BX 9178 .G52 S4 1907 
 Girardeau, John L. 1823 
 
 1898. 
 Sermons 
 
<y^ii^yi0U. xye/T^^^tyL^^^Ce^oL^-^— 
 
SERMONS 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN L. GIRARDEAU, D. D., LL. D., 
 
 Late Professor in the Theological Seminary, 
 Columbia, S. C. 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 REV. GEORGE A. BLACKBURN, 
 
 Under the Auspices of the Synods of South Carolina, Georgia^ 
 Alabama and Florida. 
 
 Columbia. S. C. 
 THE STATE COMPANY. 
 
 1907. 
 
THE COMMITTEE OF THE SYNODS 
 
 Rev. W. T. Hall, D. D., Chairman, South Carolina. 
 Rev. Thos. P. Hay, Business Manager, Florida. 
 Rev. J. T. Plunket, D. D., Georgia. 
 Rev. Donald McQueen, Alabama. 
 Ruling Elder W. C. Sibley, Georgia. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 Page 
 
 Editor's Preface 7 
 
 Introduction— by Rev. W. T. Hall, D. D. . . 9 
 The Last Judgment 13 
 
 2 Cor. V, 10 : "For we must all appear before the judg- 
 ment-seat of Christ, that every one may receive the 
 things done in his body according to that he hath 
 done, whether it be good or bad." 
 
 Sanctification by Grace 39 
 
 Rom. vi, 1-2 : "What shall we say then? Shall we con- 
 tinue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. 
 How shall we that are dead to sin, live any longer 
 therein?" 
 
 The Office of Works of Charity in the Last 
 
 Judgment 68 
 
 Mat. XXV, 40: "And the king shall answer and say 
 unto them. Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye 
 have done it unto one of the least of these my 
 brethren, ye have done it unto me." 
 
 The Signs of the Times— In the World ... 90 
 Mat. xvi, 3 : "O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face 
 of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the 
 times?" 
 
 The Signs of the Times— In the Church ... 113 
 Mat. xvi, 3 : "O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face 
 of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the 
 times?" 
 
 Family Religion 136 
 
 Col. iii, 18-20: "Wives, submit yourselves unto your 
 own husbands, as it is fit In the Lord. Husbands, love 
 your wives, and be not bitter against them. Children, 
 obey your parents in all things ; for this is well- 
 pleasing unto the Lord. Fathers, provoke not your 
 
4 Table of Contents 
 
 Page 
 
 children to anger, lest they be discouraged." 
 Eph. vi, 4 : "Ye fathers, provoke not your children to 
 wrath : but bring them up in the nurture and admo- 
 nition of the Lord." Acts ii, 39 : "For the promise is 
 unto you and to your children." Jer. x, 25: "Pour 
 out thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not, 
 and upon the families that call not on thy name." 
 
 The Dying Corn of Wheat, and Its Glorious 
 
 Harvest 172 
 
 John xii, 24 : "Verily, verily I say unto you, except a 
 corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it 
 abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much 
 fruit." 
 
 The Glorious Gospel of the Blessed God ... 193 
 I Tim. i, 11: "The glorious Gospel of the blessed 
 God, which was committed to my trust." 
 
 The Prosperity and Efficiency of a Church . . 220 
 Eph. iv, 15-16: "But speaking the truth in love, may 
 grow up into him in all things, which is the head, 
 even Christ : from whom the whole body fitly joined 
 together and compacted by that which every joint 
 supplieth, according to the effectual working in the 
 measure of every part, maketh increase of the body 
 unto the edifying of itself in love." 
 
 The Nature of Prayer 254 
 
 Lk. xviii, 1 : "Men ought always to pray." 
 
 The Spirit of Prayer: or the Manner in Which 
 
 it Ought to be Performed 268 
 
 Heb. X, 22 : "Let us draw near with a true heart, in 
 full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled 
 from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with 
 pure water." 
 
 The Grounds of Prayer 283 
 
 Heb. X, 19-21 : "Having therefore, brethren, boldness 
 to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a 
 new and living way, which he hath consecrated for 
 us through the vail, that is to say, his flesh ; and 
 having a high priest over the house of God ; let us 
 draw near." 
 
Table of Contents 5 
 
 Page 
 TheEfficacy of Prayer 297 
 
 James v, 16 : "The effectual, fervent prayer of a right- 
 eous man availeth much." 
 
 The Consistency of Prayer with Natural Law . 312 
 James v, 16 : "The effectual, fervent prayer of a right- 
 eous man availeth much." 
 
 The Rest of the People of God 331 
 
 Heb. iv, 9 : "There remaineth, therefore, a rest to the 
 people of God." 
 
 Unbelief in Christ the Greatest of Sins . . . 351 
 John xvi, 9 : "Of sin, because they believe not on me." 
 
 The Discretionary Power of the Church . . .369 
 Math, xxviii, 20: "Teaching them to observe all 
 things, whatsoever I have commanded you." 
 
EDITOR'S PREFACE 
 
 Many of the admirers of Dr. Girardeau will doubt- 
 less be disappointed when they read these sermons. 
 They will remember their emotions under the spell of 
 his eloquence, and will be surprised that they do not 
 experience them again as they read this volume. 
 
 Dr. Girardeau had all of the gifts that belong to the 
 orator, — figure, voice, gesture, emotion, imagination and 
 magnetism. Wlien he was on his feet before an audi- 
 ence, the spirit of the orator dominated him. He was 
 also a profound thinker, — analytical, logical, cautious, 
 and clear. When he sat down to write, the spirit of the 
 thinker dominated him. These sermons were written, 
 and, with the exception of the one on "The Last Judg- 
 ment," are not as eloquent as those that were outlined 
 at his desk and filled out as he spoke. It has often been 
 said that sermons were to be heard, not read. He 
 understood this, and seldom wrote a sermon. He was 
 frequently urged to prepare a volume for publication, 
 and went so far as to write a list of subjects to be 
 treated, but he carried the scheme no further. The 
 editor and the committee concur in the opinion that all 
 of the sermons left by him should be published, even 
 though they do not fully portray his power as a 
 preacher. They show the doctrines that he preached, 
 and his general method of presenting truth; some of 
 them treat timely subjects, and others are connected 
 with important events. 
 
 There is another reason for their publication. Our 
 clearest notions of the religious life of any age are 
 gathered from the sermons of the representative men 
 
8 Editor's Preface 
 
 of that age. When the future historian of the church 
 shall come to portray the life and experience of our 
 time h& will find here the evidence of the existence of 
 that type of religion that has always been the glory of 
 the kingdom of Christ. 
 
 George A. Blackburn. 
 Columbia, S. C. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 In the year 1897 a committee was appointed by the 
 four synods having control of Columbia Theological 
 Seminary to assist the editor, Eev. G. A. Blackburn, 
 in examining and preparing for the press the unpub- 
 lished writings of the Rev. John L. Girardeau, D. D., 
 L.L. D. The principal function of this committee has 
 been to determine, after a careful examination of a 
 mass of material, what should be published and what 
 withheld. With the present volume the labors of this 
 committee will end. It has been a precious privilege to 
 take some part, however humble, in giving permanent 
 form to the thoughts of so distinguished a servant of 
 Christ. 
 
 As this is to be a volume of sermons, perhaps the 
 introductory words can be spoken more freely by the 
 committee, through its chairman, than by the editor. 
 My acquaintance with Dr. Girardeau began while I 
 was pursuing my preparatory studies in the Theologi- 
 cal Seminary at Columbia. At that time the Synod of 
 South Carolina contained an unusually large number 
 of remarkable preachers. Drs. Smythe, Thornwell, 
 and Palmer were in their prime. A number of younger 
 men were also coming rapidly into favor. Dr. Girar- 
 deau, in public estimation, was easily in the front rank 
 of the younger generation; and he continued to hold 
 the first place as long as he lived. For many years he 
 was regarded as the great preacher of this section of 
 the church. 
 
 Dr. John A. Broadus, of the Southern Baptist 
 Church, relates that when he entered the ministry he 
 
10 Introduction 
 
 wrote to his former chaplain at the University of Vir- 
 ginia for some hints that would be helpful to him. To 
 his request he received the following laconic reply: 
 "Study Butler's Analogy and preach to the negroes, 
 and it will make a man of you." Perhaps this counsel 
 was never more literally followed or more thoroughly 
 vindicated than by Dr. Girardeau. The white people 
 of Charleston built for the colored population a large 
 and handsome Presbyterian church. Dr. Girardeau 
 became the pastor of the flock. It was in this field he 
 won his great reputation as a pulpit orator. Visitors 
 to Charleston had placed conspicuously before them 
 the kindly relation of master and slave, as well as the 
 profound interest felt by the white Christian for the 
 spiritual welfare of their colored brethren. It is a mis- 
 take to suppose that great talents are wasted on plain 
 people. To preach the gospel successfully to the poor 
 demands an ability to bring the high themes of religion 
 down to the level of ordinary understanding, or, rather, 
 the capacity to quicken the sluggish intellect and ele- 
 vate it to the plane of Scripture truth. Dr. Girardeau 
 gave heed to the first part of the counsel as well as to 
 the second. He was all his life an intense student. His 
 bent was in the direction of those studies which most 
 severely tax and, consequently, most effectively develop 
 the intellectual powers. The volumes of his works al- 
 ready published vindicate this remark. In two of 
 them we have the fruits of his speculations in phil- 
 osophy. The other three show how profoundly he had 
 meditated on theological problems. 
 
 Dr. Girardeau belonged, in his measure, to the high- 
 est class of great preachers. The church has never 
 lacked effective preachers at any period in which she 
 was alive to her great mission. But the number of 
 
Introduction 11 
 
 those who have greatly impressed their own generation 
 as living preachers, and continued to impress subse- 
 quent generations through their published discourses, is 
 small. Weight of matter is indispensable to the deep- 
 est and most abiding impression in the case of the liv- 
 ing preacher : it is all that is left after the voice of the 
 preacher has been silenced by death. Dr. Girard^eau 
 possessed many qualities which appeared to advantage 
 in the pulpit. In person and voice, in intellectual 
 vigor, in sweep of fancy, in depth of feeling, and in 
 dramatic power he was richly endowed. But these 
 accessories are all gone. They live only in tradition. 
 It is believed, however, that his discourses will bear 
 publication. That they "are not absolutely dead things, 
 but do contain a progeny of life in them to be as active 
 as that soul was whose progeny they are; nay, they 
 do preserve, as in a vial, the present efficacy and ex- 
 traction of that living intellect that bred them." We 
 believe also that there is a demand for such a volume 
 as this. Dr. Girardeau was more widely known as a 
 preacher than as a teacher. And many are anxious to 
 welcome a volume of his sermons who feel no especial 
 interest in his philosophical or theological speculations. 
 
 In the selection of these discourses regard has been 
 had to the future usefulness of the author as well as to 
 his reputation. Most of them are the products of his 
 matured powers, and most of them were delivered in 
 the ordinary course of his pulpit ministrations. 
 
 Before closing, it may be well to express the opinion 
 that a biography of Dr. Girardeau should be furnished 
 to the church. His piety was deep and fervent. It 
 was perhaps his most characteristic quality. The life 
 of such a man, carefully prepared and giving promi- 
 nence to this trait, would be very helpful at this time. 
 
12 Introduction 
 
 If it should be found, as we apprehend may be the case, 
 that he has preserved among his papers but little to 
 aid the editor in such an undertaking, recourse may be 
 had to the current history of the Southern church dur- 
 ing the period in which he was a prominent actor. He 
 took an earnest and influential part in the discussion 
 and settlement of many questions affecting the worship, 
 polity, and policy of the church. 
 
 W. T. Hall. 
 Columbia, S. C, June 13, 1905. 
 
THE LAST JUDGMENT 
 
 2 Cor. V. 10. "7^6»r we must all appear hefore the 
 judgment-seat of Christy that every one may receive 
 the things done in his body according to that he hath 
 done, whether it he good or had^ 
 
 I invite your attention, my brethren, to a subject of 
 more than usual solemnity and awe. And I confess 
 that I approach it not without fear, lest, on the one 
 hand, a theme of terrific grandeur and transcendent 
 interest should suffer from inadequacy of treatment, 
 and lest, on the other, it should meet with a reception 
 disproportionate to its claims, and only render more 
 fearful a subsequent thoughtlessness and disregard. 
 Conscious of this danger, I would earnestly invoke the 
 influence of the Holy Spirit to impress upon every 
 heart the truth which may be spoken. 
 
 The text brings to our notice the last act in the great 
 drama of this world's history. Among minds fond of 
 speculating upon the probable issues of the future, con- 
 siderable discussion has taken place as to certain cir- 
 cumstances connected with the last judgment which 
 can never be clearly ascertained before the event itself. 
 The precise time of its arrival, the place of assembly, 
 
 Note. — There is nothing iri the manuscript of Dr. Girardeau to 
 show when this sermon was prepared, nor where it was preached. It 
 always made a profound impression, and congregations frequently 
 requested him to preach it a second time. His most judicious friends 
 never regarded it as the equal of many of his other sermons, espe- 
 cially of those that dealt with the completeness of the work of 
 Christ, and the extent of His love for His people, but unfortunately 
 none of these were written. 
 
14 Sermons 
 
 and the duration of the trial are matters which, how- 
 ever we may speculate about them, God has never seen 
 fit definitely to reveal. 
 
 In regard to the time when the judgment will begin 
 we are, happily for ourselves, in total darkness. The 
 Scriptures assure us that the day of the Lord shall 
 come as a thief in the night, and that when men shall 
 solace themselves with the cry of peace and safety, then 
 sudden destruction shall come upon them as travail 
 upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape. 
 The very ignorance which shuts out the knowledge of 
 the time is the most powerful incentive to diligent 
 preparation. "Watch, for ye know neither the day nor 
 the hour when the Son of Man cometh." 
 
 As to the locality, it has been conjectured, — with 
 how much truth I venture not to say, — from a certain 
 passage in the First Epistle of Paul to the Thessalon- 
 ians, in which the apostle says, we shall be caught up 
 in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, that the 
 atmosphere which environs the earth will be the scene 
 of the last great assize. 
 
 With reference to the duration of the judicial pro- 
 cess, it has been the opinion of some that the usual 
 phraseology in which the Scriptures advert to the day 
 of judgment is to be received according to the inter- 
 pretation of prophecy, and that from the important 
 relation which it will sustain to the present state, the 
 judicial process will mark a new dispensation. Most, 
 however, understand the language of Scripture in its 
 simplest and most obvious sense, and suppose that 
 there will be a definite day in which the final destiny 
 of all mankind shall, with a rapidity not impossible 
 to almighty power and infinite knowledge, be at once 
 
Girardeau 15 
 
 and forever settled. "For He hath appointed a day in 
 which He will judge the world in righteousness." 
 
 I. There are two independent but concurrent lines 
 of argument which furnish a powerfvil rational pre- 
 sumption in favor of a future judgment. In the first 
 place, there is something significant in the fact that 
 the decisions of conscience are felt not to be ultimate, 
 but prospective and premonitory. Conscience repre- 
 sents God in the human soul, and derives its authority 
 entirely from Him. It is God's law, God's court, and 
 God's bar in the nature of man. It is this which gives 
 it its power to bestow peace upon the righteous and to 
 break the carnal security of the ungodly. Were it not 
 for the felt conviction that it refers its decisions to the 
 sanction of a higher tribunal, men might be content to 
 flout its feeble utterances and laugh at its vain pro- 
 tests amidst the furious clamor and the deafening 
 uproar of the passions. Imbecility would render the 
 court ridiculous. But its finger points to another court 
 and another bar. It pronounces its decisions with 
 references to the future. This it is which clothes it 
 with indisputable authority. It is felt to be founded 
 on eternal rectitude and supported by the resources of 
 omnipotence. The pervading conviction is — and it is 
 one which cannot be shaken from the soul — that these 
 solemn sentences will be ratified by the doom of a 
 higher judge, and carried into execution by an invinci- 
 ble arm. There thus arises out of the depths of our 
 moral nature an awful testimony to the certainty of a 
 future and final judgment. 
 
 Nor, in the next place, ought the fact to be over- 
 looked that a moral government, embodying in itself as 
 an integral element the distribution of rewards and 
 
16 Sermons 
 
 punishments is begun but not consummated in the pres- 
 ent life. It is clear that the providence of God, both in 
 its natural and moral aspects, proceeds in some degree 
 upon the principle of retribution; but it is equally 
 clear that that principle is not employed to its legiti- 
 mate extent. There does not appear to be in all cases 
 a precise adaptation of rewards and penalties to the 
 nature of moral actions and the conduct of moral 
 agents. For, although it must be admitted that no suf- 
 fering, however severe, is undeserved even by the most 
 pious, still the fact cannot be disguised that some godly 
 men are called upon to endure more frequent and pro- 
 tracted trials than some who are ungodly. Here lies 
 the difficulty. And on the supposition that there will 
 be no adequate distribution of retributive consequences 
 in another state than the present, it would be an inex- 
 plicable anomaly. But admit the justice of God as the 
 moral governor of mankind, and the presumption is 
 irresistible in favor of the completion of the now 
 existing scheme of retribution in a state be3^ond the 
 grave. Of that moral government which is here begun, 
 and enforced just enough to establish its leading prin- 
 ciples, the consummate exhibition is laid over to an- 
 other life. 
 
 The wicked and reckless transgressor of every prin- 
 ciple of right, the man who tramples under foot every 
 obligation to his Maker and every sacred relation to 
 humanity, who curses God to His face, and soaks his 
 hands in the warm and bubbling life-blood of his 
 brother; he who revels in filth and licentiousness, and 
 slaughters on the altar of his lusts the dearest coven- 
 ants between man and man, who creeps like a viper into 
 the bosom of virtue and fastens his poisoned fangs 
 
Girardeau 17 
 
 upon unsuspecting and helpless innocence, — yes, the 
 monster whom the earth groans under and the heavens 
 frown upon, upon whose head the voice of injured and 
 outraged humanity cries bitterly for vengeance, — this 
 man is permitted to flourish like the green bay-tree 
 beside quiet waters, and at last it may be without a 
 struggle or a pang to lie down in peace and die. Is 
 this, can this be, all that the justice of a perfect being 
 requires ? 
 
 Now turn and look. Here is a man who is actuated 
 by a constant desire to glorify his God; who, with 
 every morning's light and evening's shade gathers 
 around the famly-altar the wife and children whom 
 he recognizes as the gifts of his Heavenly Father ; who 
 delights to tread the courts of the Lord's house, to sing 
 His praise and hear His word ; who respects ever}- rela- 
 tion which binds him to his fellow-man; who would 
 rather be the ''trampled on than the trampler," carry- 
 ing a heart from whose sweet and brimful fountain are 
 ever gushing streams of charity to all around him; who 
 sits and watches till the breaking day by the dying 
 bedside of his foe : who gently wipes avrnj the orphan's 
 tears, and by timely compassion causes the widow's 
 heart to sing for joy, — this man is left to drag out a 
 life of poverty and want and squalid wretchedness, and 
 at the last to roast in the martyr's flame or to stretch 
 himself on the bare, cold earth, and breathe out his 
 spirit without a friend to close his dying eye. Oh, 
 say, is there no future judgment? Is there no tribunal 
 beyond the grave where this man will be rewarded? 
 Yea, there is, there must be. Justice herself rises in 
 indignant majesty at the question, and with gathering 
 brow and portentous finger points to a flaming bar, at 
 which, with equal balances in hand, an impartial and 
 
18 Sermons 
 
 infallible Judge will rectify the inequalities of life and 
 assign to every soul a proper and incontestable doom. 
 
 These powerful presumptions of reason in favor of 
 the fact of a future judgment are so amply sustained 
 by numerous and explicit testimonies of Scripture that 
 I will not pause to signalize them, but pass on to 
 remark in the next place: 
 
 II. Jesus Christ will be the final Judge. With 
 respect to judicial authorit}' it is true that the triune 
 God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, will be the Judge. 
 This the Psalmist magnificently sets forth when he 
 says, "The heavens shall declare His righteousness, for 
 God is Judge Himself. The mighty God, even the 
 Lord hath sjDoken and called the earth from the rising 
 of the sun unto the going down thereof.'"' Doubtless 
 the terrors and splendors, the glory and the wrath of 
 absolute and infinite Deity will be gathered around the 
 judgment-throne, and render insufferably august and 
 imposing the pageantry of the tremendous day. There 
 will nothing be lacking to clothe the scene with the 
 authority and sanction of the present Godhead. Heaven 
 will lend its glories and hell its horrors to emphasize 
 the proceedings of the day. Sovereign grace, heavenly 
 mercy, spotless holiness, insulted justice, unerring 
 truth, resistless power, and consuming wrath, Avill all 
 be present and preside at the solemnities of the occa- 
 sion. 
 
 But, although God in three persons will be the Judge 
 as to original authority, we are assured that the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, as Mediator, will be the Judge in respect 
 to the immediate exercise and dispensation of the judi- 
 cial prerogative. "God hath appointed a day in which 
 He will judge the world in righteousness by that man 
 whom he hath ordained." He will appear in human 
 
Girardeau 19 
 
 nature with all the marks of His sufferings on Calvary, 
 so as to be visible to every eye that shall behold the 
 eventful scene. And it is no doubt eminently proper 
 that Christ, as Mediator, should be the Jlidge, because 
 the judgment will constitute an integral part of the 
 scheme of redemption, and will be the closing act in the 
 history of its application, and the inviolable seal of 
 men's relations to it. 
 
 The salvation of His blood-bought people will not be 
 completed until He comes to judgment. Many, we are 
 taught to believe, will then be alive upon earth, and 
 will be struggling with the world, the flesh and the 
 Devil ; and in regard to none will the formal and final 
 sentence have been pronounced which will be the signal 
 of their complete redemption, and of their abundant 
 entrance in their whole personality into the everlasting 
 kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Until 
 the announcement of His second coming, all His saints 
 cast an anxious eye to the future and look forward to 
 the glorious appearing of the great God, even our 
 Savior Jesus Christ. Not till then will the whole church 
 stand confessed, the church triumphant, stripped 
 of the sweated armor of conflict, arrayed in the white 
 robes and crowned with the amaranth of victory. Not 
 till then will He be admired in all them that believe, 
 and the headstone of their salvation be brought forth 
 with shoutings of grace, grace unto it ! Then will that 
 august temple which far outshines the glory of Solo- 
 mon's, built on the foundation of apostles and prophets, 
 Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, 
 cemented by atoning blood and composed of living 
 stones, be finished, and the top-stone laid on amidst the 
 rising hosannas of ransomed sinners and the thunder- 
 ing hallelujahs of angelic choirs. Then will the scaf- 
 
20 Sermons 
 
 folding of earthly ordinances, as no longer necessary, 
 be removed, the veil of the upper temple be rent in 
 twain, and the sanctities of the heavenly holy of holies, 
 whither our forerunner had gone, become conspicuous 
 to the ravished e3^es of long expectant saints. The 
 earthly sanctuary shall be closed, the Bible shut, the 
 pulpit vacated, and the voice of intercession stilled. 
 The evangelic trumpet — the melodious cheering, thrill- 
 ing trump of jubilee — proclaiming deliverance to the 
 slaves of sin and death and hell be silenced and laid 
 aside; the Apocalyptic angel, flying mid-heaven with 
 the everlasting Gospel, shall close his wings and cease 
 his flight; the invitations of mercy and the calls of 
 incarnate love shall be issued no more, and the beam- 
 ing sun of the day of grace shall have set in the black- 
 ness of an everlasting night. Our Savior, as the final 
 act of His redeeming work, shall shut the volume of 
 grace and open that of eternal judgment. 
 
 It is also fit that Jesus should be the final Judge, 
 because He is the Son of Man, because He possesses the 
 nature Avhich is to be arraigned at the bar, and having 
 been a companion of men in the flesh, experimentally 
 knew their temptations, though Himself without sin, 
 and by actual observation as a man among them is 
 acquainted with their constitution, motives, and weak- 
 nesses, their circumstances, opportunities, and chances. 
 No foreigner to the human race will fill the judgment- 
 seat before which that human race shall stand to 
 receive irrevocable assignment to heaven or to hell. A 
 man will be the judge. He knows the measure of their 
 case. 
 
 It is moreover fit that Christ should be the Judge 
 because His session on the judgment-throne and the 
 exercise of the judicial pi-erogative are part of the 
 
Girardeau 21 
 
 promised reward of His humiliation during the dis- 
 charge of His mediatorial work. He had in view of 
 this reward voluntarily humbled Himself to undertake 
 the stupendous task of man's redemption. He denuded 
 Himself of His glory, descended the ladder of humilia- 
 tion, assumed our feeble flesh, was born in a stable and 
 cradled in a manger, was destitute of a pillow on which 
 to lay His head when the labors of each toilsome day 
 were done, offered up prayers with strong cryings and 
 tears, was roughly arrested like a felon, was arraigned 
 and condemned at an iniquitous human bar, was 
 excommunicated from His own visible church, suffered 
 an ignominious death as a chief malefactor between 
 two thieves, was jeered by ministers and elders in His 
 expiring agonies, and died without a foot of ground 
 in which His mortal part could rest. But, in that day 
 the shame of His humiliation shall be remembered 
 only to heighten the glory of an unparalleled reward. 
 The apostle portrays it grandly when he says, '"Wlio 
 being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be 
 equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation and 
 took upon Him the form of a servant and was made in 
 the likeness of men : and being found in fashion as a 
 man, He humbled Himself and became obedient unto 
 death, even the death of the cross. "Wherefore God 
 also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name 
 which is above every name : that at the name of Jesus 
 every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things 
 on earth, and things under the earth; and that every 
 tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the 
 glory of God the Father. For once, at least, shall 
 angels, men and devils be assembled in one great con- 
 gregation, — it shall be before yon blazing throne, on 
 
22 Sermons 
 
 bended knee, to pay a willing or reluctant homage to 
 the glorified Nazarene. 
 
 Still, further, it is fit that Jesus Christ should be the 
 final Judge, that the person and claims of the dishon- 
 ored Savior may be vindicated before an assembled 
 world. Although He sacrificed glory and honor and 
 the worship of the heavenly host, and became poor that 
 we, through His poverty, might be made rich ; although 
 He carried the cross that sinners might wear a crown, 
 yet was our blessed Master despised and rejected of 
 men. He is to many a root out of dry ground, without 
 form or comeliness, and when they see Him there is no 
 beauty that they should desire Him. Albeit He was 
 the living personification of virtue — a sight which 
 Plato said if men could behold they would be beguiled 
 from the path of vice and allured into that of right, 
 and although He exemplified in His own conduct every 
 holy precept which He inculcated, and stood forth the 
 sole instance among men of unstained character and 
 uncompromised principle — the blooming flower of 
 humanity and the brilliant reflection of the divine 
 glor}^ yet is He treated with contumely and scorn ; and 
 the sacred religion which He established at the expense 
 of Hts life, the institute of human salvation, the infirm- 
 ary for human sicknesses, the ayslum from human woes, 
 and the charter of human hope, is caricatured as an 
 imposture and rejected as a fraud. Infidelity scruples 
 not to laugh at miracles, which, as instances of mercy, 
 conquered nature to relieve the wretchedness of men, 
 and as instances of power wrought conviction in the 
 devils themselves. He healed the sick of their every 
 malady; He cured the leprosy with a touch. He 
 strengthened the palsied with a word. He gave speech 
 to the dumb, hearing to the d«af , and sight to the 
 
Girardeau 23 
 
 blind; He speaks and the ravings of the tempest are 
 hushed, the shrieking wind subsides into a whisper, 
 and the storm-tossed and foaming billows sink into 
 sudden and surprising peace ; He arrests a funeral pro- 
 cession by startling the corpse from its bier, and stand- 
 ing at the mouth of the grave, rouses with His almighty 
 voice the mouldering flesh from the cerements of 
 the tomb. And yet, when He stands at Pilate's bar, 
 derided, scourged and spitted on, the very men who 
 had been witnesses of these amazing displays of His 
 divine power, and these unimpeachable credentials of 
 His divine commission, press around His mangled body 
 and lift the cruel and pitiless shout which demands the 
 blood of His heart. Be astonished, O ye heavens, at 
 this, and be ye horribly afraid ! 
 
 And ever since, wherever His Gospel is preached and 
 His cross uplifted. His mercy is rejected, the offers of 
 His dying love are disdained, nor does the holy and 
 exalted name of Jesus cease to be bandied as a play- 
 thing and a by-word in bold blasphemers' mouths. 
 
 But, brethren, the scene ere long shall change. Let 
 us hear the testimony of Scripture to His second glori- 
 ous advent to judgment. To the disciples who stood on 
 the mount following His receding form as it vanished 
 through the blue heavens and ascended to God's right 
 hand, a delegation from the skies said, "Ye men of 
 Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This 
 same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven 
 shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go 
 into heaven." (He Himself said to His earthly judges, 
 "Hereafter shall ye see the Son of Man sitting on the 
 right hand of power and coming in the clouds of 
 heaven.") Yes, this Jesus who was shamefully en- 
 treated and crucified, this Jesus whose claims are now 
 
24 Sermons 
 
 despised perhaps by some in this assembly, this same 
 Jesus shall come again. He shall come, but not to 
 bleed. He shall come, but not to suffer shame and die. 
 "Behold, he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall 
 see Him, and they also which pierced Him, and all 
 kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him. Even 
 so. Amen." He comes, surrounded by dense colunms 
 of angels, and the palm-bearing host of a triumphant 
 church. He comes, attended by the floating ensigns of 
 salvation and the trophies of victory wrenched from 
 Satan, Death, and Hell. He comes, heralded by the 
 chant of armies, the thrilling call of trumpets and the 
 shout that wakes the dead. 
 
 "Lo, He comes with clouds descending, 
 Once for favored sinners slain; 
 Thousand, thousand saints attending. 
 Swell the triumph of His train. 
 
 Hallelujah ! 
 Jesus comes, and comes to reign.'' 
 
 Oh, how changed from the estate of His humiliation ! 
 Once the crown of thorns was wreathed around His 
 temples; now on His brow flashes the mediatorial 
 diadem. Once His hands were nailed to the accursed 
 tree; now the right hand of His omnipotence grasps a 
 thousand thunder-shafts and wields the • sceptre of 
 universal and resistless sway. Once without a home 
 He lay in the midnight air and His head was wet with 
 the dews and frosts of heaven ; now He sits in majesty 
 on the great white throne, canopied with clouds and 
 girdled wnth embattled cherubim. Once the silent tear 
 of anguish trickled down^ His pallid face ; now^ see ! 
 
Girardeau 25 
 
 before His withering frown the shrinking earth and 
 heavens haste to flee away. 
 
 "The Lord, the Judge, before His throne 
 Bids the whole earth draw nigh; 
 The nations near the rising sun. 
 And near the western sky. 
 
 No more shall bold blasphemers say, 
 
 Judgment will ne'er begin ; 
 No more abuse His long delay 
 
 To insolence and sin. • 
 
 Throned on a cloud our God shall come. 
 Bright flames prepare His way; 
 
 Thunder and darkness, fire and storm, 
 Lead on the dreadful day. 
 
 Heaven from above His call shall hear. 
 
 Attending angels come; 
 And earth and hell shall know and fear 
 
 His justice and their doom." 
 
 III. Let us now consider some of the awful circum- 
 stances which will accompany and aggrandize that day 
 of last account. But how shall we describe them? 
 What tongue can tell, what mind conceive, the glory 
 and the pomp, the agitation, tumult and alarm, the 
 surprise, the joy, the woe, which shall mark that "great 
 day for which all other days were made"? Let us 
 approach the fearful subject with the lamp of Scrip- 
 ture in our hand. 
 
 We are taught that no signal will forewarn the 
 nations of the coming of that day, and that none shall 
 
26 Sermons 
 
 suspect it nigh until it bursts upon the world. Secretly 
 and furtively will the grand consummation draw on. 
 The world will be engaged, as it ever has been, at its 
 business and its pleasures. "As the days of Noah 
 were, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be. For 
 as in the days of Xoah they were eating and drinking, 
 marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that 
 Xoah entered into the ark and knew not until the flood 
 came and took them all away, so shall also the coming 
 of the Son of Man be." None shall know that the 
 great day is at hand. All will be busied about their 
 several ' employments. The infidel will be saying, 
 "AVhere is the promise of Plis coming? For since the 
 fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from 
 the foundation of the world." The student will be 
 closeted with his books, poring over the pages of some 
 favorite author, or absorbed in the attempt to unravel 
 some intricate argument. The merchant will be post- 
 ing up his accounts, or anxiously calculating the issue 
 of some grand speculation. The farmer will be riding 
 over his crop, or congratulating himself on the fullness 
 of his barns and the plenty of the succeeding year. The 
 politician will be wrapped up in the perusal of some 
 recent intelligence, or striving after a higher pinnacle 
 of fame. The military chieftain will be pushing his 
 conquests with all "the pomp and circumstance of war." 
 The bridegroom will be rejoicing over his bride, the 
 mother over her new-born infant, and the mourner will 
 be following the remains of a departed relative towards 
 a last house which they shall never occupy. Senates 
 will be convened, courts sitting, travel rushing, com- 
 merce driving, and the ocean whitened with many a 
 sail. 
 
Girardeau 27 
 
 In one jDart of the world the silence of midnight is 
 reigning, save where it is broken by the music and the 
 laugh of some festive throng. In another is the bustle 
 and stir of busy noon, or the clash of contending armies 
 on the ensanguined field. In another the shadows of 
 evening are lengthening, the sun is setting no more to 
 rise, and the evening star is shining with peerless 
 radiance for the last time upon a doomed world ; while 
 in yet another, the early bird is waking the dawn, the 
 dew yet gems the grass, and the sunrise is bursting in 
 glory as it broke on that clear morning when Sodom 
 was fired from heaven. All will be unconscious of 
 approaching danger; when of a sudden, in a moment, 
 in the twinkling of an eye, a thunder-burst breaks over 
 the world and rocks the pillars of the earth. Hark, 
 that terrific sound ! The blast of the trump of God 
 peals from the stv^, is sw^ept on the wings of mighty 
 winds towards north, south, east, and west, pene- 
 trates ten thousand burial grounds, and startles ''the 
 dull, cold ear" of the quiet sleepers there. 
 
 "Doubling along the arch the mighty peal 
 To heaven resounds. Hell returns a groan; 
 And shuddering earth a moment reels confounded 
 From her fixed pathw^ay, as the staggering ship, 
 Stunned by some mountain billow, reels. The isles 
 With heaving ocean rock : the mountains shake 
 Their ancient coronets : the avalanche 
 Thunders : silence succeeds throughout the nations. 
 Earth never listened to a sound like this ; 
 It strikes the general pulse of nature still. 
 And breaks forever the dull sleep of death."^ 
 
 ^James Hillhouse's Judgment, accommodated as to tense. 
 
28 Sermons 
 
 At that all-arousing summons the sceptic swallows 
 his cavils, the student starts up from his books, the 
 merchant forsakes his accounts, the farmer forgets his 
 harvest and his barns, the politician wakes up from 
 his day-dreams of preferment, the warrior relaxes his 
 grasp upon his blade, the bridegroom hurls his faint- 
 ing bride from his embrace, the mother drops from 
 her bosom her new-born babe, the mourner neglects 
 the last offices of humanity, Senates rise in confusion, 
 and courts adjourn to meet no more. At that dread 
 alarm the wheels of nature stop; the flight of time is 
 arrested ; Death, in mid-career, reins up his pale horse 
 and drops the fatal shaft. 
 
 And now what ominous sights appear ! Above the 
 firmament is cleaving asunder, and through the awful 
 rent beam the glories of the invisible world, while "the 
 Lord Himself descends from heaven with a shout, with 
 the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of 
 God." "And, lo, a mighty angel coiries down from 
 heaven clothed with a cloud and a rainbow on his head, 
 and his face as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars 
 of fire; and standing upon the sea and upon the 
 earth, lifts up his hand to heaven and swears by Him 
 that liveth forever and ever that there shall be time no 
 longer," Awful announcement! The changes and 
 notations of this sublunary scene will cease; the sweet 
 vicissitudes of morning and evening fail, and the sea- 
 sons roll no more. The days and weeks, the months and 
 years of an evangelical probation shall revolve no lon- 
 ger, and man will enter upon the measureless duration 
 of eternity. Thenceforward naught will remain but 
 two unchanging forms of existence — an unbroken 
 sabbatism, or an endless funeral of the soul. 
 
Girardeau 29 
 
 The hour is come when all that are in the graves 
 hear the voice of the Son of God and come forth ; they 
 that have done good unto the resurrection of life, and 
 they that have done evil unto the resurrection of 
 damnation. Behold the stupendous scene! The dead 
 are rising! From every part of this vast charnal- 
 house the victims of death are awaking from their 
 long sleep, and obey the summons which commands 
 them into the presence of their Judge. Magnificent 
 mausoleums are bursting, in which lie inurned the 
 ashes of sceptred monarchs; moss-covered sepulchres 
 are cleaving, beneath which moulder the remains of 
 priests and high-priests, nobles and princes, legislators 
 and warriors, philosophers, orators, and poets; while 
 the grass-grown mounds under which the slave and the 
 peasant repose in death are not disobedient to the 
 heavenly call. From dim cathedral aisles, from every 
 crowded churchyard, from forest burying grounds, 
 from profoundest ocean depths, the long- forgotten dead 
 are starting into new, immortal being amidst the thrill- 
 ing realities of the judgment day, ^ The solitary traveler 
 rises from the lonely grave which he found in a land 
 far distant from home; while from the narrow beds in 
 which they slept side by side in the populous cemetery 
 whole families rise together. The father sees his 
 children again, the husband extends to his wife the. 
 salutations of the resurrection morning, and the mother 
 once more clasps in her arms the babe that had slum- 
 bered with her in the same grave, and mingled its dust 
 with hers. 
 
 And now the throne is set, the Supreme Arbiter of 
 destiny assumes His ^eat, the books are opened, and 
 mankind are convened for judgment. "And I saw a 
 great white throne, and Him that sat on it from whose 
 
30 Sermons 
 
 face the earth and the heavens fled away. And I saw 
 the dead, small and great, stand before God." All 
 who have ever lived, and all who will live to the farth- 
 est bounds of time, will be assembled before the judg- 
 ment seat by angels who will act as marshals of the 
 final day. From our first parents to the babe which 
 shall draw the earliest breath of life on the resurrec- 
 tion morning and shall hear at the same moment the 
 first endearing word from its mother's lips and the 
 awful voice of the archangel, — all will be there. Not 
 one of earth's unnumbered millions shall be absent 
 from the dread assize. Patriarchs, prophets, and apos- 
 tles, kings with their subjects, masters with their ser- 
 vants, parents with their children, ministers with their 
 flocks, the goodly company of confessors and the noble 
 army of martyrs, — all will be there. Pagans, Moham- 
 medans and Christians, sceptics, infidels and atheists, — 
 all will be there. The pale-faced Caucasian, the red 
 rover of the forest, the yellow Mongolian, and the 
 swarthy Ethiopian, — all, all will there. Band after 
 band, throng upon throng, nations massed upon 
 nations, with a sound like the deep and hollow roar of 
 a storm-lashed ocean, they will crowd to the rendezvous 
 of being and stand before the final bar. 
 
 "In one vast conflux rolled. 
 Wave following wave, are men of every age. 
 Nation and tongue : all hear the warning blast, 
 And led by wondrous impulse hither come." 
 
 Nor shall devils be absent from that trial. Hell shall 
 disgorge itself of its inhabitants ; the doors of the eter- 
 nal prison, grating harsh thunder, shall swing open for 
 egress to the desperate and innumerable mob. Rising 
 
Girardeau 31 
 
 with the gloomy vapors of the bottomless pit, and 
 clanking their everlasting chains, countless legions of 
 lost angels shall press upward, and driven by almighty 
 power shall be forced to join the great assembly and 
 await the sentence of their doom. 
 
 Come with me in imagination, my hearers, as erelong 
 you must in reality, to that scene which shall be pre- 
 sented before the tribunal of judgment. How unspeak- 
 ably solemn ! A world in one vast congregation ! See, 
 multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision ! 
 Farther than the eye can reach extends a boundless sea 
 of human beings, swayed to and fro with new and 
 unutterable feelings. Before the august Judge are 
 gathered all nations, and He proceeds to separate them 
 one from another as a shepherd divideth his sheep from 
 the goats. He sets the sheep on His right hand, but 
 the goats on the left. All human and perishing distinc- 
 tions are swept away. The mask is torn from hypoc- 
 risy, the veil stripped from secrecy, the paint and var- 
 nish expunged from the face of deceit. Missed are 
 the strut and fret of "a little brief authority." The 
 tiara, the mitre and the crosier, the chasuble, stole and 
 cowl are looked for in vain. The tinselled insignia of 
 rank and the gilded baubles of nobility, the arms of 
 heraldry and the stars and crosses of honor are rent 
 away from human beings, and leave them to appear as 
 they are — "naked, unvarnished, unappendaged men." 
 The standards, ensigns, and gonfalons of earthly pa- 
 rade float not in the air of the judgment morn. Beauty, 
 wealth, and power, gifts, talents, and fame, — of what 
 avail are they now without true and heartfelt religion ? 
 The righteous and the wicked, the followers and the 
 foes of Christ, — these are the only distinctions which 
 have a place in that overwhelming presence. 
 
32 Sermons 
 
 Each one of that iniiuense concourse is seen. Each 
 one is known. Each one must give account of himself 
 to God. No one shall share responsibility with his 
 fellows. Xo one shall shield himself behind the instruc- 
 tion, the counsel, the example of others; no one shall 
 coA'er himself with the skirt of minister, parent or 
 friend. Families are sundered: individuals are parted 
 from individuals by a discrimination awfully search- 
 ing and particular. Oh. what a sifting ! Jehovah's 
 fan is in his hand, and he winnows the chaff from the 
 wheat: he gathers the wheat into his garner, and con- 
 signs the chaff to unquenchal^le fire. 
 
 Xow is the day of full redemption come to those who 
 served their Lord amidst temptations, trials, and fears, 
 and waited and prayed and longed for His second glo- 
 rious appearing. Clad in Jesus" righteousness, washed 
 in Jesus' blood, pleading Jesus' atoning merits, they 
 stand at His right hand and look into His smiling 
 face. "Come," saith the King. **Come, ye blessed of 
 My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you 
 from the foundation of the world. For I was an 
 hungered and ye gave Me meat: I was thirsty and ye 
 gave Me drink : I was a stranger and ye took Me in : 
 naked and ye clothed Me : I was sick and in prison and 
 ve came unto Me. Inasmuch as ye have done it unto 
 one of the least of these. My brethren, ye have done 
 it unto Me.'' ''Enter ye into the joy of your Lord." 
 O welcome word I O thrice happy souls I Their tribu- 
 lation is past, their conflict with the world, the flesh 
 and the Devil is ended, the narrow way has all benn 
 trod, death, their last enemy, is conquered, and not one 
 of them remains a tenant of the grave. The last battle 
 has been fought, the last sin has been committed, the 
 last tear is wiped away. The world's laugh and froAvn 
 
Girardeau 33 
 
 are alike no more. No more the cross, the fire and the 
 stake. No more the chain, the dungeon and the rack. 
 Shout, ye ransomed sinners, shout ! For yours are 
 harps of gold, crowns of righteousness, the beatific 
 vision of God, and the celestial glory that fadeth not 
 away. 
 
 Now do all Christ's people meet each other at His 
 right hand. The sundered ties of earth are recon- 
 structed; and the scattered fragments of families are 
 re-gathered into a union no more to be broken forever. 
 Wliat passionate embraces ! Wliat mutual congratula- 
 tions ! WHiat ecstacies of joy ! Glorious day when the 
 whole blood-bought Church of the Eedeemer meet for 
 the first time in His immediate presence ! 
 
 But, alas ! across yonder dividing line stand the 
 wretched children of doom. Their visages are clouded 
 with the horrors of despair. They are torn by an irre- 
 sistible hand from the companionship of the godly and 
 the consolations of hope. O, fellow-sinners, take warn- 
 ing in time and forecast that day. How will ungodly 
 parents part with those who wxre their children in the 
 flesh, but who became the children of God in the 
 spirit? How will unconverted children part with 
 pious and sainted parents ? How will they endure that 
 final clasping of hands and tliose everlasting farewells ? 
 How will hardened sinners look in the face the minis- 
 ters of Christ who besought them in vain to seek salva- 
 tion in the blood of the Lamb, and who were driven by 
 their refusals to weep in secret places over their pride? 
 How will every sermon stare them in the face, and 
 every broken Sabbath bear swift witness against them ? 
 How will the infidel, the sceptic, and the persecuting 
 inquisitor look upon that abused and calumniated Bible 
 that now lies open on the judgment-seat as the law by 
 
34 Sermons 
 
 which they are judged? Eesisted it, opposed it, slan- 
 dered it, burnt it, they may once have done, but con- 
 front it they must now, as God's unbroken and eternal 
 word. How will the despisers of conscience meet its 
 testimony before the final bar? How will it rise upon 
 them like a strong man armed, and thrust its unerring 
 finger at them, and charge them with their forgotten 
 but now resuscitated sins? Hidden motives that lay 
 down in the foundations of the soul, shameful thoughts 
 and feelings that were screened from human eye in the 
 secret chambers of the spirit, deeds of wickedness per- 
 petrated in the darkness of night,— lo ! they are now 
 dragged forth into light and divulged before an assem- 
 bled world. When God manifests Himself and pours 
 the insufferable glory of His holiness, justice, and law 
 upon the trembling sinner at the bar. His heart will 
 melt within him like wax in the devouring flame. To 
 hypocrites and false professors of religion is fulfilled 
 that fearful word of Christ: "Many shall say to Me 
 in that day, Lord, Lord; and then will I profess unto 
 them, I never knew you." Too late will they wake up 
 to the consciousness of their fatal mistake. Standing 
 with a lie in their right hands before the judgment- 
 seat, what infinite disappointment, chagrin and horror 
 seize their souls when they find that "there is a way to 
 hell even from the gates of heaven." 
 
 Ye lascivious and unclean, malicious and uncharita- 
 ble, ye Sabbath-breakers and defrauders, how will ye 
 stand before the majesty of that fiery law which once 
 broke in flashes from the thick darkness of Sinai's 
 mount, but now blazes in consuming brightness and 
 terrific wrath? And O ye rejecters of Christ, how can 
 ye confront Him who sits as your Judge with the 
 
Girardeau 35 
 
 print of the nails in His hands and feet and of the 
 spear which cleft His heart in twain? 
 
 "Yonder sits my slighted Savior, 
 
 With the marks of dying love ; 
 
 Oh, that I had sought His favor 
 
 When I felt His Spirit move ! 
 
 Golden moments, 
 A\Tien I felt His Spirit move !" 
 
 He offered you His Gospel ; you refused it. He ten- 
 dered you His hand ; you thrust it from you. He shed 
 His tears over you ; you trampled them under feet and 
 counted His most j)recious blood as an unholy thing. 
 Salvation ! Salvation ! How unspeakably important 
 will you then deem it? How will paleness bespread 
 your faces and trembling make your knees to smite 
 together? AVhat groans of anguish will rend your 
 hearts ? Whsit tears of blood will you weep ? And are 
 they gone? The Sabbath, the Bible, the preacher, the 
 mercy-seat, the Gospel, — are they all clean gone for- 
 ever? Yea, poor sinner, and Christ is gone, and the 
 Spirit of grace is gone, and heaven is gone, and hope, 
 that was wont to gild the fiercest storm with rays of 
 light, hope that made even the thought of death, judg- 
 ment and eternity tolerable, hope too is gone forever. 
 And come is judgment, come is divine vengeance, come 
 is the blackness of darkness and the second death. And 
 is it come to this, that Jesus the merciful Saviour, who 
 so loved sinners that He wept and bled for them, must 
 now pronounce their doom ? Must those lips that were 
 wont to speak in blessing utter irrevocable curses on 
 their souls ? Alas for them ! In tones of deepest thun- 
 der Jesus shall say, "Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting 
 fire prepared for the Devil and his angels." 
 
36 Sermons 
 
 The sentences of destiny are pronounced; but look, 
 what rising light is that which sheds a lurid glare over 
 the vast assembly, throw^s a ruddy tint upon the 
 blanched countenances of the doomed, and crimsons 
 the face of the great white throne? 'Tis the world on 
 fire ! The atmosphere ablaze wraps the earth in a 
 winding-sheet of flame, immense volumes of smoke roll 
 upward and dim the lights of heaven; the sun is turned 
 into darkness, the moon into blood, and the stars are 
 falling like untimely figs. From mountain top to 
 mountain top the flames are leaping and playing, while 
 a deluge of fire sweeps across the face of nature whelm- 
 ing cities, towns and villages in its sea-like swell and 
 roll. Water which quences fire is itself devoured; 
 oceans are licked up and dried to their beds like the 
 water in the trench around Elijah's altar in the minor 
 judgment-day of Carmel. 
 
 Alas ! will there be no wailing voices to chant a fit- 
 ting death h^nnn for a doomed and dying world ? Will 
 no kindred planet in the solar family, as it gazes upon 
 the dread disaster, veil its lustre and clothe itself in 
 mourning for a sister orb ? Once it was a sanctuary of 
 praise, a theatre of glory, a paradise of charms. The 
 morning stars sang together its natal hymn, and all 
 the sons of God shouted for jo}^, when, adorned by the 
 hand of its Maker as the home of holiness, it took its 
 co-ordinate place in the society of shining worlds, and 
 helped to swell the doxology pealing in God's ear from 
 the grand harmonies of the universe. But Sin entered, 
 and Death followed after. They converted it into an 
 Aceldama of blood and a Golgotha of bones, and at 
 last dissolve its fair and beautiful proportions in a uni- 
 versal sea of flame. Pale now, and paler yet. wanes the 
 light of the direful conflagration. Earth utters her 
 
Girardeau 37 
 
 expiring groans in rumbling detonations from her 
 deepest caverns; and reiterated thunders of mighty 
 explosions seem the volleying discharges of God's artil- 
 lery at the funeral of a world. 
 
 A few words more and I shall strain your attention 
 no longer to this awful, yet delightful theme. The 
 judicial process ends; the books are closed, the Judge 
 rises, and the Supreme Court of the world adjourns. 
 The separate destinies of human beings are now 
 evolved. Collected around the person of their glorious 
 Lord, the jubilant saints begin their triumphal march 
 to the portals of their heavenly home. Onward they 
 sweep in majestic array, hallelujahs are bursting from 
 every lip, and as they come in view of the shining 
 gates, hark ! they sing : "Lift up your heads, O ye 
 gates, and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors, and the 
 King of glory shall come in!'' And. again, as in the 
 ascension from Olivet of the \'ictor of sin, death and 
 hell, the challenge of angelic sentries is shouted from 
 the battlements of heaven: "Who is this King of 
 glory?" And then the response is rolled back in thun- 
 der from ten thousand times ten thousand voices : "The 
 Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle, 
 the Lord of hosts. He is the King of glory. Lift up 
 your heads, O ye gates, even lift them up, ye everlast- 
 ing doors, and the King of glory shall come in!" 
 
 It is enough. They enter, they pass beneath the 
 arches of triumph, they tread the golden streets of the 
 New Jerusalem lined the while with dense ranks of 
 angels who cheer the conquerors home. They seat their 
 Saviour-King in glory on Mount Zion, and massing, 
 massing, massing before the eternal throne they pros- 
 trate themselves in adoring ^.■orship of the Triune God 
 and cry : "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God of hosts !" 
 
38 Sermons 
 
 Then rising and waving their palms of victory in the 
 morning air of an endless day, with a sound like the 
 noise of many waters, or the voice of mighty thunder- 
 ings, — hark, they chant again: "Glory and honor and 
 power, and might and dominion, and wisdom and 
 thanksgiving and blessing be unto Him that sits upon 
 the throne and unto^ the Lamb forever ! " Redemption 
 is completed, and the pauseless chorus of everlasting 
 praise begins. 
 
 "Jerusalem, my happy home, 
 Name ever dear to me; 
 When shall my labors have an end 
 In joy and peace and Thee? 
 
 O mother, dear, Jerusalem, 
 My soul still pants for thee; 
 
 Then shall my labors have an end 
 "When I thy joys shall see." 
 
 Would that we could say this is all : this is the glori- 
 ous destiny of an unsevered and unmutilated race ! 
 But from the left hand of the judgment-bar a funeral 
 procession of lost human beings, in the train of devils, 
 slowly and reluctantly wend their way to the frowning 
 gates of hell. They defile through those gloomy por- 
 tals over which despair reads the fatal legend : "They 
 who enter here leave hope behind." The irrefragable 
 bolts of the eternal jail are shot by penal justice behind 
 them; and between them and a lost and irrecoverable 
 paradise yawn the terrific jaws of an uncrossable 
 chasm — a gulf wide, deep, and dark as starless mid- 
 night, save as the profound abyss is gilded by some 
 mocking rays that may straggle into it from a far- 
 distant and inaccessible glory. 
 
Girardeau 39 
 
 SANGTIFIGATION BY GRACE 
 
 Romans 6:1, 2. '"''What shall we say then? Shall 
 we continve in sin that grace may abound? God for- 
 hid. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer 
 therein?'''' 
 
 The Apostle Paul, in the preceding chapters of this 
 epistle, had opened the great doctrine of salvation by 
 grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. In the 
 three first chapters he shows negatively how the sinner 
 cannot be justified; in the latter part of the third and 
 in the fourth he indicates the only ground upon which 
 he can be justified, and in the fifth points out the 
 method by which the scheme of justification is applied. 
 
 He first proves, by an appeal to fact, the entire de- 
 pravity of all mankind, both Jew and Gentile, and 
 their consequent inability to bring forth a righteous- 
 ness by which they should be justified. But while all 
 are thus incapacitated to furnish a justifying right- 
 eousness, God in mercy reveals a plan by which He 
 may be just., and yet the justifyer of him who belie veth 
 in Jesus. This plan sets aside the works of the sinner 
 as a platform of justification, and shuts him up to the 
 acceptance of a righteousness provided by God Him- 
 self. The righteousness which is thus graciously pro- 
 vided is entirely exclusive of works and is received by a 
 
 Note. — This sermon was prepared as a trial sermon for ordination. 
 It was written when the author was in his twenty-fourth year ; and 
 is inserted here, not to increase his reputation as a pulpit orator, 
 but to show his early conception of what a sermon ought to be ; 
 and because it represents his theological views at the beginning of 
 his ministry. While the style and manner of treatment smacks of 
 the seminary student it also prophesies the great preacher. 
 
40 Sermons 
 
 simple faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Not being his 
 own, but having been wrought out by Christ, the only 
 way in which it becomes available to the sinner is by 
 virtue of a legal imputation. He, and only he, to whom 
 this righteousness is thus legally accounted as his own, 
 can be accepted and justified by God. In the chapter 
 immediately preceding that from which the text is 
 taken, the apostle points out the channel through which 
 this imputation flows, the specific method by which the 
 system of saving grace is. actually applied. This he 
 designates as the federal relation in which the sinner 
 stands to his surety, the Lord Jesus Christ. As a fed- 
 eral connection with Adam in the covenant of works 
 was the ground upon which his guilt is imputed to his 
 natural posterity — so a federal connection with Christ 
 in the covenant of grace is the ground upon which His 
 righteousness is imputed to His spiritual seed. As nat- 
 ural birth is the designation of those upon whom the 
 covenant of works takes effect, so spiritural birth is the 
 designation of those upon whom the covenant of grace 
 takes effect. And as in the covenant of works, we be- 
 come connected with Adam not by any personal suf- 
 frage of our own, but by the sovereign appointment of 
 an all-wise God — so in the covenant of grace we be- 
 come connected with Christ — not primarily by a per- 
 sonal act of ours, but by virtue of an eternal purpose of 
 grace. The whole plan, then, upon which the sinner is 
 justified is obviously gratuitous. Destitute of the abil- 
 ity to furnish an acceptable righteousness, he is neces- 
 sarily destitute of merit. He is therefore saved, if 
 saved at all, upon a principle of mere grace. The 
 apostle, in the next place, anticipates, in the words of 
 the text, the objection which in one point of view would 
 be naturally rendered by the carnal heart to the system 
 
Girardeau 41 
 
 of grace which he had propounded and the abuses 
 which in another would be made of it. The misappre- 
 hension of his meaning is briefly this : If, as you affirm, 
 we are justified and saved irrespectively of our own 
 works, then by consequence it is not necessary for us 
 to work at all. In fact, the less of our own works there, 
 be the more glory upon this gratuitous scheme will ac- 
 crue to God, and if we continue in sin there will be an 
 opportunity afforded for a more abundant and illus- 
 trious display of grace. Two parties would be dis- 
 posed to use this language in reference to the apostle's 
 doctrine; the Legalist who would be unwilling to 
 receive it, as in that case he would be constrained for- 
 ever to forego his legal dependencies ; and the Autino- 
 mian who would gladly adopt it inasmuch as he regards 
 it as removing every barrier to licentiousness, and 
 affording a premium to crime. The answer of the 
 apostle, commenced in the text and carried on in the 
 succeeding verses, is clear and full : "How shall we 
 that are dead to sin live any longer therein?" 
 
 The force of this reply lies, we conceive, in the con- 
 struction placed upon the phrase, "dead to sin." Of 
 these words, different interpretations have been given. 
 By one class of commentators the expression "dead to 
 sin" is regarded as synonymous with dead to the power 
 of sin. How shall we who are dead to the power of 
 sin, who profess to have had our lusts and sins crucified 
 with Christ, indulge in the commission of sin? Our 
 sins have been nailed to Christ's cross, and shall, there- 
 fore, have no more dominion over us. But although 
 this be partially true, the apostle's argument is not 
 presented in a right point of view. For if this exposi- 
 tion be adopted, it seems that he would have contra- 
 dicted his own doctrine laid down so forcibly in the 
 
42 Sermons 
 
 seventh chapter of this epistle and confirmed by the 
 concurrent testimony of other passages of Scripture 
 by which we are taught that the believer, although con- 
 stantly advancing in holiness, still never attains that 
 state in which he may say that he is dead to the 'power 
 oi sin. The conflict between the new nature and the still 
 indwelling old nature is hushed only in the silence of 
 death — in that solemn moment when the immortal 
 spirit ceases to be a tenant of its mortal tabernacle, and, 
 therefore, ceases to be exposed through the avenues of 
 the senses to the inroads of temptation. 
 
 Further, if this interpretation be adopted, the answer 
 of the apostle, as an argument, loses its weight. For 
 to be dead to the power of sin is to cease to live in the 
 indulgence of sin. If this be the apostle's meaning, 
 then the question would thus resolve itself : How shall 
 we who no longer live in sin, live any longer therein? 
 The force of the reply, we apprehend, consists in the 
 fact that a strong contrast is drawn between two oppos- 
 ing states. But, according to the exposition under con- 
 sideration, this contrast is overlooked, and, if we mis- 
 take not, the apostle is made to assert an identical pro- 
 position. 
 
 The true meaning of the words, "dead to sin," we 
 take to be dead to the guilt of sin. It will be perceived 
 that the word gtiiU is employed as equivalent to lia- 
 bility to punishment and not as equivalent to moral 
 turpitude. 
 
 The former interpretation has been supported on the 
 ground that the believer is often spoken of in Scripture 
 as actually doing what it is only meant that he ought 
 to do, and as actually being in a state in which it is 
 only meant that he ought to he. But as yet the apostle 
 had only been treating of the justified state of believers, 
 
Girardeau 43 
 
 and not of the duties which pertain to sanctification of 
 life, and it seems to us that his object in the present 
 chapter is specifically to indicate the dependence of 
 sanctification upon the previous state of justification 
 by a gratuitous righteousness. Keeping this in view, 
 we are able to determine the sense of the words "dead 
 to sin," and the force of the question in which the}^ are 
 employed. They form the connecting link between the 
 consideration of our justified and our sanctified states. 
 They are the steps by which the apostle passes in the 
 course of his high argument from the former to the lat- 
 ter. The train of thought appears to be this: in the 
 covenant of grace believers are united to Christ as their 
 federal head. This legal union, however, under a 
 federal constitution, does not take effect upon the sinner 
 until he is also sfiritnaUy united to Christ. This is 
 done by the efficacious grace of the spirit implanting in 
 his heart a new principle of holiness, the prime element 
 of which is Faith. By means of this faith the sinner is 
 enabled to apprehend Christ and to receive the right- 
 eousness which he has provided for all His federal con- 
 stituents. Faith is the instrumental medium by which 
 the sinner becomes an actual partaker of the federal 
 union with all its inestimable blessings. The moment 
 of the spiritval is the precise moment at which the fed- 
 eral relation takes effect, and at which its influence 
 upon the sinner begins to be developed. That instant 
 the ungodly sinner becomes a justified and accepted be- 
 liever. His state is changed. He has passed from a 
 legal state of condemnation and bondage to a legal 
 state of justification and freedom. By virtue of this 
 federal and spiritual union be becomes mystically but 
 truly and really one with the Lord Jesus Christ. He 
 is identified with Christ in law. All the acts which 
 
44 Sermons 
 
 Christ has performed on his behalf become putatively, 
 but not the less on that account substantially his own ; 
 and as Christ in the work of redemption acts as a public 
 and not a private individual, there is a transfer of His 
 active and passive obedience to the sinner whom He 
 has represented. Consequently whatever Christ did in 
 His capacity as a substitute and covenant head may 
 be properly said to have been done by the believer. As 
 Christ lived a life of obedience to the precepts of the 
 law, the justified sinner is regarded in law as having 
 done the same: and as Christ died to satisfy the pen- 
 alty of the violated law, the believer is considered as 
 having legally died with Christ on the cross. Christ 
 died to sin ; that is, to that sin which, although not His 
 own by nature, became His own by imputation; for it 
 is only in that sense that our blessed Lord, who was 
 "holy, harmless and undefiled," could be said to be a 
 sinner. The moral turpitude of sin could not have 
 attached to Him in any respect. As God^ His nature is 
 immaculate holiness, and as man. He was born out of 
 the ordinary line of human descent, and, therefore, was 
 not chargeable with the guHt of Adam's sin, and con- 
 sequently was not obnoxious to its penalty — the loss of 
 original righteousness and a positive tendency to trans- 
 gression. But the guilt of sin, or its legal liability to 
 punishment, did attach to Christ, and hence, since death 
 is the punishment of sin, Christ died. He died to the 
 guilt of sin. The believer, therefore, thus died to the 
 guilt of sin with Christ, his covenant head. Hence it 
 is, we understand the apostle to assert, that believers 
 are '"''dead to sin.'''' But since a federal union with 
 Christ is presupposed, and that federal union is indis- 
 solubly connected with the spiritual union as the source 
 
Girardeau 45 
 
 of a godly life, death to the ijuilt of sin implies a corre- 
 sponding life to holiness. 
 
 If the believer has died with Christ, there is a neces- 
 sity that he should also rise with Him from the dead. 
 And since Christ has risen that He might live to the 
 glory of God, there is a moral necessity that the he- 
 liever''s life should be devoted to the same great end. 
 
 As the perversion of his doctrine which the apostle 
 considers is not infrequent at the present day, we pro- 
 pose, with God's assistance, to indicate the connection 
 between justification and sanctification — to show that 
 the scheme upon which the sinner is justified by mere 
 grace through faith, so far from being adverse to holi- 
 ness of life is that by which it is effectually secured. 
 
 I. We would observe, in the first place, that this 
 scheme is the only one which places the sinner in a con- 
 dition in which he may attain to holiness of life. 
 
 1. It is evident that since the fall no man can be 
 sanctified unless he has been previously justified upon 
 some scheme. In the case of Adam, on the contrary, it 
 was necessary he should be holy, or, what is the same 
 thing, that he should have obeyed the law before he 
 could be justified. His justification in the eye of the 
 law depended on his perfect fulfillment of all its com- 
 mands, both in the letter and in the spirit. 
 
 No less could have been required under the scheme 
 of works upon which he relied for justification. And 
 doubtless Adam was endued with strength sufficient to 
 have enabled him to yield si.ch an obedience, and had 
 he remained in his integrity during the time appointed 
 by God for his trial, he would have been pronounced 
 legally righteous, and (!)nfirmed in holiness for eter- 
 nity. But the moment lie broke the law and failed to 
 perform the conditions of the covenant into which he 
 
46 Sermons 
 
 had entered with God, that instant it became absolutely 
 impossible for him to be justified on the scheme under 
 which he hitherto lived. The order which had pre- 
 viously existed between justification and sanctification 
 was completely reversed, and it became absolutely 
 necessary for him to be justified before he could be 
 sanctified. And since the sinner is now precisely in the 
 same situation with Adam subsequent to the fall, the 
 same necessity must still hold in every individual case. 
 The impossibility of being sanctified before justifica- 
 tion, consists in the fact that all are under the curse of 
 God's violated law, and consequently in a state of pres- 
 ent condemnation. "Cursed is every one that con- 
 tinueth not in all things that are written in the law to 
 do them." As the person and the works of the moral 
 agent are strictly related, the one derives its complexion 
 from the other. Now, under the first covenant, the 
 person of the individual was accepted in consequence 
 of the previous acceptance and justification of his 
 works; under the last covenant, the order is directly 
 inverted. The works of the sinner are accepted in con- 
 sequence of the previous acceptance and justification 
 of his person. Or, as has been pithily said under the 
 covenant of works, the order was, do this and live. 
 Under the covenant grace : live that you may do this. 
 
 But as it is a fact that the sinner's person is in a 
 state of condemnation, all his works must also be in 
 the same state; and if his works are not acceptable to 
 God there is not the remotest possibility of his sanctifi- 
 cation, since sanctification, as far as his agency is con- 
 cerned, is the performance of works acceptable in God's 
 sight. It is, therefore, necessary that the sinner should 
 be justified upon some scheme before he can serve God 
 
Girardeau 47 
 
 acceptably and attain that holiness of life without 
 which ''no man shall see the Lord.'' 
 
 Now it is equally clear that the scheme upon which 
 the sinner is actually justified before God is that very 
 scheme of grace which the apostle has so elaborately 
 expounded, and one principal department of which he 
 concisely enunciates in the expression, "dead to sin." 
 Several distinct methods of justification have been ad- 
 vocated by different men and by men, too, professing 
 to found their views u^Don the teaching of the inspired 
 word. We undertake not to assert that inadequate ap- 
 prehensions of the great plan of justification are inva- 
 riably attended with fatal consequences to the salvation 
 of those who entertain them. Some are more grossly 
 and glaringly erroneous than others, and whilst a total 
 or wilful misconception of the doctrine of Scripture on 
 this important point must result in the most serious 
 peril, none may venture infallibly to declare the exact 
 amount of truth which is necessary to salvation, or the 
 precise quantity of error which precludes its possibility. 
 It must, however, be a concern of the last importance 
 to approximate as closely as ])ossible to the decisions of 
 God's word. 
 
 The fatal delusion which exercises so baleful an influ- 
 ence on the practice of multitudes, that we are depend- 
 ent for salvation upon our own works as a meritorious 
 ground of justification, aside from the sacrifice of 
 Christ, is so palpably opposed to every declaration of 
 Scripture on the subject that it needs only to be brought 
 into contact with "the law and the testimony" and the 
 most cursory examination by its light to insure its final 
 overthrow. "In thy sight shall no man living be justi- 
 fied." The apparent inconsistency between Paul and 
 James while treating of faith, which to many affords 
 
48 Sermons 
 
 a countenance to this monstrous scheme, is seen upon 
 investigation to be no inconsistency at all. Paul treats 
 of the ground, James of the evidence of justification. 
 The faith, which is exclusive of works, as far as justi- 
 fication is concerned, when vieM'ed in reference to sanc- 
 tification, is evidenced by works to be sincere. 
 
 But there are more specious forms in which the same 
 principle of self-righteousness is so disguised as appar- 
 ently to mingle with the grace of God in the great work 
 of man's salvation. 
 
 The Romanist contends that the act of God by which 
 the sinner is justified is not a judicial or forensic act, 
 but the infusion of an inherent personal holiness or 
 habit of grace. This act which they term the first justi- 
 fication is efficacious in remo^ang original sin and 
 expelling habits of unholincss. The faith by which we 
 are thus first justified has itself an intrinsic virtue pre- 
 disposing the soul for pardon. But the value of this 
 justification is limited, and it is only by good works 
 performed in subsequent life that we derive the second 
 justification which avails in the day of final judgment. 
 
 The doctrine of the Socinian upon this point is in 
 perfect keeping with that general view Avhich they take 
 of the Gospel as merely a declaration of the mercy of 
 God, — a grand moral lesson and a promise of eternal 
 life. Discarding as they do the satisfaction and vicar- 
 ious sacrifice of Christ, they hold that the sinner is 
 justified by faith as a great moral virtue exercising a 
 commanding influence on a life of obedience which, 
 through the general mercy of God, merits salvation. 
 
 The Armenian, while he regards the righteousness, 
 or what in their view is the same thing, the death of 
 Christ as the meritorious cause of justification, coin- 
 cides with the Romanists in attributing to the faith 
 
Girardeau 49 
 
 which takes advantage of this righteousness, an inher- 
 ent virtue as a predisposing cause, or as is termed, a 
 grace of congruity. 
 
 It will be observed that each of these respective sys- 
 tems attributes more or less value to human works. 
 The broad and sweeping principle which the apostle 
 has so elaborately expounded, that we are justified 
 wholly by grace, exclusively of the smallest degree of 
 human merit or the smallest amount of human works, 
 is by no means cordially and fully admitted as the 
 basis of their creeds. The doctrine of an infusion of 
 personal holiness which obtains with the first, is seen 
 at first glance to confound the distinctions between jus- 
 tification and sanctification, while the imperfection 
 which they attribute to the first and the efficacy of the 
 second justification are palpably at variance with the 
 fundamental idea of a gratuitory salvation. The Socin- 
 ian view of the whole Gospel as a merely moral lesson 
 is so degrading to the great plan of redemption that 
 their system of justification cannot but share the gen- 
 eral censure which must be passed upon their creed. 
 And the Armenian, wdiile it certainly approximates 
 more nearly the truth, still is not exempt from that 
 charge of self-righteousness to which their view of 
 faith as a righteousness exposes them, and which re- 
 strains us from acknowledging that they maintain at 
 least theoretically the simple principle of salvation by 
 free and sovereign grace. 
 
 The Moravian and Antinomian view which lies at the 
 opposite extreme of an actual justification in the eternal 
 decree of God is erroneous, inasmuch as it confounds 
 a secret purpose existing in eternity with a positive 
 act which can only occur in time, as justification from 
 guilt necessarily presupposes commission of sin. And 
 
50 Sermons 
 
 the practical inferences which are drawn from this 
 position are so obviously surversive of that holiness 
 which the Gospel demands that they constitute a living 
 proof of the falsity of their principles. 
 
 The view of justification which the apostle gives 
 is founded, according to his own exposition, upon the 
 legal imputation of a vicarious righteousness to the 
 person of the sinner. It is just in this particular aspect 
 that we regard the various systems to which we have 
 referred as diverging from the Scriptures. They all 
 unite in denying the imputation of Christ's righteous- 
 ness as the onl}'^ true ground of justification. That this 
 is the doctrine of the apostle is clear from the parallel 
 which he draws between Adam and Christ in the chap- 
 ter immediately preceding: "If by one man's offence 
 death reigned by one; much more they which receive 
 abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness 
 shall reign in life b}^ one, Jesus Christ."' Just as we 
 become unrighteous through the sin of Adam, so we 
 become righteous through the righteousness of Christ. 
 
 The fact that some connexion does exist with these 
 two persons is denied by none who pretend to derive 
 their views from the Sacred Scriptures. The question 
 is as to the precise nature and effects of that connexion. 
 
 The apostle unquestionably assumes it as the basis 
 on the one hand of our fall into sin and consequent 
 condemnation, and on the other of our restoration to 
 righteousness and consequent justification, and it be- 
 comes, therefore, a matter of the most serious import 
 to discover the true bearing of his doctrine on the sub- 
 ject. 
 
 It is evident from his discussion of the plan of sal- 
 vation in the previous i)art of the Epistle, that he 
 regarded a righteousness which should be able to stand 
 
Girardeau 51 
 
 the test of comparison of God's holy law as the great 
 postulate of the sinner; a righteousness which should 
 be competent to justify before the dread tribunal of the 
 final judge. And it is equally evident that -every 
 scheme upon which men rely for salvation derives its 
 origin from the inquiry so loudly and urgently pressed 
 upon the natural conscience: "How shall a man be just 
 with God?" Whether or not we admit that view of 
 the law which considers it as administered in the form 
 of a covenant, we must allow its just demands can be 
 satisfied by no less than a perfect fulfilment of the 
 obligations it imposes, or what is equivalent, a perfect 
 righteousness. But as it is a fact, palpable to sense, 
 that all men have sinned and come short of meeting 
 this first requirement, they become necessarily exposed 
 to the threatened penalty. ^Vliatever view we adopt. 
 of that nature, of that penalty, one thing is certain: 
 that it involves a condemnation which dates from the 
 first moment of transgression. Now, a state of con-, 
 demnation is absolutely incompatible with any avail- 
 able effort to furnish a satisfactory obedience to law. 
 Hence the state of condemnation and consequent moral 
 impotency is of necessity perpetual, on the ground 
 that a personal righteousness is exacted from the sin- 
 ner. The very first infraction of the law is a sea-wide 
 breach between the sinner and his God which cuts him 
 off from communion with Him and raises a barrier 
 durable as the eternal throne, one operating forever 
 against his future acceptance. But as the original 
 requisition of a perfect righteousness remains in all its 
 force it becomes the gravest question which can occur 
 to man : "Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and 
 bow myself before the High God ? Shall I come before 
 Him with burnt offerings, calves of a year old? 
 
52 Sermons 
 
 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or 
 with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my 
 first-bom for my transgression, the fruit of my body 
 for the sin of my soul?" But turn which way he will, 
 consume what means he please, and employ all the 
 moral energies which an anguished soul can devise, 
 the thick darkness that may be felt still shrouds his 
 spirit, and the bitterness of disappointment still 
 crushes him lower into the depths of despair. The 
 insulted justice, the spotless holiness, the avenging 
 wrath, nay, all the glorious perfections of Jehovah 
 rise up in terrible array, and as with double flaming 
 swords guard each separate avenue to the tree of ever- 
 lasting life. The decree of the Almighty, penned as 
 with a diamond upon the eternal rock, still frowns the 
 uncompromising death warrant to all his hopes. "The 
 soul that sinneth, it shall die !" The perfections of God, 
 the unchanging penalty of His law, and the immuta- 
 bility of his government, conspire to render it morally 
 impossible that the sinner can be saved on the original 
 principle of a personal obedience. And well is it for 
 us that those perfections, that law and that government 
 admit a substitute in the stead of the transgressor. If 
 we be saved it must be by virtue of the righteousness of 
 a competent substitute, accepted by God in the sinner's 
 place. As a righteousness cannot, in the nature of 
 things, be furnished by himself, it must be furnished 
 by another for him. Now it is remarkable that the 
 principle by which we become first unrighteous is the 
 very method by which we become righteous — that prin- 
 ciple is legal imputation. The apostle shows in the 5th 
 chapter that all men become sinners in the first in- 
 stance not by their personal violation o fthe law, but on 
 account of the acts of one to whom they sustain a 
 
Girardeau 53 
 
 peculiar relation. Whatever that relation is admitted 
 to be none can deny that the apostle asserts it : "Where- 
 fore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and 
 death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that 
 all have sinned." It is clear that the apostle assigns as 
 a reason for the death of all men their common connex- 
 ion with the first man, and lest some should assert that 
 the sin of Adam only introduces a tendency to sin, and 
 that we die only in consequence of our own personal 
 transgressions, he excludes this evasion of his doctrine 
 by showing that death equally passes upon those w^ho 
 from the nature of the case cannot commit voluntary 
 transgression in the instance of those who have not 
 sinned after the similitude of Adam's trangression. 
 The argument is briefly this : Death is the effect of sin, 
 consequently where no sin exists there is no room for 
 death. But those die who cannot commit voluntary 
 transgression, as for instance infants, and therefore 
 cannot merit death on account of personal acts. But 
 since they do die, it is by virtue of their participation 
 in the sin of another. They have sinned, and since 
 sin is the transgression of the law, they have trans- 
 gressed the law, and not being capable of doing it per- 
 sonally and voluntarily, must have done it in Adam. 
 And just here the point of controversy exists. How 
 is it that we become participants in Adam's sin ? It is 
 clear that we were not conscious agents in Adam's 
 transgression, both from the fact that we did not then 
 consciously exist, and from the fact that infants are 
 liable to the penal consequences of that sin before they 
 are capable of performing voluntary acts. It cannot be 
 wholly by virtue of our natural descent from Adam 
 as common root from whom we sprung, as in that case 
 we would be chargeable with all his sins, whereas we 
 
54 Sermons 
 
 are actually involved only on his first sin, for, as Paul 
 saj's: the judgment is by one offence to condemnation, 
 but the free gift is of many offences unto justification. 
 
 It does seem to us that the only possible ground 
 upon which "we become involved in Adam's sin is the 
 ground of legal imputation. The sin is not consciously 
 but it is really and imputatively ours. This imputation 
 to be just must be founded ujoon a covenant relation 
 in which we stand to Adam. This covenant relation 
 or union is the ground of our responsibility for the sin 
 of our first parent, and our actual exj^osure to the penal 
 consequences of his transgression. Now, as the apostle 
 has drawn a parallel between Adam and Christ, let us 
 pass to the other branch of it. Having considered the 
 method by which we become sinners, and therefore con- 
 demned, let us briefly notice the method by which we 
 become righteous and therefore justified. AYe have 
 already seen that the crying demand of the guilt}'^ sin- 
 ners is a justifying righteousness, and we have also seen 
 that the possibility of attaining such a righteousness 
 on the gi'ound of personal obedience to law is abso- 
 lutely precluded. If he be justified it must be by the 
 righteousness of another. The question arises as to the 
 method by which we are made possessors of such a 
 vicarious righteousness. We take the apostle's answer : 
 Just as we become unrighteous in Adam, so we become 
 righteous in Christ. Or, to use the words of the same 
 apostle in another place: "As in Adam all die, so even 
 in Christ shall all be made alive." 
 
 By virtue of that union by which believers are con- 
 nected with Christ, his righteousness is imputed to 
 them, and they are regarded as having performed it in 
 Him. It is not a conscious righteousness, for we are not 
 consciously one with Christ. But it is a legal righteous- 
 
Girardeau 55 
 
 ness, accounted to them as if they had furnished it 
 themselves. As natural birth is the general medium 
 by which we are related to Adam, so spiritual birth is 
 the medium by which we are related to Christ. Faith, 
 one of the chief elements of the new nature, created 
 by the Holy Ghost, is the specific means by which we 
 are united to Christ ; it is the bond on the sinner's part, 
 as the Spirit is on Christ's, the ligament which binds 
 him to Christ. 
 
 Faith is the instrument by which we receive the 
 righteousness for which, as sinners beggared of spir- 
 itual food, we apply to God, and which he bestows 
 upon us "without money and without price." We 
 regard this faith not as itself a righteousness, for in 
 that case it would be a work, and according to the apos- 
 tle could have no influence upon our salvation, but as 
 the ability to receive the imputed righteousness of 
 Christ produced in the heart by the efficacious grace 
 of the spirit; and thus both the righteousness which 
 justifies and the faith through which we are justified 
 are the free gifts of God's favor. "By grace ye are 
 saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it 
 is the gift of God."' Thus is the whole scheme by 
 which the sinner is justified one of mere grace. The 
 only seeming objection to the view which contem- 
 plates this plan as one entirely of grace, is that as a 
 perfect fulfilment of the claims of the law entitles, on 
 the score of justice, to a merited reward, and as the 
 sinner by imputation becomes possessed of this right- 
 eousness he is entitled to eternal life on the platform of 
 strict justice and not of grace. But this objection is 
 at once obviated by considering that it was an act of 
 free grace and mercy on the part of the Father to com- 
 mission His well beloved Son to perform the work of 
 
56 Sermons 
 
 redemption, and equally an act of amazing grace and 
 imspeakable love on the part of the Son to '"undertake" 
 for sinners and consent to die. So that, while in one 
 asj)ect, the sinner by virtue of the finished work of 
 Christ has a right and title to eternal life, in another, 
 that claim is seen based on the boundless mercy of 
 God. 
 
 Thus have we endeavored, briefly and imperfectly, 
 to show that to be sanctified we must be previously 
 justified, and that the scheme of free grace is that upon 
 which we are justified and, therefore, is essential to 
 sanctification. This view is confirmed by the repre- 
 sentation which the Scriptures give of the order of the 
 different parts of the work of redemption. Thus, it 
 declares that whom God predestinates He calls; and 
 and whom He calls. He next justifies. So that justifi- 
 cation comes next in order to effectual calling, or 
 regeneration and conversion; and thus, also, Christ is 
 represented as being first our wisdom to instruct and 
 enlighten; next our righteousness, to justify; and sub- 
 sequently our sanctification and redemption — and as 
 sanctification is necessarily prior to redemption, so 
 justification is necessarily prior to sanctification. 
 
