BX 7745 .B36 S4 1878 
 Barclay, Robert, 1833-1876. 
 Sermons 
 
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 by the Internet Archive 
 
 
 
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 https://archive.org/details/sermonsOObarc 
 
SERMONS 
 
 BY 
 
 ROBERT BARCLAY 
 
 WITH A 
 
 BIOGRAPHY 
 
i 
 
SERMONS \4 
 
 MAY 11 1918 
 
 ROBERT BARCLAY 
 
 AUXHOU OF 
 
 THE INNEU LIFE OF THE RELIGIOUS SOCIETIES 
 OF THE COMMONWEALTH " 
 
 A BRIEF MEMOIR 
 
 By HIS WIDOW 
 
 LONDON : 
 HODDER AND STOUGHTON 
 27 PATERNOSTEli ROW 
 MDCGCLXXVIU. 
 
THIS VOLUME 
 
 IS DEDICATED 
 TO 
 
 UR CHILDREN 
 
 IN MEMORY OF 
 
 THEIR FATHER 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The materials from which to compile a memoir of 
 Robert Barclay are very few, and as his sphere was 
 a quiet one there is little of interest to record. As he 
 was closely occupied in business during the greater 
 part of his life, the time at his disposal for scientific 
 and other pursuits congenial to his taste was necessarily 
 limited. 
 
 His first desire was to dedicate himself to the service 
 of his Lord and Master, and he strove that the cares 
 and interests of this world should be subservient to 
 that aim, and that they should never occupy the chief 
 place in his heart. 
 
 As his children have been deprived at a very early 
 age of the loving care and instruction which their 
 father seemed peculiarly able to give, their mother has 
 felt it to be a duty to preserve for them in a collected 
 form some of his writings, that they may learn from 
 these what were his religious opinions^ and thus become 
 acquainted with the workings of his mind, and be able 
 
viii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 to trace the development of that Christian character 
 which they were too young fully to appreciate. Most 
 of his children will remember to have heard their 
 father preach, and it will be very interesting to them 
 to possess his sermons, and to feel in this way that 
 they are yet receiving instruction from their beloved- 
 father in the deep things which concern their present 
 and eternal happiness. 
 
 As it is not intended to confine the circulation 
 of this work within the limits of his own family, 
 it may be well to explain in a few words how it is 
 that Robert Barclay has left a collection of sermons, a 
 very unusual thing for a minister of the Society of 
 Friends to leave. He entirely united with Friends in 
 the view generally maintained by them, with regard to 
 the ministry, that Grod does enable His ministers 
 effectually to preach His Gospel without any previous 
 meditation or preparation ; but he also held, with the 
 majority of Christians, that God does equally bless the 
 word preached when His blessing has been asked on 
 the diligent study of the Holy Scriptures, and when 
 the result of this earnest prayerful dedication of 
 mind and time has been given to the congregation. 
 To use his own words, " The question is, however, 
 whether the highest powers of the human intellect 
 should not be pressed by universal consent into the 
 active service of the visible Church. If Christ's religion 
 is to be advocated and defended by faithful souls, will 
 He withhold His Holy Spirit and special blessing from 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 IX 
 
 those who cultivate tlie intellect^ desiring to dedicate it 
 as one of His choicest gifts to His service ? " * 
 
 These sermons were merely written for his own 
 assistance ; in this way he often felt it to be his duty 
 to prepare his sermons, and thus he felt more fully 
 enabled to preach the Gospel, though he very often 
 preached without such previous preparation. In some 
 of them there may be a redundancy of expression ; 
 and had R. Barclay afterwards intended that they 
 should be published, he would doubtless have paid more 
 attention to the style, and adapted it more fully for the 
 present purpose. Some of them were the studies only, 
 if one may so say, from which he preached. But as 
 these manuscripts have been left, and as no wish was 
 expressed regarding them, his widow feels desirous to 
 make them more widely useful than they could be if 
 kept within the bounds of a small circle ; especially 
 as R. B. hoped that the time had now nearly come 
 when he would be able to devote still more of his time 
 and talents to preaching the Gospel. She feels, too, 
 that he who desired while on earth humbly to serve 
 his Saviour, would have been willing that they should 
 go forth if the Lord's blessing should but go with them. 
 
 They are now printed almost verbatim ; but as they 
 were never revised by the author, in some places a few 
 words and sentences have been omitted, to avoid repe- 
 
 * ' Inner Life of the Religious Societies of the CommouwciiltU ' 
 (1876), p. 569. 
 
X 
 
 INTKODUCTION. 
 
 tition : the Titles have also been added. These sermons 
 were preached to congregations widely differing in 
 circumstances and worldly position ; many of them to 
 gatherings of the working classes^ sometimes in the 
 open air. To the rich and poor R. B. preached boldly 
 Jesus Christ and Him crucified. This was often no 
 easy task to him, knowing, as he often did, the peculiar 
 needs of the congregation. But there were other occa- 
 sions when, in a most striking manner, he met those 
 needs while speaking in utter ignorance of the state 
 of mind and condition of his hearers. 
 
 He felt it necessary that the important Scriptural 
 truth so fully taught by the Apostle James, that 
 "Faith without works is dead," should be more 
 earnestly dwelt upon — and that there is a danger of 
 resting satisfied with the acceptance of the injunction, 
 " Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be 
 saved," without sufficiently remembering that our Lord 
 Himself says that He will " reward every man accord- 
 ing to his works," and that these two doctrines are 
 but portions of the same glorious truth. 
 
 Robert Barclay's manner was very earnest, because he 
 himself was in earnest : he knew that he was speaking 
 to his fellow mortals of the deep truths which belong 
 to the life here, and the life hereafter : he felt the 
 intense reality of the Gospel message, and longed that 
 all whom he addressed might feel it too. 
 
 In some instances he was permitted to know that, 
 through his humble instrumentality, sinners were con- 
 
IJITRODUCTION. 
 
 xi 
 
 verted from the error of their way, and ho now may 
 know of others who, through his testimony, were 
 turned to righteousness, who with him shine forth as 
 the sun in the Kingdom of their Father. 
 
 Robert Barclay was not "recorded" as a minister; 
 but in the Society of Friends, before this "acknow- 
 ledgment " takes place, a minister has as much liberty 
 to preach as if he were " recorded " as such, (unless his 
 prayers and sermons are disapproved of). 
 
 The fact that it has not been usual for ministers in 
 the Society of Friends to study the subject of their 
 sermons (and still less for such sermons to be after- 
 wards printed), will not, it is hoped, lessen, in any 
 way, the usefulness of the present volume. 
 
 R. B. had a highly intellectual and cultivated mind. 
 His disposition was shy and retiring ; but he expanded 
 in congenial society, and was able to appreciate the 
 noble and the true in others, whether they agreed 
 with, or differed from, himself To him it was a 
 real trial to be brought into contact with the false and 
 insincere. He was a firm and faithful friend, ever 
 ready to help when his advice and counsel were sought, 
 and untiring were his efforts to serve those in trouble 
 or in difiSculties. Perseverance and energy were ele- 
 ments largely developed in his character, and gave 
 him a strength of purpose which enabled him to over- 
 come obstacles ; his diligence and industry were re- 
 markable ; he worked too hard, scarcely allowing him- 
 self sufiScient recreation. Change of occupation seemed 
 
Xll 
 
 INTRODUCTIQN. 
 
 rest to him ; idle he could not be, and he acted on 
 the principle laid down by himself in the outset of life, 
 " to change the employment of leisure hours, and not 
 to waste them." 
 
 Robert Barclay very strongly felt that to be occupied 
 only with the perishing things of time was not the 
 main object to occupy the strength and the " day " of a 
 Christian's life, and he longed for more leisure that 
 he might devote it to preaching the Gospel. 
 
 He had been brought up with a view to business 
 life, and in 1855 he bought an old established manu- 
 facturing stationery business. He was assisted by his 
 brother-in-law, J. D. Fry, whom, in 1867, he took into 
 partnership. 
 
 He was naturally ambitious, and it was his desire 
 and aim to succeed in whatever he undertook : he 
 gave his whole mind to one thing at a time ; he was 
 methodical and possessed considerable power of organi- 
 zation, and in the course of years the business became 
 one of the largest of its kind in London. In 
 March 1860, R. B. took out a patent for "Indelible 
 writing paper," which his knowledge of chemistry led 
 him to discover ; and read a paper before a meeting 
 of the Society of Arts " On the prevention of forgery 
 arising from the alteration and falsification of bankers' 
 cheques, notes, &c. ; and a description of a method of 
 manufacturing ordinary writing-paper with chemical 
 properties rendering common writing-ink unalterable 
 with time or fraud." 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 xin 
 
 The duties and cares of business life were not con- 
 genial to his tastes, yet he felt he was in his right 
 path, and we believe he gave evidence that to be 
 *' diligent in business " is not incompatible with being 
 "fervent in spirit, serving the Lord," as an earnest 
 Christian and a minister. 
 
 R. Barclay had a considerable knowledge of chemistry 
 and electricity, but was able to devote but little 
 time to these favourite pursuits. He highly valued 
 the privilege of access to the laboratory of the 
 late Dr. William Allen Miller, and the opportunities 
 thus afforded under his auspices of studying spectro- 
 scopic chemistry. His spectroscope and electrical appa- 
 ratus were the recreation of occasional leisure hours, and 
 he enjoyed using them as a means of giving pleasure 
 and instruction to others. He was deeply impressed 
 with a sense of the shortness of life, and of the great 
 importance of making a right use of time. His feeling 
 was, 
 
 " He liveth long who liveth well ; 
 All other life is vain. 
 He liveth longest who can tell 
 Of living naost to heavenly gain." 
 
 His diary shows how early his mind was set on 
 " better things ; " and in his sermons it is interesting to 
 trace the fuller development of those lines of thought 
 and of religious conviction, to which as a boy he was 
 no stranger. 
 
 In conclusion, the editor feels that this sketch is 
 
XIV 
 
 INTKODUCTION. 
 
 imperfect and that another pencil might have drawn a 
 more exact portrait, might have written a biography in 
 which the subject of it would have stood out in fuller 
 relief ; but she has endeavoured faithfully to draw the 
 outline, and to let the fiUing-in come from his own pen. 
 Her desire in publishing this volume is that the Lord 
 of the harvest will bless the record of the varied work 
 undertaken at His bidding ; and that though He thus 
 early in the day called the labourer to enter into his 
 rest, He will bless the seed sown in faith, and cause it 
 to bring forth fruit to His praise. 
 
 Eeigate, 1878. 
 
ERRATA. 
 
 Page 21, line 4, for "old Meeting House" read Meeting House. 
 
 60, 
 
 26, , 
 
 " Charles H. Spurgeou " read Kev. Charles H. Spurgeon. 
 
 84, 
 
 29, , 
 
 " Solentuni " read Soluntum. 
 
 84, 
 
 32, , 
 
 " Gerghenti and Soleste" read Girgenti and Segest 
 
 85, 
 
 15, , 
 
 "Torro" read Torre. 
 
 86, 
 
 >, 3, , 
 
 " Torro del Greco or" read ToiTe del Greco and. 
 
 87, 
 
 „ 21, , 
 
 " house " read houses. 
 
 96, 
 
 „ 5, , 
 
 "23rd October" read 22nd October. 
 
 96, 
 
 „ 13, „ 
 
 "3()th October" read 29th October. 
 
 96, 
 
 15, , 
 
 "3rd November" read 2nd November. 
 
 331, 
 
 21, , 
 
 " Man" read man. 
 
 And a few imiinportant tvpographical eiTors which escaped correction. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 INTRODUCTION vii 
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR 1 
 
 SEEMON I. 
 
 First preached m 1866. 
 
 THE SUPREMACY OF CHRIST. 
 
 " The Lord sitteth upon tlie flood : yea, the Lord sitteth King for ever." — 
 
 Psalm xxix. 10 ......... . ll'i 
 
 SERMON II. 
 
 Preached at a Mission Hall Service, 1867. 
 
 NOAH'S EXAMPLE. 
 
 " And the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the 
 Ark ; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation." — 
 Genesis vii. 1 .......... 117 
 
 SEEMON III. 
 
 Preached at a Mission Hall Service, 1867. 
 
 GOD'S COVENANT WITH ABRAM. 
 
