LIBRARY OF PRINCETON THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY WORKS ^Wfe^ OK TUE I.ATE REV. JAMES 'HAMILTON, D.D.,F.L.S. IN SIX VOLUMES. VOL. VI. r LONDON: JAMES NISBET & CO., BERNERS STREET J ^85. **. ■ . p$* . ■ ■f ■ ti Anderson liiier SERMONS AND LECTURES SELECTED EROM THE MANUSCRIPTS OF THE LATK JAMES HAMILTON, D.D.,F.L.S. LONDON: JAMES NISBET & CO., BERNERS STREET. 1885. NOTE. From a great number of Mann scripts the Sermons which constitute this volume have been selected with the view of presenting to the reader fair specimens of the Author's ministry, at once in the uniformity of its leading aim, and the characteristic variety and freedom of its means and methods. This volume completes the Uniform Edition of the Works of the late Dr. Hamilton. The whole series is now presented to the Christian public as a memorial of one whom to know was to love and honour, with the earnest prayer that by the printed page the dead may yet not only speak anew with power to those who once enjoyed his ministry, but also convey comfort, instruction, and reproof to many whom his living voice never reached. London, -hint 1873. CONTENTS. SERMONS. r/.GE I. -MERCIFULNESS. Matt. v. 7, 1 Willenhall, July 25, 1847. II.— THE WORD OF CHRIST: ITS CHARACTERISTICS AS THE SAVIOUR'S BOOK AND THE SINNER'S BOOK. Col. m. 16, 17 7 Lansdowne Place, October 24, 1S47. III.— THE WORD OF CHRIST : ITS TRUTHS AND ITS TONE. Col. hi. 16, 32 7 Lansdowne Place, October 24, 1847. IV.— THE WORD OF CHRIST : ITS TRUTHS AND TRANS- FORMATION. Col. hi. 16, 46 7 Lansdowne Place, October 31, 1S47. V.— THE TREASURE : THINGS NEW AND OLD. Matt. xiii. 52, Pkov. ii. 4, 60 7 Lansdowne Place, October 31, 1S47. VI. -A GRAIN OF MUSTARD SEED. Matt. xiii. 31, Luke xiii. 19, 75 4S Euston Square, December 0, 1S63. [Originally written January 23, 1S4S.] VII.-FIRST MAGNITUDES : BIOGRAPHICAL THEOLOGY. John v. 35, 86 7 Lansdowne Place. February 20. 1S4S. viii CONTENTS. PAGE VIII. - THE LAMB OF GOD. John r. 29, .... 100 7 Lansdowne Place, November 7, 1847. IX.-SHECHEM : OK THE TURNING-POINT. Josh. xxrv. 14, 15, Col. rv. 12, 116 7 Lansdowne Place, July 23, 1848. X.— SHECHEM : OR THE TURNING-POINT. Josh. xxrv. 14, 15, 134 7 Lansdowne Place, July 23, 1848. XL— BALM IN GILEAD. Jer. vm. 22, 151 7 Lansdowne Place, February 4, 1849. XII.— THE BRUISED REED. Isaiah xin. 3, . . . .164 7 Lansdowne Place, September 23, 1849. XIII. —THE SMOKING FLAX. Isaiah xlii. 3, Matt. xii. 20, . 178 52 Hamilton Terrace, October 7, 1849. XIV.— THE FOUNTAIN OPENED. Zech. xiii. 1, 194 7 Lansdowne Place, December 23, 1849. XV.— THE SALT OF SOCIETY. Matt. v. 13, . . . . 212 7 Lansdowne Place, June 16, 1850. XVI.— THIRSTING FOR GOD. Psalm xlii. 2, . . . .226 52 Hamilton Terrace, June 23, 1850. XVIL— SALVATION TO THE UTTERMOST. Heb. vn. 25, . 242 42 Gower Street, November 3, 1850. X.VIIL— EVERLASTING PUNISHMENT. Matt. xxv. 46, . 254 June 8, 1851. XIX.- PARABLES EXPANDED AND APPLIED : DIVES AND LAZARUS. Lore xvi. 19-31, 267 48 Euston Square, August 14, 1853. XX.— LITTLE CHILDREN BROUGHT TO JESUS. Mark x. 13-16, 282 43 Euston Square, August 28, 1S53. CONTEXTS. ix PAOK XXI.— GOD MANIFEST IN HIS SON. Heb. i. 1-4, . . 297 February 24, 1856. XXII.— ANGELIC MINISTRY. Heb. i. 14, ... 311 March 16, 1856. XXIII. —MAKING SALVATION SURE. 2 Peteb I. 10, . . 326 48 Euston Square, October 25, 1857. XXIV.— WHEREFORE DO YE DOUBT ? Matt. xrv. 31, . 339 48 Euston Square, November 1, 1857. XXV.— SEEK, AND YE SHALL FIND. Matt. vn. 7, . 351 48 Euston Square, December 12, 1S59. XXVI.— IMMORTALITY. 2 Tim. i. 10, 365 48 Euston Square, March 19, 1860. XXVII.—" REST IN THE LORD." Psalm xxxvii. 7, . . 377 48 Euston Square, December 23, I860. XXV IU.— CLOTHED WITH HUMILITY. 1 Peteb v. 5, . . 339 48 Euston Square, December 14, 1862. XXIX.— BURDEN-BEARING. Gal. vi. 5, .... 407 48 Euston Square, September 27, 1863. XXX.— BEAR ONE ANOTHER'S BURDENS. Gal. vi. 2, . 419 48 Euston Square, October 4, 1863. XXXI.— CAST THY BURDEN ON THE LORD. Ps. lv. 22, 430 October 11, 1863. XXXII.— THE TRUE WORD IN THE RIGHT TONE. John vi. 63, . 442 48 Euston Square, June 6, 1864. XXXIII.— COME AND SEE. John i. 46, 453 48 Euston Square, September 22, 1861. XXXIV. -VERILY, VERILY. John v. 24, .... 464 4S Eu.st.m Square, January 2G, 1S02. * x CONTENTS. PAGE XXXV.— ON THE DEATH OF LITTLE CHILDREN. 2 Kings rv. 19 474 2 St. Aidan's Terrace, Birkenhead, June 19, 1863. ■ XXXVI. -THE FADING LEAF ON THE EVERGREEN TREE. Eccles. i. 4, 484 48 Euston Square, December 27, 1863. XXXVII.— THE LAMBS OF THE FLOCK. Mark x. 16, . . 496 48 Euston Square, January 13, 1867. XXXVIIL— PIETY AT HOME. 1 Tim. v. 4, 503 48 Euston Square, March 17, 1867. XXXIX.— FRUITS OF THE TREE OF LIFE. Rev. xxn. 2, , 619 May 0, 1847, and May 26, 1867. SERMONS. SERMON t MERCIFULNESS. " Blessed are the merciful : for they shall obtain mercy." — Matt. v. 7. Brethren, — "God is Love." So the Bible tells us; but it needs a new heart to credit the announcement. It is hard for depravity to believe in rectitude ; and vice can scarcely realize such a thing as stainless purity. And even so ; sin has made us miserable, and misery makes us suspicious and sullen. It is not easy for our dreary and disordered spirits to realize that God is good ; it is a contradiction of our morose and bitter natures to believe in the Divine benignity. And before we can rise up to all the blessed- ness of this discovery, our dark souls need to be brightened and our cold hearts warmed with a beam from His own countenance. It needs that God give us something of His own lovingness before we see and feel that "God is Love." Yet, God is Love. And just as he has told shortly if not fully regarding the orb of day, who tells us that the " Sun is Radiance" — as this, without detailing rays of light and heat and transformation, is the compendious statement of VOL. VI. a 2 SERMONS. what the sun is to us, so without entering into the detail of particular attributes, it is the brief epitome of the Divine perfections; " God is love." Many glories may mingle, but the predominant and eventual effect is one. There is a prevalency, a promise of love. And though no searching can find out the Almighty to per- fection, he approaches nearest the Divine Essence, in whose idea of the great I Am the most of this attribute mingles. He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God. So far as embodied matter goes, the universe once was void. On this planet no forest waved, no cataract roared, no volcano reared its fuming head, no ocean clapped its hands. Nay, there was a time when this planet did not exist ; a time when our sun was not lighted, nor any world of our system launched. There was a time when no star twinkled in the abyss of space, and no seraph winged his flaming path through the vast empyrean. There was a time when sound was sleeping and light was still unborn. But even then this silent orbless immensity was full of a latent joy ; for it was full of God. Shrouded in their own light inaccessible, filled with mutual delight and complacency, and exchanging communion high and sweet, the Father, Son, and Spirit rejoiced together, and the bosom of Godhead was an ocean of bright unfathomed blessedness. And so from eternity to eternity the Creator might have continued the silent hiding-place of His own power, the radiant retreat of His own sanctity, the glorious abyss of His own joyful all-sufficiency. Even then, God was love. And that love welled so deep and rose so high, that at last it over- flowed. Creation is the brimming over of the Creator's MERCIFULNESS. 