 And, consequently, as the scheme of free grace which 
 the apostle lays down is that upon which we are 
 actually justified, it follows that it is necessary to our 
 sanctification. And that the scheme of justification 
 which we have defended is the scheme which the apos- 
 tle propounds is proved, if on no other ground, by the 
 striking fact that the identical objection which is urged 
 at the present day against this scheme was urged 
 against the doctrines of the apostle. The applicability 
 of the objection to each proves their identity. 
 
Girardeau 57 
 
 II. We remark in the next place that the union of 
 the believer with Christ which has been contemplated 
 as the prominent feature in the plan of justification 
 involves considerations which show the intimate har- 
 mony which subsists between that plan and our sancti- 
 fication. 
 
 This union of Christ and His people is not to be 
 regarded as a merely civil or political connexion, as 
 of subjects with their king, or people with their leader, 
 as the representations of sacred Scriptures are too 
 strong for such a view. Nor is it to be considered a 
 union of essence, as that would be blasphemous; nor, 
 lastly, as a union of person, for as Christ is a divine 
 person from eternity such a union would be impos- 
 sible, but it is a federal and spiritual union. Given 
 CO Christ by the Father in an eternal covenant, all His 
 people, in the fullness of time, become actual partakers 
 of that covenant by the regenerating grace of the 
 Spirit, through faith which, as a spiritual union, intro- 
 duces them into the blessings of the federal communion. 
 In both these aspects, as federal and spiritual, the be- 
 liever's union with Christ becomes the spring of his 
 salvation. Faith is the instrument by which he be- 
 comes a partaker of the blessings of the federal union — 
 justification and adoption — and is the great principle 
 by means of which he attains the equally important 
 blessings of santification. It is a great mistake with 
 many to regard faith as merely the individual act by 
 which the sinner apprehends Christ in the moment of 
 justification, which is needed no further as its function 
 has been discharged, or if it be necessary in subsequent 
 life it is a faith which, in some way or other, differs 
 from that which justifies. The error of this view is that 
 it makes faith merely an act, whereas, it is a grace of 
 
58 Sermons 
 
 the Holy Spirit, controlling the whole subsequent life 
 of the justified believer. And the great point of connex- 
 ion between our justified and sanctified states seems to 
 us to consist in the fact that the same blood which be- 
 comes available through faith to justify is applied 
 through faith to sanctification. The blood of Christ 
 both frees from wrath and purges the conscience from 
 dead works. The chief difference which exists between 
 faith as exercised in justification and as employed in 
 sanctification is that in the former case, it regards 
 Christ mainly in His priestly office; and in the latter, 
 regards Him in all His ofiices, as prophet, priest and 
 king. Christ, as priest, offers an atonement and pro- 
 vides a righteousness which faith leans on for justifica- 
 tion. But in the progressive work of sanctification, the 
 believer, by faith, looks to Christ as his priest, to 
 intercede for him ; his proi:>het, to instruct ; and his king 
 to defend him. The great principle, "without faith it 
 is impossible to please God," is equally applicable to 
 our justified and our sanctified states. Through that 
 faith, which receives a graciously imputed righteous- 
 ness, we are freed from a guilt-burdened conscience 
 and the fearful apprehensions of a coming wrath, and 
 this is the victory that overcometh the world — even our 
 faith. Not the most untiring expenditure of human 
 effort — not watching, striving, prayers and tears — but 
 simple faith in the free grace of the crucified Savior. 
 Looking unto Jesus, the author and the furnisher of 
 our faith, is the grand secret, both of freedom from 
 wrath and holiness of life. 
 
 But not only is the faith which is instrumental in 
 justification necessary to sanctification, but there are 
 other principles with regard to Avhich the same obser- 
 vation holds. By virtue of this union with Christ we 
 
Girardeau 59 
 
 are adopted into the family of God, and being brethren 
 of Christ become sons of God and joint-heirs with 
 Christ to a glorious inheritance. Without the spirit of 
 adoption it is imi^ossible to serve God acceptably ; with- 
 out it every effort made by the awakened sinner or the 
 self-sustaining is prompted by a fear of wrath, and 
 springs from a servile dread of God as the final judge. 
 It is only when we cry Abba, Father, only when we 
 approach Him as reconciled through the blood of His 
 Son, that we are enabled to bring forth the peaceable 
 fruits of righteousness. The twinges of conscience, the 
 stings of remorse and the alarming dread of Hell can 
 never be the motives of a truly sober, righteous, and 
 godly life. The spirit by which we become followers of 
 God' as dear children, coupled with a sense of pardon 
 and reconciliation with Him through the blood of Jesus 
 Christ, are absolutely necessary to holiness in life and 
 peace in death. And that man is to be pitied whom 
 the spirit of bondage and the fear of a coming wrath 
 goad on to a forced conformity to the externals of 
 religion, to a life relieved by no earthly enjoyment, 
 and sweetened by no joys of pardon, and to a dying 
 bed racked with awful uncertainty with reference to 
 the tremendous issues of eternity, A constant reliance 
 upon the blood of Christ which justifieth is the only 
 thing that robs life of its gloom and death of its sting. 
 But there is still another consideration which 
 evinces the harmony between justification by free 
 grace and santification of life. The obedience of 
 Christ unto death as it has produced remission of guilt 
 and a title to life, has also purchased for the believer 
 the santifying influences of the Holy Spirit. It is the 
 meritorious cause of our santification. 
 
60 Sermons 
 
 It is only by virtue of Jesus' sufferings and death 
 that we obtain the grace of the Spirit. His great 
 atoning sacrifice was the reason of the impartation of 
 the Spirit as the immediate agent in the production of 
 holiness. Aside from Christ's obedience and perfect 
 righteousness, God is a consuming fire, nor would the 
 Spirit, while the sinner lives under the curse of the 
 law, impart his graces in his heart. To him who has 
 died with Christ to the guilt of sin, the Spirit is im- 
 parted to enable him to die to its power. There is thus 
 a beautiful consistency in the whole scheme of redemp- 
 tion. As God has determined to save the sinner, and 
 that can only be done through the righteousness of a 
 substitute, it is necessary that the sinner should be 
 invested with that righteousness; but as this avails 
 only the justification of his person in law, it is equally 
 necessary that his heart should be sanctified and pre- 
 pared for the eternal presence of God. This is accom- 
 plished by the Holy Spirit in the aj^plication of those 
 blessings which Christ has purchased with His blood. 
 Thus, my brethren, does Christ become to us our whole 
 salvation ; our wisdom to instruct us, and righteousness 
 to justify us, and santification to make us meet for the 
 inheritance of the saints in light. 
 
 III. But as it has with strange inconsistency been 
 urged by those who object to justification upon a 
 scheme of free grace that Christ by His sufferings and 
 death has introduced a new law of grace and procured 
 for us easier conditions of salvation, we would remark 
 in the next place, that the scheme of justification by 
 free grace, against which the objection is advanced, 
 establishes the moral law in its integrity as a rule of 
 life and duty to believers. The opponents of this sys- 
 tem of grace show their leaning to works by this theory, 
 
Girardeau 61 
 
 and as if convinced both from the teaching of Sacred 
 Scriptures and their own experience, that it is impos- 
 sible to furnish an obedience which will abide the rigid 
 demands of God's law, adopt a view of the law itself 
 which relaxes the bonds of moral obligation. It being 
 necessary to obey the law in order to salvation, and 
 experience convinces that it cannot be obeyed in its 
 original state, they are forced to regard the death of 
 Christ as slacking off its unbending claims and accom- 
 modating it to the weakness and imperfection of their 
 moral strength, and as only partial conformity can be 
 expected to its requisitions even in this lowered state, 
 what is wanting will be made up by the merits of 
 Christ. In short, God will accept a sincere instead of 
 a perfect obedience. But the view of justification given 
 by the apostle, so far from inducing a conviction that 
 the claims of the law are thus compromised, establishes 
 those claims in all their force. For, in order that the 
 sinner should escape the penalty of the law, it was 
 necessary that a righteousness without a flaw should be 
 provided. And the obedience of Christ, being infinite 
 in value, was alone sufficient to meet the exigency. 
 That obedience could have been no less than perfect, 
 as the person who rendered it was incapable of failure 
 or imperfection. An infinitely perfect obedience was 
 absolutely demanded by the righteous law of God. 
 Nothing short of this could have been satisfactory. 
 The law is but an exact external representation of the 
 nature and perfections of the Almighty, and it is 
 scarcely less than impiety to assert that its original 
 rectitude could be so far compromised as to admit a 
 partial obedience. There is undoubtedly a sense ob- 
 vious to every reader of Sacred Scriptures in which 
 the law is nullified. But that sense presupposes a 
 
62 Sermons 
 
 certain necessary condition to have been performed. It 
 is true that, in consequence of the obedience and death 
 of the Son of God, as the surety of the elect, the con- 
 demning sentence of the law is forever removed from 
 them. As He has incurred their debt and paid it, 
 justice is satisfied; nor would it demand of the be- 
 liever the fulfilment of a claim which Christ has dis- 
 charged in his place. There is now no condemnation 
 to them who are in Christ Jesus. The law as it is 
 administered under the form of a covenant of works 
 actually exists no longer to the believer in Christ. The 
 law which still exercises its sway over his life is ad- 
 ministered by Christ as mediator, and hence the 
 believer is said to be "under the law to Christ." As 
 the sinner owed obedience to the law as a covenant of 
 works, and as Christ assumed his obligations and ren- 
 dered a perfect obedience to it under that form of ad- 
 ministration, it is clear that the believer is freed from 
 its claims, and hence the apostle, under the figure of 
 the marriage relation, represents the death of the law, 
 as a covenant of works, by the death of the first hus- 
 band, and the marriage of the believer to Christ as 
 by the marriage of the wife to a second husband. As 
 Luther observes, "The law is bound, dead, and crucified 
 in me; it is not overcome, condemned and slain unto 
 Christ; but unto me believing in Him, unto whom He 
 hath freely given the victory." The fact is, that Christ 
 having voluntarily subjected himself to the law, as a 
 covenant of works, and having perfectly obeyed it, 
 was justified on the ground of that obedience. And as 
 the guilt of sin had been imputed to Him He was justi- 
 fied from that guilt, or "dead to sin," and it is in this 
 sense that the apostle says we are "dead to sin," for 
 being in Christ we were justified with Him from its 
 
Girardeau 63 
 
 guilt. Wliile, however, he thus unequivocally asserts 
 the nullification of the law in this point of view, he is 
 careful to determine its continued existence as a rule 
 of life in the hands of Christ. "Do we then make void 
 the law through faith? God forbid — yea, we establish 
 the law." The law derives its immutable character 
 from the immutability of that nature which is the only 
 ultimate ground of moral distinctions. Its complexion 
 is reflected from the radiant perfections of the Al- 
 mighty. And as it is a specific rule to the creature, 
 embodying the distinctions of right and wrong which 
 exist necessarily in God's nature, it can never be re- 
 laxed until that nature itself has ceased to be unchange- 
 able. In the cross of Christ we behold the strongest 
 proof of the unyielding nature of the law. It being 
 determined to save sinners, nothing could obviate the 
 difficulty but the death of God's eternal Son. And as 
 long as that accursed tree shall stand the only refuge 
 of the guilt-burdened sinner, as long as that bleeding 
 victim to justice shall be lifted up that all men may 
 come unto Him, so long will there be the most striking 
 monument that omnipotence itself could raise to the 
 eternal sanctions of His law. That crown of thorns, 
 that bloody robe, that pierced side, that agonizing cry, 
 that awful head Avhich bowed in death, shall conspire 
 forever to "magnify the law and to make it honorable" 
 in the sight of God's moral universe. 
 
 The words of our Savior himself are: "I am not 
 come to destroy, but to fulfil." No, my brethren, these 
 heavens which stretch above us shall pass away, those 
 "everlasting lamps" shall each go out in the blackness 
 of darkness; yea, the firm pillars of this earth shall 
 totter and crumble and fall, but not one jot or one 
 
64 Sermons 
 
 tittle of that law, as a rule of life and duty, shall ever 
 be comi^romised. 
 
 The death of Christ, so far from abrogating the law 
 or lowering its requirements, establishes it as a rule 
 of life which the believer is bound to regard as the per- 
 fect standard to which all his works ought to conform. 
 But as his obedience is necessarily imperfect, as his 
 best performances cannot abide a comparison with 
 this standard, he relies not on them for acceptance, 
 but on the blood of his glorious substitute. Thus, 
 so far from depressing the standard of duty, this 
 scheme of justification by the imputed righteousness 
 of Christ imparts a higher sanction to the law, clothes 
 it with a more august and commanding authority and 
 perpetuates it as an indispensable rule of life and meas- 
 ure of obligation. 
 
 IV. Lastly, we observe that this scheme of justifica- 
 tion by mere grace presents motives to holiness of life 
 which could be secured on no other scheme. 
 
 It is not denied that even if the death of Christ be 
 regarded as not of a strictly vicarious character, that 
 motives of some force may be derived from its contem- 
 plation, but we do say that the motives to holiness 
 which the i^lan of justification proposed by the apostle 
 suggests, are the most powerful that can possibly 
 operate upon the human heart. It is readily acknowl- 
 edged that they are not of such a character as those 
 which ordinarily prompt to effort. The love of dis- 
 tinction, the desire of happiness, the fear of ill, 
 are not the principal motives which spring from 
 a view by faith of the Lamb of God. But to have 
 been given to Jesus in the covenant of redemption 
 without our personal suffrage, to be regarded as in Him 
 obeying the precept and fulfilling the penalty of the 
 
Girardeau 65 
 
 law which we had violated, to have this all-perfect 
 righteousness imputed to us and thrown as a spotless 
 wedding garment around our souls, to have died on 
 Calvary with Him to the guilt and penalty of our own 
 sins and thus to be plucked by sovereign grace as 
 brands from the everlasting burnings, to be made joint- 
 heirs with Christ to an inheritance that fadeth not 
 away — these considerations are suited to inspire that 
 love and gratitude which constitute the only true 
 motives to acceptable obedience. An unmerited favor 
 cannot fail to generate gratitude in a generous heart 
 and that love which unsolicited show^ers benefits on an 
 enemy can be requited with indifference only by a soul 
 dead to all sense of right. Such favor and such love is 
 conspicuous in the cross of Christ. 
 
 The objection to the plan of salvation by mere 
 grace fails to recognize the validity of the choicest 
 motives to action, or at least it seems to be based 
 on the supposition that the scheme of the apostle 
 is characterized by an utter destitution of all motive 
 to holiness, and tends to produce that "ease in 
 Zion," which is fatal to an evangelical effort. But 
 where shall we discover sufficient motive if the free, 
 boundless, undeserved mercy of the Father, the 
 infinite, the unutterable love of the Son, and the long 
 suffering grace of the Spirit wdiich speak from the 
 cradle of Bethlehem, the Garden of Gethsemane, the 
 cross of Calvary and the Ebenezers of our own expe- 
 rience are not competent to produce it? If the spec- 
 tacle of a bleeding Savior expiring in agonies and blood 
 on the accursed tree for our worthless souls, if this 
 does not move us, what in heaven, earth, or hell can do 
 it ? If the love of Christ does not constrain us, in vain 
 will we appeal to the desire of happiness, to the dread 
 
66 Sermons 
 
 of judgment and the fear of hell. This plan of justi- 
 fication by mere grace does not supply those motives 
 which are based in selfishness, but it does provide others 
 which, while they humble self, assimilate our nature to 
 the character of God. Gratitude to God for His un- 
 speakable gift, love to that blessed Savior who gave 
 Himself a ransom for us, a joyful persuasion of our 
 personal interest in His death, and a blood-bought hope 
 of joining that general assembly and church of the first 
 born who night and day in the upper temple cry, 
 Grace ! Grace ! these are the motives, these the powerful 
 incentives which induce the believer to follow Christ, 
 to pursue holiness, and to go on from strength to 
 strength till he "appears in Zion before God." 
 
 It will be perceived that we have only defended the 
 scheme of salvation by grace from the objection urged 
 against it, in the single point of justification by the 
 righteousness of Christ, as that is the only subject 
 which, up to the time of his notice of the objection, he 
 had handled. But the tendency to holiness of all the 
 other doctrines grace is as manifest as that of justifi- 
 cation. If we are elected in the eternal purpose of 
 God it is that we "should be holy and without blame 
 before Him in love." If we have been effectually 
 called by the efficacious grace of God's spirit it is that 
 we should be conformed to the image of His Son. If 
 we are assured that none shall ever pluck us from His 
 hand it is because He who has begun a good work in 
 us will carry it on until the day of Jesus Christ, because 
 we are kept by His power through faith unto salvation. 
 
 The whole plan so viewed, instead of depressing the 
 standard of morals, relaxing the bonds of obligation 
 and affording an unqualified license to the carnal de- 
 sires of the heart, ratifies the immutable distinctions 
 
Girardeau 67 
 
 of right and wrong, elevates the measure of holiness, 
 and furnishes motives to holiness of life which can be 
 equally secured on no other scheme. 
 
 It follows from what has been said that the true 
 method by which believers should mortify sin is to 
 maintain the constant persuasion of their union with 
 Christ and their death in Him to the guilt of sin. The 
 apostle enjoins it upon them to reckon themselves to 
 be dead indeed to sin, but alive unto God through 
 Jesus Christ our Lord. A constant view by faith of 
 a crucified Savior and a joyful sense of our personal 
 interest in His sufferings, death and resurrection is the 
 only thing which can relieve the soul of that sense of 
 guilt and apprehension of wrath that crijDples our 
 efforts, beclouds our hope and bows the head in despon- 
 dency and gloom. 
 
 My brethren, let us strive to feel with the apostle 
 when he exclaims, "For the love of Christ constraineth 
 uSy because we thus judge that if one died for all then 
 were all dead, and that He died for all, that they which 
 live should not henceforth live unto themselves but 
 unto Him which died for them, and rose again." 
 
68 Sermons 
 
 THE OFFICE OF WORKS OF CHAR- 
 ITY IN THE LAST JUDGMENT 
 
 Matt. XXV. 40. '"''And the King shall answer and say 
 unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have 
 done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye 
 have done it unto me.'''' 
 
 These words were spoken by Him who is the Prophet 
 of the church and the light of the world. ''God, who 
 at sundry times and in divers manners, spake in time 
 past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these 
 last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom He hath 
 appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made 
 the worlds ; who being the brightness of His glory, and 
 the express image of His person, and uj^holding all 
 things b}^ the word of His power, when He had by 
 Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand 
 of the majesty on high." But not only is information 
 in regard to the judicial process of the last day com- 
 municated to us by one who is the accredited revealer 
 of God's will, with the extraordinary credentials of His 
 divine commission suspended around His person, but 
 it is extended by one who is also constituted the final 
 judge of the human race. "For the Father judgeth no 
 man, but hath committed all judgment to the Son"; 
 "and hath given Him authority to execute judgment 
 also, because He is the son of man." 
 
 Note. — This sermon was preached In the First Presbyterian Church, 
 Columbia, S. C, on Sabbath night, January 29, 1882. It was prepared 
 at the request of the Ladies' Benevolent Society, and was delivered in 
 the interest of its work. This was the only occasion on which it was 
 preached in exactly this form. 
 
Girardeau 69 
 
 He will discharge the judicial function, who is a 
 partaker of the nature which will be arraigned at the 
 bar; who, having suffered humiliation, disgrace and 
 death in the prosecution of His work as the Savior of 
 men, will have His claims vindicated and His glory 
 illustrated by presiding at the last assize ; who, having, 
 in accordance with the eternal counsels of the Godhead, 
 conducted all of the previous stages of redemption, will 
 perform the last, decisive act bv which the economy of 
 grace will be closed. 
 
 He, who promulgated the law on Mount Sinai, who 
 expounded the law on the Mount of Beatitudes, who 
 fulfilled the law on Mount Calvary, who administers 
 the law on Mount Zion, and who will execute the law 
 on the Mount of final judgment, — He it is, who lifts 
 the awful curtain hanging between us and the ever- 
 lasting future, and lets in light upon the throne of 
 justice and the procedures of the day of doom. The 
 Judge himself ascertains us beforehand of what we are 
 to expect. It is a striking consideration, that the pas- 
 sage, from which the text is extracted, furnishes a 
 particular account of the order and the steps which will 
 obtain in the final trial that is to stamp the complexion 
 of our destiny — the most minute description of the 
 judicial process which is contained in the Bible. It 
 deserves the most careful scrutiny, for it meets and 
 satisfies the strong craving of our minds for knowl- 
 edge of the future, and at the same time renders inex- 
 cusable our ignorance, of the manner in which we will 
 be dealt with in the great judicial day. 
 
 Nor can it fail at once to arrest our attention, that 
 the order which, as we are informed, will be pursued, 
 is the inverse of that adopted in human courts; so far 
 as their deci'^ious are not merely grounded in the arbi- 
 
70 Sermons 
 
 trary will of ai» {;ulocratic despot. In them, in conse- 
 quence of human ignorance, the testimony is first taken, 
 in order that llic innocence or guilt of the party at the 
 bar may be collected from the investigation of the facts 
 in the case, and then the sentence is pronounced. But 
 in that final court, the Judge will first pronounce the 
 sentences, "Come, 3'e blessed," or "Depart, ye cursed," 
 and then will Himself adduce the testimony which will 
 manifest the justice of His decisions. 
 
 From the nature of the case, no one can be tried by 
 his peers, for all will be equally impleaded before the 
 bar — all will be on trial. Xor can it be requisite that 
 a preliminary investigation of facts should be insti- 
 tuted, for, the Judge is alike omniscient and infinitely 
 righteous. All the facts are perfectly known to Him, 
 and the justice of the findings will be admitted and 
 enforced by the consciousness of every individual at the 
 bar. What there may be of momentary dissent or 
 protest will instantly be dissipated by the incontro- 
 vertible testimony which the Judge Himself will pro- 
 ceed to adduce. 
 
 The passage before us, and concurrent utterances of 
 the Word of God, assure us that men will be judged 
 according to therr works. "We must all appear before 
 the judgment-seot of Christ; that every one may 
 receive the things done in his body, according to that 
 he hath done, whether it be good or bad." "And I saw 
 the dead, small rind great, stand before God; and the 
 books were opened; and another book was opened, 
 which is the book of life; and the dead were judged 
 out of those things which were written in the books, 
 according to their works." It is of the very last con- 
 sequence that ju.=;t here we should make no mistake. 
 Reason would convince us, and the Scriptures definitely 
 
Girardeau 71 
 
 declare, that no Transgressor of the divine law can be 
 justified on the ground of his own works. "By the 
 deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified." There has 
 been but one doer of the law, in order to justification, 
 Christ, as the divinel}^ appointed substitute of sinners, 
 has completely obeyed it both as to its precept and its 
 penalty; and his vicarious righteousness, received by 
 faith, constitutes the only ground of acceptance with 
 God, either in this world or at the judgment-bar. 
 When, therefore, the Bible asserts that men shall be 
 judged according to their works the meaning is, not 
 that they will be pronounced in the great day to be 
 justified and acquitted on the ground of, or on account 
 of, their works. The meaning is, that the works of the 
 righteous will furnish the evidence that they are justi- 
 fied on the grounil of, or on account of, Christ's merits ; 
 and that they possess a character, which makes them 
 meet for the enjoyment of God's presence and the fel- 
 lowship of heaven. The case of the unbelieving wicked 
 is different. They will be condemned on the ground 
 of their works, as not only intrinsically blameworthy, 
 but as furnishing the evidence that they had rejected 
 the merits of Christ as the ground of their acceptance, 
 and that they possess a character which makes them 
 deserving of banishment from the presence of God and 
 from the glory of His power. They will be judged 
 not only according to, but on account of, their works. 
 I beseech you, brethren, to commit no blunder in this 
 matter, for it must entail disastrous consequences upon 
 your eternal interests. 
 
 The question now springs up and challenges atten- 
 tion. What sort of works are those which Christ tells 
 us will afford the evidence of the justice of the judicial 
 
72 Sermons 
 
 sentences? The answer is, works of charity; and it is 
 an answer which merits our maturest consideration. 
 
 Let us, first, notice the singularly conspicuous 
 place which will be assigned to offices of charity in 
 the inquisition of the last, great day. Turning to those 
 on His right hand, the King will utter the thrilling 
 words, "Come, ye blessed!" But why? What title 
 have they to such a welcome? Does the King say. Ye 
 were just, ye were true, ye were faithful, ye were 
 temperate, ye were orthodox, ye adhered to my church 
 in life, and ye died in its communion? Xo. ^Ul that 
 may be involved in the character of those whom He 
 will approve and receive amidst the solemnities of that 
 day. But He does not say that He will signalize those 
 traits. AMiai will the King say to the righteous? Ye 
 fed the hungry, ye gave drink to the thirsty, ye enter- 
 tained the stranger, ye clothed the naked, ye visited the 
 sick and those who were in prison. What a marvellous 
 preeminence will be accorded to charity in the last day ! 
 Surely it cannot be that the other Christian graces are 
 not worthy to be mentioned on that day, but it is that 
 charity is more worthy of distinction than they. "And 
 now,"' says the apostle Paul, "abideth faith, hope, 
 charity, these three, but the greatest of these is char- 
 ity." Great is faith. Is it not the grace which unites 
 us to Christ as a Savior? Is it' not the victory that 
 overcometh the world? Did not the ancient heroes of 
 Christ's cause on earth triumph by faith over every 
 difficulty, and vanquish every foe? Did they not live 
 by faith, and was it not by faith they died? Great is 
 hope. Does it not sustain us under life's burdens, ani- 
 mate us for its conflicts, cheer us amidst its afflictions, 
 comfort us as we walk through the valley of the death- 
 shade, and make the darkness of the dying hour blush 
 
Girardeau 73 
 
 with the morning- light of heaven? Yea. Great is 
 faith, and great is hope, but the distinction of charity 
 is that it is greater even than they. Noble grace I It 
 is the chief feature in that image of God which the 
 divine Spirit stamps upon the regenerated soul. The 
 very expression of unselfishness, it asks nothing and 
 gives everything. The most useful of all the virtues, it 
 leads its possessor to live for the good of others. It is 
 emphatically the grace which contemplates the duties 
 relating us to this present world of sin and wretched- 
 ness, while faith and hope are aspiring to the rewards 
 of the future. It is content to hang upon a cross, 
 while they are looking for a crown. Itself destined to 
 chief honor in the day when the fire of an impartial 
 judgment will try all pretensions to virtue, and calcine 
 to ashes all the gauds and pomps of merely human 
 and civil works, it is unconscious of its own value, and 
 will be surprised at its recognition by the final judge. 
 Entitled to the palm in the sisterhood of divine graces, 
 it will modestly disown all claim to it, and shrink from 
 its bestowal. Heavenly charity ! its hand, which was 
 opened to every plea of human want, will put back tne 
 amaranth of eternal honor which will be placed upon 
 its head with the sanction of the Godhead, and amidst 
 the thunders of angelic acclamations; while its human 
 beneficiaries — the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the 
 naked, the sick, the imprisoned, now relieved from 
 every earthly woe, stand ready to escort it to the gates 
 of glory and welcome it to the abodes of bliss. Such 
 is the distinction that will be conferred upon this 
 grace of Charity, which in itself gentle, humble, self- 
 renouncing, will ultimately be crowned as the imper- 
 sonation in human form of the genius of Christianity ! 
 Such the honor that will be, amidst the solemnities of 
 
74 Sermons 
 
 the last judgment, bestowed upon this self-denying but 
 sublime virtue, which brings our poor, imperfect nature 
 into closest likeness to Him, who dwelt among men and 
 shared their sorrows, who healed the sick and the 
 crippled, the deaf, the dumb and the blind, who 
 groaned in sympathy wath the bereaved and wept with 
 them over their dead, and who at last, although en- 
 titled to universal homage, laid down His life in agony 
 and shame to redeem His enemies from sin and death 
 and hell ! 
 
 But we have only touched the skirts of this sub- 
 ject. We must, in the next place, inquire what is the 
 nature of this charity, and what the character of these 
 works which will receive mention so conspicuous in the 
 day of final accounts. Let us not deceive ourselves. 
 Men are cheated by the merely superficial and phenom- 
 enal circumstances of actions — their tinsel and paint 
 and varnish, but the divine Judge, with his omniscient 
 eye, looks down into the profound recesses of the soul 
 in which lurk hidden from human inspection those 
 springs of thought and feeling, those intentions, mo- 
 tives and governing principles, that impart a real and 
 permanent value to our deeds. Many are the acts 
 emblazoned with the beautiful name of charity which 
 can lay but a hollow claim to the illustrious title ; many 
 the deeds of splendid beneficence that extort the en- 
 comiums of the world, but which wall be reduced to 
 nothing by the solvent of the last fire. 
 
 Here, however, we are obliged to distinguish. There 
 is the distinction between an act as it ap]:)ears to man, 
 and as it appears to God; and there is the distinction 
 between an act materially considered— that is, as to the 
 thing itself which is done, and the same act formally 
 considered — that is, as to the motive which led to its 
 
Girardeau 75 
 
 performance. Generally, that which alone appears to 
 the eye of the human observer is the outward act itself. 
 When we witness the performance of an act of charity, 
 we see the material benefit which is. conferred, the 
 pecuniary alms, the food, the drink, the raiment, the 
 visit to the sick and the imprisoned, the entertainment 
 of the strangers; and we may be able to notice the joy 
 of the beneficiary and the material relief he experi- 
 ences. And with this we should ordinarily be satisfied. 
 It is not our province to hunt for the latent motive, 
 which lies back of the external act and veiled from our 
 perception. It may be a good one, it may be a bad one, 
 but we are neither qualified nor authorized to discharge 
 the function of judges. In most cases, we ought to 
 infer from the material goodness of the deed the 
 worthiness of the motive which prompted it. But 
 there may be cases, in which the informing motive 
 emerges from latency, and is so obtrusively thrust 
 upon our observation, that it is impossible that it 
 should elude our knowledge. In such cases we are com- 
 pelled to take the seat of the judge, and pronounce upon 
 the formal value of the acts. If, for example, we see 
 alms extended to the poor, manifestly for the purpose 
 of securing votes for office, or of eliciting applause 
 from spectators, while we approve the material results 
 of the benefaction, we are obliged to regard the act 
 as possessed of no formal value as a fruit of principle 
 and a test of character. On the contrary, contem- 
 plating it from the point of view of its internal rela- 
 tions, we are under the necessity of disapproving it. 
 We feel that the outward and material benefit con- 
 ferred, although it be good and deserving of applause, 
 furnishes no evidence that the principle of charity 
 
76 Sermons 
 
 exists as an element of character, and a spring of 
 action. 
 
 Now. those instances, in which our knowledge is 
 limited to the merely material and outward features of 
 acts, afford no analog}^ whatever to the mode in which 
 they are estimated by the divine judgment. "For the 
 Lord seeth not as man seeth: for man looketh on the 
 outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the 
 heart." He cannot be deceived as to the subtle relation 
 which subsists between the outward action and the in- 
 ward principle. To him there is no distinction, as 
 with us, between the apparent and the real — the visible 
 and the invisible. All is phenomenal and visible to his 
 omniscient eye. The soul is more intimately known 
 by Him than by its own consciousness. Its funda- 
 mental laws, its most secret thoughts, its most fugitive 
 phases of feeling, are intuitively apprehended by Him 
 whose knowledge has no limitations, but like His being 
 is infinite. ''Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, 
 our secret sins in the light of thy countenance." The 
 morning sun does not as clearly reveal the features of 
 a landscape which had been veiled by the darkness of 
 night, as does the blazing light of God's face the ob- 
 scurest emotions and purposes of the human heart. 
 
 But those cases, in which we at once possess a knowl- 
 edge of outward acts and of the motives which in- 
 spired them, are a shadow — an imperfect illustration, 
 of the mode in which the moral qualities of actions are 
 weighed in the unerring balances of the divine judg- 
 ment. It should, however, not be forgotten that, as to 
 degree, God's knowledge is infinitely clearer than ours 
 can be, and that as to mode, he is never dependent upon 
 inference, as we often are, for insight into the secret 
 condition of the creature. He gazes in one undivided 
 
Girardeau 77 
 
 intuition upon the material and the formal qualities of 
 actions, upon the outward deed itself and the intention 
 which impresses its moral type. 
 
 Let us noAv apply these distinctions to the office 
 which, Christ tells us, will be discharged by works of 
 charity in the day of judgment. Their material and 
 outward qualities will be, as we have already seen, 
 recognized and m.entioned by the Judge — feeding the 
 hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, lodging the 
 stranger, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and 
 prisoners. But this is by no means all. He will un- 
 cover and bring out into light and distinctly state the 
 principle from Avhich these acts proceeded, the motive 
 which dictated them and fixed their moral value. Ad- 
 dressing the righteous He will say : ""I w^as an hun- 
 gered, and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty, and ye 
 gave me drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me in; 
 naked, and ye clothed me; I was sick, and ye visited 
 me; I was in prison, and ye came unto me.'' "Inas- 
 much as ye have done it unto one of the least of these 
 my brethren, ye have done it unto me." Wonderful 
 words ! Let us pause and mark their significance. 
 There are at least two things which they enforce upon 
 our attention : 
 
 In the first place, they shed the light of the last 
 judgment upon the nature of that charity which the 
 Judge himself will approve, and the kind of charitable 
 offices which he will adduce as evidences of a justified 
 state and a holy character. The charity which w411 
 pass inspection, and will play so distinguished a part 
 in that judicial day, is not one which was a mere com- 
 plement — a mechanically united bundle of outward 
 acts of beneficence. It is a deep-seated principle of the 
 soul, a permanent habitude, which expressed itself in 
 
78 Sermons 
 
 benefactions to the poor. But what sort of principle? 
 what kind of habitude? The answer is — and it is 
 furnished by the Judge himself — love for Christ. It 
 was for my sake ye did your charitable works; they 
 sprang from the love ye bore for me. And, therefore, 
 I cite them from my book of remembrance, to evidence 
 and prove your possession of the principle of love to 
 me. This, then, is the nature of that charity which 
 will retain its name and read its title in the revealing 
 light of the judgment-day: it is love for Christ, a prin- 
 ciple, a grace, an all-informing motive, which origin- 
 ated, characterized and transfigured mere outward and 
 material benefactions to the poor. But love to Christ 
 will prove the existence of faith in Christ, for "faith 
 worketh by love"; and faith in Christ will prove the 
 possession of his righteousness, which is the sole ground 
 of justification and acceptance w^ith God. Still more, 
 love to Christ proves the existence of love to God, and 
 love to God is "the fulfilling of the law," and the ful- 
 filling of the law proves the possession of the temper 
 of universal obedience to all the divine requirements — 
 a condition of the soul which renders it meet for the 
 society of the Trinity, the fellowship of angels and "the 
 inheritance of the saints in light." Grand sorities ! 
 beginning with offices of charity to the poor, and run- 
 ning back by an irrefragable chain of evidence, on the 
 one hand, to a justified relation of the person to God, 
 and, on the other, to a character of holiness which 
 qualifies its possessors for endless communion with God 
 and the blissful enjoyment of His presence. 
 
 It ought not to be supposed, that the words of the 
 Judge im^Dose the obligation of relieving only those 
 who are followers of Christ and members of His body. 
 We cannot know whether one who novt^ makes no pro- 
 
Girardeau 79 
 
 fession of faith in the Savior will not do it before he 
 dies ; nor can we be sure that all who bear the Christian 
 name are really brethren of Christ. The great matter 
 is, that we help them from the motive of love to Him. 
 There is indeed a peculiar tie which binds us to the 
 members of the family of God into which we trust we 
 have been adopted by the love of the Father, the grace 
 of the Son and the supernatural operation of the Holy 
 Ghost. They are emphatically our brethren, our 
 i* ather's children, to whom we are linked by a closer 
 and a tenderer bond than that of blood. But while we 
 are required by divine command and by the instinctive 
 affections of the renewed nature to do good, especially 
 to them who are of the household of faith, we are also 
 enjoined to communicate to the necessities of all men. 
 That unhappily large community, whose name is the 
 Poor, whose bill of rights is their wants, whose appeals 
 are not to justice but to mercy, and whose ensigns- are 
 the famished body and the extended palm, belong pecu- 
 liarly to no church or religion, no nation, tribe or 
 tongue, but represent all shades of character, all forms 
 of creed, all types of race. They are human. That 
 validates their plea before a humanity whose kinship 
 is stamped by a relation to one God, and the nexus of 
 one bond of hope — the mediation of the man, Christ 
 Jesus. The fact of need is what appeals to our sym- 
 pathies; and in relieving it, whether found in the 
 Christian or the infidel, the wicked or the good, we 
 tread in the footsteps of Him who throughout a life of 
 wondrous beneficence rejected no petition for help, and 
 •at the first keen accession of the pangs of crucifixion 
 and the shame of a felon's death, poured our alike His 
 prayers and blood for the inflicters of His woes. What 
 is insisted on is, that it is the motive of love for Christ, 
 
80 Sermons 
 
 which Avill impart real value to our works of charity in 
 the day of final reckoning. 
 
 How do these words of Jesus, the appointed judge 
 of mankind, fall like thunder-bolts upon many of those 
 pretending and ostentatious offices, which pass current 
 in this sophistical world under the charming guise 
 of charity ! God forbid, that we should disparage any 
 beneficent deed by which a single human want is sup- 
 plied, a single human ache is cured, a single human tear 
 is wiped away ! Let it be that its only value is the 
 material relief it affords. The importance of that in a 
 world of suffering like this cannot be exaggerated. 
 The hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the sick, the 
 dying, are around us on every hand. The mournful 
 procession has never gone by; its tread is ever in our 
 ear. Were society to resolve itself into a vast eleemosy- 
 nary institute in the effort to extinguish human woe, 
 its united energies would not avail to make the poor 
 man an unwonted spectacle, the sick bed a curiosity, 
 and the grave a wonder. Poverty, disease and death 
 are the inheritance of the race, and whatever may be 
 the motive as it appears to omniscience, philanthropy 
 hails every legitimate attempt to diminish the mass of 
 wretchedness which rolls like a sea over the world. 
 Let the generous and compassionate gratify the in- 
 stincts of nature by extending material relief to the 
 suffering and the needy. The more of this the better. 
 
 But let us not make the tremendous blunder of mis- 
 taking an ephemeral impulse for the heaven-born and 
 undying principle of love; and by calling it charity, 
 magnify its offices into a preparative for the trial of 
 the last, great day. No act of charity, however lauda- 
 ble and splendid in the eyes of men, will have any 
 significance in the final reckoning, if it sprang not from 
 
Girardeau 81 
 
 love to Christ. Nor can acts of beneficence which were 
 incited by the motive of pride, or vain-glory, or the 
 love of apiDlause, constitute, in the day of judgment, 
 evidences of a justified state or of meetness for the com- 
 panionship of heaven. "Inasmuch" — the eternal judge 
 will thunder — "inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the 
 least of these my brethren, ye did it not to me. And 
 these shall go away into everlasting punishment." 
 
 One cannot forbear, in connexion with this subject, 
 to remark upon the folly of those philosophical writers 
 on morals, who although they live under the condi- 
 tioning influence of Christianity, yet, in their analyses 
 of the great princijDle of benevolence, throw out of 
 account the love of Christ as a controlling motive to 
 action, and expel His name from their works. They 
 seem to forget the gigantic fact of sin, and the conse- 
 quent need of redemption ; and perpetuate the stupen- 
 dous fallacy of treating the case of man as though he 
 were still standing in innocence. These philosophers 
 appear to think that the dignity of their utterances 
 would be lowered, and the classic polish of their pages 
 be sullied, by an allusion to the crucified Nazarene. 
 They forget that the mediation of Christ has im- 
 pressed an all-pervading type upon the divine govern- 
 ment of the world, which nothing but utter perversity 
 of the heart can fail to recognize, or stark blindness of 
 the intellect can refuse to see. 
 
 It has been said, with equal truth and beauty, that 
 the great "name of God is very close to us.'' It is 
 written as with the divine finger itself upon the nature 
 within us and the nature without us. But, in itself, 
 it is not a name which is a representative of hope, or an 
 object of delightful contemplation, to a race which is 
 conscious of sin and crime. As it stands indelibly 
 
82 Sermons 
 
 recorded upon the foundation laws and beliefs of our 
 souls, and proclaims itself in the penalties of conscience 
 — fear, shame, remorse, despair; as it is spelled in the 
 flaming characters of the heavens, or darkly frowns in 
 their appalling omens; utters itself in the ghastly ter- 
 rors of famine, pestilence and death which afflict the 
 earth, and is heard in the crash of the thunder, the 
 rumble of the earthquake and the roar of the storm, 
 it is the symbol of retribution and the prophecy of 
 doom. In our natural condition what are we, but a col- 
 lection of criminals, marching under guard to the 
 judgment-bar and the prison of hell ? It is one of the 
 most astounding facts in the history of our unhappy 
 race, that the question of God's existence has ever been 
 raised; and still more astounding is it, that, having 
 been raised, it has given birth to a controversy scarcely 
 surpassed in bulk by any other which has been waged 
 upon a single subject. If sin had never occurred, 
 Atheism would have been an impossibility. And could 
 even now the idea of retributive justice be abstracted 
 from the conception of God, the likelihood is that it 
 would vanish from the field of speculation. It is a 
 God of retributive justice, the registry of whose name 
 the conscious transgressor would expunge from his 
 own works, and whom he Avould thrust out, if he could, 
 from his own habitation. As long as justice is recog- 
 nized, the inseperable connexion between guilt and 
 punishment must be felt. And as long as that terror 
 is experienced w^hich drives the sinner from the pres- 
 ence of a divine Judge, all successful endeavors after 
 obedience to God are hopelessly excluded. There can 
 be no love to a Being whose justice is armed for our 
 destruction, and without love to him there can be no 
 worship which would l)e accepted, no obedience which 
 
Girardeau 88 
 
 would be approved. Under such circumstances, of 
 what avail are philosophical analyses of the principles 
 or morals, or ethical digests of the rules of duty ? They 
 are prelections uttered in the lecture-room of the sepul- 
 chre, and addressed to the ears of the dead. Or if the 
 intellectual and moral existence of the auditors be in- 
 sisted on, they are arguments to the culprit why he 
 should love the judge who sentences him, exhortations 
 to him to obey the law which hangs him. 
 
 But the awful name of God is translated and inter-, 
 preted to sinners by another name, which is the emblem 
 of reconciliation and the pledge of love. Need it be 
 mentioned? Is it not Jesus Christ? This is the name 
 which indeed comes very close to the sinner, and close 
 to him in ineffable tenderness and j^ower. The media- 
 tion, the sufferings and death of Christ, have revolu- 
 tionized our relations to God. The wonder is, that the 
 name of the sinner's Savior is not seen to be inscribed 
 on the heavens above, on the earth beneath, and on the 
 profoundest principles of the human soul. The won- 
 der is, that the man of science does not read it ciphered 
 in starry letters upon the nocturnal sky, and chronicled 
 in every element and force of the physical globe; and 
 that the philosopher, bending the ear of consciousness 
 to the phenomena of inward experience, does not hear 
 it cried out from the lowest depths of his moral being. 
 The wonder is, that he does not think as in the shadow 
 of the Cross, and write as if his pen were dipped in 
 atoning blood. The love of Christ is the expression of 
 God's love to the guilty, and the responsive love which 
 it evokes from the heart of the sinner, as it completes our 
 reconciliation to God, and renders possible an accepta- 
 ble obedience to His law. It becomes along with faith 
 a root, and by itself, peculiar and distinguished in this 
 
84 Sermons 
 
 regard, the very complement of all holy acts. The 
 philosopher, who had contemptuously banished it from 
 the category of moral virtues, will be dismayed to see 
 it signally emphasized and magnificently crowned in 
 that day when all human speculations, principles and 
 actions will pass under searching and final review. 
 
 In the second place, these wonderful words of the 
 Lord Jesus, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of 
 the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto 
 me," enforce upon our attention His identification of 
 himself with His poor and needy members on earth. 
 This is almost incredible to us circumstanced as we now 
 are. Even though we may have reason to feel that we 
 have renounced every other ground of dependence, and 
 have heartily embraced Christ, freely offered to us in 
 the Gospel, as the only hope of our souls, it is a tax 
 upon our faith to admit the oneness of so glorious a 
 Savior with ourselves. It requires the assuming wit- 
 ness of His Spirit to scatter our doubts and convince 
 us that He acknowledges us as His brethren, the 
 adopted children of His Father, and joint-heirs with 
 Him to all the riches of His Father's house, the bound- 
 less inheritance of God. Conscious of sin, of back- 
 sliding, of treachery, as we are, we are often ashamed 
 to lift up our faces before Him, and would fain, like 
 Peter under the remembrance of His fall, bow our 
 heads and weep in the bitterness of our souls. We feel 
 that we are unworthy of a look of recognition, of a 
 single token of His love, and are surprised, like the 
 dejected and penitent apostle, when we receive some 
 reassuring message from our risen Lord, which lifts 
 us from dust and ashes and thrills us with gratitude 
 and joy. 
 
Girardeau 85 
 
 We limit the merits of Jesus' righteousness, we apply 
 the poor measure of our sympathies to those which 
 throb in a Savior's heart, we bound the fulness, and 
 circumscribe the out-goings, of infinite love. Exalted 
 as He now is, far above all principality and power 
 and might and dominion, and every name that is 
 named not only in this world, but in that which is to 
 come. He identifies himself with the meanest of His 
 people, and makes common cause with them as they 
 wrestle with the world, the flesh and the Devil. From 
 the throne of glory, as once He did from the movmt 
 of transfiguration. He comes down to the low plane 
 of their conflicts, difficulties and woes, and takes their 
 part and bears a hand with them in their hopeless 
 struggle against odds. As old John Owen in effect 
 says. He appears upon the scene, plants himself on 
 their side, and challenges their adversaries with the 
 demand, "What question ye with them?" Hands off! 
 These are my brethren, these are my Father's children. 
 I am their Savior and their Advocate. If ye have any- 
 thing against them, deal with me ; I am here to answer 
 for them. What is done to them is done to me. 
 
 Nor is this all. He declares the wants of His breth- 
 ren, of the least of His brethren, to be His wants. It 
 is not only that He, the compassionate minister to the 
 necessities of afflicted human beings during His sojourn 
 with them in this vale of tears, still remembers and 
 commiserates them, although He sits on the right hand 
 of the Majesty on high and listens to the chorus of 
 heaven as it rolls its billows of praise to His feet. We 
 need not be surprised that the great heart which beat 
 on earth with sympathy for human sufferers and broke 
 at length in a sacrificial death for their redemption, 
 is not alienated from them by the possession of heav- 
 
86 Sermons 
 
 enly glory and universal dominion, but unchanged and 
 unchangeable pours out upon them its wealth of love 
 and pity from the mediatorial throne. This does not 
 put our faith to the strain; but this is not the whole 
 case. The ascended and glorified Redeemer identifies 
 himself with His poor brethren on earth. In all their 
 affliction He is afflicted. "They fill up that which is 
 behind of the afflictions of Christ" in their flesh. They 
 are His exponents and representatives, in whom He 
 still, so to speak, lingers in this world and walks among 
 men, not now imparting blessings to the needy, but 
 asking succor in His need. The hand which gave mercy 
 is now extended to receive it; the mouth which spoke 
 healing to soul and body now asks for bread and 
 water ; He who clothes us with the wedding-garment of 
 righteousness now solicits raiment to cover His naked- 
 ness; and the great Physician who cured all manner 
 of sickness now lies stretched on the pallet of suffering 
 and the bed of death. Is this hard to believe? Hear, 
 how He will, in the great day, prove the meetness of 
 His people for His welcome of them to everlasting joy : 
 when, in yonder scene of suffering, ye fed the hungry, 
 it was me ye gave meat to ; when -ye gave drink to the 
 thirsty, it was me whose thirst ye slaked; when ye 
 lodged the stranger, it was me ye entertained ; when ye 
 clothed the naked, it was me to whom ye furnished rai- 
 ment; when ye visited the sick, it was me ye nursed; 
 when ye came to the prisoner, it was me of whose 
 chain ye were not ashamed. Lord, they will exclaim, 
 when was that? We never saw thee in the body on 
 earth. Yea, the King will answer, yea, ye did. Inas- 
 much as ye have done it unto one of the least of these 
 my brethren, ye have done it unto me. "These, my 
 brethren," he affectionally calls them, as with the 
 
Girardeau 87 
 
 royal sceptre in His grasp and the royal diadem upon 
 His head, he effects the irreparable division of the 
 human race and pronounces the changeless sentences 
 of doom. 
 
 There is but one other thought which I shall notice 
 as suggested by these wonderful words of Jesus. It is 
 that no office of charity, however slight it may be, 
 which springs from the motive of love to Christ, will 
 ever be forgotten or overlooked by Him. It may have 
 been lost sight of by him who did it, but it will be sure 
 to reappear in the last day, and will not fail of meeting 
 a gracious and everlasting reward. There are many 
 reasons which tend to produce forgetfulness of these 
 acts of charity by those who performed them. In a 
 world so full as this is of suffering and want appeals 
 for help follow each other in rapid succession, and one 
 benefaction coming close upon another obliterates its 
 trace from memory, as tracks imprinted upon the ocean 
 beach are washed out by every bursting wave. More- 
 over, the same sense of sinfulness and unworthiness 
 which renders His people slow to apprehend the inti- 
 mate union between their exalted Savior and them- 
 selves, blunts their perception of His fellowship in 
 want with their poor and needy neighbors, and of the 
 fact that they minister to His necessities when they 
 communicate to theirs. And further, the fear of in- 
 flaming spiritual pride prevents that determinate 
 attention to the acts which is necessary to fix their 
 impression upon the memory. They are felt not to be 
 worthy of registration or even of mention, no account 
 is kept of them by their performers, and so, for one 
 reason or another, the recollection of these deeds of ben- 
 eficence fades away into what seems an irrecoverable 
 past. 
 
88 Sermons 
 
 But vanished though they be from the records of our 
 memory, these acts of charity are not forgotten, not one 
 of them. Oh, no ! That loaf of bread given to the 
 hungry, that cup of cold Avater handed to the thirsty, 
 that garment thrown around the emaciated form to 
 protect it from the wintry blast, that dose of medicine 
 administered to the parched lips of the sufferer on his 
 couch of sickness, that cooling of the fevered brow, that 
 gentle smoothing of the dying pillow, — lo ! they appear 
 again. The tattered pauper whose timid knock once 
 brought us to the door, the poor needle-woman who 
 worked her fingers sore to get bread for herself and 
 her children, and whose eyes glistened at the sight of 
 the plate of food, the friendless stranger who lay on a 
 cot under our roof, the widow who would have shivered 
 over a cheerless hearth but for the fuel sent to her 
 desolate home, — ^behold, they appear again. When? 
 A^Tiere ? In that great da}^ of doom, before yon flaming 
 bar, in the presence of angels, men and devils, as- 
 sembled to hear the sentences of destiny, as they fall 
 from the lips of the eternal Judge. Summoned by Him 
 who forgets nothing done for His sake, thej will ap- 
 pear as witnesses, to prove that the love of Christ was a 
 moving and operative principle in sinful men, which 
 made them meet for the plaudits of the Judge, and 
 the rewards of the blest. 
 
 A\Tiere is our faith? Where is our love to Jesus? 
 Who of us, in view of results so transcendent, would 
 not share His earthly means with the suffering, the 
 sick, the poor? I say not, let us give that we ?nay 
 receive; but, let us give, and we will receive — good 
 measure, pressed down and shaken together, and run- 
 ning over, poured into our bosoms by a hand which 
 has the bliss of immortality at its disposal. The sacri- 
 
Girardeau 89 
 
 fices of earth forever past, the welcome of the King 
 extended to us, the rapture of acceptance thrilling our 
 hearts,, with what transports of joy shall we look upon 
 the happy objects of our earthly charities, and with 
 them join the procession of the glorified, which will 
 move with triumphal anthems to the pearly gates and 
 the golden streets of that city of God, where no poor 
 shall be found, no inhabitant shall say, I am sick, no 
 sufferer press the bed of death. O mammon of un- 
 righteousness, we will make of thee friends in this 
 scene of want, that when we fail they may receive us 
 to everlasting habitations! 
 
 Go on, my friends of the Benevolent Society, go on in 
 the fulfilment of your Christ-like mission. You reach 
 a class of cases which are not touched by State pro- 
 vision, and are only met by such delicate offices as 
 those which you discharge. You may seek no other 
 reward than the privilege of expressing your love for 
 your Savior, and the intrinsic gratification — the sweet 
 satisfaction, which flows from abating human want; 
 but for every pang you assuage on earth there may 
 await you a joy in heaven, for every tear you wipe 
 from the cheek of suffering, a smile from the face of 
 your Lord. 
 
90 Sermons 
 
 THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES— IN THE 
 WORLD 
 
 Matt. xvi. 3: "(9 ye hypocrites^ ye can discern the 
 face of the sky ,' hut can ye not discern the signs of the 
 times f'' 
 
 In these words, in which our Savior rebukes the 
 Saddiicees and the Pharisees, three things are taught: 
 First, That as the signs of the weather are observable, 
 so are the 'signs of the times: as there is a natural 
 meteorolog}', there may be a sacred sematologj^; sec- 
 ondly, that we both have the right and are under obli- 
 gation to observe the signs of the times : that in doing 
 so we are not enthusiasts and fanatics, but discharge a 
 legitimate and praiseworthy function; thirdly, that 
 not to observe the signs of the times implies negligence 
 and guilt. As every age has its own characteristic 
 genius, dispositions and tempers, which we call the 
 spirit of the times, and which no philosophic mind can 
 afford to disregard, so there are peculiar signs that 
 mark every religious period which no pious mind is at 
 liberty to slight. 
 
 I. In considering this subject, let us first notice some 
 of the prominent qualifications for a proper observation 
 and discernment of the signs of the times, in their 
 religious bearings. 
 
 Note. — This sermon and the one following were first preached in the 
 Second Presbyterian Church, now the Arsenal Hill Presbyterian 
 Church, Columbia, S. C, on the Sabbath afternoons of January 31, 
 and February 7, 1892. They were afterwards preached, probably as 
 one sermon, in Manning, McClellanville, Mt. Pleasant, and Charles- 
 ton, South Carolina, and in Savannah, Georgia. 
 
Girardeau 91 
 
 1. Spiritual sagacity is required. Some sagacity, 
 some sound common sense, some calm, solid, practical 
 judgment is of fundamental importance in any attempt 
 to discern the governmental, political, social signs of an 
 age, viewed in their secular relations. Together with 
 this quality should be associated some knowledge of the 
 principles of human society and of the progress of his- 
 torical events, so that one age maj' be compared with 
 another in view of certain well-ascertained standards 
 of appeal. So is it in the religious sphere. Some 
 spiritual sagacity, some sanctified common sense, some 
 practical judgment enlightened by the Holy Ghost, 
 combined with some acquaintance with the truths of 
 God's Word, the principles of the church as a super- 
 natural society, and the development of ecclesiastical 
 history, are necessary to scan the signs of the religious 
 firmament, to institute a judicious comparison of our 
 own times, religiously considered, with those which 
 have now passed away. Without these qualifications 
 for the study of the signs of the times we would be 
 prone to superstition with its brood of erroneous con- 
 clusions. We should be in the moral and religious 
 sphere like those in the natural, who construe an eclipse, 
 an unusual conjunction of the planets, a shower of 
 meteors, into a portent of some disastrous change in the 
 order of nature. Especially ought there to be, in con- 
 nection with these qualifications, a reverent, sober, de- 
 vout study of the prophecies of Scripture. It has been 
 sneeringly said in regard to unfulfilled prophecy, that 
 "its study either finds men mad or leaves them so.'' The 
 answer to that profane jibe is the didactic statements 
 of the Bible. "None of the wicked shall understand, 
 but the wise shall understand." "Blessed is he that 
 readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, 
 
92 Sermons 
 
 and keep those things which are written therein: for 
 the time is at hand." "And he said unto me, These 
 sayings are faithful and true : and the Lord God of the 
 holy j^rophets sent his angel to shew unto his servants 
 the things which must shortly be done. Behold, I come 
 quickly : blessed is he that keepth the sayings of the 
 jjrophecy of this book." He that reads the prophecies 
 on his knees, and has the eye of faith open to see, will 
 understand what, instead of making him mad, will save 
 him from the insane frenzy of a carnal indifference to 
 the momentous issues of the futui'e. It behooves us to 
 be like "the children of Issachar, which Avere men that 
 had understanding to know what Israel ought to do." 
 
 2. Thoroughness of observation is requisite. This is 
 demanded in every domain of inquiry in order to the 
 attainment of correct generalizations. It is necessary, 
 therefore, to the formation of proper conclusions touch- 
 ing the signs of the times. Tavo things are supposed: 
 patience in the prosecution of our inquiries, for hasti- 
 ness here, as in every other exploration of a field, is 
 death; and a wide induction of particular facts. An 
 induction too narrow makes the conclusion top-heavy. 
 
 3. Freedom from j^rejudice and passion is necessary. 
 This is so obvious, it is so often insisted upon by writers 
 in every dej^artment of inquiry, that it needs not to be 
 pressed at length. Nothing is more common than that 
 men are governed in their views by the prejudgments 
 derived from early training, from the instructions of 
 parents and teachers, and from the circumstances of 
 their environment, and not by an unjDrejudiced, inde- 
 pendent examination of evidence. Look, for instance, 
 upon the religious denominations. How many of the 
 adherents of a particular sect have subjected its claims 
 to a patient and unbiased examination ? There are few 
 
Girardeau 93 
 
 who are not controlled simply by their antecedents. 
 This also leads to party feeling, not unfrequently 
 amounting to passion. It need scarcely be said that if 
 one, so conditioned, is right, he is not consciously right 
 because he has fairly and impartially examined his 
 position. 
 
 If I may without offence allude to personal experi- 
 ence, I would remark that in relation to the special 
 question before us, the conclusions which will be an- 
 nounced in this discourse are the opposite of those 
 which were imbibed from influences exerted upon my 
 early education and even ministry. That fact, it is 
 true, does not prove those conclusions to be right ; but 
 it does prove that they have been reached in the teeth 
 of prejudice and in consequence of candid investiga- 
 tion. To a like temper I humbly but confidently submit 
 them. 
 
 4. Earnest prayer for divine illumination is also 
 demanded. A right discernment of the signs of the 
 times, is only possible to one posessed of those spiritual 
 qualities which have been already mentioned, and they 
 are God's gifts. They must, therefore, be sought by 
 prayer, and the proper direction of them by the Holy 
 Ghost, in accordance with His inspired T'Tord, must 
 also be an object of importunate supplication. For one, 
 without prayer for special guidance with reference to 
 this subject, to say : '*I think so," "'Such is my opinion," 
 is to be presumptuous and profane. Only the student 
 of the Scriptures and the suppliant for divine light is 
 entitled either to form or to utter any conclusion in 
 regard to the question. 
 
 II. A\liat are the materials of judgment in discern- 
 ing the signs of the times ? 
 
94 Sermons 
 
 1. The tendencies of the age. There must be marked 
 and striking, not obscure and insignificant; and they 
 must be wide-spread, not narrow and provincial, espe- 
 cially not merely local. 
 
 2. The facts of the times. There must be certain and 
 indubitable, not doubtful and impeachable; and, fur- 
 ther, they must be extensive in their scope, not circum- 
 scribed as to the sphere of their occurrence. Our 
 observation must sw^eep the horizon all around, and 
 must read the whole face of the sky. 
 
 3. Our study must be directed to these tendencies and 
 facts alike in the world and in the church. 
 
 Such are at least some of the leading qualifications 
 which constitute a condition precedent to a correct dis- 
 cernment of the signs of the times, the materials for 
 forming a judgment, and the scope of our observation. 
 
 III. Something must be said in answer to the ques- 
 tions — what is the future event to which these signs 
 are believed to point? What are their relations and 
 bearings? A\^iat is our standard of judgment in our 
 effort to discern them? and, What is the precise end 
 aimed at in this discourse? 
 
 1. The great future event to which the signs of the 
 times are believed to point is the beginning of the Mil- 
 lennium, — a period to be characterized by certain dis- 
 tinctive features, such as the extrusion of the Devil 
 from this world for a thousand years, and the reintro- 
 duction of his influence at the close of that period ; the 
 cessation of w^ar and the universal prevalence of peace ; 
 the general outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the 
 nations; the restoration of the Jews and the Israelites 
 to their own land, and their conversion to Christianity 
 and incorporation into the Christian Chuch as the true 
 and full development of their own ancient church ; the 
 
Girardeau 95 
 
 overthrow of Moliammedanisin and its elimination 
 from the world ; the downfall and utter destruction and 
 passing away of the Papal apostasy ; the obliteration 
 of Paganism with all its hydra-headed idolatry; the 
 banishment from the world of all false forms of Chris- 
 tianity and all manifestations of infidelity in its pro- 
 tean shapes; the suppression of all that can be called 
 Antichrist, either organized or personal; and the uni- 
 versal reign of Christ with the subjection of all kings, 
 organizations and nations to Him. This is the future 
 period, the introduction of which is the event to which 
 the signs of the present time are pointing. 
 
 Its beginning, however, will, the Scriptures inform 
 us, be preceded by a great tribulation to the world in- 
 volving revolutions, disorganizations and conflicts on 
 a gigantic scale, culminating in "the battle of that great 
 day of God Almighty" — the battle of Armageddon. 
 When one period is passing into another, it does not 
 lapse gently into it by a process of assimilation, as a 
 river peacefully flows into a calm, bright ocean ; but as 
 a ship crossing a stormy bar in order to reach the blue 
 harbor beyond, it effects the change with a catastrophe 
 of dislocation which the Scriptures characterize as a 
 shaking. Thus the Ante-diluvian period made its 
 transition to the Noachian through a cataclysm which 
 nearly destroyed the race. The pre-Jewish period 
 passed into the Jewish with a mighty shaking of the 
 Egyptian and other opposing powers. The Jewish 
 gave way to the Christian with throes which shook 
 down the Jewish church-state and polity. The 
 Reformation was introduced with convulsions which 
 shook Europe, and shook down the Papal church in 
 several parts of that continent. And so, the present 
 period of the Christian dispensation will accomplish 
 
96 Sermoxs 
 
 the change to the Millennial with a prodigious shaking 
 — through unprecedented conflicts, the toppling down 
 of hoary systems, and the crash of "thrones, principal- 
 ities and powers."' It is a law that changes from one 
 great disj)ensation or period to another are accom- 
 panied b}" upheavals that unhinge the customary order 
 of things. The signs of our times point ultimately to 
 the introduction of the Millennium, proximately to the 
 period of great trouble which will forerun it. 
 
 2. A'V'Tiat are the relations and bearings of the signs 
 of the times as here considered? The ansAver is, that 
 they are contemplated as relating to and bearing upon 
 the cause and kingdom of Christ, the Mediatorial 
 Sovereign, the Saviour and Monarch of Zion, and the 
 King of kings and Lord of lords. They are not viewed 
 in their mereh^ secular relations and bearings. 
 
 3. What is our standard of judgment in our efl'ort 
 to discern them ? The reply is, the AVord of God, and 
 more especially the prophetical Scriptures. There is 
 no other standard possible. Our appeal is to the Law 
 and the Testimony. Here Christ himself gives us the 
 history, past and future, of His own kingdom on this 
 earth which he purchased and marked with His blood. 
 Men pompously talk of the philosophy of history. 
 They do but babble. The only philosophy of history 
 worth the name is that found in the person and work 
 of Jesus Christ. History apart from this key is a 
 m&re set of chronicles. "'So Tibni died, and Omri 
 reigned." So Babylon died, and Greece reigned. So 
 Greece died, and Rome reigned. So Rome Pagan died, 
 and Rome ecclesiastical reigned. ^Tiat does it all 
 amount to? Nothing, but a long series of failures due 
 to sin, unless the kingdom of Christ be the end. All 
 has been but a preparation for the dominion of Him 
 
Girardeau 97 
 
 who is destined to reign — as no mortal has yet reigned 
 — from sea to sea and from pole to pole. Wearing 
 upon his brow a manifold crown blazing with the 
 blended lustre of every gem, and seated upon the throne 
 of world-wide empire, Jesus shall gather up into the 
 hands that were nailed to the tree the threads of uni- 
 versal history. Here history will meet its unity. The 
 Bible is the statute-book of His kingdom and the his- 
 tory of its development. This is our standard of judg- 
 ment. 
 
 4. What is the end aimed at in this discourse? It 
 scarcely needs remark that it is to show, that the signs 
 of the times indicate the approach of those critical 
 changes which will usher in the period of Christ's 
 Millennial reign. 
 
 IV. Let us begin with the signs of the times in the 
 world at large. 
 
 1. Notice the status of the great Eastern and Western 
 apostasies from Christianity — Mohammedanism and 
 Popery. And let it be remembered that our standard 
 of comparison is the prophecies of Scripture. To each 
 of these systems these prophecies assign a living period 
 of 1260 years. It must here be assumed — what is well- 
 nigh universally conceded, and what could easily be 
 proved, did time permit — that 1260 "days" of prophecy 
 are 1260 years. It must also be assumed — for the time 
 allotted to this discourse is limited- — what is also gen- 
 erally admitted, that the 1260 years apply both to the 
 career of Mohammedanism and that of the Papacy. 
 Let one study the book of Revelation and he will prob- 
 ably be convinced of this.^ 
 
 ^For a fuller discussion of this interesting subject see "Appendix 
 to the Discussion of Romanism" in Discussions of Theological Ques- 
 tions by the author, page 228. 
 
98 Sermons 
 
 The forty and two months of Daniel are 1260 years. 
 Multiply forty-two by thirty — the average number of 
 days to a month, and you have 1260. Daniel's time, 
 times and a half are probably also 1260 5^ears. 
 
 The great difficulty experienced in regard to this 
 period of 1260 years has been in fixing the date from 
 which it began to run. On the supposition that Mo- 
 hammedanism and Popery commenced their ascend- 
 ency at about the same time this difficulty vanishes. 
 For profane history definitely informs us that Mo- 
 hammed was born in 570, that he retired into the cave 
 of Hera in 606, and that the Hegira or his removal 
 from Mecca to Medina occurred in 622. Taking this 
 latest date of 622 as the point of departure, the 1260 
 years expired in 1882, and that is now nearly 10 years 
 past. 
 
 How does this bear upon the times of the Papacy? 
 Not alone because of the assumption that the begin- 
 nings of the careers of the two systems were synchron- 
 ous, but chiefly because of the fact, that the fifth vial 
 of Revelation poured out on the seat of the beast 
 precedes in time the sixth vial discharged upon the 
 Euphrates and effecting its drying up. It is significant 
 that, according to that representation in the Apo- 
 calypse, Rome is fatally damaged before Moham- 
 medanism. 
 
 Now what are the facts which constitute, in this 
 relation, impressive signs of the times? The first is, 
 that in 1866 the temporal power of the Pope was de- 
 stroyed. How? Victor Emmanuel and his great 
 prime minister the Count di Cavour had been laboring 
 to secure the unification of the states of Italy into one 
 kingdom. This the Pope opposed and he was power- 
 fully supported by Austria. But in 1866 the eventful 
 
Girardeau 99 
 
 battle of Sadowa was fought, in which the power of 
 Austria was so seriously crippled by Prussia, that it 
 could no longer be used to thwart the designs of Cavour 
 and Emmanuel. The main body of the French army 
 which had protected the Pope was withdrawn from 
 Rome. This utterly broke the temporal sovereignty 
 of the Pope. The Papal States were absorbed into the 
 unified kingdom of Italy, and in 1870 King Victor 
 Emmanuel — significant name ! — entered Rome in 
 triumph and made it the capital of his kingdom. Here, 
 then, was the most striking sign of the times — the 
 temporal sovereignty of the Pope was destroj'^ed; and 
 this was 1260 years from the date of the decree of the 
 Emperor Phocas (606) which invested the Bishop of 
 Rome with supreme authority over the Latin church. 
 I cite attention to this stupendous sign of the times. 
 Fgr more than a thousand years the Popes had reigned 
 in Rome. Now, the Pope is, civilly speaking, a mere 
 denizen of that city, with his spiritual rights reserved 
 to him. 
 
 I have no right to dogmatize upon the subject, but 
 it is probable — there are indications of it now — -that a 
 great effort will be made to restore the temporal sover- 
 eignty of the Pope. If so, a conflict must ensue attended 
 by tremendous results, and leading on to the battle of 
 the great day of God Almight}^, in which Antichrist, 
 whatever form he may then assume, will, with all his 
 forces, be finally extinguished. 
 
 Further, it is also a sign of the times, that the tem- 
 poral supremacy of the Pope, which is not to be con- 
 founded with his temporal sovereignty over the Papal 
 States, — his temporal supremacy over nations and 
 rulers has been reduced almost to naught. 
 
100 Sermons 
 
 The second noteworthy fact is one in the recent 
 history of the Mohammedan power. The very day on 
 which, in 1882, the despatch of Lord Diifferin to the 
 Home Office, announcing the fall of Alexandria under 
 the British bombardment, was exactly 1260 years from 
 the date of the Hegira. That, as has been already 
 stated, occurred in 622. Add to that number 1260 and 
 you have 1882. Moreover, the very day of the year 
 and month on which Alexandria fell was the day of the 
 year and month on which the Hegira took place. The 
 latter date is precisely fixed as it is that from which 
 the Mohammedan notation starts, just as ours does 
 from the date of the birth of Christ. Now, the fall of 
 Alexandria broke the Moslem power in Egypt and 
 virtually subjected that country to English domination. 
 The inference is obvious, and it is confirmed by the 
 general decadence of the Turkish power. Here again 
 we perceive another marked sign of the times, concur- 
 rent with the first mentioned, indicating the drying 
 up of Mohammedanism, as the first does the downffill 
 of the temporal power of the Papacy — both pointing 
 to the near approach of the close of this period. We 
 cannot shut our eyes to these signs. They are too 
 obtrusive. 
 
 It may be asked. How is it that if the temporal 
 power of the Papacy has been already broken, the end 
 has not already come? The answer is twofold: first, 
 because if the temporal power is destroyed of the 
 Woman drunken with the blood of the saints, the 
 saints of the Most High are, as predicted, delivered 
 out of her persecuting hand ; she can fulminate anathe- 
 mas, but she cannot burn a Protestant; secondly, be- 
 cause Daniel expressly indicates a period of limited 
 duration supplementary to the 1260 years. That sup- 
 
Girardeau 101 
 
 plementary period is one of preparation for the final, 
 decisive conflict; and I believe that we are living in it 
 now. Let us not solace ourselves with the cry of 
 Peace! Peace! The great guns of a mighty contest, 
 which no well-meant but futile resort to arbitration can 
 avert, will ere long begin to boom. 
 
 It deserves remark that another line of calculation 
 founded on Daniel's prophecy, as this is upon Revela- 
 tion, brings the period which closes this age to about 
 the end of the present century. The substantial coin- 
 cidence of the two lines is remarkable. But let it be 
 observed that I have not spoken alone of the prophetic 
 times, but have directed attention to undeniable facts, 
 falling in with the generally adopted interpretation of 
 those times. It is the facts, viewed in connection with 
 the prophecies, which constitute phenomenal signs. 
 
 I have dwelt, at what may prove disproportionate 
 length, upon these signs, because I deem them the most 
 important of our time. 
 
 2. The fact must be signalized as one of the signs 
 of our times, that the Jews are, to some extent, return- 
 ing to their own land. 
 
 The prophecies of the Old Testament declare that 
 they will be restored to their ancient inheritance— the 
 country which in covenant was given to Abraham and 
 his seed for a perpetual possession. These predictions 
 are far too literal to be applied to their spiritual incor- 
 poration into the same church Avith Gentile Christians. 
 It is hardly a distinctive characteristic of Christians 
 to own lands and plant vineyards; and it is certain 
 that such is not the tendency of Jews in their expatri- 
 ated condition; nor can they be regarded as having 
 been exhaustively fulfilled in the return from the 
 Babylonian captivity. One or two considerations 
 
102 Sermons 
 
 would seem decisive. One is that God repeatedly 
 asserts that He will gather to their own land again 
 both Israel and Judah — making a clear discrimination 
 between them. That certainly has not yet been real- 
 ized. Another is, that God assures His ancient people 
 that when He shall bring them again to their own 
 land and settle them after their old estates, He will 
 do better unto them than at their beginnings. That 
 has not yet received fulfilment. Another is, that the 
 land shall no more be bereaved of men, and that 
 restored Judah and Israel shall no more be plucked up 
 out of their land. And still another is, that they shall 
 be gathered out of all the heathen countries whither 
 they had been dispersed. None of these predictions 
 were fulfilled in the restoration from Babylon. They, 
 therefore, await fudfilment. 
 
 Xow, what, in this relation, are the discernible signs 
 of the times? 
 
 I have often said in the past, "When you see the 
 Jews moving to Palestine, then look for the coming 
 end of this period." But a few years since there was a 
 Turkish inhibition upon any large immigration of 
 Jews into the Holy Land. That has to a considerable 
 extent been removed. A few years ago there were only 
 15,000 Jews in Palestine. Eecent accounts show that 
 they now number 80,000 and more. This is very 
 remarkable. True, they may yet be expelled; but the 
 presumption is mightily against that supposition. 
 They are engaging in agricultural pursuits — another 
 singular fact. It is reported that the rains which had 
 so long ceased are again falling, and by distintegrating 
 the rock that is everywhere found imparting a rich 
 fertilizer to the soil. Hotels are said to be going up 
 at prominent points. It is stated that a railway is in 
 
Girardeau 103 
 
 operation from the Mediterranean to Damascus, that 
 one is building from Jaffa to Jerusalem, and that still 
 another is projected from Egypt to Syria. One is re- 
 minded of the prophecy of Isaiah : "In that day shall 
 there be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria." The 
 expulsion of the Jews from Russia is causing many of 
 them to seek an asylum in their ancient land. Societies 
 transportation of Jews to Palestine. Verily, these are 
 are said to be organized in England to assist in the 
 significant facts of our times. Do they not look to the 
 occurrence of some great change? 
 
 3. Another conspicuous sign of the times is the 
 rapidly increasing evangelization of the world. It 
 has been often said that this is the age of missions, 
 that the Foreign Missionary enterprize is the glory of 
 the Nineteenth century. See what a change has in this 
 respect taken place since 1794, when William Carey 
 was ridiculed by his brethren for undertaking a mis- 
 sion to India, and asked them to hold the rope for him 
 while he ventured down into the well ! As late as 1833, 
 in this section of our favored country, it was considered 
 foolhardy for Wilson to risk himself among the savage 
 jungles and the more savage tribes of the African coast, 
 and useless for Adger to waste his time and strength 
 in the effort to enlighten the benighted Armenians. It 
 ^as ten years after the beginning of this century that 
 Mills, Judson, Nott and Newell presented an address 
 to the General Association of Massachusetts calling 
 attention to the wants of the heathen world. It was 
 after that the first suggestions were offered which sub- 
 sequently led to the formation of the American Bible 
 Society and the American Board of Commissioners for 
 Foreign Missions. What behold we now ? The grey 
 dawn of a century ago has passed through the flush 
 
104 Sermons 
 
 of rising morn, and our eyes look upon the bursting 
 glories of the sunrise. It is not meridian day, but the 
 light that is glancing on headlands and suffusing banks 
 of darkness is with the sure prophecy of morning des- 
 tined to illuminate the mountain tops and bathe the 
 valleys in splendor. Is not this an illustrious sign of 
 the times? 
 
 But this is not all. The chief impressiveness of this 
 sign is derived from the fact that our Lord declared: 
 "This gospel of the kingdom must be first preached 
 for a witness to all nations, and then shall the end 
 come." Now, to what preaching of the gospel did 
 Jesus allude? Was it the apostolic propagation of it? 
 The end did not then come. Those glorious mission- 
 aries liave been dead for eighteen centuries, and the 
 end is not yet. Was it the Mellennial propagation of 
 the gospel? Was it the end of the Millennium He 
 spoke of? Will the preaching of the gospel during 
 that period be attended with opposition, persecution 
 and martyrdom? Did the Savior say that there will 
 occur the conversion of vast multitudes and the evan- 
 gelization of all men, and then the end shall come? 
 Nay. The gospel shall be preached for a witness and 
 then shall the end come. The erection of its testimony 
 in all nations is the condition precedent to the coming 
 of the end. -^ 
 
 Look now at some of the facts. The Bible is pub- 
 lished in nearly 300 human dialects. Every Protestant 
 country is swarming with missionary organizations. 
 More than that every Protestant church is, or ought to 
 be, a missionary society. What a host of centres radia- 
 ting gospel light ! Thousands of volunteers are offer- 
 ing themselves to go on Foreign Missions, outrunning 
 the available means — I say not the means which ought 
 
Girardeau 105 
 
 to exist — of the church to send them. Converted 
 churches of the heathen are becoming centres of mis- 
 sionary propagation. Every native church is a foun- 
 tain of gospel influence. Let us not be told that every 
 man must be individually approached with the tidings 
 of redemption. The Lord Jesus does not specify that 
 as the condition to the coming end. The erection of 
 the gospel testimony in every land so as to be accessible 
 to all, if they will, this is what He mentions. Soon, 
 soon, without some remarkable interposition of provi- 
 dence, must this condition be fulfilled. "Wherever a 
 caravan winds its way across a trackless desert, that 
 testimony may go with it. \Vherever the agent of a 
 trading company goes, that testimony may go with 
 him. Wherever a traveler, led by curiosity, or the quest 
 for gain, wends his wa}^, thither that testimony may 
 and ought to go with him. The near approach to the 
 erection of the Gospel testimony in all nations is a 
 clearly discernible sign that the predicted end of this 
 age is coming. 
 
 Akin to this sign of increasing evangelization, is one 
 which shines so brightly that it commends itself to the 
 most ordinary observation, — the swift and marvellous 
 advancement of the facilities of international com- 
 munication. The first passenger railway is said to have 
 been operated in 1821 ; now the world is becoming 
 reticulated with railway lines. Some of the meshes 
 of the network are even reaching to poor old Palestine, 
 once the land of milk and honey, of the fig and the 
 grape — a sinner's Paradise, but for ages no better than 
 a public common, and so long ridden down and 
 browsed over by Bedouins that its sterility has occa- 
 sioned the infidel doubt whether God himself can 
 restore it to fertility. But why paint the means of 
 
106 Sermons 
 
 international transit? Wliat with transcontinental 
 railroads and transoceanic steamship lines, with tele- 
 graphs and telephones, the nations are getting to be 
 like next-door neighbors hailing each other from their 
 door-steps. It has been frequently remarked that the 
 Roman military roads opened the way for the rapid 
 extension of early Christianity ; but what were they, 
 compared with that world-wide system of quick inter- 
 communication which is now preparing the nations for 
 the fellowship of the gospel and the golden age of the 
 earth? for a delightful, Christian communion of the 
 peoples of the globe, unobstructed by Papal bigotry, 
 Mohammedan ferocity, and Pagan idolatry, by infidel 
 godlessness, formal churchism and the hostilities of 
 sects ? 
 
 4. Another cosmic sign to which attention is directed 
 is the highest conclusions of modern philosophy and 
 philosojDhic science. 
 
 In the "fulness of time" God introduced Christianity 
 into the world. Among the elements which went to 
 make up this fulness of time was the exhaustive at- 
 tempt of the Greek philosphy, upon grounds of natural 
 reason, to solve the problem of the universe. If it had 
 been possible for mere philosophy to have found out 
 God, it is probable that the discovery would have been 
 made by the master minds of Greece. No more subtle 
 intellects ever existed on earth. But the result was, as 
 the apostle Paul says, that "the world by wisdom knew 
 not God." A brilliant historian of the course of 
 philosophy has observed, that the Greek philosophy 
 early began to develop itself in the two forms of Ideal- 
 ism on the one hand, and Sensualism, or Empiricism 
 on the other. Plato, although not exclusively, was pre- 
 dominantly, an Idealist. Aristotle, his great pupil. 
 
Girardeau 107 
 
 although not exclusively, was predominantly an Em- 
 j)iricist. Neither of these supreme thinkers, pursuing 
 his own peculiar path of speculation, found out God. 
 Why? Because both asserted the eternity of matter. 
 The God they affirmed was not the Creator of matter; 
 and therefore was limited and conditioned by it as co- 
 eternal with himself. He could not, therefore, be 
 infinite, and a God not infinite is no God at all. The 
 Greek philosophy both as Idealistic and Empirical had 
 expended its amazing strength, and yet failed to know 
 God. Then came the manifestation of God in the per- 
 son of His Incarnate Son, and in the gospel which is 
 His wisdom and His power. 
 