 " And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to 
 Abrani, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God ; walk before me, 
 and be thou perfect (or upright, sincere). And I will make my 
 covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly.'' 
 — Genesis xvii. 1,2 . . . . . . . . . 127 
 
 SEEMON IV. 
 
 Preached at an Open Air Service. 
 
 CHRIST OUR JUDGE AND SAVIOUR. 
 
 " Dost thou believe on the Son of God? He answered and said. Who is lie. 
 Lord, that I might believe on him? And Jesus said unto him. Thou 
 
xvi CONTENTS. v, 
 
 PAGE 
 
 hast both seen him, and it is ho tliat talketh with theo. And he said, 
 Lord, I believe. And he worshipped liiin. And Jesus said, For judg- 
 ment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see ; 
 and that they which see might be made blind." — John ix. 35-39 183 
 
 SERMON V. 
 
 Preached at a Mission Hall Service, 1867. 
 
 LOSS AND GAIN. 
 
 '" For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose 
 his own soul ? Or, what shall a man give in exchange for his soul ? 
 Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this 
 adulterous and sinful generation ; of him also shall tho Son of man be 
 ashamed, when lie cometh in the glory of his Father with tho holy 
 angels."— Mark viii. 36-38 138 
 
 SEEMON VI. 
 
 Preached at a Mission Hall Service, 1867. 
 
 FOEGIVENESS AND GKATITUDE. 
 
 " Her sins, which are many, are forgiven ; for she loved mneh." — 
 
 Luke vii. 47 .......... . 145 
 
 SERMON VII. 
 
 Preached 1867. 
 
 THE FAITH OF JOB. 
 
 " I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter 
 
 day upon the earth." — Job xix. 25 . . . . . 151 
 
 SERMON VIII, 
 
 Preached in 1869. 
 
 THE WALK TO EMMAUS. 
 
 " But we trusted it had been He which should have redeemed Israel : and 
 beside all this, to-day is the third day since these things were done." — 
 Tjuke xxiv. 21 159 
 
 SERMON IX. 
 Date uncertain. 
 ELIJAH. 
 
 "But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and 
 sat down under a juniper tree : and he requested for himself that he 
 might die; and said, It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life; 
 for I am not better than my fathers." — 1 Kings xix. 4 . . . 168 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 XVll 
 
 SEEMON X. 
 Preached at a Mission Hall Service, 18G9. 
 THE CEUCIFIXION. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 ' And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there 
 they crucified Him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand and 
 the other on the left. Then said Jesus, Forgive them ; for they know 
 
 not what they do And the people stood beholding." — 
 
 Luke xxiii. 33-35 177 
 
 SERMON XI. 
 
 Preached in 1869. 
 
 FAITH AND BELIEF, 
 
 ' And the woman said to Elijah, Now by tliis I know that thou art a man 
 of God, and that the word of the Lord in thy mouth is truth." — 
 1 Kings xvii. 24 189 
 
 SEEMON XII. 
 
 Date uncertain. 
 
 THE SPOILER SPOILED. 
 
 ' When a strong armed man keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace ; but 
 * wlien a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he 
 taketh away from him all his armour wherein he trusted, and divideth 
 his spoils. He that is not with me is against me : and he that gathereth 
 not with me scatteretli." — Luke xi. 21-23 198 
 
 SEEMON XIII. 
 
 Preached 1870. 
 
 FAITH AND WORKS, y 
 
 " Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac 
 his son upon the altar ? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, 
 
 and hy works was flxith made perfect Ye see then how that by 
 
 works a man is justified, and not by faith only." — James ii. 21, 22, 24 . 204 
 
 SEEMON XIV. 
 
 Preached at Bunhill Fields (Open Air Meeting), 1871. 
 
 LIFE THROUGH FAITH. 
 
 " Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on 
 Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into con- 
 demnation ; but is passed from death unto life." — JoAn V. 24 . .210 
 
xvni 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 SEKMON XV. 
 Preached at a Mission Hall Service, 1871. 
 THE RICH MAN AND LAZAEUS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 " And Abraham said, Son, remember." — Lulce xvi. 25 ... . 216 
 
 SEEMON XVI. 
 
 Preached 1872. 
 
 CHRIST THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 
 
 " I am the Light of the World : he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, 
 but shall have the Light of Life." — John viii. 12 ... . 224 
 
 SERMON XVII. 
 
 Preached 1873. 
 
 TAKING UP THE CROSS. 
 
 " And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he 
 said unto them. Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, 
 and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life 
 shall lose it ; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the 
 Gospel's, the same shall save it." — Marh viii. 34, 35 . . . . 232 
 
 SERMON XVIII. 
 
 Preached in 1873. • 
 
 ,^IFE'S WORK. 
 
 " Jesus said unto them. My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to 
 
 finish his work." — John iv. 84 . . . . . . . . 239 
 
 SERMON XIX. 
 
 Preached in 1873. 
 
 THE VOICE OF THE SON OF GOD. 
 
 " Verily, verily, I say unto you. The hour is coming, and now is, when the 
 dead sliall hear the voice of the Son of God : and they that hear shall 
 live."— /o7iw V. 25 245 
 
 SERMON XX. 
 
 Preached in 1873. 
 
 GOD IS NOT MOCKED. 
 
 "Be not deceived; God is not mocked : for whatsoever a man soweth, that 
 shall he also reap. For he that sowetli to his flesh shall of the flesh 
 reap corruption ; but he that soweth to the Spii'it shall of the Spirit 
 reap life everlasting."— Gffi. vi. 7, 8 251 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 XIX 
 
 SERMON XXL 
 Preached in 1874. 
 PAEABLE OF THE SOWER. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 A sower went out to sow his seed : and as he sowed some fell by the way 
 side ; and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured it. 
 .... The seed is the word of God. Those by the way side are tbey 
 thert hear ; then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of 
 their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved." — Luke viii. 5, 1 1, 12. 
 
 When any one hearetli the word of the kingdom and understandeth it not, 
 then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown 
 in his heart."— Maii. xiii. 19 260 
 
 SERMON XXII. 
 
 Preached 1874. 
 
 A PINNACLE A POSITION OF DANGER. 
 
 Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a 
 pinnacle of the temple, and saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, 
 cast thyself down : for it is written, He shall give his angels charge 
 concerning thee (to keep thee in all thy ways) : and in their hands 
 they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a 
 stone. Jesus said imto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt 
 the Lord thy God."— Matt. iv. 5, 8 266 
 
 SERMON XXIII. 
 Date uncertain. 
 ELECTION. 
 
 Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctifi- 
 cation of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of 
 Jesus Christ : Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied." — 1 Feter i. 2 . 274 
 
 SERMON XXIV. 
 
 Preached 1874. 
 
 THE REALITY OF HEAVEN. 
 
 After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could 
 number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood 
 before the Throne, and 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. What are these which 
 are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? And I said unto 
 him. Sir, thou ktiowest. And he said to me. These are they which 
 came out out of great tribulation, and they washed their robes, and 
 
XX 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before 
 the Throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His Temple : and 
 He that sitteth on the Throne shall dwell among tliem. They shall 
 hunger no more, neither thirst any more ; neither sluill the sun light on 
 them, nor any heat. For the Lamb whicli is in the midst of the 
 Throne shall feed them, and sl)all lead them unto living fountains of 
 waters ; and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. — Bev. vii. 
 9, 10, 13-17 278 
 
 SERMON XXV. 
 
 Preached in 1874. 
 KEGENEBATION. 
 
 " Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God.'' — 1 John v. 1. 
 
 " But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons 
 of God, even to them that believe on His name : which were born not 
 of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the vrill of man, but of God. 
 John i. 12, 13 286 
 
 SEEMON XXVI. 
 
 Preached 1874. 
 
 JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH. 
 
 '' Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our 
 
 Lord Jesus Christ." — Rom. v. 1 ...... . 291 
 
 SERMON XXVII. 
 
 Preached 1874. 
 
 THE TEMPLE OF GOD. 
 
 " And Jesus went into the Temple of God, and cast out all them that sold 
 and bouglit in the Temple, and overthrew the tables of the money- 
 changers, and the seats of them that sold doves, and said unto them, 
 My house shall be called a house of prayer [for all people] ; but ye have 
 made it a den of thieves. And the blind and the lame came to Him 
 in the Temple ; and He healed them."— Matt. xxi. 12-14 . . .298 
 
 SERMON XXVIII. 
 
 Preached 1875. 
 
 THE GIFT OF GOD. 
 
 *' The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus 
 
 Christ our Lord."— Eom. vi. 23 . . . ... 304 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 xxi 
 
 SERMON XXIX. 
 Preached 1875. 
 
 SANCTIFICATION A PEOGKESSIVE WORK ^ — 
 
 ^ PAGE 
 
 " The very God of peace sanctify you wholly ; and I pray God your whole 
 spirit and soul and body bo preserved blameless unto the coming of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do 
 it."— 1 TheBB. V. 23, 24 312 
 
 SERMON XXX. 
 
 Preached 1875. 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN'S RACE AND GOAL. 
 
 " Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see 
 
 the Lord."— £^eb. xii. 14 319 
 
 SERMON XXXI. 
 
 Preached 1875. 
 
 REFLECTED GLORY. 
 
 " I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that Thou 
 shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even 
 as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through Thy truth ; Thy 
 word is truth." — John xvii. 15-17 ....... 326 
 
 SERMON XXXII. 
 
 PnEACHED 1875. 
 
 THE MIRACULOUS DRAUGHT OF FISHES. 
 
 " When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees saying, Depart 
 from me ; for I am a sinful man, O Lord. For he was astonished, and 
 all they that were with him, at the draught of the fishes which they 
 had taken."— iu/ce v. 8, 9 333 
 
 SERMON XXXIII. 
 
 Preached 1875. 
 
 FAITH INCLUDES BELIEF. 
 
 '' Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not 
 
 seen But without faith it is impossible to please Him : for he 
 
 that Cometh to God must believe that Ho is, and that He is a rewarder 
 
 of them that diligently seek Him." — iZe6reu;s xi. 1, 6. . . . 339 
 
 C 
 
xxu 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 SERMON XXXIV. 
 Preached 1876. 
 GATHEEING SOULS FOR CHRIST. 
 
 PAOE 
 
 " He that is not with me ia against me ; and he that gathercth not witli me 
 
 scattereth." — Luke xi. 23 ........ 347 
 
 SEEMON XXXV. 
 
 Peeacheu 1876. 
 
 A CALL TO DECISION. 
 
 " How long halt ye between two opinions ? if the Lord be God, follow Him : 
 
 but if Baal, then follow him." — 1 Kings xviii. 21 ... . 354 
 
 SERMON XXXVI. 
 
 Preached Sept., 1876. 
 
 THE BARREN FIG-TREE. 
 
 " And seeing a fig tree afor off having leaves, He came, if haply He might 
 lind anything tliereon : and when He came to it, He found nothing but 
 leaves ; for the time of figs was not yet. And Jesus answered and said 
 unto it, No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever. And His disciples 
 lieard it And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in 
 
 God."— Mark xi. 13, 14, 22 361 
 
 FRAGMENTS. 
 
 " If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge 
 that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the 
 Lord."— 1 Cor. xiv. 37 3«7 
 
 " The wages of sin is death ; but the gift of God is eternal life through (or 
 
 in) Jesus Christ our Lord." — Eom. vi. 23 371 
 
 '' But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.'' 
 Gal. vi. 14 373 
 
 " Then shall tlie Kingdom of Heaven be likened unto ten virgins, ■which 
 took their lamps, and went forth to meet the Bridegroom. And five of 
 them were wise, and five foolish." — Matt. xxv. 1,2. . . . 378 
 
 '* I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that then 
 
 shouldest keep . . ." — Jofcn xvii. 15. . . . . . . 381- 
 
MEMOIR. 
 
 Robert Barclay was born at Croydon on the 4th of 
 August, 1833, and was the younger son of John 
 Barclay,* a minister in the Society of Friends, who 
 was well known to the Society as an author, and also 
 through his published Memoir. He died in 1838. 
 
 Of R. Barclay's childhood there is little to narrate. 
 When very young he was sent to a preparatory school 
 at Epping, and ever retained a pleasant remembrance 
 of those early days. He was next sent to a school at 
 Hitchin (which was afterwards removed to Dorking), 
 conducted by Isaac Brown, subsequently head-master of 
 the Flounders' Institute. The country was a source of 
 constant pleasure, and his delight in finding rare bo- 
 tanical specimens gave an added zest to his rambles. 
 