3 love, the emanations of that exuberant goodness which must needs relieve its excess of joy by making blessed beings to see and share it. Sons of God and spirits of lofty ken were the first product of that loving flat — beings so exalted that the Divine image was largely reflected from them, and their holiness and capacious powers drew down the affection and delight of Him who made them. But the love which flowed forth to seraphim and cherubim was not mercy, it was complacency. And it was not till from love's fountain still o'erflowing some drops fell so little and remote — it was not till tiny worlds were framed, and on planets like our own specks of exist- ence began to breathe and move — it was not till over beasts and all cattle, flying fowl and creeping things, the Creator's smile looked down — it was not till God saw the goodness, and lit up the happiness of such lowly things, that it was seen how little are the objects which infinite goodness can love. It was not seen, till worms and atoms got their share, " God's tender mercies are over all his works." But a transmission of kindness, a triumph of goodness was still wanting, to show in the light most astonishing, " God is love." The insect in the sunbeam is insignificant, but it is not vile. The linnet on the spray is little, but it is not loathsome. And it was not till on earth that strange and awful spectacle was seen — a sinner — and till over his turpitude and trembling guilt the Lord proclaimed " The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin," — it was not till then that the uni- 4 SERMON'S. verse could know the omnipotence of love Divine. But God is love, and from the bosom of Divinity bursting, that perfection now flows round the universe in a three- fold stream. To all that is holy and God-like it is con- geniality, and complacent affection — an image of the love with which the ever- blessed Three do love one another. To all that is innocent and good, however little, it is good- will and benignity. And to all that is redeemed, in itself however wicked and repulsive, it is pity and compassion, it is tender mercy. And, though it needs something of the new nature to credit it, something of God's own lovingness to take it in, the heavens publish it, the earth re-echoes it, and hell dare not contradict it, all the universe is one various anthem, proclaiming that God is love. And, dear brethren, he who dwells in God will dwell in love. His soul will be replenished from the great love- fountain ; and besides the adoring affection which goes up to the God and Father of his Lord Jesus, and the attach- ment and complacency which flow forth to his believing brethren and like-minded friends, there will be a large effusion of compassion and benevolence and kind-hearted- ness to the world at large, consideration for the meanest, and mercy for the most obscure. It is on this last — this divine and blessed feature of character — that I have a few words to say. " Blessed are the merciful." And I need hardly explain that this does uot mean the soft and easy natures which confound the distinctions of right and wrong, and which, perceiving no flagitiousness in vice, would suffer the evil-doer to pass MERCIFULNESS. 5 unpunished. Nor does it mean that mere humanity and kindliness, which are native to some spirits, and which find a pleasure in seeing all around them happy. But the mercifulness of the text is a principle and a grace. It is a principle, — for it is conscientious, and takes pains, and seeks to cultivate and increase itself. And it is a grace, — for it does not abide alone. Here it co-exists with rectitude on the one side, and purity on the other ; and instead of being a mere natural impulse, it is fed from the love of God. It is a beatitude. It comes from the happy sense of forgiveness. It is the mercifulness of one who not only seeks to obtain mercy, but who has obtained it already. It is a shadow of God's mercifulness — that blessedness which brims over in benignity — that joy unspeakable which gushes forth in good- will and melting kindness. 1. Mercifulness is commiseration for suffering men. Though under the government of a God of love, this world is the abode of much suffering, because it has been and still is the theatre of much sin. And it is in this world of many griefs that God leaves His people for a time. He might have so arranged it that from the moment a man became a child of God he should be done with sights of misery and scenes of sorrow. The Church of Christ might have been a little heaven on earth, and the moment a man embraced the gospel he might have been admitted into a terrestrial paradise where sorrow and sighing are for ever fled away ; or the gates of the actual heaven might have opened for him, and in sight of an envying neighbourhood the new convert might have been at once translated where there is no curse, and where 6 SERMONS. God the Lord wipes every tear from the eye. But the case is different. God calls a sinner to Himself. He makes him a Christian. He gives him a soft heart and tender feelings. And instead of snatching him away where these feelings can never be wounded, and that heart never wrung, he leaves him here for ten or twenty years to sojourn in a world of woe. But why does He leave him ? Not to have his sensibilities tortured, and his feelings agonized. But God leaves the Christian here that he may be the channel of God's beneficence and the perpetuation of his Master's kindness. By leaving the poor always with us, and not only the poor, but the sick and the sorrowing, the depraved and the ignorant, and by making the disciple the salt of the earth, the light of the world, Jesus virtually says to each follower : — "It is a world of poverty, be you my almoner ; it is a world of darkness, be you my torch-bearer; it is a mighty lazaretto — a world of disease and sickness, of agony and pain, — be you my ministering angel ; it is a world of ignorance and depravity, be you my missionary." And, furnished with Joseph's corn, or the good Samaritan's wine and oil, or the widow's mites, or the yet poorer believer's cup of cold water, He sends the disciple forth to dispense all the comfort and happiness he can. And you who are dis- ciples remember the Saviour's words : " Blessed are the merciful." Contribute your quota to the welfare of a disordered world — you that can contribute money; you that can contribute friendly offices and kind attentions ; and you that have neither wealth nor labour to spend, contribute kind looks, kind feelings, and kind words. MERCIFULNESS. 