 How is it with modern philosophy? The same ac- 
 complished historian of philosophy, to whom allusion 
 has already been made, makes the noteworthy remark 
 that modern philosophy, upon the removal of the 
 shackles of mediaeval ecclesiasticism and the revival of 
 letters, developed itself precisel}' as the Greek philos- 
 ophy had, along the lines of Idealism and Empiricism. 
 Of the one tendency Descartes was the leading origin- 
 ator and exponent, of the other Lord Bacon. Now, has 
 philosophy, thus projected afresh upon independent 
 principles, succeeded better in its quest for God as its 
 ultimate of ultimates than did the Greek philosophy 
 in the hands of Plato, Aristotle and their distinguished 
 followers ? The answer to that question must be sought, 
 so far as the Idealistic philosophy is concerned, in the 
 Transcendental or Absolutist school of Germany. Here 
 we have a magnificent galaxy of philosophers, who for 
 ripe scholarship, habits of patient investigation, and 
 the subtlest and profoundest powers of abstract 
 thought, have never been surpassed, if indeed equalled, 
 in ancient or modern times. Here if anywhere were 
 
108 Sermons 
 
 the conditions for the quest of God by speculation. 
 This iUustrious school began with Immanuel Kant. 
 How did he succeed? He reached the conclusion that 
 the being of God is indemonstrable upon gi'ounds of the 
 theoretical or speculative reason. Did his next fol- 
 lower do any better? Fichte first came to the conclu- 
 sion that God is nothing more than the moral order of 
 the world — an abstract law without personality. He 
 ended with holding that God is merely Life as the 
 beginning of all things. Then came Schelling, whose 
 final conclusion, after much elephantine floundering, 
 was that God is the impersonal Absolute who develops 
 himself into Nature and then, by a wonderful circum- 
 gyration, reabsorbs himself as nature into himself as 
 the Absolute. One cannot help thinking of a blind 
 horse in a mill, going round and round. 
 
 Finally came Hegel, the climax of this brilliant suc- 
 cession. His ultimate conclusion was that God is pure 
 Idea. But as pure Idea is no substance and no person, 
 it follows that there is nothing to have an idea — God 
 is Nothing! Well may we exclaim, You have taken 
 away our God and left us nothing in His place. This 
 vaunted school of modern Idealistic philosophy has 
 exhausted itself, and all its Titanic efforts have ended 
 in nothing. Verily, again it is true that the world by 
 wisdom knows not God. 
 
 Turn we now to the school of Philosophic Science, 
 which in England and Germany — Protestant England 
 and Germany — has pushed the principles of Empiri- 
 cism to their latest development. Part of it affirms 
 bald, undisguished Atheism, saying openly, No God ! 
 no God ! and part of it maintains the practical equiva- 
 lent of professed Atheism — the doctrine of an imper- 
 sonal, unintelligent. Infinite Force. This is the posi- 
 
Girardeau 109 
 
 tion of Tyndal, Huxley, and Herbert Spencer, the con- 
 fessed philosopher of the school of Evolutionary 
 Science. They have boxed the compass, have by an 
 evolution of centuries of speculative deduction from 
 the phenomenal facts of science, returned to the old 
 Greek doctrine of the eternity of matter; with this 
 advantage, however, in favor of the ancient pagans — • 
 that they distinguished between an eternal matter and 
 God as an eternal, personal Spirit. There are many 
 scientific men who reverently accept the Bible and 
 Christianity. I speak now of the philosophers of the 
 Empirical school. Herbert Spencer professes to de- 
 velop the philosophy of that school; and he scouts 
 the Bible, Christianity, an atoning Savior, the Holy 
 Ghost and a personal God. These two philosophic 
 schools, notwithstanding that they enjoyed the ad- 
 vantage of the history of Greek philosophy, and the 
 still more signal advantage of the conditions furnished 
 by Christianity, have refused to profit by the errors of 
 the one and the truths of the other, and have formu- 
 lated the conclusion of either a disguised or an open 
 Atheism. Here, then, we behold another prodigious 
 sign 'of the times. Another "fulness of time" has been 
 reached, the world by wisdom knows not God, and 
 there is an imperative call for a new interposition of 
 Christ. Oh, the patience and forbearance of God, 
 which, after all He has done for our fallen race, en- 
 dures the monsters who, frocked and capped as phil- 
 osophers, blaspheme His Name and deny His Being ! 
 Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly, and abate the horrible 
 nuisance ! 
 
 5. Another flaming sign of the times is the Lawless 
 Radicalism, which mrnifests itself in Communism, 
 Socialism, Anarchism, Nihilism. Not one word would 
 
110 Sermons 
 
 I say against the assertion of the just rights of the 
 working-classes. Were they not so old, oppression and 
 tyranny might be signalized, but they are not peculiar 
 signs of our times. They are as old as the hills. But 
 this fell Spirit fears not God, neither regards man. 
 Xot satisfied with the maintenance of republican 
 rights, it inflames a "fierce democratic," and threatens 
 to tear down the pillars of God's throne, and to level 
 to the dust every form of human government, secular 
 and ecclesiastical. Despising every command of the 
 Decalogue, in both its tables, obliterating the worship 
 of God, sj)onging out the Sabbath, violating property- 
 rights, burning up the marriage covenant in the wild 
 fire of passion, flouting the Mediatorial King whom 
 God hath set upon His holy hill of Zion, its cry will 
 be, Down wath the Cross ! and down with the Bible ! 
 Under its frenzied inspiration see how the masses fret 
 and foam like an ocean lashed into fury. They are, 
 in the figure of Scripture, a tumultuous sea with roar- 
 ing waves. They will yet assert themselves. They will 
 wipe out the Pope himself, for he is a government. 
 The Beast that carries the woman arrayed in scarlet, 
 and holding out the cup of her enchantments to the 
 nations, will throw her down and trample her under its 
 feet. Emerging from the seething crater of the mighty 
 revolution, some gi'eat and wicked genius, elected by 
 the plebiscite of the triumphant democracy, or seizing 
 the reins of empire by arbitrary will, will put himself 
 at the head of innumerable hosts, and advance to the 
 destruction of the church of Christ both in its Jewish 
 and Gentile wings. Nor will his victorious career be 
 checked, until on the fateful field of Armageddon, his 
 pendent horsebridles are dabbled in tides of blood, and 
 his hopes are sunk in the lake that burns with brim- 
 
Girardeau 111 
 
 stone and with fire. Such is the predicted doom of 
 the supreme and final Antichrist. 
 
 Along with this, as cognate to it, may be mentioned 
 another sign of the times — the fearful growth of Oc- 
 cultism, the hellish art of black magic and necromancy. 
 Millions now profess Spiritualism as a religion. It can- 
 not be laughed away, it cannot be sneered down, it can- 
 not be explained away upon reputed scientific grounds. 
 It is based in a natural craving of the human mind 
 to read the dread secrets of the invisible world, and to 
 hold communion with the dead. That departed human 
 beings communicate with the so-called mediums is a 
 delusion of the Devil. But demoniacal influence is a 
 stern reality. As devils possessed the bodies and souls 
 of men at the first advent, so may they exert an extra- 
 ordinary and phenomenal poAver just before the glo- 
 rious establishment of Jesus' millennial kingdom. The 
 Scriptures lead us to expect it. Before that great Beast, 
 the Antichrist already described, we are told that the 
 False Prophet will work miracles. Not that they will 
 be real, genuine miracles, for they can only be wrought 
 by God's immediate efficiency and hence their value as 
 divine credentials; but they will be counterfeits so 
 ingenious that the masses of unbelievers will be im- 
 posed upon by them, and even the very elect, were it 
 possible, would be deceived. Armed with this demon- 
 iacal, necromantic, magical support, the great Anti- 
 christian Beast will delude the superstitious peoples, 
 and threaten to sweep all before him. Let none who 
 fear God have anything to do with fortune-tellers and 
 conjurers with the dead. The Word of God says that 
 "sorcerers" shall have their part in the burning lake. 
 The whole, wretched thing is of the Devil, and is a sign 
 of Antichristian apostasy. 
 
112 Sermons 
 
 6. The only other sign of the times to which I shall 
 briefl}^ advert is the awful and monitory portents of 
 nature. 
 
 The prophets and our blessed Lord himself lead us 
 to look for them as signs of the crisis that is coming. 
 It will be said, They have always occurred. This is 
 utterly rash. There may be some that will be wholly 
 new. But granted that others have taken place in the 
 past, they may be intensified in degree, and multiplied 
 in number. I allude to but one kind of them now. Let 
 it serve as a sample. Jesus says that there shall be 
 earthquakes in divers places. Do you say, Earth- 
 quakes have occurred all along in the past. Listen to 
 this statement. From the year 1500 to 1800 — three 
 centuries — there were 2,804 earthquakes. From 1800 
 to 1882 — little more than three-quarters of a century — 
 there were 6,637.^ Is not that significant? This poor, 
 sin-cursed earth is groaning and travailing to be deliv- 
 ered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious 
 liberty of the children of God, and it is no marvel if 
 natural portents indicate the approaching hour of her 
 millennial redemption. 
 
 But enough ! Yet a little while and he shall come, 
 will come and will not tarry. Even so. Come, Lord 
 Jesus ! Amen. 
 
 ^From Canon Fausset's article in the London Theological Monthly 
 for February, 1889, who cites as authority Mr. Mallet, C. E. 
 
Girardeau 113 
 
 THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES— IN THE 
 CHURCH 
 
 Matt. xvi. 3 : "(9 ye hypocrites^ ye can discerii the 
 face of the sky ; hut can ye not discern the signs of the 
 times f'' 
 
 In the discourse upon these words of the Lord Jesus, 
 which was delivered on the last Sabbath, attention was 
 directed to the signs of the times in the world at large. 
 The face of the secular sky was scanned, and marked 
 indications were discovered of the approach of a great, 
 critical change in the world's history and attitude, 
 which is the predicted forerunner of the Millennial 
 period. 
 
 V. Let us now turn our gaze towards the signs of the 
 times in the sphere of the Church. 
 
 In order to avert misapprehension and to secure 
 definiteness, certain considerations need to be premised. 
 
 First, One who undertakes to discern and note the 
 signs of the times in the ecclesiastical sky, and who is 
 conscious of his own imperfections and sins, must 
 shrink from assuming the office of a censorious critic 
 of the Church, and deprecate being regarded in that 
 light. He is no fierce inquisitor searching for grounds 
 of accusation against the church, no unfeeling prose- 
 cutor filing an indictment against her. On the con- 
 trary, if he follow the example of prophets and apostles 
 and even of Jesus Himself, he will weep while he 
 points out the sins of the church and warns her of 
 the judgments which follow in their train. Like Jere- 
 miah he will exclaim, "Oh, that my head were waters 
 
114 Sermons 
 
 and my eyes fountains of tears, that I might weep day 
 and night for the slain of the daughter of my people !" 
 and, with our Lord at the gate of guilty and doomed 
 Jerusalem, break forth into the pathetic lament, "Oh, 
 that thou hadst known, even thou in this thy day, the 
 things that belong unto thy peace ! " 
 
 At the same time, if he be clad with zeal as a cloak, 
 and is penetrated by a regard for the glory of God and 
 for His cause on earth, how can he refrain from a holy 
 indignation, when he beholds His commands violated 
 and His truth fallen in the street. His sanctuary dese- 
 crated. His ordinances perverted, and a society profess- 
 ing to be the fair bride of the Lamb defiled by unhal- 
 lowed fellowshii^ with a Christless world? How can 
 he forbear to cry out and spare not, to lift up his voice 
 like a trumpet, and show the Lord's people their trans- 
 gressions and the house of Jacob their sins ? Appointed 
 a watchman on the walls of Zion, under orders to warn 
 of the apjjroaching sword, commissioned as a witness 
 for the truth of God and charged to contend earnestly 
 for the faith once delivered to the saints, how, if he 
 suppress his warnings and sink his testimony, can he 
 escape the sentence of a dumb dog that will not bark, 
 lying down and loving to slumber? How will he get 
 quit of the blood of the poor innocents when inquisi- 
 tion shall be made for it in the Lord's avenging day? 
 Brethren, I confess that popularity is sweet and the" 
 esteem of one's fellowmen delightful to a naturally 
 aspiring heart, but when one fixes his eye on the gory 
 sacrifice of the Cross, and hears in his ear the bray of 
 the judgment trump, all other motives, all other consid- 
 erations fade into nothingness in comparison with 
 fidelity to Jesus and the souls of men. Such ought to 
 be the temper of one who essays to point out threaten- 
 
Girardeau 115 
 
 ing signs in the firmament and the atmosphere of the 
 church. 
 
 Secondly, The question must here be settled, What 
 is the church in the sphere of which the attempt is now 
 essayed to discern the signs of the times? I answer. 
 The Protestant Church. In the preceding discourse, 
 Mohammedanism and the Papacy were together 
 viewed as belonging to the world and not to the church 
 of God. The Roman communion professes to be the 
 Christian Church, and anathematizes all who do not 
 belong to it. Loosely speaking, it is common to de- 
 nominate it a part of the nominal or professing church. 
 But, strictly speaking, if it be characterized in the 
 Scriptures as Antichristian, how can it be a part of the 
 true church? Surely the Babylon of the Apocalypse 
 is Antichristian or language conveys no meaning. 
 Now, is the Church of Rome the Babylon described in 
 the Book of Revelation? If any Protestant is in 
 doubt on that question, let him read the argument of a 
 High-churchman, a canon in the Church of England, 
 Dr. Wordsworth, and if he can be convinced by any 
 argument, he will by that. 
 
 All other false forms of Christianity were also in- 
 cluded in the sphere of the world. They are labelled 
 Christian, and that is all. Judas was called an apostle, 
 but he betrayed his Master, lost his office, and went to 
 his own place. That place was not heaven, as his place 
 on earth had not been the church. 
 
 It is, then, the Protestant Church of which I now 
 speak, whatever may be the opinions held by others as 
 to the scope of the visible church. Protestantism was 
 not simply, as the name might suggest, a protest against 
 Romanism ; it was more than that. It was a positive 
 affirmation of two great complementary principles: 
 
116 Sermons 
 
 first, the right, before man's bar, of private judgment, 
 involving liberty of conscience, and, secondly, the in- 
 fallibility and supremacy of the Scriptures. The Prot- 
 estant is a man never addicted to swear according to 
 the words of any human master; always addicted to 
 swear according to the words of a divine Master. The 
 judgment and the conscience are not bound by reason 
 speaking apart from the church, the position of the 
 Rationalist, nor by reason speaking through the 
 church, the position of the Romanist; that is, they are 
 not bound by the dictates of man, but they are bound 
 by the dictates of God, and the dictates of God are 
 found in the Scriptures and in the Scriptures alone. 
 The ultimate standard of authority as to religious truth 
 is precisely the Scriptures. The private judgment, 
 whether of the individual or of the church collectivelj'^, 
 is never that ultimate standard or rule of faith and 
 practice. It is true that if the question be. What is the 
 Supreme Judge that determines all differences as to 
 the meaning of the sujoreme standard and rule, the 
 answer is. in the words of the Westminster Confession : 
 The Supreme Judge is the Holy Ghost speaking in the 
 Scriptures. Xow. granted that the judgment of the 
 Holy Ghost speaking in the Scriptures is certified and 
 attested to the soul by the inward witness of the spirit, 
 that witness is delivered to the soul, not derived from 
 it. It is in this resjoect like the gospel which is God's 
 report. His saying to man, not a religion evolved from 
 within man. The Scriptures are an external, ulti- 
 mately authoritative standard or rule. They are the 
 inspired product of the Holy Ghost. To that standard 
 or rule the Holy Spirit, who alone is capable of judg- 
 ing of its true meaning, as it is His product, bears wit- 
 ness to the believer's soul. The witness, therefore, 
 
Girardeau 117 
 
 comes from without and is brought by supernatural 
 power into the soul. It is, accordingly, not faith, 
 which, as our own, springs from within. 
 
 Here is the mistake of some of the Lutheran and 
 Dutch theologians, and of some British and American 
 writers who follow them. They make faith the same 
 as the witness of the Spirit, and take the ground that 
 while the authority of the Scriptures is what they term 
 the normative principle of religion, faith is the mate- 
 rial principle. The plain meaning is that there are 
 two standards or rules co-ordinate with each other. No. 
 There is but one standard, the Bible, and faith, as re- 
 ceiving and obeying that standard, is subordinate to it. 
 
 I have dwelt thus long upon this subject because a 
 clear conception of it is vital to the position taken in 
 this discussion. If the Bible is one standard, and our 
 experience is another, or if our experience determines 
 the Bible and not the Bible our experience, there is an 
 end of discussion. We are at sea; every man makes 
 his own Bible — has his own standard. But if the 
 Bible be the sole, ultimate, supreme standard, then the 
 church's experience, doctrines, life must conform to it 
 or be wrong. This determines the posture of the 
 church as pure or not. If she conforms to the Scrip- 
 tures she is a pure church; if she does not, she is in 
 declension and is in danger of apostasy. This is the 
 Protestant position, and as we profess to be Protest- 
 ants, this is our accepted standard of judgment. Let 
 it be observed, then, that in speaking of the signs of 
 the times in the church, the comparison is made of her 
 condition with the requirements of the Scriptures. 
 
 Thirdly, there must be some special principle, some 
 rule of thinking, by which we are to be guided in esti- 
 mating the bearing of the signs of the times in the 
 
118 Sermons 
 
 church, in accordance with which we can tell whether 
 they are pointing to some great change. Let it be 
 remembered that, as has been already announced, the 
 purpose of this discussion is to show that the signs of 
 the times are pointing to such a critical change. 
 
 That guiding principle or rule for our thinking on 
 the subject is this: Facts and Scripture alike prove 
 that the closing of one period and the beginning of 
 another are foreshadowed by great degeneracy in the 
 church — that is, by a signal departure of the church 
 from conformity with the standard of God's word, and 
 a marked diminution rather than an increase in her 
 spiritual growth, a downward tendency to hopeless cor- 
 ruption in doctrine and in practice. Let us expand 
 and illuminate this position, which constitutes our 
 point of view. 
 
 In the first place, there is the law — for such it must 
 be considered — that, in the history of the church, de- 
 clension has been followed by revival, corruption by 
 restoration. In nothing, perhaps, are the obstinate 
 malignity of sin ^nd the marvellous grace of God more 
 conspicuously manifested than in the steady operation 
 of this law. The Adamic probation closed with the 
 horror of the Fall, and was at once succeeded by the 
 creation of hope in the bosom of despair by the reve- 
 lation of the first promise of redemption. The Pa- 
 triarchal dispensation began with the pure worship 
 and service of God, but ere long pitched downward 
 into the devilish wickedness that provoked the catas- 
 trophe of the Flood. Immediately the Noachian period 
 commenced with a fresh outburst of Gospel light, 
 which was before long extinguished in the black dark- 
 ness of idolatry. The Abrahamic period emerged from 
 that idolatrous night, and sunk into the mud-yards of 
 
Girardeau 119 
 
 Egypt and the besotted glutting of the chosen people 
 with the fish, cucumbers and melons, the leeks, onions 
 and garlic of a debasing servitude to a godless power. 
 The Jewish dispensation opened with the redemption 
 of the church, her passage through the cleft but roar- 
 ing waters of the Red Sea, the blaze of constellations 
 of miracles in her sky, and the promulgation of the 
 law amidst awful solemnities and the magnificent em- 
 blems of the divine presence which shot from Sinai 
 like horns of light and astonished the surrounding 
 nations. 
 
 What now? Hardly w^ere the elders who outlived 
 Joshua cold in their graves before there began a series 
 of defections to idolatry and succeeding restorations 
 until the patience of God was exhausted, the ten tribes 
 were broken up and scattered to the winds, and the 
 Jews were dragged into Babylonian captivity. Judah 
 and Benjamin are restored to their own land, and their 
 temple and city rebuilt, they are started upon a new 
 career. True, the hard blows of the divine judgments 
 had snapped from their stiff necks the yoke of open 
 idolatry, and they were projected afresh upon condi- 
 tions the most auspicious, but they soon rushed upon 
 that downgrade of defection and apostasy which cul- 
 minated first in the murder of their Messiah and incar- 
 nate God, and finally in the demolition of the Jewish 
 church-state and polity amid throes of anguish and 
 gulfs of blood. 
 
 The remnant, according to the election of grace, after 
 the resurrection of Jesus, were organized into the nas- 
 cent Christian church; the baptism of the Spirit was 
 poured out on the golden day of Pentecost; numbers 
 were added to the infant communion, a holy, loving, 
 evangelistic genius was infused into it, and such a won- 
 
120 Sermons 
 
 derful propagation of the Christian faith by apostolic 
 missionaries took place as entitled Paul to appropriate 
 to it the glowing language of the nineteenth Psalm, 
 "Their sound has gone out into all the world, and their 
 words to the ends of the world." Glorious renascence ! 
 Could it be followed by another descent into corrup- 
 tion and apostasy ? Alas ! the development of heresy 
 began in the first churches organized by the apostles, 
 calling forth their solemn admonitions before they fell 
 asleep; and that development never ceased until the 
 night of Romish apostasy and of the dark ages envel- 
 oped the church as with a pall, only a thin line of wit- 
 nesses being left to preserve the thread of connection 
 with apostolic times. 
 
 Once more the mercy of God interposed, the sun of 
 the reformation broke forth from the gross darkness 
 that enshrouded Christendom, and, lo ! a new restora- 
 tion was effected. The Protestant Church, born of 
 that regeneration, has, with alternate declensions and 
 revivals, come away almost four centuries from that 
 critical change, almost the same time that elapsed from 
 the return of the Jews from Babylonish captivity to 
 the first advent of Christ. This history of the church's 
 defections and recoveries in all the past challenges our 
 serious reflection; and the question now springs up 
 before us and must be confronted. Has not the Prot- 
 estant Church degenerated from her early standard of 
 conformity to the word of God, and are there not signs 
 now appearing that the church is approaching another 
 great revolution? 
 
 In the second place, strengthening that rule for our 
 thinking in an attempt to estimate the signs of the 
 times, are the New Testament predictions that in the 
 last days great defections shall take place in the church 
 
Girardeau 121 
 
 from the pure standard of the Scriptures, especially 
 that teachers shall arise who will inculcate false doc- 
 trines and draw away the people with them. There is 
 not time to quote the passages, and perhaps there is no 
 need to do so, as they are well known to every reader of 
 the Bible. The ground may be taken that these pre- 
 dictions are to be restricted to the Romish Church, to 
 which they do certainly refer in part, and that there 
 is no reason to include the Protestant Church in their 
 scope. This cannot be maintained, since it is an his- 
 torical fact, as well as one of present observation, that 
 in the Protestant Church defections have occurred, 
 false doctrines have been taught and unscriptural prac- 
 tices have obtained. 
 
 These preliminary statements have been necessary to 
 clear the way intelligently for the particular inquiry, 
 What are the signs of the times in the Protestant 
 Church which forebode the approach of those critical 
 events that will herald the Millennial period ? The sub- 
 ject will be treated in accordance with the ordinary 
 distribution into doctrine, government, discipline, and 
 worship. 
 
 I. What are the signs in the sphere of Doctrine? 
 
 It is a noteworthy fact that not only was the 
 Protestant reformation confined, at its inception, to 
 certain sections of Europe, but that it never thoroughly 
 pervaded those countries in which it originated, and 
 that its doctrinal influence has, to a great extent, been 
 suppressed in some of those which at first were domi- 
 nated by it. Protestantism has, since the reformation, 
 suffered considerable territorial losses in Europe. Bo- 
 hemia, the Palatinate, Hungary, and notably France, 
 passed under the doctrinal control of the Romish 
 Church and the influence of infidelity. True, nominal 
 
122 Sermons 
 
 Protestantism gained on the North American conti- 
 nent, but it will be seen before we get through that that 
 accession to its numerical strength is hardly now an 
 occasion for boasting. 
 
 Let us take a rapid glance at those countries in 
 which the Protestant faith was established. Begin we 
 with Germany, the land in which the reformation was 
 started by the immortal Luther, concurrently with its 
 origination in Switzerland by the heroic efforts of 
 Zwingle. Germany, numerically considered, was never 
 wholly reformed. A considerable part of her popula- 
 tion adhered to Popery, as they do to this day. That 
 portion of it which is Protestant has had a remarkable 
 history. The school of rationalism, which was really 
 a school of free-thinking, supported by scholarship and 
 philosophy, spread with great rapidity, infected the 
 church and threatened to subvert the foundations of 
 the Protestant religion. The school of that name, after 
 a bitter struggle, no longer exists, but its principles 
 live. It is now reported that the great universities are 
 returning to evangelical principles. But what does that 
 really mean? Let the current writings of so-called 
 evangelical or orthodox scholars and theologians an- 
 swer. They maintain neither the orthodoxy of the 
 early Protestant German Church nor of the French, 
 nor of the Scotch, nor of the English Puritans, nor of 
 the American, so far as it reproduces the doctrines of 
 those great standard-bearers of the faith. Tried by the 
 symbols of the first Protestant Church, they are found 
 grievously wanting. The virus of rationalism has never 
 been thoroughly purged out. Take the great commen- 
 tary of Lange. "From one, estimate all." 
 
 Switzerland, like Germany, was, as to territory, only 
 half reformed. It passed through a season of great 
 
Girardeau 123 
 
 doctrinal declension under the influence of rationalism 
 and socinianism. Geneva, where the genius of Calvin 
 organized the reformation, the stronghold and radiat- 
 ing centre of the Protestant faith, was honey-combed 
 with heterodoxy when in this century Robert Haldane, 
 a Scotchman, by his zealous instructions, started an 
 evangelical movement, which under the auspices of the 
 Evangelical Society has continued to the present time, 
 but with the limited doctrinal purity of a body which 
 is undenominational. The Venerable Association of 
 Pastors, first established by Calvin, is rationalistic in 
 its influence. Such men as Gaussen and Merle D'Au- 
 bigne were not tolerated by them. That fact speaks 
 volumes in regard to the orthodoxy of Switzerland. 
 
 Holland, which was well-nigh entirely reformed, 
 Holland, the country which, with an outpouring of 
 blood that incarnadined her canals, resisted the at- 
 tempts of the Duke of Alva to subjugate her to the 
 Papal yoke, the land of William the Silent, of Voetius 
 van Mastricht, and the illustrious Witsius, — what of 
 her? According to the testimony 'of the historian of 
 rationalism, she has been pervaded by that poisonous 
 system. Like the sea when it breaks tlM:'ough her dikes 
 and inundates her harvest fields, rationalism has broken 
 down the metes and bounds of her old orthodoxy and 
 swamped her churches with its cold and desolating 
 flood. And now her professedly evangelical theolo- 
 gians, like Van Oosterzee, are by no means fair expo- 
 nents of a pure Protestant faith. 
 
 Of France, little need be said. Protestantism, which 
 once flourished in her bosom, was, by the butcheries of 
 Charles IX, and the protracted dragonnades of Louis 
 XIV and the Guises, almost extirpated from her soil. 
 The Protestants who now exist are divided in doctrine. 
 
124 Sermons 
 
 even the Reformed Church being split into two wings, 
 one of which is rationalistic ; while the. professedly or- 
 thodox party, if represented by Pressense, cannot be 
 regarded as strictly so. The nominal Protestant Church 
 in that country can hardly be taken into account ex- 
 cept as it contains a remnant that waits for the conso- 
 lation of Israel. The population is largely made up 
 of Romanists and skeptics. 
 
 Cross the channel and take a brief survey of Great 
 Britain. Had England heeded her great reformers — 
 Jew^el, for example — she would have been purged of 
 Popery, but it is well known that she was verj^ inade- 
 quately reformed. For some time the type of the Prot- 
 estant faith was mainly Calvinistic; but from the res- 
 toration of the unprincipled Charles II, when, as 
 Bishop Burnet intimates, almost the whole nation got 
 drunk, the Church of England began her recession 
 from Calvinism and lapsed into Arminianism. In 
 Bishop Butler's time religion was, as he tells us, stu- 
 diously banished from society, so that it was a breach 
 of good manners to 'allude to it in polite circles. Deism 
 reigned. Then came what is called the Great Revival 
 under Wesley and Whitefield, which, no doubt, to a 
 considerable extent, wrought a restoration of experi- 
 mental religion, especially in the middle and low^er 
 classes. But it should not be forgotten that through 
 the same movement was originated a powerful organ- 
 ization W'hich has vastly increased the propagation of 
 the Arminian system of doctrines in Britain and Amer- 
 ica. To the extent to which that system involves a 
 departure from the pure doctrines of Scripture, as they 
 were formulated in the early Protestant creeds, a large 
 section of Protestant Christendom now participates in 
 that defection. It deserves notice that the latest type 
 
Girardeau 125 
 
 of Arminian doctrine, as may easily be proved by cita- 
 tions from leading theologians, has gone down far be- 
 low that of Wesley, both in England and America. A 
 somewhat recent convocation in England denied the 
 verbal inspiration of the Scriptures. 
 
 The Presbyterian Church in England was almost 
 destroyed by defection into Unitarianism. As now re- 
 suscitated, whatever may be its doctrinal posture, it is 
 numerically too small to affect our general estimate of 
 the signs of the times in the sphere of doctrine. The 
 attitude of Congregationalism in England may be 
 gauged from the fun made of the orthodox sermon of 
 Dr. Goodwin, of Chicago, not long since preached by 
 him before a Congregationalist convention in London, 
 by the most prominent minister of that denomination 
 in that city. Charles Spurgeon— and I cannot mention 
 his name without groaning out a lamentation that that 
 great evangelical light, that brilliant star in Jesus' 
 right hand, has ceased to shine in the centre of civiliza- 
 tion — Spurgeon withdrew from the English Baptist 
 Union because of his conviction of its latitudinarianism 
 in doctrine — what he expressively termed its "down- 
 grade" tendency. 
 
 In Wales the doctrinal attitude of other denomina- 
 tions being left out of account, that of the Calvinistic 
 denomination may be measured by the late call to the 
 theological school of a rationalistic professor from a 
 Presbyterian Seminary in this country. 
 
 Scotland, notwithstanding her persecutions in the 
 past for maintaining the pure religion, and notwith- 
 standing her bitter experience of the evils of moderat- 
 ism, is exhibiting evidences of a relaxing hold upon 
 her glorious standards. Very loose speculations are 
 winked at in the Established Church, and the General 
 
126 Sermons 
 
 Assembly of the Free Church not long since white- 
 washed those teachers of false doctrine, Dr. Dods, of 
 Edinburgh, and Dr. Bruce, of Glasgow, in spite of 
 their impeachment by the faithful Presbytery of Ding- 
 wald, sending the Highlanders back in disappointment 
 to their northern glens; and while these witnesses for 
 the truth are discountenanced, Henry Drummond is 
 tolerated in his heretical vagaries. Are these not omi- 
 nous signs in old Scotia's sky? 
 
 Of the doctrinal condition of Protestant Ireland, in 
 the general, I am not prepared to speak advisedly. 
 The Presbyterian Church in that countr}^ some time 
 ago came nigh being overwhelmed by an eruption of 
 Socinianism under the lead of the insinuating Mont- 
 gomery, from which peril she was, with God's blessing, 
 saved by the noble stand for truth made by the heroic 
 Henry Cook. She has for years been passing through 
 a great conflict upon the field of worship, but, under 
 the wholesome guidance of such theologians as Robert 
 Watts, of Belfast, and his compeers, she seems to be 
 still holding her gi-ound of conformity with the stand- 
 ard of Scripture truth as erected in her venerable doc- 
 trinal confession. 
 
 Let us now come nearer home in our review. In 
 America the Protestant Church, in its purest form, 
 had its origin in New England. President Edwards 
 preached his celebrated sermons on the "Work of Re- 
 demption" in 1739, about a century and a half ago. 
 He then used these words: "Another thing in which 
 things are altered for the worse from what was in the 
 former times of the reformation, is the prevailing of 
 licentiousness in principles and opinions. There is not 
 now that spirit of orthodoxy which there was then; 
 there is very little appearance of zeal for the myste- 
 
Girardeau 127 
 
 rious and spiritual doctrines of Christianity ; and they 
 never were so ridiculed and had in contempt as they 
 are in the present age." After speaking of the preva- 
 lence of "'Socinianism, Arminianism, and Deism," he 
 goes on to say : "Now there is an exceeding great decay 
 of vital piety; yea, it seems to be despised, called 
 e7ithi(sias7n, whimsy and fanaticism. Those who are 
 truly religious are commonly looked upon to be crack- 
 brained, and beside their right mind; and vice and 
 profaneness dreadfully prevail, like a flood which 
 threatens to bear down all before it." Since Edwards's 
 time, Unitarianism has been organized in a denomina- 
 tional form and has been enthroned in the Athens of 
 America and at Harvard University. The Arminian- 
 ism w^hich Edwards deprecated has more and more 
 gained foothold in New England; Universalism has 
 taken organized and aggressive shape, and future pro- 
 bationism and rationalistic views of the inspiration of 
 the Scriptures have established a centre of distribution 
 at that great school of Congregationalism, Andover 
 Theological Seminary, founded, chartered, and en- 
 dowed for the inculcation of orthodox views. 
 
 In other parts of the country Protestantism, with 
 alternate revivals and declensions, has almost univer- 
 sally diffused itself. But it has broken asunder into 
 numerous fragments, into sects, denominations, and 
 subdivisions of denominations. And let it be remem- 
 bered that as all these differing bodies cannot possibly 
 be equally orthodox, orthodoxy has necessarily suffered 
 in proportion to their multiplication. Arminian doc- 
 trines, not restricted to any one denomination, but more 
 or less existing in all, have spread from sea to sea. 
 High church exclusivism, not confined to one sectarian 
 organization, has steadily advanced. The pulpit, that 
 
128 Sermons 
 
 great mouthpiece of divine truth, is more and more 
 su^Dpressing its testimony to the future punishment of 
 sin — the eternal sanction of God's moral government. 
 The verbal inspiration of the Bible is generally denied, 
 and that gone, the great bulwark of Protestantism is 
 down. A common outcry is raised against doctrinal 
 preaching — a sure presage of growing defection and 
 coming wrath. A clamor like the noise of many waters 
 is lifted up against the enslaving tyranny of creeds and 
 confessions, which means, Down with God's authority, 
 and Up with man's ! In short, the demand is made 
 that the glory of God — His own last end and the end 
 of the whole creation — must give way to the happiness 
 of the sinner, and the sovereignty of the free, untram- 
 melled human will must take precedence of the will of 
 Him who shakes the universe with His nod. 
 
 The Presbyterian Church, which has usually been 
 regarded as the chief conservator of the orthodox faith, 
 is beginning to yield to the paralyzing influence of the 
 fell, rationalistic spirit, and to bow to the dictates of 
 science, falsely so-called, the higher criticism, the 
 sophistries of and the shout for the universal Father- 
 hood of God and universal love. Witness the extra- 
 ordinary developments in the Briggs case. Will she 
 give way ? If she does, the j^halanx with locked shields 
 that moved with resistless force against the hosts of 
 error is disintegrated, scattered, defeated. 
 
 Such are some of the signs of the times in the doc- 
 trinal sphere of the church, portending the night be- 
 fore the Millennial day. There are some, as in the day 
 of Israel's great reformer, who are faithful among the 
 faithless found; their loyalty they keep, their love, 
 their zeal. Few they are, but they are the seed corn of 
 
Girardeau 129 
 
 the Millennial harvest, the prophets and forerunners of 
 the Millennial morn. 
 
 II. Wliat are the signs in the sphere of Government ? 
 The doctrinal aspect of the question has been dwelt 
 upon at length because doctrine lies at the foundation 
 of everything pertaining to the church. It is a doc- 
 trine that whatsoever Christ commands is to be ob- 
 served by the church; whatsoever He has not com- 
 manded, either expressly or impliedly, is forbidden to 
 her; and that is the doctrinal cornerstone of the true 
 church. What remains to be said must be compressed 
 into small compass. 
 
 What is the fundamental principle of government in 
 comparison with which the church's purity or corrup- 
 tion, in that sphere, is to be determined? I have no 
 hesitation in answering. The Kepresentative Principle. 
 That is a principle, it deserves to be noticed, of very 
 wide employment in the moral government of God. It 
 runs through the whole of it, in all its aspects. It was 
 employed in man's first religion. Adam was the repre- 
 sentative of the race. It is employed in redemption. 
 
 Christ is the representative of the redeemed. It 
 pleased God to employ this principle of representation, 
 with necessary adaptations, in the constitution of the 
 visible church. The view is maintained by some that 
 the church is simply a monarchy, for Christ is her 
 King and He, of course, is not elective. The true view 
 is that on the divine side the church is a kingdom with 
 Christ as her sole and absolute King, but, on the human 
 side, she is a free, representative commonwealth. Her 
 divinely given constitution creates her a body of free 
 electors, empowered by its suffrages to choose its rulers. 
 They are, therefore, representative rulers. When 
 elected they constitute a parliament, characterized by 
 
130 " Sermons 
 
 the absolute parity of its members, with no visible dic- 
 tatorial head. The church thus, on the plane of a hu- 
 man society, reflects that great representative principle 
 which has been incorporated in all religion. This is 
 the touchstone of the church's purity in government. 
 It excludes a one-man's government and consequently 
 rules out prelacy in all its forms. The extent to which 
 the Protestant Church departs from this principle is 
 the extent to which it fails to be conformed to the 
 Scriptures; nor ought it to be forgotten that it was 
 just here that the early church commenced its career of 
 corruption which terminated in the Papacy. The sim- 
 ple Presbyter became the Prelate, and the Prelate be- 
 came a Pope. 
 
 But, moreover, even where, as in the Presbyterian, 
 Church, this representative principle is professedly em- 
 ployed, it is, to a very large extent, perverted by the 
 suppression of the parity of the rulers and the sub- 
 ordination of one class to another class. What is called 
 the lay element is held to be inferior to what is termed 
 the clerical. The distinction has no place in Scripture. 
 It is a corrupt device of man. Jesus Christ created by 
 His will the government of His church, and any de- 
 parture from that will is an affirmation of man's will 
 in disobedience to it, and is an ominous sign in the 
 church's sky. 
 
 III. What are the signs of the times in the sphere of 
 Discipline ? "Discipline is the exercise of that author- 
 ity and the application of that system of laws which 
 the Lord Jesus Christ has appointed in His church." 
 The ends which the church aims at in the administra- 
 tion of discipline are the glory of God, the honor of 
 Christ, the purity and edification of the church, and 
 the spiritual good of offenders themselves. In dispens- 
 
Girardeau 131 
 
 ing it, as the name implies, she acts not upon the prin- 
 ciple of retributive justice. She is not a judge emit- 
 ting punitive sentences. She never punishes. Reflect- 
 ing the fatherly justice of God and the pastoral rule 
 of Jesus, the good Shepherd, over the sheep of His 
 fold, she, like a tender mother, corrects her children 
 in order to reclaim and save them. As to the discharge 
 of the duty of discipline, she is bound by obedience to 
 God, obligation to her Saviour, and love for the souls 
 committed to her care, it is evident that neglect of its 
 performance argues a defection from conformity with 
 the Scriptures and consequently from true religion. 
 
 To one who discerns the signs of the times, it is pain- 
 fully apparent that there is a growing relaxation of the 
 administration of discipline in the Protestant Church, 
 and a corresponding depression in the tone of her spir- 
 itual life. Of this, two kinds of proofs will be briefly 
 submitted. 
 
 The first is that, for the most part, the censures of 
 the world precede and condition the censures of the 
 church. AVhere the world condemns, the church con- 
 demns. Her sentences are sustained, perhaps de- 
 manded, by the verdict of society. For the most part — 
 for there are exceptions — the church seems to be more 
 careful to prevent her disgrace than to maintain the 
 honor of Christ, more solicitous to keep her members 
 than the favor of her Lord. 
 
 The second is that not only does the church condition 
 judicial discipline upon the censures of the world, but 
 she tolerates where the world tolerates. One or two 
 specifications in support of this remark must suffice. 
 
 In the first place, greater and greater license is al- 
 lowed by the Protestant Church to the infraction of 
 the Sabbath law. Her members are, on God's day. 
 
132 Sermons 
 
 indulged in tlie visitation of their places of business, 
 riding out for pleasure, boating excursions, prome- 
 nades in parks, traveling on railways, going for their 
 mail, reading secular newspapers, social visiting, en- 
 gaging in business pursuits in connection with rail- 
 roads, telegraph lines, express companies, and post- 
 offices, — on the plea of making a livelihood, notwith- 
 standing the words of a crucified Saviour : "Every one 
 that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or 
 father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands for 
 My name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and 
 shall inherit everlasting life." 
 
 In the second place, the Protestant Church is more 
 and more conniving at participation by her members 
 in the open, public, justified amusements of the world 
 which in her purer days she forbade, such as attend- 
 ance at theatres and at balls, dancing parties, and other 
 vain diversions. True, she testifies against it from the 
 pulpit ; but when discipline might arrest it, she refuses 
 to discipline. "Be not conformed to this world." says 
 the Holy Apostle. "Be not conformed to this world." 
 echoes the church. But when her members conform to 
 the world that is the end of it. She condemns by her 
 words what she sanctions by her acts. The acts pre- 
 vail. The bars of discipline are let down. The sheep 
 go out at that gate to the world, and at that gate the 
 world comes into the church. This evil is increasing, 
 and is one of the most prominent signs of the times. 
 
 IV. What are the signs of the times in the sphere of 
 Worship? I confess that upon this subject I scarcely 
 dare trust myself to speak. The movement of our times 
 strikes me with astonishment. There was nothing in 
 the past about which God was so jealous as the mode 
 of His worship. There was nothing around which He 
 
Girardeau 133 
 
 threw guards and fences so awful as around His w^or- 
 ship. His wrath leaped forth as a vehement flame 
 against those who asserted their wills in His worship. 
 He reserved to Himself the high prerogative of ap- 
 pointing the ways in which men should approach Him 
 in His public worship, and instantly resented every 
 invasion of that prerogative. But all that is now 
 changed, we are told. We have passed under the milder 
 sanctions of the New Testament dispensation, and more 
 discretionary power is granted to the church. Hold ! 
 Did not Christ enjoin it upon His apostles to teach the 
 church to observe all things whatsoever He had com- 
 manded? And does not that necessarily imply that 
 they were to teach the church to abstain from all things 
 whatsoever He had not commanded? to do nothing 
 which He had not commanded? Did not the apostles 
 organize the church according to His will? Did they 
 not appoint her whole order, including her public wor- 
 ship? And are we not bound by Christ's will thus 
 expressed? Did the apostolic church know anything 
 of instrumental mvisic in public worship, of liturgies, 
 of the decorations of church edifices? How come we to 
 know them except by breaking with the apostolic order 
 and the will of our King? 
 
 Hearken, men and brethren ! Let us take just one 
 of these elements of innovation upon the primitive 
 order of worship and rapidly trace its history. For 
 1,200 years the Christian church knew nothing of in- 
 strumental music in her public worship. In the thir- 
 teenth century its proposed introduction into the 
 Church of Rome — corrupt as it then was — was ineffect- 
 ually resisted by some of her most eminent theologians. 
 At the reformation the Swiss Protestant Church cast 
 it out; the French Protestant Church cast it out; the 
 
134 Sermons 
 
 Dutch Church cast it out; the Scotch Church cast it 
 out; the English Puritans cast it out; and the Church 
 of Enghmd came very nigh casting it out. At its first 
 phmting, the American Evangelical Church refused to 
 adopt it. What do we now behold ? Its use by nearly 
 all tlie leading churches of Protestantism, in opposition 
 to the Scriptures and the venerable precedents which 
 have just been recited. What a change ! What a blaz- 
 ing sign in the sky of the Protestant Church ! "What 
 is to stop the tendency? The beginning is the mother 
 of the end. AVhat end? The full orchestra of Rome. 
 
 So with the liturgy. Not commanded by the apos- 
 tles, the Evangelical Protestant Church has long dis- 
 carded it. What now? It is beginning stealthily to 
 creep in under the guise of a permissive liturgy. If 
 adopted it will acquire the force of prescription; and 
 what then? A\Tiy, the Holy Ghost will vacate His 
 office, and give way to Archbishop Cranmer and the 
 committees of evangelical churches, who will teach us 
 ''what things to pray for as we ought, and make inter- 
 cessions for us with groanings that cannot be uttered !" 
 
 So also with the ornamenting and decoration of 
 church buildings; something new to evangelical Prot- 
 estantism. Did you, whose heads are just beginning 
 to be sprinkled with grey, know anything of it when 
 your mothers led you by the hand to the simple wor- 
 ship of their God ? At first, as if conscious that it was 
 an intruder, it came with a modest bouquet ; then with 
 many of them ; then, behold ! banks of flowers and 
 plants cover pulpit and platform, and festoons and 
 branches bedeck the walls. The first step was taken 
 unchallenged, then the second; why not the third, and 
 on, on, to the paintings, the statues, and all the gor- 
 geous paraphernalia of Rome? 
 
Girardeau 135 
 
 But I must close. Signs have been pointed out in 
 the spheres of doctrine, government, discipline, and 
 worship, which indicate the progress of a great defec- 
 tion in the Protestant Church, and the approach of 
 those tempestuous changes which will herald the rising 
 of the Millennial star. I am getting to be more and 
 more "lonesome;" my voice is very feeble and cannot 
 be heard far against the storm; but humbly standing 
 in my narrow, provincial lot, I lift up a warning 
 against the growing defection, and call attention to the 
 dark cloud of judgments that is flashing with lightning 
 and growling with wrath. I have said that the tem- 
 poral power of the Pope is broken, but that there may 
 be a tremendous effort made to restore it. There are 
 reported to be 200,000,000 of adherents to the Papacy. 
 How will a degenerate Protestantism meet its massed 
 onset? Say, shall we throw over the generous pail of 
 gospel milk filled at the reformation, and return to 
 suck the dugs of the woman drunk with Protestant 
 blood? 
 
 O thou remnant, weak and small, faithful to Jesus, 
 His truth and His cause, what will become of thee? 
 Trust in that covenant love which has never forsaken 
 God's true people in the past, and will not forsake 
 them in the future. Almighty arms are around thee, 
 and will keep thee by the power of God through faith 
 unto salvation. 
 
136 Sermons 
 
 FAMILY RELIGION 
 
 Col. iii. 18-21: ^^ Wives, submit yourselves unto your 
 own husbands, as it is -fit in the Lord. Husbands, love 
 your wives, and be not bitter against them. Children, 
 obey your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing 
 unto the Lord. Fathers, provoke not your children to 
 anger lest they be discouraged.'^'' 
 
 Eph. vi. 4: "l^e fathers, provoke not your children 
 to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and admo- 
 nition of the Lord?'' 
 
 Acts ii. 39 : '"''For the promise is unto you and to your 
 children?'' 
 
 Jer. X. 25 : '"''Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that 
 know thee not, and upon the families that call not on 
 thy name.'''' 
 
 The subject assigned for treatment on this occasion 
 is Family Heligion. In considering it I shall, first and 
 by way of introduction, briefly contemplate the family 
 in its relations, of difference and similarity, to other 
 social organisms, and, secondly, more fully set forth 
 its special and practical aspects as a separate religious 
 institute. 
 
 I. There are, in the present order of things, three 
 gre'at social institutes, the Family, the State, and the 
 Church ; in the present order of things, for in a differ- 
 ent conceivable constitution of human affairs, into 
 
 Note. — This is really a discussion. The Charleston Presbytery, 
 realizing the decline of family religion, and desiring to check the 
 falling away in our Christian homes, appointed Dr. Girai'deau to 
 preach a sermon on the subject. As a result of this appointment the 
 following carefully prepared sermon was preached in the First Pres- 
 byterian Church, Charleston, at the Spring meeting of the Presbytery 
 in 1885. 
 
Girardeau 137 
 
 which sin would not have entered as a factor, it may 
 at least be doubted whether the same sharp and un- 
 avoidable distinctions would have obtained as now exist 
 between the state and the church. Had the human 
 race, as represented in its first progenitor and subjected 
 to its probation in him, stood in innocence during the 
 specified time of trial and been confirmed in holiness 
 and happiness, its families, as they would have been 
 multiplied, would probably have naturally passed into 
 the condition of one great social organism. This might 
 not have been a mere aggregate of families as units, 
 but assumed the form of an organized institute of gov- 
 ernment. But it may be a question whether it would 
 have been either logically or really divisible into the 
 state and the church. The necessity for civil and 
 political government arising out of the conflict of indi- 
 vidual interests would not have existed, for as, accord- 
 ing to the supposition, there would have been no sin, 
 there could have been no conflict to be prevented or 
 adjusted. It might have been requisite to affix to indi- 
 vidual and municipal interests certain metes and 
 bounds, but the great principles of truth, justice, and 
 benevolence would have joervaded and regulated society 
 and, as a consequence, these limitations would have 
 been spontaneously respected, and no clash of contend- 
 ing claims could have emerged. It is certain that the 
 penal element of retributive government would have 
 been entirely absent ; the sword never could have been 
 as now the symbol and badge of rule, for there could 
 have been no violation of law, and, therefore, no room 
 for punishment. Crime would have been unknown. 
 
 These suppositions are rendered the more likely by 
 what we know from revelation of heaven. It is the 
 city of God, a polity of the redeemed, in which the 
 
138 Sermons 
 
 distinctions of civil and ecclesiastical, of disciplinary 
 and retributive government are impossible. There 
 God's state is his church, his church his state. We may 
 fairly infer that as without sin the world would have 
 been like heaven, the distinctions would have been 
 wanting which at present actually obtain. Now, re- 
 demption proceeds upon the pre-supposition of sin. It 
 recognizes the disjunction between the two institutes 
 effected by man's rebellion; but at the same time it 
 proposes for its ultimate end to heal the unnatural 
 schism, so far as God's redeemed subjects are con- 
 cerned, and restore our fallen and disrupted nature to 
 its original and normal idea; and, moreover, to confer 
 upon it the peculiar benefits resulting from its union 
 with Christ the eternal and archetypal Son, and so to 
 confirm it in a closer and tenderer union with God 
 Himself. The church, as composed of God's children, 
 is destined to be one perfect, undivided family. 
 
 But taking human society as it is, as conditioned 
 and modified by sin, we find it existing in three organic 
 institutes which are distinct from each other. The 
 State is in its origin natural, and although it is capable 
 of being influenced, ought to be influenced, and in the 
 Millennial period will be influenced by spiritual sanc- 
 tions, yet it is designed in this world to operate in the 
 natural sphere and to be conversant with the political 
 and civil relations of men. The family is also in its 
 origin natural, is susceptible under the moulding power 
 of grace of becoming spiritual, but from the nature of 
 the case, must ever in this world move in the natural 
 sphere and be concerned about natural relations. The 
 church is in its origin supernatural and spiritual, 
 ought in its character to be spiritual, and is designed 
 to operate in the spiritual sphere. It is composed, in- 
 
Girardeau 139 
 
 deed, so far as it is a visible and external organization, 
 of men in the flesh, and, therefore, has a temporal side 
 and temporal functions, but even in these respects it is 
 controlled by spiritual relations and spiritual ends. 
 The rule of government is different in these respective 
 institutes. That of the State, on the one hand, although 
 it may incorporate into itself elements of God's moral 
 law, is still distinctively a political constitution and a 
 civil and criminal code. On the other hand, the rule 
 of government in the family and the church is the 
 divine law as embodied in the Scriptures. The rulers 
 are also different. In the State the ruler is the magis- 
 trate ; in the family and the church, the father. They 
 are, in fine, different kinds of government. The State 
 is mainly an instance of retributive government, pro- 
 ceeding by rewards and penalties ; the family and the 
 church are specimens of disciplinary government op- 
 erating by rewards and chastisements. In the one case 
 penal justice is prominent; in the other it is excluded. 
 The family, like the church, is a disciplinary and not 
 a penal institute. 
 
 Having glanced at some of the most important dif- 
 ferences between these organisms, let us briefly con- 
 sider the relation in which the family stands to the 
 state and the church, and the principles which origi- 
 nating in it ought to pass into and influence them. 
 
 These institutes, although in themselves distinct, are 
 in a certain sense related. They all have a common 
 origin in the will of God, are organs through which 
 His manifold government of the world is mediately 
 administered, are accountable to Him for the manner 
 in which their subordinate rule is exercised, and are, 
 in the discharge of their legitimate functions, sup- 
 ported by the sanction of His authority. One common 
 
140 Sermons 
 
 feature characterizes them all — they are ordinances of 
 God. Xo association of personal beings in the universe 
 has a right to be godless. In a future and more per- 
 fect condition of human society no organization, gov- 
 ernmental or merely social, secular or sacred, will deny 
 its relation to God or assume to act independently of 
 religious sanctions. The more nearly society ap- 
 proaches to its original idea and its destined perfection, 
 the farther will it recede from the atheistic claim to 
 be irresponsible to God, and the more will it tend to 
 that condition in which He will be confessed to be all 
 in all, a condition in which His name will be impressed 
 upon every corj3oration, company, and employment, 
 when holiness to the Lord shall be written upon the 
 bells of the horses. A^Hien? do you ask? '\ATien the 
 star of the Millennial morn shall blaze on the dark and 
 stormy horizon of human sin and strife. Sin has 
 effected the monstrous schism betwixt man and God, 
 and betwixt men and men. This fearfid cleavage will 
 be closed up, but closed up only so far as the predesti- 
 nating purpose of God shall operate through the pro- 
 visions of redemption. Neither at present is the scheme 
 of optimism nor that of pessimism practically true. 
 Heaven will realize the former, hell the latter. Human 
 society is the preparation for one or the other, accord- 
 ingly as it is or is not governed by the principles of 
 the Bible. The acknowledgment of God will find its 
 consummation in heaven, the denial of Him will reach 
 its climax in hell. But whatever may be the actual 
 facts in the development of our fallen race, the idea of 
 human society was that it should conform to the di- 
 vine will, and express the principles of the divine gov- 
 ernment. All men, whether regarded individually or 
 collectively, are, by the conditions of their being, bound 
 
Girardeau 141 
 
 to acknowledge, obey and glorify God. There is no 
 logical medium betAveen this doctrine and Atheism. 
 The Family, the State, and the Church are correlated 
 institutes in God's great plan of government — a plan 
 by which He pleases ordinarily to administer rule, not 
 innnediately, but through the medium of human organ- 
 isms, each intended to promote His glory and man's 
 good in its own prescribed sphere, and all contributing 
 together to the accomplishment of these ends. 
 
 It is, furthermore, obvious to remark that of these 
 institutes, the family is fundamental, radical, germi- 
 nal. It is the primary point of unity to the others. It 
 is the origin and propagator of the race, and it is the 
 first organism from which the others started and re- 
 ceived their development. Had not sin occurred, the 
 terms human family would have had a significance 
 which they do not and cannot now possess. All man- 
 kind would have been one family, not only as having 
 expanded from a common centre, developed from a 
 common stock, but as being allied by feelings the most 
 tender and affectionate. They would have spoken the 
 same language, obeyed the same law and worshipped at 
 the same altar. Society would have been a perfect 
 brotherhood. "\A^ierever one human being would have 
 been met by another in all the wide world, although 
 personally a stranger, he would have experienced the 
 welcome of a brother's heart and the embrace of a 
 brother's arms. If there could have been a heaven 
 without Jesus, the earth would have been heaven. At 
 least, it would have been a universal paradise. 
 
 But, conditioned disa'-trously by sin as it actually 
 is, the human race is not a heterogeneous collection of 
 individual units, but a great aggregation of families; 
 and through whatever of conservative influence still 
 
142 Sermons 
 
 results from the laws impressed upon the family rela- 
 tion, that relation exercises a restraining and whole- 
 some effect upon society. Were the population of the 
 earth not thus composed of families, it would be a wild 
 and ungovernable mob destitute of the first principles 
 of law and order, of religion and morals, a promiscuous 
 herd of human wild beasts, — naj^, worse, for beasts of 
 prey are not wont to rend their own species, and ani- 
 mals are controlled infallibly by the law of instinct 
 beyond which they cannot pass. But when human be- 
 ings transgress, as they do, the laws imposed upon their 
 nature, the evil multiplies itself until the genius of 
 license, misrule, and disorder riots in undisputed and 
 unlimited swaj'', and sweeps its hapless victims, as if 
 possessed of demons, onward to every social excess and 
 agitation, communistic, socialistic, anarchistic, nihil- 
 istic — to universal revolution, amidst the terrific explo- 
 sions of which all legitimate, time-honored and vener- 
 able institutions are in danger of being whelmed in one 
 common and fearful ruin. In illustration of this, one 
 need only cite the recent attempt to destroy the British 
 parliament house and the tower of London. 
 
 The time allotted to these remarks will not allow 
 more than a few passing words upon a theme tempting 
 in itself and meriting serious consideration. I allude 
 to the principles which, imbedded in the family con- 
 stitution, make it a propaedeutic for every form of the 
 social fabric; principles which were designed to be of 
 far-reaching value, to diffuse themselves beyond the 
 limits of the family, and to be incorporated into the 
 State an'i the church. There is the principle of obedi- 
 ence to law and to divinely appointed authority, of 
 veneration for age, wisdom and sanctity, of deference 
 to all who have the right to be the superiors of others. 
 
Girardeau 143 
 
 The family is precisely the school in which this funda- 
 mental virtue ought to be fostered. The neglect to 
 cultivate it there must tell injuriously upon the other 
 relations of life, while the failure of the State and the 
 church to insist upon it would bode nothing but evil to 
 the future. Without it government would be impotent, 
 except as enforced by the bayonet and the cannon. 
 Society would perish at the top. 
 
 There is the principle of scrupulous respect for the 
 refinement and purity of woman which finds a peculiar 
 field for expression in the family circle, in the relation 
 of the child to his mother, of the brother to his sister, 
 of the husband to his wife, and which is entitled to be 
 regarded as the palladium of social life. There is the 
 princiiDle of the headship of man, which divinely or- 
 dained to operate in the family is also divinely en- 
 joined upon the church. It is also implied that woman 
 was not intended by her Maker to enter as a public 
 factor into political contests and open crusades for the 
 melioration of moral evils, — to hurl herself into the 
 fierce arena of gladiatorial strife. That would be to 
 impair the beautiful quality of dependence and mod- 
 esty which is the talisman of her power, as a rough 
 touch of the hand irreparably brushes off the down 
 from the petal of the flower. Were this to become the 
 general custom — and may God preserve our Southern 
 land from such an inversion of her traditions ! — the 
 cry of the ancient pagan persecutors of Christians 
 would, with the change of a single word, be transmuted 
 into the scarcely less cruel shout of modern society : 
 Women to the lions ! Their proper influence would be 
 gone. But were general success to attend this ill-starred 
 effort to clothe them with an improper influence, the 
 result must be that the Graces would be transformed 
 
144 Sermons 
 
 into the Fates. The doom of society would be sealed. 
 It is of vital interest to the State and the church that 
 woman should exert her magical influence only in that 
 sphere which God has assigned her, and in which she 
 may wear the crown and wield the sceptre of a queen. 
 
 "'There woman reigns, the mother, daughter, wife ; 
 Strews with fresh flowers the narrow way of life ; 
 Around her knees domestic virtues meet, 
 And fireside pleasures gambol at her feet." 
 
 There is also the principle of monogamy, the law by 
 which marriage is legitimated only between one man 
 and one woman, an ordinance enforced alike by God 
 the Creator and God the Redeemer. Vital as its ob- 
 servance is to the peace and harmony of the family, it 
 is of no less importance to the purity of the church and 
 the welfare of the State. It is a matter for thanks- 
 giving that no church and no Christian government 
 theoretically tolerates the evil of polygamy. But its 
 existence as a fact among the American people is a 
 blot upon their civilization. It is at once a fret and a 
 shame to the age. There is further the principle of 
 the perpetuity, under limitations, of the marriage bond. 
 That bond is designed to be, and ought to be, perpet- 
 ual ; but it is liable to dissolution by reason of sin. 
 When it has been wickedly disrupted, the question 
 arises in regard to the legitimacy of divorce. There 
 are two vicious extremes into which human legislation 
 actually runs — the one of legalizing divorce upon in- 
 sufficient grounds, that is, grounds not warranted by 
 the Divine Lawgiver; the other, of permitting it upon 
 no grounds. God, in His word, recognizes one and but 
 one ground of divorce — the dissolution of the bond of 
 
Girardeau 145 
 
 marriage, and specifies two ways in which that may 
 occur; first, infidelity to the marriage covenant; and, 
 secondly, causeless, wilful and irremediable desertion. 
 Those States, therefore, which grant divorce upon 
 other grounds than these are looser than the divine law, 
 and those which refuse it upon these grounds are 
 stricter than it. In either case, mischief must be the 
 result. Would that legislators had the grace to regard 
 themselves as neither wiser nor more merciful nor more 
 careful of morality than God Himself I 
 
 II. I pass on now to the consideration of the special 
 and practical aspects of the family as a separate re- 
 ligious organism. 
 
 Let us, first, contemplate the family as an Institute 
 of Instruction. 
 
 It is not necessary to spend time in discussing the 
 question of the natural obligation resting upon parents 
 to teach their children. Whether they do or do not 
 address themselves formally and methodically to the 
 discharge of this parental function they are, from the 
 nature of the case, teachers, and teachers exerting a 
 prodigious influence upon their children. The school 
 is one of nature's construction, and not a product of 
 conventional arrangement. The pupils are born into 
 it, have no vacations, and never leave it until they 
 arrive at an age when they are prepared to become 
 teachers in a similar school with similar students. The 
 near and tender relations involved, the almost god-like 
 authority of the parent, the assimilating disposition of 
 the child causing it with sponge-like facility to absorb 
 the influence of teh daily words, and acts and life of 
 the influence of the daily words, and acts and life of 
 the father and mother, — all these considerations show 
 that the family is necessarily a potent institute of in- 
 
146 Sermons 
 
 struction. This is obvious. But the duty resting upon 
 the xoarent in a stricter and more formal sense to teach 
 his children will also be generally conceded. As, how- 
 ever, in consequence of our weakness and imperfection 
 we are liable to the neglect of even admitted duties, let 
 us look at some of the reasons which bind us to the con- 
 scientious performance of this obligation. 
 
 The Scriptures are not silent in regard to this 
 primal duty of religion. There can be no doubt that 
 the first family which existed on earth was a school of 
 religious indoctrination. The narrative in Genesis 
 confirms the antecedent probabilities in the case. The 
 pious Abel conformed his practice to the evangelical 
 instructions of his parents when he offered in his wor- 
 ship an animal as significant of his faith in the Lamb 
 of God, who should, in accordance with the purpose of 
 redemption, render himself a proj)itiatory sacrifice for 
 sin; and his Avicked brother sinned against the gospel 
 delivered to him bj' the same instructions, when he 
 furnished the first and leading instance of will-worship 
 in his infidel presentation of a bloodless offering. 
 Through the Patriarchal dispensation believing par- 
 ents handed down to their children, generation by gen- 
 eration, the first glorious promise of redemption; and 
 even when the professed people of God had lapsed into 
 an almost universal apostasy from the truth, there 
 remained one family in which the torch was still kept 
 burning that was kindled at the altar of Adam and 
 Eve. The same sacred light shed its rays in the ark 
 when shut in by God's hand, and when borne upward 
 by the swelling waters of a mighty deluge, with the 
 corpses of a drowned world floating around it and 
 heaved up against its sides. That family school, thus 
 miraculously preserved, became the distributing centre 
 
Girardeau 147 
 
 of gospel truth to a new world, alas, so soon by the force 
 of corruption to repeat the crime of its predecessor, and 
 in the face of its doom to plunge into an idolatrous 
 apostasy from God ! Yet here and there in that desert 
 of defection the truth of the gospel maintained its 
 supremacy in some family seminary. The venerable 
 patriarch of Uz taught his children the scheme of sal- 
 vation in which all his personal hopes were grounded. 
 Abraham, when called of God to be the founder of the 
 church under new sanctions, became an exemplar of 
 fidelity in the duty of parental instruction. By express 
 and solemn statute, the Mosaic code constituted every 
 family in Israel a school of religious training. "Only 
 take heed to thyself and keep thy soul diligently lest 
 thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and 
 lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: 
 but teach them, thy sons and thy sons' sons." "And 
 these words, w^hich I command thee this day, shall be 
 in thine heart: and thou shalt teach them diligently 
 unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou 
 sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the 
 way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest 
 up." The illustrious captain who led the host of Israel 
 across Jordan into the promised land, said in his last, 
 affecting address to his countrymen : "Choose you this 
 day whom we will serve. . . . As for me and my house, 
 we will serve the Lord." 
 
 The royal Psalmist declared that he would "walk 
 within his house with a perfect heart," implying that 
 he would in his family both inculcate by precept and 
 exemplify in his conduct the principles of the religion 
 he professed. His son, the wisest of men, who well 
 knew, from his own experience, the benefits of family 
 tuition and the disastrous effects of its neglect, fur- 
 
l-tS Sermons 
 
 nishes the salutary admonition : "Train up a child in 
 the way he should go," and appends the promise that 
 "when he is old he will not depart from it;" intimating 
 that the habits engendered in the young b}^ faithful 
 parental instruction may ordinarily be expected to bear 
 corresponding fruits in maturer life. The same great 
 man, speaking by the Holy Ghost, also charmingly 
 counsels the young: "My son, keep thy father's com- 
 mandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother: 
 bind them continually upon thine heart, and tie them 
 about thy neck. AATien thou goest it shall lead thee; 
 when thou sleepest it shall keep thee; and when thou 
 awakest it shall talk with thee. For the command- 
 ment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of 
 instruction are the way of life." The evangelic pro- 
 phet records "the writing of Hezekiah, king of Judah, 
 when he had been sick, and was recovered of his sick- 
 ness," in which the restored monarch srjs: "The liv- 
 ing, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day; 
 the father to the children shall make loiown thy truth," 
 as though he esteemed it one of the chief offices for 
 which his life was prolonged to impress upon his chil- 
 dren the ways of the Lord. It is worthy of notice that 
 the last of the prophets, in the very closing words of 
 the Old Testament Scriptures emphasizes the discharge 
 or neglect of parental and filial obligations and the 
 consent or disagreement of parents and children in sup- 
 porting the true religion, as conditioning God's bless- 
 ing or His curse: "Behold, I will send you Elijah, the 
 prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful 
 day of the Lord: and he shall turn the heart of the 
 fathers to the children, and the heart of the children 
 to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a 
 curse." The practice of the pious in training their 
 
Girardeau 149 
 
 children in the knowledge of the Scriptures, after the 
 Old Testament canon was completed, is evinced by the 
 case of Timothy, to whom Paul says : "And that from 
 a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which 
 are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith 
 which is in Christ Jesus;" and he had previously inti- 
 mated who Timothy's instructors were when he alluded 
 to the unfeigned faith which dwelt in his grandmother 
 Lois, and his mother Eunice. The Spirit of New Tes- 
 tament teachings on this subject is expressed in Paul's 
 exhortation to parents to "bring up" their children "in 
 the nurture and admonition of the Lord"; that is, to 
 give them a Christian education — to train them in the 
 school and for the service of Christ, their Savior and 
 Lord. 
 
 Having taken this hasty survey of Scripture teach- 
 ings on this subject, let us also look at some of the con- 
 siderations which exhibit the inexpressible importance 
 of the family as a school, and the gigantic responsi- 
 bilities of parents as its divinely appointed preceptors. 
 
 The most superficial attention to the matter must 
 impress upon us the fact that the family school exerts 
 an incalculable influence, because it is the very first in 
 which human beings are trained for time and eternity. 
 From the nature of the case, it takes chronological 
 precedence of all others, secular or ecclesiastical. It is 
 one into which the pupils enter at birth. Their first 
 sense-perceptions are connected with the faces and the 
 voices of their mothers and their fathers. From them 
 they acquire, by absorption, their vernacular tongue 
 Avith all the ideas which it symbolizes. Their first type 
 of thinking is assimilated involuntarily from that of 
 their parents. They know them before they know God, 
 and derive their first knowledge of God Himself fi-om 
 
150 Sermons 
 
 them. They are in a school in which their teachers are 
 their parents. Their parents are to them the first in- 
 terpreters alike of nature and the Bible. The condi- 
 tions of instruction are the most favorable that can be 
 conceived. On the one hand, there is the forming and 
 impressible state of childhood, its boundless credulity 
 as yet unchecked by the experience of untruth and de- 
 ception, its readiness to accept the testimony of all with 
 whom it comes in contact ; and on the other, the undis- 
 puted authority and influence of its parental instruc- 
 tors, founded in admittedly superior will and wielded 
 in tenderness and love. No wonder it has passed into a 
 proverb, that our earliest impressions are the strongest. 
 Like the bottom inscriptions upon some old parch- 
 ments, however overlaid and crossed, they remain clear 
 when the later are obscured, or abide when they are 
 obliterated. As the experienced Christian turns in the 
 mysterious process of death to the happy time when 
 first he knew the Lord, so it is an affecting natural fact 
 that on the dying bed men reproduce, in imagination, 
 the scenes of early life. Even the abandoned profligate 
 who has gone through gulfs of impurity, and whose 
 mind and conscience are defiled, reverts at last to the 
 sweet associations of his boyhood's home, and "babbles 
 o' green fields" over which he once roamed an uncon- 
 taminated child. AVlio can measure the influence of 
 that first school in which we receive our earliest and 
 profoundest impressions? A fragment of Scripture, a 
 bit of a hymn, a scrap of a prayer, taught by a moth- 
 er's lips to the child lying in her lap or bowing at her 
 knee, sometimes comes up to the consciousness of the 
 despairing sinner in life's last struggles, and leads to 
 the clutch of faith upon the promise of salvation 
 through the merits of Christ. And, on the contrary, 
 
Girardeau 151 
 
 the remembrance of wicked words and infidel expres- 
 sions which fell from a parent's lips upon the ready 
 ear of the child, may arise into the latest consciousness 
 of life to deepen unbelief and thicken the gloom of 
 death. 
 
 This leads to the further remark, that the school of 
 childhood is not only a source of enduring impressions, 
 but a nursery of fundamental and regulative ideas. Is 
 not this abundantly attested by facts? The child is 
 almost sure, unless through the operation of some excep- 
 tional and revolutionary force, to adopt and maintain 
 the doctrines, views and opinions of its parents. They 
 are absorbed without difficulty and, almost as a matter 
 of course, are incorporated into his intellectual being, 
 and stamp the complexion of his future thinking. The 
 child of the Pagan naturally becomes a Pagan; the 
 child of a Mohammedan, a believer in the Koran. He 
 who is so unfortunate as to be born of an Atheist natu- 
 rally acts upon the testimony of his earthly father that 
 he has no heavenly. John Stuart Mill, having been 
 bred in a family school in which Atheism was taught, 
 naturally became an Atheist. One who is taught by 
 nominally Christian parents absorbs, in accordance 
 with the same law, nominally Christian views; and it 
 is a matter of the commonest observation that the sects 
 and denominations into which nominal Christianity is 
 divided, in the main perpetuate their existence by vir- 
 tue of birth and education, rather than by the examina- 
 tion of e^ddence and judgment rendered upon it. It is 
 true — and God be praised that it is ! — that the almighty 
 grace of the ever-blessed Spirit is not tied to the laws 
 of a merely natural development, but sovereignly op- 
 erates not only to the reversal of false regulative ideas 
 and views which are derived from education, but to 
 
152 Sermons 
 
 the destruction of the fundamental principle of inher- 
 ent sin itself, from which all religious errors and all 
 actual transgressions of the divine law proceed. It is 
 left on record for our instruction that Saul, the perse- 
 cuting inquisitor, was thus miraculously converted; 
 and without this doctrine delivered to us clearly in 
 God's word, the whole cause of foreign missions would 
 be a wild vagary. But while this is true, and must be 
 insisted on, it must also be admitted that ordinarily 
 the operations of God's saving grace are concurrent 
 with the line of family descent and family culture. 
 The promise of salvation Ijy Jesus Christ is indeed 
 unto all that are afar off, even to as many as the Lord 
 our God shall call, but it is chiefly and emphatically 
 to those who profess the true religion and to their 
 children. 
 
 It must also be remarked, by way of qualification, 
 that the correct views and principles instilled by par- 
 ental instruction into their children cannot be expected 
 of themselves to preserve them in future life from the 
 adoi^tion of erroneous opinions or the formation of 
 evil characters. That result might fairly be looked for 
 if their development were unimpeded by antagonistic 
 forces. But that development is counteracted and hin- 
 dered by the all-conditioning law of inherent deprav- 
 ity, which can only be overcome by supernatural grace. 
 Still, with all the limitations which justice requires to 
 be imposed upon it, the position in the main is unques- 
 tionably true, that the doctrines, ideas and opinions 
 which the parent inserts into the mind of the child are 
 fundamental and regulative in their influence. Beyond 
 doubt, they exercise a powerful influence upon the 
 future career of the child. If right, they act as bar- 
 riers in the way of the development of wickedness both 
 
Girardeau 153 
 
 in speculation and in practice; and they become the 
 moulds to which a true religious system easily adjusts 
 itself, the forms in which a true religious life finds its 
 legitimate expression. If wrong, they fall in with the 
 fatal tendency to sin, and hasten it to its consummation 
 in open heresy or immorality. 
 
 This becomes still more evident when we consider 
 the implicit faith of the child in the authority of the 
 parent as a teacher. Not yet arrived at that period of 
 mental growth when he becomes individually respon- 
 sible for his beliefs and opinions in consequence of his 
 ability to investigate evidence and his obligation to 
 follow it, he looks up to his parent as being to him the 
 vicar and representative of God. He has not the right 
 to question the parent's authority. To him his father 
 is infallible. There is no appeal possible to any higher 
 human authority, for there is to him no higher human 
 authority. If the father should teach his young child 
 that the Bible does not deliver the doctrine of the deity 
 of Christ, or of an expiatory atonement, or of the 
 supernatural grace of the Holy Spirit, or of the eternal 
 punishment of the wricked, how, in his immature con- 
 dition, could the child possibly know the incorrectness 
 of these instructions? Would they not be the Bible's 
 teachings to him? Is not his father the unerring ex- 
 i:)ounder of truth to him? No scholars are so ready to 
 imbibe the views of teachers as are the young members 
 of the family school those of their parents. They lis- 
 ten to them as they would to God. 
 
 This implicit faith is moreover enhanced immensely 
 by the love and veneration which the youthful learner 
 cherishes for his parent. And as he grows there natu- 
 rally springs up a partisan feeling of prodigious power 
 Avhich leads him to maintain and vindicate the ideas 
 
154 Sermons 
 
 and opinions received from so dear and so venerable 
 a source. The tendency, even when started by convic- 
 tion, to depart from them is held in check by the almost 
 irresistible feeling that injustice would be done to his 
 parents and duty to them would be infringed by a 
 breach with their instructions; a sentiment which is 
 heightened if they be dead, and can no more speak for 
 themselves. Their graves are seals of their instruc- 
 tions, and the monuments above them are protests 
 against their abandonment. He who in mature life 
 embraces truth in opposition to error taught by a par- 
 ent's lips, pays as striking a tribute as can well be fur- 
 nished on earth to the majestic authority of evidence, 
 and the imperious force of conviction. It will readily 
 be conceded by us who profess to be Christians, that 
 our little children are bound by filial dependence and 
 obligation to accept the Bible at our hands, and to 
 receive those interpretations of its meaning which we 
 put upon it. But if we take a broad view of the sub- 
 ject, we must also allow that the general rule holds in 
 regard to the religious instruction of all children by 
 their parents. The child of the Mohammedan, in his 
 tender and unthinldng years, is bound to comply with 
 the authority of his father which delivers to him the 
 Koran as his directory of faith and dut3^ The rule 
 holds in the various special applications of which it is 
 capable. The mere child has no right to affirm inde- 
 pendence of his father's instructions. It may be ques- 
 tioned whether he has the right to adopt opinions from 
 any human quarter which contradict those of his par- 
 ents. Indeed, from the nature of the case, it is difficult 
 to see how he could. The conditions do not exist for 
 an intelligent comparison of opinions and tenets. He 
 is the helpless receiver of his father's faith. His re- 
 
Girardeau 155 
 
 ligion is determined by the nod of his father's head. 
 If this be true, it is seen that the responsibility of the 
 parental teacher is nothing less than tremendous. His 
 magisterial authority may, no doubt often does, project 
 his child into a path of development, the logical result 
 of which is hell. Oh, how urgent is the necessity for 
 the parent to settle the views which he impresses upon 
 the plastic mind of his child upon candid and patient 
 examination of the truth, with humble dependence upon 
 God and earnest supplication for His guidance ! He 
 cannot, if wrong, plead the authority of his own par- 
 ents. That plea will vanish into smoke at the touch of 
 the last fire. The religious beliefs of the adult man are 
 not evolved, like the instincts of animals, by a law of 
 imminent necessit}^ operating along the line of parental 
 propagation. A point is inevitably reached in the pro- 
 gress of every human individual when his own personal 
 responsibility emerges for the kind of religion which 
 he adopts. 
 
 But, when that point has been reached, the question 
 presses, TV^iat value ought to be attached to the relig- 
 ious ideas which have been derived from parental in- 
 struction? I venture to answer that they ought not to 
 be held as settled and ultimate conclusions in accord- 
 ance with which one's personal faith and practice must 
 be determined. Nor, on the other hand, ought they to 
 be treated as possessed of no value. They are vener- 
 able presumptions which must, on solid grounds of 
 evidence, be rebutted before they can be legitimately 
 discarded. They are tentative, working hypotheses 
 which are to be tested by comparison with facts, and 
 sustained or rejected in view of the whole evidence 
 which is accessible to the inquirer after truth. The 
 mind ought to hold the position of neutrality, of in- 
 
156 Sermons 
 
 difference — not to the truth, for that, as the very end 
 of the inquiry, is of supreme consequence — but of in- 
 difference as to what shall prove to be the truth amidst 
 the rival claims of conflicting opinions after an un- 
 prejudiced and sober, a painstaking and prayerful ex- 
 amination. Even when these conditions are complied 
 with — as complied with they certainly ought to be — 
 the inquirer starts out with the weight of presumption 
 vastly preponderating in favor of opinions sanctioned 
 and, as it were, consecrated by parental authority and 
 by filial obedience and love. Here again we cannot fail 
 to be struck by the responsibility of the parent. But 
 it is a fact that in the great majority of instances no 
 such investigation is instituted. The man is content 
 with the views which as a child he received from the 
 lips of his father and mother, lips, perhaps, mute in 
 the grave, and he goes on treading the path beaten 
 by the generations which preceded him. Like herds of 
 cattle following other herds of cattle, the mass of men 
 tramp on until the light of eternity blazes upon them 
 and reveals, when too late, their suicidal folly and 
 guilt. In this view of the subject no language can 
 exaggerate the awful accountability resting upon par- 
 ents for the instruction they communicate to their chil- 
 dren. 
 
 In connection with this strain of remark we cannot 
 but be impressed by the thought that in the family 
 school, more by far than in any other, the force is 
 peculiarly felt of teaching by example. Allusion is 
 not here made to the concurrence of example with 
 didactic precept, though that is worthy of serious re- 
 flection, but to the powerful teaching of example itself. 
 The child is imitative, and very naturally copies the 
 example of the parent. It is to this law Paul adverts 
 
Girardeau 157 
 
 when he exhorts Christians to be "imitators of God as 
 dear children." The life of his parents is a daily study 
 to the child. It is ever before him. The words spoken, 
 the acts done by the father and the mother in the un- 
 restrained freedom of the family circle are like a 
 steady rain falling, not upon the rock, but upon the 
 thirsty earth. They are drunk in and appropriated by 
 the imitative and assimilating powers of the child. 
 This aspect of the subject might be copiously illus- 
 trated, but time would fail, and it is so plain to the 
 barest observation as to render expansion almost need- 
 less. 
 
 I cannot dismiss this special topic without calling 
 attention to the enormous diffusive and traditional in- 
 fluence of the family as an institute of instruction. 
 Each family tends to diffuse its influence by ramify- 
 ing its connections through intermarriage, until a con- 
 geries of circles is formed intersecting one another and 
 widening out, who can calculate whither? The ideas 
 and doctrines asserted in one family may in this way 
 receive a dissemination which will reach to the ends 
 of the earth. 
 