 His love of chemistry was early developed ; before 
 he was eleven years old he writes from Hitchin School 
 to his brother for chemicals, which had been promised 
 him, and mentions that his master had " delivered a 
 
 * John Barclay was the youngest son of Robert Barclay, of Clap- 
 ham, Surrey, a lineal descendant of Robert Barclay, of Ury, one of 
 the founders of the Society of Friends, and author of the ' Apology.' 
 
 B 
 
2 
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 lecture on the gases." And from Dorking he writes 
 to his mother about a book, which he wished should be 
 " either on chemistry, electro-magnetism, or galvanism 
 — not a superficial outline, but a regular good one." In 
 1847 he was removed to Grove House, Tottenham, 
 where his school education was finished. 
 
 It was while at Grove House that R. B. was enabled, 
 through Divine grace, to dedicate himself to his Lord 
 and Master. He made what to a schoolboy was no 
 small sacrifice, an open profession of allegiance to his 
 Saviour. He was one of a little band of five or six 
 who retired daily to read their Bibles, and to seek for 
 strength to show by their conduct, whose they were, 
 and whom they desired to serve. He considered that 
 he owed, to a great extent, his awakening to a religious 
 life to the ministry of his valued friend, John Hodgkin. 
 
 The following extracts, selected from a diary which 
 R. B. commenced just before he left school, and in his 
 seventeenth year, show the state of his mind at this 
 time, and for the next twelve years ; during which 
 period he continued the practice of occasionally record- 
 ing his thoughts. 
 
 " 1850. 2bth of Srd mo. — For some time I have 
 thought it might be beneficial to me in various ways, 
 to keep a slight record of my thoughts at various 
 times, which may serve as a kind of check upon my 
 conduct ; for I have indeed felt that ' when I would do 
 good, evil is present with me,' and how unconscious 
 I am of my faults and easily besetting sins." 
 
ROBERT BARCLAY. 
 
 3 
 
 " I wish this to be also a written record of the 
 blessings of that God whom I have already known to 
 be a ' wonderful Counsellor.' " 
 
 " 27M, 3rd mo. — Lecture from Dr. Letheby. Had 
 some interesting conversation about the atmospheres 
 of the planets, and the probability of ' gether ' being 
 only air in an attenuated state, and drawn about the 
 earth by the force of gravitation." 
 
 " 30th, 3rd mo. — Oh, that I may be wholly devoted 
 to the service of the Lord, in body, soul, and spirit ! 
 Satan does endeavour to make me fall short of it. May 
 I not serve God in part ! 0 God, grant that the 
 struggle may not fail, that I may not faint so as to fall 
 short of eternal life ! " 
 
 " 31st, 3rd mo. — First day. We had a sermon from 
 Samuel Fox ; he spoke of the necessity of entire devo- 
 tion to the service of the Lord, and of giving up the 
 heart to His guidance. And what particularly struck 
 me was his concern that some of us might seek to bo 
 led in the right path ; and that it was possible to be 
 seeking out paths which might perhaps appear to us 
 to be those in which we might be useful to our fellow 
 men, yet are not those in which the Lord would have 
 us to walk. . . May this week be one in which Fowell 
 Buxton's advice may be attended to : always to give 
 the whole mind to anything in hand. But I must 
 remember I can do nothing of myself to the glory of 
 God." 
 
 " 3rd of 4^th mo. — .... Even in the smallest cir- 
 cumstances of life, most firmly do I believe we can see 
 the directing hand of Providence ; and that, therefore, 
 if we do ask for guidance in them, and a blessing upon 
 them, we shall not be disappointed." 
 
 " Ath, 4:th mo. — May I through this week be constantly 
 reminded that I am not my own, and may a sense 
 
 B 2 
 
4 
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 be granted of the infinite importance of religion ! How- 
 liable we are to lose sight of this ! 0 Lord, do Thou 
 grant that I may be kept humble and watchful !" 
 
 " \4:th, ith mo. — Read Paley's ' Evidences.' I was 
 much struck with an argument which he draws 
 from the circumstances of the Resurrection, which 
 he says is mentioned both indirectly and directly 
 by every Christian writer, of every age. He shows 
 that so extraordinary an assertion, which so nearly 
 concerned the rising sect, would have caused its 
 enemies to take a decisive step, and exhibit the bodt/, 
 if they could have found it, and so exposed the delu- 
 sion ; and also that the chances would have prevented 
 the most hotheaded enthusiasts from taking the' body 
 away, for we know how difficult a thing it is in our 
 own times to conceal a dead body in case of a murder 
 under the most favourable circumstances. The spot 
 where Christ was buried was close to Jerusalem." 
 
 " 4:th mo., 17th. — I was very much struck by a remark 
 of T. H., during our Bible lesson this evening, on the 
 text, ' He that taketh not up his daily cross and 
 followeth after Me, is not worthy of Me.' He said that 
 those about to be crucified did so ; that it implied that 
 the Christian was to be, as to the vjorld, dead, in a 
 manner, somewhat similar to the criminal performing 
 the last act of his life. Oh, that this may be re- 
 membered by me, when the world allures me with fair 
 prospects." 
 
 " of 5th mo. — It has at last been settled where 
 my place of abode shall be for four years of my 
 life. I hope it may be in every way for the best, 
 spiritually and temporally." 
 
 bth mo. First day. — We had a very excellent 
 
 communication from which harmonised much 
 
 with my own mind, and which we who are young 
 
IIOBERT BARCLAY. 
 
 5 
 
 should ever remember. May the trutli be constantly 
 and deeply felt by myself and some whose hearts God 
 has touched, viz., that all our crov^ns must be thrown 
 at the feet of Jesus ; that we must become as little 
 children — the rich, the talented, alike ; that all must 
 come to the feet of Jesus willing to be formed and 
 fashioned as He would have us to be. May we seek 
 to be conformed to the meekness and gentleness of 
 Christ." 
 
 No date. — " It is a long time since I have written 
 anything here ; the various business which has pressed 
 upon me has prevented. I hope this jjractice may be 
 attended to only under some feeli7ig of that which I 
 write here, and that I may look back upon what I have 
 written without any feeling of regret for having put it 
 on paper. 
 
 *' I hope that this time may be one of advance in the 
 Christian race. Many fears have arisen lest I am not 
 pursuing aright. Oh, I have not that sense of the 
 presence of God and of His Holy Spirit which I desire. 
 .... Have J indeed devoted myself entirely to His 
 service ? though my cry has been after this manner. 
 Enable me ; — has not my unfaithfulness in my daily 
 walk in life hitherto stood in the way — my pride ? 
 Pride, indeed, is the root of half the evils of the human 
 race. Grant, 0 Lord, this I pray Thee, that I may be 
 preserved and kept from being affected by the spirit of 
 the world. Thou, 0 Lord, alone knowest its power in 
 retarding our growth in grace. Under what forms it 
 manifests itself, what a chilling deadening effect it has ! 
 It influences us in every state and condition of life ; 
 how insidious it is ! under what a specious form it 
 presents itself ! It tempts me now in the form of that 
 mental assimilation to the mode of the thinking of 
 others, making a species of abatement of the standard 
 
6 
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 that I truly believe to be right, when in the com- 
 pany of tliose who fear not Grod (how many of those 
 I love do the same !). Help, Lord, these and myself 
 also ! 
 
 " I have been attending the yearly meeting through- 
 out the sittings. I hope some little advantage has been 
 gained, but if a watchful, prayerful state of mind had 
 been maintained, how much more good might have been 
 attained." 
 
 Robert Barclay left school in 1850, and on looking 
 back to the time spent at Grrove House, he writes : — 
 
 " IQth, 6th mo. — I have now entered a sphere of life 
 which will widely differ from that in which I have 
 been placed for so many years, and I may say that I 
 look back with feelings of pleasure to the period whicli 
 I have spent at school. In what a blessed way does 
 the Lord lead us when the choice has been once made, 
 and how does He make a path where none appears, 
 when we have in a measure yielded our hearts to 
 Him ! On thinking of my state of mind three years 
 ago, it is beyond my comprehension how I could have 
 broken through the obstacles with which I was sur- 
 rounded. I sometimes think that some more advanced 
 in age do not know the struggle which it . is for a 
 boy to withstand the opinion of those about him — 
 what fears and temptations beset him ; the point 
 which is so easily attacked has often become wound up 
 and connected with part of his nature. To be cheerful 
 and good-natured and animated — without transgressing 
 in this intercourse — with his schoolfellows, is indeed 
 an acquirement most difficult. To keep from slipping 
 with the tongue when in all the freshness and buoy- 
 ancy of youth, is a difficulty which cannot be realised 
 
ROBERT BARCLAY. 
 
 7 
 
 by those who have not been in such a situation. And 
 if any inconsistency be observed, how painful to 
 think of dishonouring the cause of righteousness. 
 
 " To-day I have had a blessed time of retirement, 
 thanks be to Grod. I read the 31st Psalm, every word 
 of which seemed so very applicable to myself. With- 
 out these times of refreshment we are liable to become 
 worldly-minded, our thought turned on self. I must 
 endeavour more regularly to fulfil this duty of waiting 
 on the Lord. When this is not done, I find that the 
 earthly mind gets upmost, and I become through a 
 subtle temptation more disinclined to perform it." 
 
 In July R. B. went to Bristol, to learn business, and 
 resided with one of the partners of the firm, a much- 
 esteemed minister in the Society of Friends ; and very 
 pleasantly passed the three years spent under the roof 
 of William and Sarah Tanner. 
 
 " 1850. 2\st of 7th mo. — I am now in Bristol, and upon 
 entering business I feel how critical this period of my 
 life is ; I can only trust in the Lord, and ask Him for the 
 renewal of my faith, and that He will grant His Holy 
 Spirit and keep me in a state of watchfulness unto 
 prayer. Oh, Lord, make me an humble servant of 
 thine, and enable me to be ' not slothful in business, but 
 fervent in spirit, serving Thee ; ' and place Thy blessing 
 upon my exertions, and that I may do all as unto Thee, 
 giving my whole mind and energy to fulfil my post 
 aright, and thoroughly to master what I have to learn 
 in trade. Enable me to have my conversation in 
 the world with humility and godly fear. I must be 
 strictly punctual, and keep, with the help of Grod, 
 
8 
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 from conversation not connected with the business in 
 hand, and also endeavour to employ the time which I 
 have methodically." 
 
 On his 17th birthday he writes : — 
 
 " .... I dread falling into a state of indifference, 
 and lest my light, if still burning, should be placed 
 under a bushel, through the fear of man and the love 
 of self. Oh that I could ' forget myself ! ' It is the 
 Lord alone who can carry forward the work, and make 
 me as a little child." 
 
 " of Sth mo. — I must soon make some arrange- 
 ment for the proper and methodical use of my time ; 
 this must be made soon, or else it may be long delayed. 
 May the time which is now mine be in no wise 
 wasted, but spent as befitting one who is a traveller 
 towards eternity. Oh, may the glory of God be the 
 end of all my actions ! This is far, very far, from 
 being the case." 
 
 " 2^th of Sth mo. — Surely an hour or hours of reading 
 of the most abstract and absorbing kind ought not to 
 cause dissipation of mind when engaged in business. 
 I believe that to make business the only species of 
 mental employment, and to waste instead of to change 
 the employment of leisure hours, is surely not a plan 
 which ought to be followed ; it is a defective state of 
 mind to be unable to dismiss from it the occupations of 
 an hour." 
 
 Amongst other occupations for these leisure hours, 
 were the " study of the G-reek Testament, D'Aubigne in 
 French, Neander in German, and mathematics of some 
 
 kind." 
 
 " 15^7i of \2th m(7.— What progress have I made in 
 
ROBERT BARCLAY. 
 
