swan, wliich (as old waiters say) singeth not all its 
 life until it comes to die, so the old patriarch re- 
 mained silent as a songster for many years ; but when 
 he stretched himself on his last couch of rest, he stayed 
 himself up in his bed, turned his burning eye from one 
 to another, and although with a hoarse and faltering 
 voice, he sang a sonnet upon each of his offspring, such 
 as earthly poets, uninspired, cannot attempt to imitate. 
 Looking upon his son Reuben, a tear was in his eye, 
 for he recollected Reuben's sin ; he passed over Simeon 
 and Levi, giving some slight rebulve ; upon the others 
 he sung a verse of praise, as his eyes saw into the fu- 
 ture history of the tribes. By-and-by his voice failed 
 him, and the good old man, with long-drawn breath, 
 with eyes pregnant with celestial fire, and heart big 
 with heaven, lifted his voice to God, and said, " I have 
 waited for thy salvation, O God," rested a moment on 
 his pillow, and then again sitting up, recommenced the 
 strain, passing briefly by the names of each. But oh I 
 when he came to Joseph, his youngest son but one — 
 when he looked on him, I picture that old man as the 
 tears ran down his cheeks. There stood Joseph, \vith 
 all his mother Rachel in his eyes — that dear-loved wdfe 
 of his — there he stood, the boy for whom that mother 
 had prayed with all the eagerness of an Eastern wife. 
 For a long twenty years she had tarried a barren wo- 
 man and kept no house, but then she was a joyful 
 mother, and she called her son " Increase." Oh ! how 
 she loved the boy ; and for that mother's sake, though 
 she had been bm"ied for some years, and hidden under 
 the cold sod, old Jacob loved him too. But more than 
 that, he loved him for his troubles. He was parted 
 from him to be sold into Egypt. His father recollected 
 
 17 
 
194 
 
 SERMONS. 
 
 Joseph's trials in the round-house and the dungeon, 
 and remembered his royal dignity as prince of Egypt ; 
 and now, with a full burst of harmony, as if the music 
 of heaven had united with his own, as when the 
 widened river meets the sea, and the tide coming up 
 doth amalgamate with the stream that cometh down, 
 and swelleth into a broad expanse, so did the glory of 
 heaven meet the rapture of his earthly feelings, and 
 giving vent to his soul, he sung, "Joseph is a fruitful 
 bough, even a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches 
 run over the wall; the archers have sorely grieved him, 
 and shot at him, and hated him; but his bow abode in 
 strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong 
 by the hands of the mighty Godoi Jacob ; (from thence 
 is the shepherd, the stone of Israel; ) even by the God 
 of thy father, v/ho shall help thee ; and by the Al- 
 mighty, who shall bless thee with blessings of heaven 
 above, blessings of the deep that lieth under, blessings 
 of the breasts, and of the womb ; the blessings of thy 
 father have prevailed above the blessings of my pro- 
 genitors, unto the utmost bound of the everlasting 
 hills ; they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the 
 crown of the head of him that was separate from his 
 bretliren." What a splendid stanza with which to 
 close ! He has only one more blessing to give ; but 
 surely this was the richest which he confen-ed on Joseph. 
 Joseph is dead, but the Lord, has his Josephs now. 
 
 There are some still who understand by experience 
 
 and that is the best kind of understanding — the mean- 
 ing of this passage, " The archers have sorely grieved 
 him, and shot at him, and hated him ; but his bow 
 abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made 
 strong by the hands of tlie mighty God of Jacob." 
 
JOSEPH ATTACKED IJY TllK ARCHERS. 195 
 
 There are four tilings for us to consider this morn- 
 ing. First of all, the cruel attack — " the archers have 
 sorely grieved liim, and shot at him, and hated him ;" 
 secondly, the shielded warrior — " but his bow abode 
 in strength;" thirdly, his secret strength — "the arms 
 of his hands were made sti'ong by the mighty powder 
 of the God of Jacob;" and fourthly, the glorious par- 
 allel drawn between Joseph and Christ — " from thence 
 is the shepherd, the stone of Israel." 
 
 I. Fii-st, then, we commence with the cruel attack. 
 " The archers have sorely grieved him." Joseph's en- 
 emies were archers. The original has it, "masters of 
 the arrows ; " that is, men who were well sldlled in the 
 use of the anow. Though all weapons are alike ap- 
 proved by the warrior in his thirst for blood, there seems 
 something more cowardly in the attack of the archer 
 than in that of the swordsman. The swordsman plants 
 himself near you, foot to foot, and lets you defend 
 yourself, and deal your blows against him ; but the 
 archer stands at a distance, hides himself in ambuscade, 
 and, without your knowing it, the arrow comes wiuz- 
 zing through the air, and perhaps penetrates your heart. 
 Just so are the enemies of God's people. They very 
 seldom come foot to foot with us ; they will not show 
 their faces before us ; they hate the light,- they love 
 darkness; they dare not come and openly accuse us to 
 our face, for then we could reply ; but they shoot the 
 bow from a distance, so that we cannot answer them ; 
 cowardly and dastardly as they are, they forge their 
 arrow-heads, and aim them, winged with hell-bird's 
 feathers, at the hearts of God's people. The archers 
 sorely grieved poor Joseph. Let us consider who are 
 the archers who so cruelly shot at him. First, there 
 
196 SERMONS. 
 
 were the archers of envy; secondly, the archers of 
 temptation; and tliii'dly, the archers of slander and 
 calumny. 
 
 1. First, Joseph had to endure the archers of envy. 
 When he was a boy, his father loved him. The youth 
 was fair and beautiful; in person he was to be 
 admu-ed ; moreover, he had a mind that was gigantic, 
 and an intellect that was lofty ; but, best of all, in him 
 dwelt the Spirit of the living God. He was one who 
 talked with God ; a youth of piety and prayerfulness ; 
 beloved of God, even more than he was by his earthly 
 father. O ! how his father loved him I for in his fond 
 affection, he made him a princely coat of many colors, 
 and treated him better than the others — a natural but 
 foolish way of showing his fondness. Therefore his 
 brethren hated him. Full often did they jeer at the 
 youthful Joseph, when he retired to his prayers; when 
 he was with them at a distance from Ms father's house, 
 he was theij* di-udge, their slave ; the taunt, the jeer, 
 did often wound his heart, and the young child endured 
 much secret soitow. On an ill day, as it happened, he 
 was with them at a distance from home, and they 
 thought to slay him ; but upon the entreaty of Keuben, 
 they put him into a pit, until, as Providence would 
 have it, the Ishmaelites did pass that way. They then 
 sold him for the price of a slave, stripped liim of his 
 coat, and sent him naked, they knew not, and they 
 cared not, whither, so long as he might be out of their 
 way, and no longer provoke their envy and their anger. 
 Oh ! the agonies he felt — parted from his father, losing 
 his brethren, without a friend, dragged away by cruel 
 man-sellers, chained upon a camel it may be, with fet- 
 ters on his hands. Those who have borne the gyves 
 
JOSEPH ATTACKED BY THE ARCHERS. 197 
 
 and fetters, those who have felt that they were not free 
 men, that they had not liberty, might tell how sorely 
 the archers grieved him when they shot at him the 
 arrows of their en\'y. He became a slave, sold from 
 his country, dragged from all he loved. Farewell to 
 home and all its pleasures — farewell to a father's 
 smiles and tender cares. He must be a slave, and toil 
 where the slave's task-maker makes him ; he must be 
 stripped in the streets, he must be beaten, he must be 
 scourged, he must be reduced from the man to the ani- 
 mal, from the free man to the slave. Truly the archers 
 sorely shot at him. And, mybretlu-en, do you hope, if 
 you are the Lord's Josephs, that you shall escape envy? 
 I tell you, nay ; that gi-een-eyed monster, envy, lives in 
 London as well as elsewhere, and he creeps into God's 
 church, moreover. Oh ! it is hardest of all, to be envied 
 by one's brethren. If the devil hates us, we can bear 
 it; if the foes of God's truth speak iU of us, we buclde 
 up our harness, and say, " Away, away, to the conflict." 
 But when the friends within the house slander us; 
 when brethren who should uphold us, turn our foes ; 
 and when they try to tread down their / younger 
 brethren ; then, sirs, there is some meaning in the pas- 
 sage, " The archers have sorely giieved him, and shot 
 atliim, and hated him." But, blessed be God's name, 
 it is sweet to be informed that " his bow abode^ in 
 strength.'* None of you can be the people of God 
 without provoldng envy; and the better you are, the 
 more you wiU. be hated. The ripest fruit is most pecked 
 by the birds, and the blossoms that have been longest 
 on the tree, are the most easily blown down by the 
 wind. But fear not ; you have nought to do with what 
 man shaU say of you. If God loves you, man \vill 
 
198 SERMOxNS. 
 
 hate you ; if God honors you, man will dishonor you. 
 But recollect, could ye wear chains of iron for Clii'ist's 
 sake, ye should wear chains of gold in heaven ; could 
 ye have rings of burning iron round your waists, ye 
 should have your brow rimmed with gold in glory ; for 
 blessed are ye when men shall say aU manner of evil 
 against you falsely, for Christ's name's sake ; for so per- 
 secuted they the prophets that were before you. The 
 first archers were the archers of envy. 
 
 2. But a worse trial than this was to overtake him. 
 The archers of temptation shot at him. Here I know 
 not how to express myself. I would that some one 
 more quaUfied to speak were here, that he might tell 
 you the tale of Joseph's trial, and Joseph's triumph. 
 Sold to a master who soon discovered his value, Joseph 
 was made the bailiff of the house, and the manager of 
 the household. His wanton mistress fixed her adul- 
 terous love on him ; and he, being continually in her 
 presence, was perpetually, day by day, solicited by her 
 to evil deeds. Constantly did he refuse ; still endm'ing 
 a martyrdom at the slow fire of her enticements. On 
 one eventful day she grasped him, seeldng to compel 
 him to crime ; but he, like a true hero as he was, said 
 to her, " How can I do this great wickedness and sin 
 against God ? " Like a wise warrior, he knew that in 
 such a case fleeing was the better part of valor. He 
 heard a voice in his ears : " Fly, Joseph, fly ; there 
 remains no way of victory but flight;" and out he 
 fled, leaving his garment with his adulterous mistress. 
 Oh, I say in all the annals of heroism there is not one 
 that shall surpass this. You know it is opportunity 
 that makes a man criminal ; and he had abundant 
 opportunity; but importunity will di'ivc most men 
 
JOSEPH ATTACKED BY THE ARCHERS. 109 
 
 astray. To be haunted day by day by solicitations of 
 the softest kind — to be tempted hour by hour — oh I 
 it needs a strength super-angelic, a might more than 
 human, a strength which only God can grant, for a 
 young man thus to cleanse his way, and take heed 
 thereto according to God's word. He might have rea- 
 soned within himself, " Should I submit and yield, 
 there lies before me a life of ease and pleasure; I shall 
 be exalted, I shall be rich. She shall prevail over her 
 husband, to cover me wdth honors; but should I still 
 adhere to my integrity, I shall be cast into prison, I 
 shall be thrown into the dmigeon ; there awaits me 
 nothing but shame and disgrace." Oh ! there was a 
 power indeed within that heart of his ; there was an 
 inconceivable might, wliich made him turn away with 
 unutterable disgust, with fear and trembling, while he 
 said, " How can I? how can I — God's Joseph — how 
 can I — other men might, but how can I do this great 
 wickedness and sin against God." Truly the archers 
 sorely grieved him and shot at him ; but his bow abode 
 in strength. 
 
 3. Then another host of archers assailed him ; 
 these ivere the archer's of malicious- calumny. Seeing 
 that he would not yield to temptation, his mistress 
 falsely accused him to her husband, and his lord, beUev- 
 ing the voice of his wife, cast him into prison. It was 
 a marvellous providence that he did not put him to 
 death ; for Potiphar, his master, was the chief of the 
 slaughtermen ; he had only to call in a soldier, who 
 would have cut liim in pieces on the spot. But he cast 
 him into prison. There was poor Joseph. His char- 
 acter ruined in the eyes of man, and very likely looked 
 upon with scorn even in the prison-house; base crimi- 
 
200 SERMONS. 
 
 nals went away from him as if they thought him viler 
 than themselves, as if they were angels in comparison 
 with him. Oh ! it is no easy thing to feel your char- 
 acter gone, to think that you arc slandered, that things 
 are said of you that are untrue. Many a man's heart 
 has been broken by this, when nothing else could make 
 him yield. The archers sorely grieved him when he 
 was so maligned -T- so slandered. O child of God, 
 dost thou expect to escape these archers ? Wilt thou 
 never be slandered ? Shalt thou never be calumniated ? 
 It is the lot of God's servants, in proportion to their 
 zeal, to be evil spoken of. Remember the noble Whit- 
 field, how he stood and was the butt of all the jeers 
 and scoffs of half an age; while his only answer was 
 a blameless life. 
 
 *' And he "who forged, and he who threw the dart. 
 Had each a brother's interest in his heart." 
 
 They reviled him and imputed to him crimes that 
 Sodom never knew. So shall it be always with those 
 who preach God's truth, and all the followers of Christ 
 — they must all expect it ; but, blessed be God, they 
 have not said worse tilings of us than they said of our 
 Master. What have they laid to our charge ? They 
 may have said, " he is drunken and a wine-bibber ; " 
 but they have not said, " he hath a devil." They have 
 accused us of being mad, so was it said of Paul. Oh, 
 holy infatuation, heavenly furor, would that we could 
 bite others until they had the same madness. We 
 think, if to go to heaven be mad, we vAR not choose to 
 be wise ; w^e see no wisdom in preferring hell ; we can 
 see no great prudence in despising and hating God's 
 truth. If to serve God be vile, we pm-pose to be viler 
 
JOSEni ATTACKED BY THE ARCHERS. :2()1 
 
 still. All I friends, some now present know this verse 
 by heart, " The archers have sorely grieved him, and 
 shot at him, and hated him." Expect it ; do not think 
 it a strange thing; all God's people must have it. 
 There are no royal roads to heaven — they are paths 
 of trial and trouble ; the archers will shoot at you as 
 long as you are on this side the Hood. 
 
 J I. We have seen these archers shoot their flights of 
 arrows ; we will now go up the hill a little, behind a rock, 
 to look at the shielded warrior, and see how his courage 
 is while the archers have sorely grieved him. What 
 is he doing ? " His bow abideth in strength." Let us 
 picture God's favorite. The archers are down below. 
 There is a parapet of rock before him ; now and then 
 he looks over it to see what the archers are about, but 
 generally he keeps behind. In heavenly security he is 
 set upon a rock, careless of all below. Let us follow 
 the track of the wild goat and behold the warrior in his 
 fastness. 
 
 First, we notice that he has a bow himself, for we 
 read that " his bow abode in strength." He could 
 have retaliated if he pleased, but he was very quiet and 
 would not combat with them. Had he pleased, he 
 might have di'awn his bow with ail his strength, and 
 sent his weapon to their hearts with far greater precision 
 than they had ever done to him. But mark the war- 
 rior's quietness. There he rests, stretcliing his mighty 
 limbs ; his bow abode in strength ; he seemed to say, 
 " Rage on, aye, let your arrows spend themselves, 
 empty your quivers on me, let your bow-strings be worn 
 out, and let the wood be broken with its constant bend- 
 ing ; here am I, stretching myself in safe repose ; my 
 bow abides in sti'cngth ; I have other work to do besides 
 
202 SERMONS. 
 
 shooting at you ; my arrows are against yon foes of 
 God, the enemies of the Most High ; I cannot waste 
 an arrow on such pitiful sparrows as you are; ye are 
 birds beneath my noble shot ; I would not waste an ar- 
 row on you." Thus he remains behind the rock and 
 despises them all. " His bow abideth in strength." 
 
 Mark well his quietness. His bow " abideth." It is 
 not rattling, it is not always moving, but it abides, it is 
 quite still ; he takes no notice of the attack. The 
 archers sorely grieved Joseph, but his bow was not 
 turned against them, it abode in strength. He turned not 
 his bow on them. He rested while they raged. Doth 
 the moon stay herself to lecture every dog that bayeth 
 at her ? Doth the lion turn aside to rend each cur that 
 barketh at him ? Do the stars cease to shine because 
 the nightingales reprove them for their dimness ? Doth 
 the sun stop in its course because of the officious cloud 
 which veils it ? Or doth the river stay because the 
 Avillow dippeth its leaves into its waters? Ah! no; 
 God's universe moves on, and if men w411 oppose it, it 
 heeds them not. It is as God hath made it; it is 
 working together for good, and it shaU not be stayed by 
 the censure nor moved on by the praise of man. Let 
 your bows, my brethren, abide. Do not be in a hurry 
 to set yourselves right. God wiU take care of you. 
 Leave yourselves alone ; only be very valiant for the 
 Lord God of Israel ; be steadfast in the truth of Jesus 
 and your bow shall abide. 
 
 But we must not forget the next word. " His bow 
 abode in strength." Though his bow was quiet it was 
 not because it was broken. Joseph's bow was like that 
 of William the Conqueror ; no man could bend it but 
 Joseph himself; it abode in "strength." I seethe 
 
JOSEPH ATTACKED BY THE ARCHERS. 203 
 
 warrior bending his bow — how with his mighty arms he 
 pulls it down and draws the string to make it ready. Ilis 
 bow abode in strength ; it did not snap, it did not start 
 aside. His chastity was his bow, and he did not lose 
 that ; his faith was his bow, and that did not yield, it 
 did not break ; his courage was liis bow, and that did 
 not fail him; his character, liis honesty was his bow, 
 nor did he cast it away. Some men are so very par- 
 ticular about reputation. They thinli, " sm-ely, surely, 
 surely they shall lose their characters." Well, well, if 
 we do not lose them through our own fault, we never 
 need care about anybody else. You know there is not 
 a man that stands at all prominent, but what any fool 
 in the world can set afloat some bad tale against him. 
 It is a great deal easier to set a story afloat than to stop 
 it. If you want truth to go round the world you must 
 hire an express train to pull it ; but if you want a lie 
 to go round the world, it will fly : it is as light as a 
 feather, and a breath ^y\l\ carry it. It is well said in the 
 old Proverb, " A lie will go round the world while truth 
 is pulling its boots on." Nevertheless, it does not injure 
 us ; for if light as a feather it travels as fast, its effect is 
 just about as tremendous as the eflect of down, when 
 it is blown against the walls of a castle ; it produces no 
 damage whatever, on account of its lightness and 
 littleness. Fear not. Christian. Let slander fly, let 
 envy send forth its forked tongue, let it hiss at you, 
 your bow shall abide in strength. Oh I shielded warrior, 
 remain quiet, fear no ill; but, like the eagle in its lofty 
 eyrie, look thou down upon the fowlers in the plain ; 
 turn thy bold eye upon them and say, " Shoot ye may, 
 but your shots will not reach half way to the pinnacle 
 where I stand. Waste your powder upon me if ye 
 
204 SERMONS. 
 
 will ; I am beyond your reach." Then clap your wings, 
 mount to heaven, and there laugh them to scorn, for ye 
 have made your refuge God, and shall find a most 
 secure abode. 
 
 III. The third thing in our text is the secret streng^th. 
 " The arms of his hands were made strong by the hands 
 of the mighty God of Jacob." First, notice, concerning 
 his strength, that it was real strength. It says, " the 
 arms of his hands," not his hands only. You know 
 some people can do a great deal with their hands, but 
 then it is often fictitious power ; there is no might in 
 the arm, there is no muscle ; but of Joseph it is said 
 " the arms of his hands were made strong." It was 
 real potency, true muscle, real sinew, real nerve. It 
 was not simply sleight of hand — the power of moving 
 his fingers very swiftly — but the aims of his hands 
 were made strong. Now that strength which God 
 gives to his Josephs is real strength ; it is not a boasted 
 valor, a fiction, a thing of which men talk, an aiiy 
 dream, an unsubstantial unreality, but it is real strength. 
 I should not like to have a combat with one of God's 
 Josephs. I should find their blows very heavy. I fear 
 a Christian's strokes more than any other man's, for he 
 has bone and sinew, and smites hard. Let the foes of 
 the church expect a hard struggle if they attack an heir 
 of life. Mightier than giants are men of the race of 
 heaven ; should they once arouse themselves to battle 
 they could laugh at the spear and the habergeon. But 
 they are a patient generation, enduring ills without 
 resenting them, suffering scorn without reviling the 
 scoffer. Then- triumph is to come when their enemies 
 shall receive the vengeance due ; then shall it be seen 
 by an assembled world that the "little flock" were 
 
JOSEi'II ATTACKED BY THE ARCHERS. 205 
 
 men of high estate, and the " oflscoiiriiig of all thuigs" 
 were verily men of real strength and dignity. 
 
 Even though the world perceive it not, the favored 
 Joseph has real strength, not in his hands only, but in 
 his arms — real might, real power. O ye foes of God, 
 ye think God's people are despicable and powerless ; 
 but know that they have true strength from the omnipo- 
 tence of then* Father, a might substantial and divine. 
 Your own shall melt away, and droop and die, like tht! 
 snow upon the low mountain top, when the sun shines 
 upon it, it melteth into water; but our vigor shall abide 
 like the snow on the summit of the Alps, undiminished 
 for ages. It is real strength. 
 
 Then observe that the strength of God's Joseph is 
 divine strength. His arms were made strong by God. 
 Why does one of God's ministers preach the gospel 
 powerfully? Because God gives him assistance. Why 
 does Joseph stand against temptation? Because God 
 gives him aid. The strength of a Christian is divine 
 strength. jNIy bretlu-en, I am more and more persuaded 
 every day that the sinner has no power of himself, 
 except that which is given him from above. I know 
 that if I were to stand with my foot upon the golden 
 tln'eshold of heaven's portal, if I could put this thumb 
 upon the latch, I could not open that door, after having 
 gone so far towards heaven, unless I had still super- 
 natural power communicated to me in that moment. 
 If I had a stone to lift, to work my own salvation, 
 without God's help to do that, I must be lost, even 
 though it were so little. There is nought that we can 
 do without the power of God. All true strength is 
 divine. As the light cometh from the sun, as the shower 
 from heaven ; so doth spiritual strength come from the 
 18 
 
206 
 
 SERMONS. 
 
 Father of lights, with whom there is neither variableness 
 nor shadow of a turning. 
 
 Again : I would have you notice in the text in what 
 a hlesscdhj familiar way God gives this strength to 
 Joseph. It says, " the arms of his hands were made 
 strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob." 
 Thus it represents God as putting his hands on 
 Joseph's hands, placing his arms on Joseph's arms. In 
 old times, when every boy had to be trained up to 
 archery, if his father were worth so many pounds 
 a-year, you might see the father putting his hands on 
 his boy's hands and pulling the bow for him, saying, 
 " there, my son, in this manner draw the bow." So the 
 text represents God as putting his hand on the hand 
 of Joseph, and laying his broad arm along the arm of 
 his chosen child, that he might be made strong. Like 
 as a father teacheth his children ; so the Lord teaches 
 them that fear him. He puts his arms upon them. As 
 Elijah laid with his mouth upon the child's mouth, with 
 his hand upon the child's hand, with his foot upon the 
 child's foot, so does God put his mouth to his children's 
 mouth, his hand to his ministers' hand, his foot to his 
 people's foot ; and so he makes us strong. Marvellous 
 condescension ! Ye stars of glory, have ye ever wit- 
 nessed such stoops of love ? God Almighty, Eternal, 
 Omnipotent, stoops from his thi'one and lays his hand 
 upon the child's hand, stretching his arm upon the arm 
 of Joseph, that he may be made strong I 
 
 One more thought, and I have done. The strength 
 was covenant strength^ for it is said, " The arms of his 
 hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty 
 God of Jacoh.^^ Now, wherever you read of the God 
 of Jacob in the Bible, you may know that that respects 
 
JOSEPH ATTACKED BY THE ARCHERS. 207 
 
 God's covenant \vith Jacob. Ah I I love to talk about 
 God's everlasting covenant. Some of the Arminians 
 cannot bear it, but I love a covenant salvation — a 
 covenant not made with my fathers, not between me 
 and God, but betsveen Christ and God. Christ 
 made the covenant to pay a price, and God made 
 the covenant that he should have the people. Christ 
 has paid the price and ratified the ' covenant ; and 
 I am quite sure that God will fulfil his part of it, by 
 giving every elect vessel of mercy into the hands of 
 Jesus. But, beloved, all the power, all the grace, all the 
 blessings, all the mercies, all the comforts, all the things 
 we have, we have through the covenant. If there were no 
 covenant ; if we could rend the everlasting charter up ; 
 if the Iving of hell could cut it with his knife, as the 
 king of Israel did the roll of Baruck, then we should 
 fail indeed : for we have no strength, except that which 
 is promised in the covenant. Covenant mercies, cov- 
 enant grace, covenant promises, covenant blessings, 
 covenant help, covenant everything — the Christian 
 must receive, if he would enter into heaven. 
 
 Now, Christian, the archers have sorely grieved you, 
 and shot at you, and wounded you ; but your bow 
 abides in strength, and the arms of your hands are 
 made strong. But do you know, O believer, that you 
 are like your INIastcr in this ? 
 
 IV. That is our fourth point — a glorious parallel. 
 " From thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel." 
 Jesus Christ was served just the same; the shepherd, 
 the stone of Israel, passed through similar trials ; he 
 was shot at by the archers, he was grieved and wounded; 
 but his bow abode in strength ; his arms were made 
 strong by the God of Jacob, and now every blessing 
 
-"^^ SERMOx\S. 
 
 rests " upon the crown of the head of him who Was 
 separated from his brethren." I shall not detain you 
 long, but I have a few things to tell you : first about 
 Clnist as the shepherd, and then about Christ the stone. 
 Christ came into the world as a shepherd. As soon 
 as he made his appearance, the Scribes and Pharisees 
 said, " Ah I we have been the shepherds until this hour • 
 now we shall be driven from our honors, we shall lose 
 all oar dignity, and our authority." Consequently, they 
 always shot at him. As for the people, they were a 
 hckle herd; I believe that many of them respected and 
 admired Christ, though, doubtless, the vast majority 
 hated him, for wherever he went he was a popular 
 preacher; the multitude always thronged him and 
 crowded round him, crying, " Hosannah." I think if 
 you had wanted up to the top of that hill of Cavalry, 
 and asked one of those men who cried out, " Crucify 
 him, crucify him," " What do you say that for^ Is he 
 a bad man?" " No," he would have said, "he went 
 about doing good." " Then why do you say 'crucify 
 ium . " Because Rabbi Simeon gave me a shekel to 
 help the clamor." So the multitude were much won 
 by the money and influence of the priests. But they 
 were gkd to hear Christ after all. It was the shep- 
 herds that hated him, because he took away their traffic 
 because he turned the buyers and sellers out of the' 
 temple, diminished their dignity and ignored then- pre- 
 tensions; therefore, they could not endm-e him. But 
 the Shepherd of Israel mounted higher and hi-hcr • he 
 gathered his sheep, carried the lambs in his"" bosom- 
 and he now stands acknowledged as the great shepherd 
 of the sheep, who shall gather them into one flock and 
 lead them to heaven. Rowland Hill tells a curious tale, 
 m his " Village Dialogues," about a certain Mi'. Tip. 
 