 The traditional power of the family is equally in- 
 calculable. The sacrifice offered by Noah in the bosom 
 of his family on Mount Ararat has by this power im- 
 pressed itself upon the nations, and continues to affect 
 their religious views and rites to the present hour. The 
 usages of Abraham's family are observed by the Jews 
 to this day. The ideas and doctrines once taught in 
 the family school are handed down from father to son 
 to distant generations. Those, my brethren, which we 
 deliver to our families will project themselves into the 
 future, and will affect the immortal destinies of souls. 
 The stream of traditional influence, running through 
 
158 Sermons 
 
 successive family lines, will not cease until it ripples 
 against the judgment throne; nor will it be arrested 
 there, but rolling around it, it will flow on forever, 
 either mingling with the waters of the river of life 
 ]3roceeding from the blest seat of God and the Lamb 
 or with the Styx and the Acheron of hell. 
 
 Let us next consider the Family as an Institute of 
 Government. 
 
 The word of God speaks expressly upon this subject. 
 It clearlv conveys the right to the parent, and enjoins 
 upon him the duty to exercise government over his 
 children, and enforces upon children the obligation to 
 honor and obey their parents. God, in Genesis, says: 
 "For I know him [Abraham] that he will command 
 his children and his household after him, and they 
 shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judg- 
 ment; that the Lord may luring upon Abraham that 
 which He hath spoken of him." Of so great conse- 
 quence did He esteem this primal duty of all religion 
 that He gave it a formal and permanent enforcement 
 in the Ten Commandments: "Honor thy father and 
 thy mother, that th}^ days may be long upon the land 
 which the Lord thy God giveth thee." It is an acknowl- 
 edged principle in accordance with which the Com- 
 mandments are expounded, that an eminent instance of 
 a class of relations, with their corresponding obliga- 
 tions, is singled out and emphasized as representative 
 and inclusive of the whole class. Here the class is 
 inferiors, superiors, and equals. It challenges notice 
 that God signalized the special relation of parents and 
 children as the highest and most important of the 
 whole class. This furnishes us the divine estimate of 
 the relative duties of parents and children. 
 
Girardeau 159 
 
 Can I, just at this point, do better than simply to 
 cite the felicitous, impressive and exhaustive statement 
 of the duties enjoined by this Commandment, given in 
 the Westminster Larger Catechism, substituting for 
 the general words inferiors and superiors where they 
 occur in that venerable formulary the special terms 
 children and parents? 
 
 "The honor which children owe to their parents is, 
 all due reverence in heart, word, and behavior; prayer 
 and thanksgiving for them; imitation of their virtues 
 and graces; willing obedience to their lawful com- 
 mands and counsels; due submission to their correc- 
 tions; fidelity to, defence and maintenance of their per- 
 sons and authority . . . bearing with their infirm- 
 ities and covering them in love, so that they may be 
 an honor to them and their government." 
 
 "The sins of children against their parents are, all 
 neglect of the duties required toward them; envying 
 at, contempt of, and rebellion against their persons 
 . in their lawful counsels, commands, and cor- 
 rections ; cursing, mocking, and all such refractory and 
 scandalous carriage, as proves a shame and dishonor to 
 them and their government." 
 
 ''It is required of parents ... to love, pray for 
 and bless their children; to instruct, counsel and ad- 
 monish them; countenancing, commending, and re- 
 warding such as do well; and discountenancing, re- 
 proving, and chastising such as do ill ; protecting, and 
 providing for them all things necessary for soul and 
 body; and by grave, wise, holy, and exemplary car- 
 riage, to procure glory to God, honor to themselves, 
 and so to preserve that authority which God hath put 
 upon them." 
 
160 Sermons 
 
 "The sins of parents are, besides the neglect of the 
 duties required of them, an inordinate seeking of them- 
 selves, their own glory, ease, profit, or pleasure; com- 
 manding things unlawful, or not in the power of chil- 
 dren to perform; counselling, encouraging or favoring 
 them in that which is evil; dissuading, discouraging, 
 or discountenancing them in that which is good; cor- 
 recting them unduly; careless exposing, or leaving 
 them to wrong, temptation and danger; provoking 
 them to Avrath ; or in any way dishonoring themselves, 
 or lessening their authority by an unjust, indiscreet, 
 rigorous, or remiss behavior." And to this it must be 
 added that God has annexed a special and explicit 
 promise of long life and prosperity, as far as it shall 
 serve for his glory and their own good, to all such as 
 keep this Commandment — a promise repeated in the 
 New Testament, to which children should pay peculiar 
 heed, if they would enjoy God's blessing in the preser- 
 vation and success of their lives. Like the pillar which 
 protected and guided ancient Israel, it has as well a 
 face of threatening darkness as of cheering light, and 
 impliedly denounces the signal displeasure of God upon 
 those who dishonor and disobey their parents. It may 
 be that many a young, hopeful life has been blighted 
 and many an early grave been filled in consequence of 
 the transgression of this divine command. 
 
 The woful case of Eli, the venerable priest, furnishes 
 a solemn and affecting warning to parents who neglect 
 the duties of family government. The record is : "And 
 the Lord said to Samuel, Behold, I will do a thing in 
 Israel, at which both the ears of every one that heareth 
 it shall tingle. In that day I will perform against Eli 
 all things which I have spoken against his house : when 
 I begin I will also make an end. For I have told him 
 
Girardeau 161 
 
 that I will judge his house forever for the iniquity 
 which he knoweth; because his sons made themselves 
 vile, and he restrained them not. And, therefore, I 
 have sworn unto the house of Eli that the iniquity of 
 Eli's house shall not be purged with sacrifice nor offer- 
 ing forever." The awful judgment did not tarry. The 
 army of Israel was routed by the Philistines with great 
 slaughter, the ark of God was captured, and the two 
 sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas were slain. The 
 alarming tidings borne hastily to the poor old man 
 brought his life to a sudden and tragic termination. 
 
 The duties of family government are clearly enjoined 
 in the Xew Testament. Not only are parents com- 
 manded to exercise towards their children that sort of 
 discipline suggested by the words "nurture of the 
 Lord" — a discipline by which the growth of their fac- 
 ulties and the increase of their knowledge is secured, 
 but also that which is supposed in the words, "admoni- 
 tion of the Lord" — a discipline of warning and censure, 
 of restraint and government. 
 
 After what has been quoted from the Westminster 
 Standards, there is no need, and there would be no 
 time, to enter into a detailed specification of the duties 
 and offences connected with the government of house- 
 holds. But I cannot forbear indicating a few thoughts 
 bearing upon the inexpressible responsibilities of par- 
 ents in relation to that divinely appointed office. The 
 reflection ought solemnly to arrest their attention, that 
 the family is peculiarly an institute in which habits are 
 daily forming which must tend to stamp the whole 
 complexion of their children's lives. We all loiow, who 
 have encountered the duties and conflicts of life, what 
 the force of early habit is, from our own happy or 
 bitter experience. How often have we thanked God 
 
162 Sermons 
 
 for habits induced in our youth — that of daily prayer, 
 for example — under the training of pious and perhaps 
 departed parents ! How often groaned in anguish of 
 soul over vicious and injurious habits established in 
 that period now irrevocably gone, or the failure to 
 form better when the favorable opportunity was ours ! 
 Alas, the silken thread which was then easily bent has 
 now hardened into a rigid band of iron! What dif- 
 ferent mental power, what different attainments, what 
 different characters we might have had if our early 
 habits had been rightly moulded ! The chance is gone, 
 and no lamentations can bring it back. Especially is 
 this true of the particular habit of obedience. It is one 
 which it is emphatically the province of family govern- 
 ment to form. The will of the child ought to conform 
 to the sui^erior will of the parent, and the season to 
 accomplish this is when that of the former is the most 
 flexible. There nearly always comes a time when an 
 issue occurs between these two wills which must be 
 settled or the supremacy of the parent is abdicated; 
 and once lost, it is seldom recovered. So at the origin 
 of the race the will of our first parents was confronted 
 with the naked will of God unsupported by any osten- 
 sible reason other than that of divine authority. Such 
 was the test of obedience to which they, and we repre- 
 sented by them, were subjected. They refusd compli- 
 ance with their Maker's will, and the temper of univer- 
 sal disobedience was infused like a virus into the race. 
 It is to be feared that the neglect of parents to insist 
 upon this habit of obedience in their children may more 
 and more engender a spirit of lawless insubordination 
 which even now threatens to be the dynamite of social 
 order, an explosive force under the foundations of all 
 regulated government, ecclesiastical and secular. The 
 
Girardeau 1G3 
 
 true cure of this fell tendency ^yould be most effect- 
 ually sought in the proper government of the young. 
 
 It is also a consideration that should deeply impress 
 the minds of parents, that their government of the 
 family makes it a court, the decisions of which consti- 
 tute a body of precedents tending to determine the 
 judgments and conduct of children in their subsequent 
 lives. These decisions form a code of unwritten law to 
 which it is natural that children should refer. Is it not 
 to be presumed by them that these decisions of the 
 family court were right? And would not every senti- 
 ment of veneration and affection lead the filial sub- 
 jects of this rule to regulate by them their personal 
 decisions of the actual cases w^hich arise in their own 
 experience ? And to heighten the force of this thought, 
 it is only necessary to remember that the parent com- 
 bines in his single person, in this little sphere of gov- 
 ernment, all the functions which on a larger field are 
 usually distributed among different officers. He is at 
 the same time clothed with legislative, judicial and 
 executive powers. He gives the law, he expounds, ap- 
 plies and executes it. ^¥lienever a case comes up for 
 trial and decision in this unique parental court, he is 
 both judge and jury; he decides questions both of law 
 and of fact. It is true that in enlightened civil gov- 
 ernments the father's sovereignty is limited by the law 
 of the land; he is not invested with the power of life 
 and death. But in all ordinary cases his will is su- 
 preme, his decisions ultimate. There is no appeal com- 
 petent to the child. Whatever hardship or injustice his 
 natural sense of right may lead him to conceive that he 
 has suffered, naught is left him but implicitly to sub- 
 mit. He must bear the blows under which he writhes 
 and weep in secret over his wrongs. The parent may 
 
164 Sermons 
 
 be choleric, hasty and extreiriS in administering chas- 
 tisement; the poor urchin has no redress. He must 
 content himself with squirming under the birch and 
 perhaps making rash and unredeemable promises in 
 order to abridge the suffering ; as was said to have been 
 the case with the sweet singer of the British Calvinistic 
 churches who, when a child, was peremptorily forbid- 
 den by his father to make any more verses. While 
 smarting under the correction inflicted for his violation 
 of the command, he piteously cried : 
 
 "Pray, father, do some pity take, 
 And I will no more verses make." 
 
 Mighty little supreme court ! Powerful little empire ! 
 Only the ferule may be its sceptre and the darkened 
 chamber its dungeon; but its autocracy is as potent as 
 that of the Caesars; its sanctions well-nigh as formida- 
 ble as those which are wielded over his vassals by the 
 Czar of all the Russians. Is it not easy to see how such 
 a government, so manifold, so nearly unlimited in its 
 power, so strongly seconded by the natural affections, 
 exercised during the forming period of childhood, must 
 impress itself, and impress itself almost determina- 
 tively, upon the future career of its youthful subjects? 
 Callous must be the sensibilities, inhuman the heart 
 of the parent who is not affected by the responsibilities 
 which this view of the subject thrusts upon his mind. 
 There is a tribunal before which he must stand at last 
 to give an account of the manner in which on earth he 
 discharged the momentous trusts reposed in his hands. 
 Tremendous Bar of God ! Who of us shall appear be- 
 fore Thee with consciences guiltless in this thing? 
 ^Yho of us shall dare to confront Thee without a hope 
 
Girardeau 165 
 
 in the mercy of a heavenly Father and the blood of 
 an Elder Brother? 
 
 Let us, in the last place, view the Family as an 
 Institute of Worship. 
 
 We would be disappointed were we to look in the 
 Scriptures for many express inculcations of the duty 
 of family worship. The reason is plain. That duty 
 is enforced by the most obvious dictates of nature 
 itself; it is one of the elements of natural religion 
 which the Bible, as a supernatural revelation, of neces- 
 sity presupposes. Its very silence, so far as the formal 
 injunction of the duty is concerned, is exceedingly sig- 
 nificant. For a like reason no doubt it is that Scrip- 
 ture nowhere presents an elaborate argument for the 
 existence of God or even for the Trinity. These were 
 fundamental doctrines of the religion of nature, and 
 are treated as great presuppositions to be universally 
 and unhesitatingly assumed. Yet the awful impreca- 
 tion, "Pour out Thy fury upon the heathen that know 
 Thee not, and upon the families that call not on Thy 
 name," while it furnishes support to the view just ex- 
 pressed, also enforces, under sanctions of the most 
 dreadful character, the duty of family worship. It is 
 like a flash of lightning on a dark night that at once 
 lights up the whole face of a landscape. They who 
 neglect this obligation are classed with heathen, and 
 are threatened with the fury of the Almighty poured 
 upon them like a storm. It is not worth while to argue 
 the case. He who theoretically denies this obligation, 
 subverts religion and cannot decently appropriate to 
 himself the Christian name. But we are apt, through 
 weakness, to neglect acknowledged duties, and a few 
 things may appropriately be said concerning the rea- 
 
166 Sermons 
 
 sons for the discharge of this office and the motives 
 which incite to its performance. 
 
 The parent is by the appointment of nature, and in 
 conformity with the feelings implanted by nature, the 
 minister of worship for his family. He is not only 
 God's representative of them, but their representative 
 to God. The congregation for which he officiates is the 
 beloved little flock, every one of whom is tied to him 
 by the tenderest bonds — is bone of his bones and flesh 
 of his flesh. His function it is to read to them the 
 blessed word of God, and expound it for their under- 
 standing. His function it is to collect their praises and 
 their prayers, and bowing with them at their own 
 household altar, to present their joint worship to his- 
 Father and their Father, to his Redeemer and theirs. 
 T\liat moving considerations impel him to its dis- 
 charge ! How can he refuse to lead them in offering 
 thanksgiving to the Father of mercies for perpetually 
 recurring benefits, new ever}' morning and fresh, every 
 evening; for daily bread, for the comforts of life, for 
 the preservation of health, for protection against a 
 thousand dangers, for deliverance from innumerable 
 calamities which are ever impending, and, above all, 
 for the unspeakable blessings of redemption? Will 
 he, by omitting so plain a duty, teach them, through his 
 example, to trample down the feeling of dependence on 
 their God and Saviour, and indoctrinate them in the 
 dark crime of ingratitude? The perils at birth, the 
 contingencies environing the cradle, the stormy exi- 
 gencies of life, the prospect of the bed of death, of the 
 family gathering in anguish and tears around some 
 dying member of the beloved little circle, of the sad 
 funeral procession following the dust of the departed 
 to the devouring grave; the temptations incident to 
 
Girardeau 167 
 
 childhood and youth, the need of atoning blood to 
 cleanse from guilt, and of the grace of the Holy Ghost 
 to convert, and sanctify, to strengthen and console, — all, 
 all urge him to erect and maintain the altar of worship 
 in his house, and to render there his morning and his 
 evening incense of adoration, thanksgiving and prayer. 
 It deserves, moreover, to be remarked, that in con- 
 ducting family worship, the parent enjoys the special 
 and eminent advantage of pleading before God his 
 peculiar promise to his people and their seed, of throw- 
 ing himself and them upon the provisions of that 
 eternal covenant which is ordered in all things and 
 sure. It is true that this may be done, and ought con- 
 tinually to be done, in his own private approaches to 
 the throne of grace. But there is a singular propriety 
 in his pressing in the midst of his children their com- 
 mon relation with him to God's covenant and its 
 promises. Besides the answer which might, by faith, 
 be expected to be returned to these joint petitions, in 
 itself no small consideration, these desirable results 
 would be also secured, — God's covenant would be 
 recognized and honored by the concerted worship of 
 the whole family, the instructions touching its blessed 
 provisions and promises didactically impressed upon 
 the children would receive additional and affecting 
 enforcement by praise and prayer; their own connec- 
 tion with the covenant would be daily brought to their 
 attention, and so be inworked into their habits of 
 thought and feeling ; and it might be fairly hoped that 
 they, following the example of their parents, would 
 themselves be led to plead with the God of the cove- 
 nant their own interest in his promise of salvation. 
 
168 Sermons 
 
 In conclusion, suffer me, brethren and friends, to 
 address to those of you who are parents, a few plain, 
 practical counsels suggested by this subject. 
 
 In the first place, I entreat you to remember that the 
 obligation resting upon you to teach your children the 
 religion you profess is divinely appointed, indestructi- 
 ble and inalienable. It is God who says: Bring up 
 your children. That in which you are to bring them 
 up is the nurture and admonition of the Lord. The 
 relation of these beloved pupils to you ordinarih^ 
 terminates only at death. It is you who are enjoined 
 to do this duty: "Ye fathers, bring up your children 
 in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." Conse- 
 quently you cannot, without guilt, transfer this office 
 to others. Every institute and means of instruction 
 has its own allotted place. Yours is the family. How- 
 ever useful in its way the Sabbath School may be, its 
 teachers are not the parents of your children. You 
 cannot roll off upon them the function your Lord 
 assigns to you. I need not say. Teach your children 
 the word of God and the Gospel of your salvation. 
 But I counsel you to tread in the steps of those who 
 have gone before you to glory, and see to it that they 
 commit to memory and recite the Shorter Catechism. 
 Cause them also to memorize some choice Psalms and 
 Hymns, containing the essential features of the plan of 
 salvation. Verse is more easily retained than prose, 
 and it is a well known fact that the sweet songs of 
 Zion linger upon the lips of the dying and sustain and 
 refresh them in their departing moments. 
 
 In the second place, rule your children in the fear of 
 the Lord. Do not, like poor old Eli, allow them to 
 make themselves vile because you restrain them not. 
 Suffer the word of plainness. If they have grown 
 
Girardeau 169 
 
 beyond the reach of parental correction, use authorita- 
 tive command, plead with them, pray with them. Re- 
 strain them from all sin that comes under your eye, 
 especially from open and presumptuous transgression. 
 Restrain them from pleasure promenades, and from 
 riding and boating excursions on God's holy day. Re- 
 strain them within your doors when the shades of 
 night allure the wicked to prowl. Restrain them from 
 unchristian companionship; from godless clubs and 
 drinking parties; from the theatre, the race course, 
 and the circus; from the gambling saloon, the dancing 
 hall, and the skating rink. Restrain them from the 
 dancing school. Say not, Is it not a little one? Yes, 
 but, like little Zoar, it is too near to Sodom. It is a 
 nursery of greater evils. Grace of body — what is it in 
 comparison of the grace of God, which adorns and 
 saves the soul? Your children belong to Christ and 
 His church; train them not by your parental govern- 
 ment as subjects of the devil and votaries of the world. 
 Bring them up in the admonition of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ. God forbid that I should assume the harsh 
 tone of the censor ! Oh, no. I come short in all things, 
 and am less than the least of all saints; but this has 
 always been my testimony, and this is my testimony 
 now. This is narrow, it may be said. Yea, but not 
 narrower than that straight gate and that narrow way 
 through which a few enter into life. One would not 
 wish to be broader than Jesus. AVhatever may be the 
 case in the sphere of doctrine, in the sphere of life, 
 the church of the present day is in danger of defection 
 and apostasy because of her compliance with the prac- 
 tices of the world. O Christian fathers and mothers, 
 it is largely in your hands to arrest the fatal tendency. 
 
170 Sermons 
 
 In the third place, maintain family worship. Like 
 Noah on Ararat, building his altar, and in the midst 
 01 his family offering praise for their great deliverance, 
 erect your altar, and in the bosom of your household 
 render thanksgivings to God for the greater redemption 
 effected by His Son. Like Job, invoke upon the 
 children of your loins the sprinkling of atoning blood. 
 Do this while you live, and when the offices of piety 
 on earth are drawing to a close, like the dying Jacob, 
 lean upon the staff of your pilgrimage and in the 
 midst of your children pay your last homage to your 
 covenant God and Saviour. Will you plead that you 
 are ashamed to vrsy with your family? Wliat ! When 
 you remember the shame to which your incarnate God 
 went down for you ? Will you plead timidity ? What ! 
 Would you not, in defence of your family, face an 
 armed and ferocious mob? Afraid? Then ask your 
 wives to officiate for you. Will you plead poverty of 
 language? What! Were you dumb, would it not be 
 your duty to kneel in the midst of your family and 
 lift your eyes and hands to heaven and groan? As 
 for those quack remedies for bashfulness — books of 
 forms — it is enough to say that they are neither sug- 
 gested by nature nor prescribed in our divine dis- 
 pensatory. Will you plead the want of time ? What ! 
 AVhen you think of the death-bed, the meeting at the 
 bar of judgment, and the unending ages of eternity? 
 Let those of us who have from whatever cause neg- 
 lected this great duty overcome our difficulties and 
 address ourselves to its discharge. God will help those 
 who make the effort. The grace of the Lord Jesus will 
 be sufficient for them, and His strength will be made 
 perfect in their weakness. Thus treating our families 
 as institutes of religious instruction, government and 
 
Girardeau 171 
 
 worship, we shall make our homes on earth prepara- 
 tory schools for our glorious home in heaven. Our 
 Father's house ! There Himself will preside at the 
 table He shall spread, and our Elder Brother will 
 serve at the banquet of an ineffable communion. There 
 glorified parents and children will together recount the 
 mercies of their earthly pilgrimage, together unravel 
 the mysteries of their afflictions below, and deriving 
 from the review ever fresh reasons for gratitude shall 
 blend their praises at the throne of God and of the 
 Lamb. 
 
172 Sermons 
 
 THE DYING CORN OF WHEAT AND 
 ITS GLORIOUS HARVEST 
 
 John xii, 24: ''''Verily^ verily I say unto you^ Except a 
 corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth 
 alone; hut if it die, it hringeth forth much fruitP 
 
 The words of the text were occasioned by an appli- 
 cation of certain Greeks, who were in attendance upon 
 one of the feasts, to be allowed an interview with Jesus. 
 Knowing that He was approaching His last passion, 
 our Savior replied by stating the necessity of His 
 death to the attainment of the grand results of redemp- 
 tion, and the painful conditions of that service which 
 these applicants seemed disposed to render Him. His 
 response contained the enunciation of a great and uni- 
 versal law in this world of sin — the law that sorrow is 
 in order to joy, and death in order to life. 
 
 Its statement is in the form of an analogous law of 
 the vegetable kingdom. The grain of wheat which we 
 deposit in the ground does not spring up and bear the 
 stalk, the blade, the ear, except it first passes through 
 a process of decay. To all appearance it must die in 
 order to live. All that is merely accidental must 
 perish, that the vital and seminal principle may be set 
 free, and, according to the law of species, germinate 
 and develop itself into a new and glorious form of life. 
 
 Note. — There is nothing to indicate the special purpose for which 
 this sermon was prepared. It is written in a very large hand, on 
 every other line, and dated 1865. As Dr. Girardeau never preached 
 from manuscript except on special occasions, there was evidently 
 some particular reason for its preparation. 
 
Girardeau 173 
 
 This is true of all the processes of nature, and it is 
 equally true of our intellectual, moral and religious 
 being. Sacrifice and mortification must be undergone 
 in order to the production of the highest results of 
 which our faculties are capable. Without this, as the 
 grain unburied and undecaying would abide alone, 
 remaining in a separate and unproductive condition, 
 we would simply retain an isolated individuality, sub- 
 sisting only for the present, and bringing forth no 
 fruit to the glory of God or the good of man. 
 
 This law by which life is attained through death the 
 Savior applies to His own case in view of His ex- 
 pected sufferings ; and it is the most illustrious instance 
 of its operation that has ever been afforded. It will 
 now be considered, in its limited application to the case 
 of Jesus, although it is susceptible of a much wider 
 extension. 
 
 There are evidently two things suggested by the 
 words of the text which demand our attention: the 
 greatness of the sacrifice made by Christ; and the 
 sublime and glorious results which it enabled Him to 
 secure. 
 
 I. It must be obvious to every reflecting mind that, 
 on the supposition of the supreme deity of the Son of 
 God, the sacrifice which He made when He undertook 
 to suffer and to die for sinners, is of so stupendous a 
 nature that our conceptions of it must, at best, be but 
 feeble and inadequate. It was one which only God 
 could make, and was, therefore, godlike in its design 
 and execution. And it is, perhaps, not irreverent to 
 say that if it be competent to Deity to make a sacrifice, 
 that of the Son of God was the greatest that divine 
 wisdom could devise, or divine power could achieve. 
 
174 Sermons 
 
 In order to reach some apprehension of its greatness, 
 it will be requisite to contrast the previous condition of 
 perfect exaltation, glory and life which the Savior 
 enjoyed, with that of subjection, shame, and death to 
 which He bowed Himself when He undertook the 
 work of man's redemption. 
 
 In the first place, it may be observed that He 
 was possessed from eternity of absolute supremacy 
 and universal dominion. Before the mountains were 
 brought forth or ever He made the earth and the 
 world, from everlasting to everlasting He is God. 
 "Being in the form of God, He thought it not rob- 
 bery to be equal with God." "The brightness of His 
 Father's glory and the express image of His person, 
 He hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent 
 name" than all the created intelligences in the uni- 
 verse. As He is divine, His nature is the ground of 
 moral distinctions, and His bosom the primal source 
 of law. Angelic hierarchies, thronedoms, principalities 
 and powers, minister in His presence. Worlds and 
 systems innumerable, that "wheel unshaken through 
 the void immense," revolve around His throne; and as 
 they perform their appointed courses express, in the 
 grand harmony of their movements, allegiance to His 
 will. Wherever a holy creature exists amid all the 
 shining hosts of worlds His law is acknowledged and 
 His rule confessed to be supreme. 
 
 But, behold the wondrous nature of His sacrifice! 
 Thus invested with universal empire, the author and 
 dispenser of universal rule. He voluntarily lays out of 
 His hands the rod of dominion, and subjects Himself 
 to the authority of that law which was issued and 
 administered by Himself. Instead of the aspect of a 
 lawgiver and a sovereign, He assumes that of a subject 
 
Girardeau 175 
 
 and a servant, He made Himself of no reputation, 
 and took upon Himself the form of a servant, and was 
 made in the likeness of men; and being found in 
 fashion as a man. He humbled Himself and became 
 obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. 
 Born of a woman and made under the law, the sceptre 
 which His own hands had wielded descended upon 
 Himself; the lightnings which had flashed from His 
 throne blazed around His own soul ; and the thunder of 
 His own awful mandate against transgressors sends 
 Him a re^Duted culprit to imprisonment, scourging and 
 death. 
 
 Another feature in the extraordinary sacrifice 
 made by the Son of God was His relinquishment of 
 glor}'', and His assumption of inexpressible shame. His 
 glory was eternally divine. Whatever of homage, ado- 
 ration and praise were rendered to Deity were paid to 
 Him. He inhabiteth the praises of eternity. The 
 sublime worship of heavenly hosts was incessantly 
 poured out as a tribute at His feet. The exalted facul- 
 ties of sinless intelligences were employed in His service, 
 and the choicest and most magnificent offerings which 
 their powers could furnish, or their love could suggest, 
 were lavished in His presence. The rapturous chants 
 of angelic choirs, and the choral songs of the morning 
 stars, rehearsed His infinite j)erfections, the glory of 
 His deeds and the praises of His name. Countless 
 worlds of light reflected the radiance of His face, and 
 suns and stars shone with a lustre which they borrowed 
 from His throne. 
 
 This glory the Son of God consented to veil when 
 He humiliated Himself and became incarnate that He 
 might die for men. His intrinsic or essential glory, 
 that is, the glory which attends His own contemplation 
 
176 Sermons 
 
 of His being and character as God, can suffer no 
 change; but his extrinsic or declarative glor}^, that is, 
 the effulgent manifestation of His perfections, the 
 reflection of His beauty and the celebration of His 
 praises by the universe of creatures, — this was mys- 
 teriously eclipsed and suspended by His incarnation, 
 by the wonderful connection of the divine nature with 
 the human in a common relation to the personality of 
 the great Mediator. It may be difficult, although the 
 fact be a revealed one, to apprehend how the declara- 
 tive glory of the Son of God should be held in abey- 
 ance considered as divine, for it would seem to have 
 involved an arrest for a time of the praises rendered to 
 Him as God; but there is a glory which the Scriptures 
 clearly teach us was temporarily sacrificed through the 
 incarnation and death of Christ. This was the Media- 
 torial glory. 
 
 As eternally designated to the execution of the 
 scheme of redemption — the Lamb slain from the foun- 
 dation of the world. He possessed a glory which was 
 peculiar to Him in the capacity of Mediator. This He 
 laid aside when He assumed our nature and underwent 
 our sufferings ; and He resumed it only upon the com- 
 pletion of His mediatorial work on earth, and His 
 triumphal ascension into heaven. The Avorship paid 
 Him by celestial armies, the honors rendered Him by 
 the universe of holy creatures, and the radiant exhi- 
 bition of His glories the incarnate Kedeemer sacrificed 
 for shame, reproach, and contempt. He was born in 
 a low estate and cradled in the lap of poverty; was 
 calumniated as one in league with devils in the per- 
 formance of the most extraordinary and beneficent 
 miracles; was "\'ilified as a glutton and a wine-bibber; 
 was misrepresented as a rebel and an insurgent against 
 
Girardeau 177 
 
 lawful authority; was arrested as a common male- 
 factor; was excommunicated from His own visible 
 church by the officers who derived from Him their 
 right to rule; was beaten at the common whipping- 
 post of culprits ; was struck in the face and spitted on 
 by the rabble soldiery of a foreign government; and, 
 finally, the song of drunkards and the by-word of 
 scoffers, was under guard led out, attended by an in- 
 sulting mob, to execution, and amidst taunts and jests 
 was nailed to the accursed tree in company with thieves 
 — a spectacle in death to devils and to men. 
 
 It ought to be remembered, further, in estimating 
 the greatness of this sacrifice, that the Lord of life 
 consented to become obedient to death, and to expe- 
 rience it in its most cruel and ignominious form. "All 
 things were made by Him, and without Him was not 
 anything made that was made. In Him was life ; and 
 the life was the light of men." "By Him w^ere all 
 things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, 
 visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or 
 dominions or principalities or powers: all things were 
 created by Him and for Him; and He is before all 
 things, and by Him all things consist." Containing in 
 Himself the fountain of being, He giveth to all life 
 and breath and all things. His wonderful providence, 
 as by a perpetual miracle, vitalizes all the processes 
 of nature and conserves in existence organisms which 
 would otherwise sink into their original nothingness, 
 or into masses of inert and dissolving matter. All 
 creatures derive from His inspiration the beginnings 
 of live, and from His hand the bounty of continued 
 existence. 
 
 Incarnated in the form of Jesus of Nazareth, His 
 touch communicated healinoj to the sick, and His word 
 
178 Sermons 
 
 startled the dead from their graves. And yet He con- 
 sented Himself to die. The author and prince of life, 
 invested with supreme dominion over the realm of 
 Death, He passed under the yoke of the monarch 
 whose palace is the tomb, bows His head in token of 
 allegiance to his authority, and descends at his com- 
 mand into the prison of the grave. The Giver of life, 
 He succumbs to the extinguisher of it, and the very 
 principle of being appears to submit to the stroke of 
 death. 
 
 There is something, moreover, extremely affecting 
 in the consideration that the sinless Savior consented 
 to the sacrifice of His reputation for integrity. The 
 only perfect specimen of humanity that the world, 
 since the fall, had known. He merited singular honors 
 from His fellow men. If the respect, the admiration, 
 and the love of mankind could have been challenged 
 by uprightness the most unblemished, beneficence the 
 most tender, philanthropy the most untiring, charity 
 the most unselfish, and virtue the most unsullied, — they 
 were due to Jesus of Nazareth. 
 
 In place of them He meets misrepresentation, slander 
 and abuse. Conscious of perfect rectitude, of immacu- 
 late holiness. He sacrificed His right to vindicate Him- 
 self; and when He stood before His accusers falsified 
 and maligned. He answered nothing, but consented to 
 be treated as an offender against God and a culprit 
 before men. He suffered Himself to be convicted by a 
 criminal process, and as a condemned criminal went 
 out to execution to expiate His reputed crimes by a 
 judicial death. There is, if I mistake not, one most 
 touching instance in which He appeared to offer a 
 protest against the injury to which His personal char- 
 acter was subjected. It occurred during His agony 
 
Girardeau 179 
 
 on the cross. Persecuted by His foes, deserted by His 
 friends, and now assailed by the heartless jeers of 
 those who would not let Him die in peace. He turns, 
 with a most pathetic appeal to His God, in which He 
 seems to assert His conscious integrity, while enduring 
 for others a mingled tempest of human malice and 
 divine wrath, which was beating Him downwards to 
 hell. The loftiest, purest, noblest spirit that had ever 
 graced and dignified a polluted world by its presence, 
 the ornament and glory of human nature. He was 
 treated as the meanest, the lowest, the most despicable 
 of slaves, and was regarded by His own countrymen as 
 justly doomed to the disgraceful end of a felon. O 
 deed of indescribable wickedness ! His native soil, 
 which received His dripping blood, blushed in crimson, 
 and the face of nature blackened into a frown of in- 
 dignation. Wonder of wonders ! Earth spewed Him 
 out of her mouth, and no vindication is granted Him 
 from heaven. 
 
 The dreadful mystery is solved, and His sacrifice is 
 seen to rise to its sublimest proportions when it is per- 
 ceived that He voluntarily assumed the guilt of men in 
 order that being adjudged in law to be a sinner. He 
 might undergo their penal sufferings and be made a 
 curse for them. He whose nature is holiness itself, in 
 whose presence the very heavens are not clean, and in 
 whose sight the least sin is an utter abomination, allies 
 Himself to humanity, and in His mediatorial person 
 takes upon Himself the accumulated guilt of His peo- 
 ple. That He should have consented to bring His 
 spotless sanctity into such connection with human sins 
 as to render it proper that He should be judicially 
 treated as the chief of sinners, and to die under the 
 imputation of the most fearful guilt, amidst a storm 
 
180 Sermons 
 
 of opprobrium, hate and scorn, — is an instance of self- 
 sacrifice Avhich astonishes the universe, and is witnessed 
 with indifference by man alone. What a strange and 
 marvellous spectacle it exhibited is the cross of the 
 dying sufferer ! What affecting contrasts are pre- 
 sented by the amazing scene! What do we behold? 
 Instead of the diadem of universal empire, a crown of 
 thorns upon His head ; instead of the sceptre of limit- 
 less dominion, His hands nailed to the tree; instead 
 of the countenance whose brightness abashes adoring 
 Seraphim, a visage disfigured with spittle and clotted 
 with gore; instead of the smile in which angels find 
 their bliss, the pallor and the tears of an unutterable 
 anguish; instead of the rising hallelujahs of heavenly 
 hosts and the songs of the morning stars, the hooting 
 clamor of a human multitude who comment upon His 
 execution as that of a criminal, and with mingled abuse 
 and jibe make sport of His dying throes. 
 
 In the person of the bleeding victim on the cross 
 we see supreme authority beaten down under law, 
 infinite glory eclipsed by shame, stainless holiness 
 pressed down under guilt, and the Lord of Life 
 trampled into the dust under the victorious heel of 
 Death. Is it any wonder that, in the absence of human 
 sympathy, the frame of nature should be thrilled to its 
 centre, and display the ensigns of a universal grief? 
 The heavens are clothed with blackness, the sun 
 refuses to shine, the stars of the firmament burn with 
 the sickly hue of funereal lamps, the adamantine rocks 
 are rent, and the inanimate earth trembles as in a 
 paroxysm of terror at the death of her God. 
 
 The awful tragedy closes, the sacrifice is completed. 
 The corpse of Jesus is taken from the cross and de- 
 posited in the tomb, and the hope of the church and 
 
Girardeau 181 
 
 the world appears to lie down beside it. The light of 
 life seems to be extinguished in the gloom of His 
 sepulchre. His disciples are smitten with inconsolable 
 grief; their expectations are blasted, and all seems to 
 be lost. The "corn of wheat" has fallen into the 
 ground and died ; but it did not abide alone. 
 
 It brought forth much fruit. A dead Jesus is still 
 the representative of His people's salvation. His 
 sepulchre is an object of intensest interest. Angels 
 watched it in hope, and devils and men in dread, that 
 it might be opened again. The dawn of the third day 
 begins to break, — and it is the dawn of a new and 
 glorious hope for a sinful world, — the sleeping Saviour 
 arises, bursts the fetters of the grave, unbars the gates 
 of death, and comes forth proclaiming: "I am He 
 that liveth and was dead, and behold, I am alive for- 
 evermore: and have the keys of hell and of death." 
 The powers of darkness shrink awe-struck from the 
 presence of the rising conqueror. Earth, inspired 
 with a joy it never since creation knew, sings her resur- 
 rection anthem; and heaven, from ten thousand times 
 ten thousand tongues, pours through the portals of the 
 sky her answering tide of rapturous and triumphant 
 song. 
 
 II. Let us now inquire what are some of the rich and 
 glorious fruits which Jesus secured by the sacrifice of 
 Himself? 
 
 The first great effect of His sacrifice which will 
 be noticed is the personal exaltation and glory which 
 He won for Himself. Having successfully closed His 
 conflict with sin, death, and hell. He prepares to assume 
 His glorious reward. Spoiling principalities and 
 powers by His cross. He makes a show of them openly. 
 Collecting around Himself the trophies of His victory, 
 
182 • Sermons 
 
 He rises from earth leading captivity captive, and is 
 attended by ten thousand of His holy ones in His 
 triumphant passage to heaven. When the patriot and 
 the hero, who has finished the battles of his country 
 and achieved a conquest over her foes, returns to his 
 home, a grateful people pour forth to greet him, and 
 the air is rent with resounding plaudits. It is not 
 extravagant to suppose that, when the victorious Re- 
 deemer, after the sufferings and labors of His mortal 
 life, the passion of Gethsemane and the tragedy of the 
 cross, ascended to heaven, angels and justified spirits 
 prepared to welcome His return to the skies. The bat- 
 tlements of the celestial city on this glorious occasion 
 are thronged with expectant thousands. They catch 
 from afar the anthem of the triumphal procession that 
 sweeps upward through the shining orbs of space: 
 "Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lifted up, 
 ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come 
 in!" "Who," is the thundering challenge from the 
 heavenly walls. "Who is this King of glory?" And 
 again, as the head of the ascending column flashes into 
 light, the mighty refrain as the sound of many waters 
 breaks forth : "The Lord, the Lord strong and mighty, 
 the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O ye 
 gates, even lift them up, ye everlasting doors, and the 
 King of glory shall come in !" 
 
 The massy portals are unfurled for the reception of 
 Him who is at once the Lamb that was slain and the 
 victor over Satan, sin and death. The splendid retinue 
 attend Him through the golden streets and conduct 
 Him to His resplendent throne. Crowned with honor, 
 and taking his seat amidst the shouts of thousands and 
 the music of innumerable harps. He receives the pros- 
 trate worship of myriads, ascribing to Him glory and 
 
Girardeau 183 
 
 honor, and jiower and might and dominion, and wis- 
 dom, thanksgiving and blessing. 
 
 The great Mediator has, moreover, won for Himself 
 that peculiar and ineffable love of the Father which 
 results from His cheerful sacrifice of Himself in obe- 
 dience to that Father's will. "Therefore," says the 
 Savior in His beautiful and pathetic discourse on His 
 pastoral office, "therefore doth my Father love Me 
 because I lay down my life that I might take it again." 
 Called of His Father to undertake the transcendent 
 work of redemption, He cordially responded to the 
 vocation, although He knew its acceptance required 
 that he should waive His claim to equality in the God- 
 head, and subject Himself, with the unquestioning 
 docility of a servant, to His Father's commands; 
 although He knew that in fulfilling the conditions 
 imposed upon Him, He must sacrifice His glory to 
 shame. His honor to reproach, and His life to death. 
 And now that having discharged to the letter all the 
 requirements of filial obedience, and from shame, 
 agony, and the grave He returns to resume His glory, 
 the Father receives Him with peculiar honors, and 
 delights to lavish upon His Mediatorial Son the tender 
 and exhaustless love of a paternal heart. 
 
 In consequence, too, of the extraordinary humilia- 
 tion to which the Mediator had subjected Himself in 
 obedience to His will in the accomplishment of the 
 mediatorial engagements, the Father highly exalts 
 Him, confers on Him a name which is above every 
 name, invests Him with supreme dominion, and sum- 
 mons the powers of heaven, earth and hell to bow the 
 knee to Him, and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to 
 the glory of God the Father. 
 
184 Sermons 
 
 In the next place, the sacrifice of Himself made 
 by Christ effected a manifestation of the glory of the 
 divine perfections which is secured by no other means. 
 The sublime frame of the heavens, the wonderful fabric 
 of the earth, the exquisite structure of our bodily 
 organisms, and the still nobler constitution of our 
 minds proclaim the power, the wisdom, the greatness, 
 and the majesty of their Almighty Maker. The scheme 
 of law illustrates His justice. His truth, and His holi- 
 ness. The grand system of providence does all this — 
 it imparts the lessons which physical nature and the 
 moral law communicate in regard to the divine per- 
 fections, and it adds to them some intimations of the 
 goodness and mercy of the Supreme Ruler. There is, 
 for example, in some of its arrangements, a hint of the 
 great principle of mediation as an element in the moral 
 government of God ; and, in the suspension of the exe- 
 cution of judgment upon transgressors, and the be- 
 stowal of natural blessings upon the wicked and ill- 
 deserving, it appears to reveal something of grace and 
 mercy. These facts must be admitted, for they are 
 open to observation. And yet, I confess, there is to my 
 mind a doubt whether these hints of a mediatorial prin- 
 ciple, and these indications of the merciful disposition 
 of God towards sinners, would have an}' existence at 
 all, were not the system of providence affected by the 
 arrangements of the scheme of grace, and all the divine 
 acts towards our guilty race influenced by a reference 
 to the mediation of Christ. If so, it is not natural 
 providence, as such, that discloses the mercy of God 
 towards sinners, but those elements of the scheme of 
 redemption which are either actually incorporated into 
 it, or exercise a modifying influence upon it. But, be 
 this as it may, the cross of Christ more powerfully than 
 
Girardeau 185 
 
 the systems of nature, law and providence proclaims 
 the divine perfections which it is their undoubted office 
 to reveal, and it does infinitely more, — it manifests 
 those attributes which contemplate the pardon of .the 
 guilty and the eternal salvation of the lost. 
 
 The vicarious death of the Son of God, as a being 
 of infinite dignity, in the room of the sinner, sheds 
 conspicuous and peculiar lustre upon the government 
 of God, abundantly satisfies the demands and magni- 
 fies the authority of the divine law, reconciles the inde- 
 structible principle of the inseparable connection 
 between guilt and punishment with the pardon of the 
 transgressor, and harmonizes the apparently conflict- 
 ing claims of infinite mercy and infinite truth, of in- 
 finite justice and infinite grace. "Mercy and truth are 
 met together, righteousness and peace have kissed each 
 other," at the cross of Jesus Christ, And meeting the 
 guilty and despairing sinner at that cross, the great 
 God shows him His glory, reveals His glorious name, 
 and proclaims Himself "the Lord, the Lord God, merci- 
 ful and gracious, abundant in goodness and truth, 
 forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin," though He 
 "will by no means clear the guilty." 
 
 Were it not for the death of Jesus we could never, 
 as sinners, have experimentally loiown anything of the 
 love, the mercy and the grace of God, as they are 
 eternal and glorious perfections of His nature, or as 
 they are the sources of hope and salvation to ourselves. 
 The highest manifestation of the perfections of God 
 as contributing to the glory of His name, and the 
 saving knowledge of them by ruined sinners as neces- 
 sary to their everlasting felicity, is among the rich and 
 glorious fruits which Jesus secured by the sacrifice of 
 Himself. 
 
186 Sermons 
 
 Another result acquired by the death of Christ 
 was the reconciliation of heaven and earth. The inhab- 
 itants of this world, as rebels against the divine gov- 
 ernment, were necessarily cut off by their revolt from 
 the sympathy and fellowship of angels. The act which 
 severed their connection with their God sundered the 
 bonds which allied them to the angelic world. As long 
 as they continued in a common service to Him, angels 
 and men might take sweet counsel together, and mingle 
 their worship in the same sanctuary as brethren and 
 friends. The inexcusable rebellion of men alienated 
 the regard of those unfallen and loyal spirits, and 
 opened a chasm which forbade the interchange of 
 kindly offices and the culture of a fraternal communion. 
 The death of Jesus breaks down the middle wall of 
 partition between them; His blood reconciles them 
 again; and, on the mystical ladder of His mediation 
 which rests on earth and reaches to heaven, angels 
 come down once more in ministrations of love to men. 
 Heaven reaches down its hands to earth, and earth is 
 raised to heaven. The incarnate substitute of sinners, 
 and in some sort representative of the elect angels, 
 gathers them into the same glorious church and reca- 
 pitulates them under the same mediatorial headship. 
 Equally indebted to Jesus for the grace which enables 
 them to stand, and secures their happiness against 
 future contingency, and forgetting their past estrange- 
 ment in the common love they bear to Him, they shall 
 sit together in affectionate intercourse around His 
 glorified person, and blend in sweet accord their ever- 
 lasting praises to His name. 
 
 "According to the working of His mighty power 
 which He wrought in Christ," says Paul sublimely in 
 Ephesians, God "raised Him from the dead, and set 
 
Girardeau 187 
 
 Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places, 
 far above all principality, and power, and might, and 
 dominion, and every name that is named, not only in 
 this world, but also in that which is to come ; and hath 
 put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be 
 head over all things to the church, which is His body, 
 the fulness of Him that filleth all in all." And speak- 
 ing in the same exalted strain in Colossians he says, 
 "For it pleased the Father that in Him should all ful- 
 ness dwell; and having made peace through the blood 
 of His cross, by Him to reconcile all things to Himself; 
 by Him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or 
 things in heaven." These inspired utterances have a 
 profound significance and a majestic sweep. They 
 indicate the fact that the merits of Christ's atoning 
 death are not confined in their effect to the salvation 
 of human sinners, but reach upwards through the scale 
 of unfallen creatures, and broaden out in their con- 
 servative and confirming influence upon the universe 
 of sinless being. It is certain that they extend to 
 angels. And if, as a great theologian thinks, by angels 
 the Scriptures signify all non-human ranks and orders 
 of intelligent spirits, it would appear that the cross 
 of Jesus is stamped upon every unrevolted world in 
 the universal system. The case of devils and lost 
 human beings may be singular, their prison-house the 
 only jail in the universe, and the innumerable popula- 
 tions of loyal subjects of God's illimitable government 
 be secured in holiness and bliss by the merit of Jesus' 
 death. 
 
 Inconceivably great as this result may be considered, 
 it is not too great to have been achieved by the blood 
 that was shed on Calvary. The obedience to the divine 
 law, which culminated in the pouring out of that pre- 
 
188 Sermons 
 
 cious blood, was absolutely exhaustive, and capable of 
 comprehending in its merit every interest of every 
 world. The immutable foundation of creatur^y hap- 
 piness will not rest upon creaturely virtue, but upon 
 the righteousness of Christ. What a glorious fruit of 
 the sacrifice of Jesus! What a wonderful harvest 
 springing from the corn of wheat which fell into the 
 ground on Calvary ! It will shake, not alone like 
 Lebanon tossed by mountain storms ; it will shake like 
 the congregation of rolling worlds swept by the 
 tempests of universal and unending praise. ''And I 
 beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round 
 about the throne and the living creatures and the 
 elders: and the number of them was ten thousand 
 times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands; say- 
 ing with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was 
 slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and 
 strength, and honor, and glory and blessing. And 
 every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, 
 and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and 
 all that are in them, heard I, saying, Blessing, and 
 honor, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth 
 upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever." 
 
 It must be added, in conclusion, that the sacrifice 
 of Himself by the great Redeemer secures the eternal 
 salvation of millions of our race. His death was neces- 
 sary to the attainment of this result. Without it the 
 race must have sunk into despair and perished in their 
 sins. The wrath of God is revealed from heaven 
 against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men; 
 and as all are ungodly and unrighteous, all are sub- 
 jected to wrath and liable to perish. Guilt is linked to 
 punishment by the inexorable requirements of infinite 
 justice and truth, and the irreversible penalty of an 
 
Girardeau * 189 
 
 eternal law. The gospel is the power of God unto 
 salvation to every one that believeth, for therein is the 
 righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith; as 
 it is written, the just shall live by faith. The atone- 
 ment of Christ alone removes the difficulties which 
 oppose the salvation of sinners. It alone renders salva- 
 tion possible by making it consistent with the perfec- 
 tions of His nature that God should pardon the guilty 
 and admit them to His favor. The vicarious obedience 
 of the Savior, deriving an infinite value from the 
 infinite dignity of His person, satisfies the demands of 
 justice, truth and law. He obeys, He suffers. He dies, 
 as the substitute of sinners; and they, who by faith 
 receive His j)erfect righteousness and rest upon it 
 alone, are in Him absolved from guilt and invested 
 with a title to eternal life. Nor does the saving office 
 of Jesus stop here. It was necessary that, u]3on the 
 completion of His mediatorial work on earth and His 
 appearance in the heavens, He should have somewhat 
 to offer. He must not present Himself in the holiest 
 of all without blood. Accordingly, having as the 
 merciful and faithful high priest of His people freely 
 sacrificed Himself for them. He presents Himself in 
 the heavenly sanctuary with His own most precious 
 blood. Entering into the presence of His Father in 
 the holy of holies, and pressing His sacerdotal pleas, 
 enforced by the affecting memorials of His great sacri- 
 fice. He obtains the promised Spirit of grace, and from 
 His mediatorial throne He sends forth to apply the 
 benefits of His death to His people, and to gather them 
 to Himself, their federal head, representative and 
 Savior, from every kindred, tribe and tongue of earth. 
 Relying by faith upon the atoning death of Jesus, 
 whether as a future or as a past reality, sinners have 
 
190 Sermons 
 
 been saved in every age. We have reason to believe 
 that our first parents experienced rest from their 
 tremendous guilt and relief from their gigantic afflic- 
 tion by reposing on the bosom of the first great 
 promise; and, parallel with the development of the 
 grand dispensations of the Covenant of Redemption, a 
 growing multitude of believers have marched, each 
 clime and country, like the tributary streams which 
 swell the mighty river, contributing its numbers to 
 augment the thickening host. They go from strength 
 to strength until each one appears in Zion before God. 
 An innumerable congregation of disembodied spirits, 
 washed in the blood of the Lamb, and redeemed from 
 bondage to Satan, sin and death, are already gathered 
 to glory and throng the heavenly Jerusalem. The wise 
 and the unwise, the Jew and the Gentile, Barbarians, 
 Scythians, bond and free, are collected into the king- 
 dom of God, speak the one dialect of heaven, and 
 mingle their M'orship before the throne. And myriads 
 more shall be brought in. They shall come from the 
 east and the west, the north and the south, and shall 
 sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Thousands 
 yet unborn, down to the verge of time and the consum- 
 mation of the world, shall press upward to the 
 heavenly gates. Every day and every hour witnesses 
 a fresh accession of ransomed spirits to the blood- 
 washed and triumphant church. Wliile these words 
 are uttered, it is probable that many a wearied soul, 
 long buffeted by temptation and tormented by satanic 
 malic'e, is bursting away from its earthly tenement, and 
 from the dying chamber and the bed of death, and is 
 soaring as on eagles' wings to its eternal home. Denser 
 and broader grow the shining masses of the celestial 
 
Girardeau 191 
 
 host, as from every nation, people and tongue of earth 
 fresh numbers are gathering, not at the summons of 
 the martial trump, nor to the strife of gory fields, but 
 at the call of the glorified Savior and to the peaceful 
 rest of heaven. "I beheld," said the Seer of Patmos, 
 "and lo, a great multitude which no man could num- 
 ber, of all nations and kindreds and peoples and 
 tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, 
 clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands: 
 and cried, with a loud voice, saying. Salvation to our 
 God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. 
 . . . And one of the elders answered, saying unto 
 me, \^^iat are these which are arrayed in white robes? 
 and whence came they? And he said unto me, These 
 are they which came out of great tribulation, and have 
 washed their robes and made them white in the blood 
 of the Lamb." 
 
 Brethren, this is philanthropy, noble, sublime, god- 
 like. To discharge one genuine office of charity, how- 
 ever humble, to the needy, the suffering, the djnng, is 
 worth more than the splendid triumphs of wickedness 
 though heralded by trumpets and applauded by thou- 
 sands. But to purge unnumbered millions of deathless 
 spirits from guilt, to rescue them from eternal burn- 
 ings, to lift them to the holiness, the glory and the bliss 
 of heaven, and to accomplish this by the sacrifice of 
 Himself, and His own passage through the fiery 
 furnace of divine wrath, — this is an achievement 
 which shall forever crown the Savior with honors, call 
 forth the rapturous praises of angels, and attract the 
 ineffable affection, gratitude and homage of a redeemed 
 and glorified church. 
 
192 Sermons 
 
 The corn of wheat has fallen into the ground and 
 died; and the fruits of the glorious harvest springing 
 from it are the supreme exaltation of the sufferer, the 
 highest glory of the divine perfections, the reconcilia- 
 tion of heaven and earth, and the eternal salvation of a 
 countless seed. 
 
Girardeau 193 
 
 THE GLORIOUS GOSPEL OF THE 
 BLESSED GOD 
 
 1 Timothy, i : 11. '''The glorious Gospel of the hlessed 
 God^ which was committed to my tmstP 
 
 It has been frequently observed that man is essen- 
 tially a religious being. At no time, and in no place, 
 has he existed without some notion of a Diety, and 
 some form of worship by which he has approached 
 Him and sought to propitiate His favor. An attentive 
 examination of the different schemes of religion which 
 prevail in the world will disclose to us the fact, that 
 they are all, to a greater or less extent, based upon 
 the fundamental principle of the first religion com- 
 municated to man — that of personal obedience to the 
 divine law, as the ground of acceptance with God. For 
 although it should be admitted that the worship of 
 even Pagan nations, conducted, in part, through sacri- 
 fices, evinces some acquaintance with a religious ele- 
 ment foreign to the genius of natural religion; and 
 although it should be confessed that this element be- 
 longs properly to the Gospel, and may have been 
 adopted by the heathen as one of its traditionary frag- 
 ments passing down from the patriarchal era, it must 
 
 Note.- — The title page of the pamphlet that contains this sermon 
 is as follows : "Services on the occasion of the Ordination of the 
 Rev. P. P. Mullally, and the Installation of Rev. J. H. Thornwell, 
 D. D., and Rev. F. P. Mullally, as Co-Pastors of the First Presbyterian 
 Church, Columbia, S. C. Sermon by Rev. John L. Girardeau. 
 Charges, by Rev. Thomas Smyth, D. D. May 4th, 1860. Published 
 by the Congregation. Columbia, S. C. Steam-Press of Robert M. 
 Stokes. 1860." 
 
194 Sermons 
 
 still be acknowledged that, in their case, even the offer- 
 ing of sacrifices is part of a system which proceeds on 
 the principle of personal obedience, and supposes the 
 acquisition of reward in consequence of the services of 
 the worshipper. Whatever may be the material aspect 
 of certain elements in the religious systems of mankind, 
 the principle in which they are founded, and by which 
 they are characterized, is that which has now been 
 attributed to them. They may be said, therefore, to 
 be corruptions of the original scheme of natural reli- 
 gion. There is one system, however, which is grounded 
 in a principle radically and completely different — a 
 system denominated by the apostle in the text, "the 
 glorious Gospel of the blessed God." Coeval with the 
 fall, it was originally communicated to man in the 
 form of a promise, administered during the patriarchal 
 era through the medium of sacrifices, more clearly 
 imparted through the elaborate ritual and the pro- 
 phetical instructions of the Mosaic dispensation, and, 
 finally, "spoken by the Lord Himself," and fulfilled in 
 His life, death, and resurrection, it "was confirmed to 
 us by them that heard Him, God, also, bearing them 
 witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers 
 miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to His 
 own will." This Gospel, coming down to us through 
 the ages marked by distinctive peculiarities, maintain- 
 ing a position wholly individual and singular, and 
 refusing to coalesce with the religions by which it has 
 ever been encompassed — this Gospel of the blessed 
 God, in opposition to all other schemes of faith, we 
 embrace as that from which we derive our consolations 
 in time and our hopes for eternity. We accept it as the 
 only authoritative communication of God's will to 
 sinful man — rest upon it as the divine testimony in 
 
Girardeau 195 
 
 regard to our most precious interests, and not reluc- 
 tantly stake upon the truth of it our everlasting des- 
 tinies. Exclusive and uncompromising amidst various 
 and conflicting forms of religion, and standing, as it 
 does, in an attitude of solemn protest against them all, 
 it is a question of no mean interest to its adherents, 
 What is it that peculiarly characterizes the Gospel, 
 and discriminates it from the original scheme of 
 natural religion, and the corruptions of that scheme 
 which may now exist in the world ? 
 
 I. The Gospel is not peculiarly distinguished by 
 the fact that it is a revealed religion. Any communi- 
 cation of God's will in an authentic form is a revela- 
 tion of that will. A¥lien man first came from the hand 
 of his Maker, he received a moral nature, in the very 
 fabric of which were inlaid those fundamental beliefs 
 which lie originally at the basis of all religion. We 
 cannot suppose that God left His creature — the sub- 
 ject of His government — destitute of an acquaintance 
 with the nature of his Creator, with the relations he 
 sustained to His law, and with that peculiar religious 
 constitution which was involved in the covenant under 
 which he stood as the head and representative of his 
 posterity. It makes no difference, in regard to the bare 
 fact of revelation, that those credentials which authen- 
 ticate the Gospel were absent in the case of man's 
 primitive religion. For, apart from the view that the 
 earliest communication of the Gospel itself was not 
 accompanied with these extraordinary external proofs, 
 it may be doubted whether they would at all be re- 
 quired, were it not for the very material difference 
 between the recipients of these respective revelations 
 growing out of the distinction betwixt them as holy 
 and sinful beings. Nor, in reference to the simple 
 
196 Sermons 
 
 fact of revelation, does it make any difference that the 
 particular modes by which God imparted a knowledge 
 of His will in the two cases were widely distinct. For 
 in one respect — and that a most important one — the 
 two schemes of religion which we are considering are 
 characterized by a common feature — the immediacy 
 of the revelation from God of, at least, some of the 
 principal elements of which they consist. In each case 
 God himself immediately- and personally delivered a 
 communication of the knoAvledge of Himself to man. 
 Under the primitive religion, Adam, we are informed, 
 had free access to his God, who condescended to hold 
 personal intercouse with him; and it is conceded that 
 the Gospel, in its latest and highest development, began 
 to be spoken by the Lord Jesus Christ himself. 
 
 Nor is the Gospel characteristically distinguished by 
 the fact that all the elements which compose it are 
 peculiarly and solely its own. There are certain funda- 
 mental truths incorporated with its matter which lie 
 at the foundation of all religion, are essential to all 
 worship, and were, therefore, component parts of the 
 scheme of natural religion. Adam, in his primitive 
 condition, was, doubtless, acquainted with the doctrines 
 of the divine existence, of the trinal existence of God, 
 of his own federal relations, of the immorality of the 
 soul, and of the retribution of rewards and punish- 
 ments founded in the principle of distributive justice. 
 And were it the distinctive office of the Gospel to 
 republish, with clearer light, and more commanding 
 authority, these original truths which, it is admitted, 
 have been obscured, or even comparatively obliterated, 
 in consequence of the fall, its province would simply 
 consist in the restoration and re-establishment of a 
 system of religion which, in itself considered, could 
 
Girardeau 197 
 
 afford no shadow of relief to the miseries of man, as 
 a sinner against God. The republication and author- 
 itative enforcement of these great articles of religious 
 belief is an important, but subordinate" part, of the 
 office of that scheme which the apostle designates as 
 "the glorious Gospel of the blessed God." My brethren, 
 it does infinitely more than this. The very first and 
 most obvious fact connected with its character is, that 
 it is a religion which contemplates man in his fallen, 
 sinful, and ruined estate. It derives its complexion 
 from the mercy of God, from the bosom of which it 
 springs, and all its arrangements, pervaded by this 
 aspect, look to the salvation of those who are not only 
 undeserving of the divine favor, but merit everlasting 
 banishment from His presence, and the severest inflic- 
 tions of His wrath. Its prime characteristic, there- 
 fore, is, that it is a scheme of mercy and not of law ; 
 and in correspondence with this, its all-pervading 
 feature, it proposes the accomplishment of two great 
 ends entirely peculiar to itself — the re-instatement of 
 man, a guilty sinner, in the favor of God, and the 
 restoration of man, a pardoned sinner, to the image of 
 God. The mode by which it achieves these ends respec- 
 tively is characteristic of itself — the employment of the 
 principle of substitution in order to the justification 
 of the person of the sinner, and the exertion of a divine 
 and supernatural influence upon his nature, in order 
 to its renewal in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness. 
 The incarnation, death and resurrection of Jesus 
 Christ, and the mission, supernatural influence and 
 new-creating energy of the Holy Ghost — all tending to 
 secure the redemption of miserable sinners, to the glory 
 of God's grace, — these, I take it, are the vital and 
 potential facts which stamp the Gospel with individu- 
 
198 Sermons 
 
 ality, discriminate it from all other systems of faith, 
 and impart to it those peculiar and distinguishing 
 qualities which render it "the glorious Gospel of the 
 blessed God." 
 
 Having thus briefly considered the nature of the 
 Gospel, let us pass on to inquire more particularly into 
 some of the reasons which constitute it "the glorious 
 Gospel of the blessed God," or, as the words of the text 
 may be rendered, "the Gospel of the glory of the 
 blessed God." 
 
 II. It deserves, in the first place, to be remarked, 
 that there is no other source than the Gospel from 
 which we may derive any satisfactory information in 
 regard to those attributes of the divine nature which 
 are immediately concerned in the salvation of sinners. 
 It is conceivable that it might have pleased God from 
 eternity to have refrained from exercising His creative 
 power and bringing subordinate and dependent exis- 
 tences into being. Possessed of infinite resources of 
 happiness, essentially and everlastingly resident in 
 Himself, and of an incomprehensible but unutterably 
 blissful society, springing from the personal relations 
 of the ever blessed Godhead, He might have remained 
 forever satisfied with His own intrinsic glory, and 
 ineffably happy in the enjoyment of Himself. But it 
 has pleased Him to stretch forth His creating arm, 
 and to stud the amplitude of space with hosts of 
 worlds. It has pleased Him to bring into being intel- 
 ligent creatures of His power, and responsible subjects 
 of His moral government. It is, consequently, the office 
 of created substances, both animate and inanimate, 
 both material and spiritual, to make known the glorious 
 perfections of their Maker; and it is clear that the 
 scheme or constitution which most fully discharges this 
 
Girardeau 199 
 
 great oiiice brings the largest revenue of glory to His 
 name. It is the very essence, too, of the well-being of 
 intelligent creatures that they should know the nature 
 and character of God; for communion with Him is 
 the life of the soul. "In Thy favor is life, and Thy 
 loving kindness is better than life." Now, when we 
 contemplate man in his condition as a ruined sinner, 
 it is evident that the Gospel alone reveals to him those 
 attributes of the divine nature which contemplate his 
 case with an aspect of beneficence, and from the knowl- 
 edge of which he derives alike his happiness and his 
 ability to glorify God. "This is life eternal, that they 
 might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ 
 whom Thou hast sent." Man, as a sinner, needs light 
 in his ignorance, relief in his misery, and salvation in 
 his ruin. Shall he appeal to nature to furnish him 
 information in regard to God's willingness to help him 
 in these his moral exigencies? 
 
 It is cheerfully conceded that the noble frame of 
 external nature, and the sublime lessons it imparts, 
 conduct us to some acquaintance with the natural attri- 
 butes of God. No one can behold the sun marching in 
 flaming glory through the heavens, or look upon the 
 moon walking in queenly grace through the nocturnal 
 firmament, or scan the countless hosts of the stars as 
 they hang like lamps of heaven in the air of night; 
 no one can stand on the shore of the ocean and stretch 
 his vision over its boundless expanse, or listen to the 
 thunder of its mighty billows; no one can watch the 
 ever-changing hues of beauty which flit across the ever- 
 lasting mountains, or mark the gorgeous tints which 
 adorn the forests, the plants, the flowers of the earth; 
 no one can contemplate these glories of the fabric of 
 nature, and fail to be impressed with the transcendent 
 
200 Sermons 
 
 majesty, the wondrous skill, and the matchless wisdom 
 of the Divine Architect, to whom they evermore render 
 the inarticulate but eloquent tribute of their praise. 
 
 "The spacious firmament on high, 
 With all the blue ethereal sky, 
 And spangled heavens, a shining frame, 
 Their great Original proclaim." 
 
 And that is all they do proclaim. The over-arching 
 heavens, the rolling seas, the eternal hills, the beautiful 
 garniture of the earth — what utterance do they give 
 forth, what . trustworthy lesson do they furnish, in 
 reference to the grace and the mercy of God, from 
 which alone the slightest ray of hope shines on the 
 benighted, wretched, undone heart of the dying sin- 
 ner ? Alas ! the oracles of nature are dumb in response 
 to the most pressing demands of the human soul. We 
 ask them for knowledge as to the gracious willingness 
 of God to pardon and accept the sinner, and they 
 answer — not a word. The way to the solution of the 
 tremendous difficulty lies not through nature. "There 
 is a path which no fowl knoweth, and which the vul- 
 ture's eye hath not seen : the lion's whelps have not 
 trodden it, nor the fierce lions passed by it." No labor- 
 ious search, no human alchymy, can discover to us this 
 secret of secrets. "The depth saith, it is not in me ; and 
 the sea saith, it is not with me. Destruction and death 
 say, we have heard the fame thereof with our ears. 
 God understandeth the way thereof, and He knoweth 
 the place thereof, and unto man He said. Behold, the 
 fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from 
 evil is understanding." 
 
Girardeau 201 
 
 Let it be remembered, moreover, that the elements 
 of nature are not unfrequently made the ministers of 
 destruction to man. The sun, which is at one time the 
 cause of life, is, at another, the occasion of death; the 
 moon blights the eye of the sleeper with its silvery 
 beam ; the stars which guide the feet of the benighted 
 wayfarer become obscured with clouds, and mock his 
 wanderings; the ocean, which bears the commerce of 
 man on its smooth bosom is lashed by tempests into 
 wrath, and swallows up his hoarded treasures and the 
 dearest objects of his love; the winds, which now 
 breathe with the softness of the zephyr at summer even- 
 tide, anon rise into fury and sweep the earth with the 
 besom of destruction ; the ground, which brings forth 
 fruit, is cursed with thorns and thistles; and the 
 plants, which attract the eye by the delicate beauty 
 of their structure, may conceal the deadl}' poison of 
 the hemlock and the nightshade. If external nature 
 afford us am^ definite hint in regard to a single moral 
 perfection of God, that attribute would appear to be 
 His retributive justice, which employs natural agencies 
 to execute its sentences; and the inference would seem 
 to be reasonable, that the God who can use the min- 
 istries of nature for the destruction of man, may not 
 be willing to manifest the quality of mercy in the 
 pardon and salvation of the sinner. 
 
 We may, how^ever, be pointed to the moral nature 
 of man, as that which reflects, to some extent at least, 
 the moral perfections of God. I am not unwilling to 
 admit that were it not for our moral constitution, we 
 might be unable even to conceive of those moral attri- 
 butes of God to which they may bear some distant 
 resemblance. But the question is, whether from this 
 source we can derive any satisfactory information in 
 
202 Sermons 
 
 reference to the mercy of God, from which alone the 
 hope of a sinner can arise. Now, conscience condemn- 
 ing what is wrong, and the sense of justice sanctioning, 
 sometimes against our strongest affections, the punish- 
 ment of evil-doers, shadow forth the existence in the 
 divine nature of the great principle of distributive 
 justice; and as that principle in God must be infinitely 
 perfect and uncompromising, our own moral nature 
 would lead us to infer, on the supposition of guilt in 
 a subject of the divine government, the hopeless estate 
 of the offender. It has been contended, however, that 
 the disposition on the part of a human parent to for- 
 give the offence of his child, upon condition of repent- 
 ance, would lead us to conclude that God would not be 
 unwilling, under like circumstances, to pardon the 
 returning sinner. I will not now advert to the impos- 
 sibility of adequate repentance on the part of the sin- 
 ner, though that might, without difficulty, be proved. 
 Reflection will convince us that the pretended analogy, 
 in the case which has been mentioned, is a deceptive 
 one, and that the inference drawn from it is hasty and 
 inconclusive. There is an infinite difference between 
 the parties who are offended. In the one case we have 
 a human being, pervaded by sin and encompassed with 
 infirmity, who, it might be supposed, would be induced 
 by the consciousness of his ow^n frailty to extend indul- 
 gence to another; in the other case we have a Divine 
 Being, characterized by spotless holiness and uncom- 
 promising justice, upholding the integrity of His own 
 government and conserving the interests of the uni- 
 verse. The offence, too, in one instance, is immensely 
 diverse from the offence in the other. But aside from 
 these considerations, an extreme, though supposable 
 case, will entirelv subvert the analogy. It is not diffi- 
 
Girardeau 203 
 
 cult to conceive of the commission of certain aggra- 
 vated crimes by the child against a human parent 
 which would justly doom him to perpetual exclusion 
 from parental regard, and forever preclude the hope of 
 reconciliation. Such a case would furnish a fairer 
 analogy by which to judge the relation of a sinner to a 
 being of infinite holiness and justice. It deserves, fur- 
 ther, to be seriously considered, whether the very first 
 act of sin does not necessarily destroy the possibility of 
 the existence of the parental and filial relation between 
 God and the sinner, and leave the latter in the simple 
 condition of a creature — a fallen and condemned crea- 
 ture — until adopted into the fa'mily of God through the 
 intervention of the principle of mediation in the person 
 of Him who is the only begotten Son of God. If this 
 view be correct, then the very ground of the analogy 
 is swept away. On the whole, we are driven to the 
 conclusion "that nature imparts no definite information 
 in regard to those attributes of God w^iich contemplate 
 the salvation of a sinner. 
 
 Shall we, then, appeal to Providence for light on this 
 momentous subject? Here we are met at the very 
 threshold by difficulties of so formidable a character 
 that it is unnecessary to dwell, except very briefly, on 
 this point. Even on the supposition that the principle 
 of grace pervades and influences the scheme of Provi- 
 dence, it is, confessedly, a very difficult matter rightly 
 to interpret the lessons it imparts. There is an 
 apparent inequality in the distribution of blessings and 
 chastisements, so great as at times to confuse the judg- 
 ment, and perplex the faith of the most pious and 
 exemplary servants of God. Job, the venerable 
 patriarch, of whom God Himself bore witness that 
 he was perfect and upright, was, in one gigantic affile- 
 
204 Sermons 
 
 tion, stripped of his possessions, bereaved of his chil- 
 dren, and driven, under the violence of a loathsome 
 disease, to sit in the dust, to cover his head with ashes, 
 and to scrape his body with a potsherd; nothing, 
 apparently, being left him in his well-nigh exhaustive 
 desolation but friends who misinterpreted Providence 
 in his case, and a wife who counseled him to die with 
 blasphemy on his lips. Aside from the instructions of 
 the Gospel, what sinner may infer, from the dealings 
 of Divine Providence, a disposition on the part of God 
 to pardon his guilt and receive him to favor? He 
 dwells in the land of the curse, and evils in a thousand 
 forms attest the existence, and avouch the scope, of the 
 law of retribution. Famine, war, pestilence, and death, 
 proclaim themselves the ministers of distributive jus- 
 tice. There is no escape from the conclusion, uttered as 
 with trumpet tongues on everj^ side, that God will 
 punish the guilty. It is true, that even to the wicked 
 "He leaves not Himself without witness in that He 
 does good and gives them rain from heaven and fruit- 
 ful seasons, filling their hearts with food and gladness." 
 But these providential dealings appear to be tokens of 
 the beneficence of God exercised only for a season even 
 towards incorrigible offenders, as a testimony against 
 them, leaving them without excuse, rather than proofs 
 of His merciful disposition to pardon the guilty with- 
 out reparation to His justice. Nothing can be deter- 
 mined from Providential blessings which are common 
 to the just and the unjust, and indicate no discrimina- 
 tion betwixt them. No, my brethren, the providence of 
 God, apart from the Gospel, furnishes no illustration 
 of those adorable perfections of the divine nature 
 which are conspicuously magnified in the salvation of 
 sinners. Its native language is not that of grace and 
 
Girardeau 205 
 
 mercy. When it speaks to us of them it borrows its 
 dialect from the Gospel. 
 
 Shall we, then, look to the law? Let us take our 
 place with the Israelites, as, in response to the divine 
 summons, they assembled at the base of Mount Sinai. 
 The preparations for meeting God, and receiving His 
 law, are stringent and awful. On the appointed day 
 the trumpet peals forth from the mountain on the 
 startled ear of the congregation, and waxing louder 
 and louder shakes the camp with terror. Thick clouds 
 and impenetrable darkness enshroud the seat of the 
 august Lawgiver, while breaking forth from them, 
 quick, keen flashes of lightning and tremendous thun- 
 derings strike horror into the very heart of the people. 
 The mountain quakes to its centre, and hark ! there 
 issues from the darkness, smoke and flame, that awful 
 "voice of words, which voice they that heard entreated 
 that the word should not be spoken to them any more." 
 The congregation shrinks away appalled. They had 
 been confronted with that law which reflects with daz- 
 zling lustre the insufferable purity and the inexorable 
 justice of God. Do or die is the only alternative it 
 presents. "Cursed is every one that continueth not in 
 all things that are w^ritten in the book of the law to 
 do them." That scene is now not seldom re-enacted in 
 the sinner's case, when conscience, waking up in near 
 view of death and the last judgTaent, affirms the sen- 
 tence of the law, presses in its terrible sanctions upon 
 the impenitent soul, and binds the sinner over to ever- 
 lasting despair. The law utters not one syllable of 
 grace or mercy. Its office is to convince the sinner of 
 guilt, to condemn him for his sins, and to shut him up, 
 either to despair, or to the acceptance of a vicarious 
 righteousness, which God may be pleased in mercy to 
 
206 Sermons 
 
 provide. That it affords light in regard to some of the 
 attributes of God is true, but it is such light as shines 
 upon the criminal who is sentenced to be burned to 
 death, from the midst of the fire which consumes him. 
 It is evident, my brethren, that not the frame of 
 nature, nor the scheme of Providence, nor the utterances 
 of the divine law, nor all of them combined, considered 
 merely in themselves, can represent to the sinner the 
 glory of the blessed God so as to elicit his gratitude 
 for saving grace, and call forth his thanksgivings for 
 redeeming love. It is reserved for the Gospel, and for 
 it alone, to reflect those glorious properties of the 
 divine nature which exhibit God in an aspect of 
 infinite mercy towards the guilty and the lost. With 
 what beauty and force does the Psalmist describe the 
 difference between the teachings of nature and Provi- 
 dence on the one hand, and of the Gospel on the other, 
 touching the perfections of God in their relation to 
 the spiritual interests of man ! "The heavens declare 
 the glory of God, and the firmament sheweth His 
 handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night 
 unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech 
 nor language where their voice is not heard. Their line 
 is gone out through all the earth, and their words to 
 the end of the world. In them hath He set a taber- 
 nacle for the sun, which is as a bridegroom coming out 
 of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run 
 a race. His going forth is from the end of the heaven, 
 and his circuit unto the ends of it, and there is nothing 
 hid from the heat thereof." Such are the lessons which 
 nature imparts. The power, wisdom, and majesty of 
 God the Creator and Providential Ruler, are magnifi- 
 cently proclaimed ; but not a word is uttered in regard 
 to the grace, the love, the mercy of God the Savior. 
 
Girardeau 207 
 
 But the Psalmist continues in another strain: "The 
 law of the Lord" — and by the law, I conceive, he means 
 the great principles, both legal and gracious, which are 
 embodied in the Gospel — "the law of the Lord is per- 
 fect, converting the soul; the testimonj^ of the Lord 
 is sure, making wise the simple; the statutes of the 
 Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment 
 of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes ; the fear of 
 the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the judgments of 
 the Lord are true and righteous altogether.'' 
 
 Most clearly, too, does the apostle contrast the terrific 
 deliverances of the law with the peace-speaking pro- 
 visions of the Gospel, in a passage as remarkable for its 
 eloquence and sublimity as for the consolatory and 
 elevating instructions it conveys: — "For ye are not 
 come unto the mount that might be touched, and that 
 burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and 
 tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of 
 words, wdiich voice they that heard entreated that the 
 word should not be spoken to them any more (for they 
 could not endure that which was commanded, and if 
 so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be 
 stoned or thrust through with a dart; and so terrible 
 was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and 
 quake). But ye are come unto Mount Zion, and unto 
 the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and 
 to an innumerable company of angels, to the general 
 assembly and church of the first-born which are writ- 
 ten in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the 
 spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the 
 mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of 
 sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of 
 Abel." 
 
208 Sermons 
 
 III. I TTOuld further remark, that the Gospel is the 
 representative of the glory of God, as it reveals all the 
 attributes of the divine nature harmonized in the per- 
 son and work of the glorious Redeemer. The glory of 
 God is the collective result of all His perfections meet- 
 ing in unison in His own most blessed nature, and 
 shining forth in perfect harmony in the fulness of their 
 manifestation to His intelligent creatures. If it be 
 asked, where this effulgent glory is the most conspic- 
 uously and illustriously displayed, I answer — in the 
 wonderful person and atoning work of the incarnate 
 Savior of sinners. "For God, who commanded the light 
 to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to 
 give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God 
 in the face of Jesus Christ." There is no attribute of 
 the divine character of which we have any knowledge 
 from nature, from Providence, from the law, or from 
 the Scriptures themselves, which is not gloriously mag- 
 nified by the great Mediator; but above all do the 
 redeeming grace and mercy of God, which are no where 
 else displayed, shine in the face of Jesus Christ. The 
 plan of redemption has its foundation in the mercy of 
 God. Sinners might have been left eternally to perish 
 and divine justice would have been glorified in their 
 destruction. But God, having, in infinite mercy, de- 
 termined to save them, there were formidable diffi- 
 culties opposing the fulfilment of that purpose., grow- 
 ing out of the insulted perfections of His nature aud 
 the claims of His violated law. It was in meeting and 
 removing these difficulties, that the eternal Son of God 
 at once magnified the holiness, the justice, and the 
 veracity of God, and secured the end which was con- 
 templated by free and unmerited mercy. Let us briefly 
 consider the means by which this result was achieved. 
 
Girardeau 209 
 
 If wisdom, in its loftiest exercise, be the adaptation 
 of the best means to the acquisition of the most diflficult, 
 and, at the same time, the noblest ends, then is this 
 attribute of the divine nature most signally illustrated 
 in the mysterious constitution of the person of Christ. 
 Look at the exigencies which must be met, and the 
 apparently opposite qualifications which must concur 
 to the accomplishment of the end which was proposed : 
 He who should undertake to be the mediator must have 
 a human nature, that he might die, and a divine 
 nature, that he might be sustained in existence while 
 enduring the tremendous pressure of the sentence of 
 the law. He must represent the perfections of God and 
 the interests of sinners — uphold the authority of the 
 divine government, and secui-e the salvation of those 
 who had outraged it; he must, therefore, be allied by 
 nature, on the one side, to God and on the other to the 
 miserable race of rebels. He must, antecedently to 
 vmdertalring the mediatorial work, be above law, by the 
 conditions of His being, and he must, subsequently, be 
 under the law, that He might render a vicarious obe- 
 dience which is capable of being transferred to the 
 persons of sinners. And as the love and gratitude of 
 those for whom an atoning sacrifice might be offered 
 would inevitably be paid to him who should render it, 
 it was necessary that he should be a person of the god- 
 head, so that God, who demanded the punisliment of 
 the substitute, might receive the adoration, homage, 
 and love, which the substitute himself would acquire. 
 All these conditions, as well as others that might be 
 mentioned, incongruous and self-contradictory as they 
 may appear, are met by that arrangement of consum- 
 mate wisdom bj^ which, into connection with the divine 
 person of the Savior, a human nature was assumed. 
 
210 Sermons 
 
 No delicately constructed organisms, no nicely balanced 
 adaptations of nature or of Providence, can sustain any 
 comparison to this wonderful adjustment of the per- 
 sonal constitution of the Redeemer to the stupendous 
 Avork which He had undertaken to perform. 
 
 Behold, horeover, how the divine holiness shines in 
 the person of Christ. Perfectly fulfilling every require- 
 ment of the law in His life, adorned by every grace and 
 virtue, and characterized by stainless purity, He en- 
 ables us, more clearly than would otherwise be possible, 
 to realize the nature of the divine holiness as it met a 
 palpable and concrete manifestation in His person and 
 character. He thus not only satisfied the demands of 
 the divine holiness in order to the salvation of sinners, 
 but, as far as was possible through the medium of 
 human nature, afforded a perfect exemplification of 
 that attribute, particularly in those gentler and lovelier 
 aspects of it which are not apt to strike us as reflected 
 by the law. 
 