 9 
 
 my heavenly journey is a question raised at the present 
 time, and a question far too seldom asked. Many 
 queries often arise in my mind, but none surely so 
 important as this. ' Seek first the kingdom of God 
 and His righteousness, and all these things shall be 
 added.' Oh, Heavenly Father, keep me still by Thy 
 Power ; lead me to the rock that is higher than I, 
 and increase my fiiith and trust in Thee ; and may 
 the consideration that in Him there is plenteous redemp- 
 tion raise a feeling of thankfulness in my heart. Help 
 me to be diligent to make my calling and election sure, 
 and for Thy dear Son's sake bless me with Thy Grace 
 and Holy Spirit. May nothing hinder Thy work ; make 
 me willing to be nothing, and that Thou mayest be all. 
 0 Lord, direct, I pray Thee, my mind, so that the whole 
 man may be to Thy glory. Lord leave me not to choose 
 my own path, and so to frustrate Thy gracious designs. 
 Grant that every one of my faculties may be cultivated 
 for and applied to Thy service ; and place me, if con- 
 sistent with Thy will, in such a position in which every 
 thing which Thou hast given (mental and physical) 
 may be devoted entirely to Thy glory, and that of Thy 
 dear Son. From day to day feed me with food con- 
 venient for me. Oh let me not wander from thy way !" 
 
 Probably 7th mo., 185L — " It is a humbling thought, 
 how the aspirations of the closet differ from the ex- 
 perience in the world ; how fleeting are those impressions 
 made when in solitude ; how soon the natural man gains 
 the ascendancy without constant watching unto prayer. 
 
 " How do the cares of this life choke the word ; the 
 anxious thoughts, showing the lack of faith there is in 
 Him who has already done ' exceedingly abundantly 
 above all that we could ask or think.' Oh, for a deeper 
 foundation upon the Eock of Ages and stronger faith in 
 His Almighty pov/er. May my frame of mind be that 
 
10 
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 of David's when he says, ' I will yet hope continually, 
 and will yet praise Thee more and more.' " 
 
 " 1851. 2S)th, 12th mo. — Show me my utter unworthi- 
 ness in Thy holy sight. Help me to come to the Throne 
 of Grace with all boldness, and under that sense which 
 Thou, Father, alone canst give of Thy holiness, Thy 
 majesty, Thy love and Fatherly kindness." 
 
 " 12th mo. — Grant, 0 Lord, for the sake, and in the 
 Name of Thy beloved Son Christ J esus, that faith which 
 overcometh the world. Oh, that I may not be unmind- 
 ful of the fulfilment of my prayers ! As each scene of 
 my life opens on my view, may it bring with it fresh 
 occasions to praise Thy ever excellent Name ; and 
 increase my faith, that the proofs so graciously granted 
 may be yet increased proofs of the reality of that 
 which we have believed in ; and that Thou, 0 Lord, 
 art able to keep that which Thy unworthy servants 
 have committed unto Thee." 
 
 " 1852. 21st, 1st mo. — This day I began my duties 
 [as a teacher] at the Sunday School, Filton." 
 
 " 2^th, 2nd mo. — This has been a time of much 
 spiritual weakness : the query has arisen, as it does at 
 times, Am I really a Christian ? . . . . This world is 
 indeed a battle-field. Satan will dispute every inch, 
 and I fear, through want of constant trust in God, he 
 has been mercilessly laying waste by his subtle devices. 
 I must seek more. I believe my safety depends upon 
 my seeking from hour to hour to turn my soul's eye 
 to my heavenly Father. It is indeed through an 
 almighty power alone — the Power who ynade us, and 
 who knoweth our frame, that we can become or remain 
 Christians. Those who try in their own strength to 
 stay the course of thought, to prevent worldly thoughts 
 from entering the sanctuary, which we would devote 
 to thoughts of heaven, will be forced to acknowledge 
 
ROBERT BARCLAY. 
 
 11 
 
 that it requires more than anything which Man can 
 devise. It is God alone who can stay the [unprofit- 
 able] workings of the mind, and direct them towards 
 Himself ; and even then how often will the world glide 
 silently in, seizing, as it were, the first thought which 
 rises from earth to heaven, and gently landing it in the 
 dust again." 
 
 " 14^/(!, ll^A mo. — . ... Is my conduct such that 
 those around me would see daily that I am an indi- 
 vidual seeking a better country — one who feels that the 
 things of this world are lighter than vanity compared 
 with the tremendous realities of an eternal existence?" 
 
 It may not be out of place here to say how this 
 query, written down in the secret of his own chamber, 
 has been answered by the testimony of many who 
 knew him both in and beyond the religious society to 
 which he belonged. Soon after Eobert Barclay was 
 married, Sarah Tanner said to his wife, that he was one 
 whose mind seemed so remarkably little in the things 
 of this world. F. E. Fox, one of his schoolfellows at 
 Grove House, and who afterwards worked with him 
 in the same blessed cause, writes : " of dear R. we may 
 truthfully say that he leaves behind liim a life witness 
 to the truth and reality of that blessed Gospel which it 
 was his privilege to love and to proclaim," Dr. E. B. 
 Underbill writes God has for a time called 
 
 him apart from you to the higher service of heaven ; 
 he served his Lord and Saviour here with fervent devo- 
 tion and true humility, and so he became the better 
 fitted for early removal to the presence of his Lord." 
 
12 
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 " 1853. Gth of 3rd mo. — It is an easy tiling to say, ' I 
 will follow thee to prison and to death !' it is, however, 
 the doing- of the things which Christ has said in which 
 our love and allegiance to Him are proved." 
 
 " What an attainment is the ' patient continuance 
 in well-doing ! ' we have an unfortified house and an 
 unweary Adversary. Oh for more constant seeking 
 for heljj from above ! Oh for the full experience that 
 the Lord is my Rock and my Fortress !" 
 
 " 1st, 5th mo. — Shall I ever, has been the question 
 from time to time, reach a state of comparative ad- 
 vancement, where there is an abiding sense of being 
 a child of God, doijig the will of God from the heart, 
 the love of God being the sjDring of action instead 
 of pride, ambition, or selfishness ?" 
 
 " Idth, (jth mo. — To-day was my last visit to the 
 sabbath-school at Filton, for one and a half years I 
 have constantly attended, and I trust my endeavours 
 have not been without results ; but how feeble are our 
 efforts. We must do our part without looking too 
 much for results. When we are satisfied we have been 
 labouring in a right cause, we must leave these little 
 efforts for the good of others in our heavenly Father's 
 hand. If He hath been pleased to make Filton school 
 the direct means of impressing the soul of one child 
 with the importance of seeking heavenly things, it 
 surely would repay far heavier labour than mine. . . . 
 If the children were only found more obedient to their 
 parents, and the parents treating them more wisely, 
 something would be gained : a furrow has been turned, 
 and the ground made a little more fit for the seed, and 
 the tares a little stunted in their growth. Many other 
 considerations of this sort will encourage us to believe 
 that our labour will bear its fruit, though the year be 
 long and dreary." 
 
ROBERT BARCLAY. 
 
 13 
 
 " 25^A, 8/A mo. — Reached home after my Scotch tour, 
 having left Bristol, to reside in Tottenham." 
 
 " 1854. lltk, 1st mo. — Many very important matters 
 have crowded upon my attention tO-day, which may 
 very seriously affect my course in life, temporally and 
 spiritually. My. soul has very earnestly craved of my 
 heavenly Father that He would direct me, and that 
 He would bring about that which is well-pleasing in 
 His sight. Oh for wisdom ! He has done very 
 wonderfully for me hitherto, and may I be enabled to 
 give up more fully to His direction, which is the path 
 of life. How graciously has my Saviour led me 
 hitherto. Oh for greater trust in Him !" 
 
 " IS^A, 2nd mo. — ' He that saith He abideth in Him, 
 ought himself sp to walk even as He walked.' What 
 resemblance is there between my walk and His walk ? 
 One who truly walks in the spirit of his Saviour will 
 surely find that there is an indissoluble connection 
 between those acts of obedience comprehended in doing 
 and leaving undone. Now, though I may have left 
 undone some things which are contrary to Grod's 
 blessed will, yet what do I do which bears any re- 
 semblance to His life ? Admitting that I am not 
 responsible for my position and circumstances, may I 
 not conclude that the many deficiencies which I find 
 daily in avoiding the evil are only parts of that 
 unsubdued nature which loses, or rather does not make 
 opportunity of doing good. ?" 
 
 Nearly twenty-three years after this was penned, and 
 within five weeks of his own death, on the occasion of 
 the funeral of his wife's youngest sister, when all their 
 surviving children and other near relatives were as- 
 sembled at the house of her parents, Robert Barclay 
 
14 
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 spoke of the great importance of availing ourselves of 
 opportunities, while time is yet granted, to speak to 
 those we love on the subject of the greatest moment to 
 each one, the soul's welfare, and dwelt upon our solemn 
 responsibility as Christians ; that our social intercourse 
 with one another should not be solely devoted to the 
 things of time. Eobert Barclay felt it a great effort thus 
 to speak to those whom he knew so well, but he felt it 
 to be his duty. It was the last day he ever spent in 
 Bristol ; and he thus availed himself of what proved to 
 be his own last opportunity. That evening he parted 
 from those whom he had known from his boyhood, 
 never again to meet upon earth. 
 
 " 2nd mo. — What a need there is at this most 
 critical point in my life for me to put my whole trust 
 in my heavenly Father. It is He who has guided me 
 hitherto, and 1 do believe He will yet guide me, and 
 keep my steps from sliding. Oh for more simple 
 Christian trust ! He has done wonderfully for me. May 
 I seek for the ability to devote my words, my actions, 
 my all, to Him who has redeemed, kept, and guided 
 so unworthy a creature hitherto." 
 
 " Ind, 12th mo. — Oh for more faith in the all-availing 
 efficacy of true prayer ! Guide me, 0 Lord. When 
 Thou makest me sensible of Thy renewing influences in 
 my heart, I can truly say I desire that only which is 
 [in accordance with] Thy blessed will. Be pleased to 
 order all things for me, and give me a truly thankful, 
 humbled heart for all thy blessings ; and Thou truly 
 only knowest what are blessings." 
 
 " 1855. 20th, Uh mo.— Oh, that throughout my life I 
 may place all my confidence in Thee as to outward 
 
ROBERT BARCLAY. 
 
 15 
 
 things ! 0 Lord, I accept the present prospect as an 
 earnest of the fulfilment of my prayers, as a proof that 
 Thou wilt never leave nor forsake those who, however 
 faintly, truly confide in Thee, for Thou, Lord, knowest 
 that we have need of all these things. 0 Lord, give me 
 to know that Thou, as our Almighty Father, dost indeed 
 care for us to an hair's-breadth. Oh grant that, through 
 the grace of my Saviour Jesus Christ, I may be Thine, 
 wholly Thine, for time and for Eternity. 'He that 
 spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us 
 all, shall He not also with Him freely give us all 
 things ? ' " 
 
 From a Letter to S. M. F. 
 
 « Tottenham, 5th of 4th mo., 1855. 
 
 " .... I went the day before yesterday to Hitchin. 
 It was very interesting indeed to find my way among 
 the haunts of my boyhood. I stood upon a stile, and 
 looked over what was the playground and cricketing- 
 ground, musing ' where once my careless childhood 
 strayed,' on the strange changes of human life, truly 
 I was not then ' a stranger yet to pain ;' for, there came 
 vividly into remembrance the dread of being beaten by 
 elder tyrants, and the taunting words even harder than 
 blows, and the comfortless state of mind I experienced 
 on being plunged on so untried a state of existence. 
 . . . The fine breeze and brilliant sunshine reminded 
 me of the happier hours of my school days, and the 
 intense pleasure of the half-holidays." 
 
 " 30^A, 8^A mo. — I have just returned from a tour 
 in Switzerland, previous to settling into business. . . ." 
 
 We quote from one of his letters. It shows how 
 
16 
 
 MEMOIR OP 
 
 thorouglily Eobert Barclay enjoyed his first journey 
 abroad. His mind, attuned to the harmony of beauty 
 that never fadeth, " drank nature in " with that keen 
 dehght which they feel who are conscious of those 
 
 " Symphonies of high-toned feeling, 
 Which make music with the heart's lone chords, 
 Which never can be breathed in -words." 
 
 Such feelings are not devotion, but they often accompany 
 true worship, which is adoration, prayer, and praise. 
 