JOSEPH ATTACKED BY THE ARCHEllS. 209 
 
 lash, a very fine intellectual preacher, who, in one of 
 his flights of oratory, said, " O virtue, thou art so fair 
 and lovely, if thou \vert to come down upon earth, all 
 men would love thee," with a few more pretty, beauti- 
 ful things. Mr. Blunt, an honest preacher, who was in 
 the neighborhood, was asked to preach in the after- 
 noon, and he supplemented the worthy gentleman's 
 remarks, by saying, " O virtue, thou didst come on 
 earth, in all thy purity and loveliness ; but instead of 
 being beloved and admired, the archers sorely shot at 
 thee and grieved thee ; they took thee, virtue, and hung 
 thy quivering limbs upon a cross ; when thou didst 
 hang there dying they hissed at thee, they mocked thee, 
 they scorned thee ; when thou didst ask for water they 
 gave thee vinegar to drink, mingled wdth gall ; yea, 
 when thou diest thou hadst a tomb from charity, and 
 that tomb, sealed by enmity and hatred." The Shep- 
 herd of Israel was despised, incarnate virtue w^as hated 
 and abhorred ; therefore fear not. Christians, take cour- 
 age ; for if your Master passed through it, surely you 
 must. 
 
 To conclude : the text calls Christ the stone of Israel. 
 I have heard a story — I cannot tell whether it is true 
 or not — out of some of the Jewish rabbis ; it is a tale 
 concerning the text, " The stone which the builders 
 refused, the same is become the headstone of the corner." 
 It is said that when Solomon's temple w^as building, 
 all the stones were brought from the quarry ready 
 cut and fashioned, and there w^ere marked on all the 
 blocks the places where they were to be put. Amongst 
 the stones was a very curious one ; it seemed of no 
 describable shape, it appeared unfit for any portion of 
 the building. They tried it at this w^alJ, but it would 
 18*' 
 
210 
 
 '^-^^ SERMONS. 
 
 not fit; they tried it in another, but it could not be 
 accommodated ; so, vexed and angry, they threw it 
 away. The temple was so many years building, that 
 this stone became covered with moss, and grass grew 
 around it. Everybody passing by laughed at the stone ; 
 they said Solomon was wise, and doubtless aU the 
 other stones were right; but as for that block, they 
 might as well send it back to the quarry, for they were 
 quite sure it was meant for nothing. Year after year 
 rolled on, and the poor stone was stiU despised, the 
 bmlders constantly refused it. The eventful day came 
 when the temple was to be finished and opened, and 
 the multitude was assembled to see the grand sight 
 The builders said, " Where is the top-stone ? Where is 
 the pinnacle ? " They little thought where the crown- 
 mg marble was, untU some one said, " Perhaps that 
 stone which the builders refused is meant to be the top- 
 stone." They then took it, and hoisted it to the top of 
 the house ; and as it reached the summit they found it 
 well adapted to the place. Loud hosannas made the 
 welkin ring, as the stone which the builders refused, 
 thus became the headstone of the corner. So is it with 
 Christ Jesus. The builders cast him away. He was a 
 plebeian; he was of poor extraction; he was a man 
 acquainted with sinners, who walked in poverty and 
 meanness ; hence the worldly-wise despised him. But 
 when God shaU gather together, in one, all things that 
 are in heaven and that are in earth, then Christ shall be 
 the glorious consummation of all things. 
 
 " Christ reigns in heaven the topmost stone, 
 And well deserves the praise. ' ' 
 
 He shall be exalted; he shall be honored; his name 
 shall endwe as long as the sun, and all nations shall be 
 blessed m him, yea, aU generations shall call him blessed. 
 
SERMON XI. 
 
 THE TOMB OE JESUS. 
 
 "Come see the place where the Lord lay." — Matt, xxviii. 6. 
 
 Every circurastance connected with the life of 
 Christ is deeply interesting to the Christian mind. 
 Wherever we behold our Saviour, he is well worthy 
 of our notice. 
 
 "His cross, his manger, and Lis crown, 
 Are big with glories yet unknown." 
 
 All his weary pilgrimage, from Bethlehem's manger to 
 Calvary's cross, is, in our eyes, paved with glory. 
 Each spot upon which he trod is, to our souls, conse- 
 crated at once, simply because there the foot of earth's 
 Saviour and our own Redeemer once was placed. 
 When he comes to Calvary, the interest thickens ; then 
 our best thoughts are centered on him in the agonies 
 of cruciiLxion, nor does our deep affection permit us to 
 leave him, even when, the struggle being over, he 
 yields up the ghost. His body, when it is taken down 
 from the tree, still is lovely in our eyes — we fondly 
 linger around the motionless clay. By faith we dis- 
 cern Joseph of Arimathea, and the timid Nicodemus, 
 
 {'2U) 
 
21 v> 
 
 ^^•^ SERMONS. 
 
 assisted by those holy woman, drawing out the nails 
 and taking down the mangled body; we behold them 
 ^^Tapping him in clean, white linen, hastily girding him 
 romid with belts of spices; then putting him in his 
 tomb, and departing for the Sabbath rest. We shall, 
 on tliis occasion, go where Mary went on the morning 
 of the first day of the week, when waking from her 
 couch before the dawn, she aroused herself to be early 
 at the sepulchre of Jesus. We ^viU try, if it be possi- 
 ble, by the help of God's Spirit, to go as she did : not 
 m body, but in soul : we will stand at that tomb ; we 
 will examine it, and we trust we shaU hear some truth- 
 speaking voice coming from its hollow bosom which 
 will comfort and instruct us, so that we may say of the 
 grave of Jesus when we go away, « It was none other 
 than the gate of heaven" — a sacred place, deeply 
 solemn, and sanctified by the slain body of our 
 precious Saviour. 
 
 I. A?t invitation given. I shall commence my re- 
 marks this morning by inviting all Christians to come 
 with me to the tomb of Jesus. " Come, see the i)lace 
 where the Lord lay." We ^^^ill labor to render the 
 place attractive, we will gently take your hand to guide 
 you to It; and may it please our Master to make our 
 hearts burn within us while we talk by the way. 
 
 Away ye profane, ye souls whose life is laughter 
 folly,and mii'thl Away ye sordid and carnal minds' 
 who have no taste for the spiritual, no delight in the 
 celestial. We ask not your company; we speak to 
 God s beloved, to the heirs of heaven, to the sanctified, 
 the redeemed, the pure in heart; and we say to them, 
 " Come, see the place where the Lord lay." Surely ye 
 need no argument to move your feet in the dkection of 
 
THE TOMB OF JESUS. 213 
 
 the holy sepulchre ; but still we will use the utmost 
 power to clraw your spirit thither. Come, then, for 
 V is the shrine of greatness, 'tis the resting-place of the 
 man, the Restorer of our race, the Conqueror of death 
 and hell. INIen will travel hundreds of miles to behold 
 the place where a poet first breathed the air of earth ; 
 they will journey to the ancient tombs of mighty 
 heroes, or the graves of men renowned by fame; but 
 whither shall the Cluristian go to find the grave of one 
 so famous as was Jesus ? Ask me the greatest man 
 who ever lived — I tell you the man Christ Jesus was 
 " anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows." 
 If ye seek a chamber honored as the resting-place of 
 genius, turn in hither; if ye would worship at the 
 grave of holiness, come ye here ; if ye would see the 
 hallowed spot where the choicest bones that e'er were 
 fashioned lay for awhile, come with me, Cliristian, to 
 that quiet garden, hard by the w^alls of Jerusalem. 
 
 Come w4th me, moreover, because it is the tomb of 
 your best friend. The Jews said of Mary, " she goeth 
 unto his grave to weep there." Ye have lost your 
 friends some of you, ye have planted flowers upon their 
 tombs, ye go and sit at eventide upon the green sward, 
 bedewing the grass with your tears, for there your 
 mother lies, and there your father or your wife. Oh! 
 in pensive sorrow come with me to this dark garden of 
 our Saviour's burial ; come to the grave of your best 
 friend — your brother, yea, one who " sticketh closer 
 than a brother." Come thou to the grave of thy 
 dearest relative, O Christian, for Jesus is thy husband, 
 " Thy maker is thy husband, the Lord of Hosts is his 
 name." Doth not affection draw you ? Do not the 
 sweet lips of love woo you ? Is not the place sancti- 
 
214 SERMONS. 
 
 fied where one so well- beloved slept, although but for i 
 a moment ? Surely ye need no eloquence ; if it were i^ 
 needed I have none. I have but the power, in simple, 
 but earnest accents, to repeat the words, " Come, see \ 
 the place where the Lord lay." On this Easter morn 
 ing pay a visit to his grave, for it is the grave of your: 
 best friend. 
 
 Yea, more, I will further urge you to this pious pil- 
 grimage. Come^ for angels hid you. Angels said, 
 *' Come, see the place where the Lord lay." The : 
 Syriac version reads, " Come, see the place where our ' 
 Lord lay." Yes, angels put themselves with those 
 poor women, and used one common pronoun — our, 
 Jesus is the Lord of angels as well as of men. Ye 
 feeble women — ye have called him Lord, ye have 
 Avashed his feet, ye have provided for his wants, ye 
 have hung upon his lips to catch his honeyed sen- 
 tences, ye have sat entranced beneath his mighty elo- 
 quence ; ye call him IVIaster and Lord, and ye do well ; 
 "But," said the seraph, "he is my Lord too; " bowing 
 his head, he sweetly said, " Come, see the place where 
 our Lord lay." Dost fear then. Christian, to step into 
 that tomb ? Dost dread to enter there, when the angel 
 pointeth with his finger and saith, " Come, we will go 
 together, angels and men, and see the royal bedcham- 
 ber? " Ye know that angels did go into his tomb, for 
 they sat one at his head and the other at his foot in 
 holy meditation. I picture to myself those bright 
 cherubs sitting there talking to one another. One of 
 them said, " It was there his feet lay; " and the other 
 replied, "and there his hands, and there his head;" and 
 in celestial language did they tallv concerning the deep 
 things of God; then they stooped and Idssed the 
 
THE TOMB OF JESUS. 215 
 
 rocky floor, made sacred to the angels themselves, not 
 because there they were redeemed, but because there 
 their Master and their monarch, whose high behests 
 they were obeying, did for awhile become the slave of 
 death, and the captive of destruction. Come, Christian, 
 then, for angels are the porters to unbar the door; come, 
 for a cherub is thy messenger to usher thee into the 
 death-place of death himself. Nay, start not from the 
 entrance ; let not the darkness affright thee ; the vault 
 is not damp with the vapors of death, nor doth the 
 air contain aught of contagion. Come, for it is a pure 
 and healthy place. Fear not to enter that tomb. I will 
 admit that catacombs are not the places where we, 
 who are full of joy, would love to go. There is some- 
 thing gloomy and noisome about a vault. There 
 are noxious smells of corruption ; oft-times pestilence 
 is born where a dead body hath lain : but fear it not, 
 Christian, for Christ was not left in hell, — in Hades, — 
 neither did his body see corruption. Come, there is no 
 scent, yea, rather a perfume. Step in here, and, if thou 
 didst ever breathe the gales of Ceylon, or winds from 
 the groves of Araby, thou shalt find them far excehed 
 by that sweet holy fragrance left by the blessed body 
 of Jesus ; that alabaster vase which once held divinity, 
 and was rendered sweet and precious thereby. Thinlc 
 not thou shalt find aught obnoxious to thy senses. 
 Corruption Jesus never saw ; no worms ever devoured 
 his flesh ; no rottenness ever entered into his bones ; he 
 saw no corruption. Three days he slumbered, but not 
 long enough to putrify ; he soon arose, perfect as when 
 he entered, uninjured as when his limbs were com- 
 posed for their slumber. Come then, Christian, sum- 
 mon up thy thoughts, gather all thy powders ; here is a 
 
216 SERMONS. 
 
 sweet invitation, let me press it again. Let me lead 
 thee by the hand of meditation, my brother ; let me 
 take thee by the arm of thy fancy, and let me again 
 say to thee, " Come, see the place where the Lord lay." 
 There is yet one reason more why I would have thee 
 visit this royal sepulchre — because it is a quiet spot. 
 Oh I I have longed for rest, for I have heard this world's 
 rumors in my ears so long, that I have begged for 
 
 •' A lodge in some vast wilderness, 
 Some boundless contiguity of shade," 
 
 where I might hide myself forever. I am sick of this 
 tiring and trying life ; my frame is weary, my soul is 
 mad to repose herself awhile. I would I could lie 
 myself down a little by the edge of some pebbly brook, 
 with no companion save the fair flowers or the nodding 
 willows. I would I could recline in stillness, where 
 the air brings balm to the tormented brain, where there 
 is no murmur save the hum of the summer bee, no 
 whisper save that of the zephyrs, and no song except 
 the carolling of the lark. I wish I could be at ease for 
 a moment. I have become a man of the world ; my 
 brain is racked, my soul is tii'ed. Oh ! wouldst thou 
 be quiet. Christian ? Merchant, wouldst thou rest from 
 thy toils ? wouldst thou be calm for once ? Then come 
 hither. It is in a pleasant garden, far from the hum of 
 Jerusalem ; the noise and din of business will not 
 reach thee there : " Come, see the place where the Lord 
 lay." It is a sweet resting spot, a withdrawing room 
 for thy soul, where thou mayest brush thy garments 
 from the dust of earth and muse awhile in peace. 
 
 II. Attention requested. Thus I have pressed the 
 invitation ; now we will enter the tomb. Let us exam- 
 
THE TOMB OF JESUS. 217 
 
 ine it with deep attention, noticing every circumstance 
 connected with it. 
 
 And, first, mark that it is a costly tomb. It is no 
 common grave ; it is not an excavation dug out by the 
 spade for a pauper, in which to hide the last remains 
 of his miserable and over-wearied bones. It is a 
 princely tomb ; it was made of marble, cut in the side 
 of a hill. Stand here, believer, and ask why Jesus had 
 such a costly sepulchre. He had no elegant garments ; 
 he wore a coat without seam, woven from the top 
 throughout, without an atom of embroidery. He 
 owned no sumptuous palace, for he had not where to 
 lay his head. His sandals were not rich with gold, or 
 studded with brilliants. He was poor. Why, then, 
 does he lie in a noble grave ? We answer, for this 
 reason : Christ was unhonored till he had finished his 
 sufferings; Christ's body suffered contumely, shame, 
 spitting, buffeting, and reproach, until he had completed 
 his great work ; he was trampled under foot, he was 
 " despised and rejected of men ; a man of sorrows, and 
 acquainted with grief;" but the moment he had 
 finished his undertaldng, God said, " No more shall that 
 body be disgraced ; if it is to sleep, let it slumber in an 
 honorable grave ; if it is to rest, let nobles bury it ; let 
 Joseph, the councillor, and Nicodemus, the man of 
 Sanhedrim, be present at the funeral ; let the body be 
 embalmed with precious spices, let it have honor ; it 
 has had enough of contumely, and shame, and reproach, 
 and buffeting; let it now be treated with respect." 
 Christian, dost thou discern the meaning? Jesus, 
 after he had finished his work, slept in a costly grave; 
 for now his Father loved and honored him, since his 
 work was done. 
 
 19 
 
218 SERMONS. 
 
 But, though it is a costly grave, it is a borroived one. 
 I see over the top of it, " Sacred to the memory of the 
 family of Joseph of Arimathea ; " yet Jesus slept there. 
 Yes, he was buried in another's sepulchre. He who 
 had no house of his own, and rested in the habitation 
 of other men ; who had no table, but lived upon the 
 hospitality of his disciples ; who borrowed boats in 
 which to preach, and had not anything in the wide 
 world, was obliged to have a tomb from charity. Oh ! 
 should not the poor take courage ? They dread to be 
 buried at the expense of their neighbors, but if their 
 poverty be unavoidable, wherefore should they blush, 
 since Jesus Christ himself was interred in another's 
 grave ? Ah I I wish I might have had Joseph's grave 
 to let Jesus be buried in it. Good Joseph thought he 
 had cut it out for himself, and that he should lay Ms 
 bones there. He had it excavated as a family vault, 
 and lo, the Son of David makes it one of the tombs of 
 the kings. But he did not lose it by lending it to the 
 Lord; rather, he had it back with precious interest. 
 He only lent it three days ; then Christ resigned it ; he 
 had not injm^ed, but perfumed and sanctified it, and 
 made it far more holy, so that it would be an honor in 
 future to be buried there. It was a borrowed tomb ; 
 and why ? I take it, not to dishonor Christ, but in 
 order to show that, as his sins were borrowed sins, so 
 his bm'ial was in a boiTOwed grave. Christ had no 
 transgressions of his own ; he took ours upon his head ; 
 he never committed a \\Toiig, but he took all my sin, 
 and all yours, if ye are believers ; concerning all his 
 people, it is true, he bore their griefs and carried their 
 sorrows in his own body on the tree ; therefore, as they 
 were others' sins, so he rested in another's grave; as 
 
» 
 
 THE TOMB OF JESUS. 219 
 
 they were sins imputed, so that grave was only impu- 
 tedly his. It was not liis sepulchre ; it was the tomb 
 of Joseph. 
 
 Let us not weary in this pious investigation, but 
 with fixed attention observe everything connected with 
 this holy spot. The grave, we observe, ivas cut in a 
 rock. Why was this ? The Rock of Ages was buried 
 in a rock; a rock within a rock. But why? INIost 
 persons suggest that it was so ordained, that it might 
 be clear that there was no covert way by which the 
 disciples or others could enter and steal the body away. 
 Very possibly it was the reason ; but O I my soul, 
 canst thou not find a spiritual reason ? Christ's sepul- 
 chre was cut in a rock. It was not cut in mould that 
 might be worn away by the water, or might crumble 
 and fall into decay. The sepulclire stands, I believe, 
 entire to this day ; if it does not naturally, it does spir- 
 itually. The same sepulchre which took the sins of 
 Paul shall take my iniquities into his bosom ; for if I 
 ever lose my guilt it must roll off my shoulders into 
 the sepulchre. It was cut in a rock, so that if a sinner 
 were saved a thousand years ago, I too can be delivered, 
 for it is a rocky sepulchre where sin was buried — it 
 was a rocky sepulchre of marble where my crimes 
 were laid forever — buried never to have a resurrec- 
 tion. 
 
 You will marlv, moreover, that tomb was one ivherin 
 no other man had ever lain. Christopher Ness says, 
 when Christ was born he lay in a virgin's womb, and 
 when he died he was placed in a virgin tomb ; he slept 
 where never man had slept before. The reason was 
 that none might say that another person rose, for there 
 never had been any other body there, thus a mistake of 
 
220 SERMONS. 
 
 persons was impossible. Nor could it be said that 
 some old prophet was interred in the place, and that 
 Christ rose because he had touched his bones. You 
 remember where Elisha was buried; and as they were 
 burying a man, behold he touched the prophet's bones 
 and arose. Christ touched no prophet's bones, for 
 none had ever slept there ; it was a new chamber 
 where the monarch of the earth did take his rest for 
 three days and three nights. 
 
 We have learned a little, then, with attention ; but let 
 us stoop down once more before we leave the grave, 
 and notice something else. We see the grave, but do 
 you notice the g-rave-clothes, all \\Tapped and laid in 
 their places, the napldn being folded up by itself? 
 Wherefore are the grave-clothes \\Tapped up? The 
 Jews said robbers had abstracted the body ; but if so, 
 surely they would have stolen the clothes ; they would 
 never have thought of ^\Tapping them up and laying 
 them down so carefully ; they would be too much in 
 haste to think of it. Why was it then ? To manifest 
 to us that Christ did not come out in a hurried man- 
 ner. He slept till the last moment ; then he awoke ; 
 he came not in haste. They shall not come out in 
 haste, neither by flight, but at the appointed moment 
 shall his people come to him. So at the precise hour, 
 the decreed instant, Jesus Christ leisurely awoke, took 
 ofl' his cerements, left them all behind him, and came 
 forth in his pure and naked innocence, perhaps to show 
 us that as clothes were the offspring of sin — when sin 
 was atoned for by Christ, he left all raiment behind 
 him, for garments are the badges of guilt — if we had 
 not been guilty we should never have needed them. 
 
 Then the napkin, mark you, was laid by itself. 
 
THE TOMB OF JESUS. 221 
 
 The grave-clothes were left behind for every departed 
 Christian to wear. The bed of death is well sheeted 
 with the garments of Jesus, but the napkin was laid by 
 itself, because the Christian, when he dies, does not need 
 that; it is used by the mourners, and the mourners only. 
 We shall all wear grave-clothes, but we shall not need 
 the napkin. When our friends die, the napkin is laid 
 aside for us to use ; but do our ascended brethren and 
 sisters use it ? No; the Lord God hath wiped away 
 all tears from their eyes. We stand and view the 
 corpses of the dear departed, we moisten their faces 
 with our tears, letting whole showers of grief fall on 
 their heads ; but do they weep ? Oh, no. Could they 
 speak to us from the upper spheres they would say, 
 " Weep not for me, for I am glorified. Sorrow not for 
 me ; I have left a bad world behind me and have entered 
 into a far better." They have no napkin — they weep 
 not. Strange it is that those who endure death weep 
 not ; but those who see them die, are weepers. When 
 the child is born it weeps while others smile, (say the 
 Arabs,) and when it dies it sirdles while others weep. 
 It is so with the Christian. O blessed thing! The 
 napldn is laid by itself, because Christians will never 
 want to use it when they die. 
 
 III. Emotion excited. We have thus surv^eyed the 
 grave with deep attention, and, I hope, wdth some profit 
 to ourselves. But that is not all. I love a religion 
 which consists, in a great measure, of emotion. Now, 
 if I had power, lilvc a master, I would touch the strings 
 of your hearts, and fetch a glorious tune of solemn 
 music from them, for this is a deeply solemn place into 
 which I have conducted you. 
 
 First, I would bid you stand and see the place where 
 
 19» 
 
222 SERMONS. 
 
 the Lord lay with emotions of deep sorrow. Oh come, 
 my beloved brother, thy Jesus once lay there. He was 
 a murdered man, my soul, and thou the murderer. 
 
 •' Ah, you my sins, my cruel sins. 
 His chief tormentors were. 
 Each of my crimes became a nail. 
 And unbelief the spear." 
 
 '• Alas ! and did my Saviour bleed? 
 And did my Sov 'reign die? " 
 
 I slew him — this right hand struck the dagger to his 
 heart. My deeds slew Christ. Alas ! I slew my best 
 beloved ; I killed him who loved me with an everlasting 
 love. Ye eyes, why do ye refuse to weep when ye see 
 Jesus' body mangled and torn ? Oh I give vent to your 
 sorrow, Christians, for ye have good reason to do so. 
 I believe in what Hart says, that there was a time in 
 his experience when he could so sympathize with Christ, 
 that he felt more grief at the death of Christ than he 
 did joy. It seemed so sad a thing that Christ should 
 have to die ; and to me it often appears too great a price 
 for Jesus Christ to purchase worms with his own blood. 
 Methinks I love him so much, that if I had seen him 
 about to suffer, I should have been as bad as Peter, and 
 have said, " That be far from thee, Lord ;" but then he 
 would have said to me, " Get thee behind me, Satan ;" 
 for he does not approve of that love which would stop 
 him from dying. "The cup which my Father hath 
 given me, shall I not drink it ? " But I think, had I 
 seen him going up to his cross, I could fain have pressed 
 him' back, and said, "Oh I Jesus, thou shaltnotdie; I 
 cannot have it. Wilt thou purchase my life with a price 
 so dear?" It seems too costly for him who is the 
 
THE TOMB OF JESUS. 223 
 
 Prince of Life and Glory to let his fair limbs be tortured 
 in agony ; that the hands which carried mercies should 
 be pierced with accursed nails ; that the temples that 
 were always clothed with love should have cruel thorns 
 driven through them. It appears too much. Oh! 
 weep, Christian, and let our sorrow rise. Is not the 
 price all but too great, that your beloved should for you 
 resign himself? Oh I I should think, if a person were 
 saved from death by another, he would always feel deep 
 grief if his deliverer lost his life in the attempt. I had 
 a friend, who, standing by the side of a piece of frozen 
 water, saw a young lad in it, and sprang upon the ice 
 in order to save liim. After clutching the boy, he held 
 him in liis hands and cried out, " Here he is I Here he 
 is ! I have saved liim." But, just as they caught hold 
 of the boy, he sank himself, and his body was not found 
 for some time afterwards, when he was quite dead. 
 Oh! it is so with Jesus. My soul was drowning. 
 From heaven's high portals he saw me sinldng in the 
 depths of hell; he plunged in : 
 
 •' He SANK beneath Lis heavy woes, 
 To raise me to a crown ; 
 There 's ne'er a gift his hand bestows, 
 But cost his heart a groan. ' ' 
 
 Ah! we may indeed regret our sin, since it slew Jesus. 
 Now, Christian, change thy note a moment. " Come, 
 see the place where the Lord lay," loithjoij and g-ladness. 
 He does not lie there now. Weep when ye see the 
 tomb of Christ, but rejoice because it is empty. Thy 
 sin slew him, but his divinity raised him up. Thy guilt 
 hath murdered him, but his righteousness hath restored 
 him. Oh I he hath burst the bonds of death, he hath 
 
224 SERMONS. 
 
 migiit the cerements of the tomb, and hath come out 
 more than conqueror, crushing death beneath his feet. 
 Rejoice, O Christian, for h'^. is not there — he is risen. 
 " Come, see the place where the Lord lay." 
 