7 2. Mercifulness is compassion for the souls of men. This sort of mercy is a surer test of piety. The blind man meets you in the street, and you are sorry to see him in a world so gay shut up in sable gloom. You are sorry to see him groping his precarious path with nothing but his little dog or his iron-shod staff to guide him. You are sorry to see him amidst such brightness and beauty an exile from it all, and surrounded with danger in the open day. The poor man lies down on youi threshold, and his bare feet bleeding in the frost, his lank and riven garments, his wan and hunger-bitten features are a prompt appeal to your compassion ; and to relieve him is to relieve yourself. And the sick man, when you enter his lowly chamber, and there meets you from that pillow a gaze of suppliant anguish ; or, as you stand un- perceived in the dusky corner you catch the heavy moan, and overhear the restless tossing of the racked and fevered frame, every groan is a petition, and every sigh is an> arrow in your sympathies, and you would fain sit down beside the couch and mix the cordial, or foment the wound, and strive to cheat into repose and refreshful slumber the writhing pain. But souls sick, poor, and blind are all about us, and who heeds their case ? To know the only true God, and Jesus whom He has sent, is everlasting life ; but this is a knowledge which very few have gained. The god of this world hath blinded their minds, and the glorious gospel of Christ has never shone into them. They have never seen that beatific sight, a God of love ; and sunless, hopeless, Christless, they are exploring their dark and dreary path through a joyless 8 SERMONS. world. To possess a righteousness, to have peace of con- science, to be endowed with wisdom from above, to enjoy free access to a throne of grace, to count the Saviour, the promises, and heaven your own — if this be riches, and the want of this be poverty, what a poor and hunger- stricken world is this ! And if to carry about a conscience sprinkled with atoning blood — if to feel the frequent bounding of the lively hope and the strong stirrings of a holy energy — if serenity under suffering, and an athletic ardour for active service — if sweetness of temper and devoutness of disposition — if a holy alacrity for daily work and a high-hearted readiness for extraordinary sacrifice and self-denial — if an exemplary life and a spiritual mind be indications of moral health, — then how few are well, and what a city of the plague we live in ! But the striking fact is this, that though all this spiritual blindness, poverty, and disease are so rife around us, few notice them, and few are affected by them. We bustle out and in, and though vice and depravity and sottish ignorance are elbowing us on every side, we are seldom struck and astonished at them. We behold the multitude, but oh how seldom are we moved with compassion for them ! But blessed are the merciful. Blessed are those who have got eyes open to discern this misery, and ears to hear its cry. And blessed those whom the love of Christ and concern for souls together, move to some endeavour. Blessed those who having heard the moan of misery, un- conscious and uncomplaining, but on this account all the more affecting, have run to its relief. Blessed those who seeing the ignorance of the courts and lanes around us, MERCIFULNESS. 9 have devoted their Sabbath or their week-day time to teach the young and instruct the older. Blessed they who hearing the inarticulate but bitter cry from lands of superstition and horrid cruelty, have sent over to help them ; and still more blessed those who have gone. Blessed they who perceiving the squalor and the hideous maladies of outcast wickedness, attracted to the spots where, as in a hospital, the extreme cases of depraved humanity are heaped and huddled; who, hearing the sigh- ing of the prisoner and the imprecation of the outlaw, have dived into cells of darkness and dens of ferocious guilt, " to save them that are doomed to die ! " Blessed are they whose pity, like the Divine compassion, flows so low and seeks the lost. " Blessed are the merciful." 3. The merciful man is considerate of the comfort and feelings of others, — of their health and comfort. From want of forethought, or want of timely activity on their own part, people who are not cruel often perpetrate great cruelties. A lady orders a dress which must be ready to- morrow evening ; but this can only be accomplished by some pale dressmaker sitting up all night. No matter — it would be flagrant to go to such a fashionable gathering without the most modish robe. It must be made, and rather than lose a customer this modiste agrees to make it. But how is it made? With silk and patent needles? With sighs and tears and broken health — and too often a broken heart. But you say it M'as extra work, ami the milliner got extra pay. Alas ! all London is at some seasons dressed in this extra work, but these poor workers seem never the richer of this extra pay. And no wonder. 