 The divine justice, too, is more abundantly glorified 
 in the person and work of Christ than by the judgments 
 of Providence or the retributions of the law. The per- 
 son who obeyed the divine law, by fulfilling its pre- 
 ceptive requirements, and by enduring its awful 
 penalty, was characterized by infinite dignity, and so 
 more gloriously honored and magnified it than could 
 have been done had the whole race of sinners been 
 offered up an eternal holocaust to the insulted justice 
 of God. The law is satisfied, justice is appeased, and 
 the divine veracity no more interposes itself between 
 the sinner and the favor of God, for the sentence, "the 
 soul that sinneth it shall die,*' has been \drtually ful- 
 filled in the person of "the Lamb of God that taketh 
 away the sin of the world." 
 
Girardeau 211 
 
 But, brethren, what low and inadequate conceptions 
 have we of that glory of the love and mercy of God 
 which so transcendently shines in the face of the suffer- 
 ing and dying Savior! The record of the Gospel is, 
 that "God so loved the world that He gave His only- 
 begotton Son that whosoever believeth in Him should 
 not perish but have everlasting life." And why- did 
 God so love us? Violators of His law, abusers of His 
 goodness, coming short of His glory in all things, 
 trampling under foot His kindly and parental rule, 
 filled with hostility to His government and pervaded 
 by enmity to His nature, — why did God so love us? 
 "For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet, 
 peradventure, for a good man some would even dare 
 to die; but God commendeth His love toward us in 
 that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us/' 
 Why was it that He w^ho was in the form of God, and 
 thought it not robbery to be equal with God, made 
 Himself of no reputation — stripped Himself of that 
 fame which was rehearsed by cherubim and seraphim, 
 sounded through flaming worlds of light, and cele- 
 brated in rapturous strains in the worship of all pure 
 and intelligent existences? Why, when He had thus 
 divested Himself of the glory which He had with the 
 Father before the world was, did He stoop so low as 
 to take upon Him the form of a servant, and subject 
 Himself to the law which He Himself had adminis- 
 tered in incomparable majesty? Why, when He had 
 thus bowed His neck to assume the yoke of His own 
 law, did He still pass down the descending scale of this 
 wondrous humiliation, and being made in the likeness 
 of men, join Himself to the "accursed company" of 
 hell-deserving sinners? Why, when found in fashion 
 as a man, went He yet farther down into the abysses of 
 
212 Sermons 
 
 this surpassing shame, and consent to be esteemed "a 
 worm and no man" in the eyes of the vilest of the sons 
 of men? And why did He even then humble Himself 
 and become obedient unto death, even the death of the 
 cross? Why? "Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ who, though He was rich, yet for our sakes 
 became poor, that we through His poverty might be- 
 come rich." In that life of Jesus of Nazareth, which 
 designated Him "a man of sorrows, and acquainted 
 with grief"— in His bitter conflict in the wilderness — 
 in His intolerable agony on that dark and doleful night 
 in Gethsemane — in the buffeting and scourging and 
 spitting which, with wanton prodigality, were lavished 
 on Him at Pilate's bar — in His condemnation by the 
 supreme authorities of His own visible church — in 
 the derision of foes, the desertion of friends, and His 
 abandonment by His Father, read the love, the grace, 
 the mercy of God to the dying children of men. Oh, 
 my brethren, what a wonderful revelation of all the 
 glorious perfections of God is made in the cross of 
 Jesus Christ ! Wisdom, holiness, justice, truth, mercy, 
 and grace, beam with blended and concentrated light 
 in that face of the crucified Redeemer which was 
 marred with human spittle, and reddened with human 
 gore. Mercy, which, with divinest eloquence, had 
 pleaded the cause of the guilty, and truth, which had 
 thundered in opposition to the voice of mercy, "the 
 soul that sinneth it shall die" — mercy and truth have 
 met. Righteousness, which had raised the flames of 
 eternal justice in the face of the apj)roaching sinner, 
 and peace, which allays the fierceness of those flames 
 with atoning blood, righteousness and peace have 
 kissed each other at the cross of the dying Savior. 
 Matchless Redeemer ! Brightness of the Father's glory 
 
Girardeau 213 
 
 and compassionate friend of undone sinners ! We 
 worship Thee ! we bless Thee ! we laud and magnify 
 Thy name ! Let all the ministries of nature praise His 
 name ; let the winds whisper it ; let the seas thunder it 
 forth ; let sun, moon, and stars proclaim it as they roll 
 on in their everlasting harmonies ! Bless Him, "ye His 
 angels that excel in strength, that do His command- 
 ments, hearkening unto the voice of His word!" And 
 come, fellow-sinners, let us bring hither our willing 
 trophies, for He redeems our souls from sin and death 
 and hell. Blessed Lord Jesus, had we gifts of gold, 
 frankincense and myrrh, we would lay them at Thy 
 feet; had we honors we would heap them up before 
 Thee ; and, as we have poor, worthless hearts, we would 
 offer them to Thee, and dedicate them forever to Thy 
 service ! 
 
 IV. I would briefly remark, furthermore, that the 
 glory of God will be everlastingly displayed in the sal- 
 vation of a ransomed church, accomplished through the 
 instrumentality of the Gospel. Even in the first crea- 
 tion, the grandest object in the new-formed world was 
 man, made as he was in the image of God, and reflect- 
 ing, in some degree, the glorious perfections of his 
 maker. Distinguished by knowledge, righteousness, 
 and holiness, his soul mirrored forth those attributes 
 in the divine nature of which these were a faint but 
 noble transcript. But when the likeness of God was 
 effaced by sin, the restoration of its lost lineaments 
 involved not only the renewal of that image in man 
 which reflects the divine perfections, but supposed the 
 exercise of infinite grace and mercy in the redemption 
 and recovery of the sinner. It is a greater and sublimer 
 work to reproduce the divine image in a lost and pol- 
 luted soul than at first it was to stamp it on a sinless 
 
214 Ser3ions 
 
 nature; and the skill, the wisdom, and the power of 
 God, which are displayed in its restoration, are only 
 exceeded in glory by the splendid lustre of that redeem- 
 ing mercy which prompted their exercise, and harmon- 
 ized their operations with the claims of offended justice 
 and unbending truth. To have created a living, intel- 
 ligent being out of nothing was an effect of almighty 
 power which staggers reason by its incomprehensible- 
 ness, and requires the assent of a faith which relies on 
 the simple testimony of God to the fact of its produc- 
 tion. But to evoke a living and holy soul from one 
 already dead in sin, and contrary to its inherent ten- 
 dency to perpetual corruption and vice, to infuse into 
 it the vigor of an eternal life, to cause it to advance in 
 every grace, and, in its complete restoration, to furnish 
 a perfect exemplification of the Godlike principles of 
 truth, justice, and charity, — this is the result not merely 
 of inconceivable power, but of unutterable mercy and 
 surpassing love. A redeemed and regenerated soul is 
 the noblest work of God. The simple fact of its pro- 
 duction more clearly illustrates the divine wisdom, 
 power and goodness, than the grand mechanism of the 
 external world, and the sublime procedures of natural 
 Providence; while the graces implanted by the Spirit 
 in its nature image forth the beneficent perfections of 
 God more gloriously than the virtues which adorned 
 the innocent soul of Adam, or shine in the unsinning 
 spirit of an angel. These results are accomplished by 
 the instrumentality of that Gospel which the apostle 
 justly regards as affording the most complete represen- 
 tation of the glory of the blessed God. We are able now 
 to perceive them only very inadequately. But the day is 
 coming when they will be fully developed — a day when 
 the whole number of the redeemed, gathered out of 
 
Girardeau 215 
 
 every kindred, tribe and tongue of earth, washed from 
 sin in the blood of the Lamb, and made perfect in the 
 beauty of holiness, shall assemble around the person 
 of their enthroned and glorified Lord. Each ransomed 
 saint in that immense multitude, like a polished mirror, 
 shall perfectly reflect the image of his glorious Head, 
 and the Savior shall look upon the purified souls before 
 Him and be satisfied. That joy shall fill His heart for 
 which He underwent the shame of humiliation, the 
 temptations of the wilderness, and the agonies of Cal- 
 vary. Nor will a single heart in that myriad throng- 
 be unmoved, nor a single tongue be silent. A saved 
 church will forever show forth the glory of her God as 
 it shall be everlastingly unfolded in the fruits of 
 redemption. The hymn of justice and the anthem of 
 grace will blend in the great chorus of salvation — the 
 song of Moses and the Lamb ; and all the glorious per- 
 fections of the Triune God — ^Father, Son and Holy 
 Ghost, will be rapturously and eternally celebrated by 
 the united choir of angels and ransomed sinners. 
 
 It only remains, in the last place, to observe — and the 
 remark may not inappropriately constitute the appli- 
 cation of this discourse — that the responsibility of 
 preaching the Gospel rests upon sinful men. The 
 aspostle declares that the glorious Gospel of the blessed 
 God was committed to his trust. It would ap])ear to be 
 obvious that there is eminent fitness and profoundest 
 wisdom in the divine arrangement by which men rather 
 than angels are commissioned to preach the unsearch- 
 able riches of Christ. It might have pleased God to 
 have assigned this of&ce to the latter; and doubtless 
 they would have proclaimed the wonderful condescen- 
 sion and the amazing mercy of God to sinners with 
 hearts of seraphic love and tongues of living fire. But 
 
216 Sermons 
 
 not conscious themselves, by personal experience, of the 
 evil and misery of sin, how could they sympathize with 
 the fallen state of man? It is for a sinner who has 
 himself been "snatched as a brand from the burning" 
 to appreciate the difficulties, the temptations, the wants 
 of sinners: with a patience which never tires, and a 
 charity which "hopeth all things," to bear with their 
 obstinate indifference and persistent unbelief. It is 
 precisely this consideration which sustained and ani- 
 mated the great preacher to the Gentiles when tempted 
 to sink under the weight of his work, and to faint under 
 the discouragements to which in its prosecution he was 
 ceaselessly exposed. "Seeing then we have this min- 
 istry, as we have received mercy we faint not." Yes, 
 brethren, this is the resistless argument which, spring- 
 ing from the bosom of our own experience, forbids 
 despair in the presentation of the claims of the Gospel 
 upon our dying fellowmen. We speak that we do 
 know when we declare the wondrous grace and mercy 
 of God in Christ. Have we not in time past resisted 
 the love of Jesus, refused to believe in His name, and 
 turned a deaf ear alike to the moving appeals and the 
 tremendous threatenings of the Gospel? How can we 
 despond ? Wliat right have we to faint ? No, we must 
 preach the mercy of God, the love of Christ, the hope 
 of salvation, to our unbelieving fellow-sinners, until 
 either they or we are laid in the grave, and pass from 
 the sweet influences of grace to the changeless destinies 
 of eternity. He who has had no experimental knowl- 
 edge of the discipline of the law, of the anguish of the 
 spiritual conflict, and of the rest of the conscience in 
 Christ, may yield to discouragement, and faint under 
 a task with which he never had any true and heart- 
 felt sympathy ; and woe ! woe ! woe ! to that man who, 
 
Girardeau 217 
 
 without such experience, impelled by ambition, or a 
 mere intellectual relish for the sublime truths of 
 redemption, or by any other carnal motive, ventures to 
 invade the sacred precincts of the pulpit, to stand 
 between the living and the dead, and to assume the 
 awful responsibility involved in preaching the glorious 
 Gospel of the blessed God to the deathless souls of men. 
 But they who have felt that God, who commanded the 
 light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in their 
 hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory 
 of God in the face of Jesus Christ, may well be content 
 to bear all discouragement, and endure all trials, in 
 accomplishing their high vocation, and, with the 
 apostle, exclaim : "We are troubled on every side, yet 
 not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; 
 persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not de- 
 stroyed. . . . We having the same spirit of faith 
 according as it is written, I believed and therefore 
 have I spoken; we also believe and therefore speak." 
 
 We see, too, in the light of this subject, what it is that 
 the preachers of the Gospel are commissioned to pro- 
 claim. It is not the facts of nature, the speculations of 
 philosophy, or the theories of science, physical or polit- 
 ical, it is the glorious Gospel of the blessed God that is 
 committed to their trust. I do not mean to convey the 
 impression that science and philosophy constitute a 
 tree of knowledge the fruit of which is forbidden to 
 those who preach the Gospel of Christ. But these are 
 not the Gospel. A dying Savior, a risen Savior, an 
 exalted and immortal Savior, — repentance towards God 
 and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, these are the themes 
 which are to be pressed upon the attention of sinful 
 men, in view of their solemn relations to God and to 
 the eternal world. And oh, my brethren, what respon- 
 
218 Sermons 
 
 sibilities thicken upon those who preach this Gospel! 
 Standing between God and the sinner, between the 
 Cross of Calvary and the Judgment bar, between the 
 glories of heaven and the glooms of hell, dealing on the 
 one side with the perfections of God, and on the other 
 with the immortal destinies of men, who of them is 
 sufficient for these things? How shall they secure the 
 glory of Him who has commissioned them to preach, 
 and the eternal welfare of those to whom they min- 
 ister ? Erelong preachers and people shall stand before 
 that bar at which all human ties and human duties will 
 be subjected to a rigid and impartial scrutiny ; and of 
 all the solemn relations which will there be reviewed, 
 none will appear to be so big with momentous issues, 
 springing into light amidst the splendors and terrors 
 of that day, as that which has existed between a 
 preacher of the Gospel and immortal souls. The com- 
 plexion of eternity must largely depend upon the man- 
 ner in which the Gospel has been proclaimed and 
 received. Were it not that he who has been called of 
 God to preach, is constrained to exclaim, with Paul, 
 "necessity is laid upon me: yea, woe is unto me, if I 
 preach not the Gospel," would it be any marvel that, 
 conscious of his weakness and short-comings, he should 
 sometimes be tempted to shrink back in dismay from 
 the gigantic work, and even pray that he may be 
 released from farther incurring its all but intolerable 
 responsibilities ? 
 
 But if these responsibilities are confessedly not less 
 than awful, the reward which, through grace, will be 
 conferred on the faithful preacher of the Cross will be 
 proportionately great. To be called of God to minister 
 in the Gospel of His Son, is to be possessed of an honor 
 which he who enjoys it may well prefer to the thrones 
 
Girardeau 219 
 
 and diadems of earth. To win one immortal spirit to 
 Christ is to perform an office with which no worldly 
 labor can compare, and to attain an end which richly 
 compensates a weary life-time of toil. It will afford 
 ineffable satisfaction to be conscious of having been 
 the instrument of adding a single crown- jewel to the 
 treasures of a Savior once crucified, now despised, but 
 destined to reign King of kings and Lord of lords. To 
 be impelled to labor by the love of sinners is to partake 
 of the spirit of Jesus, to undergo in this work discour- 
 agement, self-denial and pain, is to share the sufferings 
 of Jesus, and to prosecute it unto the end through 
 watchings, fastings, temptations, and tears, will be to 
 participate in the joy of Jesus and reign with Him for- 
 evermore. Brethren, the day in which we are privi- 
 leged to labor for our blessed Master, with some of 
 us at least, is sensibly passing away. "The night 
 cometh when no man can work." Happy, thrice happy 
 will he be who, standing on the extreme verge of life, 
 and looking back upon his mortal history, can feel that 
 its record of sins and short-comings in the ministry is 
 expunged in the blood of atonement, and looking for- 
 ward to the future, opening upon him with the glories 
 of a celestial morning, can exclaim with the dying 
 apostle, — "I am now ready to be offered, and the time 
 of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, 
 I have finished my course, I have kept the faith : hence- 
 forth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness 
 which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at 
 that day!" 
 
220 Serimons 
 
 THE PROSPERITY AND EFFICIENCY 
 OF A CHURCH 
 
 Ephesians iv, 15, 16 : "5w^ speaking the truth in love, 
 may grow up into Him in all things, which is the Head, 
 even Christ: from whoin the whole body fitly pined 
 together and compacted hy that which every joint 
 supplieth, according to the effectual working in the 
 measure of every part, maketh increase of the hody unto 
 the edifying of itself in love^ 
 
 In the previous part of this chapter the apostle fur- 
 nishes an exposition of the unity of the church and of 
 the different offices which for her edification and per- 
 fection had been conferred upon her by the ascended 
 Savior. In the text, he sets forth the nature of her 
 relation to Christ, of her own organic constitution, and 
 of the process by which her vital energy is communi- 
 cated and increased. In introducing, my brethren, on 
 this occasion some reflections growing out of the past 
 history of this congregation, your attention is directed 
 to the question, — How may the prosperity and effi- 
 ciency of a church be secured? — a sufficiently full and 
 comprehensive answer to which inquiry is afforded in 
 the words of the text. 
 
 Note. — To this sermon, preached in 1860, is appended the follow- 
 ing note : "Preached in the Second Presbyterian Church, Charleston, 
 at the request of the pastor, the Rev. Dr. Smyth, at the expiration 
 of the fiftieth year of the existence of the church. It was expected 
 that on that occasion a series of discourses would be preached by 
 those who had formerly been connected with the church, and that 
 so an aggregate of personal reminiscences would be attained. The 
 coming on of the war prevented the arrangement from being fully 
 carried out. This justifies the amount of personal allusion in the 
 concluding part of the sermon." 
 
Girardeau 221 
 
 I. The first point which claims our notice is the fact 
 asserted by the apostle that the church as the body of 
 Christ derives all her life and vigor from Him as her 
 head. 
 
 The Scriptures represent, by means of various 
 striking analogies, falling within the scope of ordin- 
 ary observation, the intimate relation which subsists 
 between Christ and His church. At one time this 
 union is compared to that between the branch and 
 its parent stem. "I am the vine,'- said the Savior, 
 in His valedictory discourse to His disciples, "ye are 
 the branches. Abide in me, and I in you. As the 
 branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in 
 the vine; no more can ye except ye abide in me.'' 
 As long as the branch is united to the vine the vital 
 juices which constitute the life and vigor of the parent 
 stock are by natural processes conveyed to it. Its life 
 depends on its connection with the vine. Destroy this 
 union, sunder the branch from the vine, and it instantly 
 begins to wither and die. In like manner the church, 
 sustaining an intimate union to Christ, derives from 
 Him those vital influences without which she could not 
 for a moment exist in her spiritual integrity and power. 
 
 At another time this union between the Sa\dor and 
 His church is likened to that which exists between a 
 husband and his wife, who, upon the constitution of the 
 matrimonial bond, by the ordinance of God, cease to be 
 twain and become one flesh : and in this point of view 
 marriage rises above the ordinary relations of life and 
 becomes a significant type of the union which exists 
 between Christ and His elect and ransomed bride. 
 "For this cause," says I*aul in this same epistle, "shall 
 a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined 
 unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is 
 
222 Sermons 
 
 a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and 
 the church." But perhaps the most forcible and 
 instructive analogy which is employed to describe this 
 relation is that which is derived from the connection 
 between the human body and its head. This is the 
 illustration furnished in the text, and very strikingly 
 expressed in a parallel passage which occurs in the 
 Epistle to the Colossians, — "and not holding the head 
 from which all the body by joints and bands having 
 nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth 
 with the increase of God." In consequence of the con- 
 nection existing between them, the vital influence 
 descending from the head is communicated to the body, 
 pervades every member and secures the regular and 
 healthful discharge of all the bodily functions. De- 
 stroy this union and the body at once becomes paralyzed 
 and ceases to perform its offices. It is no longer a living 
 thing — it is a corpse. This beautifully illustrates the 
 relation between Christ and the church. He is the 
 head, of which she is the mystical but real body. A 
 living influence, an operative energy flows down from 
 Him to the church, diffuses itself through her whole 
 being, animates all her members, and enables her to 
 accomplish all those salutary ministries for which her 
 very existence was designed. If this vital union exists 
 in its native force, the church is alive and vigorous. 
 If not, she dies. She may be adorned with tlie garni- 
 ture and beauty of imposing rites, ceremonies and 
 sacraments, but they are the ornaments which deck the 
 corpse for the grave. 
 
 If now the question be raised in regard to the 
 nature of that living influence which is dispensed from 
 Christ as the head of the church as his body, the 
 answer is plain. The Scriptures uniformly represent 
 
Girardeau 223 
 
 the life of the church to be the Holy Spirit. "If any 
 man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of His." 
 
 How the Spirit is the life of Christ, by virtue of 
 whom Christ is our life, it is not now necessary to 
 inquire. This we know, that in Christ "dwelleth all 
 the fulness of the Godhead bodily," and that, therefore, 
 in Him the fulness of the Spirit dwells. As mediator, 
 the Spirit of the Lord God was upon Him; to Him 
 the Spirit was not given by measure; in the day of 
 His solemn induction by baptism into His mediatorial 
 offices, the Spirit descended and rested on Him, and we 
 have reason to believe that by the indwelling influence 
 of the Holy Ghost He was qualified for the accomplish- 
 ment of that glorious mission upon which He came 
 as the incarnate Savior into the world. The exceeding 
 greatness of that power by which Christ was raised 
 from the dead was immediately exercised by the Spirit 
 of God. The Savior having accomplished His media- 
 torial work on earth, purchased, according to the stipu- 
 lations of the everlasting covenant, the influences of 
 the Holy Spirit, and being by the right hand of God 
 exalted He sues out by His intercessions the saving 
 grace of the Spirit and dispenses it with princely 
 munificence to His body the church. The Spirit thus 
 dwelling in Christ, comes down with the commission 
 of the exalted Redeemer, endorsed, so to speak, with 
 the seal of the Father, and by His new-creating energy 
 communicates a new life — the life of Christ — to the 
 dead sinner, empowers him to exercise faith in the Son 
 of God and constitutes a vital relation between him 
 and his Savior. Then establishing His permanent 
 residence in the believer, the Spirit sanctifies him in 
 Christ Jesus, forms in him Christ the hope of glory, 
 assimilates him to the image of Christ and endures him 
 
224 Sermons 
 
 with the strength of Christ tlirough ^yhich, though 
 impotent in himself, he is enabled to "do all things." 
 The believer thus united to Christ becomes one of His 
 members. His possession of spiritual life and his 
 ability to discharge spiritual functions are derived to 
 him from Christ, his head, through the vital operation 
 of the Holy Ghost. As men enjoy natural life because 
 in God they live and move and have their being, so do 
 believers enjoy spiritual life because in Christ they live 
 and move and have their being. The Spirit of holiness 
 is the very essence of their spiritual life. 
 
 Since, then, the Spirit of Christ is the life of each 
 individual believer, it is clear that He is the life of the 
 collective societ}^ of saints. The church, however, let 
 it be observed, is not a mere community of isolated 
 units gathered by a sort of mechanical or local union 
 into an aggregated mass. It is an organic whole, per- 
 vaded and actuated by a common life which imparts 
 to it the characteristic of unity. Each of its members 
 is dependent on Christ the head, and connected by 
 the vital bond of His spirit with every other member 
 of His mystical body. The analogy of the human 
 bod}" indicated in the text is here again in point. Each 
 member has an individual life as derived from the 
 head, but not as considered separately from the body 
 as an organic whole. The life of one is the life of the 
 whole. The church is an organism the animating prin- 
 ciple of which is the Spirit of Christ. Whatever of 
 life she has, whatever of power to put forth spiritual 
 energies and to discharge spiritual functions, is derived 
 from the pervading and vitalizing influence of the 
 Holy Ghost. The church, according to the representa- 
 tion of the text, as the whole body of Christ is "fitly 
 
Girardeau 225 
 
 joined together, and compacted by that which every 
 joint supplietl>." 
 
 II. The next great point brought to our notice in the 
 text, and deserving our attention, is the fact, that there 
 are instrumentalities in the church as the body of 
 Christ, through which, as appointed channels, the vital 
 influence descending from her head is communicated 
 and diffused, in order to the full development of her 
 life and power. These instrumentalities may be dis- 
 tributed into two kinds,— first, the graces of the Spirit ; 
 secondly, the personal gifts and ministry of the officers 
 and members of the church. Considerable discussion 
 has been had, and, for aught that appears to the con- 
 trary, somewhat unnecessarily, in regard to the nature 
 of what the apostle, in the text, terms the joints, and, 
 in the twin passage in Colossians, the joints and bands, 
 through which the vital influence is communicated 
 from the head to the body, and through which the 
 unity and increase of the church is secured. It would 
 seem to be obvious that whatever divinely appointed 
 instrumentality exists in the organization of the church 
 by means of which her vital force is transmitted, her 
 unity conserved and her growth advanced, may be 
 regarded as intended in these figurative and illustrative 
 expressions, which, from their very nature, should not 
 be expressed with an excessive rigor and literalness of 
 interpretation. There can scarcely be any just reason 
 for excluding from these categories any instituted 
 means in the organism of the church by which these 
 several ends are attained. All are included which serve 
 to maintain the union and communion between the 
 body and the head, and between the several members 
 of the bodv itself. 
 
226 Sermons 
 
 Prominent among the sacred bonds which unite the 
 church to her Divine Head must be ranked those 
 eminent graces of the Spirit, faith and love. It is the 
 very office of faith instrumentally to unite to Christ. 
 Its peculiar and distinguishing efficacy is derived not 
 from any intrinsic excellence in itself, but from its 
 immediate relation to Him. It is the joint which 
 articulates the church as a body to her glorious head, 
 and through which flows down to her the supply of 
 that divine influence which vitalizes and invigorates 
 her. What is true in this respect of the individual 
 believer is equally true of the church as a whole. Faith 
 in Christ is the grand instrument through which all 
 spiritual strength and sustenance are derived. 
 
 A co-ordinate office, though dissimilar in its mode of 
 operation, is discharged by the grace of love. It binds 
 the church to Christ, her head, by the band of a holy, 
 grateful, and undying affection. Her love to Him 
 resistlessly impels her to engage with untiring devotion 
 in His service, and by leading her to contemplate with 
 unceasing admiration. His loveliness, excellency and 
 glory, enables her to "grow up into Him in all things 
 who is her Head." It is evident, therefore, that the 
 prosperity and efficiency of a church must largely 
 depend upon the fidelity with which she cultivates and 
 strengthens these bonds of union to her Savior. Im- 
 planted and sustained by the blessed Spirit who is 
 emphatically her life, they are at once the fruits of that 
 life and the means by which it is developed. 
 
 Another class of instrumentalities through which 
 the life of the church is diffused and her vigor main- 
 tained is the personal ministry of her officers and 
 members. It is not intended to convey the impression 
 that the persons of the office-bearers of the church are 
 
Girardeau 227 
 
 the necessary media of transmission through which the 
 vital influence from her Head is communicated, or that 
 their ministry, as hj the force of a charm, must always 
 convey a divine and saving energy; but that those 
 offices are conferred upon the church by her exalted 
 Head, as appointed instruments, through which He is 
 pleased to accomplish gracious and salutary results. 
 They are simply organs, but organs which He has 
 ordained, for the glory of His name and the salvation 
 of His body. Nor can the church, without manifest 
 disobedience to Him, or a detrimental course towards 
 herself, either repudiate or lightly esteem them. There 
 is the pastoral office involving the joint functions of 
 preaching and ruling, through which the word is min- 
 istered, which is at once the instrument of conversion 
 and the aliment of spiritual growth, and through which 
 government is dispensed for the benefit of the church. 
 There is the ruling office by means of which govern- 
 ment is dispensed, a watchful care exercised over the 
 interests of the flock, and a just and tender discipline 
 is administered. There is the diaconal office through 
 which provision is made and alms supplied for the sus- 
 tenance and comfort of the poor and needy members 
 of Christ. Nor ought the gifts conferred and the 
 obligations entailed upon the private members of the 
 body to be disregarded. The living influence proceed- 
 ing from the Head, according to the effectual working 
 in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the 
 body to its edification in love. To each and every 
 member, whether official or not, appropriate spheres of 
 influence are assigned, appropriate gifts communicated, 
 and appropriate obligations attached, an account for 
 which must be rendered when the Master shall come. 
 Each member has his own ministry to accomplish. 
 
228 Sermons 
 
 Those parts of the body which are directive may not 
 dispense with those that are locomotive. The head 
 may not despise the foot. Animated by a common life, 
 invigorated by a common strength, and seeking a com- 
 mon end, all the members should co-operate for the 
 edification of the body and the glory of the Head. The 
 minister, preaching the Word, administering the sacra- 
 ments, visiting the flock, exercising watch over their 
 spiritual interests; the ruling elder, in company with 
 the pastor, discharging his approi3riate offices of joint 
 rule and in his several capacity admonishing, coun- 
 selling and entreating; the deacon dispensing alms for 
 the relief of the poor, and managing the temporal 
 affairs of the church ; the private member, in his own 
 place, and subject to the limitations of his condition, 
 assisting at social meetings, engaging in prayer, speak- 
 ing the word of fraternal exhortation, aiding in the 
 instruction of the young and the ignorant, and dis- 
 charging the thousand nameless and unostentatious 
 ministries of Christian love; these all, under the in- 
 fluence of the Divine Spirit contribute to the well- 
 being of the whole. The organism is complete, not only 
 in its informing life, and its constituent elements, but 
 in the regulated and harmonious development of its 
 several activities. It is too obvious to require remark 
 that upon the faithfulness with which these instru- 
 mentalities are employed, upon the unction, devotion 
 and fidelity of her office-bearers and the unobtrusive 
 but conscientious discharge of their proper duties by 
 her i^rivate members, the prosperity and efficiency of a 
 church will, under God, to a great degree depend. 
 
 Another of those joints and bands through which 
 the increase of the church in prosperity and efficienc}^ 
 is secured, is the love which its members are bound to 
 
Girardeau 229 
 
 exercise toward one another. Every community is 
 founded partly in the grand conception of mutual 
 love. It is the very cement of society, the bond of 
 association. It is the oft-quoted observation of a great 
 writer that the voice of law is the harmony of the 
 world. This is true, if under the term law be included 
 every sort of aiRnity — the attraction which binds 
 worlds together, the affiliation of related species for 
 one another, animate and inanimate, and the great and 
 all-pervading force of affection which irresistibly 
 draws intelligent and moral beings into intercourse 
 with each other. This powerful principle of love, 
 which in the general was designed to operate through 
 the universe, is employed under special relations and 
 sanctions in that peculiar society which is organized 
 by the Spirit of God as the living body of Jesus Christ. 
 The members of it are bound together, not by a com- 
 mon natural but a common spiritual life. The tie is 
 not the domestic, not the merely social or civil one 
 which links men together in the organizations of earth. 
 It is one which immediately grows out of a common 
 relation to Christ as Redeemer and Head. The mem- 
 bers of the church are one in Christ. They love each 
 other for Christ's sake. They recognize in one another 
 the image of a glorious Savior, and thus the possession 
 of a common, though peculiar, attribute attracts them 
 powerfully to each other. It is the strongest, as it is 
 destined to be the most permanent, of all kinds of love. 
 And it is a debt which the more it is paid the more it 
 increases. 
 
 In proportion to the increase of this great principle 
 on which Christian fellowship is founded, and on 
 which all Christian offices of charity and tenderness 
 
230 Sermo:ns 
 
 depend, will be the prosperity and efficiency of a 
 church. 
 
 III. Hitherto in these remarks attention has been 
 directed to the internal relations of the church and 
 their corresponding duties. But there are also external 
 relations which she sustains, relations to the uncon- 
 verted world, conveying most solemn trusts the dis- 
 charge of which is necessary to the full develpoment 
 of her spiritual life. The love which she bears to 
 Christ, and in which she grows up in conformity to 
 Him as her Head, must lead her alike to imitate His 
 beneficent example and to seek its own exercise in 
 efforts which contemplate the salvation of the ignorant, 
 the wretched and the lost. Commissioned by her 
 Head to convey the Gospel to every creature, she can- 
 not, without impairing her own av elf are, refuse com- 
 pliance with this, His last command. IVhile disobe- 
 dience to it would cripple her energies and suppress 
 her growth, conformity to its requirements assimilates 
 her to Him, and furnishes scope for the exercise of her 
 loveliest graces and her most Christlike acts. The cul- 
 tivation of the habit of systematic benevolence as 
 opposed to spasmodic and evanescent impulses; the 
 fostering of the grace of giving, involving in its exer- 
 cise the culture of gracious tempers, the rendering of 
 acts of worship and the performance of Christian 
 duties; the offering of importunate and concerted 
 praj'er for the salvation of the destitute in regions 
 adjacent; the redemption of the heathen in benighted 
 lands, and the speedy and triumphant establishment 
 of Christ's glorious and peaceful kingdom ; the making 
 of stated collections practically to advance the sublime 
 objects for the attainment of which she prays; — these 
 are almost necessary features of a prosperous and effi- 
 
Girardeau 231 
 
 cient church. Without them there may be a church, 
 but not a church which increases in love and grows up 
 in the generous exercise of that leading grace in con- 
 formity to Him who was love incarnate. 
 
 If she be Christ's she must have Christ's spirit and 
 must love like Christ. A lost world appeals to her for 
 help. To be indifferent to that thrilling appeal, break- 
 ing upon her like the dying wail of souls, is to close her 
 ear to a call which brought Christ from heaven, to shut 
 up her bowels of compassion against an object for 
 which the heart of Jesus broke, and to withhold her 
 earthly substance from the attainment of an end which 
 her Savior gave Himself to gain. 
 
 If these remarks be correct, it follows that the pros- 
 perity and efficiency of a church chiefly depend upon 
 the degree in which she realizes her relation to Christ, 
 her head, and enjoys the quickening and sanctifying 
 influence of the Holy Ghost. No church can exist 
 without this living influence, and no church can be 
 prosperous and efficient without possessing it to at least 
 some considerable extent. The measure of her energy 
 is the degree in which the Holy Spirit lives and acts 
 within her. This is her true and inner life. Springing 
 from the very center and source of her inward being 
 it develops itself in all those fruits and graces which 
 adorn, ennoble and enrich her. Nothing, therefore, can 
 compensate a church for the absence of this vital 
 power. Numbers may crowd her gates and throng her 
 solemn feasts, incense may roll up from her altars and 
 perfume the atmosphere, and sacramental rites may 
 be dispensed with the decorous pomps of priestly min- 
 istrations; but'alas! she is barren of spiritual children, 
 the genuine graces of religion are caricatured, and her 
 fruits hang in withered clusters around her. Her life 
 
232 Sermons 
 
 is gone, her light extinguished, and her glory departed. 
 
 It is obvious, too, that all mere human machinery, all 
 ordinances and institutes of man's appointment, and all 
 unscriptural alliances with the world, must serve only 
 to encumber the church and impede the development 
 of her inner life, obscuring her perceptions of her im- 
 mediate relation to Christ and diminishing her sense 
 of implicit dependence upon the Spirit, they cannot 
 but prove disastrous to her spiritual interests. Let a 
 church, then, cultivate a living and active faith in her 
 Lord and Head, let her honor the Spirit who, descend- 
 ing from Him, communicates her life and vigor, let her 
 put forth the strength of her heaven-born charity, and 
 she cannot fail to be prosperous and efficient. She will 
 "arise and shine, her light being come, and the glory 
 of the Lord being risen upon her." 
 
 Wliile seeking the increase of her love to Christ, the 
 church will also be led to cultivate a cordial sympathy 
 and a catholic communion with all His saints. A nar- 
 row and bigoted temper equally foreign to the spirit 
 of her Head and repugnant to her own best instincts 
 must tend to cramp her energies, disfigure her beauty 
 and obscure her light. While contending earnestly 
 for the faith once delivered to the saints, it is her duty 
 as well as her policy to break through the fetters of 
 sectarian prejudice and to embrace all who love the 
 Lord Jesus Christ in the arms of a tender and heartfelt 
 affection. 
 
 So much has already been said in the course of the 
 previous observations in regard to the utility and the 
 necessity of a faithful and co-operative employment of 
 the ministries of the several officers and members of the 
 church, as parts of Christ's body, that I shall not stay 
 
Girardeau 233 
 
 to insist at length upon the practical enforcement of 
 that obligation. 
 
 Before passing, however, from the brief considera- 
 tion of this department of the subject, permit me to 
 advert to the fact that nothing can supply to a church 
 the lack of attention to the divinely-instituted means of 
 grace, the AVord, the sacraments and prayer. Neglect 
 of these must result in dwarfing her spiritual life and 
 in shearing her gifts and ministries of their legitimate 
 power. Let the church profoundly study the Word of 
 God. which is at once her constitutional charter, her 
 rule of faith, and her directory of practice. Let its 
 public ministrations be devotedly and reverently 
 received. Nor let its instructions be confined to the 
 great congregations and the days of solemn assembly, 
 but faithfully impressed upon the family, which, after 
 all, is the true, the divinely-appointed nursery of the 
 church. Let parents be indoctrinated in their respon- 
 sible and important duties, and the baptized children 
 of the church be led to appreciate their relation to the 
 covenant and their inalienable privileges and obliga- 
 tions. Let the instrumentality of the Sabbath school 
 be faithfully employed which, though holding a sub- 
 ordinate place to the family as a school of religious 
 instruction, is yet highly and beneficently useful in the 
 nurture of the children of the church; and to be 
 regarded with especial attention as affording a sphere 
 of labor for the private members of the body of Christ, 
 and as looking with a tender missionary spirit to the 
 wants of those little ones, the stray lambs, for whose 
 welfare no man cares. Nor let the church be indifferent 
 to the claims of those who, from the peculiar structure 
 of our civil society, appeal to her for religious instruc- 
 tion with arguments of resistless power and pathetic 
 
234 Sermons 
 
 force. The Southern church is now solemnly called, 
 in the j^rovidence of God, to enter yet more fully into 
 a field which she alone can occupy, and to afford to the 
 servile and dependent class of our population the salu- 
 tary instructions and the heavenly consolations of the 
 Gospel. 
 
 Devout regard to the sacraments is another impor- 
 tant means of developing the life and powers of a 
 church. Teaching the truth of the Gospel and sealing 
 the promises of the covenant by sensible signs, they are 
 eminently suited to impress alike the understanding 
 and the heart. And as they set forth more clearly, per- 
 haps, than any other ordinance the near and tender 
 union between Christ and His members, a believing 
 attendance upon them cannot fail to lead the church to 
 a more realizing sense of her dependence on her Head 
 for the spiritual influence which she needs. 
 
 Xor can the church be indifferent to the great, the all- 
 important dut}' of prayer. A faithful attention to this 
 eminent means of grace will tend to preserve her from 
 spiritual declension, to foster her communion with 
 Christ, to draw into her heart the saving grace of the 
 Holy Ghost, and to invest her with that spiritual 
 strength which she needs for the discharge of duty and 
 the endurance of- trial. While every convocation of 
 Christ's people, on stated occasions, is a meeting for 
 Avorship including prayer, it behooves her also faith- 
 fully to employ the instrumentality of the social 
 prayer-meeting, by means of which her graces will be 
 revived, her zeal stimulated, the pulse of her com- 
 munion with Christ and His members quickened, and 
 the great objects of petition pressed with special 
 urgency and importunate pleas. And as she looks out 
 with an eye of pity upon a world lying in sin and rush- 
 
Girardeau 235 
 
 ing to ruin, let her raise iinintermitting supplications 
 for the spread of the Gospel, the ingathering of the 
 elect, and the inauguration of Christ's long-expected 
 reign over the nations of a regenerated earth. 
 
 In giving these remarks, necessarily hurried, on so 
 wide a subject, a particular direction in reference to the 
 topics suggested by this occasion, I feel that you will 
 concede the privilege of suggesting a few thoughts in 
 regard to the past historj^ of this church, to one who 
 early removed by Providence from the rural scenes of 
 childhood found in this venerable sanctuary a new 
 home, and received from the hand of this churclx, as 
 from a tender mother, the bread and the water of 
 another and a holier life. Some of the earliest religious 
 impressions of him who now addresses you were de- 
 rived from this sacred desk and from him who then 
 occupied it, and who has since in the good providence 
 of God ministered in it to this auspicious day. Nor 
 can he ever, while memory has power with its magical 
 wand to summon back the past, forget the restraining 
 and hallowing influences exerted upon a youthful 
 mind by the faithful instructions of the Sabbath school 
 held in yonder room. The tender manner, the melting 
 eye, the soft, persuasive tones of the teacher addressing 
 his class in the fresh hour of the early Sabbath morn- 
 ing, it is not now difficult to recall; while the hearty 
 words, the sonorous and melodious voice, the warm, 
 impassioned and affectionate exhortations of the super- 
 intendent of other days, identify, among the clustering 
 images of that now enchanting past, the gifted and 
 eloquent Vardell. Time rolls on, and the noble form 
 gi a college classmate and friend, where every grace 
 seemed to set its seal "to give the world assurance of a 
 man," is borne in the slow, funereal train into yonder 
 
236 Sermons 
 
 door, and deposited in this aisle. The dirge-like sound 
 of the hymn : 
 
 "When blooming youth is snatched away 
 By Death's resistless hand," 
 
 loads the atmosphere with the burden of sadness, 
 solemn words of warning to the young are spoken by 
 the pastor, the affecting service is concluded, and all 
 that remained on earth of Arthur Robinson is placed 
 in its narrow house. 
 
 "Alas ! he is dead, 
 Gone to his death-bed 
 All under yon willow-tree." 
 
 There, in the shadow of this sanctuary, in the same 
 sanctified bed of rest with those who gave him birth 
 and whom this church delighted to honor, he sleeps 
 well until the awakening call of the descending Savior 
 and the thrilling peal of the archangel's trump. 
 
 Here, too, the speaker cannot fail to remember it 
 was that three of his nearest kindred w^ere brought by 
 the grace of God to feel for the first time the influence 
 of a Savior's dying love, and two of them to profess 
 publicly their faith in His adorable name; and that 
 here it has been his privilege to sit down at the com- 
 munion table with those whose hands no longer take 
 the touching memorials of that Savior's death, but 
 moulder in the silent grave. 
 
 Nor can he forget that it was at the call of the ses- 
 sion of this church he felt constrained, though not 
 without tears and pain, to leave a beloved charge, that 
 he might minister to the souls of the colored people 
 
Girardeau 237 
 
 of this fold, and to enter more largely upon a field of 
 labor that appealed to him with all the solemnity of a 
 divine vocation, and in which he would fain hope that 
 his imperfect ministry has not been unattended with 
 some spiritual benefit to the sons of Ham: nor does 
 there now arise one bitter recollection to mar the pleas- 
 ure with which he looks back upon the period during 
 which it was his privilege to lead them to the sacra- 
 mental board which was spread for them in this house 
 of God. Affected by such reminiscences and pervaded 
 by such emotions, he cannot now feel that he is an 
 intruder within the sanctities of this place and hour, 
 but would rather indulge the thought that he is, after 
 a sort, a member of your spiritual family, and would, 
 in comi^any with you, on this propitious and festal day, 
 rejoice at the tokens of signal favor with which a 
 Covenant-God has freighted the past history of your 
 church, and assist in the erection of an Ebenezer-stone 
 inscribed with the record of the Redeemer's love. 
 
 One could not at a season like this be well-suspected 
 of flattering or of indulging in the phraseology of 
 empty adulation who should remind a church of the 
 graces which have marked its past course, the faith, 
 charity, and activity wdiich have first been imparted 
 as divine gifts and have then been employed by the 
 Spirit who inspired them, to the glory of God through 
 human instrumentalities. They who could entertain 
 emotions of pride or vain-glory at the retrospect which 
 is now suggested, would be seriously wanting in that 
 profound gratitude to God which should, on an occa- 
 sion like this, be the j)ervading sentiment of every 
 heart. The very purpose of a commemorative festival 
 like the present, implying as it does a review of God's 
 dealings with a church, is to rehearse in grateful strains 
 
238 Sermons 
 
 His marvellous loving kindness to our fathers, to rescue 
 from the fading recollections of the past the incidents 
 Avhich are sinking into oblivion, and to construct from 
 them a many-stringed harp with which to chant the 
 praises of sovereign mercy and redeeming love. 
 
 Not the least among the evidences of that spiritual 
 prosperity which has been graciously bestowed upon 
 this church are the revivals of pure and undefiled re- 
 ligion which she has been, through the operation of 
 the Divine Spirit, permitted to enjoy. Such seasons 
 are points of light along the track of her history, on 
 which the gaze of memory delights to dwell. Happily 
 for this church, she is able to point to more than one in 
 which the power of the Spirit and the subduing influ- 
 ence of the Savior's love were conspicuously displayed. 
 Who of us can forget the wonderful scenes of the great 
 revival of 1846 ? Springing like a river from the small 
 and hidden fountain, it gradually rose and swelled 
 until the mighty current seemed to sweep everything 
 in its onward and impetuous course. The hardest 
 hearts were melted, the eye unused to weep poured 
 forth the waters of penitence, and the most stubborn 
 will yielded with patience to the Savior's yoke. Prayer 
 meetings were multiplied and croAvded. The tongue 
 of the dumb was loosed and prayers and exhortations 
 spontaneously gushed forth from the lips of the sensi- 
 tive and the diffident. 
 
 The sacramental Sabbath — a high and memorable 
 day — arrived, and over one hundred hopeful converts 
 crowded those aisles and publicly professed the Savior's 
 name. O glorious days of the Son of Man, long be ye 
 remembered ! Then indeed >Tas this Zion a Bochim of 
 penitential tears, a birthplace of immortal spirits, a 
 Bethel of near communion with God, a vestibule of 
 
Girardeau 239 
 
 heaven ! The remembrance of those scenes in which 
 the wonderful power of the Spirit was displayed and 
 numbers were added to the church of such as shall be 
 saved, should on this occasion in which God's dealings 
 are reviewed awaken special gratitude and stimulate 
 the desire and the prayer that the exalted Savior would 
 again afford similar manifestations of His grace. 
 
 In the course of these remarks it has been urged that 
 one of the principal elements in the prosperity of a 
 church is the ability and fidelity of its pastors. In 
 taking a retrospect from this day, it cannot fail to im- 
 press 3'ou, my brethren, as one of the chief evidences of 
 the favor which the Head of the church has manifested 
 to this Zion, that He has bestowed upon her most freely 
 His choicest ascension gifts — evangelical, efficient, and 
 accomplished pastors. The candlesticks of this sanctu- 
 ary have ever been supplied with pure oil, and have 
 continued through succeeding years, and the changes 
 incident to human labor, to burn with a clear, steady, 
 undimmed flame. The record inscribed by gratitude 
 and affection on the memorial tablets which adorn 
 these venerable walls will attest to generations yet to 
 be born the worth of your departed g-nd now glorified 
 ministers: but there be many now here who need no 
 such remembrances, bearing as they do that registry of 
 their virtues engraven deeply and indelibly upon 
 "fleshly tables of the heart." There are some now, per- 
 haps, in this house who have carried with them through 
 life, and will bear to their graves, the remembrance of 
 the strong, manly, catholic soul, the fervid, bold, and 
 impassioned genius of a Flinn, in whose ministrations 
 it were difficult to say whether the voices of Sinai spake 
 more awfully, or the pleadings of Calvary more melt- 
 ingly; and under whose pastorate this new-born 
 
240 Sermons 
 
 church early shook from her vigorous limbs the swath- 
 ing bands of infancy and rapidly rose to the full pro- 
 portions of maturity. Honored and distinguished 
 name ! It yet remains impressed in lustrous charac- 
 ters upon the page of memory under the watchful 
 guardianship of love, and will be spoken in connection 
 with the early history of this church as long as this 
 noble edifice shall stand. 
 
 There are many, too, who will not willingly let die 
 the recollections of the polished, elegant, and scholarly 
 Ashmead, a prince in intellect who, guided by the star 
 of Bethlehem, brought hither the gold, frankincense 
 and myrrh of sanctified genius and classical culture to 
 lay them reverently at the Savior's feet ; and under the 
 magical attractions of whose speech many of the intell- 
 igent and cultivated of this city were led to take the 
 place of stated worshippers in this sanctuary. But 
 another form rises from the shadows of the past and 
 presses nearer to the foreground of the picture. It 
 wears the noble mien, the graceful carriage, the win- 
 ning aspect of Charlton Henry. But how, in fewer 
 words than would make a discourse, shall we allude to 
 this accomplished and devoted pastor? Versed in 
 theological literature, a master of several languages, 
 possessed of an acute, penetrating and analytic mind, 
 and characterized by all the qualities of an impressive, 
 pathetic, persuasive oratory, he covered all his dazzling 
 gifts with the mantle of genuine humility and laid the 
 plaudits of admiring friends with cheerful gratitude 
 before the vSavior's throne. His ministry was richly 
 endued with that greatest of all pastoral qualifications 
 — the unction of the Spirit, without which, it Avas the 
 pious Bernard's wont to say, reading is useless and 
 erudition vain; and numerous converts, lured through 
 
Girardeau 241 
 
 his instrumentality to the Savior's service, bore witness 
 to the fervor of his apostolic spirit and the gracious 
 words which proceeded from his lips. In him was 
 realized the beautiful portraiture of a faithful pastor 
 drawn so graphically by the pencil of Goldsmith: 
 
 "And as a bird each fond endearment tries, 
 To tempt its new-jfledged offspring to the skies ; 
 He tried each art, reproved each dull delay, 
 Allured to brighter worlds and led the way." 
 
 As evidence at once of his watchful and assiduous 
 care over the members of his flock, of the subtle and 
 analytical power of his intellect, and of the grace of 
 his style, let me advert to the fact that he has left be- 
 hind him another legacy than the force of his fragrant 
 example: I allude to that masterly treatise contained 
 in his "Letters to an Anxious Inquirer," a work which 
 might be well made a text-book in one of the too much 
 neglected departments of pastoral theology, and de- 
 serves to be ranked as a sister to the admirable 
 "Sketches of a Pastor," by which the lamented Spencer 
 "being dead yet speaketh." In all the qualities which 
 should characterize a work on so delicate and difficult 
 a subject, these letters of Dr. Henry stand pre-eminent. 
 I have little hesitation in saying that they will bear a 
 comparison with the better Itnown work on the same 
 theme of John Angell James, which, in the judgment 
 of candid critics, might not be unfavorable to its 
 merits. 
 
 It richly deserves a more extensive circulation 
 through which its gifted author may again address to 
 inquiring spirits those affectionate and judicious coun- 
 sels which are suited to guide them to the laiowledge 
 of salvation and the attainment of everlasting life. 
 
242 Sermons 
 
 Like his predecessors, Dr. Henry was destined in the 
 mysterious pro\'idence of the King of the church, to 
 an end which in human phrase we are apt to term un- 
 timely. He was stricken down by the ruthless and 
 irreverent hand of the pestilential angel while nobly 
 laboring for the comfort of his people amid the thickly 
 falling arrows of the Destroyer. It is within the mem- 
 ory of many that after a brief struggle with disease 
 which closed with his peaceful and triumphant depar- 
 ture, his unexpected death, like the sudden tolling of a 
 midnight alarm, smote the heart of the congregation 
 and caused it to beat with a fainter pulsation; that 
 men were moved by the feelings with which they are 
 accustomed to look upon the eclipse of a great lumi- 
 nary, and that persons of differing creeds conspired to 
 mourn the extinction of a light which had shone in the 
 religious firmament with the glory of a morning star. 
 Beneath that aisle over which their feet were wont 
 to pass to this pulpit, the first pastor and the last who 
 died in the service of this flock sleep side by side. 
 Flinn and Henry together rest in death in the bosom 
 of the church for whose welfare in life they had toiled 
 and wept. Together they will arise and salute their 
 waking people at the morning call of the resurrection 
 trump. Above their ashes no monumental pile raises 
 
 [Note. — These remarks in reference to this lamented pastor are 
 founded alike on traditional recollections and the statements given in 
 an exquisitely written memoir from the practiced hand of one who 
 knew him well — the Rev. Benjamin Gildersleeve — who supplied this 
 pulpit after the decease of Dr. Henry, and who yet lives to enjoy the 
 honor, as he has long held the position of the Nestor of the Southern 
 religious press. Identified during his residence in this city with the 
 interests of this church, his name will not be suffered by her to die ; 
 a veteran bearing the honorable scars of many a conflict in the cause 
 of truth and righteousness, he will long be held in grateful remem- 
 brance by Christ's people in this land.] 
 
Girardeau 243 
 
 its stately head to be bathed in the rays of the rising 
 and the setting sun; but the sanctuary which they loved 
 is their venerable mausoleum; the feet of the worship- 
 pers who frequent these courts tread softly and rever- 
 ently above their honored heads; and the recollections 
 of the sleeping servants of Christ mingle with the emo- 
 tions of sacramental services, the prayers and praises 
 of the Sabbath and the inspiring hopes of the heavenly 
 communion of saints. 
 
 It would only remain to finish this allusion to the 
 honored roll of your departed pastors by adverting to 
 the ministry of one who, for about thirty years, has 
 labored among you in the gospel of the kingdom, and 
 who is yet continued among you in answer to your 
 prayers. But delicacy and propriety forbid to be 
 uttered what justice would require and affection would 
 freely dictate to be spoken. This, however, I may be 
 permitted to say : that having in youth sat at his feet 
 to learn, and regarding him now as a father in the 
 ministry whose evening shadow has begun to lengthen, 
 and whose thoughts, finding daily rest in the heavenly 
 world, may be presumed to remove him from the 
 aspirations of earth, I may, without exposure to the 
 suspicion of bandying empty compliment, briefly allude 
 to the course of his ministry which he has been called 
 to fulfil among you. You, my brethren, would not on 
 this occasion ignore that pastorate as one of the many 
 and prominent causes of the thanksgivings which your 
 hearts now gratefully render to our Divine Lord and 
 Master, and as one of the most important elements of 
 that efficiency and prosperity with which this church 
 has been blessed. It were sufficient to say that in his 
 ministry the dignity of this pulpit has been fully sus- 
 tained, and that in his hands the prestige of your 
 
244 Sermons 
 
 'former pastorates has suffered no loss. Endowed by 
 nature and by grace with gifts which eminently fitted 
 him to labor in the pulpit, on the platform and in the 
 deliberative assembly, he has, under God, acquitted 
 himself in all these relations with distinguished ability, 
 usefulness, and honor; while by the unremitting toils 
 of the pen, he has given to the church the treasures of 
 a vigorous and fertile intellect and the fruits of inde- 
 fatigable study and patient research. 
 
 But I must forbear lest modesty should rebuke what 
 rising emotions impel to be uttered. The language of 
 just and impartial eulogy must be postponed to an- 
 other day when he and most of us here present shall 
 have fallen asleep, and when other eyes shall look upon 
 scenes akin to this, and other tongues shall rehearse the 
 deeds and recall the memories of the past. You will, 
 however, join me in the prayer that your beloved and 
 honored pastor may continue to exert for your benefit, 
 the vigorous powers of a mind whose natural force is 
 not abated, that his bodily infirmities may be healed by 
 the power or, at least, assuaged by the ministrations of 
 a Savior's sympathy, and that for the edification of his 
 flock he may yet be detained for many years from the 
 last removal and the heavenly rest. 
 
 In looking back along the line of these faithful pas- 
 torates, it becomes impossible to estimate the amount of 
 good for time and for eternity which has resulted from 
 the labors connected with them. Plow inany have been 
 rescued by the restraining and conserving influence of 
 a preached Gospel from crime and ruin on earth ; how 
 many souls have been snatched as brands from the 
 burning; how many immortal destinies have been 
 redeemed from the complexion of despair; what 
 benign and salutary impressions have been made upon 
 
Girardeau 245 
 
 all the interests of the community; what evils have 
 been averted; what heavenly and incalculable bless- 
 ings have been brought down. All this it is impossible 
 to compute. The day of eternity alone will reveal the 
 whole case and disclose the accumulating fruits of this 
 unbroken succession of able, evangelical and efficient 
 ministries. But there is one obvious result which, by 
 the blessing of God, has flowed from them to this 
 church, which demands its profoundest gratitude and 
 its highest praise. The scriptural purity of the preach- 
 ing and instruction that for fifty years past have been 
 enjoyed in this sanctuary have preserved this church 
 from the dreadful evil of doctrinal defections and held 
 it fast to the moorings of the simple Gospel of Christ. 
 A crucified, risen and exalted Savior has been fully 
 set forth as the only ground of the hope of the sinner 
 and the solace of the saint. The grace of God has been 
 magnified in opposition to the wisdom and the works 
 of men ; and the expulsive power of divine truth, taught 
 in its purity and just proportions, has been evinced in 
 the exclusion of those rationalistic and radical theories 
 by which the faith of so many churches has been ship- 
 wrecked, the lights on their altars extinguished, and 
 Ichabod written as by the hand of judgment on their 
 walls. Thus has this noble church fulfilled like a 
 planet her appointed orbit around her central sun, de- 
 rived from Him her light, her glory and her warmth, 
 and dispensed healing in her beams from the firmament 
 of eternal truth. Brethren, lift up your hands and 
 raise your voices this day in devoutest thanksgiving for 
 this inestimable token of preserving grace ! Let it be 
 your fervent prayer that this glorious Gospel may be 
 continued to you in its unadulterated efficacy ; guard it 
 with a watchfulness that knows no slumber from cor- 
 
246 Sermons 
 
 rupting influences, and by the blessing of God, when 
 you gather up your feet in death, transmit it unim- 
 paired to your children as the most precious legacy 
 which you can leave them. 
 
 While alluding to this subject of thanksgiving due 
 to the Head of the church for the faithful pastors by 
 whom this church has been served, it deserves also 
 to be noticed that not the least of her causes for 
 gratitude lies in the fact that under God she has 
 been a mother of ministers. Many who have been 
 trained in her Sabbath school and nourished by her 
 maternal discipline have gone forth from her bosom to 
 preach the unsearchable riches of Christ. There exists 
 scarcely any higher theme for thanksgiving on the part 
 of a church than that she is thus enabled to communi- 
 cate to others through the hands of her sons the pre- 
 cious boon of the Gospel of salvation ; to sound out the 
 word of the Lord to other and more destitue parts of 
 the country and of the world. Some of these heralds 
 of the cross who went out with the blessing of this 
 church to preach Christ and Him crucified have ceased 
 from their labors and have fallen asleep in Jesus. 
 Auld, Logan, Hughes, and Robert Small liave fulfilled 
 the course of a faithful and honored ministry and have 
 joined the church triumphant. Adger, Turner, Flinn, 
 Stillman, Miller, White, Corbett, Buttolph, Small, 
 Dickson, McCormick, Danforth, Waite and others yet 
 live as laborious and able ministers of the New Testa- 
 ment. To these this church may emphatically point as 
 her jewels, and with them she will doubtless deck the 
 Savior's diadem on the day of His coronation in the 
 presence of His elect and ransomed church. 
 
 I will be pardoned for pausing, in this connection, 
 to lay an humble garland upon the grave of a beloved 
 
Girardeau 247 
 
 and sainted friend. William N. Carberry was one of 
 the fruits of the memorable revival in the year 1846. 
 Having passed with honor through his academic career, 
 he consecrated himself at the call of God to the work 
 of the ministry, and commenced his preparatory train- 
 ing for the sacred office. But He who called him to the 
 work and tested his spirit of sacrifice was pleased to 
 remove him from earth ere he could enter upon the 
 holy employment he had elected. He peacefully closed 
 his eyes on worldly things about two years after his 
 conversion, and now sleeps in the adjoining church- 
 yard. His was one of the loveliest, gentlest and most 
 devoted spirits whom it has been my lot to know. He 
 declared that from the time of his conversion to his 
 last illness he had never known doubt, but was blessed 
 with an uninterrupted assurance of the love of God. 
 One of the Grecian poets says that "roses are pleasant 
 to the gods." This lovely spirit which, had it remained 
 on earth, would have flowered out in all the graces of 
 Christianity, was destined, as by assimilation to a 
 higher life, to an early expansion in a celestial sphere 
 and a not premature association with the seraphic min- 
 istries around the throne. 
 
 Thus far attention has been chiefly directed to the 
 gifts with which the ascended Redeemer has adorned 
 and enriched this church. Suffer me now briefly to 
 advert to the manner in which, through His grace, 
 some of the great duties of Christianity have been dis- 
 charged. I confess, my brethren, that, although human 
 nature, even when pervaded by the power of religion, 
 is prone to the indulgence of pride, and that, too, in 
 reference to spiritual accomplishments, there seems no 
 impropriety in speaking in terms of encomium of the 
 fidelitv with which a church of Christ has been enabled 
 
248 Sermons 
 
 to meet its responsibilities and perform its duties. It was 
 the custom of the great Apostle of the Gentiles to allude 
 in terms of highest eulogy to the charity, the faith, the 
 activity of the churches to which he ministered. We 
 cannot err if, bearing in mind the fact that Paul re- 
 ferred the ability to discharge all duty to the grace of 
 God, we follow his example in the matter to which 
 allusion has been made. One who would undertake to 
 review the history of this church and fail to observe 
 the steady cultivation of the leading grace of charity, 
 would ignore one of the most signal features of its 
 spiritual growth. This grace, under the tuition of the 
 Spirit, has manifested itself in various forms of de- 
 velopment, but in none more conspicuously than in the 
 sympathy displayed by this church in the great and 
 Christ-like work of foreign missions. This result, it 
 must in candor be admitted, is chiefly to be attributed 
 under God to the faithful instructions, the earnest ap- 
 peals and the unremitting exertions of the present pas- 
 tor of the church. Even the children have been edu- 
 cated to take an interest in this blessed cause and to 
 contribute in early life to its advancement on the earth. 
 The church has, in consequence of this training, taken 
 a foremost stand among our congregations, and by her 
 example has furnished no mean stimulus to the growth 
 of the missionary spirit. For this her thanks are due 
 to Him who came in the character of a missionary to 
 our fallen and wretched race, and has breathed into 
 her heart somewhat of His own compassion for the 
 souls of the benighted and the lost. Brethren, let this 
 grace abound yet more and more. The feeble successes 
 which the Gospel has achieved in the dark wastes of 
 heathendom, so far from discouraging us and suggest- 
 ing skeptical objections to the missionary work, should 
 
Girardeau 249 
 
 present themselves as the harbingers of better things, 
 and should increase our prayers, quicken our zeal, en- 
 large our contributions and stimulate our love and pity 
 for the dying nations of the earth. 
 
 Nor has this church been lacking in her attention to 
 the great work of domestic missions. The poor and 
 the ignorant have not appealed to her in vain. In 
 stretching her commiserative gaze over the broad and 
 destitute field of a world lying in wickedness, she has 
 not forgotten the needy who knocked at her own door 
 for the bread of eternal life. She has bowed down her 
 ear to their necessities, condescended to men of low 
 estate and furnished in her philanthropy a fresh and 
 conspicuous exhibition of that great credential of 
 Christianity signalized by the Savior himself — the 
 preaching of the Gospel to the poor. Concurring most 
 heartily and promptly in the suggestion of one of her 
 own sons — the Rev. John B. Adger, who had, in conse- 
 quence of a disease of the eyes, been constrained to 
 return from a foreign field in which he had zealously 
 expended missionary labor, and whose sj^mpathies were 
 called forth by the spiritual wants of the colored peo- 
 ple in his native land, this church, through the con- 
 certed action of her pastor, session and congregation, 
 assisted in originating an enterprise contemplating 
 their more efficient religious instruction. During the 
 feeble and struggling infancy of that enterprise she 
 nursed it in her lap and cherished it on her generous 
 bosom, until it had attained such stature as to warrant 
 an independent establishment. Nor when it thus passed 
 from the immediate shelter of her arm did she cease to 
 foster it by her efforts, her contributions and her 
 prayers. Freely she had received; freely she gave. 
 And whatever of efficiency it subsequently has at- 
 
250 Sermons 
 
 tained, must be mainly ascribed to that support and 
 encouragement which she continued to yield it through 
 all its darker and gloomier days. At the last assize, 
 when the rich and the poor shall meet together before 
 the Maker and the Judge of them all, may you, beloved 
 brethren, receive the rich reward conveyed in those 
 words from a Savior's lips: "Inasmuch as ye have 
 done it unto one of the least of these, my brethren, ye 
 have done it unto Me." 
 
 Suffer me, while speaking of this subject, to make a 
 grateful allusion to one in whom the missionary spirit 
 of this church was conspicuously manifested, in con- 
 sequence of whose determination to devote his rare 
 energies, clear judgment and compassionate heart to 
 the religious instruction of the negroes in the Anson 
 Street congregation, the present pastor of that charge 
 was in part induced to assume its care, under the an- 
 ticipation that anxiety and toil when shared by such a 
 spirit would be deprived of half their pressure. Alas ! 
 the hope was doomed to a sad disappointment. At the 
 very time at which it was expected that he would com- 
 mence his labors in that field he lay stricken down in 
 a distant city by a fatal malady. He never returned to 
 gladden us by his presence. There he fell asleep in 
 Him whose care over His dying saints knows no dif- 
 ference of place. But his body was brought to his 
 native city and the numbers who crowded this house to 
 render him the only remaining tribute of respect at- 
 tested the loss which the community had felt. A true 
 and noble heart had ceased to beat, an active, strong 
 and generous soul had gone, and the city and the church 
 were the poorer for the loss. Fittingly is it inscribed 
 on the honored tomb of William Adger — "All ye that 
 
Girardeau 251 
 
 know his name say, How is the strong staff broken, and 
 the beautiful rod!" 
 
 It would be gratifying to notice, also, the evidences 
 of spiritual prosperity which have manifested them- 
 selves in the tender care exhibited towards the chil- 
 dren of the fold, and the colored members of the con- 
 gregation. The limits of this discourse, however, must 
 preclude the consideration of these topics. 
 
 I cannot, however, close these remarks without allud- 
 ing to the fact, suggested by the occurrences of the 
 present eventful period, that it is one of the offices of 
 the church to throw around patriotism the sanctions of 
 religion. The voice of this church has not been hushed, 
 nor has it uttered an uncertain sound in reference to 
 the momentous questions now pending, questions, it 
 appears, to be discussed by the sword and settled by 
 an appeal to the last argument to which governments 
 are wont to resort. While it becomes the church of 
 Christ to pay special regard to the spiritual affairs of 
 men, to conserve the religious interests of the souls 
 committed to her nurture, and to maintain her charac- 
 teristic idea as an institute contemplating their pre- 
 paration for an eternal destiny, — she may not overlook 
 her human relations nor be indifferent to those civil 
 questions and duties which affect alike her own well- 
 being and the very existence of the communities whose 
 benefit she seeks. At this moment her offices of prayer 
 and counsel are appropriately rendered in behalf of a 
 country whose dearest interests are threatened by over- 
 weening arrogance and determined hate. A^^iile our 
 sons and brothers, inflamed by the fires of patriotic 
 affection and impelled by the very instinct of self- 
 preservation, are hastening to the field of strife, she is 
 called to stretch her hands to their fathers' God and to 
 
252 Sermons 
 
 invoke for them the shield of His almighty providence 
 in the day of battle and of carnage. 
 
 "While," in the words of the eloquent Robert Hall, 
 "while they are engaged in the field, many will repair 
 to the closet, many to the sanctuary, the faithful of 
 every name will employ that prayer which has power 
 with God; the feeble hands which are unequal to any 
 other weapon will grasp the sword of the Spirit, and 
 from myriads of humble, contrite hearts the voice of 
 intercession, supplication and weeping will mingle in 
 its ascent to heaven with the shouts of battle and the 
 shock of arms." 
 
 Let, then, these altars be surrounded by those who, 
 mindful of the marvellous protection recently rendered 
 by Providence to their fellow-citizens in the day of 
 exposure and peril, and profoundly convinced of the 
 justice of the cause for which they are contending, lift 
 up their hearts in mighty prayer that the Lord of 
 Hosts may go before our people, that the pillar of His 
 presence may precede them, and that in the critical 
 moments of conflict they may be encompassed with 
 chariots of flame and horses of fire. And above all, 
 remembering the numberless casualties of war and the 
 peculiar uncertainty of that life which our brethren in 
 the field are leading, let us commend their souls to the 
 mercy of God that, if they are called to sacrifice their 
 bodies in defense of those principles for which they are 
 not unwilling to shed their blood, they may be removed 
 from the service of their country on earth to the still 
 more sublime and exalted employments of the celestial 
 city. 
 
 As from this day we have looked back upon the his- 
 tory of the past, and have discovered in it abundant 
 reasons for gratitude to God for His providence and 
 
GlEARDEAU 253 
 
 grace, let us, in looking forward to the future now 
 frowning upon us, commit ourselves, our families, and 
 our destinies into the hands of Him who has abandoned 
 us in no dark and stormy hour and has promised that 
 He will never leave us nor forsake us. Let us reflect 
 that there are sublimer events than those, however 
 startling, by which we are now surrounded, which are 
 hurrying on the theatre of this earth, that the world is 
 hastening to a more awful crisis than any which has 
 mercy of God that if they are called to sacrifice their 
 yet impended over its history, and that the church in 
 her grand march through the dispensations is passing 
 on to the fulfilment of her fondest hopes. In company 
 with all the faithful we would look forward to the 
 glorious appearing of the great God, even our Savior 
 Jesus Christ, and lift to Him the solemn invocation : 
 Come quickly ; Amen. Even so come, Lord Jesus ! 
 
 And now, beloved brethren, breathing the fervent 
 prayer that your honored church may be crowned in 
 the future with even greater blessings than those which 
 have marked its past history. I would, with the deepest 
 respect and affection, commend you to God and the 
 word of His Grace, which is able to build you up and 
 to give you an inheritance among all them which are 
 sanctified. May grace, mercy and peace from Father, 
 Son and Holy Ghost be multiplied abundantly unto 
 you. Amen. 
 
254 Sermons 
 
 THE NATURE OF PRAYER 
 
 Luke xviii, 1. '"'■Men ought always to pray^ 
 
 In these words our Savior inculcates the habitual 
 and unremitting discharge of the duty of prayer. He 
 obviously contemplates it as of importance so indis- 
 pensable as that it admits of no suspension or serious 
 interruption of its discharge. The reason of this is 
 sufficiently evident. Prayer is a duty of universal 
 significance. There can be no religion without it, and 
 the degree of practical piety must always correspond 
 with the extent to which it is performed. It may be 
 said to be the prime duty of all religion, whether that 
 of nature or of the Gospel of Christ. Not only does it 
 possess an intrinsic value of its own which is absolutely 
 immeasurable, but it is the essential concomitant, the 
 necessary stimulus and support of all other religious 
 duties. It goes hand in hand with the cultivation of 
 Christian graces, and the performance of legal obliga- 
 tions. As it is passive, it is the grand recipient of that 
 divine grace and strength which energize the soul, and 
 as it is active,. it re-acts most salutarily upon the fervor 
 of religious emotions, is positively influential in the 
 production of the most important results, and power- 
 fully propels the suppliant in the path of spiritual 
 obedience. 
 
 Note. — The five following sermons on prayer were delivered late in 
 1865, in Zion Presbyterian Church, Glebe street, Charleston. A note 
 by Dr. Girardeau says : "Daily prayer was pfEered by crowds of 
 worshippers for the success of the Confederate struggle In conse- 
 quence of its disastrous result, many of God's people were, by Satanic 
 influence, tempted to slack their confidence in prayer. These sermons 
 were an humble attempt to help them under this trial." 
 
Girardeau 255 
 
 A just and scriptural consideration of this vitally 
 important subject can at no time be inappropriate, or 
 suited to promote other than beneficial ends, but there 
 are certain exigencies in the experience of God's people 
 when it claims more than ordinary attention. Espe- 
 cially when confidence in its efficacy has been weakened 
 if not impaired by the occurrence of afflictive and 
 disastrous events against which its aid had been in- 
 voked, and the sneer of the skeptic is, Where is now 
 thy God who professes to be the hearer of prayer, it 
 becomes us to re-examine its nature and its grounds, 
 and to settle afresh our faith in its divinely-appointed 
 force. It has probably struck us all, my brethren, that 
 under just such circumstances we now find ourselves 
 actually placed; and anxious as I am to accommodate 
 the ministrations of the pulpit to your present necessi- 
 ties, I have thought it not inappropriate to take up, 
 in several discourses, this great duty of prayer, and to 
 endeavor, with God's blessing, to indicate its nature, 
 its grounds, its spirit, and its efficacy, and then to 
 answer, if possible, the objections which skepticism or 
 a flagging faith may urge against its continued dis- 
 charge. And I am impelled to this course by the pro- 
 found conviction that we need all our religion to sus- 
 tain us now, and that without the active exercise of 
 prayer, though the principle of religion may not cease 
 to exist, it will be practically dormant and inoperative 
 either as to the performance of duty or the supply of 
 consolation. 
 
 Your attention will first be directed to the question. 
 What is the nature of prayer? It need scarcely be ob- 
 served that prayer has a wider and a narrower signifi- 
 cation. In its wider sense, it comprehends the elements 
 of adoration of God, confession of sin, and a thankful 
 
256 Sermons 
 
 acknowledgment of the mercies which we may receive. 
 In its narrower accej^tation, it is simply petitionary or 
 supplicatory in its character. In this point of view it 
 is the iDreferment of our request to God for the bless- 
 ings Avhich He, and He alone, is competent to bestow. 
 It is to this latter aspect of it that these remarks will 
 be mainly devoted. 
 
 I would here take occasion to remind you, my friends, 
 that there are certain gi"eat and fundamental truths 
 which, at the outset of the discussion, will be taken for 
 granted. It is assumed that God is, and that He is 
 the re warder of such as diligently seek Him. I shall 
 not for the present, at least, pause to discuss with the 
 Atheist the question of the divine existence, or with the 
 Pantheist that of the divine personality, supposing God 
 to exist, nor with the professed believer in the sole 
 reign of naked, abstract law, that of the possibility of 
 prayer as addressed to an intelligent Being who is 
 capable of communing with us and who invites us to 
 hold communion with Him. These things, which it is 
 admitted lie at the very bottom of the subject, must 
 for the present be assumed as truths which are con- 
 ceded. Nor can any fair objection be urged against this 
 course, since the utterances of the pulpit are simply the 
 reflections of the deliverances of Scripture. The Bible 
 does not elaborately expound, in formal shape, the 
 great doctrines of God's existence and personality. It 
 enounces them authoritatively as entitled to immediate 
 reception, and ever proceeds on the supposition that 
 their bare enouncement is sufficient to call forth an 
 affirmative response to them from man's essential struc- 
 ture, or is itself an adequate revelation of their truth. 
 The pulpit, therefore, is entitled to assume what the 
 Scriptures — its sole authority — always take for 
 
Girardeau 257 
 
 granted. This, however, will not debar us, at a future 
 stage in the treatment of the subject, from comparing 
 the objections of the skeptic with those principles of 
 our nature, or those convictions of reason which are 
 themselves sanctioned and supported by the Divine 
 Word. Conceding, then, that God exists, that He is 
 possessed of personal attributes which render com- 
 munion with Him possible, and that He is both willing 
 and competent to answer our petitions for His blessing, 
 the question which now solicits our consideration is. 
 What is prayer? 
 
 I. In the first place it is clear that true prayer must 
 include, as its first great element, the offering up of our 
 real desires unto God. There may be the form of 
 prayer without the desires of the heart, but there can- 
 not be true prayer without them. All petition sup- 
 poses a condition of want which requires to be relieved. 
 It is the experimental sense, or the intellectual convic- 
 tion, of need, which originates desire. The hungry 
 man prays for bread, and the thirsty man prays for 
 drink, because they desire them to supply their wants. 
 He who is not hungry may ask for bread, and he who is 
 not thirsty may beg for drink, but as the petitions they 
 offer are not prompted by desire springing from a real 
 want they are destitute of sincerity and are not worthy 
 of being answered. In like manner the wretched man 
 desires happiness, the guilty pardon, the impure holi- 
 ness, and the lost salvation, when they experience in 
 their souls a want of these invaluable blessings. But 
 it is conceivable that formal petitions may be offered to 
 God for these benefits without that desire for them 
 which is grounded in a sense of need. In these cases 
 the professed suppliant tampers with the majesty of 
 God, which is offended by his insincerity ; or trifles with 
 
258 Sermons 
 
 the omniscience of God, which he must all the while 
 be conscious is able to detect the hypocrisy and to 
 unmask the pretence. It is not sufficient, then, that the 
 attitude and gesture, the look and tone of supplication 
 be assumed; it is not sufficient that a certain formula 
 of devotion be employed in accordance with the de- 
 mands of custom or in obedience to motives which are 
 simply mercenary or selfish; it is not sufficient that a 
 clamorous repetition of empty words be used under 
 the impression that the Deity must needs be aflfected 
 with such a quantity of entreaty; it is absolutely 
 essential that the real desires of the heart should urge 
 the prayers which we offer to the Giver of every good 
 and perfect gift, or all our petitions, arrayed though 
 they be in language ever so sublime, are offensive to 
 God and barren of beneficial results. They are nothing 
 but sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal. It is then 
 only we "draw near" to God when we come with the 
 conviction of want and the language of sincere desire. 
 The heart must speak or the ear of God is deaf to the 
 voice of the petition. 
 
 II. It deserves, also, to be considered that the desires 
 which we experience and the prayers which they 
 prompt should be for things that are agreeable to the 
 will of God. Otherwise no true prayer is presented. 
 It is hyprocrisy to ask for blessings which we do not 
 desire, it is presumption to pray for those which are 
 contrary to the divine will. If the objects of prayer be 
 unlawful, the prayer itself is illegitimate. The will 
 of God is the expression of His holy nature and per- 
 fections, and wherever it is made known to us it be- 
 comes the standard of reference and the rule of action. 
 It is evidently possible that we may transgress this will 
 in our prayers, both in regard to the things which we 
 
Girardeau 259 
 
 seek and the motives which suggest our petitions. If 
 either the reasons in which prayer is conceived or the 
 ends it desires to secure are contrary to the will of 
 God the prayer itself is intrinsically wrong. 
 
 The objects which we seek in prayer are of two kinds. 
 They may be either spiritual or temporal, and the rule 
 which has been indicated will apply with equal force to 
 both of these classes. It will hardly require discussion 
 to show that in those cases in which the revealed will 
 of God, as contained in His Word, is transcended by 
 our petitions, they are not conceived in the spirit of 
 true and legitimate prayer. It is always lawful to ask 
 those blessings for which the Scriptures authorize us 
 to pray, always wrong to seek those things which they 
 forbid us to desire, or the supplications for which are 
 prompted by motives which they will not justify. The 
 Word as the expression of the will of God specifies the 
 things for which we may properly pray and indicates 
 the motives which will meet the divine approbation. 
 To ask other things than these, or to pray from other 
 motives than these, is to be guilty of impiety in our 
 professed homage to God, and to make worship itself 
 the vehicle of sin. To seek from God those things 
 which He has plainly told us we ought not to desire is 
 to treat Him as wayward and exacting children would 
 a father whom they regard as too weak to adhere to his 
 own will, or to abide by those rules which he has laid 
 down for the government of his house. Thus far all is 
 clear. There can be no dispute as to the position that 
 it is wrong to pray for those things which the Scrip- 
 tures, as the revealed or preceptive will of God, forbid 
 us to seek, and that those petitions in which this is done 
 do not partake of the nature of true and legitimate 
 prayer. Nor, on the other hand, will any question 
 
260 Sermons 
 
 exist as to the propriety of those supplications which 
 the Scriptures authorize us to present. 
 