 " Zermatt, 14th, 8th mo., 1855. 
 " .... It proved, however, a good opportunity of 
 ascending the Riffelberg. I had an excellent view 
 of Monte Rosa from the north side, with the vast chain 
 of mountains that surround Zermatt. From this side 
 Monte Rosa is almost entirely clothed with snow and 
 glacier. From the Weiss Thor an incomparable Alpine 
 view is obtained ; such an extent of snow and glacier 
 as I never expect to see again. In fact, it may be 
 said that the space enclosed from the Weiss Thor to the 
 Breithorn and from the Riflfelberg to Monte Rosa is 
 one vast glacier, the whole of which communicates 
 with the great Gorner Glacier, whose inroads on the 
 
 fields near Zermatt I have already described 
 
 Made arrangements with my guide for the morrow (to 
 
 cross the St. The'odule) Everything was now 
 
 ready and the provisions for the day ; the knapsack 
 on Joseph's back, who produced a very primitive 
 lantern, which had a wick fed with butter. It was a 
 glorious starlight night, the Matterhorn standing out 
 in clear relief against the deep blue sky. We got on 
 admirably by the light of the lantern, over rocks, 
 meadows, and bridges. You may imagine the scene 
 was novel, and had a certain charm in it. There was 
 
KOBERT BARCLAY. 
 
 17 
 
 a grandeur in the immense masses of shade which is 
 
 not easily explained One glance we had of the 
 
 rosy light on the mountains when we hegan to be 
 enveloped in a white mist ; but I cheered myself that 
 this was not so thick as the cloud below, and, after 
 some further patient toil, Mont Cervin first pressed 
 through, his giant form tinted with exquisite roseate 
 hue, and in a few minutes, when we were only three 
 hours from the top, the sun shone out gloriously. 
 From this time the scene was of the most sublime and 
 impressive character. Below us was an ocean of mist, 
 looking like drifted snow in the gorgeous light which 
 now illumined everything. The sky was of the most 
 delicate blue that could look like sky, shaded into the 
 palest possible primrose, against which the most distant 
 mountains, with their snow and glacier, stood out with 
 intense clearness, combined with perfect softness and 
 harmony. We were now in the region of perpetual 
 snow. It must have been nearly half-past seven when 
 we reached the summit of the pass, the last hour and a 
 half being over gradual and very easy slopes of snow. 
 It is quite impossible to describe the exceeding fresh- 
 ness and ' the unclouded blaze of living light ' which 
 the scene presented." 
 
 In this journey an incident occurred, to which 
 Robert Barclay often referred with interest. We give 
 it in his own words, from a paper entitled ' A Fortnight 
 in the Dolomite District of the Tyrol,' 
 
 " . . . . We engaged a Swiss guide to act as porter 
 
 and accompany us as far as Interlaken My 
 
 companion resolved to walk a short distance up the 
 Maderaner Thai, leaving me to proceed alone with the 
 guide. Every conceivable topic of conversation had 
 
 c 
 
18 
 
 MEMOIR OP 
 
 been cxliaiisted, and at last onr conversation turned 
 upon tlie subject of religion. The guide manifested 
 some curiosity to know to wJiom Protestants address 
 their prayers. He seemed satisfied to find that they 
 acknowledged the Trinity, ' but did they not pray to 
 the Virgin ? ' The writer tried in vain adequately to 
 explain in German the simple doctrine of the New 
 Testament, and the thought passed through his mind, 
 as he looked wistfully at his knapsack, ' I have 
 brought every thing which I require for my own per- 
 sonal comfort, but, if I had had a thought of serving 
 the cause of my Lord, I might have l^rought a German 
 Bible ; though I cannot converse, I could have read 
 him a chapter in the New Testament, and he would 
 have understood me well. Judge of my astonishment 
 when at the very moment u-lien these tliougJits flashed 
 through my mind my foot struck a Bible. I looked up, 
 for the effect was almost as startling as if an angel 
 had dropped it at my feet. I seized it eagerly. Was 
 it an English, or French, or Italian Bible ? No ; it 
 was a German Bible ! The guide gladly listened to a 
 selection of chapters, and when we parted at Interlaken 
 the Bible was intrusted to him, I reminding him that 
 it was not his own, and begged him to use it well and 
 to read it to his wife and family until he found its 
 owner (there was no name in it). I cannot doubt that 
 some further history attaches to this Bible. Its owner 
 was evidently a pious man. It was a well-worn jDocket 
 Bible, with the passages which had specially consoled 
 and instructed him marked in pencih Doubtless he 
 
 was sorely troubled by its loss Whether the 
 
 purposes of Providence were answered in the effect 
 it had upon my own mind, or whether in the lovely 
 Reuss Thai there are still some families who have been 
 blessed by the word of power contained in that Bible, 
 
ROBERT BARCLAY. 
 
 19 
 
 may or may not be known on this side tlie grave. 
 We think, however, it is an illustration of how acci- 
 dental circumstances, rigidly bound together by the 
 physical laws of cause and effect, can, in the hands of 
 the Divine Ruler .of the Universe, be made to minister 
 to the highest spiritual necessities of the soul. Since 
 that time, as the result of this incident of travel, many 
 a Testament has been scattered by [R. B.] in the most 
 remote valleys of the Alps. May God grant that the 
 seed thus sown may, by the sunshine of His Spirit, 
 spring up and bloom like Alpine flowers mid eternal 
 snows." 
 
 After alluding to the business of which he had now 
 become possessed, Robert Barclay writes : — 
 
 " Atli of dth mo. — ' The lot is cast into the lap, but the 
 whole disposing of it is of the Lord ;' and my earnest 
 desire is, that should He bless my exertions, I may 
 every year set aside a Jixed proportion of that in- 
 come for His service in whatever way it seems best. 
 Oh, Lord ! enable me to leave all my anxieties in Thy 
 keeping. Enable me to be not slothful in business, 
 fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. Oh, help me 
 to serve Thee better ; enable me to take up my 
 cross and deny myself daily, and follow Thee, my 
 Saviour." 
 
 From a Letter to S. 31. F. 
 
 " 1st mo., 1856, First day. 
 
 "It is a great blessing to have the bustle and 
 occupations of life thus lulled, yet how seldom do 
 we make that use of it which we are invited to do, 
 and how often do the thoughts of yesterday find place ! 
 
 C 2 
 
20 
 
 MEMOIR OP 
 
 Did we seek strength to banish them, we should, no 
 doubt, oftener experience that rest spoken of in the 
 liymn — 
 
 ' How sweet to the soul is the breathing of peace, 
 "When the still voice of pardon bids sorrow to cease, 
 And the welcome of mercy falls soft on the ear ! 
 Come hither, ye burdened ! ye weary draw near ! 
 
 ' There's a rest for the soul that on Jesus relies ; 
 There's a home for the homeless prepared in the skies ; 
 There's a joy in believing, a hope, and a stay. 
 That the world cannot give nor the world take away.' 
 
 " This is one of the few remembered hymns of my 
 childhood which has clung to me." 
 
 Through life Robert Barclay was very fond of 
 hymns and of poetry. He had a natural taste for 
 music, but it had not been cultivated, nor did he ever 
 gratify himself by going to oratorios or concerts. 
 
 From a Letter to S. M. F. on the Death of a Relative. 
 
 " Tottenham, 21st, 3rd mo., 1857. 
 
 " . . . . We are only too fresh from these times and 
 their mournful duties, not to feel most deeply with 
 you .... but amid these sad scenes, we should more 
 fully turn our minds from 'sorrowing as those that 
 have no hope,' and seek to realise where our ho2:)es 
 should be. Ought there to be, to the Christian, any- 
 thing sad in the thought of death ? 
 
 " We may be sad for our loss, but were we more fully 
 able to dwell upon and to realise that to the Christian 
 believer death is merely the pathway to a glorious and 
 unutterable happy land, should not we turn intensely 
 
ROBERT RARC'LAY. 
 
 21 
 
 and earnestly to the inquiry as to our fitness to enter 
 and enjoy it ? " 
 
 On the 14th of July, 1857, Eobert Barclay wa5 
 married in Bristol, in the old meeting house of the 
 Society of Friends called " The Friars," to Sarah 
 Matilda, eldest daughter of Francis Fry of that city : 
 and after a few weeks spent in Scotland, Robert 
 Barclay took his bride to their home in Tottenham. 
 In referring to that day, he writes : 
 
 " 28, 9, 57. — . . . . How great and how full have 
 been the blessings which our heavenly Father has seen 
 meet to bestow ! Ob, for a heart thankful enough for 
 His mercies ! we both feel our cup of blessing full, 
 fuller than we could have sanguinely hoped: oh, for 
 help to walk worthy of our calling. We shall both 
 look back upon our wedding day with feelings of the 
 greatest thankfulness : truly it was a day without a 
 cloud. ... 0 Lord, grant that the things of time 
 may not be allowed to hinder our walk with Thee in 
 simplicity and godly sincerity. Increase our faith, 
 increase my faith. Enable me to ' run with patience 
 the race that is set before me, looking in all things to 
 Jesus as my all in all.' 
 
 ***** 
 
 " Oh, Lord ! give me a holy boldness that I may be 
 in nowise ashamed of Tliee, and simply do that which 
 Thou pointest out as my duty, and leave the rest to 
 Thee." 
 
 About this time Robert Barclay commenced the 
 practice of regularly reading to his employe's a portion 
 of the Holy Scriptures before the day's work began. 
 
22 
 
 MEMOIR OP 
 
 And when many years later, on acconnt of his health, 
 he was finally obliged to give it up, lie arranged with 
 the London City Mission Society to send a missionary 
 to continue this reading from the Bible. 
 
 " 1858. 19#A, 6 mo. — Oh, Lord ! make me more earnest 
 and fervent in Thy service, give me of Thy Holy Spirit. 
 Give me to feel that I am wholly walking in the way 
 of Thy requirements, make me indeed holy, taking up 
 my cross daily to this vain and frivolous world, and 
 glorifying Thee through Thy grace, before others." 
 
 1861. In the sjDring of this year Eobert Barclay, 
 with his wife and children, paid their usual visit to 
 their parents at Gotham, and on their way home 
 were detained some weeks at Chippenham, owing to 
 the illness of their eldest child. The following letters 
 were written during this time of deep anxiety. 
 
 To his Mother. 
 
 « Cliippenham, 28tli June, 1861. 
 
 " We have now given up all hope of our darling's 
 recovery. ... I feel intensely, but do not feel dis- 
 posed to question the Love that has seen fit thus to 
 afflict us, believing that He who gathers the lambs in 
 His arms and carries them in His bosom, will care far 
 better for our darling [than we can] ; and we may, 
 through infinite mercy, be partakers with her of the 
 happiness of meeting again." 
 
 During an unavoidable absence, R. B. writes to 
 his wife : 
 
ROBERT BARCLAY. 
 
 23 
 
 " Oth, 7th mo., 18G1. 
 
 "... . We must hope on, and commend her to her 
 Saviour's care. Let us, my dearest one, pray tliat this 
 tiiaJ, calhng for all our faith and patience, may work in 
 our hearts that which the Lord in His goodness has 
 designed it to work. It may be to make us feel the 
 fading character of all earthly joys, and the need of 
 some comfort to our hearts, which is not of this world 
 — a treasure in the heavens, on which our hopes may 
 safely rest — hut above all, ought it not to raise our 
 hearts in earnest prayer, that we may strive in all 
 things to bring these precious little ones, whom He has 
 confided to our (!are, into His fold, to commend to tliem 
 that immense love which has paid our debt, and to 
 which we may come daily for help, strength, and for- 
 giveness for the sins of each day ? ' Those whom He 
 loveth he cliasteneth ;' not in anger, ' but that they may 
 be made partakers of His holiness.' 
 
 " Think, for a moment, what we should feel if that 
 precious little one of ours was of an age to know good 
 and evil, and that we did not believe that she knew her 
 Saviour, and loved Him. How bitter would be the 
 thought that by a little more earnestness on our part 
 and a little more prayer, and a little more daily ' walk- 
 ing with God,' her heart might have been won to 
 choose the better part. There are no thoughts of tins 
 kind to embitter our trial ; and may the Lord in His 
 mercy grant that we may never have cause for such 
 reflections on our past life. May we feel that if death 
 be a solemn thing, life is still more worthy of our 
 thought for the future. May this be a time when our 
 eyes may be opened to see life to be a solemn thing, an 
 uncertain time of preparation for an awful certainty to 
 all of us. What can render it happy under the sense 
 of uncertainty, but the belief that our sins are forgiven, 
 
24 
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 and that we are only tliinking day by day how we may 
 serve Him best who has ' blotted out our sins in His own 
 blood,' " 
 
 ***** 
 
 In November, Robert Barclay was again in Bristol, 
 and in allusion to a discussion meeting which he at- 
 tended, he writes in a letter to his wife : 
 
 "Gotham, 21st, lltli mo., 1861. 
 " .... A chapter was then read, and before the 
 meeting broke up I took the opportunity to say a few 
 words alluding to the striking manner in which the 
 paper which had been read brought forward the 
 difficulty of dealing by any human expedients with 
 moral evil, and that the only remedy was in the diffu- 
 sion of the Gospel ; that though our opportunities in 
 some cases might be very small, yet we all had opportu- 
 nities of advancing it a little by our personal exertions, 
 that this effort to spread the Gospel had an influence 
 in promoting the advancement of ourselves in holiness, 
 and was ' laying up treasure in Heaven.' . . ." 
 