10 SERMOKS. To catch a cold for a shilling, to stitch out one's eyes for half-a-crown, to bring on a consumption for a sovereign, is bad remuneration, but it is all the sum which many a refined and gentle lady allows those drudges who minis- ter to her love of fashion, or make up by extra efforts for her own want of forethought. Or a few friends sit up till far after midnight, talking or reading, or employed with their music, till the bell is rung, and the servant is bid, with the same breath, put out the candles and do some- thing or other at six in the morning. Or a carriage is ordered at a certain ho\ir on a winter's night, and at that punctual hour it comes, but the party is pleasant, and though the poor coachman is soaked in sleet, or his feet are freezing to the board, unless the value of the horses be an argument, how seldom is the health of their driver one ? And in ways like this, which are constantly occur- ring, but which it is not easy to enumerate, do those who would not for the world inflict a wanton cruelty, entail on their dependants a large amount of unintentional suffering. And the merciful man considers his neighbour's feelings. In modern warfare there are some objects which it is thought cowardly to assail and barbarous to destroy. The commander who would bombard a public building or ply heated shot on a picture-gallery would be deemed a Goth, for destroying in a national quarrel the property of the world. And fine feeling, the relative affections, keen sen- sibilities,— it is shabby work attacking these. If very vul- nerable, they are verj* sacred, and he who harms them does humanity a wrong, and declares himself a ruffian. But far from recklessly wounding them, the merciful will be MERCIFULNESS. U studiously tender of them, and will feel the pang in his own bosom, when he has unintentionally given pain to a susceptible spirit. Blessed are the merciful. Blessed are they who can enter into another's case and make it their own. Blessed are they who, when obliged to refuse the poor man's petition, can accompany his slow steps all the way back to his disappointed dwelling, and instead of dis- missing him with a curse or a growl, try to soften his distress by a little gift or a kindly word. Blessed are they who know what it is to writhe with anguish because they fear that some heedless word or undesigned allusion has wounded a sacred feeling. And blessed they whose thoughtful vigilance and sympathetic delicacy makes them the guardians and the comforters of acute and tender natures, a balm to those feelings which are over- ex- quisite, and a tonic to those which are too susceptible. 4. The merciful man is considerate of his neighbour's character. Perhaps there is no production of our world so rare and precious, and yet none which has so many enemies, or is so generally attacked, as character. Wit and spleen, dulness and envy, cold severity and fiery bigotry, alike assail it, and its history is best told in the words of the prophet (Joel i. 4) : " That which the palmer- worni hath left hath the locust eaten ; and that which the locust hath left hath the canker-worm eaten; and that which the canker-worm hath left hath the caterpillar eaten." The " palmer-worm," or grasshopper — some light and frisky personage — makes a snap at it, and his jest does a little damage ; then comes a locust, a right earnest censor, with his trenchant mandibles, and makes some 12 SERMONS. severe incisions ; then comes a regular enemy with venom in his bite, blasting what he does not swallow, and what the locust left this canker-worm devours ; and to finish all, here comes a posthumous critic, carping and nibbling at any vestige of verdure, and what the canker-worm has left, this grub or caterpillar, this devourer of decayed vegetation, eats. Most of our great men, Luther, Knox, Cromwell, Milton, Jeremy Taylor, George Whitefield, have undergone this process, and betwixt the gibes and calum - nies of contemporaries and the prejudice or hatred of ages succeeding, they have been represented as monsters or maniacs, firebrands or fools. And the process which has passed on the great and good of past times is apt to be repeated on ordinary men of our own generation. We are apt, in heedlessness or bitterness, to take up or even get up a prejudice against particular persons ; their oddities, their opposition to our opinions, their successful rivalry in our own line of life, makes us severe or hostile censors, and too ready to believe and repeat what is spoken to their disadvantage. But nothing can be more alien to the spirit of the gospel. It is full of lenity and candour and kind constructions ; it " hopes better things" of those of whom it has heard indifferent accounts, and by this very " hope" makes them better. Instead of waiting for men's halting, or exulting in their overthrow, it thinketh no evil, it rejoiceth not in iniquity, it hopeth all things ; and whilst it insists on honesty, and discourages adulation, its whole tendency is to encourage benevolence and brotherly kindness ; and instead of nibbling and gnawing at our neighbour's good name, instead of acting as the canker- MERCIFULNESS. 13 worms and caterpillars of character, it urges us to make our own good, and to hold our neighbour's sacred. It urges us to resemble God himself, who is the great Guardian of reputations, and the avenger of injured recti- tude. " Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle ? who shall dwell in thy holy hill ? He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart. He that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbour, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour." 5. The merciful man is merciful to his beast. " Blessed are the merciful : for they shall obtain mercy." Not that almsgiving will purchase an acquittal at the judgment- day, not that a few acts of mercy to our fellow- men can atone for sins committed against God. But blessed are they whose hard and stony heart has been taken away. Blessed are they to whom God has given a heart of flesh. Blessed they who, as an indication of a new and benignant nature, who, amongst the other proofs that they are born from above, are full of kindness and compassion. Blessed are the merciful, for their merciful disposition is an indication of what they are, and an earnest of what awaits them. They have found mercy, and they shall obtain mercy. " During a scarcity of corn in Egypt some hundred m;iis ago, an old miser sat day by day on the steps of his granary, speculating on the sufferings of his fellow- citizens, and calculating how he could make the utmost usury out of God's bounty. At length there was no more corn elsewhere ; famishing crowds surrounded his store- U SERMONS. house, and besought him as a charity to give them a little food for all their wealth. Gold was piled around him ; the miser's soul was satisfied with the prospect of bound- less riches. Slowly he unclosed his iron doors, but recoiled terror-stricken from his treasury. Heaven had sent the worm into his corn, and, instead of piles of yellow wheat, he gazed on festering masses of rottenness and corruption. Starving as the people were, they raised a shout of triumph at the manifest judgment, but Amin heard it not. He had perished in his hour of evil pride."1 In ways like this God has often fulfilled His own threatening. " He that stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard." Like the phantom which the baron received into his boat, during the midnight storm, but which proved the ghost of a former crime — " Lord William shrieked ; the hands he felt Were cold and damp and dead ; He held young Edmund in his arms — A heavier weight than lead" — deeds of cruelty will roam about, and in some unpropi- tious moment will again accost the criminal, and cling to his conscience " a heavier weight than lead." Acts of arrogant oppression, bitter words and ruffian blows, — the homes which he has harried, the hearts which he has broken, the reputations which he has blasted, — if unfor- given, will reappear, and cleave, a fearful load, to the oppressor's soul. They will stifle his prayers, and stop him at that petition : " Forgive us our debts, as we forgive 1 Warburton's Crescent and Cross, i. 143. MERCIFULNESS. 