 There is, however, another aspect of the will of God 
 in reference to which the case may not be equally free 
 from perplexity. A distinction has been drawn, and, 
 it strikes me, validly drawn, between the revealed or 
 preceptive will of God, contained in the written word, 
 and the secret or decretive will of God which He has 
 not thought proper to disclose in the same formal man- 
 ner. It sometimes pleases Him to indicate this latter 
 aspect of His supreme will, with greater or less dis- 
 tinctness, in the procedures of His providence; and 
 whenever in this mode it becomes definitely known to 
 us we are bound to pay it the same deference and ren- 
 der it the same obedience as we yield to the dicta of 
 His written word. But there are numerous cases in 
 which this secret will of God is not distinctly made 
 known to us. He reserves to Himself that prerogative 
 of sovereignty the glory of which it sometimes is to 
 conceal a thing. He is not under obligation to give 
 account of His matters unto any. As the ruler of the 
 universe, and the supreme arbiter of events. He dis- 
 poses of all things in accordance with His own secret 
 pur^Doses. Now, we are bound to submit to the decisions 
 of God's will, whether they are revealed or not. It 
 cannot, it is true, become to us a rule of action when 
 it is not revealed, but even then it claims our profound- 
 est homage and our most implicit submission. It ex- 
 ists, though it be not made known ; and as it is eternally 
 the rule of the divine government, we are under obli- 
 gation to refer to it all our states of mind, all our acts, 
 and all our circumstances in life. In all cases about 
 which our prayers may be concerned it behooves us to 
 refer the final decision — the ultimate result — to the 
 
Girardeau 261 
 
 supreme though secret will of God. Let me endeavor 
 to illustrate this truth, for it appears to me to be one 
 of great importance. In those cases, for example, in 
 which we are clearly authorized by the written word to 
 otfer prayer for blessing, we are not discharged from 
 the obligation to submit the matter to the decision of 
 God's secret will. This is true, I conceive, even in 
 reference to prayer for spiritual benefits. For even in 
 those cases He has reserved to Himself the right to 
 answer or not, and the disposal of the time, circum- 
 stances and mode in which He will bestow blessings 
 when He sees fit to grant a favorable response. We 
 pray for an increase of a certain grace within us. We 
 are right. But it is for God to decide whether He will 
 comply with our request as to the thing sought or as 
 to the mode and measure in which the request shall be 
 met. We pray to be delivered from a certain tempta- 
 tion. We are right. So the Apostle Paul prayed 
 against the thorn in the flesh. But it is for God to 
 decide whether we shall be delivered or not. It is some- 
 times the case, to go still farther, that God calls us to 
 do what He does not mean us to do and authorizes us 
 to pray for blessings which He does not intend to con- 
 fer. He called Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac, but 
 He did not mean to permit him to perform the act 
 itself. He tests our obedience, and at the same time 
 fulfils His own wise and secret purposes. Paul was 
 authorized to pray for exemption from a certain form 
 of temptation, but God did not intend to grant him 
 that exemption. He gave him, it is true, what was 
 better — His sufficient grace, which enabled him suc- 
 cessfully to resist it. He accomplishes, thus, our dis- 
 cipline in holiness, and works out concurrently the 
 behests of His sovereign will. It will be perceived, 
 
262 Sermons 
 
 then, my brethren, that even in those cases in which we 
 do not disobey the revealed will of God in offering our 
 prayers, they must still be presented in profound sub- 
 mission to His secret will. Our blessed Savior Himself 
 prayed that He might be delivered from drinking the 
 cup of His last dreadful sufferings, but meekly referred 
 the decision of the matter to the sovereign will of God. 
 "Nevertheless, not my will, but Thine be done" ! 
 
 This principle will go far to solve the apparent diffi- 
 culty arising frequently from the nonfulfilment of 
 promises which on their face are limited by no qualifi- 
 cation. It must always be assumed, as a tacit condition, 
 that God has reserved to Himself the right of acting in 
 regard to them in accordance with His sovereign will. 
 In some instances the limiting circumstances may be 
 plainly gathered either from the Scriptures themselves, 
 or from the course of God's providence. If, for ex- 
 ample, one should now pray for the faith which enabled 
 the believer to perform miracles, he would fail to secure 
 it, though the promises concerning it appear to be 
 unqualified. God has withdrawn this particular gift 
 from His church. This was one of Edward Irving's 
 great mistakes, which tended to cripple a ministry of 
 extraordinary power. 
 
 The same principle ought always to be applied to 
 prayers in which benefits of a temporal nature are 
 sought. In the general those blessings which come 
 under this class are promised to believers, so far as they 
 may be needful to them. The Divine Word guaran- 
 tees them, and authorizes us to pray for them. In these 
 cases where the motives which lead us to ask them are 
 unlawful, or where the things desired are themselves 
 forbidden to us in the Scriptures, we clearly have no 
 right to pray. In the other instances in which we are 
 
Girardeau 263 
 
 authorized to seek them, we should never lose sight of 
 the great fact that God bestows, or does not bestow, 
 them in accordance with His holy and sovereign will; 
 and in the event of their not being attained in answer 
 to prayer, it is our duty to lay our hands upon our 
 mouths, to refrain from charging God foolishly, and to 
 render implicit and unquestioning submission to that 
 will. 
 
 And let it never be forgotten that there are many 
 specific forms of temporal blessings for which we are 
 often led to pray which God has never pledged Himself 
 to confer. He gives us promises, in the general, and 
 has reserved to Himself the particular application of 
 them. In such cases it is manifestly our duty to yield 
 the most perfect deference to His decisions. He prom- 
 ises that the prayer of faith shall save the sick, but He 
 has not promised that this or that particular individual 
 who is sick shall, through prayer, be restored. We are 
 authorized to pray for the recovery of the sick, and to 
 believe that our prayer will be answered, until the 
 providence of God decides adversely, when our duty is 
 to submit. God promises to deliver His people who 
 call upon Him in the day of trouble, but He has not 
 pledged Himself to deliver a certain individual from 
 what he conceives to be evil. The martyr is authorized 
 to pray for deliverance from the fire and the stake, so 
 long as the final event is uncertain, but God may call 
 him to testify to His truth and to prove his own faith 
 and love by dying in His cause ; and in that case he is 
 bound to acquiesce and to go obediently to his tragic 
 end. God has promised to uphold truth and to support 
 right, but He has not pledged Himself in every partic- 
 ular conflict in which truth grapples with error and 
 right with wrong to render truth and right for the 
 
264 Sermons 
 
 present triumphant. He may siijffer them, for wise 
 purposes, to undergo apparent defeat, and to be ex- 
 posed to a tempest of opprobrium, oppression and 
 scorn. In these cases it is our duty to sustain ourselves 
 by the consideration that God does His will, and that 
 the Judge of all the earth will do right. And to him 
 who thus in disappointment and suffering, baffled in 
 his hopes, and tempted to skepticism, yet honors God 
 by a meek and uncomplaining submission due from a 
 sinful, short-sighted creature, to infinite wisdom and 
 absolute sovereignt}^, it will in time be made conspicu- 
 ously to appear — as clearly as the flash of a sunbeam 
 through the fissures of a dissolving cloud — that benefits 
 were withheld for the bestowal of greater, that tem- 
 porary suffering is but the prelude to everlasting bless- 
 ing, short-lived disappointment to the dawn of un- 
 fading honor, and that truth and right go down 
 beneath a horizon of darkness, and an ocean of storms, 
 only to reappear in the morning glory of an eternal 
 triumph. Jesus as an infirm, dying human being, 
 staggering under the curse of a world, prayed that 
 He might be delivered from suffering the second 
 death. His prayer was unanswered and He died; but 
 His grave was the scene of death's dethronement and 
 tlie birth-place of unnumbered millions of deathless 
 souls redeemed from Satan, sin and hell. Hold, Chris- 
 tian brother I Do not despair because your prayers for 
 certain blessing."?, however apparently great, have for a 
 time been unanswered. "\^liere is your faith? Where 
 is your allegiance to your almighty, all-wise, all- 
 merciful Sovereign? Collect yourself. Put on the 
 panoply of God. Stand against these troops of fiends 
 that would dislodge you from the citadel of. your faith. 
 Look up. God, your redeemer and deliverer, reigns.. 
 
Girardeau 265 
 
 See, He sits on yonder throne, and suns and systems of 
 light are but the sparkling dust beneath His feet. 
 Thousands of thousands of shining seraphs minister 
 before Him. Infinite empire is in His grasp. The 
 sceptre of universal dominion is borne aloft in His 
 almighty hand. His eye is upon His afflicted people. 
 See, see, He- comes, He comes, riding upon the wings of 
 the whirlwind, wielding His glittering sword bathed 
 in the radiance of heaven, driving His foes like chaff 
 before His face, and hastening to the succor of His 
 saints with resources of boundless power, and illimit- 
 able grace. 
 
 III. Let us pass on briefly to consider the third essen- 
 tial element in true prayer — a thoroughgoing reliance 
 upon the atoning merits and advocacy of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ. Prayer is a duty of universal obligation. 
 We are bound by the very conditions of our being, as 
 the creatures of God's power, the subjects of His gov- 
 ernment, and the pensioners of His bounty, to render 
 worship to Him and to express our dependence upon 
 Him in the form of supplication. But, on the supposi- 
 tion of sin, it is impossible to see on what natural 
 grounds we would have a right to approach Him with 
 entreaties for His favor. Exiles from His presence, 
 condemned by His law, and doomed by His justice to 
 perpetual exclusion from His fellowship, we might 
 indeed roar out our petitions for relief from our misery, 
 but could be consoled by not the most distant hope of 
 audience and acceptance. It has, however, pleased God 
 to bridge this gulf which separated us from Him, and 
 which would otherwise have been forever impassable 
 by us. In the mediation of His dear Son, who, being 
 God and man in one person, was competent to reconcile 
 us to His Father, we have a way of access opened to 
 
266 Sermons 
 
 us through which we are again privileged to approach 
 the divine throne with our supplications and our 
 prayers. The atoning blood of Jesus removes the guilt 
 of the believer and pleads for his acceptance with melt- 
 ing accents and resistless power. To offer prayer 
 without a reliance upon the person and the work of the 
 great Mediator is to bar the door of audience against 
 ourselves. Reliance upon His atoning merits is abso- 
 lutely necessary, therefore, to the existence of true and 
 effectual prayer. Having, therefore, brethren, says 
 the Apostle Paul, boldness to enter into the holiest of 
 all by the blood of Jesus, let us draw near. And let it 
 be also borne in mind that had we not in the person of 
 the Lord Jesus a righteous advocate on high, a mer- 
 ciful and faithful high-priest who, having passed 
 through the heavens, appears for us in His Father's 
 presence, no prayers that we could offer would rise into 
 those holy courts. Polluted as we are in our persons 
 and defiled as we are in our best services, it is out of the 
 question for us to approach directly to the throne of 
 the majesty on high. It is the province of the great 
 Intercessor to offer His blood as the reason of the sin- 
 ner's accepted approach, to take into His own priestly 
 hands the prayers of the suppliant, and perfuming 
 them with the incense of His glorious sacrifice to 
 present them before His Father's throne. True prayer, 
 then, my friends, involves a heartfelt recognition of the 
 advocacy of the great Redeemer, and an humble depen- 
 dence for acceptance upon His availing intercession. 
 
 IV. The last element which I shall mention as neces- 
 sary to the existence of true prayer is the gracious 
 assistance of the Holy Spirit. Blinded by sin as we 
 are, we would, in ourselves, be ignorant of the objects 
 for which we should pray, and be unable, did we know 
 
Girardeau 267 
 
 them, to pray in an acceptable manner. The apostle 
 teaches us that it is one part of the condescending and 
 merciful office of God's blessed Spirit to supply these 
 wants. "Likewise," says he, "the Spirit also helpeth our 
 infirmities; for we know not what we should pray for 
 as we ought, but the Spirit Himself maketh interces- 
 sion for us with groanings that cannot be uttered." 
 From this consoling passage we learn that coming into 
 our hearts as the promised "Spirit of grace and of 
 supplication," the Holy Ghost graciously helj^s us while 
 struggling under our infirmities, while conscious of our 
 unworthiness and ashamed to appear before God, while 
 vainly endeavoring to collect our scattered thoughts 
 and wandering affections, and almost hopeless in the 
 effort to school our stammering tongues to utter the 
 language of sincere petition. He illuminates our souls 
 with a knowledge of our real wants, and stimulates our 
 desires for that grace which alone is able to relieve 
 them. And then remaining in us, — what wondrous 
 mercy that such dullness and reluctance to pray and 
 proneness to sin as we constantly oppose to His heav- 
 enly offices do not drive Him from us in unappeasable 
 anger ! — remaining with us. He responds from the 
 depths of our poor, sinful hearts to the pleas that Jesus 
 pours out for us in the heavens and makes intercessions 
 for us with unutterable groanings. 
 
268 Sermons 
 
 THE SPIRIT OF PRAYER: OR THE 
 
 MANNER IN WHICH IT OUGHT 
 
 TO BE PERFORMED 
 
 Hebrews, x : 22. ^'Let us draw near with a true hearty 
 in full assurance of faith^ having our hearts sprinkled 
 from an evil conscience^ and our bodies washed with 
 pure water.'''' 
 
 In the words immediately preceding the text the 
 apostle, as I endeavored to show in the last discourse, 
 indicates the gromids of acceptable prayer. They are, 
 first, the atoning death of the great Mediator, forcibly 
 expressed by the words, '"the blood of Jesus"; and, 
 secondly, the presidency of Christ as a great High 
 Priest over the house of God in all that pertains to the 
 offering of worship. And the warrant which we have 
 to approach God in reliance upon these grounds is 
 derived from His own invitations, commands, and 
 promises. Your attention is now asked to a considera- 
 tion of the question, A\Tiat is the spirit of true and 
 acceptable prayer? How should we pray? In what 
 manner should we attempt to discharge this all- 
 important duty? In answering these questions I shall 
 follow the order of statement observed in the text. 
 
 I. In the first place, in conformity to the exhortation 
 of the inspired apostle, we should earnestly endeavor, 
 in all our prayers, to "draw near" unto God. 
 
 This evidently implies that we should avail ourselves 
 of that perfect liberty of access to God which is granted 
 to us under the present dispensation in consequence of 
 the comi^leted mediatorial work of Christ, and His 
 
Girardeau 269 
 
 prevalent advocacy of our cause in the heavenly Holy 
 of Holies. In the whole of this suggestive passage a 
 contrast is drawn between the restricted worship of 
 the old economy and the untrammelled freedom of our 
 approach to God under the provisions of the new. 
 Not that it is by any means implied that the way to 
 God through prayer was unknown to the saints of 
 the former dispensation, or that there were not con- 
 spicuous examples of the performance of this duty 
 before the advent and death of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, David, Daniel and a 
 host of others, were remarkable exemplars of the fervor 
 and the efficacy of prayer. Every believer during the 
 past dispensations of the Gospel enjoyed access to a 
 prayer-hearing God. We do not differ from them in 
 the fact that we can come to God in supplication while 
 they could not; but our state is discriminated from 
 theirs by the consideration that as a result of the accom- 
 plished sacrifice of Christ w^e have greater liberty, a 
 bolder confidence in drawing near to God. We are not 
 now admitted into the holiest of all only after the lapse 
 of protracted intervals, and upon the occasion of 
 solemn and national lustrations. We are not deterred 
 from drawing nigh the blood-besprinkled mercy seat 
 by a veil which dripped with blood and a glory which 
 forbade the approach of the ordinary worshipper. We 
 come not as the Israelite did, even when represented by 
 the august High Priest, only to the symbols of the 
 divine presence. Nor are we obliged to conform, as a 
 prerequisite to acceptable petition, to the requirements 
 of a cumbersome and jjainful ritual, to present daily 
 the blood of animal sacrifices and to furnish the num- 
 berless offerings exacted upon pain of death by the 
 rigid statutes of the Mosaic institute. On the contrary, 
 
270 Sermons 
 
 we are privileged to come unto God, to approach into 
 the holiest of all every day and every moment. No inter- 
 posed veil stands between the worshipper and the inner- 
 most sanctuary. The flesh of Jesus has been rent and 
 the veil exists no more, or exists only as an open door 
 through which our High Priest passed into the heavens 
 and through which all His people are invited to enter 
 with Him — a privilege now enjoyed by faith, and 
 actually possessed at the personal passage of believers 
 at death into the heavenly sanctuary. We come not 
 now, as of old, into contact with the symbols of the 
 divine j^resence, but into the very presence of a gracious 
 and reconciled God. . No blood of daily sacrifices is 
 required at our hands, nor need the smoke of the morn- 
 ing and the evening oblation ascend to God; we come 
 through the sacrifice of Jesus which was offered once 
 for all, and the infinite merit of which opens the way 
 for the advance of every true believer, and the submis- 
 sion of every true petition. What an extraordinary 
 privilege, my brethren, do we thus possess ! A privi- 
 lege denied, in its full extent, to the saintly patriarchs, 
 prophets, and servants of God in time past, but now 
 freely granted to the humblest believer in the atoning 
 Lamb. How great will be our guilt and folly if we 
 neglect to avail ourselves of this liberty of worship and 
 fail to draw near unto God ! 
 
 It is also implied, in drawing near to God, that we 
 endeavor to attain to nothing short of an intimate per- 
 sonal communion with the Father of our spirits. We 
 have seen that the guilt of the believer is fully expiated 
 by the blood of Jesus, and the pardon of the believer is 
 actually secured for him by the priestly intercessions 
 of his great High Priest. God is, therefore, no longer 
 an unpropitiated judge. He is a reconciled God and a 
 
Girardeau 271 
 
 tender and pitiful father. It has been said that the 
 style by which the Old Testament saints addressed the 
 Deity was — the God of Abraham, of Isaac and of 
 Jacob, but that that emi3loyed by believers in the New 
 Dispensation is — the God and Father of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ. "Go to my brethren," said Jesus to Mary at 
 the sepulchre on the morning of the resurrection, '"go 
 to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto My 
 Father and your Father, and to My God and your 
 God." "Blessed," says the Apostle Peter, "be the God 
 and Father of our Lord eTesus Christ, which, according 
 to His abundant mercy, hath begotten us again unto 
 a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from 
 the dead." Our sins estranged us from Him and drove 
 us into exile from His paternal presence and from the 
 tokens of His fatherly love. In Christ He is recon- 
 ciled to us and admits us to His gracious presence. Our 
 communion with Him is not only restored, but en- 
 hanced and enlarged. "Truly," exclaims the Apostle 
 John, in appreciation of this illustrious privilege, "our 
 fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus 
 Christ. The great God now regards us as children 
 adopted in His Son and beloved for His sake. As 
 children, therefore, are entitled to enter into their 
 father's presence, to invade, so to speak, his very 
 privacy, and to come before him with filial confidence 
 at all times with their petitions, so are we, my brethren, 
 authorized to aj)proach our heavenly Father, to hold 
 personal communion with Him, and freely and fully 
 to present our prayers and make known our wants. 
 Nor should we ever be satisfied unless in" our worship 
 we have sensibly attained to this sacred yet intimate 
 fellowship with our God, have been enabled to talk to 
 
272 Sermons 
 
 Him as children to a parent, and have thus consciously 
 realized the fact that we have drawn near unto Him, 
 
 In connection with this point, it may be remarked, 
 that drawing near to God supposes not a perfunctory 
 performance of prayer, dictated by the demands of 
 custom or a cold and formal sense of obligation, but a 
 kindling of the emotions which naturally spring from 
 near and hol}^ intercourse with Him. In coming near 
 to Him in personal communion we are attracted by His 
 infinite glory, beauty and loveliness, are powerfully 
 drawn to Him by sentiments of gratitude and love, and 
 secure that moved and elevated state of the affections 
 which renders prayer an actual joy- and best prepares 
 us for the duties, the conflicts and the trials of life. 
 Without some such experience as this, though the 
 fundamental elements of prayer may not be entirely 
 absent, we fail to discharge the duty in such a manner 
 as to entitle it to be described as a drawing near of the 
 soul unto God. 
 
 II. The second element in the spirit of true prayer, 
 which is mentioned by the aspostle, is that we should 
 come to God "with true hearts." There are two things 
 which are suggested by these words : in the first place, 
 that in prayer, our hearts should be true to God; and 
 in the second place, that we should be true to ourselves. 
 
 That our worship should be acceptable it is neces- 
 sary that it should be that of the heart. It is the lan- 
 guage of the heart which God expects, and no other 
 language, whether it be that of outward services or of 
 words, is ever acceptable to Him except as the medium 
 of His own appointment through which the heart 
 utters itself to Him. Nor is it only the worship of the 
 heart which He demands. The heart itself must be 
 characterized bv truth. That our hearts should be true 
 
Girardeau 273 
 
 to God, it is essential that they should, in the prayers 
 they urge, be conformed to the nature and perfections 
 of God, to the relations which we sustain to Him, to 
 the requirements of His word, and to the really existing 
 condition of our own souls in His sight. 
 
 It deserves to be considered, then, that our hearts are 
 true to God in prayer when the}^ recognize Him in His 
 spirituality and render to Him a spiritual worship 
 which corresponds with His nature. "The hour 
 cometh," says our Savior, "and now is when the true 
 worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in 
 truth; for the Father seeketh such to worship Him. 
 God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must wor- 
 ship Him in spirit and in truth." It is not so much 
 required of us that we worship in this or that place, 
 in Jerusalem or Samaria; nor that we employ this or 
 that external mode of addressing God; what He does 
 expect of us as absolutely indispensable to any worship 
 at all, is that as He is a pure and intelligent Spirit, 
 our spirits should hold true and genuine communion 
 with Him. 
 
 It ought also to be noticed that the spirituality of the 
 divine nature makes it requisite that our hearts, if they 
 would be true to God, should divest themselves of those 
 vain and unscriptural imaginations and conceptions by 
 which material properties are attached to Him. I am 
 not unaware, as our Savior possesses a human nature, 
 and that nature is represented as being in a certain 
 locality designated as heaven, and as being the medium 
 through which the divine giorj is manifested to the 
 celestial worshippers, that it would be unscriptural 
 and extravagant to say that such conceptions, so far 
 as they apply to this mode of Christ's existence, are 
 illegitimate. The truth is, that the facts of the case and 
 
274 Sermons 
 
 our own mental natures necessitate them. We cannot 
 think of Christ without associating with EQm corporeal 
 qualities. But what 1 would urge is this, that worship 
 rendered to God as God must recognize His spirit- 
 uality, and that we ought to labor to free ourselves 
 from those imagings of His essential nature which 
 degrade or limit it hj the ascription to it of material 
 qualities. When we are privileged to draw most near 
 to God we feel that in Him we live and move and have 
 our being, and that He is restricted to no place and no 
 material forms in the manifestation of His presence 
 and the exhibition of His glory. Of course, this view 
 of the spirituality of the divine nature and the spiritual 
 worship which truth requires will exclude all impious 
 attempts, on any pretence whatsoever, to frame some 
 material image of God by the efforts of human art 
 through which we may conceive ourselves better able 
 to approach Him or to attain the sense of nearness to 
 Him. Now, as of old, the command of God is thou 
 shalt not make unto thee any graven image : thou shalt 
 not bow down thyself to it or serve it. 'Whatever may 
 be pleaded for these painted or sculptured representa- 
 tions of an immaterial Being, their tendency necessarily 
 is to the destruction of spiritual worship; and the 
 blinded, fascinated and imbruted faculties lose at last 
 all capacity for true and heartfelt worship. These 
 words may not be gratuitous. Prophecy informs us 
 that the time is coming — and there are not a few who 
 think it not far distant, — when these old and settled 
 principles of Protestants will be brought to a crucial 
 test. To worship the image of Antichrist will then be 
 to live, to refuse it homage ^vill be to die. Haj^py he 
 who will consent to die that he mav forever live ! 
 
Girardeau 275 
 
 It merits our consideration, too, that in order that 
 our hearts should be true to God in prayer, they should 
 recognize His greatness, majesty, holiness and glory, 
 and worship Him "with reverence and godly fear." 
 Liberty of access to Him by no means implies that we 
 are warranted in approaching Him with thoughtless- 
 ness and rashness. We are never to forget the great 
 and terrible name of the Lord our God. He is iti 
 heaven, and we upon earth ; He the infinite God filling 
 immensity with His presence, and we insignificant 
 worms of the dust, debased by sin even unto hell, and 
 dignified and ennobled only by the gracious notice 
 which He is pleased to take of us. His glory fills the 
 heavens and the most exalted principalities of that 
 celestial state approach Him with reverence and awe, 
 and bending in the light of His majesty, cry, Holy, 
 holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. It becomes us, 
 truth requires it of us, to come unto God with pro- 
 foundest humility, and to pay our homage to Him with 
 reverent and prostrate adoration. 
 
 I remark, further, that in order that our hearts may 
 be true to God in prayer, it is necessary that they 
 should be characterized by sincerity, and be free from 
 hypocrisy, double-dealing and formality. This involves 
 the necessity of being ever deeply convinced that our 
 secret motives, intents and thoughts are open to the 
 scrutiny of the all-seeing eye. "Thou God seest me." 
 "O Lord, Thou hast searched me and known me. Thou 
 knowest my down-sitting and my uprising ; Thou 
 understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest 
 my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with 
 all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, 
 but lo, O Lord, Thou knowest it altogether. Thou hast 
 beset me behind and before, and laid Thine hand upon 
 
276 Sermons 
 
 me. Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit ? or whither 
 shall I flee from Thy presence? If I ascend up into 
 heaven, Thou art there; if I make my bed in hell, be- 
 hold Thou art there. If I take the wings of the morn- 
 ing and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even 
 there shall Thy hand lead me and Thy right hand shall 
 hold me. If I say, surely the darkness shall cover me ; 
 even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the dark- 
 ness hideth not from Thee; the darkness and the light 
 are both alike to Thee." Were we always properly 
 impressed by the truth conveyed in these striking words 
 of the Psalmist, we should less seldom vitiate our 
 prayers and vacate them of efficacy by the insincerity 
 and hypocrisy which may be mingled with them. It is 
 frequently the case that while we pray to be delivered 
 from sin, our hearts secretly cling to it and are reluc- 
 tant to give it up; so that we should be disappointed 
 by receiving the answer which we seek with our lips. 
 And not only is this the case in specific cases, but a 
 secret regard for sin operates to the destruction of all 
 truthfulness of heart in prayer, and closes the ear of 
 God against our petitions. "If," says David, "I regard 
 iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me." This 
 is a species of insincerity which consists in pretending 
 to desire what we do not, and it is as abhorrent as it is 
 patent to Him who desireth truth in the inward parts. 
 On the other hand, we may be equally guilty of insin- 
 cerity by seeking from motives which God cannot 
 approve the things which we really desire. This sort 
 of insincerity is designated by the Apostle James when 
 he assigns a reason why some of our prayers fail of 
 receiving an answer, "Ye ask, and receive not, because 
 ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts." 
 It would be interesting to inquire what motives come 
 
Girardeau 277 
 
 under this class, what prayers are thus invalidated, 
 but the scope of this discourse precludes the discussion. 
 Suffice it to say that any state of the soul which consists 
 with a love of sin, with an indisposition to submit to 
 the divine will, and with a refusal to seek the divine 
 glory as our great and ultimate end, is characterized 
 by an untruthfulness to God which hinders the success 
 of our prayers. We are not true to God in our prayers, 
 if we love sin instead of hating it, if we seek the grati- 
 fication of our own wills rather than the accomplish- 
 ment of God's will, and if we desire our own reputation 
 and advancement rather than the glory of God's great 
 name. 
 
 The exhortation of the apostle, it may be observed in 
 the next place, supposes that in our prayers we should 
 be true to ourselves, both in regard to our own personal 
 necessities and the needs of those who are related to us. 
 This implies such a knowledge of our own state, such a 
 conviction of our own wants, as will lead to fervent 
 earnestness and importunate ceaselessness in pressing 
 our petitions. It is evident that in older to pray as 
 we should, we ought, in some degree, to understand our 
 necessities, and to feel them. It becomes us, therefore, 
 to examine into the condition of our souls, that we may 
 be prepared to plead with God. And then when 
 apprized of our wants, we should not be satisfied with 
 merely mentioning them at the throne of grace, or 
 coldly asking their supply; we should urge our suits 
 with fervent earnestness. We have eminent examples 
 of this manner of presenting prayer in the saints men- 
 tioned in Scripture. The most illustrious case is that 
 of the Lord Jesus Himself, who is represented as 
 having spent much of His time in wrestling with God 
 and as having, in the days of His flesh, offered up 
 
278 Sermons 
 
 prayers with strong cryings and tears unto Him that 
 was able to save Him from death. We are commanded 
 to ask that we may receive, to seek that we may find, to 
 knock that it may be opened to us. Truthfulness to 
 our own wants requires that we should be instant, that 
 is, urgent in prayer, that like Jacob we should wrestle 
 with God, and like Jesus pour out our supplications 
 with strong cryings and tears. 
 
 To be true to our own necessities, furthermore, we 
 must continue importunately and unremittingly to 
 pray. Our needs are always pressing and demand 
 unceasing prayer. And He spake a parable unto them 
 to this end, that men ought always to pray and not 
 to faint. Like the poor widow in this parable, we 
 should, in spite of discouragements and delays, of 
 baffled expectations and disappointed hopes, continue 
 to plead our cause until the answer is in some form 
 received. Perhaps there is no one duty which is more 
 frequently inculcated in the Scriptures than that of 
 importunate and incessant prayer. "Praying always," 
 says Paul, "with all prayer and supplication in the 
 spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance." 
 "Evening and morning and at noon," says David, "will 
 I pray and cry aloud." Daniel kneeled upon his knees 
 three times a day, and prayed and gave thanks. "Con- 
 tinue in prayer and watch in the same." "The end of 
 all things is at hand ; be ye therefore sober and watch 
 unto prayer." 
 
 III. In the third place, we are exhorted, in the text, 
 to draw near to God in prayer "in full assurance of 
 faith." The aspostle does not here, as I conceive, allude 
 to what is ordinarily understood as assurance, that is, 
 the certain persuasion of our being the children of God, 
 though a feature of Christian experience clearly 
 
Girardeau 279 
 
 enounced in other passages of Scripture as one which 
 we should labor diligently to attain. His meaning in 
 this place, I take it, is that in approaching God in 
 prayer, we should repose undoubting reliance upon the 
 death and intercessions of the Lord Jesus as sufficient 
 grounds for our petitions, a childlike and unquestion- 
 ing confidence in the willingness of our great High 
 Priest to present and of our Heavenly Father to accept 
 our prayers, and a firm belief in the promises of God 
 to answer us favorably so far as may be for His glory 
 and our highest good. Doubt upon these points is a 
 hinderance to the proper performance of this great 
 duty. The limitations which God may see fit to impose 
 upon the fulfilment of His promises have already, in a 
 previous discourse, been fully suggested. He best 
 knows what is consistent with His glory and the wel- 
 fare of His people, and He reserves to Himself the 
 sovereign prerogative to answer prayer in accordance 
 with His righteous will. But even in view of these 
 limitations — in full recognition of the divine sover- 
 eignty, and in profound submission to the diAdne will, 
 it is alike our duty and our privilege, in all cases in 
 which we are convinced that we offer petitions which 
 are not inconsistent with the revealed will of God, to 
 pray in full assurance of faith. This duty is frequently 
 inculcated by the Savior. "All things whatsoever ye 
 shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive." "If 
 ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall 
 ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you." The 
 Apostle James, in directing us to pray for wisdom, 
 bids us ask in faith, nothing wavering; and declares 
 that doubt is fatal to success. "For he that wavereth 
 is like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and 
 tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive 
 
280 Sermons 
 
 anything of the Lord. A double-minded man is un- 
 stable in all his ways." It is obvious that a general 
 rule is here delivered which, although applied by the 
 apostle to a special case, is capable of universal appli- 
 cation. My brethren, we are conscious of infinite guilt- 
 iness, infinite shortcomings, and infinite worthlessness. 
 Satan infuses doubts into our minds and our own 
 hearts tempt us to skepticism. Let us believe. In the 
 blood of Jesus and the intercession of Jesus we have 
 sufficient grounds for approaching God. Let us rely 
 upon them. Our great High Priest and righteous ad- 
 vocate is willing to receive our prayers and present 
 them before the throne. Let us trust Him. Our recon- 
 ciled God and Father in Christ Jesus is ready to accept 
 our petitions. Let us confide in Him. To doubt is to 
 do injustice to a Savior's work and the dispositions of 
 a Father's heart. Come, let us draw near to God in full 
 assurance of faith. 
 
 IV. In the fourth and last place, the apostle encour- 
 ages us to come to God in prayer, "having our hearts 
 sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies 
 washed with pure water." 
 
 There are two cases in which the heart is so in- 
 fluenced by an evil conscience as to be hindered in 
 endeavoring to offer acceptable prayer. The first is 
 that in which the conscience convicts us of guilt, accuses 
 us of it, and reflecting the sentence of the broken law, 
 condemns us for its existence. This necessarily pro- 
 duces a timid and slavish condition of the soul, which 
 is utterly inconsistent with the enjoyment of that filial 
 confidence without which it is impossible to draw near 
 to God with liberty and boldness. The blood of Jesus 
 sprinkled, through faith, upon the conscience, satisfies 
 its demands, silences its accusations, and annuls its 
 
Girardeau 281 
 
 condemning sentence. We are, in consequence, no 
 longer ashamed or afraid to come unto God. The blood 
 of Jesus, as the apostle says in another passage, purges 
 the conscience from dead works to serve the living God. 
 The soul is no longer slain under the curse of a violated 
 and unsatisfied law. The blood of atonement applied 
 by the grace of the Spirit has rendered it a living soul. 
 Its works are consequently living works and suited to 
 be presented to a living God. In coming to God by 
 prayer, therefore, we should labor so to apprehend the 
 atoning merits of Christ as to be delivered from an 
 enslaving bondage to an accusing and condemning 
 conscience. 
 
 The second case in which liberty in prayer is impeded 
 by an evil conscience is that in which, through the 
 special pleadings of a perverted understanding and a 
 corrupt heart, the conscience is deceived and induced 
 to tolerate the soul in the secret indulgence of sin. So 
 long as this condition lasts, no access to God in prayer 
 can be enjoyed. The heart regards iniquity, and God 
 will not, consequently, hear our prayers. The blood 
 of Jesus sprinkling the conscience purges it of its 
 blindness, clears up its percej^tions of the real facts in 
 ,the case and leads it to continue its rebukes of the sin 
 until it is repented of and forsaken. The defiled con- 
 dition of the heart is thus removed, and liberty in 
 prayer is the result. We should draw near to God, 
 therefore, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil 
 conscience by the blood of Jesus. 
 
 To this the apostle adds the necessity of having our 
 bodies washed with pure water. Dr. Owen is of 
 opinion that the allusion in these words is not to the 
 purification which is symbolized by the Avashing of 
 
282 Sermons 
 
 baptism. It may be that it is included in the idea pre- 
 sented by the apostle; but I am inclined to think that 
 that was not its chief significance, and to agree with the 
 great theologian just mentioned in supposing that 
 Paul's meaning is that in coming to God in prayer, we 
 should be cleansed, not only from the guilt of those 
 secret sins by which the heart is defiled, but also from 
 that of those more open and grosser sins which the body 
 is instrumental in committing. The blood of Christ 
 applied by the grace of the Holy Ghost washes us from 
 the pollution communicated by these sins. And as it 
 is necessary that in praying acceptably we should not 
 secretly regard iniquity in our hearts, it is equally 
 incumbent upon us, if we would pray aright, to resist 
 the solicitations of those sins of the flesh from which 
 we have been purified by the blood of Jesus and the 
 washing of the Holy Ghost. It is plain that allowed 
 indulgence in such sins bars the way of access to God. 
 Let us, therefore, draw near to God, having our bodies 
 washed with pure water. 
 
Girardeau 283 
 
 THE GROUNDS OF PRAYER 
 
 Hebrews, x : 19-22. ''''Having^ therefore^ hrethren^ 
 boldness to enter into the holiest hy the hlood of Jesus, 
 by a new and living ivay, which He hath consecrated 
 for us through the veil, that is to say, His flesh; and 
 having a high priest over the house of God; let us 
 draw neary 
 
 In a previous discourse the question of the nature 
 of prayer was considered. I endeavored to show that 
 true pra^-er consists, in the first place, in the offering 
 unto God of our real desires grounded in the felt con- 
 viction of our wants; in the second place, in the offer- 
 ing of our desires for such things as are agreeable to 
 the will of God, as are conformable to that will as 
 expressly revealed in the written Word, or entertained 
 in profound submission to it, as it is a secret, decretive 
 and sovereign will; in the third place, in a believing 
 reliance upon the atoning merits and the priestly ad- 
 vocacy of Christ ; and in the fourth place, in an humble 
 dependence upon the gracious assistance of the Holy 
 Spirit, who helpeth our infirmities, teaches us what 
 things to pray for as we ought, and maketh interces- 
 sions for us with groanings that cannot be uttered. 
 
 Your attention on this occasion, my friends, will be 
 directed to the question, "Wliat are the grounds of 
 prayer ? What is the foundation on which it rests, and 
 what the reasons which lead us to hope that our peti- 
 tions will meet a favorable reception and result in such 
 blessings as God sees it for His glory and our welfare 
 to bestow ? I may here mention, by way of explanation, 
 that in treating the question of the nature of prayer, 
 
284 Sermons 
 
 some notice of its grounds was taken, but chiefly in 
 reference to the internal exercises of the suppliant, as 
 all true petition necessarily involves the reliance of the 
 heart upon these grounds as its warrant for presenting 
 it. In the present discourse, the grounds themselves of 
 jDrayer will be more fully and directly considered. 
 What are they, and how do they legitimate our access 
 to God in supplication? 
 
 I. In the passage before us in which the apostle 
 affectionately exhibits the warrant of all acceptable 
 approach to God, he indicates the first ground of prayer 
 as being the mediatorial death of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 Having, therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the 
 holiest by the blood of Jesus, let us draw near. 
 
 The inquiry properly emerges before we proceed im- 
 mediately to consider this point, whether acceptable 
 j)ra3^er may in any case be offered without reference 
 to the offices of a competent mediator? With the Word 
 of God as our guide, I cannot see how this is possible, 
 on the supposition that the suppliant is a sinner. The 
 ground has been taken by some, as by Lord Bacon in 
 his confession of faith, that no creature, however holy, 
 can approach God except through the intervention of a 
 mediator. "I believe," says that remarkable man, 
 "that God is so holy, pure and jealous, as it is impos- 
 sible for Him to be pleased in any creature, though the 
 work of His OAvn hands; so that neither angel, man, 
 nor world, could stand, or can stand, one moment in 
 His eyes without beholding the same in the face of a 
 mediator, and, therefore, that before Him, with whom 
 all things are present, the Lamb of God was slain 
 before all worlds." In this view some eminent theo- 
 logians concur. But whatever difference of opinion 
 may exist upon this question, it cannot be disputed that 
 
Girardeau 285 
 
 the Scriptures definitely teach that no sinner can 
 approach the holiness of God except through the great 
 Mediator. 
 
 There were two disastrous results which were accom- 
 plished by the fact of sin : in the first place, it erected 
 legal obstacles insuperable by the sinner in the way 
 of his access to God ; and in the second place, it effected 
 a deadly change in his own spiritual nature. Both 
 these difficulties obviously require to be removed before 
 a sinner can approach God with acceptable prayer. 
 In order to achieve the removal of the first, that is the 
 legal obstacles which oppose his access to God, he must 
 produce an adequate satisfaction to the divine justice, 
 and an adequate reparation to the divine government. 
 This he cannot do, for two reasons: a finite creature 
 cannot furnish such an expiration of guilt as would 
 meet the demands of an infinite law, and a guilty 
 creature, from the nature of the case, can offer no 
 atonement for guilt, which could secure him absolu- 
 tion and acquittal. All that the sinner can do is to 
 submit to punishment in the hope that it may event- 
 ually prove sufficient to expiate his guilt; but as sin, 
 by reason of its infraction of infinite obligations, is an 
 infinite evil, and the agent who performs it is a finite 
 creature, the punishment must, if inflicted at all, be 
 necessarily eternal. So far, therefore, as any attempt 
 on his own part to remove the obstacles which hinder 
 his approach to God is concerned, his condition is 
 utterly hopeless. His sin has reared betwixt him and 
 his Maker a partition as high as heaven and as deep as 
 hell, and no effort of his own can avail to take it away. 
 Unless, therefore, a competent mediator is provided 
 who removes these gigantic barriers which oppose the 
 sinner's access to God, his prayers, supposing it possible 
 
286 Sermons 
 
 for him to offer them, can never rise into the ear of the 
 Lord of Sabaoth. He has no warrant in himself for 
 addressing the offended Majesty on high which is not 
 invalidated by guilt, no ground for prayer which is 
 not rendered worthless by sin. The acceptance of a sin- 
 ner's prayer on the part of God involves his salvation ; 
 but salvation cannot be obtained except through an 
 adequate atonement. Such an atonement the sinner 
 cannot furnish. The conclusion is that he cannot offer 
 acceptable prayer. 
 
 The case may be stated differently. The very first 
 petition which it behooves a sinner to present to God 
 is one for pardon. Unless his inexcusable guilt be for- 
 given he cannot become an accepted worshipper. But 
 forgiveness cannot be secured without atonement. 
 "Without shedding of blood is no remission." As, 
 then, the sinner cannot be pardoned except on the 
 ground of the expiation of his guilt, and such an ex- 
 piation it is not in his power to furnish, even his prayer 
 for pardon cannot, on any merely natural ground, be 
 accepted. He is shut up to reliance upon the interpo- 
 sition of a mediator. 
 
 The second difficulty which has been mentioned as 
 opposing the presentation of acceptable prayer on the 
 part of a sinner is the fact that sin has effected a deadly 
 change in his spiritual nature. This renders it impos- 
 sible that he should pray aright except through the 
 influence of a divinely- appointed mediation. Admit- 
 ting the existence of sin as justly exposing the guilty 
 to the divine displeasure, there are many who advocate 
 the opinion — and it is one which seems natural to a 
 mind unenlightened by grace — that sincere repentance 
 will avert the consequences of transgression, and open 
 the way for the restoration of the offender to the favor 
 
Girardeau 287 
 
 of God and his access to Him in prayer. Penitence 
 for sin is, in this case, the ground upon which prayer 
 is offered, and expected to be heard. Those who so 
 smoothly and fluently declaim upon the benevolence of 
 God and His willingness to accept the professions of a 
 rej^entance which is exercised in accordance with 
 merely natural principles forget what the Scriptures 
 so clearly proclaim, that it is impossible for the sinner 
 to repent at all, except in consequence of the applica- 
 tion of those provisions which the mediation of Christ 
 alone supplies. The very first effect which sin produces 
 is to entail spiritual death upon the transgressor, a 
 death which renders it impossible for him, in his own 
 strength, to perform any spiritual act which would be 
 acceptable to God. "He is dead in trespasses and sins" ; 
 and as repentance is a spiritual act and one which, 
 whenever truly performed, is acceptable in God's sight, 
 he cannot, of himself, repent. Repent, after a fashion, 
 he may ; but repentance from a motive which God does 
 not sanction, and in order to an end which God does 
 not approve, is one thing, and true and genuine repent- 
 ance is quite another. And so the sinner may pray. 
 Most men pray after a sort. The question, however, is 
 not as to the possibility of some natural ground of 
 prayer which men may devise, but as to the ground of 
 that duty which God authorizes in His Word. Now, 
 we are expressly taught that repentance is only possible 
 through the mediation of Christ, which opens the w^ay 
 for its exercise, and provides that agency of the divine 
 spirit which alone enables the sinner to produce it. As, 
 therefore, true penitence for sin is impossible apart 
 from mediation, it cannot exist as a natural ground for 
 acceptable prayer. He who depends upon such a war- 
 rant for approach to God must find himself sadly and 
 bitterly mistaken. 
 
288 Sermons 
 
 Is there, then, no reason in the nature of things, aside 
 from the mediation of the Redeemer, which will impart 
 validity to our petitions? How, then, it may be asked, 
 can any man who is not a believer in Christ offer prayer 
 at all? How can the unconverted pray with the hope 
 that their petitions will be answered ? To this it might 
 be replied that even the ungodly who are seeking sal- 
 vation may, and do, pray with professed dependence 
 upon the mediation of Christ. The difficulty may, 
 however, still be pressed, that if they are in a state of 
 spiritual death, and even their prayers are destitute 
 of spiritual value, it is inconceivable, upon the view 
 which has been advanced, how their petitions can be 
 accepted and answered. I shall endeavor to obviate 
 this difficulty in a subsequent part of the discourse. 
 The exposition of the doctrine enounced in the text 
 will lead us to its satisfactory solution. 
 
 Let us recur, now, to the position of the apostle that 
 the first ground of acceptable prayer is the mediatorial 
 death of the Lord Jesus ; that we have boldness to enter 
 into the holiest of all by the blood of Jesus, by a new 
 and living way which He hath opened for us through 
 the vail, that is to say, His flesh. The "blood of Jesus" 
 is but a striking expression for His atoning death. As 
 His blood was shed unto death, and the law declared 
 that without shedding of blood there is no remission of 
 sins, it is a favorite mode of statement by which the 
 apostle evinces the fact of the completed sacrifice of 
 Christ as a satisfaction for sin. 
 
 The influence of the work of Christ upon the access 
 of sinners to God in prayer is exhibited by the apostle 
 in an impressive comparison which he institutes 
 between the old and the new dispensations. There were 
 three great lessons which were conveyed through the 
 
Girardeau 289 
 
 sacrificial ritual of the Mosaic economy. The first was, 
 that God is a Being of infinite justice, purity and holi- 
 ness; that acceptable worship can be presented to Him 
 by sinners only through a competent atonement ren- 
 dered in blood; and that He had mercifully made 
 provision for the offering of such an expiatory sacrifice 
 in the death of His Son to be afterwards actually made 
 in the room of the guilty, and which was shadowed 
 forth by the victims daily slain in His courts, and daily 
 consumed upon His altars. The second lesson was, 
 that no acceptable worship could be offered to God 
 except through the mediatorial offices and worship of 
 a divinely-constituted priesthood, a fact which was 
 most solemnly impressed upon the minds of the people 
 through the awful services of the great day of annual 
 atonement, when the high priest alone, even of the 
 priestly order, arrayed in His sacerdotal vestments, 
 and bearing in his hands the blood of sacrifice, and the 
 incense of intercession, was permitted to turn aside the 
 bloody veil and enter into the holiest of all to make 
 expiation for the guilt of the congregation and, as their 
 only authorized organ, to present their worship to God. 
 The third lesson was, that the sacrifice of animals was 
 intrinsically worthless, and derived its value alone 
 from its typical relation to the death of Christ ; that the 
 blood of bulls and goats, of heifers and calves, could 
 not in itself avail to take away sin ; and that, therefore, 
 an impediment existed in the way of perfect liberty of 
 worship, and holy boldness in approaching God, until 
 the great mediation should be completed, the great 
 atonement offered, and the great intercession prosecuted 
 in the temple not made with hands. 
 
 All these features of the Jewish economy are dis- 
 tinctly intimated in the passage under consideration, 
 
290 Sermons 
 
 but as his purpose was not so much to indicate the com- 
 munit}' as the difference between the two dispensations, 
 he dwells more particularly upon the last. He shows 
 that the new is superior to the old in that it publishes 
 the actual accomplishment of that atonement which the 
 latter pointed to as a fact to come. The blood of the 
 great, the only intrinsically efficacious and sufficient 
 sacrifice has now been shed, and as a consequence all 
 sincere worshippers are entitled with boldness and 
 confidence to draw near to God. 
 
 The blood of Jesus, or what is the same thing, the 
 atoning death of Jesus, is an essential ground of prayer 
 for two reasons. In the first place, it effectually 
 removes those obstacles, arising from God's nature and 
 God's law, which forbade the aj^proach of sinners into 
 the divine presence. We have seen that unexpiated 
 guilt bars the door of access to God. Even the sinless 
 worshippers in the heavenly sanctuary approach Him 
 with reverential awe, and cherubim and seraphim cover 
 their faces with their wings in the dazzling light that 
 blazes from His throne. How can a sinner, blushing 
 with conscious guilt, confessedly a rebel against His 
 law and a traitor to His government, venture without 
 atonement into that insufferable presence? The holi- 
 ness, the ju'stice, the truth, the law of God, all conspire 
 to preclude his approach. The immutable perfections 
 of the divine nature and the irreversible principles of 
 the divine government lie in the way of his coming to 
 God, and he who dares to tread that way walks pre- 
 sumptuously in the road to death. These difficulties 
 are removed by the vicarious death of Jesus in the 
 behalf of sinners. It affords a complete and sufficient 
 sacrifice for sin. an effectual expiation of guilt. It 
 meets the uncompromising claims of divine justice, and 
 
Girardeau 291 
 
 satisfies the most rigorous demands of the divine law. 
 It renders it perfectly consistent with His changeless 
 attributes that God should hear the sinner who sues 
 for audience through the blood of Jesus. The cross of 
 Jesus is the passport of the guilty into the reconciled 
 presence of the great Judge, the name of Jesus the 
 countersign which admits him through watch and 
 ward into the palace of the Eternal King. The way 
 into the divine presence is no longer a way of death. 
 It is one of life. Jesus, says the apostle, hath conse- 
 crated for us a new and living way through the veil, 
 that is to say. His flesh. Let us dwell a moment on the 
 significance of these words as they furnish an impres- 
 sive though symbolical representation of the great 
 truth which I am endeavoring to expound. In the 
 arrangement of the Jewish tabernacle and temple there 
 w^as a threefold distribution of place. First there was 
 the outer court occupied by the congregation, in which 
 was the altar of sacrifice ; next the sanctuary, in which 
 the altar of incense stood, and lastly, the holy of holies, 
 or the most holy place, in which was the ark of the 
 covenant, the mercy-seat, overshadowed by cherubim, 
 and the awful symbols of the divine presence. There 
 was the luminous cloud of the Shechinah which 
 attested the glorious holiness of a present Deity. Be- 
 tween the holy of holies and the sanctuary was inter- 
 posed a heavy veil which, by divine statute, was kept 
 continually saturated with the blood of the sacrifices. 
 None dared to put aside that awful barrier to the im- 
 mediate presence of God but the high priest himself. 
 Even he ventured not to do it but when he was ex- 
 pressly commanded, and that only once a year on the 
 day of national atonement. To have done it at any 
 other time would have been instant death to him. And 
 
292 Sermons 
 
 when, in accordance with the requirement of the law, 
 he took in his priestly hands the blood of the sacrifice • 
 and the smoking incense, and reverently and trem- 
 blingly turned aside the sacred veil to enter into the 
 innermost sanctuary and ajDpear before God, none of the 
 priests, Levites 6r people dared to follow him thither. 
 The radiant cloud would have flashed vengefully into 
 their faces, and the bolts of divine wrath would have 
 leaped from its flaming bosom to check their presump- 
 tuous rashness by condign death. So long as the veil 
 remained unrent, liberty of approach into the presence 
 of God was denied to the worshipper. This signifi- 
 cantly inculcated the lesson that so long as the flesh of 
 Jesus was unrent, that is, while the death of Jesus was 
 not an accomplished fact, boldness of access to God 
 could not be the privilege of the sinner. The rending 
 of the flesh of Jesus, or, in other words. His atoning 
 death, removed the obstacles which lay in the way of 
 the worshipper's drawing near to God. The veil which 
 had separated the heavenly holy of holies from the 
 sanctuary and outer courts on earth is now rent, and 
 through it, as through an ever-open door, the vilest 
 sinner who trusts in the blood of Jesus is invited to 
 enter with his petitions into the immediate presence 
 of God. The Deity is there, but He is a propitiated 
 and reconciled God. The Shechinah is there, but it no 
 longer flashes its lightnings into the face of the ap- 
 proaching suppliant. 
 
 "No fiery vengeance now. 
 
 No burning wrath comes down"; 
 "No bolts to drive our guilty souls 
 To fiercer flames below." 
 
Girardeau 293 
 
 Another reason which may be briefly mentioned for 
 the fact that the atoning death of Jesus is a ground of 
 prayer lies in the consideration that it properly merits 
 a hearing for the petitions of those who trust in Him. 
 The co-presence of His divine nature with His human 
 rendered His sacrifice of Himself infinitely valuable 
 and meritorious. He through the eternal Spirit, says 
 the apostle, offered Himself without spot to God. His 
 divine nature was the altar Avhich sustained the gift 
 of His human nature and sanctified it to the great end 
 for which it was sacrificed. The prayers of the believer, 
 though worthless in themselves, are, when laid upon 
 the sacrifice of Christ, sanctified by the same altar. 
 The infinite merits of the atonement of Jesus impart 
 worth and dignity to his petitions, purchase for them 
 audience Avith God, and lend them their own rich per- 
 fume as they ascend before the throne of grace. 
 
 II. The second ground of prayer which the apostle 
 instances is the fact that we have a great High Priest 
 over the house of God. Jesus presides over the house 
 of God in all the arrangements which contemplate the 
 offering of worship. He is the public organ of the 
 church through whom all her worship of God is con- 
 ducted. And as it is necessary that one who discharges 
 this high office in the name and on the behalf of sinners 
 should be a priest whose distinctive province it is to 
 render worship by sacrifice, Jesus, as our great Priest, 
 first offered worship in His own person by the volun- 
 tary sacrifice of Himself upon the cross, and continues 
 now in the heavens, through the same medium, to urge 
 His sacerdotal pleas, and to present before His Father's 
 throne the homage, the prayers and the praises of 
 His people. There are several ends which are accom- 
 plished by the priestly presidency of Jesus over the 
 
294 Sermons 
 
 house of God, which render it one of the grounds of 
 acceptable prayer. In the first place, by His inter- 
 cessions. He actually procures for sinners that pardon 
 without which no available petition can be urged. He 
 presents in the holiest of all the proofs of His atoning 
 sacrifice, and the evidences of His completed media- 
 torial work. As it was necessary that He should have 
 somewhat to offer. He appears in the heavenly sanctu- 
 ary not without blood. He shows His wounded hands 
 and feet and side, and by these alffecting memorials of 
 Calvary pleads for the pardon and salvation of the 
 guilty and the lost. Faithful to His promise to His 
 Son, and ever ready to hear the prayers of this. His 
 anointed One, the Father puts into His hands the par- 
 don which He seeks, to be dispensed by Him to those 
 for whom He died. The death of Christ had removed 
 the obstacles that opposed the forgiveness of the sinner, 
 and His intercessory work as the complement of His 
 atonement actually obtains it for His people. 
 
 In the second place, as the public organ of worship. 
 He is the only medium through whom the prayers of 
 sinners can reach the Majesty on high. He presides 
 over the throne of grace sprinkled with His own aton- 
 ing blood and receives the prayers of those who come 
 unto God by Him. Attaching to them, intrinsically 
 worthless as they are, the infinite merits of His sacri- 
 fice and adding to them His own prevalent interces- 
 sions, He offers them as incense before His Father's 
 throne. It is thus, my brethren, our prayers are heard. 
 It is not so much we who pray as Jesus our High Priest 
 who prays for us. It is not in ourselves that we pre- 
 vail with God, it is Jesus who prevails with Him in our 
 poor name, and for our poor sake. It is this that gives 
 us heart to persevere in prayer. It is this that saves us 
 
Girardeau 295 
 
 from despair. We are so conscious that our prayers are 
 marred by weakness, carnality and sin, that we should 
 abandon the attempt to offer them at all were we not 
 supported by the conviction that they are received by 
 our great and merciful High Priest, that they are 
 presented by His hands, seconded by His merits, and 
 enforced by His pleas. 
 
 It may be added to these considerations that the 
 intercessions of Him who presides over the house of 
 God procure for us the influence of the Holy Spirit 
 by whom we are incited to pray, and taught how to 
 pray and what things to pray for; who intercedes for 
 the saints according to the will of God and makes inter- 
 cessions within us with unutterable groanings. We 
 are privileged to plead with God in view of the fact 
 that His own blessed Spirit indites our petitions, and 
 that, being thus prompted, they are according to His 
 mind. 
 
 We are now prepared to meet the difficulty suggested 
 in a previous part of this discourse, how, notwithstand- 
 ing the fact that the mediation of Christ is essential to 
 the offering of acceptable prayer, and that the unre- 
 generate who are spiritually dead and, therefore, 
 incapable of rendering spiritual worship to God, are 
 not only under obligation to pray, but are led earnestly 
 to pray and receive a gracious answer to their prayers. 
 The explanation is that Jesus, the great High Priest, 
 presents His blood in their behalf, sues out pardon for 
 them by His aA^ailing intercessions, and secures for 
 them the grace of the Holy Spirit who, coming, in the 
 first instance, not in answer to their prayers, but to the 
 prayers of the great Mediator, awakens in them a sense 
 of their spiritual wants, impels them to pray for divine 
 help, and enables them while struggling in supplica- 
 tion to believe in the person and trust in the merits of 
 
296 Sermons 
 
 the Savior, The people of God, while in- their uncon- 
 verted and ungodly condition, are accepted not because 
 of the efficacy of their prayers, but because Jesus has 
 previously prayed for them. This is the encouragement 
 which the unconverted sinner has in attempting to 
 pray. His prayers in themselves do not deserve an 
 answer. God might in justice reject them. But the 
 mediation and intercession of Christ render it con- 
 sistent with His perfections that He should receive the 
 sinner and hear his prayer. He meets him in Christ, 
 regards him in Christ, and blesses him for Christ's 
 sake. The love He bears His dear Son and the honor 
 he puts upon His atoning death and priestly interces- 
 sion cause Him to bow down His ear to the cry of the 
 wretched suppliant Avho prostrates himself at His feet. 
 
 "Having, therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into 
 the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living 
 way which He hath consecrated for us through the veil, 
 that is to say. His flesh; and having an high priest 
 over the house of God, let us draw near." The infinite 
 mercy of God which regarded us in our ruin has pro- 
 vided for us a way of access into His gracious and 
 reconciled presence; and having furnished us in the 
 death and intercession of His Son the grounds of 
 acceptable prayer, He invites, commands and urges us 
 to pray, adding His Avord of promise that if we present 
 our petitions in sincere reliance upon these grounds. He 
 will grant us those blessings which it is consistent with 
 His glory and our welfare to confer. 
 
 Should any now ask, What are the grounds of accep- 
 table pra3'er, the answer is, the atoning death and the 
 priestly advocacy of the great Mediator; and should 
 any inquire, ^^Tiat authority we have to pray, the reply 
 is, the invitation, command, and promise of Him w^ho 
 has furnished the grounds of prayer. 
 
Girardeau 297 
 
 THE EFFICACY OF PRAYER 
 
 James, v: 16. "T'/ie effectual^ ferve'rii prayer of a 
 righteous man availeth much.'''' 
 
 In the last discourse which, it may be remembered, 
 was occupied with the consideration of the spirit of 
 prayer, I endeavored to ehicidate the manner in which 
 tliis great duty ought to be performed. In the first 
 place, it was shown that in prayer we should draw near 
 to God; that we should avail ourselves of that perfect 
 liberty of access to Him which is granted to us under 
 the present dispensation in consequence of the accom- 
 plishment of the atoning work of Christ, and His 
 prevalent advocacy of our cause in the heavenly Holy 
 of Holies; that we should be satisfied with nothing 
 short of an intimate personal communion with the 
 Father of our spirits; and that we should strive to 
 attain that fervor of affection and kindling of emotion 
 which naturally spring from near and holy intercourse 
 with Him. In the second place, it was urged that we 
 should come to God with a true heart; Avith a heart 
 true to the spirituality of His nature and worshipping 
 Him in spirit and in truth; with a heart true to His 
 infinite greatness and glory, and serving Him with 
 reverence and godly fear; with a heart true to His 
 majesty, holiness and omniscience, and calling on 
 Him with a sincerity exclusive of formality, duplicity 
 and hj^pocrisy; that we should come with a heart 
 true to ourselves, a heart true to our real condition 
 of poverty, sinfulness and want, and pressing its peti- 
 tions with fervent earnestness and importunate cease- 
 lessness. In the third place, it was contended that we 
 
298 Sermons 
 
 should pray in full assurance of faith, that is to say, 
 in undoubting reliance upon the death and intercessions 
 of the Lord Jesus as sufficient grounds for our petitions, 
 in unquestioning confidence in the willingness of our 
 great High 1r*riest to present and of our heavenly 
 Father to accept our praj^ers, and with a firm belief in 
 the promises of God to answer us favorably so far as 
 may be for His glory and our good. In the fourth 
 place, it -u as seen that we should come to God having 
 our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience; that is, 
 with hearts discharged by the application of the blood 
 of atonement from the enslaving influence of a con- 
 demning conscience, and relieved of that condition in 
 which a misled conscience tolerates the indulgence of 
 sin; and that we should come having our bodies washed 
 Avith pure water, or, in other words, resisting the solic- 
 itations of those more open and grosser sins of the flesh 
 which it is the office of the blood of Jesus and the 
 grace of the Holy Spirit to wash away. 
 
 Your attention, on the present occasion, is invited to 
 a consideration of the efficacy of prayer. The text de- 
 clares that "the fervent, effectual prayer of a righteous 
 man availeth much." It has been remarked that there 
 is an apparent pleonasm in these words, that it is some- 
 what strange that the apostle should affirm that effica- 
 cious prayer is efficacious. I do not see that the criti- 
 cism is well taken. What he means to say is simph?^ 
 that it is not all prayer Avhich may be expected to avail 
 with God, but that which springs from a felt sense of 
 misery and want, and is therefore urged with heartfelt 
 earnestness and fervor. It is such prayer, when offered 
 by a righteous man — ope who relies upon the justify- 
 ing righteousness of Christ and is conscious of right- 
 eous intentions which exclude hypocrisy — that enters 
 
Girardeau 299 
 
 into the ear of God and is efficacious in securing the 
 blessings which are sought. The doctrine of the text 
 is that true prayer, when offered in a proper manner, is 
 effectual in producing those positive results which its 
 very nature supposes it possible to attain. 
 
 The view has not unfrequently been maintained, and 
 is, it may be feared, but too current at the present day, 
 that the influence of prayer is merely subjective: that 
 its office consists in stimulating by a sort of reflex 
 action the religious affections and emotions, and in 
 strengthening the pious purposes and resolutions of the 
 soul. It is urged that more than this it cannot be 
 expected to accomplish, on the specious ground that 
 either on the supposition that the world is governed by 
 fixed and uniform laws, or that the providence of God 
 always proceeds upon an undeviating general plan, it 
 would be absurd to expect a change of those laws or an 
 accommodation of that plan in accordance with the 
 necessities or desires of each individual. 
 
 It would seem to be a sufficient answer to this hypo- 
 thesis that it contradicts the fundamental conception 
 of praj^er. No one prays simply for the purpose of 
 exciting by the act of prayer the fervor of his religious 
 emotions. For if it be admitted that this result is 
 secured by the operation of a divine influence upon the 
 heart, the very essence of the theory is given up, which 
 is that prayer acts by a reflfex energy of its own; and 
 if it be denied that this result is secured by a divine 
 influence, then the advocate of this view is confronted 
 by a twofold difficulty: he attributes to prayer what 
 can only be achieved by the immediate agency of the 
 Holy Spirit; and he contradicts the very terms of all 
 true prayer in which a divine influence is invariably 
 implored. This is so palpable as to be conceded even 
 
300 Sermons 
 
 by candid infidels themselves. Dr. McCosh tells us 
 that "after hearing a sermon preached by Dr. Leech- 
 man, in which he dwelt upon the power of prayer to 
 render the wishes it expressed more ardent and pas- 
 sionate, Hume remarked with great justice, 'we can 
 make use of no expression or even thought, in prayers 
 and entreaties, which does not imply that these prayers 
 have an influence.' " 
 
 It is my present purpose, however, to maintain the 
 doctrine of the efficacy of prayer by a simple appeal to 
 the testimonj^ of the Scriptures which bears directly 
 upon the point, reserving to another opportunity a 
 fuller discussion of the objection to this view profess- 
 ing to be founded upon its inconsistency with the fixed 
 and uniform operation of the laws of nature or of 
 Providence. 
 
 It is not, of course, denied that the reflex influence of 
 prayer in kindling the ardor of our religious emotions 
 is one of its beneficial results. It is cheerfully con- 
 ceded that adoration of God, communion with Him, 
 and the thankful acknowledgment of His mercies tend, 
 even apart from petition for positive blessings, to pro- 
 duce a salutary effect upon the soul. This is true, but 
 the Scriptures represent prayer as accomplishing a 
 great deal more than this. They attribute to it an 
 actual influence in bringing to bear upon us, both in 
 our spiritual and temporal condition, powers and ener- 
 gies which are not only not inherent in us, but abso- 
 lutely extraneous to us. In a word, the doctrine of the 
 Scriptures clearly is that true prayer is efficacious in 
 securing God's interposition in our behalf. The effec- 
 tual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails to the 
 accomplishment of this result. It has power to prevail 
 with God. It not only brings us nigh to Him, it 
 
Girardeau 301 
 
 brings Him nigh to us. It lays hold of the Divine 
 strength, obtains the Divine help, and supplies the 
 wants of the soul and the body from the fullness of the 
 Divine resources. 
 
 I. The efficacy of prayer in actually securing Divine 
 assistance, it may be remarked in the first place, is 
 plainly deducible from those statements of Scripture 
 in which God is represented as the hearer of prayer. 
 "O Thou that hearest prayer," says the Psalmist, "unto 
 Thee shall all flesh come." In this passage God is ad- 
 dressed by His inspired servant as the hearer of prayer, 
 and because this was His known character, the declara- 
 tion is made that unto Him all flesh should come bring- 
 ing their requests and looking for His blessing. It 
 would be doing violence to this and kindred statements 
 to limit prayer to the offering of adoration and thanks- 
 giving. The prayers of sinners must in a large degree 
 consist of petition. The guilty necessarily pray, if they 
 pray at all, for pardon, the ignorant for knowledge, 
 the miserable for relief, the lost for salvation. If God 
 hears the prayers of sinners — and such is the state- 
 ment — He actually confers upon them pardon, knowl- 
 edge, relief and salvation, in answer to their supplica- 
 tions for these positive blessings. God not only hears 
 our praises, but our prayers, and hears them to answer 
 them. It may here be observed that, except on the sup- 
 position that He hears and answers petitions so as to 
 confer actual blessings upon the petitioner, prayer itself 
 would be both a mockery and an absurdity. It would 
 be a mockery, for we would address supplications to 
 God to which we do not expect Him to respond; it 
 would be an absurdity, for petitions for nothing would 
 be but idle breath. Nor is it easy to see how prayer in 
 this view of the case can be productive even of a reflex 
 
302 Sermons 
 
 influence for good. An address to the Deity which 
 would be both blasphemous and absurd, one would 
 naturall}'^ suppose, could only damage the character of 
 the sui^pliant. To pray for pardon, knowledge, hap- 
 piness and salvation, in the expectation that they will 
 be secured by a reflex influence of the prayer itself, is 
 something that passes comj^rehension. Not to pray 
 for them at all is to remain unpardoned, ignorant, 
 miserable and lost.. Either God simply receives prayer 
 without answering it, or He hears it in order to answer 
 it. If the first supposition be adopted, then, except on 
 the Pelagian theory of human ability, the soul con- 
 tinues in a state of unpardoned guilt and hopeless 
 misery. If the second, then the very ground of the 
 doctrine against which I am contending is abandoned. 
 II. In the second place, it may be observed that God 
 is not only declared to be the hearer of prayer, but He 
 directs us to offer our petitions to Him, and promises 
 that He will grant blessings in answer to them. The 
 l^assages in Avhich this truth are taught are so numer- 
 ous that the only difficulty lies in selecting the testi- 
 monies which are most striking and pertinent. We 
 call attention to a few which may be regarded as rep- 
 resentatives of larger classes. First, w^e meet those 
 passages in which we are commanded to pray for bless- 
 ings in general, and to which promises of answers are 
 attached. "Thus saith the Lord, call upon Me and I 
 will answer thee." "Ye shall go and pray unto Me, 
 and I will hearken unto you." "Let us, therefore, come 
 boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain 
 mercy and find grace to help in time of need." Next 
 we have directions to pray for spiritual blessings with 
 promises of answers annexed to them. ""VVHiosoever 
 shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved." In 
 
Girardeau 303 
 
 this declaration it is manifestly taught that saJvation is 
 granted in answer to prayer, and that it is withheld 
 from those who refuse to pray. It will not be denied 
 that it is the prerogative of God alone to give salva- 
 tion, and that, therefore, no merely internal influence 
 of prayer can avail to secure it. It springs not from 
 within us. It comes from without. Take this exhorta- 
 tion of the Savior which may serve as an exponent of 
 this whole class of passages. ''Ask and it shall be given 
 to you; seek and ye shall find; Iniock and it shall be 
 opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth, 
 and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh 
 it shall be opened. Or, what man is there of you, whom 
 if his son ask bread will he give him a stone ? or if he 
 ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, 
 being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your 
 children, how much more will your Father which is in 
 heaven give good things to them that ask Him." An- 
 other evangelist thus states this promise conveyed in 
 the last words of this passage : "How much more shall 
 your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that 
 ask Him." Here we are taught, as definitely as lan- 
 guage can impart any idea, that the blessings which 
 we obtain as the result of prayer are things which are 
 given to us by a Father from whom we ask them. A 
 personal God hears us when we pray and actually 
 bestows upon us the spiritual blessings which as per- 
 sons we seek at His hands. These blessings are all 
 comprehensively contained in the influence of the Holy 
 Spirit. Our Savior declares that He is given in answer 
 to prayer. This simple announcement is enough to 
 evince the fallacy of the view which is combated in 
 these remarks. What reflex influence of prayer is 
 equivalent to the bestowal of the influences of God's 
 
304 Sermons 
 
 blessed Spirit ? It is God's prerogative alone to confer 
 the grace of His Spirit. There is, it may be said with- 
 out irreverence, no higher function of His exclusive 
 sovereignty than that which is involved in the imparta- 
 tion of the Holy Ghost, Himself possessed of divine 
 personality, and clothed with the majesty and the 
 greatness of infinite Deity. If the Holy Spirit is given 
 in answer to prayer, and Jesus Christ Himself assures 
 us that He is, what becomes of the theory which makes 
 the chief office of this duty to consist in stimulating our 
 religious nature, and re-acting for good upon the soul ? 
 "\Miat provision is made on this supposition for the 
 imparted grace of the Eternal Spirit? It provides for 
 no Holy Ghost and, therefore, f)rovides no hope for our 
 guilty and dying race. To this it may be replied that the 
 Spirit is conferred in accordance with the arrange- 
 ments of the scheme of redemption, but not in conse- 
 quence of the offering of prayer for His influence. To 
 take this ground is to forget the express language of 
 the Savior, which has been quoted, in which He dis- 
 tinctW informs us that our heavenly Father is willing 
 to give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him; and 
 also to overlook the fact that the influence of the Spirit, 
 which is bestowed even upon the ungodly and is neces- 
 sary to the production of the temper of praj^er in the 
 heart of the sinner, is secured by the praj^ers of Christ 
 as our intercessor in the heavens; and would never be 
 conferred except His sacerdotal petitions were pre- 
 sented in our behalf. Nor is the consideration material 
 that in the one case the prayers of sinful men are 
 involved, and in the other those of the divine and holy 
 Savior, for upon the hypothesis under consideration 
 the essence of all prayer consists in its being subjective 
 in its character and reflex in its influence. Consistency, 
 
Girardeau 305 
 
 therefore, would require that the productive efficacy 
 of the Savior's prayers should be denied. And as it is 
 contended that the fixed and uniform operation of the 
 scheme of law, inexorable and undeviating from its 
 very inception, can in no case admit the positive 
 influence of prayer which is an afterthought of the 
 individual subject of this inflexible rule, a logical 
 adherence to the theor}^ demands the denial of the 
 active efficacy of the prayers of Christ in obtaining for 
 sinners the grace of the Holy Ghost. And so all shadow 
 of hope is swept away from our wretched race. It is 
 strijjped alike of the prevalent intercessions of its 
 Redeemer and the saving influence of its Sanctifier. 
 Surely a doctrine which deprives us of one-half of the 
 work of Christ and the whole of the work of the Spirit 
 is not one which has its foundation in a Gospel which 
 brings glad tidings to a ruined race, or one suited to 
 strike a spark of light in the deep midnight of its 
 despair. We turn with a bound of joy from the arctic 
 desolateness of this tenet to the green pastures of God's 
 Word, and refresh our fainting faith with those 
 gracious declarations which assure us that God is the 
 hearer of prayer, and those exceeding great and 
 precious promises which guaranty divine answers to 
 the petitions of the needy and the poor, 
 
 III. It deserves to be remarked, in the third place, 
 that the doctrine of the positive efficacy of prayer is 
 enhanced by the consideration of the objects for which 
 we are directed to offer it. If it can be shown that God 
 commands us to pray for objects which lie outside of 
 our experience and are not immediately connected with 
 it, the productive power of prayer will be clearly 
 evinced in opposition to the idea that it is simply sub- 
 jective and reflex in its influence. In order to accom- 
 
306 Sermons 
 
 plish this it is only necessary to examine the Lord's 
 Prayer, which is admitted on all hands to be a perfect 
 model of petition. In praying that God's great name 
 may be hallowed, we ask that it may be sanctified and 
 honored not only by ourselves but by all the world, a 
 result which no subjective and reflex influence can 
 secure. In praying that God's kingdom may come and 
 His will may be done on earth as in heaven, we ask not 
 only that His kingdom may come in our own hearts, 
 and that His will may be done by ourselves, but that 
 these great ends may be accomplished in the whole 
 earth. Unless each suppliant be the world in himself, 
 which is easier imagined than realized, what becomes 
 of the reflex theory? In praying that God may give 
 us our daily bread, we ask for that which it will hardly 
 be said a mere experimental exercise will furnish us, 
 unless this daily bread be simply spiritual; or unless 
 it be so that to be a Christian is to be able to live with- 
 out food, and that men ought not only not to live by 
 bread alone, but ought not to live by bread at all; or 
 unless prayer, as it supplies the heart by a reflex in- 
 fluence, furnishes the stomach in the same miraculous 
 way. When we pray that God may forgive us our sins, 
 we ask that the great Ruler and Judge whose laws we 
 have infringed may graciously pardon our guilt; 
 unless, indeed, the pardon of an offended Sovereign is 
 the same thing as the pardoning of ourselves by a reflex 
 influence, a pleasing fancy, it must be confessed, as it is 
 not difficult for men to forgive themselves, but one 
 which would scarcely take the gloom from the face of 
 a prisoner who hears the stroke of the hammer on his 
 own gallows. When we pray that God may lead us not 
 into temptation but deliver us from evil, we ask that 
 He may, by His almighty providence, so dispose and 
 
Girardeau 307 
 
 arrange our circumstances as to prevent our entrance 
 into temptation, and may defend us from the crafts of 
 the Devil, the violence of men, and the innumerable 
 dangers from causes outside of ourselves, as well as 
 within us, to which we are every day and every moment 
 exposed; unless it be so that the internal influence of 
 prayer controls the arrangements of Providence and 
 manages the forces of nature, foils the intelligence and 
 baffles the power of the great Adversary, directs the 
 steps, ties the hands and seals the lips of men, cures 
 the maladies of the body, checks the sweep of the 
 pestilence, arrests the flight of the destroying angel, 
 and converts famine into plenty, war into peace, and 
 death into life. But why pursue this train of thought ? 
 Is it not obvious that if God commands us to pray for 
 objects which lie outside of our experience, prayer 
 must have a positive and productive energy which is 
 something more than a mere subjective and reflex 
 influence? As an integral element of God's great plan 
 of providence, it actually contributes to the hallowing 
 of His name, the advancement of His kingdom and the 
 accomplishment of His will. It brings us our daily 
 bread, secures the pardon of our sins, erects a barrier 
 between us and the yawning abysses of temptation, and 
 encomj^asses our frailty and our weakness with the 
 impregnable ramparts of almighty power. Such are 
 the inferences which naturally flow from the prayer 
 which our blessed Savior has taught us, and they are 
 confirmed by the concurrent deliverances of the Scrip- 
 tures, and the instincts and facts of Christian expe- 
 rience. 
 
 IV. It may be observed, in the last place, that the 
 efficacy of prayer is proved by the numerous cases on 
 record in the Scriptures in which it is seen to have 
 
308 Sermons 
 
 produced results \Yhich, so far from depending upon 
 a reflex influence upon experience, were not even experi- 
 mental in their character. So striking are these cases 
 that they seem to represent nature and Providence as 
 obedient to the call of prayer. Let us look at a few of 
 them as they stand out on the past track of the church, 
 monuments of the willingness of God to hear and 
 answer j^rayer. Abraham prays for Sodom, and his 
 intercessions fail of complete success only because there 
 were not ten righteous men in that wicked city for 
 whose sake, in answer to his petitions, it might have 
 been saved from its fiery doom. Jacob, when after a 
 protracted exile from his native land, rendered neces- 
 sary by the vow of Esau to destroy him, when returning 
 to his home, learns that his vindictive brother is has- 
 tening to meet him with an armed band in order to put 
 into execution his long- delayed but still cherished 
 intention. He pleads with God for deliverance from an 
 injured brother's wrath. On the bank of the Jabbok 
 he consumes the waning hours of night in wrestling 
 with the angel of the covenant. He refuses to relax 
 his grasp until the coveted blessing is obtained. His 
 brother's w^rath is turned to grace, his hate to love; 
 they meet in peace, and kiss each other; and thence- 
 forward the earnest and successful suppliant is pro- 
 nounced a prince who had power with God and pre- 
 vailed, and held up as a conspicuous exemplar of the 
 efficacy of prayer to all succeeding generations. To this 
 day, with the Psalmist of Israel, when we plead most 
 urgently with God, we would fain address Him as the 
 God of Jacob who hears and answers prayer, Moses 
 cries to the Lord, and the bitter waters of Marah are 
 made sweet. He prays again, and the rock gushes 
 with streams of living water which slake the thirst of 
 
Girardeau 309 
 
 thousands. Israel, at the base of Sinai and in view of 
 the dreadful tokens of Jehovah's presence, is guilty of 
 defection from His service and bows down in worship 
 to a calf of gold. The anger of God is kindled and 
 threatened judgment hurtles like a storm over the 
 guilty camp. Moses throws himself into the breach, 
 prays for the pardon of his people, and the Almighty 
 hand is arrested which was about to discharge the bolts 
 of retributive justice upon an idolatrous and apostate 
 race. 
 
 There are other passages, still, in which the case is 
 even more clearly made out. I allude to those in which 
 we are directed to pray for temporal blessings, and 
 the promise extended that we shall be heard. "Call 
 upon me in the day of trouble, and I will answer thee." 
 In this and similar passages we are directed to pray 
 for deliverance from temporal evil, and the assurance 
 is given that God will, in answer to prayer, accomplish 
 it for us. In the words immediately preceding the text 
 the apostle directs that, in the case of one who is sick, 
 the elders of the church should be sent for to offer 
 prayer for his recovery, and the declaration is made 
 that the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and if he 
 have committed sins they shall be forgiven him. It 
 would seem superfluous to say that it is inconceivable 
 that an influence which is merely internal to ourselves 
 can deliver us from evil, or restore us to health. For 
 if it be conceded that it is not our prayers, but the 
 power of God which accomplishes these results, the 
 theory of a subjective influence is confessedly relin- 
 quished, as the Scriptures assure us that that power is 
 exerted in answer to prayer. 
 
 Joshua, the great leader of Israel, in the midst of 
 conflict with their foes, prays that the sun and moon 
 
310 Sermons 
 
 might stand still, and the day pauses in its course that 
 ample time might be furnished to reap the fruits of 
 victory. David prays to God that his afflicted people 
 might be spared from the ravages of the pestilence that 
 was mowing them down by thousands, and the destroy- 
 ing angel stops in his path of desolation, closes his 
 baleful wings and sheathes his devouring sword. 
 Hezekiah, the sick king of Judah, turns his face to the 
 wall and with weeping prays for his recovery. At the 
 entreaty of the prophet Isaiah the shadow on the dial- 
 plate goes backward ten degrees in attestation of the 
 fact that God had heard his prayer, and fifteen years 
 are added to his life. Elijah stretches himself upon the 
 corpse of the widow's son, and cries unto the Lord : "O 
 Lord, my God, I pray thee, let this child's soul come 
 into him ffgain"; the disembodied spirit returns. He 
 takes the child alive in his arms, brings him down from 
 the chamber of death, and places him in the bosom of 
 his astonished and enraptured mother. The glorious 
 prophet prays again. Single-handed and alone he 
 copes with the banded prophets of Baal in the presence 
 of his idolatrous countrymen. He calls upon the living 
 God, and fire flashes from mid-heaven, rushes down 
 upon the victim on the altar, and licks up the running 
 water in the trenches. Once more he prays. On the 
 top of Carmel he bows his head between his knees. He 
 pleads for rain upon a parched and dying country; 
 and the brazen heavens pour down the grateful floods, 
 the iron earth drinks in the descending waters. Well 
 may the apostle exclaim, in the words of the text, in 
 referring to this illustrious instance of successful 
 prayer, the ejffectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man 
 availeth much. Elias was a man subject to like pas- 
 sions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might 
 not rain ; and it rained not on the earth by the space of 
 
Girardeau 311 
 
 three years and six months; and he prayed again, and 
 the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her 
 fruit. Jonah, from the bosom of the great deep, cries 
 to God for deliverance, and is cast out upon dry land; 
 and the wicked city of Nineveh, alarmed by his stern 
 proclamation of her impending doom, prostrates her- 
 self before God in prayer, and averts the threatening 
 ruin. Peter is cast into prison, bound with chains and 
 watched by the vigils of a Roman guard. Prayer is 
 made for him without ceasing by the assembled church. 
 An angel descends into the dungeon, strikes off the 
 chains irom the prisoner's limbs, opens the prison-doors, 
 and sends the liberated apostle to surprise the throng 
 of suppliants with the answer to their prayers. 
 