 During this summer of 1862, R. B. went to Dublin 
 and Belfast, and from the latter port crossed to Scotland. 
 The following extracts, from letters to his wife, give 
 some idea of the pleasure he felt in being in the country. 
 No one could more thoroughly appreciate than himself 
 the luxury of being at leisure in the midst of beautiful 
 scenery. 
 
 " Kostrevor, 26th, 7th mo., 1862. 
 . ..." I went before breakfast a short stroll down 
 to the sea, and was charmed with the lovely locality. 
 
ROBERT BARCLAY. 
 
 25 
 
 Before me was Cailiiigford Bay, and a fiiic bold range 
 of mountains ; behind me the mountain Slieve Martin, 
 with its soft wooded sides, and Rostrevor, witli its 
 steeples and white cottages ; at my feet ran a mountain 
 stream into the bay. To my right, towards Newry, 
 were long undulating lines of mountains melting into 
 dim distance ; fine rounded masses of clouds with blue 
 sky and sunshine, with a fine breeze, gave freshness and 
 
 life to the scene After dinner I climbed Slieve 
 
 Martin ; but, missing the way, I concluded it was best 
 to go straight up, path or no path, and there did not 
 appear to be any precipices higher than ten feet, and 
 much to the admiration of the sheep attained one 
 summit. I then galloped down and up another still 
 higher, and had the vievv^ over the mouth of Carling- 
 ford Bay, the Mourne Mountains, and Slieve Donard, 
 the highest mountain in this part of Ireland. 
 
 " The Mourne Mountains are a fine range, and were 
 arrayed in their almost sable dress ; Slieve Donard 
 raised his head above them in the distance. Bark 
 clouds were chasing across the landscape, and the wind 
 blew in fine constant gusts. The views were mag- 
 nificent over Carlingford Bay, and even to Dublin, and 
 a faint trace of where the Wicklow mountains ought to 
 be was given. I thoroughly enjoyed my run, and 
 soon at full chase mounted the next highest summit. 
 Here it 'blew great guns,' and I began to think of 
 descending. There were no rocks or ' precipices,' but 
 a very steep, grassy slope, and I soon found myself 
 at the bottom of the Peak, and very tall and steep it 
 looked. I again ascended to the Cloughmore stone, 
 which, no doubt, is a boulder ; and in the interests of 
 science I went to inspect it. I then descended through 
 a wood by a pretty dashing streamlet to Eostrevor, 
 and feel invigorated by my ramble." 
 
26 
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 To the same. 
 
 " Arran, 7tla of 8tli mo., 18G2. 
 " .... It is a lovely spot, that bears revisiting. I 
 walked over the hill to the left, within sight of Lanark 
 Bay, and went to the kirk at twelve o'clock. I then 
 went on niy way up Goatfell ; at first passing through 
 the lovely fir forest (belonging to the Duke of Hamilton), 
 with walks laid out by the side of the burn ; and then 
 ascended the mountain, with its grass, fern, and heather, 
 and turned over the shoulder of the mountain. On 
 the right the climb is pretty severe towards the top, but 
 the view is magnificent, comprising Ben Lomond, all 
 the mountains at the head of Loch Long, and the whole 
 island, including a peep into Lamlash, and Loch 
 Ranza. Thou recollectest our stroll up Grlen Rosa, and 
 the roaring of the torrent towards the head of the valley ; 
 there are two strange looking, obelisk-shaped mountains. 
 The view, including all this, looking down on the pass 
 between Grlen Sannox and Glen Rosa, which we longed 
 to climb up, is very grand. It is a wild and beautiful 
 range of mountains. There are a number of cols or 
 passes which it would be interesting to climb, and at 
 least half-a-dozen valleys which would present scenes 
 of picturesque beauty of no common order. I started 
 a doe from her cover with her little one, and had a 
 capital view ; she looked very anxious, and after a 
 headlong gallop she stopped and looked to see what 
 was the matter. I also started grouse, &c., and de- 
 scended at a headlong pace, jumping from granite- 
 boulder to heather, and over peat moss and streams, 
 and did not reach this place till half-past seven o'clock, 
 and was glad to have my dinner, as I had had nothing 
 but a biscuit from nine o'clock." 
 
 At Darlington R. B. met his wife, and they were 
 
ROBERT BARCLAY. 
 
 27 
 
 present on tlio occasion of the wedding of her brother, 
 T. F., wliich took place on the 14th of August. 
 
 18()3. Robert Barclay's diary ceases : and beyond the 
 mere mention of events, a few extracts from letters* 
 are all we possess with wliicli to continue this Memoir. 
 Of the leisure time at R. B.'s disposal much was now 
 occupied in preparing a new edition of ' Whately's 
 Lessons on the Truth of Christianity,' with the title of 
 ' Whately's Evidences for the Truth of Christianity.' 
 It seemed to him that this valuable little work needed 
 to be more fully adapted to the lequirements of the 
 present time. This revision was undertaken with the 
 sanction and cordial approbation of its author, the late 
 Archbishop of Dublin. It was published in 1865, and 
 passed through four editions. 
 
 During this summer, R. Barclay, accompanied by 
 his wife^ again went to the High Alps of Switzerland 
 and Italy. He was a capital pedestrian, and, with his 
 wife on horseback, thoroughly enjoyed, day after day, 
 walking from twenty to thirty miles over the passes. 
 
 In the autumn they stayed at St. Leonard's-on- 
 the-Sea, on account of their eldest child, who had had 
 scarlet fever : she again became worse, and after a few 
 hours' illness her young spirit was called from earth. 
 Her father writes of her : " Our darling M. M. is now 
 
 * R. B. used the second person singular and plural indiscriminately : 
 from the force of early liabit he generally used the former when writing 
 to Friends. 
 
28 
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 safely landed on the shore of that happy land where 
 there is no more pain." 
 
 On the 17th of October, at Winchmore Hill, all that 
 was mortal of this precious child was committed to the 
 silent grave. Her father was enabled, on bended knee, 
 to thank the Lord for all His blessings — yea, though 
 He had seen meet thus to afflict. 
 
 R. B., after revisiting Winchmore Hill, thus writes 
 to his wife in reference to this event. 
 
 " Jan., 1864. 
 
 " . . . . All the details of a day of deep, sad interest 
 to us both, crowded thick and fast upon my memory as 
 I approached the gates of the little meeting house. 
 My thoughts in meeting were neither sad nor gloomy, 
 and the first text which I remembered was, that 
 'though in Adam all die, yet in Christ shall all be 
 made alive ;' that He hath ' abolished death,' and that our 
 darling child has been taken from us ; and that she is 
 now in the tender arms of that Saviour who blessed the 
 little children, and said that of such was the Kingdom 
 of Heaven ; that for her the cloud has rolled away, 
 and her spirit is rejoicing in a land where there are 
 no more shadows. Nature will have way, and as I 
 stood at the spot where we both M^ept together, and 
 even as Jesus wept at the grave, my tears fell fast. . . . 
 
 " May the thought that our own child has gone 
 before, bring the realities of the unseen world more 
 vividly before us. Let us strive more earnestly to 
 obtain of Him, what He is more willing to give than 
 we are to ask, holy desires, a true heart, a will 
 wholly resigned to His, and a childlike trust in the 
 
EOBEKT BARCLAY. 
 
 29 
 
 unspeakable love of our heavenly Father; may we 
 both hear His words and follow Him, that when the 
 floods beat upon our house it may not fall, being built 
 upon the Rock." 
 
 Robert Barclay's summer outing was again in his 
 favourite Switzerland. He was obliged to go without 
 his wife, who was unable to accompany him. After a 
 short tour he came to Teignmouth, where his wife and 
 little girl were staying with her parents. 
 
 1866. It was early in the spring of this year that 
 Robert Barclay preached (we believe for the first time) 
 in his own meeting, though previously his voice had 
 been heard in other meetings ; and from this time he 
 sometimes addressed gatherings of the working classes. 
 For some years past he believed it would be his duty 
 publicly to preach the Gospel. By his example he had 
 long striven to do this, and during the remainder of his 
 life he devoted much time to the work of the ministry, 
 and to the religious welfare of those around him. A 
 cousin who had known him from boyhood has written 
 of him " that from a child he went about his Master's 
 work." 
 
 For the next few months, however, he was more 
 than usually occupied with business, and he again 
 sought recreation abroad, and very much enjoyed a few 
 weeks spent chiefly on the Italian side of the Alps, 
 accompanied by one of his sisters-in-law. The follow- 
 ing extracts are from letters to his wife. 
 
30 
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 " Tournanclic, Idtli Sept., 1866. 
 We arranged yesterday for the Becca di 
 Nona, and were dnly called at four o'clock. The day 
 was perfect, and as we set off in the twilight and 
 ascended the slopes of the mountains, the snowy peaks 
 lit up with golden light without a cloud to dim the 
 prospect. 
 
 "The Becca di Nona is 10,360 ft. high, and from it 
 the climber has the advantage of seeing the whole range 
 of the Alps, from Mont Blanc to the last peak of Monte 
 Rosa, the wonderful peak of La Grivola, and also the 
 vast glaciers of the Ruitor mountains. . . . The climb 
 through forests and grassy slopes is long and weari- 
 some. . . . We at length attained a ridge or little col, 
 before us was the cone of the Becca di Nona. Our 
 path then led down to a lovely sequestered valley, 
 shut in on every side, which reminded us of Rasselas' 
 ' Happy Valley.' The day continuing most lovely, we 
 longed to attack the Becca, and after bivouacking at the 
 little chalet, commenced the ascent. The path, which 
 zigzags up the cone, is very steep, and is perfectly well- 
 defined and good, but of course has to be walked up, 
 and it tries a good pedestrian severely. Priscilla 
 managed it valiantly, although it did seem as if the 
 top never would be reached. Every step gave us 
 more extended views ; when near the top, the only 
 living inhabitant of these fastnesses of the everlasting 
 hills, the Alpine eagle, the Liimmergeier, poised him- 
 self in mid-air, wheeled round us, and actually came, in 
 one of his swoops, within pistol shot, meditating whether 
 we should be small enough for a meal ; but he decided 
 that four to one was not fair odds, and rose to an 
 immense height in the blue heavens, and whirled himself 
 off for a breakfast on some little lamb, on a solitary 
 hill-side. A stiff climb brought us to tJie top, where 
 
ROBEllT BARCLAY. 
 
 31 
 
 the glorious panorama burst upon us. I have never 
 seen such a sight, and of its kind cannot well conceive 
 one more perfect." 
 
 "Bressoni, Val d'Agno, IGtli Sept. 
 " . . . . My last letter left off' abruptly. In de- 
 scending from the Becca di Nona we took Mr. F. F. 
 Tuckett's route by a narrow gorge, down which the 
 stream tumbled for some thousand feet, or nearly so, 
 into the Val d'Aosta. We were much longer than 
 we expected ; I was, including resting, thirteen hours 
 
 on foot The next day we started for Breuil, 
 
 and commenced our ascent of the Col St. Theodule. 
 From tlie top we had a splendid view. We were down 
 early, and had a magnificent view of the clouds, dividing 
 the world above from the world below. The next 
 miorning we ascended the Cime Blanche, a pass little 
 known to ordinary travellers, although the views are 
 gloriously wild, the Matterhorn on one side, and the 
 Southern Alps on the other. We accomplished this 
 pass with great ease, staying to sketch on the snowy 
 plateau at the top." 
 