 One more thought, and then I will speak a little con- 
 cerning the doctrines we may learn from this grave. 
 " Come, see the place where the Lord lay," with solemn 
 aive, for you and I will have to lay there too. 
 
 <' Ilark ! from the tomb a doleful sound, 
 Mine ears, attend the cry, 
 Ye ving men, come view the ground 
 Where ye must shortly lie. 
 
 " Princes, this clay must be your bed, 
 In spite of all your powers. 
 Tlie tall, the wise, the reverend head, 
 Must lie as low as ours." 
 
 It is a fact we do not often think of, that we shall all 
 be dead in a little while. I know that I am made of 
 dust, and not of iron ; my bones are not brass, nor my 
 sinews steel ; in a little while my body must crumble 
 back to its native elements. But do you ever try to 
 picture to yourself the moment of your dissolution? 
 My friends, there are some of you who seldom realize 
 how old you are, how near you are to death. One 
 way of remembering our age, is to see how much 
 remains. Think how old eighty is, and then see how 
 few years there are before you will get there. We 
 should remember our frailty. Sometimes I have tried 
 to think of the time of my departure. I do not know 
 whether I shall die a violent death or not ; but I would 
 to God that I might die suddenly; for sudden death is 
 sudden glory. I would I might have such a blessed 
 
THE TOMB OF JESUS. 
 
 225 
 
 exit as Dr. Beanmont, and die in my pulpit, laying 
 down my body with my charge, and ceasing at once to 
 work and live. But it is not mine to choose. Suppose 
 I lie lingering for weeks, in the midst of pains, and 
 oriefs, and agonies; when that moment comes, that 
 moment which is too solemn for my lips to speak of, 
 when the spirit leaves the clay — let the physician put 
 it off for weeks, or years, as we say he does, though he 
 does not — when that moment comes, O ye lips, be 
 dumb, and profane not its solemnity. When death 
 comes, how is the strong man bowed down! How 
 doth the mighty man fall I They may say they will 
 not die, but there is no hope for them ; they must yield, 
 the arrow has gone home. I knew a man who was a 
 wicked WTctch, and I remember seeing him pace the 
 floor of his bedroom, saying, " O God, I will not die, I 
 will not die." When I begged him to lie on his bed, 
 for he was dying, he said he could not die while he 
 could walk, and he would walk till he did die. Ah ! 
 he expired in the utmost torments, always shrieking, 
 " O God, I will not die." Oh ! that moment, that 
 last moment. See how clammy is the sweat upon the 
 brow, how dry the tongue, how parched the lips. The 
 man shuts his eyes and slumbers, then opens them 
 again ; and if he be a Christian, I can fancy that he 
 will say : 
 
 *' Hark ! they -whisper : angels say, 
 Sister spirit, come away. 
 "What is this absorbs me quite — 
 Steals my senses — shuts my sight — 
 Drowns my spirit — draws my breath ? 
 Tell me, my soul, can this be death? " 
 
 We know not when he is dying. One gentle sigh, and 
 
226 SERMONS. 
 
 the spirit breaks away. We can scarcely say, " he is 
 gone," before the ransomed spirit takes its mansion 
 near the throne. Come to Christ's tomb, then, for the 
 silent vault must soon be your habitation. Come to 
 Clurist's grave, for ye must slumber there. And even 
 you, ye sinners, for one moment I will ask you to come 
 also, because ye must die as well as the rest of us. 
 Your sins cannot keep you from the jaws of death. I 
 say, sinner, I want thee to look at Christ's sepulchre 
 too, for when thou diest it may have done thee great 
 good to think of it. You have heard of Queen 
 Elizabeth, crying out that she would give an empire 
 for a single hour. Or have you heard the despairing 
 cry of the gentleman on board the " Arctic," when it 
 was going down, who shouted to the boat, " Come 
 back! I will give you £30,000 if you will come and 
 take me in." Ah I poor man, it were but little if he 
 had thnty thousand worlds, if he could thereby prolong 
 his life : " Skin for sldn, yea, all that a man hath, will 
 he give for his life." Some of you who can laugh this 
 morning, who came to spend a merry hour in this hall, 
 will be dying, and then ye will pray and crave for life, 
 and shriek for another Sabbath-day. Oh! how the 
 Sabbaths ye have wasted will walk like ghosts before 
 you ! Oh ! how they will shake their snaky hair in 
 your eyes ! How will ye be made to sorrow and weep, 
 because ye wasted precious hours, which, when they 
 are gone, are gone too far to be recalled. May God 
 save you from the pangs of remorse. 
 
 IV. Instruction imparted. And now. Christian 
 brethren, " Come, see the place where the Lord lay," 
 to learn a doctrine or tvvo. What did you see when 
 you visited "the place where the Lord lay?" " He is 
 
THE TOMB OF JESUS. 227 
 
 not here : for he is risen." The first thing you perceive, 
 if you stand by his empty tomb, is his divinity. The 
 dead in Christ shall risefnrstat the resurrection ; but he 
 who rose first, their leader, rose in a different fashion. 
 They rise by imparted power. He rose by his own. 
 He could not slumber in the grave, because he was 
 God. Death had no more dominion over him. There 
 is no better proof of Christ's divinity than that startling 
 resurrection of his, when he rose from the grave, by the 
 glory of the Father. O Christian, thy Jesus is a God ; 
 his broad shoulders that hold thee up are indeed divine ; 
 and here thou hast the best proof of it — because he 
 rose from the grave. 
 
 A second doctrine here taught well may charm thee, 
 if the Holy Spirit apply it w^ith power. Behold his 
 empty tomb, O true believer: it is a sign of thine 
 acquittal., and thy full discharge. If Jesus had not paid 
 the debt, he ne'er had risen from the grave. He w^ould 
 have lain there till this moment if he had not cancelled 
 the entire debt, by satisfying eternal vengeance. O 
 beloved, is not that an over^vhelming thought ? 
 
 "It is finished, it is finished, 
 Hear the rising Saviour cry." 
 
 The heavenly turnkey came, a bright angel stepped from 
 heaven and rolled away the stone ; but he would not 
 have done so if Clirist had not done all: he would have 
 kept him there, he would have said, " Nay, nay, thou 
 art the sinner now ; thou hast the sins of all thine elect 
 upon thy shoulder, and I will not let thee go free till 
 thou hast paid the uttermost farthing." In his going 
 free I see my own discharge. 
 
 " My Jesu's blood 's my full discharge." 
 
228 SERMONS. 
 
 As a justified man, I haVe not a sin now against me in 
 God's book. If I were to turn over God's eternal book, 
 I should see every debt of mine receipted and cancelled 
 
 " Here 's pardon for transgressions past, 
 It matters not how black their cast, 
 And my soul, with wonder view, 
 For sins to come here 's pardon too. 
 Fully discharged by Christ I am 
 From Christ's tremendous curse and blame." 
 
 One more doctrine we learn, and with that we will 
 conclude — the doctrine of the resurrection. Jesus rose, 
 and as the Lord our Saviour rose, so all his followers 
 must rise. Die I must — this body must be a carnival 
 for worms ; it must be eaten by those tiny cannibals ; 
 peradventure it shall be scattered from one portion of 
 the earth to another ; the constituent particles of this 
 my frame will enter into plants, from plants pass into 
 animals, and thus be carried into far distant realms ; 
 but, at the blast of the archangel's trumpet, every 
 separate atom of my body shall find its fellow ; like the 
 bones lying in the valley of vision, though separated 
 from one another, the moment God shall speak, the 
 bone will creep to its bone ; then the flesh shall come 
 upon it ; the four winds of heaven shall blow, and the 
 breath shall return. So let me die, let beasts devour 
 me, let fire turn this body into gas and vapor, all its 
 particles shall yet again be restored ; this very selfsame 
 actual body shall start up from its grave, glorified and 
 made like Christ's body, yet still the same body, for 
 God hath said it. Christ's same body rose ; so shall 
 mine. O my soul, dost thou now dread to die ? Thou 
 wilt lose thy partner body a little while, but thou 
 wilt be married again in heaven; soul and body shall 
 
THE T0MT3 OF JESUS. 229 
 
 again be united before the throne of God. The grave 
 — what is it? It is the bath in which the Christian 
 puts the clothes of his body to have them washed and 
 cleansed. .Death — what is it ? It is the waiting-room 
 where we robe ourselves for immortality ; it is the place 
 where the body, like Esther, bathes itself in spices that 
 it may be fit for the embrace of its Lord. Death is the 
 gate of life ; I will not fear to die, then, but will say, 
 
 " Shudder not to pass tlie stream ; 
 Venture all thy care on him ; 
 Him whose dying love and power 
 Stilled its tossing, hushed its roar, 
 Safe in the expanded wave ; 
 Gentle as a summer's eve. 
 Not one object of his care 
 Ever suffered shipwreck there." 
 
 Come, view the place then, with all hallowed medita- 
 tion, where the Lord lay. Spend this afternoon, my 
 beloved brethren, in meditating upon it, and very often 
 go to Christ's grave, both to weep and to rejoice. Ye 
 timid ones, do not be afraid to approach, for 't is no vain 
 thing to remember that timidity biu-ied Christ. Faith 
 would not have given him a funeral at all ; faith would 
 have kept him above ground, and would never have let 
 him be buried; for it would have said, it w^ould be 
 useless to bury Christ if he \vere to rise. Fear buried 
 him. Nicodemus, the night disciple, and Joseph of 
 Arimathea, secretly, for fear of the Jews, went and 
 buried him. Therefore, ye timid ones, ye may go too. 
 Ready-to-halt, poor Fearing, and thou, jNIrs. Despond- 
 ency, and ■Much-afraid, go often there ; let it be your 
 favorite haunt, there build a tabernacle, there abide. 
 And often say to your heart, w^hen you are in distress 
 and sorrow^, " Come, see the place where the Lord lay." 
 20 
 
SERMON XII. 
 
 THE CARNAL MIND ENMITY AGAINST GOD. 
 
 "The carnal miud is enmity against God." — Romans viii. 7. 
 
 This is a very solemn indictment which the Apostle 
 Paul here prefers against the carnal mind. He declares 
 it to be enmity against God. When we consider what 
 man once was, only second to the angels, the compan- 
 ion of God, who walked with him in the garden of 
 Eden in the cool of the day ; w^ien we think of him as 
 being made in the very image of his Creator, pure, 
 spotless, and unblemished, we cannot but feel bitterly 
 grieved to fmd such an accusation as this preferred 
 against us as a race. We may well hang our harps 
 upon the willows, while we listen to the voice of Jeho- 
 vah solemnly speaking to liis rebellious creature. " How 
 art thou fallen from heaven, thou son of the morning!" 
 " Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect 
 in beauty. Thou hast been in Eden, the garden of 
 God; every precious stone was thy covering — the 
 workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was 
 prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. 
 Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth ; and I 
 
 (230^ 
 
THE CARNAL MIND ENMITV AGAINST GOD. 231 
 
 have set thee so : thou wast upon the holy mountain 
 of God ; thou hast walked up and down in the midst 
 of the stones of fire. Thou wast perfect in thy ways 
 from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was 
 found in thee, and thou hast sinned ; therefore, I will 
 cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and 
 I will destroy thee, O coverirg cherub, from the midst 
 of the stones of fire." 
 
 There is much to sadden us in a view of the ruins 
 of our race. As the Carthaginian, who might tread 
 the desolate site of his much-loved city, would shed 
 many tears when he saw it laid in heaps by the Ro- 
 mans ; or as the Jew, wandering through the deserted 
 streets of Jerusalem, would lament that the plough- 
 share had marred the beauty and the glory of that city 
 vv^hich was the joy of the whole earth; so ought we to 
 moimi for ourselves and our race, when we behold the 
 ruins of that goodly structure which God had piled, — 
 that creature, matchless in symmetry, second only to 
 angelic intellect — that mighty being, man — when we 
 behold how he is " fallen, fallen, fallen, from his high 
 estate," and lies in a mass of destruction. A few 
 years ago a star was seen blazing out with considera- 
 ble brilliance, but soon disappeared ; it has since been 
 afTirmed that it was a world on fire, thousands of mil- 
 lions of miles from us, and yet the rays of the confla- 
 gration reached us ; the noiseless messenger of light 
 gave to the distant d^'ellers on this globe the alarm of 
 " A world on fire ! " But what is the conflagration of 
 a distant planet, what is the destruction of the mere 
 material of the most ponderous orb, compared with 
 this fall of humanity, this WTeck of all that is holy and 
 sacred in ourselves? To us, indeed, the things are 
 
232 SERMONS. 
 
 scarcely comparable, since we are deeply interested in 
 one, though not in the other. The fall of Adam was 
 OUR fall ; we fell in and with him ; we were equal suf- 
 ferers ; it is the ruin of our own house that we lament, 
 it is the destruction of our own city that we bemoan, 
 when we stand and see \VTitten, in lines too plain for us 
 to mistake their meaning, " The carnal mind " — that 
 very selfsame mind which was once holiness, and has 
 now become carnal — " is enmity against God." May 
 God help me, this morning, solemnly to prefer this 
 indictment against all I Oh! that the Holy Spirit may 
 so convince us of sin, that we may unanimously plead 
 " guilty " before God. 
 
 There is no difficulty in understanding my text : it 
 needs scarcely any explanation. We all know that 
 the word "carnal" here signifies fleshly. The old trans- 
 lators rendered the passage thus : " The mind of the 
 flesh is enmity against God " — that is to say, the nat- 
 ural miud, that soul which we inherit from our 'fathers, 
 that which was born within us when our })odies 
 were fashioned by God. The fleslily mind, the phro- 
 nema sarkos, the lusts, the passions of the soul ; it is 
 this which has gone astray from God, and become 
 enmity against him. 
 
 But, before we enter upon a discussion of the doc- 
 trine of the text, observe how strongly the Apostle 
 expresses it. " The carnal mind," he says, " is enmity 
 against God." He uses a noun, and not an adjective. 
 He does not say it is opposed to G'^d merely, but it is 
 positive enmity. It is not black, but blackness ; it is 
 not at enmity, but enmihj itself; it is not corrupt, but 
 corruption ; it is not rebellious, it is rebellion ; it is not 
 wicked, it is wickedness itself. The heart, though it be 
 
THE CARNAL MIND ENMITY AGAINST GOD. 233 
 
 deceitful, is positively deceit ; it is evil in the concrete, 
 sin in the essence; it is the distillation, the quintessence 
 
 [ of all things that are vile ; it is not envious against 
 God, it is envy; it is not at enmity, it is actual 
 
 .. enmity. 
 
 j Nor need we say a word to explain that it is "enmity 
 'I against GodP It does not charge manhood with an 
 aversion merely to the dominion, laws, or doctrines of 
 Jehovah ; but it strikes a deeper and surer blow. It 
 does not strike man upon the head ; it penetrates into 
 I his heart; it lays the axe at the root of the tree, and 
 • pronounces him " enmity against God,'' against the 
 person of the Godhead, against the Deity, against the 
 mighty Maker of this world ; not at enmity against his 
 ! Bible or against his gospel, though that were true, but 
 against God himself, against his essence, his existence, 
 and his person. Let us, then, weigh the words of the 
 text, for they are solemn words. They are well put 
 together by that master of eloquence, Paul, and they 
 were, moreover, dictated by the Holy Spkit, who telleth 
 man how to spealv aright. May he help us to ex- 
 pound, as he has ah-eady given us the passage to 
 explain. 
 
 We shall be called upon to notice, this morning, first, 
 the truthfulness of this assertion; secondly, the yniver- 
 salitij of the evil here complained of; thirdly, we wdll 
 still further enter into the depths of the subject, and 
 press it to your hearts, by showing the enormity of the 
 evil; and after that, should we have time, we \vill 
 deduce one or two doctrines from the general fact. 
 
 I. First, we are called upon to speak of the truthful- 
 ness of this great statement. " The carnal mind is en- 
 mity against God." It needs no proof, for since it is 
 20* 
 
234 SERMONS. 
 
 WTitten ill God's word, we, as Christian men, are 
 bound to bow before it. The words of the Scriptures 
 are words of infinite wisdom, and if reason cannot see 
 the ground of a statement of revelation, it is bound, 
 most reverently, to believe it, since we are well assured, 
 even should it be above our reason, that it cannot be 
 contrary thereunto. Here I find it written in the Scrip- 
 tures, " The carnal mind is enmity against God;" and 
 that of itself is enough for me. But, did I need wit- 
 nesses, I would conjure up the nations of antiquity ; I 
 \vould unroll the volume of ancient history ; I would 
 tell you of the awful deeds of manldnd. It may be I 
 might move your souls to detestation, if I spake of the 
 cruelty of this race to itself, if I showed you how it 
 made the world an Aceldama, by its wars, and deluged 
 it with blood by its fightings and murders ; if I should 
 recite the black list of vices in which whole nations 
 have indulged, or even bring before you the characters 
 of some of the most eminent philosophers, I should 
 blush to speak of them, and you would refuse to hear; 
 yea, it would be impossible for you, as refined inhabi- 
 tants of a civihzed country, to endure the mention of 
 the crimes that w^ere committed by those very men, 
 who, now-a-days, are held up as being paragons of per- 
 fection. I fear, if all the truth were \\a-itten, we should 
 rise up from reading the lives of earth's mightiest 
 heroes and proudest sages, and would say at once of 
 all of them, " They are clean gone out of the way ; 
 they are altogether become unprofitable ; there is none 
 that doeth good ; no, not one." 
 
 And, did not that suffice, I w^ould point you to the 
 delusions of the heathen ; I would tell you of their 
 priestcraft, by which their souls have been enthralled in 
 
THE CARNAL MIND ENMITY AGAINST GOD. 2oJ 
 
 superstition ; I would drag their gods before you ; J 
 would let you witnes^s the horrid obscenities, the dia- 
 bolical rites which are to these besotted men most 
 sacred things. Then after you had heard what the nat- 
 ural relig-ion of man is, I would ask what must his irre- 
 ligioii be ? If this is his devotion, what must be his 
 impiety? If this be his ardent love of the Godhead, 
 what must his hatred thereof be? Ye would, I am 
 sure, at once confess, did ye know what the race is, 
 that the indictment is proven, and that the world must 
 unreservedly and truthfully exclaim, " guilty." 
 
 A further argument I might find in the fact, that the 
 best of men have been always the readiest to confess 
 their depravity. The holiest men, the most free from 
 impurity, have always felt it most. He whose gar- 
 ments are the whitest, will best perceive the spots upon 
 them. He whose crown shineth the brightest, will 
 know when he hath lost a jewel. He who giveth the 
 most light to the world, will always be able to discover 
 his own darkness. The angels of heaven veil their 
 faces ; and the angels* of God on earth, his chosen 
 people, must always veil their faces with humility, 
 when they think of what they were. Hear David : he 
 was none of those who boast of a holy nature and a 
 pure disposition. He says, " Behold, I was shapen in 
 iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me." 
 Hear all those holy men who have written in the inspired 
 volume, and ye shall find them all confessing that they 
 were not clean, no, not one ; yea, one of them exclaimed, 
 " O wTctchcd man that I am ; who shall deliver me 
 from the body of this death ? " 
 
 And more, I will summon one other witness to the 
 truthfulness of this fact, who shall decide the question : 
 
236 SERMONS. 
 
 it shall be your conscience. Conscience, I will put 
 thee in the witness-box, and cross-examine thee this 
 morning! Conscience, truly answer ! be not drugged 
 with the laudanum of self-security ! speak the truth I 
 Didst thou never hear the heart say, " I wdsh there were 
 no God?" Have not all men, at times, wished that 
 our religion were not true ? Though they could not 
 entirely rid their souls of the idea of the Godhead, did 
 they not wish that there might not be a God? Have 
 they not had the desire that it might turn out that all 
 these divine realities were a delusion, a farce, and an 
 imposture? " Yea," saith every man ; " that has crossed 
 my mind sometimes. I have wished I might indulge 
 in folly ; I have w^ished there were no laws to restrain 
 me ; I have wished, as the fool, that there were no 
 God." That passage in the Psalms, " The fool hath 
 said in his heart, there is no God," is wrongly transla- 
 ted. It should be, " The fool hath said in his heart, 710 
 God.^^ The fool does not say in his heart there is no 
 God, for he knows there is a God ; but he says, "No 
 God — I don't want any; I wisli there w^ere none." 
 And who amongst us has not been so foolish as to 
 desire that there were no God? Now, conscience, 
 answer another question ! Thou hast confessed that 
 thou hast at times wished there w^ere no God; now, 
 suppose a man wished another dead, w^ould not that 
 show that he hated him ? Yes, it w^ould. And so, 
 my friends, the wish that there were no God, proves 
 that we dishke God. When I wish such a man dead 
 and rotting in his grave ; when I desire that he w^ere 
 non est, I must hate that man ; other\\dse I should not 
 wish him to be extinct. So that wish — and I do not 
 think there has been a man in this world who has not 
 
THE CARNAL MIND ENMITY AGAINST GOD. 237 
 
 had it — proves that " the carnal mind is enmity against 
 God." 
 
 But, conscience, I have another question! Has not 
 thine heart ever desired, since there is a God, that he 
 were a little less holy, a little less pure, so that those 
 tilings which are now great crimes might be regarded 
 as venial offences, as peccadillos? Has thy heart 
 never said, " Would to God these sins were not forbid- 
 den I Would that he would be merciful and pass them 
 by without an atonement! Would that he were not 
 so severe, so rigorously just, so sternly strict to his integ- 
 rity." Hast thou never said that, my heart? Con- 
 science must reply, " Thou hast." Well, that wish to 
 change God, proves that thou art not in love with the 
 God that now is, the God of heaven and earth; and - 
 though thou mayest talk of natural religion, and boast 
 that thou dost reverence the God of the green fields, 
 the grassy meads, the swelling flood, the rolling thun- 
 der, the azure sky, the starry night, and the great uni- 
 verse — though thou lovest the poetic beau ideal of 
 Deity, it is not the God of Scripture, for thou hast 
 wished to change his nature, and in that hast thou 
 proved that thou art at enmity ^\dth liim. But where- 
 fore, conscience, should I go thus round about? Thou 
 canst bear faithful witness, if thou wouldst speak the 
 truth, that each person here has so transgressed against 
 God, so continually broken his laws, violated his Sab- 
 bath, trampled on his statutes, despised his gospel, that 
 it is true, aye, most true, that " the carnal mind is 
 enmity against God." 
 
 H. Now, secondly, we are called upon to notice the 
 universalitij of this evil. What a broad assertion it.is. 
 It is not a single carnal mind, or a certain class of 
 
238 SERMONS. 
 
 characters, but " the carnal mind." It is an unqualified 
 ste-tement, including every individual. Whatever mind 
 may properly be called carnal, not having been spiritu- 
 alized by the power of God's Holy Ghost, is " enmity 
 against God." 
 
 Observe then, first of all, the universality of this as 
 to all persons. Every carnal rrind in the world is at 
 enmity against God. This does not exclude even 
 infants at the mother's breast. We call them inno- 
 cent, and so they are of actual transgression, but as the 
 poet says, " Within the youngest breast there lies a 
 stone." There is in the carnal ixdnd of an infant, 
 eimiity against God; it is not developed, but it lieth 
 there. Some say that childi-en learn sin by imitation. 
 But no : take a cliild away, place it under the most 
 pious influences, let the very air it breathes be purified 
 by piety ; let it constantly drink in draughts of holi- 
 ness ; let it hear nothing but the voice of prayer and 
 praise ; let its ear be always kept in tune by notes of 
 sacred song; and that child, notwithstanding, may 
 still become one of the grossest of transgressors ; and 
 though placed apparently on the very road to heaven, 
 it shall, if not directed by divine grace, march down- 
 wards to the pit. Oh ! how true it is that some who 
 have had the best of parents, have been the worst of 
 sons ; that many who have been trained up under the 
 most holy auspices, in the midst of the most favorable 
 scenes for piety, have nevertheless, become loose and 
 wanton ! So it is not by imitation, but it is by nature, 
 that the child is evil. Grant me that the child is car- 
 nal, and my, text says, " The carnal mind is enmity 
 against God." The young crocodile, I have heard, 
 when broken from the shell, will in a moment begin to 
 
THE CARNAL MIND ENMITY AGAINST GOD. 239 
 
 put itself in a posture of attack, opening its mouth as 
 if it had been taught and trained. We know that 
 young lions, when tamed and domesticated, still will 
 have the wild nature of their fellows of the forest, and 
 were liberty given them, would prey as fiercely as 
 others. So with the child ; you may bind him with the 
 green wdthes of education, you may do what you will 
 with him, since you cannot change his heart, that car- 
 nal mind shall still be at enmity against God ; and 
 notwithstanding intellect, talent, and all you may give 
 to boot, it shall be of the same sinful complexion as 
 every other child, if not as apparently evil ; for " the 
 carnal mind is enmity against God." 
 
 And if this applies to children, equally does it include 
 every class of men. There be some men that are born 
 into tliis world master-spirits, who walk about it as 
 giants, \\Tapped in mantles of light and glory. I refer 
 to the poets, men who stand aloft like Colossi, mightier 
 than we, seeming to be descended from celestial 
 spheres. There be others of acute intellect, who, 
 searching into mysteries of science, discover things 
 that have been hidden from the creation of the world ; 
 men of keen research, and mighty erudition ; and yet 
 of each of these — poet, philosopher, metaphysician, 
 and m-eat discoverer — it shall be said, "The carnal 
 mind is enmity against God." Ye may train him up, 
 ye may make his intellect almost angehc, ye may 
 stren^rthen his soul until he shall take what are riddles 
 to us, and unravel them with his fingers in a moment ; 
 ye may make him so mighty, that he can grasp the 
 iron secrets of the eternal hills and grind them to atoms 
 in his fist ; ye may give him an eye so keen, that he 
 can penetrate the arcana of rocks and mountains ; ye 
 
240 SKRMONS. 
 
 may add a soul so potent, that he may slay the giant 
 Sphinx, that had for ages troubled the mightiest men 
 of learning ; yet, when ye have done all, his mind shall 
 be a depraved one, and his carnal heart shall still be in 
 opposition to God. Yea, more, ye shall bring him to 
 the house of prayer ; ye shall make him sit constantly 
 under the clearest preaching of the word, where he 
 shall hear the doctrines of grace in all their pm-ity, 
 attended by a holy unction; but if that holy unc- 
 tion does not rest upon him, all shall be vain ; he shall 
 still come most regularly, but like the pious door of 
 the chapel, that turneth in and out, he shall still be the 
 same ; having an outside superficial religion, and his 
 carnal mind shall still be at enmity against God. 
 Now, this is not my assertion, it is the declaration of 
 God's word, and you must leave it if you do not 
 believe it ; but quarrel not with me, it is my Master's 
 message ; and it is true of every one of you — men, 
 women, and children, and myself too — that if we 
 have not been regenerated and converted, if we have 
 not experienced a change of heart, our carnal mind is 
 stiJI at enmity against God. 
 