 Such are some of the instances, mj brethren, which 
 the Scriptures furnish to illustrate the positive and 
 productive efficacy of prayer, and to vindicate it from 
 the representations of professed friends who would 
 cripple its heavenly power by degrading it into an 
 influence which is merely subjective and internal. And 
 let us not be told that all that is proved by these cases 
 is that there is a concurrence, a coincidence between 
 prayer and these outward results. We might be content 
 with such an admission, for it is fatal to the theory 
 which has been considered. If the concurrence is that 
 of an appointed antecedence and sequence, then prayer 
 is not simply experimental. It is tied by divine ap- 
 pointment to the objective and outward result. It is 
 necessary to its occurrence. It is that without which 
 the outward result would not take place. So God has 
 ordained and as He has been pleased to require prayer 
 of us in order to His bestowal of blessings upon our- 
 selves and others, and has declared that when effectual 
 and fervent it availeth much, we accept His testimony, 
 let the wise men of this world philosophize as they may. 
 
312 Sermons 
 
 CONSISTENCY OF PRAYER WITH 
 NATURAL LAW 
 
 James v: 16. "T'Ae effectual, fervent prayer of a 
 righteous man availeth muchy 
 
 In bringing the present series of discourses to a con- 
 clusion, I would today invite your attention, my 
 friends, to the consideration of a specious objection, 
 professing to be grounded in philosophical principles, 
 which Jias frequently been urged against the utility, the 
 efficacy, and even the possibility of prayer. It is con- 
 tended that the world is governed by general laws 
 which are fixed and uniform in their operation, and 
 that, therefore, it is idle if not absurd to suppose that 
 any emotions which we may experience, or any prayers 
 which may be dictated by our desires, can exercise an 
 influence upon the undeviating course of nature. No 
 exceptions can be supposed to arise in favor of indi- 
 viduals. They must be content to have their lot 
 assigned them under the general and impartial system 
 of law. This objection to prayer has been forcibly and 
 ingeniously expressed by Pope in his Essay on Man. 
 
 Note. — This sermon was also used as the basis of a baccalaureate 
 discourse at Washington College, in 1869, during the presidency of 
 General Robert E. Lee. The sermon was not preached as written, for 
 in addition to the earnestness and spiritual fervor that always char- 
 acterized Dr. Girardeau's preaching, on this occasion his heart was 
 so stirred by his return to the State where, as chaplain, he had 
 prayed and preached and suffered ; the attendance of a large audience 
 containing not only college students and professors, but also many 
 distinguished visitors : and the presence of the former commander of 
 the armies of the Confederacy, that he soon forgot his manuscript 
 and preached with the same freedom and power that had so often 
 thrilled the soldiers of the South. General Lee was among those who 
 made no effort to control their emotions. 
 
Girardeau 313 
 
 "Think we, like some weak prince, the Eternal Cause, 
 Prone for his favorites to reverse his laws? 
 Shall burning Etna, if a sage requires, 
 P^orget to thunder, and recall her fires ; 
 On air or sea new motions be imprest, 
 O blameless Bethel, to relieve thy breast; 
 When the loose mountain trembles from on high, 
 Shall gravitation cease, if you go by?" 
 
 This is the difficulty which I propose to examine; 
 and it must be admitted that it possesses an apparent 
 justification in the discoveries of science which gives it 
 a certain weight with minds not thoroughly imbued 
 with the doctrines of Scripture, or not convinced by 
 their own actual experience of the "incontestable benefits 
 of prayer. I venture, however, to express the hope that 
 an inquiry into the theory on which the objection is 
 based will show that it lacks the support even from 
 T'eason which at first it appears to furnish. 
 
 I. Let it now, in the first place, for the sake of argu- 
 ment, be assumed, what, however, I am not willing to 
 concede as a fact, that the world of nature is governed 
 simply and purely by general laws. The first question, 
 in the way of definition, which would arise for settle- 
 ment is. What is nature, what does it include? "Wliat 
 is that which is stated to be the subject of this govern- 
 ment of law? Evidently there is comprehended in 
 the term both departments of what is called nature, 
 the material and the spiritual, or, if that phraseology 
 be objected to, matter and mind. In the position that 
 the world is controlled by general laws it must be meant 
 that the world of matter and the world of mind are 
 alike under the operation of this system of rule. If it 
 be contended that mind is but matter of a finer texture 
 
314 Sermons 
 
 and a more ethereal mould, then it is admitted that it 
 forms no exception to the statement that nature is 
 governed by law. If, on the other hand, it be urged 
 that mind constitutes an exception to this statement 
 on the ground that it is essentially different from mat- 
 ter and is controlled by influences which are peculiar 
 to itself, then the position is clearly abandoned that the 
 world is governed by general laws, for mind is ob- 
 viously a part of the world, or of the system of nature, 
 and those laws cannot be said to be general which do 
 not apply to it. They are, in that case, limited to a 
 certain department of nature. If it be granted, then, 
 that mind as well as matter is a subject of this fixed 
 and uniform government of general laws, I would call 
 attention to the striking consideration that man in 
 every age, condition and clime has been characterized 
 by a conscious sense of dependence. He has always 
 been sensible of the fact that he is hemmed in by limita- 
 tions of various sorts, limitations upon his faculties and 
 powers arising from their weakness, limitations spring- 
 ing from the influences exerted upon him by his fellow- 
 men, and limitations imposed by natural circum- 
 stances which are beyond his control and which hedge 
 him about on every hand. The conviction of weakness 
 necessarily leads him to the consciousness of depen- 
 dence, a consciousness sometimes manifesting itself in 
 relation to other men, sometimes to external nature, and 
 most frequently to a power which is felt to be above 
 men and above nature itself. This universal sense of 
 dependence has led very naturally to a universal dispo- 
 sition on the part of men to seek for help, and we are, 
 accordingly, met by the fact that men in every age and 
 country have been inclined to pray. Whatever may be 
 the differences between them, in civilization, refine- 
 
Girardeau 315 
 
 ment and learning, they are all characterized by the 
 propensity to worship. Wliether their religion has 
 been of one sort or another, it invariably embodies the 
 element of prayer. The Hottentot and the South-Sea 
 Islander, as well as the Englishman and the German, 
 offers prayer. Here, then, we are confronted by a 
 fact of universal, or at least of well-nigh universal, 
 existence. The completer the induction induced by 
 observation, the stronger grows the conclusion of the 
 universality of this phenomenon. We are, therefore, 
 irresistibly impelled to the position that if human 
 beings are controlled by any law, they are governed by 
 the law of conscious dependence leading them to pray. 
 If we are warranted in inferring the existence of a law 
 from a wide induction of facts which are characterized 
 by identity, we are justified in concluding that there 
 is a law of prayer, for the induction upon which it is 
 based is as extensive as the human race. Here, then, 
 we find a general law which necessitiates the offering 
 of prayer; and it devolves upon those who maintain 
 the objection to prayer, that it is inconsistent with the 
 operation of the general laws of nature, to explain the 
 curious anomaly that it is rendered necessary by one 
 of those very laws themselves. But if the fact that 
 men pray is one of universal existence, it would seem 
 that there must be some provision made in the system 
 of nature for meeting this fact, or human nature is a 
 gigantic lie, and the scheme by which the world is gov- 
 erned is irreconcilable with itself. This supposition 
 would destroy the foundation of the objection under 
 consideration, inasmuch as it would concede that the 
 world is under the control of laws which are out of 
 harmony with each other and wanting in that adapta- 
 tion to each other which a general system must involve. 
 
316 Sermons 
 
 Even granting, therefore, that the world is simply 
 governed by general laws, we are obliged to admit that 
 the propensity to pray is necessitated by these laws 
 themselves. It is not for us who maintain another 
 theory to explain the fact, but for those who contend 
 that prayer is inconsistent with the reign of law to 
 adjust it to their views. 
 
 I am not unaware that it may be said, in reply to this 
 line of argument, that the induction upon which the 
 law of prayer is professedly founded is not as complete 
 as it has been represented to be ; that it is "ignorance," 
 which "is the mother of devotion," and that as men 
 advance in the knoAvledge of the scheme of nature and 
 of the laws which science reveals as controlling it, they 
 see the inutility and absurdity of prayer. It must 
 strike an impartial mind that the spirit in which this 
 exception is conceived is an arrogant one, as it leaves 
 out of account the fact that some of the most illus- 
 trious expounders of scientific laws have been dis- 
 tinguished by habits of devotion. It will hardly be 
 maintained with seriousness that the prayers of such 
 men as Newton, Locke, Bacon, Leibnitz, Pascal and 
 Hamilton originated in their ignorance. Nor will it be 
 denied that in many cases in which men have been 
 negligent of the practice of prayer, and in some cases 
 in which they have opposed and ridiculed the theory 
 of prayer, the apj)alling exigencies of life and the 
 dreadful solemnities of death have converted neglect 
 into petition, and sneers into supplication. It is m 
 such circumstances that the truth comes out, that the 
 weakness of our nature is confessed, and the conscious 
 need of help springs to the lips in the form of earnest 
 entreaty. The dying infidel cried, "O God, if therq 
 be a God, have mercy on my soul, if I have a soul." 
 
Girardeau 317 
 
 Speculate and theorize as we may, it is natural for 
 men to offer prayer. They may not always pray aright, 
 but it is a law of their being to pray. Prayer, there- 
 fore, is not inconsistent with the laws by which the 
 world is governed, unless it be supposed that law is 
 pitted against law, and nature is engaged in destroying 
 itself. 
 
 II. In the second place, it is pertinent to inquire. 
 What are the laws in accordance with Avhich the world 
 is governed ? I say in accordance with which the world 
 is governed, for it is obviously one thing to say that it 
 is governed in accordance with law, and quite a dif- 
 ferent thing to say that it is governed by law. In the 
 once instance it is affirmed that the governing power is 
 law, in the other it may be held that the governing 
 power is above law while it acts through it. The 
 question being, then, what are the laws of nature; it 
 is but fair to admit that there is a distinction demanded 
 by the discussion which is to be noticed as existing 
 between moral and natural law. A moral law may be 
 defined to be a rule of duty. It supposes a lawgiver 
 of whose will it is a formal expression binding the 
 moral agent as a subject of moral government to a 
 course of moral obedience. Let it be conceded that this 
 is not the aspect of law in which it enters into the 
 present discussion, and t-he question recurs. What are 
 the laws of nature, whether they be regarded as im- 
 pressed upon the world of matter or the world of mind ? 
 It would appear to be an uncontrollable conviction of 
 our minds that back of the existence of laws there lies 
 the existence of power, or of force. All are agreed as 
 to the process by which we arrive at the conception of 
 a natural law. When by a careful observation and 
 collection of a sufficient number of particular facts 
 
318 Sermons 
 
 which closely resemble each other we proceed to 
 arrange them into a class, we denominate the gener- 
 alized statement thus attained a law, and we say that 
 the facts took place in obedience or conformity to this 
 law. But is it not manifest that this is not a complete 
 account of the occurrence of the facts themselves ? The 
 question at once arises, What produced the facts, for 
 facts are things done. Wliat is that by which they are 
 performed or accomplished? It will not do to say 
 that they were produced by law, for law is only a gen- 
 eralization of the facts. That would be equivalent to 
 saying that the facts produced themselves. The true 
 answer is that they were produced by power operating 
 in a fixed and regular manner. Natural law is but the 
 fixed and uniform mode in which power operates to the 
 production of results. We are accustomed to say that 
 the solar system is governed by the law of gravitation. 
 But when we proceed to analyze the language, we are 
 driven to the conclusion that it is not a mere abstraction 
 which we call the law of gravitation which holds the 
 parts of the system together. There is the force of 
 attraction which draws worlds to worlds, and keeps 
 them in their appointed places. The same thing is true 
 of all natural laws, of chemical affinity, electricity, 
 magnetism, and others which might be mentioned. 
 These are but expressions of the regular modes in 
 which force operates to the production of certain 
 results. We speak of the law of vegetable and of 
 animal growth, but it is clear that there is something 
 more than mere law, there is a power which causes the 
 vegetable or the animal to grow. The law but ex- 
 presses the method in which that power acts. When, 
 therefore, it is said that the world is governed by cer- 
 tain laws, the meaning, to be intelligible, is that it is 
 
Girardeau 319 
 
 controlled by power which operates in regular and 
 uniform modes in producing the facts of nature. And 
 here it may be remarked as deserving our notice that a 
 discussion which has for some time been going on, and 
 is now in progress, in the philosophical circles of 
 Europe, has developed the theory, which is ably sus- 
 tained, that all the forces of nature are but different 
 modifications of one and the same original and central 
 force. The attraction of gravitation and chemical 
 affinity, for example, are but diverse manifestations of 
 the same great force in different relations, and under 
 dissimilar circumstances and conditions. I do not 
 mention this as affording a ground of faith, but only 
 as indicating the fact that the researches of science, 
 when properly conducted, corroborate the doctrines of 
 Scripture ; and that the utterances of nature, in regard 
 to subjects upon which she is competent to speak at 
 all, are not out of harmony with the oracles of reve- 
 lation. God's works and God's Word are the comple- 
 ment of each other, 
 
 III. The inquiry now arises, "VVliat is this great 
 power which produces the facts of nature? Were I 
 instituting a merely philosophical argument, the issue, 
 at this stage, would have to be joined with the atheist 
 upon the question whether this power be that of God, 
 or one which is inherent in nature itself. I do not feel 
 that I am called upon to enter into those lists. But it 
 merits our attention that it is not inconsistent with 
 their purpose for those who urge the objection to 
 prayer that it is rendered useless by the operation of 
 general laws, to admit that these laws are but man- 
 ifestations of a power which is divine. This is the 
 position of the pantheistic school, which numbers its 
 disciples by thousands, and is supported by some of the 
 
320 Sermons 
 
 most splendid names in philosophy and letters. Con- 
 cede to them their doctrine of the impersonality of 
 God, and you admit the impossibility of prayer. For, 
 to all intents and purposes, God is law and law is God, 
 and it is the absurdest of all absurdities to suppose 
 that prayer may be rationally offered to law. There 
 must be a personal being before prayer can be con- 
 ceived as intelligible or possible, and it is alike the 
 deliverance of reason and of Scripture that the power 
 which governs the world is that of an intelligent and 
 personal God. The arguments by which even reason 
 establishes this fundamental principle of religion 
 might, did time permit, be impressively exhibited, but 
 I must be content with only a brief intimation of one 
 line of proof which appeals to the experience of every 
 human being. It is derived from the testimony of our 
 own consciousness. It is true, my brethren, that our 
 knowledge of the great, the infinite God, is exceedingly 
 small, even though He has been pleased to reveal 
 Himself to us in His Word. But He has given us 
 faculties by which we are able to apprehend some- 
 what of His existence and His attributes; otherwise 
 the idea of God would be to us an impossibility and 
 His name an unmeaning cipher. Man was originally 
 made in the image of God, and we are able to rise to 
 some conception of His nature and perfections from 
 the imperfect but real analogies of our own conscious- 
 ness. Were we not possessed of moral attributes it 
 would be impossible for us to conceive of His moral 
 excellencies; had we no intellect, we could not appre- 
 hend Him as an intelligent being; and had we no will 
 and no conscience, we could not acknowledge Him as 
 the Almighty Euler of the world. From our possession 
 of these faculties, it is competent for us to infer their 
 
GiRAKDEAU 321 
 
 existence in Him, although in an infinitely higher 
 degree of perfection. In the same way it is a legitimate 
 process by which we infer from our consciousness of 
 personality the fact of the personality of God. It is 
 not intended to affirm that our consciousness of per- 
 sonality is direct and immediate. All that is necessary 
 is to show that we are conscious of the possession of 
 attributes which necessitate the conviction of the fact 
 of our personality. It will not be denied that we are 
 conscious of our individuality, of that characteristic 
 which discriminates us from all other beings; that we 
 are conscious of possessing intelligence, will and con- 
 science; in short, that we are conscious of attributes 
 inhering in us from which the influence is necessary 
 and immediate that we are personal beings. This leads 
 us to the conviction of God's personality. Although 
 we may not be directly conscious of the fact, any more 
 than we are directly conscious of the existence of God, 
 we are irresistibly led to infer the divine personality, 
 just as we are necessarily impelled to the inference of 
 the divine existence. Every human being is conscious 
 that he is different from everything else, that what is 
 himself is not anything else, and that nothing else is 
 himself. And the inference is clear, that as God is a 
 person, He is different from everything else, that God 
 is not the universe and the universe is not God. All 
 things were created by Him and in Him they live and 
 move and have their being, but they are not He, and 
 He is not they. This must be so, or we are greater 
 than God. It is the fact of our endowment with the 
 noble principle of personality which lifts us, poor as 
 we are, immeasurably above the brutes and the 
 sublimest features of the natural world. And shall 
 we deny to God an excellence which distinguishes us? 
 
322 Sermons 
 
 The Pantheist is met by the dilemma, — either we are 
 not persons and then our nature is a lie, or we are 
 persons and then as, according to his hypothesis, we 
 are God and God is we, God is a person, and the whole 
 pantheistic theory is overthrown. The conviction of 
 the divine personality is indestructibly imbedded in the 
 heart of the human race. Wherever we find man, in 
 every age and clime, we are met by "oracles, altars and 
 priests" as attestations of the belief that personal Deity 
 exists, that men may worship Him, and that He may re- 
 ceive the worship of men. And this great truth so loudly 
 and unmistakably proclaimed by human consciousness 
 is, of course, the fundamental idea in which revelation 
 is grounded. There must be a i^ersonal God or it is 
 impossible to conceive that He could communicate to 
 intelligent beings the knowledge of Himself, and invite 
 them to the exalted privilege of holding communion 
 with Him. The fact of the divine personality is 
 stamped upon the records of nature, and blazes in let- 
 ters of light upon the awful pages of a written revela- 
 tion. To strike it out of the inmost convictions of our 
 minds is to dash out the lights upon the altar of our 
 souls, and to render religion itself a mockery and a 
 cheat. To blot it from the tablets of Scripture is to 
 quench the rising dawn of religious hope and consign 
 the idea of a Bible and a scheme of redemption to the 
 region of impossibilities. 
 
 When, therefore, we aflfirm that the world is not 
 simply governed by law, and that there is a power 
 which lies back of law, and operates through it to the 
 production of the facts of nature, we do not convey the 
 impression that this is a blind and impersonal power. 
 It is the sublime and active energy of an infinite per- 
 
Girardeau 323 
 
 sonal God whose reign is above law, while it is admin- 
 istered through it ; a Being who 
 
 "Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze, 
 Glows in the stars, and rustles in the trees ; 
 Lives through all life, extends through all extent, 
 Speads undivided, operates unspent." 
 
 Let it be conceded, then, that the power which gov- 
 erns the world through law is a personal God and you 
 reach the doctrine of the possibility of prayer. We 
 cannot pray to law, but we can pray to the God who 
 made law and uses it as an instrument, a plan upon 
 which He creates, develops and controls a system of 
 order, harmony and beauty. 
 
 IV. But, in the fourth place, admitting the person- 
 ality of God and the consequent possibility of prayer, 
 it will still be urged that the difficulty has been shifted, 
 but not removed. For if God governs the world by 
 general laws, the same objection exists to the utility 
 and efficacy of prayer. The system of government is 
 fixed and uniform and determines beforehand the 
 destiny of the individual. Where, then, is the room 
 for prayer? To this the answer is obvious. There is 
 no impossibility, even on rational grounds, of con- 
 ceiving that God has in the ordination of the system 
 of law by which He administers the government of 
 the world made provision, for prayer as an element 
 in the scheme. He may have established between it 
 and the results which are sought by it the relation of 
 means to ends, and then prayer, so far from being 
 inconsistent with the operation of law, is involved in its 
 development and rendered certainly successful by its 
 operation. It would be divested of contingency, and 
 
324 Sermons 
 
 possess, when sincerely offered, the guarantee and 
 assurance of success. I cannot do better than by 
 quoting, on this point, the remarks of an able living 
 writer, who combines with the acuteness of a philoso- 
 pher the humility and the faith of a Christian. Says 
 Dr. McCosh : "Dr Chalmers supposes that prayer may 
 be answered in one or other of two ways in perfect 
 accordance with the ordinary procedure of God. He 
 supposes that prayer and its answer may be connected 
 together as cause and effect, that they may form a 
 sequence of a very subtle kind, more subtle than any 
 of the sequences of the most latent physical substances, 
 and not, therefore, observable, except by those who 
 have that nice spiritual discernment which is com- 
 municated by faith. Or, he supposes that God may 
 interpose among the physical agents beyond that 
 limit to which human sagacity can trace the operation 
 of law. . . . He might, for instance, change the 
 laws which regulate the weather, and send a storm or 
 a calm at any given place or time ; or He might modify 
 the laws by which the living functions of the human 
 body are regulated, and send health or disease, and 
 no man be able to say whether there has been an inter- 
 position or not. But is it necessary," says Dr. McCosh, 
 "to resort to either of these ingenious theories? Is 
 there not a more obvious means by which God can 
 answer the prayer of faith ? It is not necessary to sup- 
 pose that prayer and its answer form a separate law 
 of nature, for the answer may come as the result of 
 other laws arranged for this very purpose. Nor is it 
 needful to suppose that God interposes to change His 
 own laws. The analogy of His method of operation 
 in other matters would rather incline us to believe 
 that He has so arranged these laws that by their 
 
GlKAKDEAU 325 
 
 agency He may answer prayer without at all interfer- 
 ing with them. . . . His agents were at first 
 ordained and marshalled by Him for the accomplish- 
 ment of all the wise designs of His government; and 
 among other ends they may bring the blessings for 
 which faith is expected to supplicate. He sends an 
 answer to prayer in precisely the same way as He 
 compasses all His other moral designs, as He conveys 
 blessings and inflicts judgments. He does not require 
 to interfere with His own arrangements, for there is 
 an answer provided in the arrangement made by Him 
 from all eternity. How is it that God sends us the 
 bounties of His providence ? how is it that He supplies 
 the many wants of His creatures? how is it that He 
 encourages industry? how is it that He arrests the 
 plots of wickedness ? how is it that He punishes in this 
 life notorious offenders against His law ? The answer 
 is, by the skilful pre-arrangements of His providence, 
 whereby the needful events fall out at the very time 
 and in the way required. When the question is asked : 
 How does God answer prayer? We give the very 
 same reply, — it is by a pre-ordained appointment when 
 God settled the constitution of the world and set all its 
 parts in order." 
 
 These views, so far as they go, I believe to be as just 
 as they are forcibly expressed, and they are the more 
 strildng as they do not indicate a method of answer- 
 ing prayer that is inconsistent with the fact, which 
 every fresh discovery of science tends to confirm, that 
 God controls the world through the medium of natural 
 laws. But I confess that if this statement of the mode 
 by which God answers prayer were intended to em- 
 brace the whole truth upon the subject, which, how- 
 ever, is not the case on the part of the writer quoted, it 
 
326 Sermons 
 
 would fail to present an aspect of the subject which is 
 inexpressibly dear to the heart of the Christian, and 
 with which he could not for an instant consent to 
 part. That view is that God is personally present al- 
 ways and everywhere in the working of the scheme 
 of His providence, and that ttie blessings which are 
 conferred in answer to prayer are bestowed by His 
 immediate personal act. He is not, in accordance with 
 the ancient philosophical idea, though admitted to be 
 personal, simply the first cause of all things, who con- 
 structed the world as a vast machine, impressed upon 
 it its laws, and withdrew from a subsequent immediate 
 interposition in its affairs. He is not, so to speak, 
 located at the remote end of the series of second causes. 
 His power immediately pervades the whole series in 
 all its minutest details, circumstances and relations. 
 He is perpetually present with every part of it, and as 
 His personality can no more be divided than His es- 
 sence, He is personally present to guide, to manage, 
 and to energize the entire system in all its parts. Nor 
 is He present with the world, conceived as a great liv- 
 ing organism, a mere principle of development of which 
 its life is the general result and its parts are but the 
 special modifications. That would be to deny His per- 
 sonality and to make Him substantially identical with 
 the world and the world with Him. He is the prin- 
 ciple of life, and the source of power, but He is a per- 
 son who imparts life, a person who infuses power. 
 He is different from the world while He is with it, 
 and the world is different from Him while it is in Him. 
 He giveth to all life and breath and all things. In Him 
 all creatures live and move and have their being. Let 
 us take this view into connection with the other, and 
 we are able to see how, without infringing the estab- 
 
Girardeau 327 
 
 lished order of natural law, God may provide for our 
 wants, listen to our petitions, and bestow the answers 
 to prayer by His own personal and immediate agency. 
 This is the precious doctrine of a special providence, 
 so clearly taught us by the Scriptures, without which 
 the world would be but a cold and dreary realm under 
 the sway of an iron system of law, with no God to 
 whom we could draw near in sweet personal com- 
 munion, and from whom we could derive a present 
 help amid the stormy vicissitudes of life. No, my 
 brethren, we are not under the rigid reign of naked and 
 absolute law. We are not doomed by the stern necessi- 
 ties of our being to pray to mere abstractions, to cry to 
 no purpose, with the false prophets of old, "O Baal, 
 hear us, O Baal, hear us!" We are under the special 
 providence of a personal God who clothes the lilies, 
 feeds the ravens, notices the death of the sparrow, and 
 bows down a listening ear to the faintest breathings of 
 true desire from the humblest broken hearts of His 
 creatures. 
 
 V. I hasten to a conclusion with the remark, that the 
 God who rules the world has been pleased in His word 
 to reveal Himself to us under the relations of a Father, 
 a Savior, and a Friend, and graciously invites us to 
 pray to Him as He is made known to us in these lovely 
 and endearing characters. It is with a feeling of relief 
 that we emerge from the swamps and thickets of a 
 tangled and abstract discussion into the open fields and 
 cheering sunlight of God's blessed word. Here the 
 plainest and most unlettered believer in Jesus may take 
 his stand and invincibly maintain his ground against 
 the most subtle and specious assaults upon his faith of 
 philosophy and science falsely so called. God speaks 
 to him. It IS enough. He accepts the divine testimony 
 
328 Sermons 
 
 and relies upon it though a world should pronounce it 
 a lie. And what the word of God declares to him finds 
 a response in his own experience which the storms of 
 infidelity cannot beat down, or the jeers of skepticism 
 silence. Yes, my friends, the Great Being who created 
 the world, stamps His laws upon it, and manages its 
 affairs by His infinite wisdom and almighty providence 
 — ^the God who thunders in the heavens and rides upon 
 the wings of the wind, proclaims Himself to us worth- 
 less sinners as our Father in Christ Jesus His Son. 
 We are taught to address Him as "our Father in 
 heaven." He thus tenderly expostulates with us amidst 
 the waywardness of early life: "Wilt thou not from 
 this time say. My Father, Thou art the guide of my 
 youth?" He instructs us to say, "Doubtless Thou art 
 our Father, though Abraham be ignorant of us and 
 Israel acknowledge us not." Hear how movingly He 
 appeals to our own emotions, and derives from them 
 exhortations to us to confide in His paternal love in all 
 our weaknesses and distresses : "Like as a father pitieth 
 his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him; 
 for He knoweth our frame. He remembereth that we 
 are but dust. Can a woman forget her sucking child 
 that she should not have compassion on her son ? Yea, 
 she may forget, yet will I remember thee. For a small 
 moment I have forsaken thee, but with everlasting 
 mercies will I have compassion on thee." "If ye, then, 
 being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your chil- 
 dren, how much more shall your Father which is in 
 heaven give good things to them that ask him?" and is 
 this so? Then, if He be indeed our Father, tender, 
 merciful and pitiful', surely as His children we may 
 come to Him and make known to Him our requests. 
 Sick, poor, needy, blind, miserable, naked, we will come 
 
Girardeau 329 
 
 to Him and tell Him all our wants. And can a Father's 
 heart be steeled against the entreaties of His children 
 who cry to Him from the depths of such afflictions ? Tell 
 us not He governs the world by general laws and can- 
 not listen to the prayers of individuals. And shall a 
 Father's laws imprison the outgoings of a Father's 
 heart ? Who would ever dream that the more perfectly 
 an earthly parent administers the government of his 
 household and manages its affairs by wise rules, and 
 systematic arrangements, the less likely He would be 
 to hear the requests of His children ? And why should 
 God be prevented by the laws which He Himself ad- 
 ministers from answering the prayers of His children ? 
 Of what avail is it that He is our Father and we His 
 children if we cannot make bold to come into His pres- 
 ence, to cling to His knees and ask His paternal bene- 
 diction? Let men of science sneer as they may at the 
 fancied inefficacy and absurdity of prayer, God is our 
 Father, and we can pray to Him, and He will hear our 
 voice. "Let us, therefore, come boldly to the throne 
 of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to 
 help in time of need." He gave His Son to die for 
 us ; how shall He not, with Him, also freely give us all 
 things ? 
 
 But what, above all, gives us assurance of the efficacy 
 of our prayers is the fact that the procedures of 
 providence are instituted and the laws of the world 
 are administered by One who is at once a Savior, a 
 Brother, and a Friend. "The Father," said the Lord 
 Jesus, in His parting words to His diciples, "the Father 
 hath given all things into My hands." All things are 
 put in subjection under His feet, and nothing is ex- 
 cepted from His sway, but He who did put all things 
 under Him. The hands that were pierced with the 
 
330 Sermons 
 
 nails of Calvary wield the sceptre of limitless domin- 
 ion. The head that was lacerated and dishonored with 
 the crown of thorns is graced with many crowns and 
 blazes with diadems that symbolize a manifold and uni- 
 versal rule. There is not an element of nature, not a 
 force of nature, not a living being of nature, which 
 Jesus does not hold in His power and use at His will. 
 He purchased the control of the world in the name of 
 His people by the price of His blood. Nor does His 
 empire stop here. It is established above the throne of 
 death and sweeps. away, parallel with the future des- 
 tiny of men, across the dread borders of time and 
 eternity into the invisible realm of disembodied spirits. 
 "I am He," He triumphantly exclaims, "that liveth and 
 was dead, and behold I am alive forevermore. Amen. 
 And have the keys of hell and of death." And let it 
 be remembered, as a source of unspeakable consolation 
 to us, that this administration of providence, this con- 
 trol of the laws by which the world is governed, is 
 committed to the hands of the Lord Jesus for the bene- 
 fit and salvation of His people. "All things," says the 
 great apostle, addressing believers, "all things are 
 yours; whether Paul or ApoUos, or Cephas, or the 
 world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to 
 come; all are yours; and ye are Christ's, and Christ is 
 God's." And can we believe that the laws of nature 
 which Christ Himself administers and through which 
 He displays His power shall ever be barriers betwixt 
 His heart and the prayers of His people? No, my 
 brethren, the Savior who died for us, the Brother who 
 passed through the flaming furnace of affliction that 
 He might know how to sympathize with us, will toler- 
 ate no impediment to the communication of His love to 
 His people, or the passage of His people's prayers to 
 Him. 
 
Girardeau 331 
 
 THE REST OF THE PEOPLE OF GOD 
 
 Hebrews iv :9. ''''There remaineth^ therefore^ a rest to 
 the people of GodP 
 
 The first part of this epistle is occupied in showing 
 that the advantages accruing to the Hebrews from their 
 profession of Christianity were superior to those which 
 they would have enjoyed had they continued their ad- 
 herence to Judaism. In an elaborate comparison which 
 the apostle institutes between Christ and the ministries 
 of the old dispensation, he proves the infinite supe- 
 riority of the Savior to the prophets, to the angels 
 through whose hands the law was dispensed, to Moses, 
 and to the Aaronic j^riesthood. And in the argument 
 in which the text occurs he evinces the pre-eminence of 
 Jesus over Joshua as a leader, and of the rest into 
 which he introduces the people of God over that into 
 which Israel was conducted by their illustrious captain. 
 In the prosecution of this branch of the comparison 
 the apostle mentions several kinds of rest, in order to 
 show what was not and" what is that rest which re- 
 maineth for the people of God. In the first place, he 
 adverts to the rest into which God entered when he 
 ceased from the works of creation, of which the Sab- 
 bath was originally designed to be a reminder and a 
 monument. Had man remained in His primitive in- 
 tegrity he would have enjoyed a rest in God of which 
 
 Note. — The purpose of this sermon was evidently to comfort those 
 whose hearts were sore. A note says : "Delivered in the Second 
 Presbyterian Church, Charleston, in the summer of 1865 — the year 
 when the war closed — to a great congregation from all the dismantled 
 Presbyterian churches of the city." 
 
332 Sermons 
 
 the perpetual recurrence of the Sabbath was a beauti- 
 ful type. But, as he sinned, that natural institute was 
 suited at once to remind him of the rest which he had 
 lost, and to convince him of his need of another. 
 Neither, therefore, the rest into which God as Creator 
 entered, nor the Sabbath which was its sign, could be 
 that which now remains to the people of God. Nor, 
 argues the apostle, can the temporal rest into which 
 Israel was led by Joshua be that which still exists for 
 us. For long after the occupation of the promised land 
 and the enjoyment of the blessings it contained, the 
 Holy Spirit through David made mention of another 
 day of rest. If Joshua had given them rest, then 
 would not God have spoken of another day. When, 
 then, the apostle expresses it as his conclusion that 
 there remaineth a rest to the people of God, he does 
 not mean to intimate that there is no present rest which 
 it is possible to attain, and that the future alone can 
 disclose it, but that, over and above those other sorts 
 of rest which he had mentioned, there remains another 
 which is to be discriminated from them. The last kind 
 of rest to which he alludes is that which is brought to 
 our notice in his declaration, that "he that is entered 
 into his rest he also hath ceased from his own works as 
 God did from His." I am unable to understand these 
 words, unless the reference be to Christ. The argument 
 appears to be that as God, as Creator, finished His 
 works and entered into rest, so Christ, as Mediator and 
 Redeemer, has closed His labors and entered into His 
 rest. And as the Sabbath originally was designed to 
 be a sign of rest from the works of creation, the Lord's 
 day is intended to represent to us the rest which suc- 
 ceeded the labors of redemption. Now, as Jesus acted 
 in the capacity of a public person — as a federal head 
 
Girardeau 333 
 
 and leader of His people — in accomplishing His media- 
 torial functions, in the same character He entered into 
 rest. He has secured for them a rest into which they 
 are exhorted to enter by faith. To believe is to enter 
 into that rest, to disbelieve is to be excluded from it. 
 He who believes enters now into it. For, declares the 
 apostle, we which have believed do enter into rest. The 
 rest, therefore, into which Christ introducs His people 
 by means of their faith in His atoning labors is that 
 which remaineth for the people of God, the only, the 
 true Sabbatism of the soul. Though in its own nature 
 perfect, it is in the present life, in consequence of the 
 corruptions which exist in believers, partial and incom- 
 plete in the extent of its realization. The day will 
 come when, concurrently with the perfect sanctifica- 
 tion of the soul, it will be consummate in degree as well 
 as in nature. The heavenly rest is but the complement 
 of that which the believer now enjoys in Christ. He 
 who now rests by faith in his Redeemer will ultimately 
 rest in heaven. But in each case He who confers the 
 rest is Christ. 
 
 The question now occurs, what is the nature of that 
 rest which remaineth for the people of God, and into 
 which Jesus as their leader conducts them? The term 
 rest is a correlative one. It stands related both to 
 labor and to pain. He who ceases from wearisome and 
 exhausting toil is said to rest, and so with him who is 
 relieved from torturing pain. The soldier, who in a 
 parched climate and under a burning sun has been ex- 
 hausted by a day's march, knows the sweetness of rest, 
 when at evening he stretches his wearied limbs on some 
 leafy bed, and composes himself to slumber. The sick 
 man, who for long days and nights has tossed on his 
 couch, scorched by fever or racked by pain, is prepared 
 
334 Sermons 
 
 to understand the gratefulness of rest. I shall en- 
 deavor to show that both of these elements enter into 
 the composition of that rest which Jesus promises to 
 His people. 
 
 I. It may be remarked, in the first place, that this 
 rest involves a cessation of those anxious and futile 
 labors by which we attempt to secure our justification. 
 
 When men are profoundly convinced that in conse- 
 quence of their sins there is a breach betwixt them and 
 their Maker; that He is their judicial enemy; that His 
 broken law demands their punishment, and His holi- 
 ness, justice, and truth conspire to enforce this claim, 
 they address themselves to the discharge of duties and 
 the performance of labors in the hope that they will 
 thus be enabled to avert their doom, and propitiate the 
 favor of God. But there are two insuperable difficul- 
 ties which oppose the success of their schemes. The 
 sentence is already pronounced which ensures their 
 condemnation on the ground of past offences, and it is 
 impossible that they should, by their own efforts, fur- 
 nish an adequate expiation of their guilt, and a satis- 
 factory reparation to the divine government. No finite 
 sacrifices will avail to atone for the infinite guiltiness 
 of their sins. When all their prayers have been offered, 
 all their tears been shed, all their arduous toils been 
 .accomplished, the barriers to reconciliation to God are 
 discovered to be just as impassable as ever, and the 
 prospect of reaching the end of their efforts as remote 
 as when they commenced them. Unfortunately for 
 them, too, the sinful principle within them, which no 
 endeavors of their own can eradicate, is so intensely 
 hostile to the worship and service of God that all the 
 labors which they expend in that direction are attended 
 necessarily with perpetual and consuming misery. In- 
 
Girardeau 335 
 
 stead of attaining rest they increase their unrest. Their 
 convictions of the necessity of laboring are enhanced 
 by their disappointments, and their disappointments 
 are deepened by the mortifying failure of their efforts. 
 In this deplorable condition Jesus offers them rest. 
 He reveals, by His gospel, the fact that He has, as the 
 substitute of sinners, taken their place, assumed their 
 legal obligations, obeyed the law in their room, in His 
 life furnishing perfect obedience to its precepts, and in 
 His expiatory death exhausting its awful curse; and 
 that having finished these. His mediatorial labors, He 
 has entered into rest and secured for those who believe 
 in Him exemption from the necessity of incurring vain 
 and painful labors for the purpose of attaining their 
 own justification. The work in order to justification 
 has been done and perfectly done by Him. To that 
 end there remains nothing further to be done by the 
 sinner save only to accept, by faith, His vicarious work, 
 and to cease from all labors of his own. When, there- 
 fore, the question is asked by the anxious and inquir- 
 ing sinner. What work must I do that I may be saved, 
 the answer invariably is from Christ and His apostles 
 alike: "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ." Faith is a 
 confession of impotence. The believer's language is, 
 I can do nothing to save myself; I renounce my own 
 work as utterly worthless; I accept the work of the 
 Savior and implicitly rely upon that and that alone. 
 He who believes has the labors of Christ imputed to 
 him as if he had performed them in his own person, 
 and receives the result of those labors — an entrance for 
 his vexed and troubled soul into the rest that remains 
 for God's people. 
 
 He desists from his anxious and fruitless toil to win 
 his own justification. He is justified in Christ, and 
 
336 Sermons 
 
 being so justified, he obtains, without any works of his 
 own, that "peace of God which passeth all understand- 
 ing." As Jesus entered into His rest when He ceased 
 from His labors, the soul that believes in Him and ap- 
 propriates His works as its own passes with the Savior 
 into the same peaceful and blessed condition. 
 
 II. The second element of the rest which the believer 
 enjoys in Christ is his exemption from the tortures of 
 a guilty and accusing conscience. 
 
 The question whether we enjoy any true and sub- 
 stantial rest of spirit in this painful life depends upon 
 the answer which we are able to give to another ques- 
 tion: De we possess a peaceful or a guilty and trou- 
 bled conscience? This faculty has been shown by an 
 able living writer to unite in itself the threefold func- 
 tions of a law, a witness and a judge. In the first of 
 these aspects, it reflects the majesty and authority of 
 that eternal standard of rectitude which is founded in 
 the very nature of God. The original rule of conduct 
 indestructibly imbedded in the constitution of man, 
 is, when unbiassed by the false and perverted represen- 
 tation of facts furnished by the understanding, in per- 
 fect accord with the Scriptures. Though not like them 
 formally expressed in a written document, it is indeli- 
 bly inscribed upon the tablets of the soul. It implicitly 
 contains those fundamental principles of rectitude 
 which are capable of application to every mental state 
 of which we can be conscious, and to every act which it 
 is possible for us to perform. It is God's law in the 
 human soul, its utterances are His utterances, and when 
 it speaks, it thunders with His voice, and clothes itself 
 with the awful sanctions of His authority. Disobedi- 
 ence to conscience is disobedience to God. In its second 
 phase — that of a witness — it takes notice of all our 
 
GiRAKDEAU 337 
 
 moral acts, keeps, so to speak, a record of our sins, and 
 is prepared to furnish its true and unerring testimony 
 against us in every instance of transgression. Nor are 
 its records ever completely lost or destroyed. As if 
 graven with the point of a diamond in the everlasting 
 rock, its memoranda of our offences are absolutely in- 
 delible. They may for the time be forgotten by the 
 sinner himself; he may suppose them to be buried in 
 the grave of the past beyond the power of resurrec- 
 tion to resuscitate them ; but when, in sudden and criti- 
 cal emergencies the fears of the future are thoroughly 
 aroused as in moments of inmiinent peril, or in the 
 solemn hour of death, bursting into light through all 
 the overlapping inscriptions of years, these records of 
 guilt, filed away in the court of conscience, stand out in 
 bold relief to the startled memory of the transgressor, 
 and are fastened as charges upon him by a witness 
 which speaks with the veracity of God. Its power is 
 still more sensibly felt, and its sanctions become still 
 more impressive, when we reflect that, in addition to the 
 characteristics which have been mentioned, it dis- 
 charges the functions of a judge. Itself the witness of 
 offences against its own legal requirements, it pro- 
 nounces upon the transgressor the sentence of con- 
 demnation. Nor is it possible to slight its judicial de- 
 cisions. It speaks for God when it delivers them, and 
 refers for their authentication to His supreme author- 
 ity and for their ultimate enforcement to His final bar. 
 It sits, in this point of view, on a minor judgment-seat 
 in the soul of man, arraigns the offender with divine 
 authority before it, with divine majesty utters the sen- 
 tence of condemnation, and binds him over to a higher 
 court, to a more awful judicial day, and to the tremen- 
 dous solemnities of the last assize. It is no marvel, 
 
338 Sermons 
 
 then, that it has power by its thunders to break the 
 slumber of the sinner, and to rob him of his fancied 
 rest. It is possible, when conscience smiles upon us, 
 when its sentence of approbation supports the soul, to 
 breast with serenity the severest storms of adversity, 
 to oppose with singular constancy the unreasonable de- 
 mands of faction, and to pass with undaunted forti- 
 tude to the rack, the gibbet and the stake. He who is 
 sustained by an enlightened conscience is supported by 
 the power of God; and he may well exclaim, If God 
 is for me, who can be against me? "Though an host 
 should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear. 
 Though war should rise against me, in this will I be 
 confident." When, on the contrary, conscience frowns 
 upon the transgressor, when its sentences, muttered in 
 the depths of the soul like the first growls of a coming 
 tempest herald the swift approach of the final judg- 
 ment, it dissolves his natural courage, unstrings the 
 resolution of his heart, blanches his face with mortal 
 paleness, peoples his dying chamber with shapes of 
 terrors, crowds the valley of the death-shade with exe- 
 cutioners of vengeance, and blackens the awful future 
 before him with the aspect of an eternal storm. The 
 most consuming care which one can experience is de- 
 rived from the accusations of a guilty conscience. It 
 admits of no rest. It is more to be dreaded than all 
 the pains of the body, and all the engines of physical 
 torture. Happily for us, my brethren, a refuge is pro- 
 vided for us from this intolerable evil. From the pangs 
 of an accusing conscience Jesus Christ offers us rest. 
 There is no other remedy for our unrest but in the 
 atoning blood of the Lamb. The infinite mercy of God 
 in furnishing a glorious substitute who assumes our 
 guilt and consents to undergo its penal consequences, 
 
Girardeau 339 
 
 aflfords us an escape from the dreadful lash of con- 
 science. Himself holy, harmless and undefiled, Jesus 
 suffers our sins to be accounted His, permits them to 
 be bound upon His soul, and yields Himself a victim 
 to the punishment which must otherwise have sunk us 
 to the lowest hell. His death discharges the believer 
 from the obligation to suffer in his own person — His 
 blood quenches the lightnings of an angry conscience, 
 silences its accusations, and purges it from dead works 
 to serve the living God. Who can estimate the relief 
 which faith in a dying Savior brings to the poor sin- 
 ner whose troubled conscience had made this life a 
 burden, and the life to come an object of unutterable 
 dread? None, none but he who has experimentally 
 known the sweetness of that rest which the conscience- 
 smitten spirit finds in the grace of a compassionate 
 Redeemer. There be some of us, perhaps, in this as- 
 sembly today to whom it is not difficult to recall a time 
 when we suffered from legal convictions, from the 
 goadings of an unpurged conscience, and the apprehen- 
 sions of eternal wrath. 
 
 The fires of passion raged within, and there was no 
 means of quenching them* the conflict with wicked 
 habits grew fiercer and more bitter, and no succor was 
 nigh; the commandment pressed with power upon our 
 souls, sin revived, and we died ; and ever as the percep- 
 tion of our criminality became more vivid, the sentence 
 of doom uttered from within us like the blast of a 
 trumpet waxed louder and louder. At every step we 
 seemed to be confronted with the terrors of Sinai — its 
 blackness, smoke and flame, — and to draw nearer and 
 nearer to the verge of a fiery and bottomless abyss. 
 Darkness encompassed us, tempestuous billows rolled 
 over our heads, and our fainting souls took hold on 
 
340 Sermons 
 
 hell. In that hour of extremity a voice of ineffable ten- 
 derness, as of one in quest of the wretched and the 
 lost, was heard exclaiming: "Come unto Me, all ye 
 that labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you 
 rest." We listened, wondered, ventured to come, be- 
 lieved the gracious word, and found, in the bosom of 
 Jesus, rest from the pangs of conscience and the fears 
 of hell. The night of despair was suffused with the 
 morning light of heaven, and our hearts broke forth 
 into the grateful song: "Thou hast delivered our 
 souls from death, our eyes from tears, and our feet 
 from falling." Conscience, pacified by the blood of 
 Jesus, withdrew its charges, acquitted us of guilt, and 
 bade us enter into that rest which remaineth for the 
 people of God. 
 
 III. A third element, which I would mention as con- 
 stituting that rest which remaineth to the people of 
 God, is deliverance from the tyrannical dominion of 
 sin and Satan, 
 
 Christ gives us rest not only from bondage to the 
 guilt of sin, but also to its power, and He affords us, 
 moreover, deliverance from the galling yoke of the 
 Devil. This He accomplishes, I conceive, in a three- 
 fold manner. In the first place. He extends to us in 
 our conflicts with our spiritual foes the powerful suc- 
 cor of His grace. I use this word in the sense of an 
 active and energetic principle. "When employed in 
 reference to the subject of justification the term grace, 
 so far as I am able to perceive, always expresses one of 
 two things : either the favorable disposition of God to 
 sinners, or that state of favor into which they are in- 
 troduced by the justifying righteousness of Christ. 
 "We are justified by grace" would be an instance of 
 the former signification; "we have access into this 
 
Girardeau 341 
 
 grace wherein we stand" is an example, probably, of 
 the latter. When used in reference to sanctification 
 the term not unfrequently signifies that vital energy, 
 that powerful, operative principle, which the Holy 
 Spirit employs as a positive clement of strength in the 
 soul of the believer. When, for example, the Savior, 
 in answer to the prayer of the apostle that the thorn 
 in His flesh might be removed, assured him that His 
 grace was sufficient for him, I am inclined to think 
 that He promised him the aid of an efficacious princi- 
 ple which would strengthen him for the endurance of 
 the trial and give him the victory over the temptation. 
 
 When by faith we become united to Christ we are 
 made partakers of this grace of the Holy Spirit which 
 was purchased for us by the blood of Jesus, and is 
 dispensed by Him in proportion to the exigencies of 
 His people. Without this divine gift we can do noth- 
 ing, our attempts to resist the dominion of our lusts 
 are miserable failures, and we become the sport of our 
 temptations and the prey of the Devil. With it the 
 feeblest believer is in a measure, even in this life, 
 emancipated from bondage to his corruptions and 
 blessed with rest from the tyrannical dominion of 
 Satan. It positively reinforces his weakness, is an 
 actual strength in his impotence, and gives him suc- 
 cess in conflicts which would otherwise but plunge him 
 deeper into a wretched slavery of the soul. 
 
 In the next place, Christ communicates to us rest 
 from the oppressive power of our sins by generating 
 in us that faith which is the victory that overcometh 
 the world. There is a remarkable passage in the Book 
 of Revelation in which the saints, who have attained 
 to heavenly felicity, are represented as having over- 
 come the Devil by the blood of the Lamb and the word 
 
342 Sermons 
 
 of their testimony. Here we have indicated the instru- 
 ment by which we successfully oppose the assaults of 
 Satan, a potent talisman which, when borne with us, 
 dissolves the spell of passion and breaks the force of 
 temptation. It is faith in the blood of the Lamb. 
 Although there may be other modes by which these 
 results are accomplished through the blood of Jesus, it 
 appears to me that the chief significance of this pas- 
 sage lies in this, that a view by faith of the blood of 
 the Lamb poured out for sin conveys such a sense of 
 its enormity as induces abhorrence of it, and the pro- 
 foundest penitence for its commission. He alone is 
 prepared to cope with sin who beholds its effect as 
 exhibited in the effusion of Jesus' blood. And He who 
 is not melted to penitence by that sight, and is not 
 moved by it to abandon his sins, will in vain appeal to 
 any other motive or employ any other means to sub- 
 due the power of his lusts. But by imparting to us a 
 faith which finds in the blood of Jesus the most power- 
 ful argument for resistance to temptation, the Savior 
 communicates to us rest from the dominion of sin and 
 the oppression of the Devil. 
 
 It may further be observed that Christ gives us rest 
 from the tyranny of sin, as He extends to us a sympa- 
 thy which cheers us in the depression which results 
 from conflicts with temptation. This sympathy is the 
 fruit of His own experience while undergoing the 
 furious assaults of the Devil. Taught Himself by bit- 
 ter discipline in the school of trial. He extends His 
 sympathy to us heartily and freely while we encounter 
 difficulties akin to His own. This is the most precious 
 cordial which we can have when fainting amidst our 
 contests with sin and Satan. We rest in it. It soothes 
 the anguished spirit and stimulates us to renewed exer- 
 
Girardeau 343 
 
 tions in a battle which we are conscious we are not 
 fighting alone. Christ is with us. That fact gives us 
 partial rest in the very drift of the conflict on earth, 
 and conveys the assurance of a perfect triumph and a 
 complete rest at last. 
 
 IV. Still another element of the rest which Jesus 
 confers consists in relief from the painful disquietudes 
 which spring from temporal afflictions, and from 
 changes in our earthly circumstances. 
 
 The chief sting of affliction lies in the conviction 
 that it is penal. The sense of ill-desert is the natural 
 and necessary effect of our sins; and when we regard 
 the sufferings of life as punitive visitations, as evi- 
 dences of the fact that God is dealing with us in the 
 capacity of an unsparing Judge, and that His dispen- 
 sations toward us are the measures of retributive jus- 
 tice, our condition is truly deplorable. Cut off by the 
 very pressure of sorrow from all external sources of 
 relief, we find in our inward consciousness no mitiga- 
 tion of the trial. On the contrary, reflection upon our 
 own state serves only to convince us that we suffer 
 justly, and this conviction lends additional poignancy 
 to the arrow that pierces the soul. All is dark without, 
 and no ray of light arises from within. If we look to 
 the world it presents the aspect of a stormy sea that 
 threatens to overwhelm us ; if we look to our own souls, 
 the tempest equally rages there ; if we look to God, His 
 throne is pavilioned with clouds and His face is 
 shadowed with frowns. We hear nothing but the roar 
 of the tempest and the angry voice of the Judge. It is 
 the province of the gospel, and of it alone, to furnish 
 us rest in the midst of these trials. The vicarious work 
 of Christ changes the very character of our afflictions. 
 Believing in Him and justified by His righteousness. 
 
344 Sermons 
 
 we are freed from the condemning sentence of the law. 
 "There is now no condemnation to them who are in 
 Christ Jesus."' It is not to be denied that the believer 
 undergoes suffering from the afflictions which are 
 common to men, or even from trials which necessarily 
 result from His profession of the gospel. It may be 
 admitted that it is a law of Christ's kingdom on earth 
 that His people shall have tribulation and that they 
 that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer per- 
 secution. But it is equally true that all the afflictions 
 which the believer is called upon to encounter are 
 stripped of their penal complexion, and constitute a 
 salutary discipline which is intended to benefit and not 
 to destroy. He is entitled to regard them not as the 
 retributive measures of a Judge, but the kindly correc- 
 tions of a Father. So far from being a penalty, they 
 are the tokens of paternal love. This consideration 
 cannot but deprive our earthly trials of their chief 
 power to inflict anguish. It reconciles us to a discip- 
 line which checks our waywardness, refines our graces 
 and ripens for the inheritance of the saints in light. It 
 calms the perturbations of our spirits and gives us a 
 measure of rest in the midst of our anxieties, perplexi- 
 ties, and griefs. Convinced that God is reconciled to 
 us by the blood of Jesus, and that like as a father 
 pitieth his children, so He pities us; assured that 
 Christ, by His sufferings and death, has forever re- 
 moved from us the curse of the law, and transmuted 
 our afflictions into blessings; cheered by the precious 
 testimony of the blessed Spirit, concurring with that 
 of our own spirits that we are the children of God 
 and heirs of all the priceless and everlasting treasures 
 of His kingdom, we possess a peace which passes all 
 understanding and imparts a serene rest to our souls 
 
Girardeau 345 
 
 while struggling with trials and tossed by grief. In 
 this point of view, the paradoxes of the apostle become 
 experimental verities: "We are troubled on every 
 side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in 
 despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but 
 not destroyed." 
 
 These consolatory considerations are enhanced, too, 
 by the rejflection that the administration of divine 
 providence is committed into the hands of the Lord 
 Jesus, hands that for us were once nailed to the ac- 
 cursed tree, but now for us hold the reins of universal 
 empire. He who sits upon the throne of providence, 
 controlling its energies, arranging its measures, and 
 meting out its dispensations, is He who, standing in 
 the midst of His church, is not ashamed to call them 
 brethren. It is He who assumed our nature and was 
 made in all things like unto His brethren, that He 
 might be merciful and faithful to them. To Him all 
 power is intrusted. All the elements of nature, all 
 the forces of providence, all the powers of heaven, 
 earth, and hell are at His supreme and absolute dis- 
 posal. He speaks, and cherubim and seraphim hasten 
 to obey; He thunders, and the nations of the earth 
 tremble at the sound; He utters His majestic voice, and 
 devils cry out in anticipation of their doom. His will 
 is omnipotence. His realm the universe, and His sceptre 
 the symbol of illimitable and resistless sway. When 
 He bows the heavens and comes down to vindicate 
 His people, the whole earth is exhorted to make a joy- 
 ful noise ; the sea to roar with the fulness thereof ; the 
 floods to clap their hands; the hills to rejoice; and 
 all the inhabitants of the world to shout before Him. 
 Zion hears the thundering acclaim and is glad, and all 
 
346 Sermons 
 
 the daughters of Judah rejoice because of His judg- 
 ments. My brethren, if there be any thought which is 
 suited to allay our fears and to give us rest amidst our 
 earthly trials, and the fluctuations of our earthly lot, 
 it is that Jesus reigns; that the infinite resources of 
 providence are lodged in a brother's hands, and that 
 all its measures in relation to His people are the sug- 
 gestions of a brother's heart. He allots our afflictions 
 and appoints our changes, and we may safely rest in 
 the conviction that, as He is a Savior and not a De- 
 stroyer, He makes His Providence a minister to our 
 good. Under His administration nature becomes 
 grace, and the scheme of providence is merged into the 
 scheme of redemption. His infinite power obeys the 
 promptings of His infinite love. To know the wants of 
 His people is to supply them; to laiow their distresses 
 is to relieve them; to know their dangers is to defeat 
 them. His all-seeing and compassionate eye watches 
 us toiling, rowing amidst night and storm, and He 
 comes to us walking upon the sea. It is enough that 
 He is present. His voice sets our fears at rest, and 
 sinks the heaving billows of our afflictions into pro- 
 found and settled calm. This, then, is our relief. We 
 rest in providence, for providence is Christ's and Christ 
 is ours. 
 
 In this connection it may not inappropriately be 
 added that in the rest which Jesus bestows we expe- 
 rience deliverance from the perplexing doubts which 
 the mysterious dispensations of providence not unfre- 
 quenth^ excite. 
 
 There are problems arising from the dealings of 
 providence with the race which it is not intended that 
 we should solve in this world and under the present 
 limitation of our faculties. But even in these cases it 
 
Girardeau 347 
 
 is the tendency of faith in Christ to lead us, when we 
 cannot understand, to submit and adore. There are 
 other difficulties connected with providential dispensa- 
 tions that are only insoluble, or, at least, productive of 
 unhappiness to the unbeliever. They are resolved by 
 a faith which contemplates the conduct of providence 
 as committed to the wisdom and the mercy of one who 
 is at once a Ruler and a Savior, a Sovereign and a 
 Friend. What is darkness to others is light to the be- 
 liever. Christ is the interpreter as well as the admin- 
 istrator of providence, and faith in Him not seldom 
 places us in possession of an exposition which He is 
 pleased to furnish, and which puts an end to doubt. 
 Especially does our personal interest in the protecting 
 care of providence become clear and undoubted when 
 we repose implicit faith in Jesus. He who did not 
 think it beneath Him to die for us, will not think it 
 beneath Him to provide for us. He has assured us that 
 He cares for the sparrow, and that we are of more 
 value than many sparrows. Poor and insignificant we 
 may be, but He has spread His garment over us and 
 acknowledged us as His kinsmen. Included with Him 
 in the relations of the everlasting covenant, we dwell 
 in the secret place of the Most High, and abide under 
 the shadow of the Almighty: we cover ourselves with 
 His feathers and under His wings we trust. Amid 
 privation and want, amid afflictions and distresses, amid 
 pestilence and death, we rest in that vigilant and al- 
 mighty providence whose care for us was purchased 
 by the blood of Jesus, and whose unwasting resources 
 are pledged to our relief. 
 
 V. In the remarks which have been made, the posi- 
 tion is taken that we are privileged in this life to enjoy 
 
350 Sermons 
 
 strike his ear and disturb his soul no more. The revo- 
 lutionary changes which hurl thrones and dynasties 
 into the dust shall have no influence on that immova- 
 ble kingdom which, founded in the blood of Jesus, and 
 conserved by the power of the everlasting covenant, 
 shall survive the shaking of the heavens and the con- 
 flagration of the earth. The night of doubt, perplexity, 
 and unrest shall give way to the morning light of an 
 unclouded and eternal day. The mysteries of provi- 
 dence will no longer tempt to skepticism, and the per- 
 fect temper of submissiveness to the divine will, which 
 is the result of the believer's earthly discipline, will for- 
 ever preclude the excursions of the imagination which 
 might tend to excite discontent even with a heavenly 
 sphere of activity and joy. An unbroken sabbatism 
 shall reign within him, and a perpetual Sabbath shall 
 lie before him in which to employ the habitudes of his 
 glorified spirit in the ministrations of the celestial 
 sanctuary. He shall come home to Jesus, the dwelling- 
 place of His people, and rest with Him forever. And 
 sitting down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, with 
 patriarchs, prophets, and apostles, with the confessors, 
 martyrs, and ministers of Jesus, with sainted kindred, 
 brethren and friends, he shall rest in a communion 
 which will realize the idea of a perfect society, and 
 prove an everlasting banquet of the soul. 
 
Girardeau 351 
 
 UNBELIEF IN CHRIST THE GREAT- 
 EST OF SINS 
 
 John xvi :9 "6^/ sin, because they believe not on Ife." 
 In the affecting valedictory discourse which the 
 Savior delivered to His disciples, immediately before 
 His last passion, He assures them that it was expe- 
 dient that He should leave them. The reason which 
 He assigned was that if He did not go away the Com- 
 forter would not come to them, but if He departed He 
 would send Him unto them. In the wonderful economy 
 of redemption, the Scriptures inform us that each per- 
 son in the Godhead discharges a peculiar function. As 
 it was the office of the Father to conceive the plan of 
 salvation, and to commission the Son to fulfil it by 
 His atoning sufferings on earth and His intercessions 
 in heaven, so it is the province of the Spirit to apply 
 the benefits which Christ purchased for His people by 
 His blood. But in order that that blessed Agent should 
 come upon this gracious and salutary mission, it was 
 necessary that the Savior, after having offered Him- 
 self as an expiatory sacrifice, should, as the High Priest 
 of His elect people, ascend into the heavens, and by 
 presenting the memorials of His death, and pressing 
 His sacerdotal pleas, should actually obtain the saving 
 offices of the Holy Ghost. Thus securing them He im- 
 parts, from His mediatorial throne, the spirit of all 
 grace to convince the world of sin, of righteousness and 
 of judgment. The text gives us the statement of Christ 
 
 Note.- — This sermon was first preached in Charleston in 1865. Dr. 
 Girardeau constantly used its main thoughts in his preaching. 
 
350 Sermons 
 
 strike his ear and disturb his soul no more. The revo- 
 lutionary changes which hurl thrones and dynasties 
 into the dust shall have no influence on that immova- 
 ble kingdom which, founded in the blood of Jesus, and 
 conserved by the power of the everlasting covenant, 
 shall survive the shaking of the heavens and the con- 
 flagration of the earth. The night of doubt, perplexity, 
 and unrest shall give way to the morning light of an 
 unclouded and eternal day. The mysteries of provi- 
 dence will no longer tempt to skepticism, and the per- 
 fect temper of submissiveness to the divine will, which 
 is the result of the believer's earthly discipline, will for- 
 ever preclude the excursions of the imagination which 
 might tend to excite discontent even with a heavenly 
 sphere of activity and joy. An unbroken sabbatism 
 shall reign within him, and a perpetual Sabbath shall 
 lie before him in which to employ the habitudes of his 
 glorified spirit in the ministrations of the celestial 
 sanctuary. He shall come home to Jesus, the dwelling- 
 place of His people, and rest with Him forever. And 
 sitting down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, with 
 patriarchs, prophets, and apostles, with the confessors, 
 martyrs, and ministers of Jesus, with sainted kindred, 
 brethren and friends, he shall rest in a communion 
 which will realize the idea of a perfect society, and 
 prove an everlasting banquet of the soul. 
 
Girardeau 351 
 
 UNBELIEF IN CHRIST THE GREAT- 
 EST OF SINS 
 
 John xvi :9 "6>/ sin, because they believe not on Me^ 
 In the affecting valedictory discourse which the 
 Savior delivered to His disciples, immediately before 
 His last passion, He assures them that it was expe- 
 dient that He should leave them. The reason which 
 He assigned was that if He did not go away the Com- 
 forter would not come to them, but if He departed He 
 would send Him unto them. In the wonderful economy 
 of redemption, the Scriptures inform us that each per- 
 son in the Godhead discharges a peculiar function. As 
 it was the office of the Father to conceive the plan of 
 salvation, and to commission the Son to fulfil it by 
 His atoning sufferings on earth and His intercessions 
 in heaven, so it is the province of the Spirit to apply 
 the benefits which Christ purchased for His people by 
 His blood. But in order that that blessed Agent should 
 come upon this gracious and salutary mission, it was 
 necessary that the Savior, after having offered Him- 
 self as an expiatory sacrifice, should, as the High Priest 
 of His elect people, ascend into the heavens, and by 
 presenting the memorials of His death, and pressing 
 His sacerdotal pleas, should actually obtain the saving 
 offices of the Holy Ghost. Thus securing them He im- 
 parts, from His mediatorial throne, the spirit of all 
 grace to convince the world of sin, of righteousness and 
 of judgment. The text gives us the statement of Christ 
 
 Note. — This sermon was first preached in Charleston in 1865. Dr. 
 Girardeau constantly used its main thoughts in his preaching. 
 
352 Sermons 
 
 as to the mode by which the Holy Spirit would con- 
 vince men of sin. "He will reprove," or convince, "the 
 world of sin, because they believe not on Me." It is 
 obvious that our Savior regarded unbelief in Himself 
 as the greatest, the most comprehensive of all sins. 
 According to this statement, unbelief in Christ is an 
 epitome, a recapitulation of all conceivable forms of 
 sin. In convincing the world of unbelief in Him, the 
 Holy Spirit would convince them of all sin. As in the 
 gospel, faith, in consequence of its relation to Christ, 
 is treated as the occasion of all the other Christian vir- 
 tues, so unbelief, from its opposition to Him, is con- 
 sidered as the occasion of all the other sins. And as 
 faith in Christ is enjoined as the first great duty to 
 be discharged by the sinner, unbelief in Him is pro- 
 nounced to be the capital sin to which his attention is 
 to be first directed, and which is chiefly to be repented 
 of and forsaken. 
 
 Unbelief is a condition of the heart which renders 
 the sinner unwilling to receive Christ as a Savior, and 
 is indicated in the specific acts of the will by which, in 
 that capacity. He is rejected. The judgment of unbe- 
 lievers as to the criminality of this sin is different from 
 that which the Savior enounces in the text. In the 
 attempts which they sometimes make at repentance or 
 reformation, so far from being regarded as thp most 
 monstrous of all sins, it is apt to be considered as less 
 aggravated than their other offences. These efforts 
 must end in vanity. They begin in error, and must 
 terminate in failure. It will be my purpose to show 
 that unbelief is the greatest of all sins, and in doing 
 so to induce you, my friends, to seek that grace by 
 which you may be convinced of its enormity and to 
 
Girardeau 353 
 
 embrace Jesus Christ as He is freely offered to you in 
 the gospel. 
 
 I. Unbelief in Christ, it may be remarked in the 
 first place, is the greatest of sins, because it compre- 
 hends all other sins in itself, and is a deliberate ap- 
 proval and justification of them. This is evident from 
 the consideration that the scheme of redemption 
 through Christ furnishes the means, and the only 
 means, by which the guilt of sin may be pardoned and 
 its power destroyed; and unbelief in the Savior is a 
 wilful rejection of these means. The very purpose for 
 which the plan of salvation was instituted, and the 
 mission of the Son of God was undertaken, was that 
 the works of the Devil might be destroyed and the 
 dominion of sin be broken. Previously to the incarna- 
 tion of the Redeemer, the announcement was illade, 
 through an angelic ministry, that He should be called 
 Jesus, for He should save His people from their sins. 
 The whole scheme of redemption contemplates the de- 
 liverance of sinners from the condemning sentence of 
 the violated law, the destruction of the influence of sin 
 within them, and their restoration to the image of 
 God, which consists in knowledge, righteousness and 
 true holiness. Of this scheme, and of the accomplish- 
 ment of the wise, beneficent and merciful ends which 
 it proposes, unbelief in Christ is the open and defiant 
 resistance. So far as it goes, it would destroy the plan 
 and defeat its ends. It is as if the unbeliever should 
 say : I am aware that the gospel affords the means by 
 which I may repair the injury done the divine name 
 and government, secure the pardon of my guilt, and 
 render acceptable service to God, but I am unwilling 
 to subserve these purposes, and prefer to continue in 
 that condition in which, so far as I am concerned, they 
 
354 Sermons 
 
 will certainly fail of attainment. Let us look at the 
 enormous turpitude of such a position. 
 
 It is not difficult to show that unbelief in Christ 
 includes and ratifies the guilt of original sin. The sin 
 by which man at first rebelled against God, broke his 
 covenant with Him, trampled under foot His law, and 
 spurned the rich and innumerable tokens of His love 
 will be admitted to have been one characterized by the 
 most flagrant criminality. Endowed with all the fur- 
 niture and adornments of a holy nature, in sympathy 
 by the very conditions of his being with the perfections 
 and government of His divine Maker, possessed of a 
 strength, graciously imparted, amply sufficient to en- 
 able him to keep the divine commands, eminently 
 favored in having the field of temptation and the term 
 of his trial limited by the arrangements of the coven- 
 ant, and living in a state of happiness in which nothing 
 of enjoyment was left him to desire, under a rule which 
 was not only righteous and equitable, but kindly and 
 parental, what shadow of excuse can be furnished for 
 the gigantic crime of his rebellion ? In the face of the 
 most extraordinary advantages accruing from a course 
 of obedience, of the most urgent reasons for refusing 
 to disobey, and of the most solemn and impressive en- 
 gagements by which a voluntary agent could be bound, 
 at the very first proposal of the tempter, he discredited 
 the divine testimony, snapped the bonds of his own 
 plighted faith, flouted the amazing goodness of God, 
 contemned the law before which angels bow, and with 
 a haste, a hardihood and an audacity almost incon- 
 ceivable under the circumstances, rushed into the crime 
 of foul and undisguised revolt against his Maker, his 
 Benefactor, and his Friend. By the terms of the cov- 
 enant, which Adam thus inexcusably broke, he stood 
 
Girardeau 355 
 
 under its provisions as the iiead and representative of 
 the race which was destined to spring from his loins. 
 Had he refrained from sinning during the limited 
 period of probation graciously assigned him, his obe- 
 dience, through the channel of federal representation, 
 would have been derived to his posterity, and they, in 
 consequence of the imputation to them of that obedi- 
 ence, would have been justified, that is to say, they 
 would have been established in holiness and happiness 
 and everlastingly secured against the contingency of a 
 fall. But by the terms of the same covenant, as he 
 sinned, the guilt of his first transgression is, through 
 the channel of federal representation, derived to them, 
 and, in consequence of its imputation to them, they are 
 justly regarded as implicated in his sin and exposed to 
 the penalty which its commission entailed. We, then, 
 m}'' brethren, are involved in the guilt of that stupen- 
 dous crime by which the race first shook off the govern- 
 ment of God, and plunged into a career of disobedience. 
 There is now, however, furnished us in the mercy of 
 God the means by which we may be relieved from this 
 intolerable guilt, and enabled to repair the injury occa- 
 sioned by it to the law and government of God. The 
 incarnate Son of God, as the second Adam, represents 
 sinners under the provisions of a new and gracious 
 covenant. In pursuance of its arrangements He under- 
 takes, as the representative of the guilty, to render a 
 perfect obedience to the law which they violated, and 
 in His expiatory sufferings and death, to assume and 
 exhaust the curse which it inflicts. This He did, and 
 as He was a being of infinite dignity, his vicarious 
 obedience magnifies the law and affords a satisfactory 
 reparation to the claims of the outraged government 
 
356 Sermons 
 
 of God. Through the channel of the federal represen- 
 tation the obedience of Christ is derived to all who 
 believe in Him, that is, to all who accept Him as a 
 Savior and cordially and penitently rely upon Him. 
 His perfect righteousness is imputed to the believing 
 sinner, and characterizes him in all his personal rela- 
 tions to God. It is obvious, consequently, that He who 
 believes in Christ is discharged from the guilt of origi- 
 nal sin, and through his great representative, offers to 
 the nature, the law, and the government of God the 
 satisfaction which they imperatively require. The 
 obedience of Christ neutralizes the guilt of Adam. As 
 our birth into this world places us under subjection of 
 Adam's guilt, faith puts us in possession of Christ's 
 righteousness. Here, then, we have furnished us in 
 the gospel the means, the only means, by which we can 
 avert the consequences of our implication in the guilt 
 of original sin, and undo the damage which through it 
 we have done. Faith renders this means available to 
 us. It is mercifully offered to the acceptance of our 
 faith. He, therefore, who refuses to believe in Christ, 
 deliberately declines the use of this means, and form- 
 ally ratifies upon his soul the guilt of Adam's sin. 
 Dreadful as it is, he accepts it as his own. For he who 
 may be delivered from guilt, however derived, and 
 refuses to do so, binds, by his own act, that guilt upon 
 himself. 
 
 The unbeliever in Christ, it may be remarked in 
 the next place, refuses to accept the removal of his 
 guilt as a condition of rendering acceptable service to 
 God, and, therefore, approves and sanctions a disability 
 which keeps him in the uninterrupted commission of 
 sin. By the term guilt is to be understood subjection 
 to the penalty of the broken law, and exposure to the 
 
Girardeau 357 
 
 consequences which it imposes. Now, it is plainly im- 
 possible that a guilty person can render an obedience 
 which shall be acceptable to God. All his efforts at 
 holiness of life must be abortive. It is a contradiction 
 to suppose that one can suffer the curse of God's law 
 and at the same time sustain relations or produce an 
 obedience which He will approve. Communion with 
 God is the spiritual life of the soul. "His favor is 
 life." And as guilt supposes the destruction of inter- 
 course with God, it is a proof that spiritual life no 
 longer exists. It will require no discussion to show 
 that where there is no spiritual life there can be no 
 spiritual acts. The apostle tells us that conscience in 
 its natural and guilty condition is able only to produce 
 dead works — works which, though they may be mate- 
 rially good, spring from no principle of spiritual life, 
 are performed by persons spiritually dead and wrought 
 with no spiritual end in view. They are dead as to the 
 source in which they originate, dead as to the agent 
 who discharges them, and dead as to the end which 
 they contemplate. The sinner, therefore, in his natu- 
 ral, unbelieving state, lies under the sentence of the 
 law which makes it simply impossible that either his 
 person or his works should be accepted. He cannot be 
 condemned and accepted at one and the same time. 
 And his conscience, though through fear it may be 
 religiously stimulated, only goads him to the perform- 
 ance of duties which are intrinsically worthless. 
 
 This view of the sinner's disability is enhanced, too, 
 by the consideration plainly presented in the Scrip- 
 tures that a filial spirit is absolutely necessary to ac- 
 ceptable obedience. The temper of a condemned crim- 
 inal and that of an affectionate child cannot coincide 
 in the same heart. It is only they who are led by the 
 
358 Sermons 
 
 Spirit of God that are the sons of God, and "if any 
 man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of His." 
 Let it be observed that it is the office of faith, and of 
 faith alone, to remove this disability, which disquali- 
 fies the sinner from entering at all upon the acceptable 
 service of God. The believer in Christ is discharged 
 from the sentence of the law, which cripples his soul 
 and holds him in bondage. His guilt is washed away 
 in the blood of Jesus applied to him through faith. 
 The blood of Christ purges his conscience from dead 
 works to serve the living God. And the Spirit of 
 Christ, applying that blood, generates in him the filial 
 temper which prompts him to the performance of duty 
 not as a criminal or a slave, but as an adopted and 
 beloved child. Now, as unbelief refuses to accept the 
 atonement of Christ, and the grace of the spirit which 
 was acquired by His blood, it deliberately rejects the 
 only means by which the sinner can become reconciled 
 to God and be relieved from the disability to serve 
 Him entailed by the penalty of the law. The unbe- 
 liever voluntarily imprisons himself in a condition in 
 which it is impossible for him to render to God a free 
 and acceptable obedience. He rejects the means of de- 
 liverance, prefers to be incapacitated to serve God, and 
 chooses to continue in the undisturbed commission of 
 his sins. 
 
 The same line of argument tends to show the 
 heinousness of the sin of unbelief in Christ as it implies 
 an endorsement of all the actual transgressions of 
 which the sinner may be guilty. If God has provided 
 the means by which we may resist and overcome our 
 sins, then surely a rejection of those means involves a 
 justification of our iniquities. These means have been 
 furnished and unbelief rejects them. It is faith in 
 
Girardeau 359 
 
 the blood of Christ and in the grace of the Spirit which 
 enables us to obtain the victory over our sins. The 
 saints who have already reached the heavenly world, 
 we are taught, overcame Satan by the blood of the 
 Lamb and the word of their testimony. Unbelief dis- 
 cards the blood of Christ, the only effectual weapon 
 with which we are able to foil the attempts and resist 
 the assaults of the adversary of souls. Faith is the 
 victory that overcometh the world. Unbelief suc- 
 cumbs to the world and leaves the soul the sport of its 
 blandishments or the prey of its terrors. Faith re- 
 ceives the grace which is sufficient for us in every con- 
 flict with temptation^the divine and efficacious princi- 
 ple which alone energizes the soul for the discharge of 
 duty and the resistance of sin. Unbelief refuses to sue 
 for this grace, and abandons the sinner to his native 
 impotence and an unrestrained love of transgression. 
 It is manifest, therefore, that every sin of which one 
 may be guilty is endorsed and justified by unbelief. 
 There is not a transgression which the sinner may 
 have committed against the first or second table of the 
 divine law which it does not practically sanction. It 
 includes them all, and is chargeable with them all. 
 The unbeliever might, by faith, repent of his past sins 
 and successfully oppose those which might tempt him 
 in the future, and he refuses to believe. He, therefore, 
 tolerates and approves his sins. God abhors them, 
 condemns them, and thunders against them the terrible 
 sentence of His law. The unbeliever, in the face of 
 this divine reprobation and in contempt of God's holi- 
 ness and majesty, lays his hand upon them and coolly 
 and deliberately endorses them. He puts bitter for 
 sweet and sweet for bitter, and woe to those who do ! 
 
860 Sermons 
 
 To this it must be added that unbelief in Christ not 
 only involves an endorsement of crimes which have 
 been actually committed, but of all the tendencies 
 which are inherent in sin, and all the developments 
 of which it is capable. The state of spiritual death is 
 one in which, from the nature of the case, it is possible 
 that the sinner should be guilty of any specific form of 
 iniquity. His original righteousness is lost, and from 
 the supposition the renewing grace of God's Spirit is 
 not present. Essentially active as a moral agent, he 
 must go on in the perpetration of transgression. Every 
 sin, too, includes in itself the seeds of every other sin. 
 No sin stands alone. It is generative and reproductive. 
 A single breach of the divine law opens a gap through 
 which an irruption may be made, and if not arrested, 
 will inevitably be made upon every requirement which 
 it contains. Although the remark of the Eoman 
 satirist may be conceded to be true, that "no man be- 
 comes thoroughly depraved all at once," and it may 
 even be admitted that no one in the present life has 
 fully developed the sinful principle within him, it is 
 still not to be denied that there is in sin a fatal ten- 
 dency to a steady and indefinite progression. In the 
 world of lost spirits, where the restraints of society, 
 themselves superinduced by the moulding influences 
 of the gospel, the checks derived from the operation of 
 one sinful motive or passion in antagonism to another, 
 and the common influences of grace are all withdrawn, 
 the sinner will rush forward in the development of sin 
 with an advancement commensurate with the sweep of 
 endless ages and a celerity only measured by the 
 limitless capacities of the soul. To believe in Christ 
 is to stoj) this tendency and turn it backwards. Faith 
 receives the means, divinely provided, by which this 
 
Girardeau 361, 
 
 fearful progress is arrested, and the soul is projected 
 in an opposite direction — the eternal development of 
 holiness. Unbelief in Christ involves the rejection of 
 these means, and as it leaves the soul to the unimpeded 
 growth of the principle of sin, furnishes a justification 
 of all the terrible extremes to which that principle nat- 
 urally and legitimately tends. 
 
 II. In the second place, it deserves to be considered 
 that unbelief in Christ, regarded intrinsically and as to 
 its own nature, is the most heinous and flagrant of all 
 sins. It virtually comprehends in itself, as has been 
 shown, all other sins, and it adds to the fearful cata- 
 logue a special turpitude of its own which exceeds that 
 of all others combined. Let us briefly examine it in 
 this point of view : 
 
 It is a wilful rejection of God's testimony and a 
 deliberate falsification of God's word. The gospel is 
 the divine testimony touching our condition of sin and 
 ruin, and the means by which we may be deiiverea 
 from it. In it God the Father solemnly testifies to us, 
 by His own existence and by the awful sanctity of His 
 majestic name, that as transgressors of His law we are 
 doomed to perish, but that He has mercifully provided 
 redemption for us through the mediation of His be- 
 loved Son. He testifies to us that, notwithstanding 
 our inexcusable guilt. He "so loved the world that He 
 gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth 
 in Plim should not perish, but have everlasting life." 
 He testifies to us that "he that believeth on the Son 
 hath everlasting life and shall not come into condem- 
 nation, but he that believeth not the Son hath not life, 
 but the wrath of God abideth on him." "This is the 
 record that God hath given to us eternal life, and this 
 
362 Sermons 
 
 life is in His Son." "WTien He introduced His incar- 
 nate Son into the world, He sent a deputation of an- 
 gels, with anthems grander than the music of the 
 spheres, to make the joyful announcement. At the 
 public inauguration of the Savior into His earthly min- 
 istry He proclaimed in an audible testimony: "This 
 is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." He 
 repeated this testimony on the occasion of the trans- 
 figuration when the great Mediator, having conversed 
 in reference to His approaching death with a delega- 
 tion from heaven representing the law and the prophets 
 of the old dispensation, arrayed Himself in robes of 
 light and anticipated in the astonished view of His 
 disciples the glory of His exaltation. And in raising 
 Him from the dead the Father published to the uni- 
 verse an endorsement of His righteousness and a testi- 
 mony to the acceptance of His mediatorial work. These 
 solemn deliverances of God the Father unbelief in 
 Christ deliberately rejects and treats with supreme 
 contempt. 
 