 " Orta, 19 Sept"- 
 
 " . . . . Tliis place is so familiar that I am almost 
 ready to look for you here. To our great deliglit 
 and thankfulness, we have our letters up to the 
 
 11 til We are both very well, and luxuriating in 
 
 the ' dolce far niente ' of this place The alarum 
 
 went off an hour before the time intended, and the 
 morning being glorious, we started at six o'clock for 
 
 the Col d'Ollen, one of the high passes You 
 
 would have been delighted to hear what bearty thanks 
 I received for my German Gospels. Charmed and 
 delighted the women and girls were : ' Fiir mich ? Ach ! 
 Sie sind gut.' We soon began the ascent in earnest, 
 
32 
 
 MEMOIR OP 
 
 and tremendous precipices, high rocks, cliffs, and conical 
 hills were all round us, and out of the rising mist 
 the Vincent Pyramide of Monte Rosa shone clear 
 with its exquisite snowy crest. The fresh snow made 
 it a little fatiguing, but at last we stood, to our great 
 
 delight, on the top of the col Promont, our 
 
 guide, espied a party of travellers ; they proved to be 
 Mr. and Mrs. W. E. F. We lunched together on the 
 snow, and Mr. W. E. F. and I, with a guide, climbed 
 the Gemsstein and beheld a glorious panorama. 
 
 " Yesterday, as we descended, we were so enchanted 
 with the cloudless and pure snowy summits of Monte 
 Rosa and the exquisite beauty of the valley of the 
 Sesia that, come what might, we determined to have 
 a sketch ; we staid till 3 o'clock, and when we came to 
 the ' grande route,' took a ' char-a-banc ' and bowled 
 down the Yal Sesia, the latter part by moonlight, 
 to Yarallo. We were both enraptured with this Yal 
 Sesia, and pronounce it surpassingly lovely : every 
 turn gives a change in the scenery — precipices wooded 
 to the top. The last part of the journey was like a 
 dream — bright moonlight on the stream, now rippling, 
 now dashing madly through a gorge, now rolling 
 under a fine arched bridge ; soft, lovely scenery, 
 bewitching ! 
 
 " To-day, from Yarallo, we climbed the Col Colma, 
 and had a perfect view of Monte Rosa." 
 
 " Biella. 
 
 " This is a considerable town, nearly 10,000 inha- 
 bitants. Some cotton, woollen, and paper manufactures 
 are carried on, and indigo dyeing. The people look 
 comfortable, new houses building, the town lighted 
 with gas, and we are plunged suddenly into a high 
 state of civilization !...." 
 
ROBERT BARCLAY. 
 
 33 
 
 "St. Martin, Val d'Aosta, 2Gth Sept. 
 " . . . . On arriving at Ivrea, at the foot of the Val 
 d'Aosta, we found all the town turning out to see the 
 Doire, and truly a sight it was, such as we had never 
 seen before. The river, swollen to an extent seldom 
 seen, was roaring in fury through the rock-bound 
 gorge, over which two bridges hung, throwing up 
 billows like a stormy sea ; the river then spread itself 
 over many miles of the plain, houses were flooded, 
 and a mill at the side stood like an island, as if the 
 flood would sweep it away. From the single-arched 
 bridge over the gorge the sight was terrible. Such 
 devastation over the low country, so many gardens and 
 fields spoiled ! I never had such an idea of the terrible 
 character of such an outburst of water. The rain in 
 the mountains had suddenly come on, and produced a 
 flood such as had not been seen for a long time. We 
 dined, and engaged a two-horse carriage to go to Fort 
 Bard ; further, we were told, we could not go, as the 
 Doire had destroyed the road, and two diligences were 
 due and not arrived. After riding some miles up the 
 valley, we met a man in a state of great excitement, 
 who described, in patois, that the Doire had overflowed 
 our road perhaps 2 feet deep. This was no welcome 
 news, as the sight of the mad torrent was quite 
 enough. The master of the hotel at Ivrea was our 
 driver ; after an hour we came to the water over the 
 road, and had ugly work as we proceeded further and 
 further, till at last we halted at a place where the water 
 was rushing over a wall across the road, and the broken 
 remnants of a cart at the side were anything but assur- 
 ing. Our driver got quite excited, thinking it was a 
 small bridge broken down, the water coming up to 
 the body of the carriage, and rushing through the 
 wheels like a torrent. A local diligence went through 
 
 D 
 
34 
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 with miicli difficulty, the horses becoming frightened. 
 We then drove on safely, and were very glad to be 
 housed at this little inn. We found ourselves on the 
 morrow in a fix : the torrent had swept away the road 
 in front of us, and we are detained here. We cannot 
 go back, and we cannot go forward, so we have taken 
 it like philosophers and artists, and worked at our 
 sketches, greatly comforted that St. Martin is too high 
 to be swept away by the Doire ! 
 
 " This morning Promont has just returned from 
 inspecting the state of the road, and reports it possible 
 to pass. So now we are off. We saw here a perfect 
 Roman bridge which is still in use." 
 
 " Geneva, Sunday afternoon, 30tli Sept. 
 " . . . . We are most fortunate in only having had 
 one day's delay. The Simplon route has been blocked 
 up by the effect of floods till yesterday, and one dili- 
 gence on Monday last was upset in the torrent in the 
 Rhone Valley, and two horses drowned. We met an 
 English gentleman and lady who saw it in the water. 
 They were detained five days. . . . The Mont Cenis 
 Railway is greatly injured. It is said that in the Val 
 d'Aosta there has not been such a flood for forty years." 
 
 Brief will be the record of the next few years, as so 
 little available material remains. 
 
 Early in 1867, as "a Friend," Robert Barclay was 
 asked to take the charge, once a month, of a mission 
 service in London — an invitation of which he gladly 
 availed himself Some of the sermons in this collection 
 were preached there. 
 
 The religious welfare of his own Society was begin- 
 
ROBERT BARCLAY. 
 
 35 
 
 iiing- to occupy much of his time. He, in common 
 with many other Friends, advocated the public reading 
 of the Bible in our meetings for worship. 
 
 The following quotations from ' The Friend,' through 
 whose columns he endeavoured to disseminate some of 
 his views, show his opinions at this time, and these 
 opinions were strengthened as life flowed on. 
 
 "1867. 4ith mo. — There never was a day in which the 
 Society of Friends was more bound publicly to display 
 to the world an open Bible, and to evidence a deep 
 faith in the reality of the presence of the Holy Spirit, 
 and in His power and willingness to bless the words of 
 the Gospel, read as well as preached, as a direct personal 
 message to our souls. The faith of the Society rests on 
 the Scripture. As a Christian Church, they acknow- 
 ledge no other revelation to be authoritative and 
 inspired. The various meetings of Friends have, by the 
 constitution of the Society, perfect liberty as congrega- 
 tions to introduce the reading of the Scriptures into all 
 their meetings for worship, if they believe it will be to 
 their comfort, and tend to the conversion of the sinner 
 from the error of his way. It would be sad indeed for 
 the slightest influence to be exerted to prevent this step 
 being freely taken. If it is a jiractice right for us to 
 7'evive in the present age of the Church, we have 
 nothing to do with ^probable consequences.'' We must 
 here walk by faith. ' Who is he that will harm you if 
 ye be followers of that which is good ? ' " 
 
 Letters on this subject led to further correspondence 
 on " Revelation and Inspiration,"* in reply to J. B., jun. 
 
 * ' The Friend,' 1867, 4th to 9th mo. inclusive. 
 
 D 2 
 
36 
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 We give the closing paragraph of tlie last letter in 
 ' The Friend.' In speaking of the Bible, Robert 
 Barclay says : 
 
 " . . . . Let it be introduced into our evening meet- 
 ings ; it will win its own way, and some of its stoutest 
 opponents will become, it is believed, its advocates. 
 Whatever principles any member of the Society holds, 
 I believe, if they are truly Christian ones, he will find 
 that the reading of (see J. B., jun., letters) ' the only 
 authoritative revelation, the great, the immutable, and 
 only standard of Christian faith, and practice ' as con- 
 ducive to the ' preparation of the heart for worship ' in 
 our meeting houses as it is in his chamber at the hour 
 of prayer. I would beg J. B., jun,, to remember that 
 during the last twenty years vast efforts have been 
 made to show that the inspiration of Holy Scripture is 
 incapable of being defended upon historical, scientific, 
 and rational grounds ; and to induce Christians to 
 believe that their own inward feelings are the sole 
 ground on which they receive the peculiar authority 
 which they attach to Holy Scripture. 
 
 "This is the true explanation of the High Church 
 movement, and it shows why so many educated and 
 pious men are included in this reflex wave. I desire to 
 see our little Church take its stand by the Bible, and 
 confess publicly by reviving publicly the practice of the 
 early Church, by reading it in the meeting for worship 
 that it regards it as ' the only authoritative revelation, 
 the great, the immutable, the only standard of Christian 
 faith and practice.' 
 
 " I believe great issues are at stake in this matter. I 
 have spoken earnestly, but I have no intention of again 
 occupying your space upon this subject," 
 
ROBERT BARCLAY. 
 
 37 
 
 Extract from the last Letter of the Series, but 7iot in- 
 serted in ' The Fr iend! 
 
 '■'■2nd mo., 1868. — . . . All Scripture is not a 
 revelation, but all Scripture is inspired. Much in 
 Holy Scripture consists of what the writers had 
 cognizance of from their own observation, and other 
 sources of information to which they had access : 
 they also make inferences and deductions. All 
 this they were commissioned to record for our in- 
 struction ; all this is inspired. We see evidence 
 of infallible wisdom, both in what is included in 
 Holy Scripture, and in what is omitted. By a com- 
 parison with other writings of merely human authority, 
 utterly destitute of that external evidence which attests 
 the inspiration of the Scriptures, it abundantly con- 
 firms us in the conviction that the Bible has an 
 authority which we call inspiration (' Grod breathed,' 
 2 Tim. iii. 16). A difference intrinsic, which admits 
 of no degrees of comparison with the writings of Luther 
 or George Fox. But it may be asked, is the inspiration 
 of Holy Scripture merely a matter apprehended by the 
 intellect ? No such view is suggested by the writer of 
 this letter. ' If any man is willing to do His will, he 
 shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God.' The 
 testimony of the Holy Spirit in the heart of the sincere 
 Christian is to him a precious treasure, but to employ 
 this to confirm the inspiration of Scripture is a mistake, 
 as great as to discourse with the blind on the beauty of 
 colour. We must first recognise the Bible as divine, 
 and must have a mind ' willing to do His will,' before 
 we can enjoy such a confirmation of our faith. The 
 first question is, what is this authority which we claim 
 for Holy Scripture founded on ? Is the building 
 founded on the rock of fart? Its internal comfort and 
 
38 
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 adaptation to the nature of man is tlie second question, 
 and this can only be understood by living in it. . . ." 
 
 Robert Barclay now became interested in the Field 
 Lane Refuge, and for two years devoted one evening 
 in the week to teaching in its schools. 
 
 « 6 Nov^ 18G7. 
 
 " First day evening I went to the Field Lane Refuge 
 and Evening School, where I was much touched by the 
 poor refugees, and the whole question of the London 
 poor was ' much with me,' as Friends say. Went to 
 the teachers' short prayer meeting ; and T felt the 
 reality of that communion of saints, which is a very 
 cheering and blessed thing. Alone in London on First 
 day makes one feel the position of these poor people, 
 but their faces were enough to tell the terrible tale." 
 
 He felt, as already stated, a deep interest in the 
 spiritual welfare of his own Society : and he thought he 
 saw some reasons " Why our section of the Christian 
 Church has not increased to the extent which, from 
 its principles, we might reasonably expect," a question 
 which has proved so difficult of solution to many 
 earnest inquirers within our borders. These reasons, he 
 hoped, might with advantage be given to Friends, and 
 a lecture "On the position occupied by the Society of 
 Friends in relation to the spread of the Gospel in this 
 country during the last sixty years," was first delivered 
 at Devonshire House during the Yearly Meeting 1868. 
 
 During the next two years the lecture was given, 
 by the desire of Friends, in most of our large meetings. 
 
ROBERT BARCLAY. 
 
 39 
 
 The subject of the lecture necessarily led the inquirer 
 far away from the Present, and in the records of the 
 Past he had to search for the origin of many existing 
 customs. Subjects of deep interest were involved, 
 which the author of " The Inner Life of the Eeligious 
 Societies of the Commonwealth " thought were worthy 
 of more time and space than, in a lecture, could be 
 devoted to them, and for some years Robert Barclay 
 was collecting material for this work, which was 
 scarcely finished when closed his life on earth. 
 