 Again, notice the universality of this at all times. 
 The carnal mind is at all times enmity against God. 
 " Oh," say some, " it may be true that we are at times 
 opposed to God, but surely we are not always so." 
 " There be moments," says one, " when I feel rebel- 
 lious ; at times my passions lead me astray ; but 
 surely there are other favorable seasons when I really 
 am friendly to God, and offer true devotion. I have 
 (continues the objector,) stood upon the mountain-top, 
 until my whole soul has Idndled with the scene below, 
 and my lips have uttered the song of praise : 
 
THE CARNAL MIND ENMITY AGAINST GOD. 2-11 
 
 " * These are thy glorious works, parent of good, 
 Almighty, thine this universal frame, 
 Thus wondrous fair : thyself how wondrous then ! ' ' 
 
 Yes, but mark, what is true one day is not false 
 another; '' the carnal mind is enmity against God" at ail 
 times. The wolf may sleep, but it is a wolf still. The 
 snake with its azure hues, may slumber amid the flowers, 
 and the child may stroke its slimy back, but it is a ser- 
 pent still ; it does not change its nature, though it is 
 dormant. The sea is the house of storms, even when it 
 is glassy as a lake; the thunder is still the mighty rolling 
 thunder, when it is so much aloft that we hear it not. 
 And the heart, when we perceive not its ebullitions, 
 w^hen it belches not forth its lava, and sendeth not forth 
 the hot stones of its corruption, is still the same dread 
 A^olcano. At all times, at all hours, at every moment, 
 (I speak this as God speaketh it,) if ye are carnal, ye 
 are each one of you enmity against God. 
 
 Another thought concerning the universality of this 
 statement. 7Vie whole of the mind is enmity against 
 God. The text says, '' The carnal mind is enmity 
 against God." That is, the entire man, every part 
 of him — every power, every passion. It is a question 
 often asked, '• What part of man was injured by the 
 fall ? " Some think that the fall was only felt by 
 the affections, and that the intellect was unimpaired ; 
 this they argue from the wisdom of man, and the mighty 
 discbveries he has made, such as the law of gravitation, 
 the steam-engine, and the sciences. Now, I consider 
 these things as being a very mean display of wisdom, 
 compared with what is to come in a hunch-ed years, and 
 very small compared with what might have been, if 
 man's intellect had continued in its pristine condition. 
 21 
 
242 SERMONS. 
 
 I believe that the fall crushed man entirely; albeit, 
 when it rolled like an avalanche upon the mighty tem- 
 ple of human nature, some shafts were still left un- 
 destroyed, and amidst the ruins you find here and there, 
 a flute, a pedestal, a cornice, a column, not quite broken, 
 yet the entire structure fell, and its most glorious relics 
 are fallen ones, levelled in the dust. The whole of man 
 is defaced. Look at ou)' memory ; is it not true that 
 the memory is fallen ? I can recollect evil things far 
 better than those which savor of piety. I hear a 
 ribald song, that music of hell shall jar in my ear when 
 gray hairs shall be upon my head. I hear a note of 
 holy praise : alas ! it is forgotten ! For memory graspeth 
 with an iron hand ill things, but the good she holdeth 
 with feeble fingers. She suffereth the glorious timbers 
 from the forest of Lebanon to sw^im dow^n the stream 
 of oblivion, but she stoppeth all the draff that floateth 
 from the foul city of Sodom. She w^ill retain evil, she 
 will lose good. Memory is fallen. So are the affections. 
 We love everything earthly better than w^e ought ; w^e 
 soon fix our heart upon a creature, but very seldom on 
 the Creator ; and when the heart is given to Jesus, it is 
 prone to w^ander. Look at the imag-ination too. Oh ! 
 how can the imagination revel, when the body is in an 
 ill condition? Only give man something that shall 
 w^ell nigh intoxicate him ; drug him w^ith opium ; and 
 how will his imagination dance wdth joy ! Like a bird 
 uncaged, how w^ill it mount with more than eagle's 
 wings ! He sees things he had not dreamed of even in 
 the shades of night. Why did not his imagination 
 work when his body was in a normal state — when it 
 w^as healthy ? Simply because it is depraved ; and 
 until he had entered a foul element — until the body 
 
THE CARNAL MIND ENMITY AGAINST GOD. 243 
 
 had begun to quiver with a kind of intoxication — the 
 fancy would not hold its carnival. We have some 
 splendid specimens of what men could write, when 
 they have been under the accursed influence of ardent 
 spirits. It is because the mind is so depraved that it 
 loves something which puts the body into an abnormal 
 condition ; and here w^e have a proof that the imagination 
 itself has gone astray. So with the judgment — I 
 might prove how ill it decides. So might I accuse the 
 conscience^ and tell you how blind it is, and how it 
 winks at the greatest follies. I might review all our 
 powers, and WTite upon the brow of each one, " Traitor 
 against heaven! traitor against God I" The whole 
 " carnal mind is enmity against God." 
 
 Now, my hearers, " the Bible alone is the religion of 
 Protestants ; " but wiienever I find a certain book much 
 held in reverence by our Episcopalian bretliren, entirely 
 on my side, I always feel the greatest delight in quoting 
 from it. Do you know^ I am one of the best church- 
 men in the world ; the very best, if you will judge me 
 by the articles, and the very w^orst, if you measure me 
 in any other way. Measure me by the articles of the 
 Church of England, and I will not stand second to any 
 man under heaven's blue sky in preaching the gospel 
 contamed in them ; for if there be an excellent epitome 
 of the gospel, it is to be found in the articles of the 
 Church of England. Let me show you that you have 
 not been hearing strange doctrine. Here is the 9th 
 article, upon Original or Birth Sin : " Original Sin 
 standeth not in the following of Adam ; (as the 
 Pelagians do vainly talk ;) but it is the fault and cor- 
 ruption of the nature of every man, that naturally is 
 engendered of the offspring of Adam; whereby man 
 
244 SERMONS. 
 
 is very far gone from original righteousness, and is of 
 his own nature inclined to evil, so that the flesh lusteth 
 always contrary to the spirit ; and, therefore, in every 
 person born into this world, it deserveth God's wrath 
 and damnation. And this infection of nature doth 
 remain, yea, in them that are regenerated ; whereby the 
 lust of the tlesh, called in the Greek, phronema sarkos, 
 which some do expound the wisdom, some sensuality, 
 some the affection, some the desire, of the flesh, is not 
 subject to the Law of God. And although there is no 
 condemnation for them that believe and are baptized, 
 yet the apostle doth confess, that concupiscence and 
 lust hath of itself the nature of sin." I want nothing 
 more. Will any one who believes in the Prayer Book 
 dissent from the doctrine that *' the carnal mind is 
 enmity against God ?" 
 
 III. 1 have said that I would endeavor, in the third 
 place, to show the great enormUij of this g-tdlt. I do 
 fear, my brethren, that very often when we consider 
 our state, we think not so much of the guilt as of the 
 misery. 1 have sometimes read sermons upon the 
 inclination of the sinner to evil, in which it has been 
 very powerfully proved, and certainly the pride of human 
 nature has been well humbled and brought low ; but 
 one thing always strikes me, if it is left out, as being a 
 very great omission ; viz., the doctrine that man is 
 guiltij in all these things. If his heart is against God, 
 we ought to tell him it is his sin ; and if he cannot 
 repent, we ought to show him that sin is the sole cause 
 of his disability — that all his alienation from God is 
 sin — that as long as he keeps from (lod it is sin. I 
 fear many of us here must acknowledge that we do not 
 charge the sin of it to our own consciences. Yes, say 
 
THE CARNAL MIND ENMITY AGAINST GOD. 245 
 
 we, we have many corruptions. Oh! yes. But we 
 sit down very contented. My brethren, we ought not 
 to do so. The having those corruptions is our crime 
 which should be confessed as an enormous evil ; and 
 if I, as a minister of the gospel, do not press home 
 the sin of the thing, I have missed what is the very 
 virus of it. I have left out the very essence, if I have 
 not shown that it is a crime. Now, " The carnal mind 
 is enmity against God." What a sin it is! Tliis will 
 appear in t^vo ways. Consider the relation in which 
 we stand to God, and then remember what God is ; and 
 after I have spoken of these tAvo things, I hope you 
 will see, indeed, that it is a sin to be at enmity with 
 God. 
 
 What is God to us ? He is the Creator of the heavens 
 and the earth; he bears up the pillars of the universe; 
 his breath perfumes the flowers ; his pencil paints them ; 
 he is the author of this fair creation ; " we are the sheep 
 of his pasture ; he hath made us, and not we ourselves." 
 He stands to us in the relationship of a Maker and 
 Creator; and from that fact he claims to be our King. 
 He is our legislator, our law-maker; and then, to make 
 our crime still worse and worse, he is the ruler of 
 pro\idence ; for it is he who keeps us from day to day. 
 He supplies our wants ; he keeps the breath \vithin our 
 nostrils ; he bids the blood still pursue its course through 
 the veins ; he holdeth us in life, and preventeth us from 
 death ; he standeth before us, our creator, our king, our 
 sustainer, oui benefactor ; and I ask, is it not a sin of 
 enormous magnitude — is it not high treason against 
 the emperor of heaven — is it not an awful sin, the depth 
 of which we cannot fathom with the line of all our 
 
 21* 
 
246 SERMONS. 
 
 judgment — that we, his creatures, dependent upon him, 
 should be at enmity with God? 
 
 But the crime may seem to be worse when we think 
 of iiihal God is. Let me appeal personally to you in 
 an interrogatory style, for this has weight with it. 
 Sinner I why art thou at enmity with God? God is 
 the God of love ; he is kind to his creatures ; he regards 
 you with his love of benevolence ; for this very day his 
 sun hath shone upon you, this day you have had food 
 and raiment, and you have come up here in health and 
 strength. Do you hate God because he loves you? Is 
 that the reason ? Consider how many mercies you 
 have received at his hands all your life long! You are 
 born with a body not deformed; you have had a toler- 
 able share of health ; you have been recovered many 
 times from sickness; when lying at the gates of death, 
 hi» arm has held back your soul from the last step to 
 destruction. Do you hate God for all this ? Do you 
 hate him because he spared your life by his tender 
 mercy ? Behold his goodness that he hath spread 
 before you! He might have sent you to hell ; but you 
 are here. Now, do you hate God for sparing you? 
 Oh, wherefore art thou at enmity with him ? My 
 fellow creature, dost thou not know that God sent his 
 Son from his bosom, hung him on the tree, and there 
 suilered liim to die for sinners, the just for the unjust? 
 And dost thou hate God for that? Oh, sinner! is this 
 the cause of thine enmity? Art thou so estranged 
 that thou givest enmity for love ? And when he sur- 
 roundeth thee with favors, girdeth thee with mercies, 
 encircleth thee with loving kindness, dost thou hate him 
 for this ? He might say, as Jesus did to the Jews, 
 " For which of these works do ye stone me ?" For 
 
THE CARNAL MIND ENMITY AGAINST GOD. 247 
 
 which of those works do ye hate God ? Did an earthly 
 benefactor feed you, would you hate him? Did he 
 clothe you, would you abuse him to his face ? Did he 
 give you talents, would you turn those powers against 
 him? Oh, speak I Would you forge the iron and 
 strike the dagger into the heart of your best friend? 
 Do you hate your mother, who nursed you on her knee ? 
 Do you curse your father, who so wisely watched over 
 you ? Nay, ye say, we have some little gratitude 
 towards earthly relatives. Where are your hearts, 
 then ? Where are your hearts, that ye can still despise 
 God, and be at enmity with him? Oh I diabolical 
 crime! Oh I satanic enormity I Oh! iniquity for 
 which words fail in description I To hate the all-lovely 
 — to despise the essentially good — to abhor the con- 
 stantly merciful — to spurn the ever beneficent — to 
 scorn the kind, the gracious one ; above all, to hate the 
 God who sent his son to die for man! Ah I in that 
 thought, " The carnal mind is enmity against God:" 
 there is something which may make us shake ; for it is 
 a terrible sin to be at enmity with God. I would I 
 could speak more powerfully, but my Master alone can 
 impress upon you the enormous evil of this horrid state 
 of heart. 
 
 IV. But there are one or two doctrines which we 
 will try to deduce from this. Is the carnal mind at 
 eimiity against God? Then salvation cannot be by 
 merit; it must be by grace. If we are at enmity with 
 God, what merit can we have ? How^ can we deserve 
 anything from the being we hate ? Even if we were 
 pure as Adam, we could not have any merit ; for I do 
 not think Adam had any desert before his Creator. 
 When he had ke^t all his masters law he was but an 
 
^"^^ SERMONS. 
 
 unprofitable servant : he had done no more than he 
 ought to have done ; he liad no surplus, no balance. 
 But since we have become enemies, how much less can 
 we hope to be saved by works! Oh I no; but the 
 whole Bible tells us, from beginning to end, that salva- 
 tion IS not by the works of the law, but by the deeds 
 of grace. Martin Luther declared that he constantly 
 preached justification by faith alone, " because," said 
 he, "the people would forget it ; so that I was obliged 
 almost to knock my Bible against their heads, to send 
 It into their hearts." So it is true : we constantly 
 forget that salvation is by grace alone. We always 
 want to be putting in some little scrap of our own 
 vn-tue ; we want to be doing something. I remember 
 a saying of old Matthew Wilkes : " Saved by your 
 works! you might as well tiy to go to America in a 
 paper boat!" Saved by your works! It Ls impos- 
 sible! Oh! no, the poor legaHst is like a blind horse 
 gomg round and round the miU, or like the prisoner 
 going up the treadwheel, and finding himself no higher 
 after all he has done ; he has no solid confidence, no 
 firm ground to rest upon. He has not done enough — 
 "never enough;" conscience always says, "this is not 
 perfection ; it ought to have been better." Salvation 
 for enemies must be by an ambassador, — by an atone- 
 ment, -— yea, by Christ. 
 
 Another doctrine we gather from this i^.the necessity 
 of an entire change of our nature. It is true, that by 
 birth we are at enmity with God. How necessary then 
 it IS that our nature should be changed ! There are 
 few people who sincerely believe this. They think that 
 if they cry, " Lord, have mercy upon me," when they 
 lay a-dying, they shall go to heaven dkectly. Let me 
 
THE CARNAL MIND ENMITY AGAINST GOD. 249 
 
 suppose an impossible case for a moment. Let me 
 imagine a man entering heaven without a change of 
 heart. He comes within the gates. He hears a sonnet. 
 He starts! It is to the praise of his enemy. He sees 
 a throne, and on it sits one who is glorious ; but it is 
 his enemy. He walks streets of gold, but those streets 
 belong to his enemy. He sees hosts of angels ; but 
 those hosts are the servants of his enemy. He is in an 
 enemy'' s house : for he is at enmity with God. He could 
 not join the song, for he would not know the tune. 
 There he would stand, silent, motionless ; till Christ 
 would say, with a voice louder than ten thousand 
 thunders, " What dost thou here ? Enemies at a mar- 
 riage banquet? Enemies in the children's house? 
 Enemies in heaven ? Get thee gone ? ' Depart, ye 
 cursed, into everlasting fire in hell ! ' " Oh I sirs, if 
 the unregenerate man could enter heaven, I mention 
 once more, the oft-repeated saying of Whitfield, he 
 would be so unhappy in heaven, that he would ask God 
 to let him run down to hell for shelter. There must be 
 a change, if ye consider the future state ; for how can 
 enemies to God ever sit down at the banquet of the 
 Lamb ? 
 
 And to conclude, let me remind you — and it is in 
 the text after all — that this change must he ivorked l)y 
 a power beyond your so.cn. An enemy may possibly 
 make himself a friend; but enmity cannot. If it be 
 but an adjunct of his nature to be an enemy, he may 
 change himself into a friend ; but if it is the very 
 essence of his existence to be enmity, positive enmity, 
 enmity cannot change itself. No, there must be some- 
 thing done more than we can accomplish. This is 
 just what is forgotten in these days. We must have 
 
250 SERMONS. 
 
 more preaching of the Holy Spu-it, if we are to have 
 more conversion work. I tell you, sirs, if you change 
 yourselves, and make yourselves better, and better, and 
 better, a thousand times, you will never be good 
 enough for heaven, till God's Spirit has laid liis hand 
 upon you ; till he has renewed the heart, till he has 
 purified the soul, till he has changed the entire spirit 
 and new-made the man, there can be no entering 
 heaven. How seriously, then, should each stand and 
 think. Here am I, a creature of a day, a mortal born to 
 die, but yet an immortal ! At present I am at enmity 
 with God. What shall I do ? Is it not my duty, as 
 well as my happiness, to ask whether there be a way to 
 be reconciled to God ? 
 
 O, weary slaves of sin, are not yom* ways the 
 paths of folly ? Is it wisdom, O my fellow-creatures, 
 is it wisdom to hate your Creator ? Is it wisdom to 
 stand in opposition against him? Is it prudent to 
 despise the riches of his grace ? If it be wisdom, it is 
 hell's wisdom ; if it be wisdom, it is a wisdom which is 
 folly with God. Oh I may God grant that you may 
 turn unto Jesus with full purpose of heart ! He is the 
 ambassador ; he it is who can make peace through his 
 blood ; and though you came in here an enemy, it is 
 possible you may go out through that door a friend yet, 
 if you can but look to Jesus Christ, the brazen serpent 
 which was lifted up. 
 
 And now, it may be, some of you are convinced of 
 sin, by the Holy Spirit. I w411 now proclaim to you 
 the way of salvation. " As Moses lifted up the ser- 
 pent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man 
 be lifted up : that whosoever believeth in him should 
 not perish, but have eternal life." Behold, O trembling 
 
THE CARNAL MIND ENMITY AGAINST GOD. 251 
 
 penitent, the means of thy deliverance. Turn thy tcar- 
 fui eye to yonder Mount of Calvary I See the victim 
 of justice — the sacrifice of atonement for your trans- 
 gix'ssion. View the Saviour in his agonies, Avith 
 streams of blood purchasing thy soul, and with in- 
 tensest agonies enduring thy punishment. He died for 
 thee^ if now thou dost confess thy guilt. O come thou 
 condemned one, self-condemned, and turn thine eye 
 this way, for one look will save. Sinner! thou art 
 bitten. Look! It is nought but " Look!" It is simply 
 "Look!" If thou canst but look to Jesus thou art 
 safe. Hear the voice of the Redeemer : " Look unto 
 me, and be ye saved." Look! Look! Look! O guilty 
 souls. 
 
 '* Venture on liim, venture "wholly. 
 Let no other ti'ust intrude ; 
 None but Jesu3 
 
 Can do helpless sinners good.'* 
 
 May my blessed iNIaster help you to come to him, and 
 draw you to his Son, for Jesu's sake. Amen and 
 Amen. 
 
SERMON XIII. 
 
 CHRIST'S PEOPLE -IMITATORS OF IIIM. 
 
 " Now when they saw tlie boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were 
 unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled j and they took knowledge of them, that 
 they had been with Jesus." — Acts iv. 13. 
 
 Behold! what a change divine grace will work in a 
 man, and in how short a time. That same Peter, who 
 so lately followed his master afar off^ and with oaths 
 and curses denied that he knew his name, is now to be 
 found side by side with the loving John, boldly declar- 
 ing that there is salvation in none other name save 
 that of Jesus Christ, and preaching the resurrection of 
 the dead, through the sacrifice of his dying Lord. The 
 Scribes and Pharisees soon discover the reason of his 
 boldness. Rightly did they guess that it rested not in 
 his learning or his talents, for neither Peter nor John 
 had been educated ; they had been trained as fisher- 
 men; their education was a knowledge of the sea — of 
 the fisherman's craft: none other had they: their bold- 
 ness could not therefore spring from the self-sufficiency 
 of knowledge, but from the Spirit of the living God. 
 Nor did they acquire their courage from their station ; 
 for rank will confer a sort of dignity upon a man, and 
 make him speak with a feigned authority, even when 
 
 (252) 
 
Christ's people — imitators of him. 253 
 
 he has no talent or genius ; but these men were, as it 
 says in the original text, " <(5twTa«," private men, who 
 stood in no official capacity ; men without rank or sta- 
 tion. When they saw the boldness of Peter and John, 
 and perceived that they were unlearned and private 
 individuals, they marvelled, and they came to a right 
 conclusion as to the source of their power — they had 
 been dwelling with Jesus. Their conversation w^th the 
 Prince of light and glory, backed up, as they might 
 also have known, by the influence of the Holy Sphit, 
 without which even that eminently holy example 
 would have been in vain, had made them bold for their 
 Master's cause. Oh ! my brethren, it were well if this 
 commendation, so forced from the lips of enemies, 
 could also be compelled by our own example. If we 
 could live like Peter and John ; if oiu* lives were " living 
 epistles of God, known and read of all men;" if, when- 
 ever we were seen, men would take knowledge of us, 
 that we had been with Jesus, it would be a happy thing 
 for this world, and a blessed thing for us. It is con- 
 cerning that I am to speak to you this morning ; and 
 as God gives me grace, I will endeavor to stir up your 
 minds by way of remembrance, and urge you so to 
 imitate Jesus Christ, our heavenly pattern, that men 
 may perceive that you are disciples of the holy Son of 
 God. 
 
 First, then, this morning, I will tell you what a 
 Christian should he ; secondly, I will tell you lohen he 
 should be so; thirdly, i«;/f^ he should be so; and then, 
 fourthly, how he can be so. 
 
 I. As God may help us then, first of all, we wih 
 speak of what a believer should be. A Christian should 
 be a striking likeness of Jesus Clirist. You have read 
 22 
 
254 SERxMONS. 
 
 lives of Christ, beautifully and eloquently \vritten, and 
 you have admired the talent of the persons who could 
 write so well ; but the best life of Christ is his living 
 biography, wnritten out in the words and actions of his 
 people. If we, my brethren, w^ere what we profess to 
 be ; if the Spirit of the Lord were in the heart of all 
 his children, as we could desire ; and if, instead of hav- 
 ing abundance of formal professors, we were all posses- 
 sors of that vital grace, I will tell you not only what 
 we ought to be, but what we should be : we should be 
 pictures of Christ, yea, such striking likenesses of him 
 that the world would not have to hold us up by the 
 hour together, and say, " Well, it seems somewhat of 
 a likeness;" but they would, when they once beheld us, 
 exclaim, "He has been with Jesus; he has been taught 
 of him ; he is like him ; he has caught the very idea of 
 the holy Man of Nazareth, and he expands it out into 
 his very life and every day actions." 
 
 In enlarging upon this point, it wiU be necessary to 
 premise, that when we here affirm that men should be 
 such and such a thing, we refer to the people of God. 
 We do not wish to speak to them in any legal way. 
 We are not under the law, but under grace. Christian 
 men hold themselves bound to keep all God's precepts ; 
 but the reason why they do so is, not because the law 
 is binding upon them, but because the gospel constrains 
 them : they believe, that having been redeemed by 
 blood divine ; having been purchased by Jesus Christ, 
 they are more bound to keep his commands, than they 
 would have been if they were under the law; they hold 
 themselves to be ten thousand fold more debtors to 
 God, than they could have been under the Mosaic dis- 
 pensation. Not of force ; not of compulsion ; not 
 
CIIRIST'3 people IMITATORS OF IlIM. 255 
 
 through fear of the whip; not through legal bondage; 
 but through pure, disinterested love and gratitude to 
 God, they lay themselves out for his service, seeking to 
 be Israelites indeed, in whom there is no guile. This 
 much I have declared lest any man should think that I 
 am preaching works as the way to salvation ; I will 
 yield to none in this, that I will ever maintain that by 
 grace we are saved, and not by ourselves ; but equally 
 must I testify, that where the grace of God is, it will 
 produce fitting deeds. To these I am ever bound to 
 exhort you, while ye are ever expected to have good 
 works for necessary purposes. Again, I do not, when I 
 say that a believer should be a striking likeness of 
 Jesus, suppose that any one Christian will perfectly 
 exhibit all the features of our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
 Christ; yet, my brethren, the fact that perfection is 
 beyond our reach, should not diminish the ardor of our 
 desire after it. The artist, when he paints, knows 
 right well that he shall not be able to excel Apelles ; 
 but that does not discourage him ; he uses his brush 
 with all the greater pains, that he may at least in some 
 humble measure resemble the great master. So the 
 sculptor, though persuaded that he will not rival Prax- 
 iteles, will hew out the marble still, and seek to be as 
 near the model as possible. Thus so the Christian 
 man; though he feels he never can mount to the 
 heights of complete excellence, and perceives that he 
 never can on earth become the exact image of Christ, 
 still holds it up before him, and measures his own defi- 
 ciencies by the distance between himself and Jesus. 
 This will he do ; forgetting all he has attained, he will 
 press forward, crying, Excelsior ! going upwards still, 
 
256 SERMONS. 
 
 desiring to be conformed more and more to the image 
 of Christ Jesus. 
 
 First, then, a Christian should be like Christ in his 
 boldness. This is a virtue now-a-days called impu- 
 dence, but the grace is equally valuable by whatever 
 name it may be called. I suppose if the Scribes had 
 given a definition of Peter and John, they would have 
 called them impudent fellows. 
 