 It discredits, moreover, the testimony of the Son. 
 The brightness of His Father's glory, and the express 
 image of His person, intimately acquainted by virtue 
 of His nature with the eternal purposes of the God- 
 head, and explicitly charged with the proclamation of 
 the scheme of redemption, the Son of God, as the com- 
 missioned revealer of His Father's will, comes into the 
 world to testify that will concerning the salvation of 
 men. Bearing credentials of His divine commission, 
 attested by the most stupendous miracles. He testified 
 that He came into the world to save sinners. Inviting, 
 exhorting, entreating them to come to Him that they 
 might have life. He continued for years to preach His 
 own glorious gospel, and finally sealed His testimony 
 
Girardeau 363 
 
 with His blood. This testimony also unbelief treats 
 with indifference or rejects with disdain. 
 
 It discards also the testimony of the Holy Ghost. 
 It is a part of the office of the blessed Spirit, now that 
 the Savior has ascended into heaven and has ceased 
 His personal ministry on earth, to testify of Him in the 
 hearts of men. He corroborates the utterances of the 
 gospel by His own direct and powerful testimony to 
 the minds and consciences of sinners. It is amazing 
 with what patience, forbearance, and long suffering 
 He follows them, notwithstanding their infatuated per- 
 sistence in sin with this secret testimony in regard to 
 the way of salvation in Christ. One would be apt to 
 suppose that, in view of this exceeding graciousness 
 and tenderness combined with the awful sanctions 
 which are thrown around His office and guard it from 
 profane and blasphemous treatment. His testimony 
 would at least be regarded with respect. But unbelief 
 rejects it and tramples under foot the veracity of the 
 Holy Ghost. 
 
 Unbelief in Christ, therefore, is an impeachment of 
 the truthfulness of the whole Godhead. It discredits 
 the concurrent testimony of the Father, the Son, and 
 the Holy Ghost, a testimony miraculously imparted, 
 flaming on the pages of the sacred word, delivered in 
 the preaching of the gospel and the administration of 
 the sacraments, and urged upon our attention by the 
 sweet, the persuasive, the powerful influences of divine 
 grace. 
 
 It enhances our sense of the enormity of this crime 
 when we reflect that while other sins are more imme- 
 diately related to law, unbelief in Christ is peculiarly 
 a sin against mercy, grace, and love. It is, of course, a 
 transgression of law, but its chief aggravation lies in 
 
364 Sermons 
 
 the fact that it is a contempt of the gospel. It is a 
 deliberate and wanton insult to every person of the 
 ever-blessed Godhead, as each is manifested to our 
 guilty and dying race under relations the most gracious 
 and aspects the most beneficent and endearing. 
 
 It is an insult to God the Father. Had He con- 
 signed the whole race of sinners to remediless destruc- 
 tion, the universe of holy beings would have unani- 
 mously glorified the justice of the sentence. His gov- 
 ernment furnished an awful precedent for such a 
 course. He inflicted summary punisliment upon the 
 rebellious angels. When those sons of light resigned 
 their censers of worship for the arms of revolt, and 
 dashed themselves against His throne, He hurled 
 against them the flaming bolts of insulted justice, 
 drove them in terror from His presence, and consigned 
 them to hell, there to expend their fury in the eternal 
 roar of discordant spirits and the clank of everlasting 
 chains. That dismal prison, the darkness of which is 
 only illuminated by the glare of penal fires, will for- 
 ever rear its gloomy walls as an awful monument of 
 divine justice, an affecting memorial of the folly and 
 danger of trifling with God's holiness, majesty and law. 
 But in relation to the equally guilty race of human 
 sinners, it pleased Him to take counsel of His love. 
 Looking upon them in their sin and ruin He was 
 touched with ineffable pity. His infinite mercy origi- 
 nated a wondrous plan of redemption, and His infinite 
 wisdom adjusted and perfected its arrangements. He 
 called and commissioned His only begotten Son to act 
 as the substitute of sinners, and by suffering and dying 
 in their place, to rescue them from their merited doom 
 and render it consistent with His inviolable perfections 
 to receive them again to His favor. Taking from His 
 
Girardeau 365 
 
 bosom His well beloved upon whom He had from eter- 
 nity poured out a love which only the infinite heart 
 that experienced it could measure, He sent Him down 
 to shame, reproach, and death that sinners might be 
 saved. Yearning with boundless compassion towards 
 His incarnate Son, as He struggled and fainted under 
 the burden of His stupendous work. He still refused 
 to interrupt the progress of the fearful drama. He 
 heard Him, when in Gethsemane He tremblingly took 
 the cup of woe and pleaded that if possible it might 
 pass from Him, and declined to withdraw that cup. 
 He saw Him when a prisoner He stood at the bar of 
 formalists and hypocrites amidst a tempest of false 
 accusations, and did not vindicate Him. He listened to 
 the shout of His countrymen at Pilate's judgment-seat : 
 Crucify Him! Crucify Him! and did not dispatch 
 legions of angels to sweep that mob from before His 
 face. He beheld Him as bound at the whipping-post 
 when he felt the blows of the Roman thong, and did not 
 hasten to His relief. He hearkened to Him as crowned 
 with a diadem of thorns, disfigured with blood and 
 spittle, and nailed to the accursed tree. He cried : "My 
 God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" and did 
 not respond to that moving appeal ; but as He had de- 
 voted Him to death as a sacrifice for sin, He continued 
 to discharge upon Him a storm of wrath until His 
 sacred life was quenched, and His amazing work was 
 done. Such, my brethren, w^as the mercy of God the 
 Father to our guilty and wretched race. It is enough 
 to melt a heart of adamant; but unbelief, whether it 
 spring from indifference or deliberate purpose, despises 
 this matchless grace, scorns this unutterable gift, and, 
 through the person of the crucified and rejected Savior, 
 offers a wanton insult to the eternal Father's love. 
 
366 Sermons 
 
 Unbelief is also an insult to God the Holy Spirit. It 
 involves a contemptuous rejection of His gracious 
 offices. Acting in His sovereign capacity, and yet com- 
 missioned by the Father and the Son, He mercifully 
 undertakes the work of applying to the hearts of sin- 
 ners the benefits of redemption which Jesus purchased 
 with His blood. In the prosecution of this saving 
 office, He enlightens their ignorance, convinces them of 
 their sin and danger, discloses to them their need of a 
 Savior, and with infinite tenderness and an almost ex- 
 haustless compassion, though often resisted and often 
 grieved, He affectionately urges upon them the neces- 
 sity of fleeing the wrath to come, and of betaking them- 
 selves to Christ as the only refuge of their souls. Rep- 
 resenting the absent Savior, He portrays to sinners His 
 loveliness and glory. His sufficiency for their wants, 
 and His perfect willingness to save them. Taking up 
 the gracious invitations of the Lord Jesus, He repeats 
 them to their souls with a melting pathos and an im- 
 portunate urgency ; and seizing them by the hand, as it 
 were. He sweetly offers to conduct them to the Lamb of 
 God who taketh away the sin of the world. The am- 
 bassador of the Godhead He comes to them with divine 
 overtures of reconciliation and presses upon them their 
 acceptance, while the day of grace and the opportuni- 
 ties of mercy are extended. This exalted and beneficent 
 minister of grace, invested with the credentials of a 
 divine commission, surrounded by sanctions peculiarly 
 awful and bearing with him the precious blood of 
 atonement, unbelief contemptuously rejects. Disdain- 
 ing His glorious person, slighting His dreadful sover- 
 eig-nty, scorning His unspeakable love, turning with 
 cold indifference from His pathetic solicitations, and 
 thrusting aside His outstretched hand, unbelief offers 
 
Girardeau 367 
 
 to the eternal Spirit of God an insult which, if per- 
 sisted in by the sinner, were worse than a mill-stone 
 hanged about his neck and dragging him down to 
 fathomless abysses. 
 
 Finally, the worst feature of this monstrous sin is 
 its insulting rejection of the blessed Son of God. The 
 Father sent the Son, and the Spirit represents Him; 
 but it was the Son Himself who came to earth to suf- 
 fer, bleed, and die for men. Called of His Father to 
 undertake the mediatorial work. He cheerfully ac- 
 cepted the extraordinary vocation, and in order to 
 achieve the salvation of sinners, stripped Himself of 
 His glory and hastened down into a valley of humilia- 
 tion which He bedewed with His tears, and moistened 
 with His blood. For sinners He consented to be born 
 of a woman, to be made under the law, and to assume 
 its awful curse. For them He took a sorrow which at- 
 tended Him as a familiar acquaintance and a reproach 
 which broke His heart. For them He underwent pov- 
 erty, toil, privation, and fatigue, and bore a ceaseless 
 tempest of misrepresentation, hate, and scorn. For 
 sinners He endured the temptations of the wilderness, 
 the anguish of Gethsemane, and the persecutions of the 
 Sanhedrim. For them He encountered the combined 
 opposition of king, governor and priest, the mingled 
 rage of Jew and Gentile, the malice of His country- 
 men, and the desertion of His friends. For their sakes 
 He consented to be beaten, scourged and spitted on, 
 and for them, finally. He experienced the agony, the 
 shame, and the wrath of the cross. In that crown of 
 thorns, those lacerated limbs, that mangled body, that 
 pale yet gory visage, those streaming wounds, those 
 deep-drawn groans and trickling tears, is most af- 
 fectingly attested His mercy and compassion for dying 
 
368 Sermons 
 
 men. And for them an exquisite torture, unseen and 
 unheard by sense, wrung the soul of the expiring 
 Savior as He sunk under the tremendous penalty of 
 the law, the weight of imputed guilt, and the pressure 
 of infinite wrath. All this the merciful Eedeemer suf- 
 fered for sinners. And yet, unbelief, as it attaches no 
 importance to the work which He discharged, and the 
 miseries He endured, offers a deliberate insult to the 
 crucified Son of God. The unbeliever takes his stand 
 with the multitude who mocked His d3ang anguish and 
 sympathizes with them. To him the death of Jesus i& 
 but the dissolution of an ordinary man, or what it 
 seemed to the eye of sense, that of a condemned male- 
 factor. To him it has no spiritual import. Passing by 
 the awful spectacle, and wagging his head in indiffer- 
 ence, he profanely tramples under foot the blood of 
 God's eternal Son. And it deserves to be seriously pon- 
 dered that as sin was the occasion of the Savior's death, 
 and unbelief is an endorsement and justification of 
 sin, it constitutes the unbeliever in Christ a virtual 
 partaker in the tremendous crime of the crucifixion; 
 and that if he continue in unbelief and dies under its 
 guilt, he passes to God's flaming bar with the blood of 
 God's Son upon his soul. And if "he that despised 
 Moses' law died without mercy under two or three wit- 
 nesses, of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, 
 shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden under 
 foot the Son of God and hath counted the blood of the 
 covenant wherewith He was sanctified an unholy thing, 
 and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace? . . . 
 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living 
 God." 
 
Girardeau 369 
 
 THE DISCRETIONARY POWER OF 
 THE CHURCH 
 
 Matt. xxviii:20. '■''Teaching them to observe all 
 things, whatsoever I have commanded you." 
 
 There are certain utterances which, though brief, are 
 comprehensive and regulative. They enounce princi- 
 ples, or inculcate duties, which involve all minor and 
 dependent ones, and stamp a moulding influence upon 
 thought and action. Such are those contained in the 
 text. So far as any words of the Lord Jesus can derive 
 a peculiar interest from the impressiveness of the cir- 
 cumstances in which they were spoken, these possess 
 that quality. They constitute a part of what is usually 
 termed the great commission, — that last brief, but af- 
 fecting and momentous charge which Jesus delivered 
 to the apostles and, through them, to the church, while 
 ten thousand of His holy ones waited to escort Him to 
 the gates of glory and the mediatorial throne. An 
 apostate or declining church may be insensible to their 
 power, but they burn like fire in the consciousness of 
 one which is vitalized by the breath of the Holy Ghost. 
 They speak to us this daj^^ with the same freshness and 
 emphasis with which they fell from the lips of a 
 triumphant Savior upon the listening ears of the apos- 
 tles of His extraordinary call. 
 
 Note. — This is not the most eloquent, but it is the most valuable 
 and the most timely sermon in this volume. It was preached before 
 the General Assembly, at St. Louis, May 20, 1875. The author called 
 it a testimony. 
 
370 Sermons 
 
 There are two supreme obligations which this final 
 charge of the Lord Jesus lays uj)on the heart of the 
 church. The first is the transcendent duty of univer- 
 sal evangelization. The second is the inculcation and 
 maintenance of the truth which Christ, the prophet of 
 the church, has taught, and the commands which 
 Christ, the king of the church, has enjoined. The call 
 of the gospel is to be addressed to all the sons of men, 
 and when they accept it, and are gathered into the fold 
 of the church, she is to teach them all things whatso- 
 ever Christ has commanded. There are obviously a 
 positive and a negative aspect of this charge to the 
 church, — positive, in that she is directed to teach all 
 that Christ has commanded; negative, in that she is 
 implicitly prohibited from teaching anything which 
 He has not commanded. The negative duty is a neces- 
 sary inference from the command which enforces the 
 positive. Here, then, we have the principle tinctured 
 with the blood of our Puritan, Covenanter and Hugue- 
 not forefathers — that what is not commanded, either 
 explicitly or implicitly in the Scriptures, is prohibited 
 to the church. She can utter no new doctrine, make no 
 new laws, ordain no new forms of government, and 
 invent no new modes of worship. This is but a state- 
 ment of a fundamental principle of Protestantism, con- 
 tra-distinguishing it from Rationalism on the one hand 
 and Romanism on the other, — that the Scriptures, as 
 the word of Christ, are the complete and ultimate rule 
 of faith and duty. They are complete, since they fur- 
 nish as perfect a provision for the spiritual, as does 
 nature for the physical, wants of man, and, therefore, 
 exclude every other rule as unnecessary and superflu- 
 ous. They are ultimate because, being the word of 
 God, they must pronounce infallibly and supremely 
 
GlKARDEAU 371 
 
 upon all questions relating to religious faith and prac- 
 tice. The duty of the church, consequently, to conform 
 herself strictly to the divine word, and her guilt and 
 danger in departing from it would seem to be transpar- 
 ently evident. But the clearest principles, through the 
 blindness, fallibility, and perverseness of the human 
 mind, frequently prove inoperative in actual experi- 
 ence; and the history of the church furnishes lamenta- 
 ble proof that the great, regulative truth of the com- 
 pleteness and supremacy of the Scriptures constitutes 
 no exception to this remark. Because we are Protest- 
 ants, and Presbyterian Protestants, because the doc- 
 trine of the perfection and ultimate authority of the 
 word lies at the root of our system and is embodied in 
 our standards, we are not, therefore, free from the 
 peril attending the failure of the church to conform 
 herself in all things to the revealed will of Christ, and 
 her tendency to rely upon her own folly instead of His 
 wisdom. 
 
 It is designed, in these remarks, to direct attention 
 to the subject of the discretionary power of the church; 
 and in the discussion of that question, logical fitness 
 requires that the great Protestant principle of the com- 
 pleteness and supremacy of the Scriptures be premised. 
 That being admitted, the Rationalist hypothesis of the 
 final authority of reason in matters of religious faith 
 and duty, and the Romanist, which affirms the ultimate 
 rule to be the ScrijDtures and tradition, as expounded 
 by an infallible human head of the church, are effectu- 
 ally discharged. To establish this fundamental as- 
 sumption, recourse need be had but to a single short 
 but conclusive argument. Those who appeal to the 
 Scriptures as possessing any authority at all must ad- 
 mit them to be true. They are a veracious witness. 
 
372 Sermons 
 
 But they affirm themselves to be inspired : "All Scrip- 
 ture is given by inspiration of God;" and as inspired 
 they farther assert that they are a complete standard 
 of faith and directory of practice. They claim to be 
 "profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for 
 instruction in righteousness; that the man of God may 
 be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." 
 Either we must deny their truthfulness in this in- 
 stance, or admit it. If we deny it, then their character 
 for veracity breaks down in all respects, in accordance 
 with the maxim: "false in one point, false in all." 
 They are suited to be no rule at all. If we admit their 
 truthfulness, then, as they declare themselves to be 
 complete, we must believe that they are; and so every 
 other rule is excluded, and they stand alone, without a 
 .rival, either as a co-ordinate or a supplementary stand- 
 ard of faith and duty. 
 
 But, although the Scriptures are the supreme rule, 
 they are not alone the supreme judge of faith and prac- 
 tice. The question being as to the final judge whose 
 expositions of the rule are ultimate, the answer is given 
 with equal sublimity and accuracy in the Westminster 
 Confession of Faith: "The supreme Judge by which 
 all controversies of religion are to be determined, and 
 all decrees of councils, opinions of ancient writers, doc- 
 trines of men, and private spirits, are to be examined, 
 and in whose sentence we are to rest, can be no other 
 but the Holy Spirit speaking in the Scripture." From 
 the nature of the case, the only competent judge of a 
 divine rule is a divine judge. Let us pause a moment 
 that we may estimate the force of this mighty colloca- 
 tion. The grand principle of Protestantism is not that 
 the supreme judge is the "Word alone, nor that it is the 
 Spirit alone: but that it is — the Word and the Spirit. 
 
Girardeau 373 
 
 This little coupling and, which brings together and 
 indissolubly unites the two great terms — the Word, the 
 Spirit, effects the junction with a thundering clank 
 which should ring in the ear of the church, and pene- 
 trate into her innermost heart. The copulative here has 
 a significance akin to that which expresses the sub- 
 stantial unity of the three distinct subsistences in the 
 adorable Trinity — the Father, and the Son, and the 
 Holy Ghost, one God over all blessed forever. It is 
 like that between justification, sanctification, and the 
 personal experience of both, — not the water only, not 
 the blood only, not the Spirit only ; but the Spirit and 
 the water and the blood, one in the unity of the Word, 
 and one in the concrete unity of the believer's expe- 
 rience. God, all-wise, has put together these two terms 
 of the grandest of all Protestant canons — the Word and 
 the Spirit, the supreme judge of controversies; and 
 what God hath joined together let not man put 
 asunder ! Their divorce is sure to result in slavery to 
 the letter on the one hand, and on the other, in wild 
 hypotheses as to human rights and needless schisms 
 which rend the unity of the church in pieces. 
 
 Neither, then, is the conscience of the individual, 
 nor that of the church in her organic capacity, pos- 
 sessed of ultimate authority in matters of faith and 
 duty. Both, in the noble language of Luther, himself 
 the intrepid defender of the right of private judg- 
 ment, in his final reply at the Diet of Worms, both are 
 "bound captive by the Scriptures." And, as the Word 
 is interpreted by the illumination of the Holy Ghost, 
 human wisdom is to be guided by that infallible author- 
 ity. In the grand words of the same distinguished 
 reformer: "Obedience is to be preferred to the gift 
 of miracles, even if we possessed that gift." Yes; 
 
374 Sermons 
 
 the paramount duty of the church is absolute con- 
 formity to the written Word as it is expounded to faith 
 by the divine Spirit. 
 
 Attention is now invited to a consideration of the 
 theory of the discretionary power of the church. Has 
 she any such power? If so, what is it? and how is 
 it limited? 
 
 It is obvious that the root of these questions must 
 be sought in an antecedent one, in reference to the very 
 nature of the church herself. She is fundamentally 
 discriminated from all other institutes in this respect — 
 that they are natural, and she is supernatural. The 
 state has its origin in the facts and relations of nature, 
 and "is designed," as a profound thinker has remarked, 
 "to realize the idea of justice." Philanthropic societies 
 have a like foundation and aim to realize the idea of 
 benevolence. The church is grounded in the super- 
 natural facts and relations of redemption, and is in- 
 tended to "realize the idea of grace." Her very exist- 
 ence is created by the redeeming mission of Christ. 
 She is not, therefore, a society of human beings, as 
 such, but of human beings as redeemed. As strictly 
 a redemptive institute she must be supernatural. Her 
 origin is supernatural as lying in the mediatorial work 
 of Christ; her existence as historically developed is 
 supernatural, as springing from the call of the Holy 
 Ghost; her members are men presumed at least to be 
 supernaturally regenerated; and her end is supernat- 
 ural, as designed to illustrate the grace of a redeeming 
 God. It would, consequently, violate all the analogies 
 of the case to suppose that she is left to the guidance of 
 a rule of faith and duty which is natural — which is 
 dictated by the wisdom of the human intelligence. 
 
Girardeau 375 
 
 Like herself, her fundamental rule must be supernatu- 
 ral — it must be a revelation from Him who, as He has 
 redeemed her by His blood and called her by His 
 Spirit, alone possesses the authority to give her con- 
 stitution and the power to enforce it. It is barely con- 
 ceivable that as a regenerated nature is imparted by 
 grace to her members, and the promise of illumination 
 is furnished them, she might have been left to the guid- 
 ance of s^jnctified reason under the direction of the 
 Holy Spirit, without the formal instructions of an 
 objective rule of faith and duty, — supernaturally im- 
 parted wisdom might have been able to frame rules 
 adequate to the wants even of a supernatural society. 
 It might be supposed that, as God originally stamped 
 the articles of natural religion upon the reason of man 
 and engraved His law upon his conscience. He might 
 have pursued the same course in regard to the religion 
 of grace. But this antecedent probability is vacated 
 of force by the consideration that while we are, if 
 regenerate, endowed with a reason and conscience su- 
 pernaturally illuminated, we are also still under the 
 partial influence of sinful principles; and in the colli- 
 sion between these two antagonistic elements which 
 would emerge upon the presentation of the concrete 
 cases of experience, confusion would necessarily char- 
 acterize our ultimate judgments, and utter uncertainty 
 attach to the resulting rule. But the question is settled 
 by fact. God has furnished to the church a supernatu- 
 rally revealed, an external and authoritative rule of 
 faith and duty; and allusion has only been made 
 to the antecedent presumption indicated in order to 
 evince the necessity for such a standard. As infinite 
 wisdom appointed the external objects of nature, the 
 
376 Sermons 
 
 sun, moon, and stars in the heavens above and the visi- 
 ble phenomena of the earth below, fixed realities by 
 which the aberrations of perception and the illusions 
 of sense may be corrected, so has He set in the super- 
 natural firmament of His Word the great facts and 
 doctrines of redemption as unchanging and permanent 
 data, in accordance with which all the deductions of 
 reason and all the decisions of conscience, in the domain 
 of religion, are to be tested and regulated. 
 
 Now, as it has pleased God to communicate to the 
 church a supernatural revelation of His will, which 
 He intended and has declared to be a complete and 
 supreme rule of faith and life, it would seem to be 
 intuitively obvious that her duty is to conform herself 
 implicitly and absolutely to it in all things, that she 
 has no discretion but to teach and observe all that 
 Christ has commanded, and to teach and observe noth- 
 ing else. The maxim of Bacon, in regard to the rela- 
 tion which man holds to nature as a minister and in- 
 terpreter, would appear to apply with enhanced em- 
 phasis to that which the church sustains to the Scrip- 
 tures. They disclose a new world of supersensible and 
 transcendent realities — a supernatural universe. In 
 their light even the common obligations and duties of 
 "the law moral" in respect to which the natural reason 
 and conscience are, in some measure, competent, to 
 speak, are brought under the moulding influence of 
 supernatural relations, enforced by supernatural mo- 
 tives and impressed by supernatural sanctions. Grant- 
 ing that the church, as renewed and enlightened by the 
 Holy Spirit, is enabled to study and apprehend these 
 revealed mysteries, we are compelled to confess that she 
 must ever be the learner and servant, and not the law- 
 giver and master. Faith, or what is the same thing, 
 
Girardeau 377 
 
 reason born again, the siipernaturally-imparted organ 
 of perception which adapts her to this system of re- 
 demptive phenomena, is a confession of her inability 
 to originate anything in such a sphere. It can only 
 report what it observes. The church, therefore, can 
 have no opinions and frame no laws of her own. The 
 facts, the doctrines which expound the relations of 
 those facts, and the practical rules which enforce the 
 duties arising from those relations, are all divinely 
 given. Her whole duty lies in believing and obeying. 
 She can create nothing. There is no necessity for it 
 even if she could. All that she requires is already pro- 
 vided for her by the wisdom and mercy of her head. 
 She is completely equipped for all the exigencies of 
 her life, and for all the ends which her Lord has 
 designed her to achieve. The extent of her power is 
 thus easily defined, — it consists in first loiowing, and 
 then applying, the rule of faith and duty which ex- 
 presses to her the will of Christ. These conclusions 
 are so fair and obvious that one reasoning abstractly 
 could scarcely imagine how they may be disputed ; and 
 yet the history of the church has, to a great extent, 
 been a record of perpetual contradictions of them. 
 How is the amazing fact to be accounted for? Apart 
 from that general cause, the corruption of the human 
 heart, which ever tends to mar by its touch every per- 
 fect work of God, a special explanation is to be found 
 in the assumption that the church is invested with a 
 discretionary power which may be legitimately exer- 
 cised alike in the sphere of doctrine, of government, 
 and of worship. Here we lay our finger upon the main 
 secret of the church's tendency to degeneracy in these 
 vital concerns. The theory of discretionary power 
 constitutes her formal justification of her practical 
 
378 Sermons 
 
 departures from the Word. It appears, in the main, to 
 be founded on one or the other, or on a combination of 
 both, of these suppositions — ^namely, that the state- 
 ments of doctrine in the Scriptures are in the form of 
 concise and comprehensive enunciations of principles, 
 which need to be expanded and developed by addition- 
 al deliverances; and that the rules laid down for gov- 
 ernment and worship are regulative, not constitutive — 
 general provisions without the specification of particu- 
 lar modes and minute details: and their application to 
 the varying circumstances and multiplied exigencies 
 of the church demand from her supplementary legisla- 
 tion in a more specific shape. The church is endowed 
 with wisdom for the discharge of these important 
 offices; and so long as she does not positively contradict 
 the Word, her exercise of this discretionary power is 
 legitimate. She is not to be tied to the letter of Scrip- 
 ture — that would be a bondage inconsistent with the 
 liberty wherewith Christ has made her free. She is in 
 some sort His confidential agent, and as such she is 
 entitled to use her own judgment. T^liere the Scrip- 
 tures are silent she may speak, and whatever measure 
 they do not prohibit, and is, to her mind, consistent 
 with their general scope and spirit, she is not pre- 
 cluded from adopting. To require her to produce a 
 divine warrant for all that she does, is to fetter her 
 freedom and cripple her energies. 
 
 Let us contemplate the operation of this theory 
 of discretionary power in the sphere of doctrine. Let 
 us see how, under its influence, the potent key is wielded 
 by the church which admits her into 'this grand depart- 
 ment of Christ's kingdom. It is in the way of what is 
 termed development of doctrine. The idea which is 
 embodied in this high-sounding phraseology is some- 
 
Girardeau 379 
 
 what vague and indefinite, as every one must have felt 
 who has made the attempt to seize it. The meaning of 
 the term must, if possible, be settled in order that we 
 may attain some clear apprehension of the question 
 before us. Development may be understood to signify 
 the express eliciting from anything that which is im- 
 plicitly contained in it ; and that either by a process of 
 self-evolution, or by the agency of extraneous forces 
 acting upon it ; or, it may be taken to mean the unfold- 
 ing of a series or system by substantive addition and 
 accretion to what previously existed, in accordance with 
 an intelligent plan. In this latter case there is no self- 
 evolution; the development is effected by successive 
 interpositions of a creative power. There is no educ- 
 tion of what was latent in a thing already existing, but 
 the creation of new things related to those going before, 
 not by inherent affinity, but by the unity of an intelli- 
 gent scheme. This sort of development is simply the 
 orderly procedure of intelligence accomplishing results 
 in pursuance of a definite plan. It is the development 
 of a scheme, not of the individual things embraced un- 
 der it. When, for example, a certain class of scientific 
 men contend that the Creator brings into being new 
 species of vegetables or animals, different from, but 
 related to, those previously existing. He only develops 
 His plan; there is no evolution of species into species, 
 but a clear addition at each step in the creative process 
 to the numerical sum of distinct beings. 
 
 Let it be observed now that the question is not 
 whether there has been a divine development of doc- 
 trine by the instrumentality of inspired prophets and 
 apostles. Of course there has been. As each dispensa- 
 tion of religion succeeded another, there was an addi- 
 tion of new facts, and a fresh development of doctrine. 
 
380 Sermons 
 
 The Jewish economy was an advance upon the 
 Patriarchal, and the Christian upon the Jewish; and 
 this progress of doctrine went on under the immediate 
 agency of inspiration until the canon of Scripture was 
 closed. The question is not, whether God developed 
 doctrine — that is conceded ; but it is, whether the canon 
 of Scripture having been closed, the church is clothed 
 with power to continue the development. 
 
 In order to clear our way still farther, let us note the 
 patent distinction which has been pressed by orthodox 
 Protestants, and candidly and explicitly stated by 
 rationalist theologians themselves — the distinction be- 
 tween a subjective and an objective development of 
 doctrine. The former is simply the growth and expan- 
 sion in the mind itself of its knowledge of the doctrines 
 externally given in the Scriptures. It is not a develop- 
 ment of Scripture, nor a development from Scripture, 
 but a development, as Dr. Rainy has said, up to Scrip- 
 ture, as the ultimate standard. It is what every well- 
 instructed Christian understands — the leaving the prin- 
 ciples of the doctrine of Christ and going on onto per- 
 fection. In the case of the church as an organized 
 society living on from age to age, it is the progress 
 which she has made in the knowledge of Scriptural 
 truth in consequence of her conflicts with error, and 
 the discipline she has undergone. The latter — the al- 
 leged objective development of doctrine — is the numer- 
 ical increase of the objects of faith, the addition of 
 others to those already externally given in the Scrip- 
 tures; it is the expansion and enlargement of the doc- 
 trinal system by substantive accretions to the comple- 
 ment of doctrine revealed in the written word. It is 
 this latter view which constitutes the very core of the 
 theory of development of doctrine. 
 
Girardeau 381 
 
 Now, in regard to this theory it deserves, in the first 
 place, to be remarked that its most prominent advo- 
 cates are logically guilty in confounding the two mem- 
 bers of the distinction which has just been signalized. 
 At one time they argue for what no one denies — the 
 development of the knowledge of doctrine, and at an- 
 other for a very different kind of development — that of 
 the doctrinal system of the Scriptures. The confusion 
 is damaging to the success of the theory. Let us have 
 one thing or the other. The amalgamation of ration- 
 alist and evangelical views in the same line of argu- 
 ment is too glaring an incongruity to be overlooked. 
 
 In the second place, the theory involves the* incon- 
 sistent mixture of the two sorts of development to 
 which in the foregoing remarks attention has already 
 been directed, — the one, by a process of self-evolution 
 by virtue of inherent tendencies, and the other, by posi- 
 tive additions effected by creative power. A patient 
 endeavor to detect the real merits of the theory has led 
 us to the opinion that it finds some plausible ground in 
 the following assumptions : First, the doctrines of 
 Scripture may be regarded as seminal principles — ■ 
 germ-truths, which were not intended to be complete, 
 but to expand into other and related doctrines by vir- 
 tue of certain tendencies inherent in them; in some 
 such manner as the germ-cells of vegetable or animal 
 organisms are developed by a process of growth, or as 
 the rudimentary truths of the human mind are un- 
 folded through the progress of intelligence to maturity. 
 Secondly, there may be assumed to be a genius or spirit 
 which pervades and characterizes the doctrinal system 
 of the Scriptures — a sort of typical, controlling idea, 
 in accordance with which the mind of the church, re- 
 flectively acting upon the process of evolution as it 
 
382 Sermons 
 
 brings the germinal principles of the divine Word into 
 contact with her changing circumstances and her diver- 
 sified necessities, is enabled to register the results of the 
 development in the shape of formulated statements. 
 Substantial additions are thus made to the doctrines of 
 Scripture, but the church does not create them. Her 
 intelligence is indeed in contact with the developing 
 truth, but only as a concurring and conditioning force. 
 As one species of animals, it is said, is evolved into a 
 new and distinct species, so one truth, or group of 
 truths, is evolved into a new truth or group of truths. 
 The church simply watches the course of this wonder- 
 ful self- development of doctrine, marks the results and 
 reduces them to formal record. Thus the body of doc- 
 trine is continually enlarging. Did our limits permit, 
 we think it might be shoAvn that these germ-principles 
 of ScrijDture are hypothetical. The fundamental doc- 
 trines of the word are developed in it far more fully 
 and systematically than is commonly supposed. The 
 great cardinal truths of justification and sanctification, 
 for example, are very elaborately and completely ex- 
 pounded with their affiliated doctrines in the epistle 
 to the Romans, and that of the priesthood of Christ in 
 the epistle to the Hebrews. As to this genius of Chris- 
 tianity which is substituted for the Holy Ghost, what 
 we have to say is, that it usually turns out to be but 
 the dominating conception by some individual or party 
 of the contents of Scripture, to which they are bent to 
 serve a purpose. We, of all men, have reason to know 
 what this genius of the gospel can accomplish, when it 
 holds its light for humanitarian and higher-law de- 
 velopers of the Bible. 
 
 But the case, as it has just been stated, is not the 
 case as put by the Romanist defenders of this theory 
 
Girardeau 383 
 
 themselves. They admit that all the results of this 
 self-evolution are not to be retained ; and they cover up 
 the difficulties in which such a view of the process in- 
 volves them under the cloudy phrase — historical de- 
 velopment. They assume an infallible developing au- 
 thority which sifts out all that is undesirable and form- 
 ulates only what is suitable. The admission is fatal. It 
 concedes the fact that the alleged development does not 
 proceed by its own law, but is arbitrarily managed and 
 regulated by the church. We have, then, after all, not 
 a develoi:)ment by legitimate evolution of comprehen- 
 sive principles, but one implying the continuous growth 
 of a system by the interventions of creative power. The 
 church is the creator; she makes the substantive addi- 
 tions to the original doctrines of the Scriptures, and 
 she does it by the process of construction in accordance 
 with a scheme of her own. The hypothesis is weighed 
 down by the difficulties with which a searching histori- 
 cal criticism had embarrassed that of tradition, for 
 which it was intended to be a philosophical substitute. 
 They both postulate an infallible develoj)ing authority. 
 That being granted, it is virtually admitted that the 
 church has creative power, and actually makes new doc- 
 trines in addition to those of the Scriptures. This 
 theory of development, then, stands chargeable with 
 bringing together and confounding incongruous hypo- 
 theses. 
 
 In the third place, the theory, in the hands of the 
 Romanist, effectually breaks down at the point at 
 which it assumes the continuance of inspiration. Were 
 it true that the church is inspired and, therefore, gifted 
 with infallibility for the development of doctrine, it 
 would follow that there is a continuous supernatural 
 revelation of God's will. The development in the way 
 
384 Sermons 
 
 of addition would be legitimate, since it would be 
 divine. But the fundamental assumption of the theory 
 — the existence of an infallible developing authority — ^is 
 unsupported by evidence. The miraculous credentials 
 of inspiration are absent. Let the Pope raise the dead 
 and we will consider his claim to be inspired. 
 
 The theory as held by the Rationalist, w^hile substan- 
 tially identical with that of the Romanist, differs from 
 it in several respects, — he denies the Scriptures to be a 
 supernaturally inspired revelation; he makes reason, 
 instead of an infallible church, the ultimate developing 
 authority ; and he asserts its competency to abridge, as 
 well as enlarge, the doctrinal contents of the Word. 
 Our main issue with the Rationalist is not in regard to 
 the power to develop the Scriptures, but in reference 
 to their inspiration. But holding, as we do, the fact of 
 their inspiration, the argument against the power of 
 reason to develop their doctrines either by addition to, 
 or substraction from, them is a short one. The develop- 
 ing authority cannot be of lower degree than that 
 which originally communicated the doctrines. To 
 remit the dicta of an inspired revelation to the fallible 
 judgment of reason is to bring God to the bar of man. 
 
 We meet this whole theory of development of doc- 
 trine, which involves positive additions to the Scrip- 
 tures, by whomsoever held, on the simple ground of 
 the perfection and supremacy of the written Word. We 
 accept its own testimony that it thoroughly furnishes 
 the man of God for all good works, and maintain that 
 the church, as a society of men of God, finds in its pro- 
 visions ample furniture for all her needs. It is absurd 
 to talk of substantially developing a complete rule; it 
 is wicked to say that the Scriptures are not complete. 
 The church has no such discretionary power as is im- 
 
Girardeau 385 
 
 plied in this theory of development of doctrine by 
 which Rationalist and Romanist — Herod and Pontius 
 Pilate — take counsel together against the Lord and 
 against his anointed. 
 
 Still the question presses, whether the church has 
 any power to develop doctrine. Is there such a thing 
 as its legitimate development ? It is necessary that we 
 look again to the signification of our terms. There are 
 certain writers, as, for instance. Dr. Rainy in his 
 recent able lectures on the Delivery and Development 
 of Christian Doctrine, who employ the term doctrine in 
 a subjective sense, to signify the conception which the 
 mind has of the teaching of Scripture, and which it 
 reduces to formal shape. It is the doctrine of the Bible 
 as apprehended by the understanding, and, perchance, 
 modified by it in the process of assimilation. Hence 
 it is inferred that a real development of doctrine is 
 warrantable. Now, it is perfectly evident that if a 
 doctrine precisely as it is enunciated in the Scriptures 
 is received by the mind, there is no more development 
 admissible in the one case than in the other. If a doc- 
 trine be the very same on the pages of the Word and on 
 the tablets of the human mind, what is predicable of it 
 in one place is predicable of it in the other. And if, as 
 written by the Spirit of God in the sacred oracles, it is 
 not susceptible of substantial development, neither is it 
 capable of such development when inscribed by the 
 same Spirit upon the human soul. The same thing is 
 true of doctrine as registered by the church in her 
 formularies of faith and duty. If the doctrines of 
 these symbols exactly coincide with those delivered in 
 the Scriptures, it is impossible to see how they can 
 receive any other development than that to which 
 Scripture itself may be subjected. The ground may. 
 
386 Sermons 
 
 therefore, be boldly and safely taken, that the doctrine 
 of Scripture, if rightly apprehended by the individual 
 mind, or rightly expressed in a church-creed, admits 
 of no substantial development. It is a completed 
 product of the divine intelligence. What is true of 
 any particular doctrine is also true of a system of doc- 
 trine, whether held by an individual or by the church. 
 If in either case the scheme of Scripture doctrine is 
 accurately reproduced, nothing can be added to it and 
 nothing taken from it. We do not hesitate, therefore, 
 to maintain that in so far as a creed faithfully con- 
 forms to Scripture, it is no more susceptible of develop- 
 ment than Scripture itself. What is it, in that case, 
 but Scripture? 
 
 If, on the other hand, doctrines are held by the mind 
 which are not those of Scripture, what is the develop- 
 ment which is needed? What can it be but abandon- 
 ment of them and the substitution of the true doc- 
 trines? If destruction can be termed development, 
 then may such doctrines be developed. If those held 
 are but imperfectly conformed to the scriptural stand- 
 ard, the developing process is simply one of correction 
 by that standard. It is somewhat curious that there 
 should be any perplexity about this matter. Mani- 
 festly, the development which is possible and legitimate 
 in such cases is that not of doctrine, but of doctrinal 
 knowledge. It is the mind's stock of knowledge which 
 is developed by substantial additions; and the very 
 staple of these additions ought to be the unchanging 
 doctrines of God's Word. And precisely so is it with 
 the knowledge of the church in her organic capacity, as 
 that knowledge is formulated in her creeds. The fixed, 
 the invariable, the undeveloping quantity is the doc- 
 trines of the Scriptures; the variable and developing 
 
Girardeau 387 
 
 is the church's knowledge. If a creed is imperfect, le't 
 the church develop it into closer conformity with the 
 Scriptures; or, in "other words, let her adjust the formal 
 statements of her knowledge to the nature and extent 
 of that knowledge. This she not only may do, but 
 ought to do; but in that case it is not Scripture doc- 
 trine which is developed, it is the theology of the 
 church, by being brought into closer approximation to 
 the changeless and everlasting Word. The distinction 
 which has been illustrated is as clear is it is simple, and 
 the wonder is that it is not always observed. 
 
 WTiat becomes, then, of that development of doc- 
 trine by inference, which the Westminster Confession 
 appears to sanction? If by development be meant the 
 unfolding, the bringing out the latent and unexpressed 
 meaning of a proposition, then it is admitted that to 
 deduce doctrines from Scripture propositions by good 
 and necessary consequence is a legitimate development 
 of Scripture. But let it be observed that the develop- 
 ment, in that case, proceeds not by substantive addi- 
 tion. It is simply the explicit evolution from the doc- 
 trinal propositions of the Word of what is implicitly 
 contained in them, — the inference is part of the original 
 enunciation. And it must be borne in mind that it is 
 not a discretionary power which entitles the church to 
 make such a development of doctrine as this : the rules 
 of logic necessitate it. The only discretionary power 
 which the church is apt to employ in the case is to 
 attempt a development by ill and unnecessary conse- 
 quence. She has no commission to reason badly. The 
 sort of evolution of doctrine we are considering is only 
 justifiable when it proceeds by logical inference, and 
 logical inferences are not speculative opinions. Let the 
 church confine herself to the deduction of good and 
 
388 Sermons 
 
 necessary consequences from the doctrines of Scripture, 
 and she will not develop from them the doctrines and 
 commandments of men. 
 
 There is a specious and dangerous form of this theory 
 of development of doctrine which threatens, at the 
 present day, to invade the supremacy of the written 
 Word. The ground is not openly taken that the doc- 
 trinal system of the Scriptures may be developed, but 
 it is maintained that the creeds and confessions in 
 which the church has logically arranged that system 
 cannot bind the conscience or shackle thought. It is 
 contended that they are human compositions — fruits of 
 the human brain, and that they are consequently col- 
 lections of the unauthoritative dogmas of men. To 
 forbid the development of doctrine beyond their limits 
 is represented as tyranny, and tyranny in its worst 
 form, as inflicted upon the intellect itself. The precious 
 and inalienable right of private judgment, consecrated 
 to the Protestant heart by the struggles of the Reforma- 
 tion, is retrenched, and the dogmatic despotism of man 
 again enthroned in the sacred domain of conscience. 
 The free, progressive, advanced thought of the "age 
 must not be strapped down by old dogmas which have 
 gone to sleep with the conflicts which gave them birth. 
 Like the weapons of ancient warfare, they did good 
 service in their time, but they must give way to the 
 improved arms of the present. Theological schools 
 are not to be repositories of these now useless engines. 
 The demand of the times is for untrammelled develop- 
 ment. The young, vigorous, exultant intellect of this 
 era will be satisfied with nothing less; and if the 
 church insists on clinging to antiquated dogmas and 
 repressing this temper of development, she must con- 
 sent to be left behind by the grand army of progress 
 
Girardeau 389 
 
 in its onward and triumphant march. This is eloquent. 
 All that it needs to make it effective is — truth. Had it 
 possessed that simple quality it would, ere this, have 
 fired and roused the heart of the church. 
 
 If the preceding argument is worth anything, it has 
 shown that in whatever way the doctrines of the divine 
 Word may be expressed, they are characterized by com- 
 pleteness and ultimate authority, and are, therefore, 
 incapable of substantial development. Whether enun- 
 ciated in the Scriptures, or written upon the tablets of 
 the human mind, or inscribed upon the pages of a 
 church-formulary, they are possessed of the same im- 
 mutable characteristics. The question, then, is simply 
 one of fact, — do church-creeds faithfully reproduce the 
 doctrines of the Scriptures? The question to us as a 
 church is. Do our standards accurately state those doc- 
 trines? If they do not, the development required is 
 to expunge the dogmas which do not express the mind 
 of Christ in the written Word, and incorporate those 
 that do. If they do, as they utter the word of Christ, 
 they are clothed with Christ's authority. The delivery 
 of Christ's doctrines and commandments by men does 
 not make them the doctrines and commandments of 
 men. The fact being settled that the doctrines of these 
 standards are the very doctrines of Scripture, we meet 
 the fundamental premise in which the opposition to 
 them is grounded with a denial. They are not human 
 compositions, except in so far as their form and ar- 
 rangement are concerned — they are for substance the 
 composition of the divine Spirit ; they coincide with the 
 inspired writings. Their dogmas are not man's, they 
 are God's dogmas. The cry for liberty to develop 
 theological thought beyond their doctrines is the de- 
 mand for license to develop it beyond God's doctrines. 
 
390 Sermons 
 
 This is the real secret of revolt against the binding 
 authority of confessions. When men cry, Down with 
 creeds ! they mean, Down with the Bible ! When they 
 shout, We will not be tied down by confessions of 
 faith ! they mean. We will not submit to God's author- 
 ity — the human intelligence is too gloriously free to be 
 led captive by God Himself ! These are not Christian 
 views; they are the children of rationalism brought to 
 the font of the .church and baytized under the attract- 
 ive names of Broad-Churchism, Liberal Christianity, 
 and Progressive Thought — the fair daughters of men 
 with whom, when the sons of God consort, they gen- 
 erate the giant leaders of defection and apostasy. 
 
 And in the name of reason we would ask. Why 
 should confessions of faith be rejected because they 
 are old? What is there in age to invalidate truth? 
 She is as old as God and as immortal as He. Is not 
 the Bible old? Has age made it worthless? Is it not 
 now, as it ever has been, the impregnable tower into 
 which the righteous runneth when pressed by the 
 legions of the pit? Has age made it decrepit? Is it 
 not now taking w^ngs like the Apocalyptic angel, to 
 fly in mid-heaven and blow the trump of jubilee to the 
 slaves of sin and death ? Is not nature old ? And are 
 her laws inoperative because they began to work from 
 the foundation of the world ? Are her ordinances worn 
 out because they are old? Shine not the heavenly host 
 with the same lustre with which they beamed upon 
 the plains of Uz, when Job sang of the bands of Orion 
 and the sweet influences of the Pleiades ? And are the 
 grand facts and doctrines of redemption ejffete because 
 they date back to the promise which, springing like a 
 bow from the abyss of the fall, has spanned the arch 
 of time ? Is the panoply of God of no further service 
 
Girardeau 391 
 
 because for ages the darts of the Devil have been driven 
 in a fiery storm against it? And is the sword of the 
 Spirit, which is the Word of God, now useless and to 
 be discarded because in the conflicts of centuries it has 
 rung against the armor of error and the mail of hell? 
 No; the difficulty with these confessions — these battle- 
 torn standards of the church — is not that they are 
 antiquated; it is that they are as young and vigorous 
 as ever. The light of immortal youth which rests upon 
 the divine Word kindles upon them. Their crime is 
 that they too faithfully represent God's authority — 
 that they restrain the license of speculation, call the 
 students of truth into the school of Christ, and bind 
 His 3^oke upon their necks. 
 
 To develop her knowledge of Scripture doctrine as 
 its meaning is elicited by fresh conflicts with error, and 
 new evolutions of providence, and, as developed, to 
 give it formal and permanent expression in her symbols 
 and in this way to develop them, — this is conceded to be 
 the privilege and the duty of the church; but so far 
 as this has been done and her standards made coinci- 
 dent with the Scriptures, she is debarred from any 
 substantive development of their doctrines as she is 
 precluded from such a development of the complete 
 and ultimate rule of faith and duty. She ought to 
 add Scripture doctrines to her standards when they are 
 wanting; she has no power to add to Scripture doc- 
 trines in her standards. 
 
 The next aspect of this subject which claims our 
 notice is the extent of discretionary power possessed 
 by the church in the sphere of government. 
 
 Reverting to the great principle of the completeness 
 of the Scriptures as a rule of faith and duty, we would 
 expect to find in them ample directions in respect to 
 
392 Sermons 
 
 the government of the church as an organized society ; 
 we would reasonably look for an adequate constitution 
 for this supernatural kingdom from Him who is at 
 once its Savior, its head and its sovereign — the giver 
 of life, the source of power and the administrator of 
 rule. To take any other view would be to impugn the 
 perfection of the Scriptures, or to suppose that they 
 were designed to be a guide to individuals only, and 
 not to the church as an organic whole. To adopt this 
 supposition is to impeach the wisdom of Christ, since 
 in that case He would have failed to guard His church 
 against the corruptions into which she has been 
 plunged by this very hypothesis, that He has given her 
 no definite form of government, but left her in that 
 matter to the guidance of her own wisdom. But our 
 expectation that He would provide for all the require- 
 ments of His church is not disappointed. He has 
 revealed to her His will in this solemn concern of her 
 polity. It is usual to draw a sharp distinction between 
 doctrine and government. In a certain sense, it is ad- 
 missible — the sense in which the gospel as a doctrine 
 differs from church-government as a law. It would, 
 however, seem to be more accurate to take the distinc- 
 tion between the doctrine touching the way in which 
 individuals are to be saved, and the doctrine touching 
 the way in which the church is to be governed — in a 
 word, the doctrine of salvation, and the doctrine of 
 church- government. Both are matters of revelation; 
 the government of the church is a revealed doctrine as 
 well as the salvation of the soul. In both cases, there- 
 fore, our obligation is alike to believe and obey — to 
 accept the doctrine and to perform the inculcated 
 duties. If the individual embraces the gospel by faith, 
 by faith likewise does the church receive the teachings 
 
Girardeau 393 
 
 of her Lord in reference to the government and order 
 of His house. If this position be correct, it follows 
 that the church has no more discretionary power to 
 develop the doctrine of government by substantive ad- 
 dition or diminution than she possesses in regard to 
 the doctrine of salvation. This, however, is denied. It 
 is contended that there is no definite form of church- 
 government revealed in the Scriptures ; only the essen- 
 tial principles are given. If the language conveys any 
 meaning, it implies that government in the general is 
 instituted, but no form of government in particular. 
 
 It may, without arrogance, be suggested that it is 
 difficult, if not impossible, to extract any clear and pre- 
 cise notion from this position. We can understand the 
 proposition that Christ appointed no government for 
 His church, but left it to the enlightened wisdom of 
 His followers to devise one for themselves; but that is 
 not what is affirmed. We can perceive, in the abstract, 
 the logical distinction between the generic notion of 
 goA^ernment and the different species which may be con- 
 tained under it ; but it passes our ability to comprehend 
 how, in the concrete, an organized society can be under 
 government in the general, but under no particular sort 
 of government. If, for examj^le, it be said that a given 
 political community is under government, the ques- 
 tion at once arises. What government? Is it monarch- 
 ical, or aristocratic, or democratic? If it be replied 
 that it is neither under any one of these, nor under one 
 composed of the elements of some or all of them, then 
 we beg to know what conceivable idea of government 
 remains. It is like thinking away all the distinctive 
 marks which characterize a thing and then attempting 
 to form a notion of the thing itself. There is a gov- 
 ernment, but there is no constitution which embodies it, 
 
394 Sermons 
 
 and nobody authorized to administer it. The truth is, 
 that the effort to realize the abstract idea of government 
 in the concrete necessitates the designation of some 
 particular features, and however few may be the ele- 
 ments enumerated, their specification defines a certain 
 kind of government which is distinguishable from 
 others. If, therefore, Christ has, in His Word, or- 
 dained any government at all for His church, it must 
 be one which is capable of being realized in a definite 
 form. Has He done this ? Has He revealed a govern- 
 ment for His church? Is this among the all things 
 which He commanded the aspostles and which they 
 were to teach the church to observe ? This question will 
 be settled by another. Has He revealed those com- 
 ponent elements of a government the existence of 
 which determines the existence of the government 
 itself? The essential elements which enter into the 
 composition of a government are laws, officers and 
 courts. Each of these elements is revealed in the New 
 Testament, — itself embodies the laws, the officers are 
 given under definite titles and with prescribed func- 
 tions, and the courts are described. Presbyterians are 
 sure that they find a particular sort of officers, courts 
 peculiarly composed, and a specific principle which 
 distinguishes the mode of administering the govern- 
 ment from every other — the principle of government 
 by Presbyters in representative assemblies, discrimina- 
 ting this polity from Prelacy on the one hand and 
 Independency on the other. We have, then — so we 
 firmly believe — a divinely-revealed polity of definite 
 form. The King of the church has not left it to her to 
 frame a government upon principles of expediency 
 commending themselves to human wisdom; He has 
 supernaturally communicated to her as a supernatural 
 
Girardeau 895 
 
 organism her constitution, office-bearers and courts. It 
 is no more permissible to the church to devise her gov- 
 ernment than to think out her gospel. Reason, no doubt, 
 would, were it left to her, do better in the one depart- 
 ment than in the other. That is not the question. The 
 task of doing neither has been assigned to it. Polity 
 is given as well as salvation, and in regard to it the 
 church has no power but to conform herself strictly to 
 the requirements of her complete and infallible rule. 
 
 There is a respect in which the church has discre- 
 tionary power in this department, but it is one which 
 does not in the slightest degree affect the nature and 
 organization of her government. It lies not in the 
 sphere of the supernatural, but altogether in that of 
 the natural. The Westminster Confession very pre- 
 cisely defines the extent of this discretion. It is re- 
 stricted to "some circumstances concerning the govern- 
 ment of the church common to human actions and 
 societies." It is designed to speak more particularly 
 of this "doctrine of circumstances" under the topic still 
 remaining — that of worship — and it is here dismissed 
 with a single remark. It is clear that circumstances 
 which are common to human actions cannot be any- 
 thing which is peculiar to church actions, and those 
 which are common o human societies cannot be any- 
 thing distinctive of the church as a certain kind of 
 society. They are circumstances belonging to the 
 temporal sphere — time, place, decorum, and the natural 
 methods of discharging business which are necessities 
 to all societies. They do not appertain to the kind of 
 government which the church ought to have, nor the 
 mode in which it is to be dispensed. 
 
 This, then, is the extent of the discretionary power 
 of the church in the sphere of government: She is to 
 
396 Sermons 
 
 add nothing to, to take nothing from, what Christ has 
 commanded in the Scriptures. All her needs are there 
 provided for. She must have a divine warrant for 
 every element of her polity and every distinctive func- 
 tion of government. Her laws are given; her officers 
 are given; and the mode in which those laws shall be 
 administered, and those officers shall act, is given. She 
 can, consequently, make no laws — ^her power is limited 
 to declaring and applying Christ's laws ; she can create 
 no offices — her power is expressed in electing the per- 
 sons to fill those that Christ has appointed; she can 
 institute no new mode of government — her sole power 
 lies in employing that which Christ has ordained. Her 
 power and her duty alike are summed up in absolute 
 conformity to the Written Word. 
 
 The same general line of argument is applicable to 
 the extent of discretionary power possessed by the 
 church in the domain of public worship, — public wor- 
 ship, we say, for that belongs to the church, as such, 
 and all that is predicable of it, is not predicable of that 
 of the family and the social circle. 
 
 Dr. Breckinridge has well ^ urged that the super- 
 natural element runs through, pervades and controls 
 all the departments of doctrine, government and wor- 
 ship. We cannot afford ever to lose sight of this great 
 principle. It has a commanding value. Especially 
 ought we to challenge our attention to it in the matter 
 of public worship, because there is no divine institution 
 in regard to which natural wisdom and natural taste 
 are so apt to arrogate discretion as this. It involves 
 to a large extent the sesthetical element of our nature, 
 and the imagination and the sensibilities as well as the 
 reason plead for a share in its control. A cultivate*! 
 carnality begs, clamors, storms for some license here. 
 
Girardeau 397 
 
 Here it is, emphatically, that human wisdom asserts 
 its liberty to exercise its own inventive power, and to 
 refuse conformity to divine appointments whether in 
 the establishment of modes of worship, or in their alter- 
 ation as positive institutes. But let it never be for- 
 gotten that will-worship has been under every dispen- 
 sation of religion a special object of divine denuncia- 
 tion and wrath. God has always manifested a peculiar 
 jealousy for the appointed worship of His house; and 
 no marvel, for in the worship of the solemn assembly, 
 religion finds its highest and most formal expression, 
 the human heart is most immediately conscious of the 
 divine presence, and the will of the creature brought 
 into closest relation to that of God. The divine majesty 
 is directly before us, the glory of it blazes in our very 
 eyes, the place is holy ground, and an act which else- 
 where might be indifferent takes on the complexion of 
 profanity. It is to assert ourselves before God face to 
 face. The sentences of Christ's displeasure against the 
 invasions of His prerogative are not as summarily en- 
 forced under the New Dispensation as under the old, 
 but their fearfulness is not diminished by the fact that 
 their execution is suspended. The Apostle Paul, in the 
 third chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians, 
 furnishes a picture which should enstamp itself upon 
 the minds of every Christian teacher. He represents 
 one who has, with doctrinal correctness, laid the true 
 and only foundation, which is Jesus Christ, and yet has 
 built upon it a superstructure of wood, hay and stubble. 
 Behold him, as the ordeal of the last day tries his 
 work of what sort it is ! Every false doctrine, every 
 unscriptural element of government, every invention ol: 
 will-worship perishes one after another in the fiery 
 circle which narrows around him; his very vestments 
 
398 Sermons 
 
 are swept from him by its consuming breath; and he 
 stands naked and alone — himself saved, but the results 
 of his life-long labor reduced to ashes in the final con- 
 flagration. Verily, it becomes the teachers of religion, 
 as they would not be found at last to have spent their 
 strength for naught, not only to lay aright the doc- 
 trinal foundation, but to attend to the sort of super- 
 structure which they rear upon it ! The standard of 
 building is in their hands — the judgment which will 
 be laid for a line, the righteousness which will be ap- 
 plied as a plummet, are given in the inspired word. 
 "To the law, and to the testimony; if they speak not 
 according to this word, it is because there is no light 
 in them." 
 
 The only question is. Has Christ revealed the wor- 
 ship of His house? Has He included it among the 
 things which He has commanded, and which He has 
 enjoined the Church to observe? If He has, nothing 
 is left her but to obey His voice. 
 
 The public worship of the church, in a wide sense, 
 includes the reading of the Scriptures, preaching, 
 prayer, the singing of praise, the administration of the 
 sacraments, contribution of our substance to the service 
 of God, and the pronunciation of the benediction. In 
 a stricter sense, its elements are prayer and singing. It 
 will not be disputed that these modes of worship are 
 revealed by Christ in His Word. If so, the church 
 has no discretionary power to introduce any others, 
 or to change in any respect those which Christ has war- 
 ranted. The theory that whatsoever is not expressly 
 forbidden in the Word the church may do, involves the 
 monstrous assumption, that in matters of positive in- 
 stitution uninspired wisdom is of co-ordinate authority 
 with the revealed will of God. The power that adds 
 
Girardeau 399 
 
 to or abridges them, that changes or modifies them, 
 must either be equal to the original appointing power, 
 or be shown to be delegated from it. Neither of these 
 positions rests upon a shadow of proof from the Scrip- 
 tures. But whatever others may think on this subject, 
 our doctrine is definitely settled. The Westminster 
 Confession distinctly enounces the principle that what- 
 soever, in connection with church-worship, is not com- 
 manded, either expressly or implicitly, is forbidden. 
 Its language is: ''The acceptable way of worshipping 
 the true God is instituted by Himself, and so limited 
 by His revealed will, that He may not be worshipped 
 according to the imaginations and devices of men, or 
 the suggestions of Satan, under any visible representa- 
 tion, or any other way not prescribed in the Holy 
 Scriptures.'''' This is the doctrine of the best and 
 truest of the Reformers, the doctrine of our own Con- 
 stitution, our accej^ted exposition of the Written Word, 
 — that only what Christ has commanded can the church 
 enforce or permit; that what He has not commanded 
 is not allowable; that the only sphere in which the 
 church possesses discretionary power is that of com- 
 manded things, within which she may act, beyond 
 which she is not at liberty to go one inch. 
 
 But, in this sphere of commanded things, what is 
 the extent of her discretionary power? This is a 
 question which is to us, as a church, one of present, 
 practical import. It is one of the points at which we 
 are in especial danger of being caught oif our guard — 
 this is a gate through which the Trojan horse is sought 
 to be introduced into our holy city. It is a real, living 
 issue. What power has the church within the sacred, 
 the divinely-scored circle of commanded things — ^of 
 revealed duties? This being the question, the answer. 
 
400 Sermons 
 
 for us, is most precisely given in our Confession of 
 Faith, After stating the mighty principle of the 
 limitation of power within the things prescribed in 
 Scripture, it proceeds to say : "There are some circum- 
 stances concerning the worship of God and the govern- 
 ment of the church, common to human actions and 
 societies, which are to be ordered by the light of nature 
 and Christian prudence according to the general rules 
 of the word, which are always to be observed." Since 
 then, by her Constitution, the charter which defines her 
 rights, limits her powers and prescribes her duties, the 
 discretion of our church is astricted to "some circum- 
 stances concerning the worship of God common to 
 human actions and societies," it is a question of the 
 utmost consequence. What is the nature of these cir- 
 cumstances? Dr. Thornwell puts the case so clearly, 
 and yet so concisely, that we quote a portion of his 
 words in answer to this very question: "Circum- 
 stances are those concomitants of an action without 
 which it either cannot be done at all, or cannot be done 
 with decency and decoriun. Public worship, for ex- 
 ample, requires public assemblies, and in public assem- 
 blies people must appear in some costume and assume 
 some posture. . . . Public assemblies, moreover, 
 cannot be held without fixing the time and place of 
 meeting: these are circumstances which the church is 
 at liberty to regulate. . . . We must distinguish 
 between those circumstances which attend actions as 
 actions — that is, without which the actions cannot be — 
 and those circumstances which, though not essential, 
 are added as appendages. . These last do not fall within 
 the jurisdiction of the church. She has no right to 
 appoint them. They are circumstances in the sense 
 that they do not belong to the substance of the act. 
 
Girardeau 401 
 
 They are not circumstances in the sense that they so 
 surround it that they cannot be separated from it. 
 A liturgy is a circumstance of this kind. 
 In public "worship, indeed in all commanded external 
 actions, there are two elements — a fixed and a variable. 
 The fixed element, involving the essence of the thing, 
 is beyond the discretion of the church. The variable, 
 involving only the circumstances of the action, its sep- 
 arable accidents, may be changed, modified or altered, 
 according to the exigencies of the case," Such is the 
 doctrine of one who was a profound and philosophical 
 thinker, a man deeply taught of the Spirit, and a 
 master of the Presbyterian system, the doctrine of Cal- 
 vin and Owen, of Cunningham and Breckinridge, the 
 doctrine of the Eeformed Church of France, of the 
 Puritans of England, and of the Church of Scotland, 
 the doctrine to which, by the grace of God, the practice 
 of the Free Church of Scotland and of the Presbyterian 
 Church of Ireland, in an age of growing laxity,. still 
 continues to be conformed. 
 
 There are three criteria by which the kind of circum- 
 stances attending worship which fall under the discre- 
 tionary power of the church may be determined: first, 
 they are not qualities or modes of the acts of worship ; 
 the}^ are extraneous to them as a certain kind of actions ; 
 secondly, they are common to the acts of all societies, 
 and, therefore, not peculiar to the acts of the church 
 as a particular sort of society — they are not character- 
 istic and distinctive of her acts and predicable of them 
 alone; and thirdly, they are conditions necessary to 
 the performance of the acts of worship — without them 
 the acts of this society could not be done, as without 
 them the acts of no society could be done. 
 
402 Sermons 
 
 Let us now bring a liturgy to the test of these cri- 
 teria ; and it is instanced because it is an appendage to 
 one of the acts in which worship is, in the strictest sense, 
 rendered to God — prayer. It cannot abide the first, 
 because it qualifies and modifies the act of prayer 
 itself — it is a kind of prayer, a mode in which it is 
 offered. It cannot abide the second, because it is not 
 common to human actions and societies — all societies, 
 political, scientific, agricultural, mechanical and others 
 surely do not, as such, use liturgies. It cannot abide 
 the third, because a liturgy is not a condition necessary 
 to the performance of the act of prayer. Its necessity 
 could only be pleaded on one of two grounds: either 
 that without it the act of prayer cannot be performed 
 at all, and that is out of the question; or, that without 
 it the act cannot be performed decently and in order, 
 and to take that ground is to impeach the office of the 
 Holy Ghost, who is specially promised to teach us 
 how to pray and what things to pray for, to depreciate 
 the capacities of the sanctified intelligence of man, and 
 to pass a derogatory criticism upon some of the purest 
 churches that have ever flourished, and some of the 
 noblest saints who have ever edified the people of God 
 by their ministrations. 
 
 The other strict and proper act of worship is the 
 singing of praise. Let it be observed that it is not 
 praise, but the singing of praise. The distinction is 
 not captious — it is precisely made by the New Testa- 
 ment and our Standards. They both prescribe the act 
 of singing, and they both recognize the element of 
 praise as not peculiar to that act. The Confession of 
 Faith says: prayer with thanksgiving is one special 
 part of religious worship ; and the Directory f of Wor- 
 ship designates giving thanks as an element in the 
 
Girardeau 403 
 
 prayer before sermon in public services. Praise has, 
 therefore, a generic character, and sustains a two-fold 
 relation — to prayer and to singing. The specific ele- 
 ment, then, in the part of worship we are considering 
 is singing. Now it is pleaded that the church has 
 discretionary power to employ instrumental music, as 
 one of the circumstances allowed by our Standards. 
 Let us submit it to the test of the criteria by which 
 these circumstances are determined. First, they are not 
 parts of the acts of worship by which they are modi- 
 fied; but this circumstance is a part of the act of sing- 
 ing praise by which it is modified — it is a mode in 
 which it is performed. Secondly, these circumstances 
 are common to the acts of human societies, not peculiar 
 to, and distinctive of, those of the church. It is very 
 certain that instrumental music is not such a circum- 
 stance. It will hardly be said that all societies play on 
 instruments as well as the church. Thirdly, these cir- 
 cumstances are conditions necessary to the performance 
 of the acts of worship, without which they either can- 
 not be done at all, or not done decently and in order. 
 That the singing of praise cannot be performed at all 
 without instrumental music will be affirmed by none. 
 But it may be affirmed that it cannot without it be 
 performed decently and in order. Let it be noticed that 
 the question is not whether it may not be performed in 
 an indecent and disorderly manner. Granted; but so 
 may instrumental music. The question is, whether it 
 cannot be done decently and in order without instru- 
 mental accompaniment. The question can only be 
 determined by reference of the practice to a permanent 
 and universal standard of propriety and decorum. And 
 to say that the simple singing of God's praise in His 
 house is indecent and disorderly is to say, that for 
 
404 Sermons 
 
 twelve centuries the church of Christ was guilty of this 
 impropriety; for it is a matter of history that for 
 that period not even the Church of Rome knew any- 
 thing of instruments in her worship. To say that the 
 simple singing of God's praise violates the standard of 
 decency and order of this age is to censure the glorious 
 Free Church of Scotland and the Irish Presbyterian 
 Church for an indecent and disorderly conduct of this 
 part of divine worship. The ground, therefore, that 
 instrumental music in public worship is one of those^ 
 circumstances required by the rule that all things be 
 done decently and in order cannot be maintained with- 
 out a sj^irit of arrogance and censoriousness which 
 would itself violate the higher principle of Christian 
 charity. 
 
 It is submitted, with all modesty, that this line of 
 argument ought to be conclusive with Presbyterians, 
 at least, against ranking instrumental music in public 
 worship as one of the circumstances common to human 
 actions and societies which fall under the discretion of 
 the church. Consequently, to justify it, it must be 
 proved to be one of those directly commanded things 
 which the apostles taught the church to observe. To 
 take that ground is to contradict the unbroken evidence 
 of history from the apostolic age until the middle of 
 the thirteenth century. The force of this considera- 
 tion lies here: there having been a tendency in the 
 church from the earliest age to depart from the simple 
 institutions of the Gospel, it is utterly unaccountable 
 that she should have become more simple in her wor- 
 ship after the apostles fell asleep than she was under 
 their personal teaching. It is clear as day, the human 
 heart being what it is, that if the apostolic churches 
 had been accustomed to this mode of worship it never 
 
Girardeau 405 
 
 would have been eradicated. The natural tastes of men 
 all forbid the supposition. The elimination of instru- 
 mental music from the worship of Christ's house by 
 the best churches of the Reformation, by the English 
 Puritans and the Church of Scotland, was the result 
 of an effort to purify the church and to restore her to 
 what they conceived to be the simplicity of apostolic 
 practice. In this matter, we have relapsed from their 
 reformed position. But if the use of instrumental 
 music in the New Testament Church be not either 
 directly commanded in Scripture, or indirectly as one 
 of the circumstances common to human actions and 
 societies and lying within the sphere of commanded 
 things, it only remains to consider it a clear, substantive 
 addition to the divinely revealed rule of faith and duty 
 in the Written Word; and then it is prohibited. The 
 issue is: Either we must prove that it is one of the 
 things expressly or implicitly commanded by Christ, 
 or admit that it is forbidden. The latter alternative is 
 the doctrine of our Standards ; and, if so, the inference 
 as to what our practice ought to be is too apparent to 
 be pressed. 
 
 T\Tiat has been said upon this last point has not been 
 dictated by a spirit of captiousness or arrogance. A 
 natural wish to conform to the usages of one's time, a 
 desire for popular esteem in order to usefulness, a 
 regard to what may be deemed the demands of cour- 
 tesy and earthly propriety, a respectful deference to 
 the opinions of others, and an indisposition to stand 
 on what it is usual to characterize as a minor and indif- 
 ferent question, though minor and indifferent it can- 
 not be if it involve a grand, fundamental principle, — 
 all these considerations conspired to restrain the utter- 
 ance. Only a solemn conviction of the duty of the 
 
406 Sekmons 
 
 church and of her danger in departing in any respect 
 from the Word have urged it. The argument may have 
 merely the significance of a protest. For its truth, 
 appeal is humbly taken to our Constitution; for the 
 purity of the motive that prompted it, to Him who 
 knows the secrets of the heart. It has been spoken as 
 unto wise men; let them judge what has been said. 
 
 Finally, in these remarks the ground has been 
 assumed that the doctrine, the polity and the worship 
 of the church are all divinely given in the Word, and 
 that she has no right in any of these departments which 
 is not a divine right. This is not to advocate bigotry 
 and exclusiveness. We abjure High-churchism as much 
 as we do No-churchism. It is perfectly clear that the 
 more closely the church is conformed to the word, the 
 more nearly would she approximate the spirit of its 
 divine author. She would be no broader and no nar- 
 rower than He. She would be strict only where He is 
 strict, and breathe the same charity with Him. She 
 would, in that case, be exactly adapted, like the Word 
 itself, to show forth the glory of Christ. In conse- 
 quence of such a conformity to the pattern shown in the 
 Mount, she would indeed be pure and beautiful; but 
 the eyes of men would not be attracted to her. She 
 would stand a crystal palace transmitting the glory of 
 the Savior who reigns within her, transparently reveal- 
 ing His cross and His crown to all who seek Him for 
 salvation and are willing to bow to His rule. Her 
 language would emphatically be: "God forbid that I 
 should glory save in the cross of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ!" High-churchism makes extravagant claims 
 to discretionary power, depreciates the necessity of 
 conformity to the Word, especially in government and 
 worship, yet asserts the exclusive validity of its orders 
 
Girardeau 407 
 
 and its sacraments, and unchurches all bodies of pro- 
 fessed disciples of Jesus which subscribe not to its 
 pretensions. To say that a church which grounds her 
 every right in a warrant from the Scriptures, and 
 repudiates the license of human wisdom and the dis- 
 cretion of human authority ; which admits to her com- 
 munion all who are regenerated by the Spirit and justi- 
 fied by faith in Christ; which unchurches no body of 
 men that preaches a true gospel and administers its 
 ordinances in their essential purity, — to say that such 
 a church is chargeable with High-church exclusiveness 
 is simply preposterous. It is to make white black. It is 
 to say that the Scriptures are a digest of High-church 
 canons, and that Christ and His apostles were the ex- 
 ponents of intolerance. It is a powerful presumption 
 in favor of the genuineness of a church when her in- 
 herent and distinctive principles, carried out to their 
 legitimate results, conduct her by a logical necessity 
 to that broad, loving catholicity which pulsates in the 
 Scriptures, as it beat in the heart of a dying Savior. 
 It is not conformity to the Word, it is the want of it, 
 which produces the temper of exclusiveness. We make 
 the distinction between a true church more perfectly 
 conformed, and a true church less perfectly conformed, 
 to the supreme rule; as we make a distinction between 
 a true Christian more completely, and a true Christian 
 less completely, obedient to the same great standard. 
 
 Nor does it follow that because it is of the very last 
 importance that a church adhere to the doctrines of 
 salvation, it is, therefore, of little consequence whether 
 she be careful to adjust her government and her wor- 
 ship to the standard of the Word. Difference in degree 
 of importance between the several contents of the ulti- 
 mate rule has no influence upon the duty to receive and 
 
408 Sermons 
 
 obey whatever is revealed. Christ has spoken; His 
 authority clothes every word with importance. And it 
 should never be forgotten that the efficacious grace of 
 the gospel ordinarily acts through an apparatus of 
 divinely- appointed ordinances, and that to neglect them 
 is to turn aside from the channels in which it is in- 
 tended to flow — the types and moulds in which it is 
 designed to operate. There is as exquisite an adapta- 
 tion of the organism of the church to the supernatural 
 energies of grace as there is of the fabric of the ex- 
 ternal world to the unseen forces of nature ; or as there 
 is of the structure of the human hodj to the vital 
 power of the immaterial soul. 
 
 There is, moreover, such a divinely adjusted relation 
 between the different departments of the church — 
 between doctrine and government and worship; there 
 is so nice and delicate an inter-action among them, that 
 one cannot be injuriously affected without involving 
 the suffering of the others. All history teaches this 
 lesson. The contagion begun in one sphere is sure to 
 spread by sympathy to the others, as the consumption 
 of one organ of the body fatally implicates all the rest. 
 A corpse anywhere in the church infects her whole 
 atmosphere. A dead doctrine tends to paralyze a 
 living polity and a living worship, and a dead worship 
 infuses a poisoning virus into a living doctrine and a 
 living polity. 
 
 Xor can we be indifferent to the fact illuminated by 
 the experience of the church that false doctrine always 
 tends to affiliate with a false polity and a false worship. 
 In the struggles of the Church of Scotland, as Hether- 
 ington, her eloquent historian, graphically points out, 
 Armenianism was almost always associated with Pre- 
 lacy and a cumbrous ritual, and Calvinism with Pres- 
 
Girardeau 409 
 
 bytery and a simple worship. Introduce an unscrip- 
 tural element into any department, and if unchecked 
 it stamps, in the course of time, its depraving genius 
 upon all the rest. Let us see to it that we guard the 
 towers of government and worship on our outer walls, 
 assured that if one of them be carried, the path is: 
 opened up before an irruptive and triumphant foe to 
 the citadel of doctrine and the seat of life. 
 
 We are apt to have our eye diverted from the im- 
 f)ortance of these views by the absorbing interests of 
 our missionary enterprises and the intense activities 
 they evoke. The great command, "Go ye into all the 
 world, and preach the gospel to every creature" is 
 summoning the church as with the trump of an angel 
 and the shout of the Lord to the evangelization of the 
 race. Evangelism is the pervading spirit of the age, 
 aggressiveness its dominant policy, and onward to the 
 ends of the earth ! its thrilling and inspiring battle-cry. 
 This is the honor and glory of our times — it throws us 
 back across the desert of mediaeval indifference into 
 sympathy with the sublime genius of the apostolic age. 
 The zeal of Paul is reproduced and incarnated in the 
 burning heralds of the Cross. But the church is not 
 only the divinely-commissioned publisher, she is also 
 the divinely-commanded conservator, of the truth. 
 Christianity, in her development beyond the circum- 
 scribed limits of Judaism, did not throw off, she took 
 ujD and absorbed, the conservatism of the old dispen- 
 sation, while she girded her loins under the new for 
 its distinctive and glorious office of universal evangel- 
 ization. Conservatism and aggression are twin duties, 
 complementary to each other. It is just as important to 
 maintain the truth as it is to propagate it. The danger 
 
410 Sermons 
 
 is that the church will neglect the former duty in dis- 
 charging the latter — that she will be more solicitous 
 to preach the gospel in some form to the world than 
 to guard the particular type of it which she impresses 
 on the forming and infantile churches of converted 
 heathen men. As surely as the mother imparts her 
 features and habits to the daughter, so surely will the 
 parent churches at home stamp their cast of doctrine, 
 polity and worship upon their children on heathen 
 soil. In her onward march the church cannot afford 
 to neglect her base-line. As we value the vital interests 
 of our own organizations as well as of those established 
 abroad, we must see to it, with sedulous and unremit- 
 ting vigilance, that we keep ourselves conformed in all 
 things to the will of Christ as revealed in the sacred 
 word. 
 
 We are not without peril. The law of degeneracy, 
 the baleful results of which are only relieved by sudden 
 and wonderful interpositions of reviving grace at crit- 
 ical epochs in the church's history, is written upon all 
 the past. Shall we fondly dream that we shall be free 
 from its scope? Look abroad upon the field of the 
 church and the world with the patient eye of a careful 
 induction, scrutinize contemporaneous facts, collect the 
 signs of the times, and do we not reach the alarming 
 generalization that there is in the best churches of 
 Protestantism a growing latitudinarianism which 
 spurns the restraints of a complete and ultimate rule 
 of faith and duty ? We are now more than three hun- 
 dred years away from the glorious Reformation of the 
 sixteenth century, almost as far from it as was Au- 
 gustin from the apostolic age when the Pelagian heresy 
 threatened to engulf the church. Shall the American 
 church escape the universal law of corruptibility ? And 
 
Girardeau 411 
 
 shall she prove the solitary exception in history to the 
 law of conflict and suffering? She has not yet been 
 called to seal her testimony to truth in the fire, although 
 well-nigh every other Protestant church has received 
 her baptism of blood. Depend upon it, there are de- 
 fections and there are struggles before us. The pro- 
 phetic warnings of Scripture, the confirming lessons of 
 history and the corroborating indications of the period 
 admonish us that in the latter days perilous times shall 
 come, that men shall depart from the truth, and having 
 itching ears shall heap to themselves teachers, that evil 
 men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving 
 and being deceived; that as the hopes of the church 
 sunk into the grave of Jesus just before the ascending 
 glories of the apostolic Reformation, and as they again 
 descended into the sepulchre just before the resurrec- 
 tion light of the Protestant Reformation, so they will 
 again decline into the gloom and blood of a wide- 
 spread apostasy and a mighty tribulation, just before 
 the Morning Star of the Millennial Reformation shall 
 beam amidst the rifted clouds of an ecclesiastical night. 
 Protestantism itself will need to be reformed. 
 
 What, then, is the course which our own beloved 
 church is called by her Head to pursue ? What, fathers 
 and brethren, what? WTiat, youthful students and 
 thinkers, into whose hands, under God, the destinies of 
 this church — her type of faith, thought and action, of 
 doctrine, polity and worship, are to be intrusted when 
 the actors in her early organization shall have mould- 
 ered into dust? What, ye ruling elders, responsible 
 and honored guardians of each little flock as it rests in 
 its own particular fold ? What is the great, paramount 
 vocation of this church? While yet in the body of her 
 mother she struggled, as conscious even then of a sepa- 
 
412 Sermons 
 
 rate individuality, against the Esau of discretionary 
 power, and the first breath of her independent historic 
 existence was expended in protest against error and 
 testimony for truth. Conformity to the Word was the 
 reason of her separate being; let conformity to the 
 Word be the law of its development — conformity to the 
 Word, close, implicit, undeviating in doctrine, govern- 
 ment and worship. The opportunity furnished us is 
 inexpressively grand. Freed from the conflict of an- 
 tagonistic ideas, almost a unit ourselves, we have the 
 moulding and fashioning of a church in our hands. 
 What will we do with her ? Let us rise to the greatness 
 of the occasion. Let us endeavor, by grace, to make this 
 church as perfect a specimen of Scriptural truth, order 
 and worship as the imperfections of the present state 
 will permit. Let us take her by the hand and lead her 
 to the Word alone. Let us pass the Reformers, let us 
 pass the Fathers, uncovering our heads to them in 
 token of our profound appreciation of their labors for 
 truth, and heartily receiving from them all they speak 
 in accordance with the Word; but let us pass on and 
 pause not, until with our sacred charge we reach the 
 Oracles of God, and with her bow at the Master's feet, 
 and listen to the Master's voice. Let obedience to the 
 word of Christ in all things be the law of her life; so 
 that when the day of review shall come, and section 
 after section of the universal church shall halt for 
 judgment before the great Inspector Himself, although, 
 no doubt, there will be much of unfaithfulness of life 
 that will draw on His forgiveness. His eye may detect, 
 no departure from His Word in her principles, her 
 order and her worship. He cannot discredit His own 
 commands; and that church will receive His chief 
 encomiums which has been most closely conformed to 
 His Word. Let us strive for that glory ! 
 
Date Due