15 our debtors," and they will be swift and clamorous wit- nesses against him at the bar of God. "For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath showed no mercy." But blessed are the merciful. " Blessed is he that con- sidered the poor : the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble. The Lord will preserve him and keep him alive, and he shall be blessed upon the earth ; and thou wilt not deliver him unto the will of his enemies. The Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing ; thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness." If it be a soul, made merciful from evangelical motives, — a man who having received mercy loves to show it, and whose soul, overflowing with the peace of God, is bountiful and benignant, then we can hardly conceive a more blessed state of mind than the mercifulness so produced. There is a mechanical performance of good offices in which there is little zest or satisfaction ; but that full-hearted kindness, that effluent and effusive goodness which the love of Christ constrains, and the Spirit of God supplies — there is an increase in its expenditure, and in its efforts and exertions a continual feast. Such mercifulness is blessedness. Eepeated into habit and infused into the very temper of the soul, it comes out again in the face of the philanthropist, a cheerful serenity, and an obvious charity with all that God has made. And when sickness comes, and weakness and decay, there comes a secret strength. The pillow grows unaccountably soft, and the silent chamber surprisingly bright and happy. The reason is, — the Lord is there. The prayers have been 16 SERMONS. heard of many debtors to his kindness and friendly offices, and, better than angels, the Lord of angels comes and makes all his bed in his sickness. But mercy is more than blessed, it is divine. God's mercy came down from heaven. In the Saviour's person it became incarnate. Christ's mission was an errand of mercy. Christ's history was an embodiment of mercy. Like the stateliest of all our floral wonders, which grows obscurely for many years, and then bursts into a rapid and lofty spire of blossom, and in that splendid effort dies, so the " tender plant," the " root out of a dry ground," rose in sudden glory, and from the first bud to the topmost floret, from Canaan to Calvary, it was all the same, — munificence, good-will, mercy from first to last ; and in this expendi- ture of mercy, in this exuberant effort, Immanuel died. And the noblest life, the most Christ-like career, is that Christian philanthropist's, who, in the attempt to make the world better and his brethren happier, pours forth his soul and throws his life away. SERMON IL THE WORD OF CHRIST : ITS CHARACTERISTICS AS THE saviour's BOOK, AND THE sinner's BOOK. " Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom ; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord." — Col. hi. 16. The sum and substance of Scripture is the Saviour of Sinners. The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy ; and the person and work of Immanuel are the great burden of the Bible. It is a Revelation, but it does not reveal everything. It does not tell the whole story of the universe, nor does it publish all that some might like to know regarding the perfections and purposes of God. But though a limited Revelation, it is sufficient for human purposes. It tells all that a sinner need know in order to secure the remission of his sins and the renovation of his character, a place in God's favour now, and a home in God's Heaven hereafter. It tells how in the fulness of time God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, in order that such redeemed sinners might' receive the adoption of smis. It tells litiw that to as many as receive Jesus, Hf VOL. VI B 18 SERMONS. gives power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name. And to those redeemed sin- ners, to those receivers of Jesus, it says, " Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God ! Beloved, now are we the sons of God ; and it doth not yet appear what we shall be : but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him ; for we shall see him as he is." To Jesus as Mediator is intrusted all the will of God concerning sinners here on earth, and in Jesus as Immanuel are manifested all those perfections of God with which sinners have to do. And as the perfect revelation of Jesus Christ, the Bible is to us a sufficient revelation of God. There is no access to God which the guilty can desire, but Jesus gives it. There is no know- ledge of God's will, — what He loves and hates, which the candid and wistful can entreat, but Jesus declares it. And there is no model of actual excellence, no specimen of goodness embodied, to which sanctified ambition can aspire, but that model — that specimen, Jesus is. And as revealing this Jesus in every light, — in His sin- ab- horring sanctity, and sin-expiating sacrifice — the Beloved of God, and yet the Friend of sinners — the mighty God, and yet the sympathetic Man, — revealing this Saviour so abundantly, the Bible has omitted nothing which was needful in order that the sinner's peace might be solid, that his hope might be steadfast, and that his joy might be full. As the law-magnifying and sin-atoning Saviour, as the God-manifesting and sin-expiating Mediator, Jesus is the THE WORD OF CHRIST. li Alpha and Omega of Scripture, — the Name, the Person, who, to earnest inquirers and alert believers, makes that Book so precious, and whatever else they may find in it owes its excellence to its association with Immauuel — its proximity to Him. There may be many scattered truths throughout its pages, but they all gravitate towards the Truth as it is in Jesus. There may be many charac- ters of solemn majesty or sweet endearment there, but like planets round their primary, — from Abel's and Enoch's distant twinkle, to Abraham's sphery grandeur and David's full-orbed splendour, to Paul and John and other morning luminaries lost in the glory which lit