 Jesus Christ and Ms disciples were noted for their 
 courage. " When they saw the boldness of Peter and 
 John, they took knowledge of them, that they had 
 been with Jesus." Jesus Christ never fawned upon 
 the rich ; he stooped not to the great and noble ; he 
 stood erect, a man before men — the prophet of the 
 people — speaking out boldly and freely what he 
 thought. Have you never admired that mighty deed 
 of his, when going to the city where he had lived and 
 been brought up? Knowing that a prophet had no 
 honor in his own country, the book was put into his 
 hands (he had but then commenced his ministry), yet 
 without tremor he unrolled the sacred volume, and 
 what did he talvc for his text ? Most men, coming to 
 their own neighborhood, would have chosen a subject 
 adapted to the taste, in order to earn fame. But what 
 doctrine did Jesus preach that morning ? One which 
 in our age is scorned and hated — the doctrine of elec- 
 tion. He opened the Scriptures, and began to read 
 thus : " Many widows w^ere in Israel in the days of 
 Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and 
 six months, when great famine was throughout all the 
 land; but unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto 
 Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a 
 widow. And many lepers were in Israel in the time of 
 
Christ's people — imitators of uim. 257 
 
 Eliseus, the prophet ; and none of them was cleansed, 
 saving Naainan, the Syrian." Then he began to tell, 
 how God saveth whom he pleases, and rescues whom 
 he chooses. Ah ! how they gnashed their teeth upon 
 him, dragged liim out, and would have cast him from 
 the brow of the hill. Do you not admire his intFe- 
 pidity ? He saw their teeth gnashing ; he knew then: 
 hearts were hot with enmity while their mouths foamed 
 with revenge and malice ; still he stood like the angel 
 who shut the lions' mouths; he feared them not; faith- 
 fully he proclaimed what he knew to be the truth of 
 God, and still read on, despite them all. So, in his 
 discourses. If he saw a Scribe or a Pharisee in the 
 congregation, he did not keep back part of the price, 
 but pointing his finger, he said, " Woe unto you, Scribes 
 and Pharisees, hypocrites ; " and when a lawyer came, 
 saying, " Master, in speaking thus, thou condemnest us 
 also ; " he turned round and said, " Woe unto you, 
 lawyers, for ye bind heavy burdens upon men, while ye 
 yourselves will not touch them with so much as one 
 of your fingers." He dealt out honest truth ; he never 
 knew the fear of man ; he trembled at none ; he stood 
 out God's chosen, whom he had anointed above his 
 fellows, careless of man's esteem. My friends, be like 
 Christ in this. Have none of the time-serving religion 
 of the present day, which is merely exhibited in evan- 
 gelical drawing-rooms, — a refigion which only flour- 
 ishes in a hot-bed atmosphere, a religion which is only 
 to be perceived in good company. No; if ye are the 
 servants of God, be like Jesus Christ, bold for your 
 master ; never blush to own your religion ; your pro- 
 fession will never disgrace you — take care you never 
 disgrace that. Your love to Christ will never dis- 
 22* 
 
258 SERMONS. 
 
 honor you; it may bring some temporary slight from 
 your friends, or slanders from your enemies : but live 
 on, and you shall live down their calumnies ; live on, 
 and ye shall stand amongst the glorified, honored even 
 by those who hissed you, when he shall come to be 
 glorified by his angels, and admired by them that love 
 him. Be like Jesus, very valiant for your God, so that 
 when they shall see your boldness, they may say, " He 
 has been with Jesus." 
 
 But no one feature will give a portrait of a man ; 
 so the one virtue of boldness will never make you like 
 Christ. There have been some who have been noble 
 men, but have carried their courage to excess ; they 
 have thus been caricatm*es of Christ, and not portraits 
 of him. We must amalgamate with our boldness the 
 loveliness of Jesus' disposition. Let courage be the 
 brass, let love be the gold. Let us mix the two 
 together, so shall we produce a rich Corinthian metal, 
 fit to be manufactured into the beautiful gate of the 
 temple. L^t your love and courage be mingled to- 
 gether. The man who is bold may indeed accomplish 
 w^onders. John Knox did much, but he might perhaps 
 have done more if he had had a little love. Luther 
 was a conqueror — peace to his ashes, and honor to his 
 name ! — still, we who look upon him at a distance, 
 think that if he had sometimes mixed a little mildness 
 with it — if, while he had the for titer in re^ he had 
 been also suaviter in modo^ and spoken somew^hat more 
 gently, he might have done even more good than he 
 did. So, brethren, while we too are bold, let us ever 
 imitate the loving Jesus. The chUd comes to him ; he 
 takes it on his knee, saying, " Suffer little children to 
 come unto me, and forbid them not." A widow has 
 
 I 
 
Christ's people — imitators of him. 259 
 
 just lost her only son : he weeps at the bier, and with a 
 word restores life to the dead man. He sees a para- 
 lytic, a leper, or a man long confined to his bed ; he 
 speaks, they rise, and are healed. He lived for others, 
 not for himself. His constant labors were without any 
 motive, except the good of those who lived in the 
 world. And to crown all, ye know the mighty sacrifice 
 he made, when he condescended to lay down his life 
 for man — when on the tree, quivering with agony, 
 and hanging in the utmost extremity of suffering, he 
 submitted to die for our sakes, that we might be saved. 
 Behold in Christ love consolidated! He was one 
 mighty pillar of benevolence. As God is love, so 
 Christ is love. Oh, ye Christians, be ye loving also. 
 Let your love and your beneficence beam out on all 
 men. Say not, " Be ye warmed, and be ye filled," but 
 " give a portion to seven, and also to eight." If ye 
 cannot imitate Howard, and unlock the prison doors 
 — if ye cannot visit the sad house of misery, yet each 
 in your proper sphere speak kind words, do kind actions ; 
 live out Christ again in the kindness of your life. If 
 there is one virtue which most commends Christians, it 
 is that of kindness: it is to love the people of God, to 
 love the church, to love the world, to love all. But 
 how many have we in our churches of crab-tree Chris- 
 tians, w^ho have mixed such a vast amount of vinegar 
 and such a tremendous quantity of gall in their consti- 
 tutions, that they can scarcely speak one good word to 
 you; they imagine it impossible to defend religion 
 except by passionate ebullitions; Ihey cannot speak 
 for their dishonored Master without being angry with 
 their opponent ; and if anything is awTy, whether it be 
 in the house, the church, or anyAvhere else, they con- 
 
2G0 SERMONS. 
 
 ceive it to be their duty to set their faces like flint, and 
 to defy everybody. They are like isolated icebergs, 
 no one cares to go near them. They float about on 
 the sea of forgetfulness, until at last they are melted 
 and gone ; and though, good souls, we shall be happy 
 enough to meet them in heaven, we are precious glad 
 to get rid of them from the earth. They were always 
 so unamiable in disposition, that we would rather live 
 an eternity with them in heaven than five minutes on 
 earth. Be ye not thus, my brethren. Imitate Christ 
 in your loving spirits ; speak kindly, act kindly, and do 
 kindly, that men may say of you, " He has been with 
 Jesus." 
 
 Another great feature in the life of Christ was his 
 deep and sincere humility ; in wiiich let us imitate him. 
 While we will not cringe or bow — (far from it ; we 
 are the freemen whom the truth makes free ; we walk 
 through this world equal to all, inferior to none) — yet 
 we would endeavor to be like Christ, continually hum- 
 ble. Oh, thou proud Clu*istian, (for though it bo a para- 
 dox there must be some, I think ; I would not be so un- 
 charitable as to say that there are not some such per- 
 sons) if thou art a Christian, Ibid thee look at thy Master, 
 talking to the children, bending from the majesty of his 
 divinity to speak to mankind on earth, tabernacling 
 with the peasants of Galilee, and then — aye, depth of 
 condescension unparalleled — washing his disciples' 
 feet, and wiping them wdth the towel after supper. 
 This is your Master, whom ye profess to worship ; this 
 is your Lord, whom ye adore. And ye, some of you 
 w^ho count yourselves Christians, cannot speak to a 
 person who is not dressed in the same kind of clothing 
 as yourselves, who have not exactly as much money per 
 
Christ's people — imitatous of him. 
 
 2(31 
 
 year as you have. In England, it is true that a sover- 
 eign will not speak to a shiiliiig, and a shilling will not 
 notice a sixpence, and a sixpence will sneer at a penny. 
 But it should not be so with Christians. We ought to 
 forget caste, degree, and rank, when we come into 
 Christ's chiuch. Recollect, Christian, who your iNIas- 
 terwas— a man of the poor. He lived with them; 
 he ate w^ith them. And will ye walk with lofty heads 
 and stiff necks, looking with insufferable contempt 
 upon your meaner fellow-worms? What are ye ? The 
 meanest of all, because your trickeries and adornments 
 make you proud. Pitiful, despicable souls ye are! 
 How small ye look in God's sight ! Christ was humble ; 
 he stooped to do an>^hing which might ser^^c others. 
 He had no pride ; he was an humble man, a friend of 
 publicans and sinners, Uving and walking with them. 
 So, Christian, be thou like thy Master— one who can 
 stoop ; yea, be thou one who thinks it no stooping, but 
 rather esteems others better than himself, counts it his 
 honor to sit w^th the poorest of Christ's people, and 
 says, " If my name maybe but mitten in the obscurest 
 part of the book of life, it is enough for me, so 
 unworthy am I of his notice! " Be like Christ in his 
 
 humility. 
 
 So might I continue, dear brethren, speaking of the 
 various cliaracteristics of Christ Jesus ; but as you can 
 think of them as well as I can, I shall not do so. It is 
 easy for you to sit down and paint Jesus Christ, for you 
 have him dra\\m out here in his word. I find that time 
 would fail me if I were to give you an entire likeness 
 of Jesus; but let me say, imitate him in his holiness. 
 Was he zealous for his master ? So be you. Ever go 
 about doing good. Let not time be wasted. It is too 
 
.262 SERMONS. 
 
 precious. Was he self-denying, never looldng to his 
 own interest ? So be you. Was he devout ? So be 
 you fervent in your prayers. Had he deference to his 
 Father's will? So submit yourselves to him. Was 
 he patient ? So learn to endure. And best of all, as 
 the highest portraiture of Jesus, try to forgive your 
 enemies as he did ; and let those sublime words of 
 your INIaster, " Father, forgive them, for they know not 
 what they do," always ring in your ears. When you 
 are prompted to revenge; when hot anger starts, bridle 
 the steed at once, and let it not dash forward with you 
 headlong. Remember, anger is temporary insanity. 
 Forgive as you hope to be forgiven. Heap coals of 
 fire on the head of your foe by your kindness to him. 
 Good for evil, recollect, is god-like. Be god-like, then ; 
 and in all ways, and by all means, so live that your 
 enemies may say, " He has been with Jesus." 
 
 n. Now, when should Christians he this ? For there 
 is an idea in the world that persons ought to be very 
 religious on a Sunday, but that it does not matter what 
 they are on a Monday. How many pious preachers 
 are there on a Sabbath-day, who are very impious 
 preachers during the rest of the week I How many 
 are there who come up to the house of God with a 
 solemn countenance, who join the soHg and profess to 
 pray, yet have neither part nor lot in the matter, but 
 are " in the gall of bitterness and in the bonds of 
 iniquity ! " This is ti'ue of some of you who are 
 present here. When should a Christian, then, be like 
 Jesus Christ? Is there a time when he may strip olF 
 his regimentals — when the warrior may unbuckle his 
 armor, and become like other men ? Oh ! no ; at all 
 times and in every place let the Christian be what he 
 
Christ's PKorLi: — imitators of him. 2Go 
 
 professes to be. I remember talking some time ago 
 with a person who said, " I do not like visitors who 
 come to my house and introduce religion ; I think we 
 ought to have religion on the Sabbath-day, when we go 
 to the house of God, but not in the ckawing-room." 
 I suggested to the individual that there would be a great 
 deal of work for the upholsterers, if there should be no 
 religion except in the house of God. " How is that ? " 
 wa^ the question. " Why," I repUed, " we should need 
 to have beds fitted up in all our places of worsliip, for 
 surely we need religion to die with, and consequently, 
 every one would want to die there." Aye, we all need 
 the consolations of God at last; but how can we 
 expect to enjoy them unless we obey the precepts of 
 religion during life ? My brethren, let me say, be ye 
 like Christ at all times. Imitate him in public. Most 
 of us live in some sort of publicity ; many of us are 
 called to work before our fellow-men every day. We 
 are watched; our words are caught; our lives are 
 examined, taken to pieces. The eagle-eyed, argus- 
 eyed world observes everything we do, and sharp 
 critics are upon us. Let us live the life of Christ 
 in public. Let us take care that we exhibit our 
 Master, and not ourselves — so that we can say, 
 " It is no longer I that live, but Christ that liveth 
 in me." Take heed that you carry this into the church 
 too, you who are church members. Be like Christ in 
 the church. How many there are of you like Diot- 
 rephes, seeking pre-eminence? How many are trying 
 to have some dignity and power over theij* fellow Chris- 
 tians, instead of remembering that it is the fundamental 
 rule of all our chiurches, that there all men are equal — 
 alike brethren, alike to be received as such. Carry out 
 
264 SERMONS. 
 
 the spirit of Clmst, then, in your churches, wherever ye 
 are ; let your fellow members say of you, " He has 
 been with Jesus." 
 
 But, most of all, take care to have religion in your 
 houses. A religious house is the best proof of true 
 piety. It is not my chapel, it is my house — it is not 
 my minister, it is my home-companion who can best 
 judge me ; it is the servant, the child, the wife, the 
 friend, that can discern most of my real character. A 
 good man will improve his household. Row^land Hill 
 once said, he w^ould not believe a man to be a true 
 Christian if his wife, his children, the servants, and 
 even the dog and cat, were not the better for it. That 
 is being religious. If your household is not the better 
 for your Christianity — if men cannot say, " This is a 
 better house than others," then be not deceived — ye 
 have nothing of the grace of God. Let not your 
 servant, on leaving your employ, say, " Well, this is a 
 queer sort of a religious family, there was no prayer 
 in the morning ; 1 began the day with my drudgery ; 
 there was no prayer at night ; I was kept at home all 
 the Sabbath-day. Once a fortnight, perhaps, I was 
 allowed to go out in the afternoon, when there was 
 nowhere to go to where I could hear a gospel sermon. 
 IVIy master and mistress went to a place where of course 
 they heard the blessed gospel of God, — that w^as all 
 for them ; as for me, I might have the dregs and leav- 
 ings of some overworked curate in the afternoon." 
 Surely, Christian men will not act in that way. No ! 
 Carry out your godliness in your family. Let every 
 one say that you have practical religion. Let it be 
 known and read in the house, as well as in the world. 
 Take care of your character there ; for what we are 
 
 I 
 
Christ's people — imitators of him. 2G5 
 
 there, we really are. Our life abroad is often but a 
 borrowed part, the actor's part of a great scene, but at 
 home the vizard is removed, and men are what they 
 seem. Take care of your home duties. 
 
 Yet again, my brethren, before I leave this point, 
 
 imitate Jesus in secret. When no eye seeth you except 
 
 the eye of God, when darkness covers you, when you 
 
 are shut up from the observation of mortals, even then 
 
 be ye like Jesus Christ. Remember his ardent piety, 
 
 his secret devotion — how, after laboriously preaching 
 
 the whole day, he stole away in the midnight shades to 
 
 cry for help from his God. Recollect how his entire 
 
 life was constantly sustained by fresh inspirations of 
 
 the Holy Sphrit, derived by prayer. Take care of your 
 
 secret life : let it be such that you will not be ashamed 
 
 to read at the last great day. Your inner life is \\Tit- 
 
 ten in the book of God, and it shall one day be open 
 
 before you. If the entire life of some of you were 
 
 knowTi, it would be no life at all : it would be a death 
 
 Yea, even of some true Christians we may say, it is 
 
 scarce a life. It is a dragging on of an existence — 
 
 one hasty prayer a day — one breatliing, just enough 
 
 to save theur souls alive, but no more. O my brethren 
 
 strive to be more lilie Jesus Chiist. These are times 
 
 when we want more secret prayer. I have had much 
 
 fear all this week. I know not whether it is true ; but 
 
 when I feel such a thing I like to tell it to those of you 
 
 who belong to my own church and congregation. I 
 
 have trembled lest, by being away from our own place, 
 
 you have ceased to pray as earnestly as you once did. 
 
 I remember your earnest groans and petitions — how 
 
 you would assemble together in the house of prayer in 
 
 multitudes, and cry out to God to help his serv^ant. 
 
 23 
 
266 SERMOXS. 
 
 We cannot meet in such style at present ; but do you 
 still pray in private ? Have you forgotten me ? Have 
 you ceased to cry out to God ? Oh I my friends, with 
 all the entreaties that a man can use, let me appeal to 
 you. Recollect who I am, and what I am — a child, 
 having little education, little learning, ability, or talent ; 
 and here am I called upon, week after week, to preach 
 to this crowd of people. Will ye not, my beloved, still 
 plead for me ? Has not God been pleased to hear yom' 
 prayers ten thousand times ? And will ye now cease, 
 when a mighty revival is taking place in many 
 churches? Will ye now stop your petitions? Oh! 
 no ; go to your houses, fall upon your knees, cry aloud 
 to God to enable you still to hold up your hands like 
 Moses on the hill, that Joshua below may fight and 
 overcome the Amalekites. Now is the time for victory : 
 shall we lose it ? This is the high tide that will float 
 us over the bar ; now let us put out the oars ; let us 
 pull by earnest prayer, crying for God the spirit to fill 
 the sails! Ye who love God, of every place and every 
 denomination, wrestle for your ministers ; pray for 
 them ; for why should not God even now put out his 
 Spirit? What is the reason why we are to be denied 
 Pentecostal seasons ? Why not this hour, as one 
 mighty band, fall down before him and entreat him, for 
 his Son's sake, to revive his drooping church ? Then 
 would all men discern that we are verily the disciples 
 of Christ. 
 
 IH. But now, thirdly, ivhy should Christians imitate 
 Christ ? The answer comes very naturally and easily, 
 Christians should be like Christ, first, for their own 
 sakes. For their honesty's sake, and for their credit's 
 sake, let them not be found liars before God and men. 
 
Christ's peopll:— imitators of iiiiM. 26"/ 
 
 For their own healthful state, if they wish to be kept 
 from sin and preserved from going astray, let them 
 imitate Jesus. For their own happiness' sake, if they 
 would drink wine on the lees well refined ; if they 
 would enjoy holy and happy communion with Jesus ; 
 if they would be lifted up above the cares and troubles 
 of this world, let them imitate Jesus Christ. Oh I my 
 brethren, there is nothing that can so advantage you, 
 nothing can so prosper you, so assist you, so make you 
 walk towards heaven rapidly, so keep your head 
 upwards towards the sky, and your eyes radiant with 
 glory, like the imitation of Jesus Christ. It is when, 
 by the power of the Holy Spirit, you are enabled to 
 walk with Jesus in his very footsteps, and tread in his 
 ways, you are most happy and you are most known to 
 be the sons of God. For your own sake, my brethren, 
 I say, be like Clu-ist. 
 
 Next, for religion^ s sake, strive to imitate Jesus. Ah! 
 poor religion, thou hast been sorely shot at by cruel 
 foes, but thou hast not been wounded one half so much 
 by them as by thy friends. None have hurt thee, O 
 Christianity, so much as those w^ho profess to be thy 
 followers. Who have made these wounds in tliis fair 
 hand of godliness ? I say, the professor has done this, 
 who has not lived up to his profession ; the man who 
 with pretences enters the fold, being nought but a wolf 
 in sheep's clothing. Such men, sirs, injure the gospel 
 more than others : more than the laughing Infidel, more 
 than the sneering critic, doth the man hurt our cause 
 who professes to love it, but in liis actions doth belie 
 his love. Christian, lovest thou that cause ? Is the 
 name of the dear Redeemer precious to thee ? Wouldst 
 thou see th** kingdoms of the world become the king- 
 
2G8 SERMONS. 
 
 doms of our Lord and his Christ ? Dost thou wish to 
 see the proud man humbled and the mighty abased ? 
 Dost thou long for the souls of perishing sinners, and 
 art thou desirous to win them, and save their souls 
 from the everlasting burning ? Wouldst thou prevent 
 their fall into the regions of the damned ? Is it thy 
 desire that Christ should see the travail of his soul, and 
 be abundantly satisfied ? Doth thy heart yearn over 
 thy fellow-immortals ? Dost thou long to see them for- 
 given ? Then be consistent with thy religion. Walk 
 before God in the land of the living. Behave as an 
 elect man should do. Recollect what manner of people 
 we ought to be in all holy conversation and godliness. 
 This is the best way to convert the world ; yea, such 
 conduct would do more than even the efforts of mis- 
 sionary societies, excellent as they are. Let but men 
 see that our conduct is superior to others, then they 
 will believe there is something in our religion ; but, if 
 they see us quite the contrary to what we avow, what 
 will they say ? " These religious people are no better 
 than others! Why should we go amongst them?" 
 And they say quite rightly. It is but common -sense 
 judgment. Ah I my friends, if ye love religion for her 
 own sake, be consistent, and walk in the love of God. 
 Follow Christ Jesus. 
 
 Then, to put it in the strongest form I can, let me say, 
 for Chrisfs sake, endeavor to bo like him. Oh I could 
 I fetch the dying Jesus here, and let him speak to you ! 
 My own tongue is tied this morning, but I would make 
 his blood, his scars, and his wounds speak. Poor dumb 
 mouths, I bid each of them plead in his behalf. How 
 would Jesus, standing here, show you his hands this 
 morning ! " My friends," he would say, " behold me ! 
 
Christ's people — imitators of him. 2G9 
 
 these hands were pierced for you ; and look ye here at 
 this my side. It was opened as the fountain of your 
 salvation. See my feet; there entered the cruel nails. 
 Each of these bones were dislocated for your sake. 
 These eyes gushed with torrents of tears. This head 
 was crowned with thorns. These cheeks were smitten ; 
 this hair was plucked ; my body became the centre and 
 focus of agony. I hung quivering in the burning sun; 
 and all for you, my people. And will ye not love me 
 now ? I bid you be like me. Is there any fault in me ? 
 Oh I no. Ye believe that I am fairer than ten thou- 
 sand fairs, and lovelier than ten thousand loves. Have 
 I injured you ? Have I not rather done all for your sal- 
 vation? And do I not sit at my Father's throne, and 
 e'en now intercede on your behalf? If ye love me," — 
 Christian, hear that word ; let the sweet syllables ring 
 for ever in your ears, lilve the prolonged sounding of 
 silver-toned bells ; — " if ye love me, if ye love me, keep 
 my commandments." O Christian, let that "if" be 
 put to thee this morning. " If ye love me." Glorious 
 Redeemer I is it an "if" at all? Thou precious, 
 bleeding Lamb, can there be an "if"? Whaf, when 1 
 see thy blood gushing from thee ; is it an "if" ? Yes, 
 I weep to say it is an "if." Oft my thoughts make it 
 "if," and oft my words make it " if." But yet methiriks 
 my soul feels it is not " if," either. 
 
 ** Not to mine eyes is light so dear. 
 Nor friendship half so sweet." 
 
 " Yes, I love thee, I know that I love thee. Lord, thou 
 knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee," can 
 the Christian say. " Well, then," says Jesus, looldng 
 down with a glance of aflectionate approbation, ^^ since 
 
 23* 
 
270 SERMONS. 
 
 tliou lovest me, keep my commandments." O beloved, 
 what mightier reason can I give than this ? It is the 
 argmnent of love and affection. Be like Christ, since 
 gratitude demands obedience ; so shall the world know 
 that ye have been with Jesus. 
 
 IV. Ah! then ye wept; and I perceive ye felt the 
 force of pity, and some of you are inquiring, " How 
 can I imitate him ? " It is my business, then, before you 
 depart, to tell you how you can become transformed 
 into the image of Chiist. 
 
 In the first place, then, my beloved friends, in answer 
 to your inquiry, let me say, you must know Christ as 
 your Redeemer before you can follow him as your 
 Exemplar. Much is said about the example of Jesus, 
 and we scarcely find a man now who does not believe 
 that our Lord was an excellent and holy man, much to 
 be admired. But excellent as his example, it would be 
 impossible to imitate it, had he not also been our 
 sacrifice. Do ye this morning know that his blood was 
 shed for you ? Can ye join with me in this verse ? — 
 
 ** the sweet wonders of that cross, 
 Where God the Saviour lov'd and died ; 
 Her noblest life my spirit draws 
 From his dear wounds and bleeding side. ' ' 
 
 If SO, you are on a fair way to imitate Christ. But do 
 not seek to copy him until you are bathed in the foun- 
 tain filled with blood drawn from his veins. It is not 
 possible for you to do so ; your passions will be too 
 strong and corrupt, and you will be building without a 
 foundation, a structure, which will be about as stable 
 as a dream. You cannot mould your life to his pattern 
 until you have had his spirit, till you have been clothed 
 
Christ's people — imitators of him. 271 
 
 in liis righteousness. "Well," say some, "we have 
 proceeded so far, what next shall we do? We know 
 we have an interest in him, but we are still sensible of 
 manifold deficiencies." Next, then, let me entreat you 
 to study Christ's character. This poor Bible is become 
 an almost obsolete book, even with some Christians. 
 There are so many magazines, periodicals, and such like 
 ephemeral productions, that we are in danger of 
 neglecting to search the Scriptures. Christian, wouldst 
 tliou know thy master? Look at him. There is a 
 wondrous power about the character of Christ, for the 
 more you regard it the more you will be conformed to 
 it. I view myself in the glass, I go away, and forget 
 what I was. I behold Clirist, and I become like Christ. 
 Look at him, then ; study him in the evangelists, 
 studiously examine his character. " But," say you, 
 " we have done that, and we have proceeded but little 
 farther." Then, in the next place, correct your poor 
 copy every day. At night, try and recount all the 
 actions of the t^^enty-four hours, scrupulously putting 
 them under review. When I have proof-sheets sent to 
 me of any of my writings, I have to make the correc- 
 tions in the margin. I might read them over fifty times, 
 and the printers would still put in the errors if I did not 
 mark them. So must you do, if you find anything 
 fault^^, at night make a mark in the margin, that you 
 may know where the fault is, and to-morrow may 
 amend it. Do this day after day, continually, noting 
 your faults one by one, so that you may better avoid 
 them. It was a maxim of the old philosophers, that, 
 three times in the day, we should go over our actions. 
 So let us do ; let us not be forgetful ; let us rather ex- 
 
272 SERMONS. 
 
 amine ourselves each night, and see wherein we have 
 done amiss, thac we may reform our lives. 
 
 Lastly, as the best advice I can give, seek more of 
 the Spirit of God ; for this is the way to become Christ- 
 like. Vain are all your attempts to be like him till you 
 have sought his spirit. Take the cold iron, and attempt 
 to weld it if you can into a certain shape. How fruitless 
 the effort ! Lay it on the anvil, seize the blacksmith's 
 hammer with all your might, let blow after blow fall 
 upon it, and you shall have done nothing. Twist it, 
 turn it, use all your implements, but you shall not be 
 able to fashion it as you would. But put it in the fire, 
 let it be softened and made made malleable, then lay it 
 on the anvil, and each stroke shall have a mighty effect, 
 so that you may fashion it into any form you may desire. 
 So take your heart, not cold as it is, not stony as it is 
 by nature, but put it into the furnace ; there let it be 
 molten, and after that it can be turned like wax to the 
 seal, and fashioned into the image of Jesus Christ. 
 
 Oh, my brethren, what can I say now to enforce my 
 text, but that, if ye are like Christ on earth, ye shall be 
 like him in heaven ? If by the power of the Spirit ye 
 become followers of Jesus, ye shall enter glory. For 
 at heaven's gate there sits an angel, who admits no one 
 who has not the same features as our adorable Lord. 
 There comes a man with a crown upon his head. 
 " Yes," he says, " thou hast a crown, it is true, but 
 crowns are not the medium of access here." Another 
 approaches, dressed in robes of state and the gown of 
 learning. " Yes," says the angel, " it may be good, but 
 gowns and learning are not the marks that shall admit 
 you here." Another advances, fair, beautiful, and 
 comely. " Yes," saith the angel, " that might please 
 
Christ's people — imitators of him. 273 
 
 on earth, but beauty i.s not wanted here.'' There 
 cometh up another, who is heralded by fame, and pre- 
 faced by the blast of the clamor of mankind; but the 
 ano-el saith, " It is well with man, but tliou hast no 
 right to enter here." Then there appears another ; poor 
 he may have been; illiterate he may have been; but 
 the angel, as he looks at him, smiles and says, " It is 
 Christ again; a second edition of Jesus Christ is there. 
 Come in, come in. Eternal glory thou shalt win. 
 Thou art like Christ ; in heaven thou shalt sit, because 
 thou art like him." Oh I to be like Christ is to enter 
 heaven ; but to be unlike Christ is to descend to hell. 
 Likes shall be gathered together at last, tares with tares, 
 wheat with wheat. If ye have sinned with Adam and 
 liave died, ye shall lie with the spiritually dead forever, 
 unless ye rise in Christ to newness of life ; then shall 
 we live with him throughout eternity. Wheat with 
 wheat, tares with tares. " Be not deceived ; God is 
 not mocked : whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he 
 also reap." Go away with this one thought, then, my 
 brethren, that you can test yourselves by Christ. If 
 you are Ulce Clurist, you are of Christ, and shall be with 
 Christ. If you are unlike him, you have no portion in 
 the great inheritance. INIay my poor discourse help to 
 fan the floor and reveal the chaff; yea, may it lead 
 many of you to seek to be partakers of the inheritance 
 of the saints in light, to the praise of his grace. To 
 him be all honor given! Amen. 
 
SEliMON XIY. 
 
 THOUGHTS ON THE LAST BATTLE. 
 
 " The sting of death is sin ; and the strength of sin is the law. But, thanks be unto 
 God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." — 1 CoR. xv. 56, 67. 
 
 Wjtile the Bible is one of the most poetical of 
 '♦oolcs, though its language is unutterably sublime, yet 
 we must remark how constantly it is true to nature. 
 There is no straining of a fact, no glossing over a 
 truth. However dark may be the subject, while it 
 lights it up with brilliance, yet it does not deny the 
 gloom connected with it. If you will read this chapter 
 of Paul's epistle, so justly celebrated as a master-piece 
 of language, you will find him speaking of that which 
 is to come after death with such exultation and glory 
 that you feel, " If this be to die, then it were well to 
 depart at once." Who has not rejoiced, and whose 
 heart has not been lifted up or filled w^th a holy fire, 
 while he has read such sentences as these : " In a mo- 
 ment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for 
 the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised 
 incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this cor- 
 ruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must 
 
 (274) 
 
THOUGHTS ON THE LAST BATTLE. 270 
 
 put on immortality. So, when this corruptible shall 
 have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have 
 put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the say- 
 ing tliat is \vritten, Death is swallowed up in victory. 
 O death, where is thy sting ? O grave, where is thy 
 victory ? " Yet, with all that majestic language, with 
 all that bold flight of eloquence, he does not deny that 
 death is a gloomy thing. Even his very figures imply 
 it. He does not laugh at it ; he does not say, " Oh, it 
 is nothing to die ; " he describes death as a monster, 
 he speaks of it as having a sting; he tells us w^herein the 
 strength of that sting lies ; and even in the exclamation 
 of triumph, he imputes that victory not to unaidca 
 flesh, but he says, " Thanks be to God, who giveth us 
 the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 
 
 When I select such a text as this, 1 feel that I can- 
 not preach from it. The thought o'ermasters me ; my 
 words do stagger ; there are no utterances that are 
 gi'eat enough to convey the mighty meaning of this 
 wondrous text. If I had the eloquence of all men uni- 
 ted in one, if I could speak as never man spake, (with 
 the exception of that one godlike man of Nazareth) I 
 could not compass so vast a subject as this. I will not 
 therefore pretend to do so, but offer you such thoughts 
 as my mind is capable of producing. 
 
 To night we shall speak of three things : first, f/ie 
 sting- of death; secondly, the strength of sin; and 
 thirdly, the victory of faith. 
 
 I. First, the sting- of death. The apostle pictures 
 death as a terrible dragon, or monster, which, coming 
 upon all men, must be fought with by each one for 
 himself. He gives us no hopes whatever that any of 
 us can avoid it. He tells us of no bridge across the 
 
276 sermonk. 
 
 river Death ; lie does not give us the faintest hope that 
 it is possible to emerge from this state of existence 
 into another without dying : he describes the monster 
 as being exactly in our path, and with it we must fight, 
 each man personally, separately, and alone ; each man 
 must die ; we all must cross the black stream ; each 
 one of us must go through the iron gate. There is no 
 passage from this world into another without death. 
 Having told us, then, that there is no hope of our 
 escape, he braces up our nerves for the combat ; but he 
 gives us no hope that we shall be able to slay the mon- 
 ster ; he does not tell us that we can strili:e our sword 
 into his heart, and so overturn and overwhelm death ; 
 but pointing to the dragon, he seems to say, " Thou 
 canst not slay it, man ; there is no hope that thou 
 shouldst ever put thy foot upon its neck and crush its 
 head ; but one thing can be done — it has a sting 
 which thou mayest extract ; thou canst not crush death 
 under foot, but thou mayest pull out the sting which 
 is deadly ; and then thou need not fear the monster, 
 for monster it shall be no longer, but rather it shall be 
 a swift winged angel to waft thee aloft to heaven." 
 Where, then, is the sting of this dragon? Where 
 must I strilve ? What is the sting ? The apostle tells 
 us, " that the sting of death is sin." Once let me cut 
 off that, and then, though death may be di'eary and 
 solemn, I shall not dread it; but, holding up the mon- 
 ster's sting, I shall exclaim, " O death, where is thy 
 sting ? O gi'ave, where is thy victory ? " Let us now 
 dwell upon the fact, that " the sting of death is sin." 
 
 1. First, sin puts a sting into death, from the fact that 
 sin hroiig;hl death into the world. Men could be more 
 content to die if they did not know it was a punish- 
 
THOUGHTS ON THE LAST BATTLE. 277 
 
 ment. I suppose if we had never sinned, there would 
 have been some means for us to go from this w^orld to 
 another. It cannot be supposed that so huge a popu- 
 lation would have existed, that all the myriads who have 
 lived from Adam down till now could ever have inhab- 
 ited so small a globe as tliis ; there would not have 
 been space enough for them. But there might have 
 been provided some means for taking us off when the 
 proper time should come, and bearing us safely to 
 heaven. God might have furnished horses and chariots 
 of fire for each of his Elijahs; or, as it was said of 
 Enoch, so it might have been declared of each of us, 
 " He is not, for God hath taken him." Thus to die, if 
 we may call it death to depart from this body and to 
 be with God, would have been no disgrace ; in fact, it 
 would have been the highest honor : fitting the loftiest 
 aspiration of the soul, to live quicldy its little time in 
 this world, then to mount and be with its God ; and in 
 the prayers of the most pious and devout man, one of 
 his sublimest petitions would be, " O God, hasten the 
 time of my departure, when I shall be with thee." 
 When such sinless beings thought of their departure, 
 they would not tremble, for the gate would be one of 
 ivory and pearl — not as now, of iron — the stream 
 would be as nectar, far diiTercnt from the present " bit- 
 terness of death." Bat alas! how diflerent! Death is 
 now the punishment of sin. " In the day thou eatest 
 thereof thou shalt surely die." ^'In Adam all die." By 
 his sin every one of us become subject to the penalty of 
 death, and thus, being a punishment, death has its 
 sting. To the best man, the holiest Cliristian, the most 
 sanctified intellect, the soul that has the nearest and 
 dearest intercourse with God, death must appear to 
 24 
 
278 SERMONS. 
 
 have a sting, because sin was its mother. O fatal off- 
 spring of sin, I only dread thee because of thy paren- 
 tage ! If thou didst come to me as an honor, I could 
 wade through Jordan even now, and, when its chilling 
 billows were around me, I would smile amidst its 
 surges; and in the swellings of Jordan, my song should 
 swell too, and the liquid music of my voice should join 
 with the liquid swellings of the floods, " Hallelujah I 
 It is blessed to cross to the land of the glorified." 
 This is one reason why the sting of sin is death. 
 
 2. But I must take it in another sense. " The sting 
 of death is sin : " — that is to say, that ivhicli shall make 
 death most terrible to man ivill he sin, if it is not for- 
 given. If that be not the exact meaning of the apos- 
 tle, still it is a great truth, and I may find it here. If sin 
 lay heavy on me and were not forgiven — if my trans- 
 gressions were unpardoned — if such were the fact, 
 (though I rejoice to know it is not so) it would be the 
 very sting of death to me. Let us consider a man dy- 
 ing, and looking back on his past life : he will find in 
 death a sting, and that sting will be his past sin. Ima- 
 gine a conqueror's deathbed. He has been a man of 
 blood from his youth up. Bred in the camp, his lips 
 were early set to the bugle, and his hand, even in in- 
 fancy, struck the drum. He had a martial spirit ; he 
 delighted in the fame and applause of men ; he loved 
 the dust of battle and the garment rolled in blood. He 
 has lived a life of what men call glory. He has 
 stormed cities, conquered countries, ravaged continents, 
 overrun the world. See his banners hanging in the 
 haU, and the marks of glory on his escutcheon. He is 
 one of earth's proudest warriors. But now he comes 
 to die ; and when he lies down to expire, what shall 
 
THOUGHTS ON THE LAST UaTTLE. 279 
 
 invest his death with horror ? It shall be his sin. Me- 
 thinks I see the monarch dying; he lies in state; 
 around him are his nobles and his councillors; but 
 there is somewhat else there. Hard by his side there 
 stands a spirit from Hades ; it is a soul of a departed 
 woman. She looks on liim and says, " Monster I my 
 husband was slain in battle through thy ambition : I 
 was made a widow, and my helpless orphans and my- 
 self were starved." And she passes by. Her husband 
 comes, and opening wide his bloody wounds, he cries, 
 « Once I called thee monarch ; but, by thy vile cove- 
 tousness, thou didst provoke an unjust war. See here 
 these wounds — I gained them m the siege. For tliy 
 sake I mounted fu'st the scaling ladder ; this foot stood 
 upon the top of the wall, and I waved my sword in 
 triumph, hut in hell I lifted up my eyes in torment. 
 Base A\Tetch, thine ambition hurried me thither I" 
 Turning his horrid eyes upon him, he passes by. Then 
 up comes another, and another, and another yet : wak- 
 ing from their tombs, they stalk around his bed and 
 haunt him; the dreary procession still marches on, 
 looking at the dying tpant. He shuts his eyes, but he 
 feels the cold and bony hand upon his forehead ; he 
 quivers, for the sting of death is in his heart. " O 
 Death!" says he; "to leave this large estate, this 
 mighty rcahu, this pomp and power — this were some- 
 what; but to meet those men, those women, and those 
 orphan children, face to face; to hear them saying, 
 ' Art thou become like one of us?' while kings whom 
 I have dethroned, and monarchs whom I have cast 
 down shall rattle their chains in my ears, and say, 
 * Thou wast our destroyer, but how art thou fallen from 
 heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morningi How art thou 
 
280 • SERMONS. 
 
 brought down as in a moment from thy glory and Ihy 
 pride ! ' " There, you see, the yting of dealli would be 
 the man's sin. It would not sting him that he had to 
 die, but that he had sinned, that he had been a bloody 
 man, that his hands were red witli wholesale murder 
 — this would plague him indeed, for "the sting of 
 death is sin." 
 
 Or, suppose another character— a minister. He has 
 stood before the world, proclaiming sometliing which 
 he called the gospel. He has been a noted preacher ; 
 the multitude have been hanging on his lips ; they 
 have hstened to his words ; before his eloquence a 
 nation stood amazed, and thousands trembled at his 
 voice. But his preaching is over ; the time when he 
 can mount the pulpit is gone ; another standing-place 
 awaits him, another congregation, and he must hear 
 another and a better preacher than himself. There he 
 lies. He has been vm faithful to his charge. He 
 preached philosophy to charm his people, instead of 
 preaching truth and aiming at their hearts. And, as he 
 pants upon his bed, that worst and most accursed of 
 men — for surely none can be worse than he — there 
 comes up one, a soul from the pit, and looking him in 
 the face, says, " I came to thee once, trembling on 
 account of sin ; I asked thee the road to heaven, and 
 thou didst say, ' Do such and such good works,' and I 
 did them, and am damned. Thou didst tell me an un- 
 truth ; thou didst not declare plainly the word of God." 
 He vanishes only to be followed by another ; he has 
 been an irreligious character, and as he sees the minister 
 upon his deathbed, he says, "Ah! and art thou here? 
 Once I strolled into thy house of prayer, but thou hadst 
 such a sermon that I could not understand. I listened ; I 
 
THOUGHTS ON THE LAST BATTLE. 281 
 
 wanted to hear something from thy lips, s^ome truth that 
 might burn my soul and make me repent ; but I knew not 
 what thou saidst ; and here I am." The ghost stamps 
 his foot, and the man quivers like an aspen leaf, because 
 he knows it is all true. Then the whole congregation 
 arise before him as he lies upon his bed ; he looks upon 
 the motley group ; he beholds the snowy heads of the 
 old, and the glittering eyes of the young ; and lying 
 there upon his pillow, he pictures all the sins of his 
 past life, and he hears it said, " Go thou ! unfaithful to 
 thy charge ; thou didst not divest thyself of thy love 
 of pomp and dignity ; thou didst not speak 
 
 * As though thou ne'er might'st speak again, 
 A dying man to djing men.' " 
 
 Oh! it may be something for that minister to leave his 
 charge, somewhat for him to die ; but worst of all, the 
 sting of death \vi]l be his sin : to hear his parish come 
 howling after him to hell ; to see his congregation fol- 
 lowing behind him in one mingled herd, he having led 
 them astray, having been a false prophet instead of a 
 true one, speaking peace, peace, where there was no 
 peace, deluding them with lies, charming them with 
 music, when he ought rather to have told them in 
 rough and rugged accents the Word of God. Verily, it 
 is true, it is true, the sting of death to such a man 
 shall be his great, his enormous, his heinous sin of 
 having deluded others. 
 
 Thus, then, having painted two full-length pictures, 
 I might give each one of you miniatures of yourselves. 
 I iTiight picture thee, O drunkard, when thy cups are 
 drained, and when thy liquor shall no longer be sweet 
 to thy taste, when worse than gall shall be the dainties 
 
 2i* 
 
282 SERMONS. 
 
 that thou drinkest, when, within an hour, the worms 
 shall make a carnival upon thy flesh ; I might picture 
 thee as thou lookest back upon thy misspent life. And 
 thou, O swearer, methinks I see thee there, with thine 
 oaths echoed back by memory to thine own dismay. 
 And thou, man of lust and wickedness, thou who hast 
 debauched and seduced others, I see thee there ; and 
 the sting of death to thee, how horrible, how dreadful I 
 It shall not be that thou art groaning with pain, it 
 shall not be that thou art racked with agony, it shall 
 not be that thy heart and flesh faileth, but the sting, 
 the sting, shall be thy sin. How many in this place 
 can spell the word " remorse ? " I pray you may never 
 know its awful meaning. Remorse, remorse ! You 
 know its derivation ; it signifies to bite. Ah ! now we 
 dance with our sins — it is a merry life with us — we 
 take their hands, and, sporting in the noontide sun, we 
 dance, we dance, and live in joy. But then those sins 
 shall bite us. The young Lions we have stroked and 
 played with shall bite ; the young adder, the serpent, 
 whose azm-e hues have well delighted us, shall bite, 
 shall sting, when remorse shall occupy our souls. I 
 might, but I will not, tell you a few stories of the aw- 
 ful power of remorse ; it is the first pang of hcU ; it is 
 the ante-chamber of the pit. To have remorse is to 
 feel the sparks that blaze upwards from the fire of the 
 bottomless Gehennam ; to feel remorse is to have eter- 
 nal torment commenced within the soul. The sting 
 of death shall be unforgiven, unrepented sin. 
 
 3. But if sin in the retrospect be the sting of death, 
 what must sin in the prospect be ? My friends, we do 
 not often enough look at what sin is to be. "We see 
 what it is ; first the seed, then the blade, then the ear, 
 
THOUGHTS ON THE LAST BATTLE. 283 
 
 and then the full com in the ear. It is the wish, the 
 imagination, the desire, the sight, the taste, the deed ; 
 but Avhat is sin in its next development ? We have 
 observed sin as it grows ; we have seen it, at first, a 
 very Uttle thing, but expanding itself until it has 
 swelled into a mountain. We have seen it like " a 
 little cloud, the size of a man's hand," but we have be- 
 held it gather until it covered the skies \\ath blackness, 
 and sent down drops of bitter rain. But what is sin 
 to be in the next state ? We have gone so far, but sin 
 is a thing that cannot stop. We have seen whereunto 
 it has gro^\^l, but whereunto icill it grow ? for it is not 
 ripe when we die ; it has to go on still ; it is set going, 
 but it has to unfold itself forever. The moment we 
 die, the voice of justice cries," Seal up the fountain of 
 blood ; stop the stream of forgiveness ; he that is holy 
 let him be holy still ; he that is filthy let him be filthy 
 still." And after that, the man goes on growing filthier 
 and filthier stiU; his lust developes itself, his vice 
 increases; all those evil passions blaze with tenfold 
 more fury, and, amidst the companionship of others 
 like himself, without the restraints of grace, without 
 the preached word, the man becomes worse and worse ; 
 and who can tell whereunto his sin may grow ? I 
 have sometimes likened the hour of our death to that 
 celebrated picture, which I think you have seen in the 
 National GaUery, of Perseus holding up the head of 
 Medusa. That head turned all persons into stone who 
 looked upon it. There is a warrior there with a dart 
 in his hand ; he stands stiffened, turned into stone, wdth 
 the javelin even in his fist. There is another, with a 
 poniard beneath his robe, about to stab ; he is now the 
 statue of an assassin, motionless and cold. Another 
 
284 8ERMONS. 
 
 is creeping along stealthily, lilie a man in ambuscade, 
 and there he stands a consolidated rock ; he has looked 
 only upon that head, and he is frozen into stone. WeU, 
 such is death. What I am when death is held before 
 me, that I must be forever. When my spirit goes, if 
 God finds me hymning his praise, I shall hymn it in 
 heaven ; doth he find me breathing out oaths, I shall 
 follow up those oaths in hell. Where death leaves me 
 judgment finds me. As I die, so shall 1 live eternally. 
 
 ** There are no acts of pardon passed 
 In the cold grave to ■which we haste. ' ' 
 
 It is forever, forever, forever ! Ah ! there are a set of 
 heretics in these days w^ho talk of short punishment, 
 and preach about God's transporting souls for a term 
 of years, and then letting them die. Where did such 
 men learn their doctrine, I wonder? I read in God's 
 word that the angel shall plant one foot upon the earth, 
 and the other upon the sea, and shall swear by him 
 that liveth and was dead, that time shall be no longer. 
 But, if a soul could die in a thousand years, it would 
 die in time; if a million of years could elapse, and 
 then the soul could be extinguished, there would be 
 such a thing as time; for, talk to me of years, and 
 there is time. But, sirs, when that angel has spoken 
 the word, " Time shall be no longer," things will then 
 be eternal ; the spirit shall proceed in its ceaseless rev- 
 olution of weal or woe, never to be stayed, for there is 
 no time to stop it ; the fact of its stopping would imply 
 time ; but everything shall be eternal, for time shall 
 cease to be. It w^ell becomes you, then, to consider 
 where ye are and what ye are. Oh I stand and trem- 
 ble on the narrow neck of land 'tvvLxt the two 
 
THOUGHTS ON THE LAST BATTLE. 285 
 
 unbounded seas, for God in heaven alone can tell how 
 soon thou inaycst be launched upon the eternal future. 
 May God grant that, when that last hour may come, 
 we may be prepared for it I Like the thief, unheard, 
 unseen, it steals through night's dark shade. Perhaps, 
 as here I stand, and rudely speak of these dark, hidden 
 things, soon may the hand be stretched, and dumb the 
 mouth that lisps the faltering strain. Oh! thou that 
 dwellest in heaven, thou power supreme, thou everlast- 
 ing King, let not that hour intrude upon me in an ill- 
 spent season ; but may it find me rapt in meditation 
 high, hymning my great Creator. So, in the last mo- 
 ment of my life, I will hasten beyond the azure, to 
 bathe the wings of this my spirit in their native ele- 
 ment, and then to dwell with thee forever, 
 
 ** Far from a world of grief and sin, 
 With God eternally shut in." 
 
 II. " The strength of sin is the law." 
 
 I have attempted to show how to fight this monster 
 — it is by extracting and destroying its sting. I pre- 
 pare myself for the battle. It is true I have sinned, 
 and therefore I have put a sting into death, but I will 
 endeavor to take it away. I attempt it, but the mon- 
 ster laughs me in the face, and cries, " The strength of 
 sin is the law. Before thou canst destroy sin thou must 
 in some way satisfy the law. Sin cannot be removed 
 by thy tears or by thy deeds, for the law is its strength ; 
 and until thou hast satisfied the vengeance of the law, 
 untU thou hast paid the uttermost farthing of its 
 demands, my sting cannot be taken away, for the very 
 strength of sin is the law." Now, I must try and 
 explain this doctrine that the strength of sin is the law. 
 
286 SERMONS. 
 
 Most men thiiik that sin has no strength at all. " Oh," 
 say many, " we may have sinned very much, but we will 
 repent, and we will be better for the rest of our lives ; 
 no doubt God is merciful, and he will forgive us." 
 And we hear many divines often speak of sin as if it 
 were a very venial thing. Inqune of them what is a 
 man to do ? There is no deep repentance required, no 
 real inward worldngs of divine gi'ace, no casting him- 
 self upon the blood of Christ. They never tell us 
 about a complete atonement having been made. They 
 have, indeed, some shadowy idea of an atonement, that 
 Christ died just as a matter of form to satisfy justice ; but 
 as to any literal taking away of our sins, and suffering 
 the actual penalty for us, they do not consider that 
 God's law requires any such thing. I suppose they do 
 not, for I never hear them assert the positive satisfaction 
 and substitution of our Lord Jesus Clirist. But with- 
 out that, how can we take away the strength of sin ? 
 1. The strength of sin is in the law, first, in this 
 respect, that the laiv being^ spiritual, it is quite impossible 
 for US to live ivithout sin. If the law were merely carnal, 
 and referred to the flesh ; if it simply related to open 
 and overt actions, I question, even then, whether we 
 could live without sin ; but when I turn over the ten 
 commandments and read, " Thou shalt not covet," I 
 know it refers even to the wish of my heart. It is 
 said, " Thou shalt not commit adultery ; " but it is said, 
 also, that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after 
 her hath already committed that sin. So that it is not 
 merely the act, it is the thought ; it is not the deed 
 simply, it is the very imagination, that is a sin. Oh 
 now sinner, how canst thou get rid of sin? Thy* 
 very thoughts, the inward workings of thy mind, these 
 
THOUGHTS ON THE LAST BATTLE. 287 
 
 are crimes — tliis is guilt and desperate wickedness. 
 h there not, now, strength in sin ? Hath not the law 
 put a potency in it ? Has it not nerved sin with such 
 a power that all thy strength cannot hope to wipe away 
 the black enormity of thy transgression ? 
 
 2. Then, again, the law puts strength into sin in 
 this respect — that it will not abate one tittle of its stern 
 demands. It says to every man who breaks it, " I will 
 not forgive you." You hear persons talk about God's 
 mercy. Now, if they do not believe in the gospel they 
 must be under the law ; but where in the law do we 
 read of mercy ? If you will read the commandments 
 through, there is a curse after them, but there is no 
 provision made for pardon. The law itself speaks not 
 of that; it thunders out without the slightest mitiga- 
 tion, " The soul that sinneth it shall die." If any of 
 you desire to be saved by works, remember one sin 
 will spoil your righteousness ; one dust of this earth's 
 dross wdll spoil the beauty of that perfect righteous- 
 ness which God requires at your hands. If ye would 
 be saved by works, men and brethren, ye must be as 
 holy as the angels, ye must be as pure and as immac- 
 ulate as Jesus; for the law requires perfection, and 
 nothing short of it ; and God, with unflinching ven- 
 geance, will smite every man low who cannot bring 
 him a perfect obedience. If I cannot, when I come 
 before his throne, plead a perfect righteousness as being 
 mine, God will say, " you have not fulfilled the demands 
 of my law ; depart, accursed one I You have sinned, 
 and you must die." " Ah," says one, " can we ever have 
 a perfect righteousness, then ? " Yes, I will tell you of 
 that in the third point ; thanks be unto Christ, who 
 giveth us the victory through his blood and through his 
 
288 
 
 SERMONS. 
 
 righteousness, who adorns us as a bride in her jewels, 
 as a husband arrays his wife with ornaments. 
 
 o. Yet again ; the law gives strength to sin from the 
 fact that, for every transgression^ it will exact a punish- 
 inent. The law never remits a farthing of debt: it 
 says, " Sin — punishment." They are linked together 
 with adamantine chains ; they are tied, and cannot be 
 severed. The law speaks not of sin and mercy ; mercy 
 comes in the gospel. The law says, " Sin — die ; 
 transgress — be chastised ; sin — hell." Thus are they 
 linked together. Once let me sin, and I may go to the 
 foot of stern Justice, and as, with blind eyes, she holds 
 the scales, I may say, " O Justice, remember, I was 
 holy once ; remember that on such and such an occa- 
 sion I did keep the law." " Yes," saith Justice, " all I 
 owe thee thou shalt have ; I will not punish thee for 
 what thou hast not done ; but remember you this crime, 
 O sinner ? " and she puts in the heavy weight. The 
 sinner trembles, and he cries, " But canst thou not for- 
 get that? Wilt thou not cast it away?" "Nay," 
 saith Justice, and she puts in another weight. " Sin- 
 ner, dost thou recollect this crime ? " " Oh ! " says the 
 siimer, " wilt thou not for mercy's sake — ? " "I will 
 not have mercy," says Justice ; " Mercy has its own 
 palace, but I have nought to do with forgiveness here ; 
 mercy belongs to Christ. If you will be saved by Jus- 
 tice, you shall have your full of it. If you come to me 
 for salvation, I will not have mercy brought in to help 
 me ; she is not my vicegerent ; I stand here alone with- 
 out her." And again, as she holds the scales, she puts 
 in another iniquity, another crime, another enormous 
 transgression ; and each time the man begs and prays 
 that he may have that passed by. Says Justice, " Nay, 
 
 
THOUGHTS 0\ THE LAST BATTLE. 289 
 
 I must exact the penalty ; I have sworn I will, and I 
 will. Canst thou find a substitute for thyself ? If thou 
 canst, there is the only room I have for mercy. I will 
 exact it of that substitute, but even at his hands I will 
 have the utmost jot and tittle ; I will abate nothing; I 
 am God's Justice, stern and unflinching, I will not alter, 
 I \vi\\ not mitigate the penalty." She still holds the 
 scales. The plea is in vain. " Never will I change !" 
 she cries; "bring me the blood, bring me the price to 
 its utmost ; count it down, or else, sinner, thou shalt 
 
 die. 
 