them, all borrow their brightness from the Sun of Righteousness. There may in this garden enclosed be many a Tree of stately growth, and many a flower of exquisite perfume, but no flower smells so sweet as Sharon's Pose, and no Tree stands so stately as the Tree of Life in the midst of the garden. And all through the dwelling there may tlow an atmosphere of warm salubrity, an air of health and joy ; but the reason is that there is no Book in the Bible where the Spirit of Jesus does not breathe, — no apartment against whose open lattice the Eose of Sharon does not grow— no ivory wardrobe which does not smell of aloes, myrrh, and cassia. And to regenerate souls it is this which makes the Bible dear. It is the Word of Christ, concerning Himself and from Himself; the Word of which He is the beginning and the ending, — the all in all. The whole Bible is Christ-pervaded, and therefore God-revealing. But I need scarcely say that the mani- festation is dimmest at the outset, and brightens as the 20 SERMONS. time moves on. Some of you have lived on the coast, and some in mountain glens. In both these places there are seasons when the atmosphere is changed to mist, and often so dense that you cannot see a stone's-cast before you. But through the dimness you saw a flitting shape, — you lost it, and now you see it again, and again it disap- pears. But from the neighbouring height you hear a voice all the nearer and clearer, because the darkness which shrouds the shape gives isolation and volume to the sound. The form, from what you saw of it, the veiled and hazy glimpse, was glorious and august ; but, like all objects in a mist, colossal and somewhat cold. The voice is majestic, ethereal, full of assuring melody, publishing peace. But lo ! a crevice in the gloom ; it splits and sunders, and dissolves and leaves a perfect day. A breath of air or a burst of sunshine rends the cloud and reveals an instant landscape, and the foremost object in it, and the fairest, " the only -begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." The old Economy is the misty morning — a morning during which a landscape of glory stands all complete — the Sun is shining, the grass is green, the dew is sparkling, but all is completely covered by the frosty cloud. And, like the glimpses through the mist, the Saviour is seen in the types and shadows of the Law, occasional and obscure, for a moment now and then, and by some more distinctly than by other's. And, like the voices through the gloom, in the Prophet's and the Psalms the Saviour speaks, and the message is articulate and earnest, and there is a tone of comfort and loudness, a* well as many an announcement of mighty THE WORD OF CHRIST. 24 import and thrilling amazement. But suddenly to those who sit in darkness a light springs up, and through the melting mist, the fleeing shadows, 0 sinner, behold be- side you your Saviour, your Kinsman, and your God. In the Divine landscape the New Testament does not create, it only reveals. It does not make God gracious, but it shows Him gracious. It does not bring heaven to earth, but it shows it here. The Saviour who flitted before the patriarchs through the fog of the old dispensation, and who spake in time past to the fathers by the Prophets, articulate but unseen, is the same Saviour who, on the open heights of the Gospel, and in the abundant daylight of this New Testament, speaks to us. Still all along it is the same Jesus, and that Bible is from beginning to end all of it the Word of Christ. The Bible is the Saviour's Book. It is a Book which but for the Saviour we should never have possessed. It is a Book which has come to our world through His mediation, like Himself, the Gift of God. And it is the Book which reveals the Saviour, which tells what He is, and tells us that He is ours. Whoever has got a Bible may have the Saviour also. So that if, in respect of its authorship and origin, the Bible be the Saviour's Book, in rd of its destination and object, it is no less truly the Sinner's Book. It is not a meditation, but a message, a message from God, my hearers, to you and to me. It an- nounces not God's thoughts about the universe, but G oil's thoughts and intent urns about ourselves. It is not a spe- culative Book, but one intensely practical — not a Book which we may treat as we do the other volumes in our 22 SERMONS. library, taking it down and reading it when we please, and then placing it on the shelf again, without any change in our creed or our conduct. It is a solemn Book to deal with; for, just as it bears Salvation in its bosom, so it carries Jehovah's seal and sanction on its brow; as it brings Salvation to our houses, so it carries back to God a report of that reception which we give to Himself and His beloved Son — Himself and His great salvation. And it is a Book entirely unique. If from it we cannot find how to be happy in God's favour now, and how to secure a blessed immortality by and by, there is no book, no being in the world from whom we can ascertain it. When the most learned of lawyers lay dying, he said, " I have surveyed most of the learning that is among the sons of men, and my study is filled with books and manuscripts on various subjects, but in all these books and papers there is only one sentence on which I can now rest my soul, and it is one in the Sacred Scriptures, — ' The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present' world, looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.'" And what Selden said to Usher will be the ex- perience of many yet : — " You will want a book which contains not man's thoughts, but God's — not a book that may amuse you, but a book that can save you — not even a book which can instruct you, but a book on which you THE WORD OF CHRIST. 23 can venture an eternity — not only a book which can give relief to your spirit, but redemption to your soul — not a meditation for the universe at large, but a message to you in particular — a book which contains salvation, and con- veys it to you — one which shall at once be the Saviour's Book and the Sinner's." Such a book we have, but alas ! we don't sufficiently doat on it — we don't enough wonder at it. In what re- mains of this morning I would try to point out a few of those attributes which should endear to us Christ's Word, and in the evening would urge the exhortation, " Let it dwell in you richly." Having on a former occasion — two years ago — shown that the Bible possesses these qualities of a world's book — a revelation meant for man — that it is ample, yet portable, plain yet memorable, I would this day indicate briefly six other qualities which it 'possesses, and which make Christ's Word the " right Word" for us. It is — 1. Simple. 