 Now, my friends, I ask you, if ye consider the spir- 
 ituality of the law, the perfection it requires, and its 
 unflinching severity, are you prepared to take away the 
 sting of death in your own persons ? Can you hope 
 to overcome sin yourselves ? Can you trust that, by 
 some righteous works, you may yet cancel your guilt? 
 If you think so, go, O foolish one, go I O madman, go ! 
 work out thine own salvation with fear and trembling, 
 without the God that worketh in thee ; go, twist thy 
 rope of sand ; go, build a pvTamid of air ; go, prepare 
 a house with bubbles, and think it is to last forever ; 
 but know it will be a dream with an awful awakening, 
 for as a dream when one awaketh will he despise alike 
 your image and your righteousness. " The strength of 
 sin is the law." 
 
 III. But now, in the last place, we have before us 
 the victory of faith. The Christian is the only cham- 
 pion who can smite the dragon of death, and even he 
 cannot do it of himself; but when he has done it, he 
 shall cry, " Thanks be to God who giveth us the vic- 
 tory through our Lord Jesus Christ." One moment, 
 and I will show you how the Christian can look upon 
 25 
 
290 SERMONS. 
 
 death with complacency, through the merits of Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 First, Christ has taken away the strength of sin in 
 this respect, tliat he has removed the law. We are not 
 under bondage, but under grace. Law is not our 
 directing principle, grace is. Do not misunderstand 
 me. The principle that I must do a thing — that is to 
 say, the principle of law, " do, or be punished ; do, or 
 be rewarded," is not the motive of the Christian's life ; 
 his principle is grace : " God has done so much for me, 
 what ought I to do for him ? " We are not under the 
 law in that sense, but under grace. 
 
 Then Christ has removed the law in this sense, that 
 he has completely satisfied it. The law demands a per- 
 fect righteousness; Christ says, "Law, thou hast it; 
 find fault with me ; I am the sinner's substitute ; have 
 I not kept thy commandments? Wherein have I 
 violated thy statutes ? " " Come here, my beloved," he 
 says, and then he cries to Justice, " Find a fault in this 
 man ; I have put my robe upon him ; I have washed 
 him in my blood ; I have cleansed him from his sin. 
 All the past is gone ; as for the future, I have secured 
 it by sanctification ; as for the penalty, I have borne it 
 myself; at one tremendous draught of love I have 
 drunk that man's destruction dry ; I have borne what 
 he should have suffered ; I have endured the agonies he 
 ought to have endm-ed. Justice, have I not satisfied 
 thee ? Did I not say upon the tree, and didst thou not 
 coincide with it, ' It is finished ; it is finished ? ' Have 
 I not made so complete an atonement that there is now 
 no need for that man to die and expiate his guilt ? Do 
 I not complete the perfect righteousness of this poor 
 once condemned, but now justified spirit?" "Yes," 
 
THOUGHTS OS THK LAST BATTLE. 291 
 
 saith Justice, " I am well satisfied, and even more con- 
 tent, if possible, than if the sinner had brought a 
 spotless righteousness of his own." And now, what 
 saith the Christian after this ? Boldly he comes to the 
 realms of death, and entering the gates there, he cries, 
 " Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's 
 elect?" And when he had said it, the dragon drops his 
 sting. He descends into the grave ; he passes by the 
 place where fiends lie down in fetters of iron ; he sees 
 their chains, and looks into the dungeon where they 
 dwell, and as he passes by the prison door, he shouts, 
 " Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect ? " 
 They growl and bite their iron bonds, and hiss in 
 secret, but they cannot lay aught to his charge. Now 
 see him mount aloft. He approaches God's heaven, he 
 comes against the gates, and Faith still triumphantly 
 shouts, " Who shall lay anything to the charge of 
 God's elect ? " And a voice comes from witliin : " Not 
 Christ, for he hath died; not God, for he hath justified." 
 Received by Jesus, Faith enters heaven, and again she 
 cries, " Who even h«re amongst the spotless and ran- 
 somed, shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect ? " 
 Now tl^ law is satified, sin is gone ; and now surely 
 we need not fear the sting of the dragon, but we may 
 say, as Paul did, when he rose into the majesty of poetry 
 — such beautiful poetry that Pope himself borrowed 
 his words, only transposing the sentences, " O grave, 
 where is thy victory ? O death, where is thy sting ? " 
 
 If it were necessary to night, I might speak to you 
 concerning the resurrection^ and I might tell you how 
 much that takes away the sting of death, but I will 
 confine myself to the simple fact, that the sting of death 
 is sin, that the strength of sin is the law, and that Christ 
 
292 SERMONS. 
 
 gives us the victory by taking the sting away, and re- 
 moving the strength of sin by his perfect obedience. 
 
 And now, sirs, how many are there here w^ho have 
 any hope that for them Christ Jesus died? Am I 
 coming too close home, when most solemnly I put the 
 question to each one of you, as I stand in God's presence 
 this night, to free my head of your blood ; as I stand 
 and appeal with all the earnestness this heart is capable 
 of, "Are you prepared to die? Is sin pardoned? is the 
 law satisfied ? Can you view the flowing 
 
 *' Of Christ's soul-redccming blood, 
 With Divine assurance knowing, 
 That he hath made your peace with God?" 
 
 O ! can ye now put one hand upon your heart, and the 
 other upon the Bible, and say, " God's word and I 
 agree ; the witness of the Spirit here and the witness there 
 are one. I have renounced my sins, I have given up my 
 evil practices ; I have abhorred my own righteousness ; 
 I trust in nought but Jesus' doings; simply do I depend 
 on him. 
 
 * Nothing in my hands I bring, 
 Simply to thy ci'oss I cling.' " * 
 
 If SO, should you die where you are — sudden death 
 were sudden glory. 
 
 But, my hearers, shall I be faithful with you ? or 
 shall I belie my soul ? Which shall it be ? Are there 
 not many here who, each time the bell tolls the depar- 
 ture of a soul, might well ask the question, " Am I 
 prepared? " and they must say, " No." I shall not turn 
 prophet to-night ; but were it right for me to say so, I 
 fear not one half of you are prepared to die. Is that 
 true ? Yea, let the speaker ask Mmself the question, 
 
THOUGHTS ON THE LAST BATTTE. 293 
 
 " Am I prepared to meet my Maker face to face?" Oh, 
 sit in your seat and catechise your souls with that solemn 
 question. Let each one ask himself, " Am I prepared^ 
 should I be called, to die ? " Methinks I hear one sa.y 
 with confidence, " I know that my Redeemer livcth." 
 " Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.'' 
 I hear another say \\i.th trembling accents, 
 
 "■ Ah ! guilty, •\vcak, and helpless worm, 
 On Christ's kind arms I fall ; 
 He is my strength and righteousness, 
 My Jesus and my all. ' ' 
 
 Yes, sweet words ! I would rather have written that 
 one verse than INIilton's " Paradise Lost." It is such 
 a matchless picture of the true condition of the be- 
 lievmg soul. But I hear another say, " I shall not 
 answer such a question as that. I am not going to be 
 dull to-day. It may be gloomy weather outside to-day, 
 but I do not want to be made melancholy." Young 
 man, young man, go thy way. Let thine heart cheer 
 thee in the days of thy youth ; but for all this the Lord 
 shall bring thee to judgment. What wilt thou do, 
 careless spirit, when thy friends have forsaken thee, 
 when thou art alone with God ? Thou dost not like to 
 be alone, young man, now, dost thou ? A falling leaf 
 will startle thee. To be alone an hour wiU bring on an 
 insufferable feeling of melancholy. But thou wilt be 
 alone — and a dreary alone it will be — with God an 
 enemy I How wilt thou do in the swellings of Jordan ? 
 What vdlt thou do when he taketh thee by the hand at 
 eventide, and asketh thee for an account; when he 
 says, " What didst thou do in the beginning of thy 
 days ? how didst thou spend thy life ?" When he asks 
 
 9A* 
 
29-i- SERMONS. 
 
 thee, " Where are the years of thy manhood ?" When 
 he questions thee about thy wasted Sabbaths, and mquires 
 how thy latter years were spent, what wilt thou say 
 then ? Speechless, without an answer, thou wilt stand. 
 Oh, I beseech you, as ye love yourselves, take care ! 
 Even now, begin to weigh the solemn matters of eternal 
 life. Oh! say not, "Why so earnest? why in such 
 haste ? " Sirs, if I saw you lying in your bed, and your 
 house was on fire, the fire might be at the bottom of 
 the house, and you might slumber safely for the next 
 five minutes ; but with all my might I would pull you 
 from your bed, or I would shout, " Awake I awake ! 
 the flame is under thee." So, with some of you who 
 are sleeping over hell's mouth, slumbering over the pit 
 of perdition, may I not awake you ? may I not depart 
 a little from clerical rules, and speak to you as one 
 speaketh to his fellow whom he loves ? Ah I if I loved 
 you not, I need not be here. It is because I wish to win 
 your souls, and, if it be possible, to win for my Master 
 some honor, that I would thus pour out my heart before 
 you. As the Lord liveth, sinner, thou standest on a 
 single plank over the mouth of hell, and that plank is 
 rotten. Thou hangest over the pit by a solitary rope, 
 and the strands of that rope are brealdng. Thou art 
 like that man of old, whom Dionysius placed at the 
 head of the table ; before him was a dainty feast, but 
 the man ate not, for directly over his head was a sword 
 suspended by a hair. So art thou, sinner. Let thy 
 cup be full, let thy pleasures be high, let thy soul be 
 elevated, seest thou that sword ? The next time thou 
 sittest in the theatre, look up and see that sword; the 
 next time thou art in a tavern, look at that sw^ord ; when 
 next in thy business thou scornest the rules of God's 
 
THOUGHTS ON THE LAST BATTLE. 295 
 
 gospel, look at that sword. Though thou scest it not it 
 is there. Even now, ye may hear God saying to 
 Gabriel, " Gabriel, that man is sitting in his seat in 
 the Hall ; he is hearing, but is as though he heard not; 
 unsheathe thy blade; let the glittering sword cut through 
 that hair ; let the weapon fall upon him and divide his 
 soul and body." Stop^ thou Gabriel, stop ! Save the 
 man a little while. Give him yet an hour, that he 
 may repent. Oh, let him not die. True, he has been 
 here these ten or a dozen nights, and he has listened 
 without a tear; but stop, and peradventure he may 
 repent yet. Jesus backs up my entreaty, and he cries, 
 " Spare him yet another year, till I dig about him and 
 dung liim, and though he now cumbers the ground, he 
 may yet bring forth fruit, that he may not be hewai 
 down and cast into the fire." I thank thee, O God ; 
 thou wilt not cut him down to-night ; but to-morrow 
 may be his last day. Ye may never see the sun rise, 
 though you have seen it set. Take heed. Hear the 
 word of God's gospel, and depart with God's blessing. 
 " Whosoever believeth on the name of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ shall be saved." " He that believeth and is bap- 
 tized shall be saved." " He is able to save to the utter- 
 most, all that come unto him." " Whosoever cometh 
 unto him, he will in no \\ise cast out." Let every one 
 that heareth say, " Come ; whosoever is athirst, let him 
 come and take of the water of life, freely." 
 
SERMON XV. 
 
 HEAVEN AND HELL.* 
 
 '• And I say unto you, that many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down 
 with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. But the children of 
 the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness : there shall be weeping and gnashing 
 of teeth. — Matthew viii. 11, 12. 
 
 This is a land where plain speaking is allowed, and 
 where the people are willing to afford a fair hearing to 
 any one who can tell them that which is worth their 
 attention. To-night I am quite certain of an attentive 
 audience, for I know you too well to suppose otherwise. 
 This field, as you are all aware, is private property ; 
 and I would just give a suggestion to those who go 
 out in the open air to preach — that it is far better to 
 get into a field, or a plot of unoccupied building-ground, 
 than to block up the roads and stop business; it is 
 moreover far better to be somewhat under protection, 
 so that we can at once prevent disturbance. 
 
 To-night, I shall, I hope, encourage you to seek the 
 road to heaven. I shall also have to utter some very 
 sharp things concerning the end of the lost in the pit 
 
 ♦ Delivered in open air, at Hackney, to an audience of twelve thousand 
 persons. 
 
 (296) 
 
Hl'AVEN AND IlKLL. 297 
 
 of hell. Upon both these subjects I will try and speak, 
 as God helps me. But, I beseech you, as you love your 
 souls, weigh right and \\Tong this night ; see whether 
 what I say be the truth of God. If it be not, reject it 
 utterly, and cast it aw^ay ; but if it is, at your peril dis- 
 regard it ; for, as you shall answer before God, the great 
 Judge of heaven and 'earth,, it will go ill with you 
 if the words of his servant and of his Scripture be 
 despised. 
 
 iMy text has two parts. The fn:st is very agreeable 
 to my mind, and gives me pleasure ; the second is ter- 
 rible in the extreme ; but, since they are both the truth, 
 they must be preached. The first part of my text is, 
 " I say unto you, that many shall come from the east 
 and west, and shall sit down with xVbraham, and Isaac^ 
 and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven." The sentence 
 which I call the black, dark, and threatening part is 
 this : " But the children of the kingdom shall be cast 
 out into outer darkness : there shall be weeping. and 
 gnashing of teeth." 
 
 I. Let us take the first part. Here is a most glo- 
 rious promise. I will read it again : " Many shall come 
 from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abra- 
 ham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven." 
 I like that text, because it tells me what heaven is, and 
 gives me a beautiful picture of it. It says, it is a 
 place where I shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, 
 and Jacob. O w^hat a sweet thought that is for the 
 working man I He often \\Tpes the hot sweat from his 
 face, and he wonders whether there is a land where he 
 shall have to toil no longer. He scarcely ever eats a 
 mouthful of bread that is not moistened with the sweat 
 of his brow. Often he comes home weary, and flings 
 
298 SERMONS. 
 
 himself upon his couch, perhaps too tired to sleep. He 
 says, "Oh! is there no land where I can rest? Is 
 there no place where I can sit, and for once let these 
 w^eary limbs be still ? Is there no land where I can be 
 quiet ? Yes, thou son of toil and labor, 
 
 " There is a hsippj land 
 Far, far, away — ' ' 
 
 where toil and labor are unknown. Beyond yon blue 
 welldn there is a city fair and bright, it walls are jasper, 
 and its light is brighter than the sun. There "the 
 weary are at rest, and the wicked cease from troubling." 
 Immortal spirits are yonder, who never wdpe sweat 
 from their brow, for " they sow not, neither do they 
 reap ; " they have not to toil and labor. 
 
 " There, on a green and flowery mount, 
 Their weary souls shall sit ; 
 And with transporting joys recount 
 The labors of their feet." 
 
 To my mind, one of the best views of heaven is, that 
 it is a land of rest — especially to the working man. 
 Those who have not to work hard, think they will love 
 heaven as a place of service. That is very true. But 
 to the working man, to the man who toils with his 
 brain or with his hands, it must ever be a sweet thought 
 that there is a land where we shall rest. Soon, this 
 voice will never be strained again ; soon, these lungs 
 will never have to exert themselves beyond their power ; 
 soon, this brain shall not be racked for thought ; but I 
 shall sit at the banquet-table of God; yea, I shall 
 recline on the bosom of Abraham, and be at ease for- 
 ever. Oh ! weary sons and daughters of Adam, you 
 
HEAVEN AND HELL. 
 
 299 
 
 will not have to drive the ploughshare into the un- 
 thankful soil in heaven, you will not need to rise to 
 daily toils before the sun hath risen, and labor still 
 when the sun hath long ago gone to his rest ; but ye 
 shall be still, ye shall be quiet, ye shall rest yourselves, 
 for all are rich in heaven, all are happy there, all are 
 peaceful. Toil, trouble, travail, and labor, are words 
 that cannot be spelled in heaven ; they have no such 
 things there, for they always rest. 
 
 And mark the good company they sit ivith. They are 
 to " sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob." 
 Some people think that in heaven we shall know no- 
 body. But our text declares here, that we " shall 
 sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob." 
 Then I am sure that we shall be aware that they are 
 Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob. I have heard of a 
 good woman, who asked her husband, when she was 
 dying, " My dear, do you think you will know me 
 when you and I get to heaven?" "Shall I know 
 you ? " he said, " why, I have always known you while 
 I have been here, and do you think I shall be a greater 
 fool when I get to heaven?" I think it was a very 
 good answer. If we have known one another here, we 
 shall know one another there. I have dear departed 
 friends up there, and it is always a sweet thought to 
 me, that when I shall put my foot, as I hope I may, 
 upon the threshhold of heaven, there will come my sis- 
 ters and brothers to clasp me by the hand and say, 
 " Yes, thou loved one, and thou art here." Dear rela- 
 tives that have been separated, you will meet again in 
 heaven. One of you has lost a mother — she is gone 
 above ; and if you follow the track of Jesus, you shall 
 meet here there. Methinks I see yet another coming 
 
300 SERMONS. 
 
 to meet you at the door of Paradise ; and though the 
 ^ies of natural affection may be in a measure forgotten, 
 — I may be allowed to use a figure — how blessed 
 would she be as she turned to God, and said, " Here 
 am I, and the children that thou hast given me." We 
 shall recognize our friends : — husband, you will know 
 your wife again. Mother, you will know those dear 
 babes of yours — you marked their features when they 
 lay panting and gasping for breath. You know how ye 
 hung over their graves when the cold sod was sprinkled 
 over them, and it was said, " Earth to earth, dust to 
 dust, and ashes to ashes." But ye shall hear those 
 loved voices again : ye shall hear those sweet voices 
 once more ; ye shall yet know that those whom ye 
 loved have been loved by God. Would not that be a 
 dreary heaven for us to inhabit, where we should be 
 alike unknowing and unknown? I would not care 
 to go to such a heaven as that. I believe that heaven 
 is a fellowship of the saints, and that we shall know 
 one another there. I have often thought I should love 
 to see Isaiah ; and, as soon as I get to heaven, me- 
 thinks, I would ask for him, because he spoke more of 
 Jesus Christ than all the rest. I am sure I should 
 want to find out good George Whitfield — he who so 
 continually preached to the people, and wore himself 
 out with a more than seraphic zeal. O yes I we shall 
 have choice company in heaven when we get there. 
 There will be no distinction of learned and unlearned, 
 clergy and laity, but we shall walk freely one among 
 another ; we shaU feel that we are brethren ; we shall 
 " sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob." I 
 have heard of a lady who was visited by a minister on 
 her deathbed, and she said to him, " I want to ask you 
 
HEAVEN AND HELL. 301 
 
 one question, now I am about to die." " Well," said 
 the minister, " what is it?" " Oh I " said she, in a very 
 affected way, " I want to know if there are two places 
 in heaven, because I could not bear that Betsey in the 
 kitchen should be in heaven along with me, she is so 
 unrefined ? " The minister turned round and said, 
 " O don't trouble yourself about that, madam. There 
 is no fear of that ; for, until you get rid of your accursed 
 pride, you will never enter heaven at all." We must 
 all get rid of om* pride. We must come down and 
 stand on an equality in the sight of God, and see in 
 every man a brother, before we can hope to be found 
 in glory. Aye, we bless God, we thank him that there 
 will be no separate table for one and for another. The 
 Jew and the Gentile will sit down together. The 
 great and the small shall feed in the same pasture, and 
 we shall " sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and 
 Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven." 
 
 But my text hath a yet greater depth of sweetness, 
 for it says, that " many shall come and shall sit down." 
 Some narrow-minded bigots think that heaven will be 
 a very small place, where there will be a very few peo- 
 ple, who went to their chapel or their church. I con- 
 fess, I have no wish for a very small heaven, and love 
 to read in the Scriptures that there are many mansions 
 in my Father's house. How often do I hear people 
 say, " Ah ! straight is the gate and narrow is the way, 
 and few there be that find it. There will be very few 
 in heaven; there will be most lost." My friend, I differ 
 from you. Do you think that Christ will let the devil 
 beat him ? that he will let the devil have more in hell 
 than there will be in heaven ? No : it is impossible. 
 For then Satan would laugh at Christ. There will be 
 26 
 
302 SERMONS. 
 
 more in heaven than there are among the lost. God 
 says, that " there will be a number that no man can 
 number who will be saved ; " but he never says, that 
 there will be a number that no man can number that 
 will be lost. There will be a host beyond all count 
 who will get into heaven. What glad tidings for you 
 and for me ! for, if there are so many to be saved, why 
 should not I be saved? why should not you? why 
 should not yon man, over there in the crowd, say, " Can- 
 not I be one among the multitude ? " And may not 
 that poor woman there take heart, and say, " Well, if 
 there were but half-a-dozen saved, I might fear that I 
 should not be one ; but, since many are to come, why 
 should not I also be saved ? " Cheer up, disconsolate ! 
 Cheer up, son of mourning, child of sorrow, there is 
 hope for thee still ! I can never know that any man is 
 past God's grace. There be a few that have sinned 
 that sin that is unto death, and God gives them up; 
 but the vast host of mankind are yet within the reach 
 of sovereign mercy — " and many of them shall come 
 from the east and from the west, and shall sit down in 
 the kingdom of heaven." 
 
 Look at my text again, and you will see where these 
 people come from. They are to " come from the east 
 and west." The Jews said that they would all come 
 from Palestine, every one of them, every man, woman, 
 and child ; that there would not be one in heaven that 
 was not a Jew. And the Pharisees thought that, if 
 they were not all Pharisees, they could not be saved. 
 But Jesus Christ said, there will be many that will 
 come from the east and from the west. There will be 
 a multitude from that far off land of China, for God is 
 doing a great work there, and we hope that the gospel 
 
HEAVEN AND HELL. 303 
 
 Avill yet be victorious in that land. There will be a 
 multitude from this western land of England, from the 
 western country beyond the sea in America, and from 
 the south in Australia, and from the north in Canada, 
 Siberia, and Russia. From the uttermost parts of the 
 earth there shall come many to sit down in the king- 
 dom of God. But I do not think this text is to be 
 understood so much geographically as spiritually. 
 When it says that they " shall come from the east and 
 west," I think it does not refer to nations particularly, 
 but to different kinds of people. Now, " the east and 
 the west " signify those who are the very furthest olY 
 from religion; yet many of them will be saved and get 
 to heaven. There is a class of persons who will 
 always be looked upon as hopeless. Many a time 
 have I heard a man or woman say of such a one, " He 
 cannot be saved : he is too abandoned. What is he 
 good for? Ask him to go to a place of worship — he 
 was drunk on Saturday night. What would be the 
 use of reasoning with him? There is no hope for him. 
 He is a hardened fellow. See what he has done these 
 many years. What good will it be to speak to him ? 
 New, hear this, ye who think your fellows worse than 
 yourselves — ye who condemn others, whereas ye are 
 often just as guilty: Jesus Christ says, "many shall come 
 from the east and west." There will be many in heaven 
 that were drunkards once. I believe, among that blood- 
 bought throng, there are many who reeled in and out 
 the tavern half their lifetime. But, by the power of 
 divine grace, they were able to dash the liquor-cup to 
 the ground. They renounced the riot of intoxicatio >. 
 — fled away from it — and served God. Yes! Thei 
 will be many in heaven w^ho were drunkards on cart! 
 
304 SERMONS. 
 
 There will be many harlots : some of the most aban- 
 doned will be fomid there. You remember the story 
 of Whitfield's once saying, that there would be some 
 in heaven who were " the devil's castaways ; " some 
 that the devil would hardly think good enough for him, 
 and yet whom Christ would save. Lady Huntingdon 
 once gently hinted that such language was not quite 
 proper. But, just at the time, there happened to be 
 heard come a ring at the bell, and Whitfield went 
 down stairs. Afterwards he came up and said, " Your 
 ladyship, what do you think a poor woman had to say 
 to me just now? She was a sad profligate, and she 
 said, * O, Mr. Whitfield, w^hen you were preaching, you 
 told us that Christ would take in the devil's castaways, 
 and I am one of them,' " and that was the means of her 
 salvation. Shall anybody ever check us from preach- 
 ing to the lowest of the low ? I have been accused of 
 getting all the rabble of London around me. God 
 bless the rabble I God save the rabble I then, sav I. 
 But, suppose they are " the rabble," who need the 
 gospel more than they do? Who require to have 
 Christ preached to them more than they do? We have 
 lots of those who preach to ladies and gentlemen, and 
 we want some one to preach to the rabble in these de- 
 generate days. Oh ! here is comfort for me, for many 
 of the rabble are to come from the east and from the 
 west. Oh I what would you think if you were to see 
 the difference between some that are in heaven and 
 some that shall be there ? There might be found one 
 whose hair hangs across his eyes, his locks are matted, 
 he looks horrible, his bloated eyes start from his face, 
 he grins almost like an idiot, he has drunk away his 
 '^ery brain until life seems to have departed, so far as 
 
 
HEAVEN AND HELL. 305 
 
 sense and being are concerned; yet I would tell to you, 
 " tliat man is capable of salvation" — and in a few 
 years I might say "look up yonder;" see you that bright 
 star ? discern you that man with a crown of pure gold 
 upon his head ? do you notice that being clad in robes 
 of sapphire and in garments of light ? That is the 
 selfsame man who sat there a poor benighted, almost 
 idiotic being; yet sovereign grace and mercy have 
 saved him I There are none, except those, as I have 
 said before, who have sinned the unpardonable sin, 
 who are beyond God's mercy. Fetch me out the worst, 
 and still I would preach the gospel to them ; fetch me 
 out the vilest, still I would preacli to them, because I 
 recollect my Master said, " Go ye out into the highways 
 and hedges and compel them to come in that my house 
 may be filled." " Many shall come from the east and 
 west, and shdl sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and 
 Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven." 
 
 There is one more word I must notice before I have 
 done with this sweet portion — that is the word "5//a//." 
 Oh! I love God's "shalls" and "wills." There is 
 nothing comparable to them. Let a man say " shall," 
 what is it good for ? "I will," says man, and he never 
 performs ; " I shall," says he, and he breaks his promise. 
 But it is never so with God's "shalls." If he says 
 " shall " it shall be ; when he says " will " it will be. 
 Now he has said here, " many shall come." The devil 
 says "they shall not come;" but " they shall come." 
 Their sins say "you can't come;" God says you "shall 
 come." You, yourselves, say, " you won't come; " God 
 says " you shall come." Yes I there are some here who 
 are laughing at salvation, who can scoff at Christ and 
 mock at the gospel ; but I tell you some of you shall 
 
 2G* 
 
306 SERMONS. 
 
 come yet. "What!" you say, " can God make me 
 become a Christian ? " I tell you yes, for herein rests 
 the power of the gospel. It does not ask your consent; 
 but it gets it. It does not say. Will you have it? but it 
 makes you willing in the day of God's power. Not 
 against your will, but it makes you willing. It shows 
 you its value, and then you fall in love with it ; and 
 straightway you run after it and have it. Many people 
 have said, " we wUl not have anything to do with reli- 
 gion," yet they have been converted. I have heard of 
 a man who once went to chapel to hear the singing, 
 and as soon as the minister began to preach, he put his 
 fingers in his ears and would not listen. But by-and- 
 by some tiny insect settled on his face, so that he was 
 obliged to take one finger out of his ears to brush it 
 away. Just then the minister said, " he that hath ears 
 to hear let him hear." The man listened ; and God 
 met with him at that moment to his soul's conversion. 
 He went out a new man, a changed character. He who 
 came in to laugh retired to pray ; he who came in to mock 
 went out to bend his knee in penitence ; he who entered 
 to spend an idle hour went home to spend an hour in de- 
 votion with his God. The sinner became a saint ; the 
 profligate became a penitent. Who knows that there 
 may not be some like that here? The gospel wants 
 not your consent, it gets it. It knocks the enmity out 
 of your heart. You say, " I do not want to be saved; " 
 Christ says you shall be. He makes your will turn 
 round, and then you cry, "Lord, save, or I perish." 
 Ah, might Heaven exclaim, " I knew I would make you 
 say that;" and then he rejoices over you because he 
 has changed your will and made you willing in the day 
 of his power. If Jesus Christ were to stand on this 
 
HEAVEN AND HELL. 307 
 
 platform to-night, what would many people do with 
 him? "OI" say some, "we would make him a King." 
 I do not believe it. They would crucify him again, if 
 they had the opportunity. If he were to come and say, 
 " Here I am, I love you, will you be saved by me ? " 
 not one of you would consent if you were left to your 
 will. If he should look upon you with those eyes, 
 before whose power the lion would have crouched ; if 
 he spoke with that voice which poured forth a cataract 
 of eloquence like a stream of nectar rolling down from 
 the cliffs above, not a single person would come to be 
 his disciple. No ; it wants the power of the Spirit to 
 make men come to Jesus Christ. He himself said, 
 " No man can come to me except the Father who hath 
 sent me draw him." Ah I we want that ; and here we 
 have it. They shall come ! they shall come I ye may 
 laugh, ye may despise us; but Jesus Christ shall not 
 die for nothing. If some of you reject him there are 
 some that will not. If there are some that are not 
 saved, others sltall be. Christ shall see his seed, he sJiall 
 prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall 
 prosper in his hands. Some think that Christ died, and 
 yet, that some for whom he died will be lost. I never 
 could understand that doctrine. If Jesus, my surety, 
 bore my griefs and carried my sorrows, I believe my- 
 self to be as secure as the angels in heaven. God can- 
 not ask payment twice. If Christ paid my debt, shall 
 I have to pay it again ? No. 
 
 *' Free from sin I walk at largo, 
 
 The Saviour's blood 's my full discharge ; * 
 
 At his dear feet content I lay, 
 
 A sinner saved, and homage pay." 
 
 They shall come I They shall come I And nought in 
 
308 SERMONS. 
 
 heaven, nor on earth, nor in hell, can stop them from 
 coming. 
 
 And now, thou cliief of sinners, list one moment, 
 while I call thee to Jesus. There is one person 
 here to-night, who thinks himself the worst soul 
 that ever lived. There is one who says to him- 
 self, " I do not deserve to be called to Christ, I am 
 sure I " Soul ! I call thee I thou lost, most wretched 
 outcast, this night, by authority given me of God, I 
 call thee to come to my Saviour. Sometime ago, 
 when I went into the County Court to see what they 
 were doing, I heard a man's name called out, and 
 immediately the man said, "Make way! make w^ay ! 
 they call me ! " And up he came. Now, I call the 
 chief of sinners to-night, and let him'^ay, " Make way! 
 make way doubts ! make way fears ! make way sins ! 
 Christ calls me ! And if Christ calls me, that is 
 enough ! " 
 
 '*I'll to his gracious feet approach 
 Whose sceptre mercy giA^ es. 
 Perhaps he may command me " Touch ! " 
 And then the suppliant lives. 
 
 * ' I can but perish if I go ; 
 I am resolved to try, 
 For if I stay away, I know 
 I must forever die. 
 
 " But, should I die with mercies sought. 
 When I the king have tried. 
 That were to die, delightful thought 1 
 As sinner never died." 
 
 Go and try my Saviour ! Go and try my Saviour ! 
 If he casts you away after you have sought him, tell it 
 in the pit, that Christ would not hear you. But that 
 
 i 
 
HEAVEN AND HELL. 309 
 
 you shall never be allowed to do. It would dL-^honor 
 the mercy of the covenant for God to cast away one 
 penitent sinner ; and it never shall be while it is \\Tit- 
 ten, " Many shall come from the east and west, and 
 shaU sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in 
 the kingdom of heaven." 
 
 II. The second part of my text is heart-breaking. 
 I could preach with great delight to myself from the 
 first part ; but here is a dreary task to my soul, because 
 there are gloomy words here. But, as I have told you, 
 what is WTitten in the Bible must be preached, whether 
 it be gloomy or cheerful. There are some ministers 
 who never mention anjihing about hell. I heard of a 
 minister, who once said to his congregation, " If you 
 do not love the Lord Jesus Christ, you will be sent to 
 that place which it is not polite to mention." He 
 ought not to have been allowed to preach agaiji, I am 
 sure, if he could not use plain words. Now, if I saw 
 that house on fire over there, do you think I would 
 stand and say, " I believe the operation of combustion 
 is proceeding yonder ? " No ; I would call out " Fire ! 
 Fire!" and then everybody would know what I meant. 
 So, if the Bible says, « The children of the kingdom 
 shall be cast out into outer darkness," am I to stand 
 liere and mince the matter at all? God forbid I We 
 must speak the truth as it is \\Titten. It is a terrible 
 truth, for it says, "Me children of the kingdom shall be 
 cast out I " Now, who are those children ? I will tell 
 you. " The children of the kingdom" are those people 
 who are noted for the externals of piety, but who have 
 nothing of the internals of it. People\vhoni you will 
 see, with their Bibles and Hymn Books, marching olF to 
 chapel as religiously as possible, or going to church as 
 
810 SERMONS. 
 
 devoutly and demurely as they can, looking as sombre 
 and serious as parish beadles, and fancying that they are 
 quite sure to be saved, though their heart is not in the 
 matter ; nothing but their bodies. These are the per- 
 sons who are " the children of the kingdom." They 
 have no grace, no life, no Christ, and they shall be cast 
 into utter darkness. 
 
 Again, these people are the children of pious fathers 
 and mothers. There is nothing touches a man's heart, 
 mark you, like talking about his mother. I have heard 
 of a swearing sailor, whom nobody could manage, not 
 even the police, who was always making some dis- 
 turbance wherever he went. Once he went into a 
 place of wor-hip, and no one could keep him still; but 
 a gentleman went up and said to him, " Jack, you had 
 a mother once." With that the tears ran down his 
 cheeks. He said, " Ha ! bless you, sir, I had ; and I 
 brought her gray hairs with sorrow to the grave, and a 
 pretty fellow I am to be here to-night." He then sat 
 down, quite sobered and subdued by the very mention 
 of his mother. Ah ! and there are some of you, " chil- 
 dren of the kingdom," who can remember your mothers. 
 Your mother took you on her knee and taught you 
 early to pray ; your father tutored you in the ways of 
 godliness. And yet you are here to-night, without 
 grace in your heart — without hope of heaven. You 
 are going downwards towards hell as fast as your feet 
 can carry you. There are some of you who have 
 broken your poor mother's heart. Oh ! if I could tell 
 you what she has suffered for you when you have at 
 night been indulging in your sin. Do you know what 
 your guilt will be, ye " children of the kingdom," if ye 
 perish after a pious mother's prayers and tears have 
 
HEAVEN AND HELL. 311 
 
 fallen upon you ? I can conceive of no one entering 
 hcil with a worse grace than the man who goes there 
 with drops of his mother's tears on his head, and with 
 his father's prayers following him at his heels. Some 
 of you will inevitably endure this doom ; some of you, 
 young men and women, shall wake up one day and 
 find yourselves in utter darkness, while your j)arents 
 shall be up there in heaven, looking down upon you 
 with upbraiding eyes, seeming to say, " What I after 
 all w^e did for you, all we said, are ye come to this?" 
 " Children of the kingdom!" do not think that a pious 
 mother can save you. Do not think, because your 
 father was a member of such-and-such a church, that 
 his godliness will save you. I can suppose some one 
 standing at heaven's gate, and demanding, " Let me 
 in I Let me in I" What for? "Because my mother 
 is in there." Your mother had nothing to do with you. 
 If she was holy, she was holy for herself; if she was 
 evil, she was evil for herself. " But my gi*andfather 
 prayed for me ? " That is no use : did you pray for 
 yoiu-self? "No; I did not." Then grandfather's 
 prayers, and grandmother's prayers, and father's and 
 mother's prayers may be piled on the top of one 
 another till they reach the stars, but they never can 
 make a ladder for you to go to heaven by. You must 
 seek God for yourself; or rather God must seek you. 
 You must have vital experience of godliness in your 
 heart, or else you are lost, even though all your friends 
 were in heaven. That was a dreadful dream which a 
 pious mother once had, and told to her children. She 
 thought the judgment-day was come. The great books 
 were opened. They all stood before God. And Jesus 
 Christ said, " Separate the chaff from the wheat ; put 
 
n 
 
 12 SERMONS. 
 
 the goats on the left hand, and the sheep on the right." 
 The mother dreamed that she and her children were 
 standing just in the middle of the great assembly. And 
 the angel came, and said, " I must take the mother, 
 she is a sheep : she must go to the right hand. The 
 children are goats ; they must go on the left." She 
 thought as she went, her childi'en clutched her, and said, 
 ^' Mother, can we part ? Must we be separated ? " 
 She then put her arms around them, and seemed to 
 say, " My children, I would, if possible, take you 
 with me." But in a moment the angel touched her : 
 her cheeks were dried, and now, overcoming natural 
 affection, being rendered supernatural and sublime, 
 resigned to God's will, she said, " My children, I taught 
 you w^ell, I trained you up, and you forsook the ways 
 of God; and now all I have to say is. Amen to your 
 condemnation." Thereupon they were snatched away, 
 and she saw them in perpetual torment, while she was 
 in heaven. Young man, what will you think, when 
 the last day comes, to hear Christ say, " Depart, ye 
 cursed?" And there will be a voice just behind him, 
 saying. Amen. And, as you inquire whence came the 
 voice, you will find it was your mother. Or, young 
 woman, when thou art cast away into utter darkness, 
 what will you think to hear a voice saying. Amen. 
 And as you look, there sits your father, his iips still 
 moving with the solemn curse. Ah! "children of the 
 kingdom," the penitent reprobates will enter heaven, 
 many of them; publicans and sinners will get there; 
 repenting drunkards and swearers will be saved ; but 
 many of the "children of the kingdom" will be cast 
 out. Oh I to think that you who have been so well 
 trained should be lost, while many of the worse will be 
 
IIEAVEX AND HELL. 813 
 
 saved. It will be the hell of hells for you to look np 
 and see there " poor Jack," the drunkard, lying in 
 Abraham's bpsom, wliile you, who have had a pious 
 mother, are cast into hell, simply because you would 
 not believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, but put his gospel 
 from you, and lived and died without it I That were 
 the very sting of all, to see ourselves cast away, when 
 the chief of sinners finds salvation. 
 
 Now list to me a little while — I will not detain you 
 lon£T — whilst I undertake the doleful task of tellinj? 
 you what is to become of these " children of the king- 
 dom." Jesus Christ says they are to be "cast into utter 
 darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth." 
 
 First, notice, they are to be cast out. They are not 
 said to ffo ; but, when they come to heaven's gates, they 
 are to be cast out. As soon as hypocrites arrive at the 
 gates of heaven, Justice will say, " There he comes ! 
 there he comes ! He spurned a father's prayers, and 
 mocked a mother's tears. He has forced his way down- 
 ward against all the advantages mercy has supplied. 
 And now, there he comes. Gabriel, take the man." 
 The angel, binding you hand and foot, holds you one 
 single moment over the mouth of the chasm. He bids 
 you look down — down — down. There is no bottom ; 
 and you hear coming up from the abyss, sullen moans, 
 and hollow groans, and screams of tortured ghosts. 
 You quiver, your bones melt like wax, and your mar- 
 row quakes within you. Where is now thy might ? 
 and where thy boasting and bragging ? Ye shriek and 
 cry, ye beg for mercy ; but the angel, with one tremend- 
 ous grasp, seizes you fast, and then hurls you down, 
 with the cry, " Away, away I" And down you go to 
 the pit that is bottomless, and roll forever downward — 
 
 27 
 
o 
 
 14 SERMONS. 
 
 downward — downward — ne'er to fnid a resting-place 
 for the sole of your feet. Ye shall be cast out. 
 
 And ichere are you to he cast to ? Ye are to be cast 
 "into outer darkness;" ye are to be put in the place 
 where there will be no hope. For, by "light," in Scrip- 
 ture, we understand " hope ;" and you are to be put 
 " into outer darkness," where there is no light — no hope. 
 Is there a man here who has no hope? I cannot 
 suppose such a person. One of you, perhaps, says, " I 
 am thirty pounds in debt, and shall be sold up by-and- 
 by ; but I have a hope that I may get a loan, and so 
 escape my difficulty." Says another, " My business is 
 ruined, but things may take a turn yet — 1 have a 
 hope." Says another, " I am in great distress, but I 
 hope that God will provide for me." Another says, " I 
 am fifty pounds in debt ; I am sorry for it ; but 1 will 
 set these sti'ong hands to work, and do my best to get 
 out of it." One of you thinks a friend is dying, but 
 you have a hope that, perhaps, the fever may take a 
 turn — that he may yet live. But, in hell, there is no 
 hope. They have not even the hope of dying — the 
 hope of being annihilated. They are forever — forever 
 — forever — lost ! On every chain in hell, there is written 
 " forever." In the fires, there blazes out the words, " for- 
 ever." Up above their heads, they read " forever." 
 Their eyes are galled, and their hearts are pained with 
 the thought that it is "forever." Oh! if I could tell 
 you to-night that hell would one day be burned out, and 
 that those who were lost might be saved, there would 
 be a jubilee in hell at the very thought of it. But it 
 cannot be — it is " forever " they are " cast into utter 
 darkness." 
 
 But I want to get over this as quiclvly as I can ; for 
 
HEAVEN AND HELL. ^iO 
 
 who can bear to tallv thus to his fellow creatures? 
 What is it that the lost are doing ? They are " weep- 
 ing and gnashing their teeth." Do you gnash your 
 teeth now? You would not do it except you were in 
 pain and agony. Well, in hell there is always gnashing 
 of teeth. And do you know why? There is one 
 gnashing his teeth at his companion, and mutters, "I 
 was led into hell by you ; you led me astray, you taught 
 me to drink the first time." And the other gnashes his 
 teeth and says, " What if I did? you made me worse 
 than I should have been in after times." There is a 
 child who looks at her mother, and says, " Mother, you 
 trained me up to vice." And the mother gnashes her 
 teeth again at the child, and says, " I have no pity for 
 you, for you excelled me in it, and led me into deeper 
 sin." Fathers gnash their teeth at their sons, and sons 
 at their fathers. And, methinks, if there are any who 
 will have to gnash their teeth more than others, it wil 
 be seducers, when they see those whom they have led 
 from the paths of virtue, and hear them saying, " Ah. 
 we are glad you are in hell with us, you deser%^e it, for 
 you led us here." Have any of you, to-night, upon 
 your consciences the fact that you have led others to 
 the pit? O may sovereign grace forgive you. " ^^ e 
 have gone astray like lost sheep." said David. Now, a 
 lost sheep never goes astray alone, if it is one of a Hock. 
 I lately read of a sheep that leaped over the parapet of 
 a bridge, and was followed by every one of the Hock. 
 So, if one man goes astray, he leads others with him. 
 Some of you will have to account for others' sins when 
 you get to heU, as AveU as your own. Oh, what 
 "weeeping and gnashing of teeth" there wUl be in 
 that pit I 
 
316 SERMONS. 
 
 Now shut the black book. Who wants to say any 
 more about it ? I have warned you solemnly. 1 have 
 told you of the \\Tath to come ? The evenl. darkens 
 and the sun is setting. Ah I and the eveniiij^., darken 
 with some of you. I can see gray-headed men here. 
 Are your gray hairs a crown of glory, or a fool's cap to 
 you ? Are you on the very verge of heaven, or are 
 you tottering on the brink of your grave, and sinldng 
 down to perdition? 
 
 Let me warn you, gray-headed men ; your evening 
 is coming. O, poor tottering gray-head, wilt thou take 
 the last step into the pit ? Let a young child step be- 
 fore thee, and beg thee to consider. There is thy staff 
 — it has nothing of earth to rest upon: and now, ere 
 thou diest, bethink thyself this night ; let seventy years 
 of sin start up; let the ghosts of thy forgotten trans- 
 gressions march before thine eyes. What wilt thou do 
 with seventy wasted years to answer for — with seventy 
 years of criminality to bring before God ? God give 
 thee grace this night to repent and to put thy trust in 
 Jesus. 
 
 And you middle-aged men are not safe ; the evening 
 lowers with you, too ; you may soon die. A few morn- 
 ings ago, I was roused early from my bed, by the 
 request that I would hasten to see a dying man. I 
 hurried off with all speed to see the poor creature ; 
 but, when I reached the house, he was dead — a corpse. 
 As I stood in the room, I thought, " Ah I that man 
 little thought he should die so soon." There were his 
 wife and children, and friends — they little thought he 
 should die ; for he was hale, strong, and hearty but a 
 few days before. None of you have a lease of your 
 lives. If you have, where is it? Go and see if you 
 
HEAVEN AND IlLLL. 317 
 
 have it anywhere in yoiir chest at home. No I y(^ may 
 die to-morrow. Let me therefore warn you by the 
 mercy of God; let me speak to you as a brother may 
 speak ; for I love you, you know I do, and would press 
 the matter home to your hearts. Oh, to be amongst 
 the many who shall be accepted in Christ — how blessed 
 that will be I and God has said that whosoever sliall call 
 on his name shall be saved : he casts out none that 
 come unto him through Christ. 
 
 And now, ye youths and maidens, one word with 
 you. Perhaps ye thinlv that religion is not for you. 
 " Let us be happy," say you : " let us be merry and 
 joyous." How long, young man, how long? " Till I 
 am twenty-one." Are you sure that you will live till 
 then? Let me tell you one thing. If you do live till 
 that time, if you have no heart for God now, you will 
 have none then. Men do not get better if left alone.' 
 It is with them as with a garden : if you let it alone, 
 and permit w^eeds to grow, you will not expect to fmd 
 it better in sLx months — but worse. Ah I men talk as 
 if they could repent when they like. It is the work of 
 God to give us repentance. Some even say, " I shall 
 turn to God on such-and-such a day. Ah I if you felt 
 aright, you would say, " I must run to God, and ask 
 him to give me repentance now, lest I should die be- 
 fore I have found Jesus Christ, my Saviour." 
 
 Now, one w^ord in conclusion. J have told you of 
 heaven and hell ; what is the way, then, to escape from 
 hell and to be found in heaven? I will not tell you my 
 old tale again to-night. I recollect when I told it you 
 before, a good friend in the crowd said, " Tell us some- 
 thing fresh, old fellow." Now really, in preaching ten 
 times a week, we cannot always say things fresh. You 
 27* 
 
318 SERMONS. 
 
 have heard John Gough, and you know he tells his 
 tales over again. I have nothing but the old gospel. 
 " He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved." 
 There is nothing here of works. It does not say, " He 
 who is a good man shall be saved," but "he who 
 believes and is baptized." Well, what is it to believe ? 
 It is to put your trust entirely upon Jesus. Poor Peter 
 once believed, and Jesus Christ said to him, " Come on, 
 Peter, walk to me on the water." Peter went stepping 
 along on the tops of the waves without sinking ; but 
 when he looked at the waves, he began to tremble, and 
 down he went. Now, poor sinner, Christ says, " Come 
 on ; walk on your sins ; come to me ; " and if you do, 
 he will give you power. If you believe on Christ, you 
 will be able to walk over your sins — to tread upon 
 them and overcome them. I can remember the time 
 when my sins first stared me in the face. I thought 
 myself the most accursed of all men. I had not com- 
 mitted any very great open transgressions against 
 God; but I recollected that I had been well trained 
 and tutored, and I thought my sins were thus greater 
 than other people's. I cried to God to have mercy; 
 but I feared that he would not pardon me. Month 
 after month, I cried to God, but he did not hear me, 
 and I knew not what it was to be saved. Sometimes 
 I was so weary of the world that I desired to die ; but 
 then I recollected that there was a worse world after 
 this, and that it would be an ill matter to rush before 
 my Maker unprepared. At times I wickedly thought 
 God a most heartless tyrant, because he did not answer 
 my prayer ; and then, at others, I thought, " I deserve 
 his displeasure; if he sends me to hell, he will be 
 just." But I remember the hour when I stepped into 
 
UEAVEN AND HELL. 
 
 319 
 
 a little place of worship, and ^aw a tall, thin man step 
 into the pulpit: I have never seen him from that day, 
 and probably never shall, till we meet in heaven. He 
 opened the Bible and read, with a feeble voice, " Look 
 unto me, and be ye saved all the ends of the earth ; for 
 I am God, and beside me there is none else." Ah ! 
 thought I, I am one of the ends of the earth ; and then 
 turning round, and fLxing his gaze on me, as if he 
 knew me, the minister said, " Look, look, look." Why, 
 I thought I had a great deal to do, but I found it was 
 only to look. I thought I had a garment to spin out 
 for myself; but I found that if I looked, Christ would 
 give me a garment. Look, sinner, that is to be saved. 
 Look mito him, all ye ends of tiie earth, and be saved. 
 That is what the Jews did, when Moses held up the 
 brazen serpent. He said, " Look!" and they looked. 
 The serpent might be twisting round them, and they 
 might be nearly dead ; but they simply looked, and the 
 moment they looked, the serpent dropped off, and they 
 were healed. Look to Jesus, sinner. " None but Jesus 
 can do helpless sinners good." There is a hymn we 
 often sing, but which I do not think is quite right. It 
 says, 
 
 *' Venture on him, venture wholly ; 
 Let no other trust intrude." 
 
 Now, it is no venture to trust in Christ, not in the least ; 
 he who trusts in Christ is quite secure. I recollect that, 
 when dear John Hyatt was dying, Matthew Wilks said 
 to him, in his usual tone, " Well, John, could you trust 
 your soul in the hands of Jesus Christ now ? " " Yes," 
 said he, " a million I a million souls'." I am sure that 
 every Cliristian that has ever trusted in Christ can say 
 
820 SERMONS. 
 
 Amen to that. Trust in him ; he will never deceive you 
 My blessed Master will never cast you away. 
 
 I cannot speak much longer, and I have only to thank 
 you for your kindness. I never saw so large a number 
 so still and quiet. I do really think, after all the hard 
 things that have been said, that the English people 
 know who loves them, and that they will stand by the 
 man w^ho stands by them. I thank every one of you ; 
 and above all, I beg you, if there be reason or sense in 
 what I have said, bethink yom*selves of what you are, and 
 may the Blessed Spirit reveal to you your state! INIay 
 he show you that you are dead, that your are lost, ruined. 
 May he make you feel what a dreadful thing it would 
 be to sink into hell! May he point you to heaven! 
 May he take you as the angel did of old, and put his 
 hand upon you, and say, " Flee ! flee I flee ! Look to 
 the mountain ; look not behind thee ; stay not in all the 
 plain." And may we all meet in heaven at last ; and 
 there we shall be happy forever. 
 
 P. S. This sermon was watered by many prayers of the faithful in 
 Zion. The preacher did not intend it for publication ; but seeing that it 
 is now in print, he will not apologize for its faulty composition or ramb- 
 ling style ; but instead thereof, he would beg the prayers of his readers, 
 that this feeble sermon may all the more exalt the honor of God, by the 
 salvation of many who shall read it. " The excellency of the power is 
 of God, and not of man." 
 
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