3. Saving. 5. Supporting. 2. Significant. 4. Sanctifying. 6. Suited to all. 1. Christ's Word is simple. It is all plain to him that understandeth. There have been many books which pro- fessed great things — some that promised to work wonders for man, and some that even professed to come from God, but they were abstruse and enigmatical. They showed how insecure they were by the mystery in which they veiled their meaning. But the Saviour, in His kindness and sincerity, has made His Word an easy and simple Book, so plain that it need perplex no one — so self evident that it is ready for everybody's use. There art- 24 SERMONS. some sorts of food very pleasant, but you have to break a shell before you can get at them, and there are other sorts very wholesome when properly prepared, but poison as you dig them from the ground. But bread is no mystery. There it is, and there it is ready for immediate use ; and God's Word is " Bread," " Bread of sincerity and truth." You have only to read it and believe it, without any more ado, in order to get all the good of it. Some conveyances and aids to locomotion are intricate and hazardous. It needs skill and experience, and presence of mind, to propel and control them ; but that oldest locomotive, that most ancient auxiliary of age and infirmity — a staff — there is nothing precarious nor perilous in it. The feeblest hand need not fear to grasp it, and the weakest intellect knows how to wield it. God's Word is " a rod and staff," and you have only to lay all your stress oh it and it will bear you safely even through the vale of death. And some inscriptions are written in antiquated letters, in quaint and curious characters, or even in dead and obsolete tongues. But you never paint a finger-post with Saxon letters or German characters, but you draw them broad and square, so that he who runs may read it in his most familiar alphabet. And Christ's Word is not only the path but the finger-post, inscribed so broad and clear in the world's vernacular, that the wayfaring man, though a fool, need make no mistake. The " Eighteousness of God," the right to Heaven, faith in Jesus the road to Heaven, are blazoned so bright and emphatic on the Gospel's page, that whoever errs cannot say that the direction was so obscure or obsolete that he could not spell it out. THE WORD OF CHRIST. L'o 2. And yet though so simple there is no hook so signi- ficant Like Christ Himself in Christ's Word are hid the treasures of wisdom and knowledge ; and those who dig into this hidden Treasure may rest assured that as the word of an Infinite Being there is an infinite fulness in it. Per- haps you have not found it in your own experience. You have found the Bible a dry and meagre book ; if so, the fault is yours. It is told of the great Linnaeus that he was sitting on the turf one day, and a friend beside him, who used to scoff at his enthusiasm for natural science. " I wonder what you get in it to fill up all your time ? " And planting his open palm on the green sward, the philosopher answered: "Under that hand there is enough of the Creator's power and skill to fill up a creature's life ; " and under his hand there were five or six sorts of flowers and as many insects, and one or two sorts of minerals. And so planting your finger on almost any page of Scripture you might safely say : "There is here enough of God, enough of His soul- expanding perfections, enough of grace and truth, enough of sanctifying principle and strong consola- tion, to requite the labour of a life-time." If you have the same affinity for the sayings of God as the immortal Swede had for the works of God, dwelling with micro- scopic wistfulness on its separate sentences, and comparing Scripture with Scripture, you will find no exhaustion of its riches, and no end of its perfection ; and should you peruse it a hundred times it will be at the last perusal that you will be best able to exclaim with Luther: "1 adore the plenitude of Scripture." 3. The Word of Christ is saving. There is a company 26 SERMONS. whom no man can number before the Throne ; but ere they went to Heaven they were all brought to God. All of them who had reached the years of understanding were converted. From being ignorant of God they were brought to know Him, and from hating Him they were brought to love Him. But in every case where this happy change has been effected, it was owing to Christ's Word. Sometimes that word repeated or expanded in a sermon, sometimes that word diffused and diluted in a book, but very often that word read in the volume of Christ's own book ; and whether it be the Bible in its totality, or some isolated saying which has brought about the marvellous result, every child of God is born again of the Word of God which liveth and abideth for ever. It is Christ's Word received into the soul, and abiding there, which is the source and securing of its immortality. 4. Christ's Word is sanctifying. If you get to love and revere it so as to exalt it into a companion and counsellor it will tell on all your conduct. " When thou goest it shall lead thee ; when thou sleepest it shall keep thee ; and when thou wakest it shall talk with thee, for the commandment is a lamp, and the law is light" (Pro v. vi. 22). Like a lamp it will reveal what is wrong in your character and motives, your temper and spirit, and be the great help to self-examination ; but better than a lamp, like a wise and loving friend it will show the excellence of holi- ness, and set you on the way to attaining it. 5. And sustaining. Daily work needs daily bread, and it is in the Bible-magazine that the bread of life is stored. And just as the man who wishes strength for labour would THE WORD OF CHRIST. 27 deem it false economy to save his time and take no food, so theirs is foolish haste who think to struggle on from day to day without the Spirit's bread. It is through the Word and prayer that we receive into our souls the energy of God, and import into common toils and daily drudgery the freshness and the zest of heaven. And just as the daily task needs nutritious food, so faintness needs its cordial, and disease its medicine. To exhaustion and fatigue the Word is what the honey was to Jonathan — light to the eyes and litheness to the limbs — to languor ;iik1 religious ennui its sharp sayings are a quickening and tonic, and to the heavy heart of grief and care its wine and milk are support and resuscitation, so that many may repeat it : " Unless thy law had been my delights, I should have perished in mine affliction." To temptation that word has ever been the ready antidote ; and since the Captain of Salvation proved it, since He who might have vanquished the enemy by His intrinsic power preferred employing the armour of the Word, no tempted believer need doubt that the means most effectual for quenching the fiery darts of the Wicked One is the sword of the Spirit. And, as we have already seen, in the vale of death it is the believer's rod and staff. " Fear not, for I have redeemed thee. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee ; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee." "I am the Resurrection and the Life ; whosoever liveth and believeth on me shall never die." " Let not your heart be troubled ; in my Father's house are many mansions ; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 28 SERMOS& And T will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am there ye may be also." Some written word like this bears up the pilgrim spirit till the welcoming smile and living voice of Jesus tell him that the vale is past. 6. Christ's Word is suited to all. If Luther adored the fulness of Scripture, we have as much reason to bless God for its variety and all-fittingness. It not only tells the most momentous truths, but tells them in many distinct and varied forms. And in so doing it meets the tastes and aptitudes of all mankind. You know how singular are the susceptibilities and the habitudes of different men One is electrified by poetry, another counts the words of which a poem is composed. One luxuriates in argument, another cannot follow the shortest train of reasoning. One has no eye for colour, and another no ear for music. The Goliath of English literature used to boast that were he studying in a room with the best paintings in the world, but their backs all turned to him, he would not turn their fronts. And the Queen of Continental genius lived many years on the Lake of Geneva without ever adverting to the Alps beyond, and the blue water below. And one of our modern poets travelled over Europe without noticing any of the noble buildings he met with by the way. And as this is a world of many minds and many conformations, a homogeneous Bible would not have answered it. A Bible all poetry, a Bible all history, a Bible all argument, a Bible all maxim and proverb, might have been a treat to a few, but it would have been tedious and tiresome to all besides. H&d an anajel written the THE WORD OF CHRIST. 29 Bible, he would have been content to mark down in the fewest words and once for all whatever it was important to reveal ; and had one man been employed to write it all, it would have all been tinctured by his peculiar style. But having employed in its compilation the pens of forty men, dispersed over fifteen hundred years, the all-wise Jehovah has constructed it — A harp of many strings, A quiver of many shafts, A book for all mankind. And the advantage of this variety is seen in the various passages which have arrested or enlightened different readers. A profane shopman crams into his pocket a leaf of a Bible, and reads the last words of Daniel : " Go thou thy way, till the end be, for thou shalt rest and stand in thy lot at the end of the days," and begins to think what his own lot will be when days are ended. A Gottingen Professor opens a big-printed Bible to see if he has eye- Bight enough to read it, and alights on the passage : " 1 will bring the blind by a way that they knew not," and in reading it the eyes of his understanding are enlightened. Cromwell's soldier opens his Bible to see how far the musket-ball lias pierced, and finds it stopped at the verse : " Rejoice, 0 young man, in thy youth, and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth; and walk in the ways of thine heart and the sight of thine eyes ; but know thou that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment." And in a frolic the Kentish soldier opi ns the Bible \\lii<-h his broken hearted mother had sent him, and the fiv.st sentence that turns up is the text so familial' id 30 SERMONS. boyish days : " Come unto me all ye that labour and arc heavy laden," and the weary profligate repairs for rest to Jesus Christ. And in the same way, if there be a thousand texts which the Holy Spirit has used for awakening concern about the great salvation, there are a hundred texts which He has used for guiding souls into the peace and joy of believing. " What words were those you read ? What sounds were those I heard ? Let me hear those words again," exclaimed the South Sea Islander, and the mis- sionary read again, " God so loved the world " — " Can that be true ? God love the world, when the world not love Him ! " and the missionary read again, " God so loved the world that he gave His only-begotten Son ; " and as the tears burst fast and big down his swarthy cheek, the poor heathen hasted away to weep and wonder at the love of God. "The just shall live by faith." Like a nail in a sure place this saying sticks in Luther's memory. He wanders through the convent, he trudges it to Home, he crawls up Pilate's Staircase, but still the sentence is sound- ing in his ear. Through seas of anguish and dismay he buffets his labouring path, no ray to guide him but this tiny spark, till all at once at that little spark Luther's soul is kindled, and the lieformation-beacon flames. There was a " stricken deer," a fine spirit, brilliant, kind, and lofty, but sensitive and sad, a wounded spirit. For many a day he had been goaded by the sense of sin, and had often opened the Bible for relief, but opened it in vain : " I flung myself into a chair near the window, and seeing a Bible there, ventured once more to apply to it THE WORD OF CHRIST. 31 for comfort. The first verse I saw was Rom. iii. 25, 1 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God.' Immediately I received strength to believe, and the full beams of the Sun of Righteousness shone upon me. I saw the sufficiency of the atonement He had made, my pardon sealed in His blood, and all the fulness and completeness of His justification. In a moment I believed, and received the gospel." That moment gave birth to the Olney Hymns, and to all the years of happi- ness which ever shone on the chequered path of William Cowper. " The thing that astonishes me in the Gospel is that God is Love ;' so exclaimed a converted African. A in I the text which first filled with joy unspeakable the capa- cious soul of President Edwards, was : " Now unto the King Eternal, Immortal, Invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever, Amen." " As I read these words there came into my soul and was diffused through it a sense of the glory of the Divine Being. Never any words of Scripture seemed to me as these words did. I thought with myself, How excellent a Bein