 His zeal for the spread of the Gospel made him 
 earnestly desirous to kindle the same in others, and 
 also by arousing his fellow-members to induce them to 
 inquire into the causes of their diminished numbers. 
 He wished them to see that these causes not only 
 could, but ought to be remedied, without any abandon- 
 ment of its principles. And further, that by a fuller 
 development of their principles, the Society of Friends 
 might regain its position as an aggressive Christian 
 Church. He felt, with others, that while the most per- 
 fect Church arrangements could not take the place of 
 individual faithfulness, yet that these arrangements, 
 or their neglect, must have an important bearing and 
 influence upon any Christian Church, in fostering this 
 very faithfulness, and in stimulating all right efforts to 
 gather in souls to the Fold of Christ. 
 
 After an interesting evening spent with , 
 
 a minister of the Gospel, and an influential member of 
 
 * 
 
40 
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 the Society of Friends, R. B. writes to him in reference 
 to their conversation : — 
 
 "Tottenham, 24tb April, 1868. 
 " . . .1 think the subject deserves the closest atten- 
 tion of those of intellect and position in our Society, 
 particularly of those who love the cause of Christ. 
 The outward circumstances which attend the growth 
 of a plant — the free air, the sunshine, the rain, the 
 skill of the husbandman, the cultivation of the soil, are 
 not the life of the plant ; but God has so appointed, it 
 that they -determine its usefulness, whether to bringing 
 forth twenty-fold, thirty-fold, or an hundred-fold, or 
 bringing forth no fruit to perfection. The Church of 
 Christ is described as a living Body, every member of 
 which tends to the increase of the Body. It is not enough 
 to have the seed, we must comply with the revealed direc- 
 tions of the Great Husbandman how to cultivate it. 
 The foundation is Christ Jesus. Let every man take 
 heed how he buildeth thereupon ; but whatever that is 
 that is built, the day shall declare it. With regard to 
 the fabric of our Church, an inquiry into the opinions 
 of good men either in or out of our Society is of less 
 importance in my view than an inquiry into the facts, 
 which to my • mind are suflSciently startling. The 
 Society of Friends in 1693 made a statement of doctrine, 
 and (according to J. S. B,owntree's figures, which I am 
 not aware .have been disputed) at that time one in every 
 130 of the population professed with Friends. . . . 
 The increase of the Dissenting free churches has been 
 enormous. ... It has not been a difference of doc- 
 trine, or a difference in the system, as far forth as 
 the payment of ministers is concerned, that has led to 
 the difference in growth between the Church of England 
 and the Dissenting bodies (which is very great, i.e. in 
 
ROBERT BARCLAY. 
 
 41 
 
 the ratio of seventy-five to twenty -five) ; and this raises 
 the presumption that a really honest investigation of 
 the system of the Dissenting Churches and specially 
 into the fruits of their teaching, without which we know 
 incontestably that England would not be the Christian 
 country it is, would show that it is neither of these 
 causes which in Quakerism has produced the result. 
 . . . How are correct and Scriptural principles of re- 
 construction, those which on a searching investiga- 
 tion appear to be the principles which govern the 
 growth and efficiency of a Church in the world, to be 
 adopted ? . . ." 
 
 " I long that some of our friends, like thyself, may 
 see that the vital existence and internal interests of the 
 Society are involved in the question, and break away 
 from the fetters of your position, resolving to use the 
 'inductive method'; to go yourselves, and see your- 
 selves the working of a Church system which has 
 supplied by its voluntary efforts half the worshippers 
 who assemble every First-day morning with accommoda- 
 tion and religious teaching. All these Churches would 
 now fully acknowledge, and do so in all their public 
 and official documents, that all their appliances are 
 perfectly powerless without the aid and influence of the 
 Holy Spirit ; but they have a right to say, ' Come and 
 judge for yourselves of the blessing with which God 
 has. blessed our efforts. Our work is prospering on 
 every hand — sinners are converted to God, and the 
 poor are gathered into families like a flock. . . . Do 
 not judge by your own standard, but according to the 
 analogy of the early Christian Churches ; come to our 
 prayer and other Church meetings.' They have a 
 right to say, ' in judging of the fruits of good living 
 which our flock manifest, you should recollect what 
 many of them were previously. Some of the very 
 
42 
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 poorest of the poor have been gathered since 1801 
 into our churches, and raised by the power of 
 Christianity to the social scale they now occupy.' " 
 " . . . I have no indiscriminate admiration of other 
 Churches, and am not one of those who cannot see the 
 good which there is both in the principles and to some 
 extent, in the theory of the Church government of 
 Friends. ... Is not Matthew xxviii. 19, 20, the object 
 of that Society which is a true Church in the New 
 Testament sense ?" 
 
 From memoranda entitled Remarks on the Report 
 of the Yearly Meeting of Ministers and Elders," we 
 extract the following. In speaking of Gospel Ministry, 
 R. B. says : — 
 
 " . . . . The exercise of that Christian duty which 
 is commended to us on apostolic authority, viz. the 
 preaching or setting forth of the Grospel from house to 
 house — ' our family visits,' the occasional impression 
 of duty of a minister, — is only the remains of a far 
 broader and more apostolic practice. George Fox 
 repeatedly exhorts faithful Friends to go and visit with 
 a religious object from house to house. ... Is a real 
 acquaintance with the feelings, the needs, and the 
 tendencies of their hearers likely to interfere with the 
 heartfelt character of their ministry ? would not the 
 consciousness that some, we will not say many, had 
 been turned from darkness to light by the instru- 
 mentality of their ministry lead to greater faith and 
 greater devotion of heart to the Lord? But the 
 essential point in which the Society of Friends differs 
 from other Churches, and which lends a great interest 
 to its history as a great experiment in Church govern- 
 ment, is in the practical testimony it holds to the prin- 
 
ROBERT BARCLAY. 
 
 43 
 
 cipal idea enforced in the New Testament, that ' all the 
 members of a living Church have some office.' . . . 
 
 "But we are further told that mutual help is the 
 object of Church fellowship ; our duty — to exhort, to 
 edify, to comfort, to teach one another — is enjoined upon 
 us, is forcibly set before us, in the New Testament. 
 
 " There are two practical points here involved : the 
 first, the Christian teaching and influence of pious men 
 upon our attenders and younger members. Our mem- 
 bership is a birthright membership. We cannot do 
 more than advise parents to do their duty, and we 
 have the authority of the Report for saying that erro- 
 neous views, undermining the very foundations of 
 Christian faith, promulgated by the literature of the 
 times, perplex and trouble and even turn some aside 
 from the Christian faith. . . . And in speaking of the 
 influence of good men and women, who, if they have 
 not intellectual qualifications for explaining Christian 
 evidences, can give their own Christian experience 
 as to the reality of the religion of Jesus, I believe 
 that this has an influence which is powerful in pro- 
 portion to the intensity of their Christian life. When 
 good men or women speak of that they do know 
 and testify of that they have seen, it assumes an 
 objective reality, which contrasts powerfully with 
 speculative difficulties. ... Is it not probable that 
 every doctrine or practice founded on Scripture would 
 commend itself to them ? Do we, as Christians and as 
 Friends, desire to commend any others ? The next 
 point alluded to [in the Report] is evidently Christian 
 communion — the communion of saints and of the 
 household of God, which consists in doing good to 
 and receiving good from one another : this definition 
 excludes as decidedly the nominal Christian as it in- 
 cludes the imperfect Christian. We are to consider 
 
44 
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 one another, to provoke to love and to good works, 
 speaking to ourselves in Psalms and hymns, and to 
 rejoice with them that do rejoice, and to weep with 
 them that weep. Let him that is taught, communicate 
 to him that teacheth in all good things. . . . Every 
 great Gospel movement which has moved the outside 
 world, if it has begun in the closet, has drawn its force 
 for influencing the world through the divinely-ap- 
 pointed channel of Christian communion and fellowship 
 in the Gospel. The Gospel of Christ can only be pro- 
 mulgated by our striving (not in isolation, but striving) 
 together for the faith of the Gospel. Even the 
 preaching of the Gospel was not done by isolated 
 labourers, but they were sent forth two and two by our 
 Lord, and the Apostles followed the same practice. It 
 is only by close i-eligious intercourse in private meetings 
 of the Church that that acquaintance with the spiritual 
 gifts of individual members can be attained. It is only 
 thus that we can feel that confidence in encouraging 
 others to go forth and preach the Gospel to the poor, 
 with the hearty encouragement and united support and 
 sympathy of the Church." 
 
 Extract from a Letter to a Friend. 
 
 " Tottenliam, 6th mo., 1868. 
 " The measures proposed are, I believe, in strict 
 accordance with the ancient principles of Friends, and 
 with the original structure and constitution of our 
 Church. I believe the outline of our constitution was 
 most wisely laid, and I have documentary evidence 
 in my possession of the way in which R. Barclay 
 often was consulted by G. Fox on such matters ; 
 and I think R. B.'s ' Anarchy of the Ranters ' lays 
 down very correctly the theoretical outline of the 
 
ROBERT BARCLAY. 
 
 outward constitution of a visible Church. I hoy^Q the 
 practical observations I make will give the fuiiigg^ 
 power to every section of opinion to promulgate ana^i 
 spread those views of Christian truth which are most 
 in accordance with our religious principles. . . . 
 
 " .... I have long thought that a more thorough 
 knowledge of the religious history of the times in 
 which Fox, Penn, and Barclay lived would conduce to 
 more unity of sentiment among us as a Society. I con- 
 stantly see assertions on both sides respecting their 
 views, which have, I believe, no basis in fact. How 
 few Friends understand the object of the early Friends' 
 controversial writings. I think Claridge's treatise on 
 Holy Scripture presents a far more correct view of the 
 sentiments of our early Friends than their controversial 
 writings. . . . The Society of Friends when it arose 
 was a great experiment. We must recollect that of all 
 the Church systems which were founded during the 
 Civil War and the Commonwealth, and even prior to 
 that period, the Congregational, the Baptist, and the 
 Society of Friends are the only Churches of any im- 
 portance that have survived the trial of more than two 
 centuries to which they have been subjected. Since that 
 time the great Wesleyan Church Societies have sprung 
 up, and we have the result, both in the United States 
 and in England, of their labour in the great Gospel, 
 freed of the world. Setting aside any considerations of 
 the principles on which these other Societies have been 
 guided, I think it will be admitted that for 100 years 
 the Society of Friends was equally successful, both in 
 its internal government and in its work, in bringing 
 sinners to Christ, and adding to its members from the 
 irreligious population which surrounded it as the 
 Baptist and Congregational Churches. . . . 
 
 " We have no reason to be ashamed of our origin as 
 
46 
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 a Society, nor. of the principles whicli the founder of 
 our body enunciated. No doubt tliere was a certain 
 amount of false enthusiasm, but the amount of genuine 
 Christian zeal was like the real gold in tlie good coin, 
 while the other was but the alloy. Mr. Skeats, in his 
 ' History of the Free Churches,' just published, has pro- 
 nounced the Early Society of Friends to be the first 
 Home Mission Association ; and I can fully bear him 
 out in this, that up to the present time the organizing 
 skill of George Fox in the spreading of a number of 
 earnest Gospel ministers over the length and breadth 
 of the land, preaching real spiritual religion, and crying 
 out against wickedness and sin both among the upper, 
 middle, and lower classes of society, has not yet been 
 done justice to." 
 
 We have no clue to the exact date, but we believe 
 it was in the winter of 1867 or 1868 that R. B., with 
 the consent of his Monthly Meeting, paid visits 
 to the families of Friends in Tottenham ; this little 
 service in the love of the Gospel was in many cases 
 to the comfort and satisfaction of those whom he 
 visited as well as his own. 
 
 To his Wife. 
 
 " Cotliam, Monday, 20th, 6th mo., 1869. 
 " . . . . Yesterday I took the morning and evening 
 service at the Mission Hall ; also last First day in the 
 morning. It is a great satisfaction to my own mind that 
 these poor people (in the morning say about one 
 hundred) are mostly those who have their hearts set on 
 the better tilings ; they are very loving, and expressed 
 wnrmly their pleasure at having me among them, and I 
 
ROBERT BARCLAY. 
 
 47 
 
 believe it was a mutual comfort. I spoke from tlie 
 words, ' I beseecli you therefore, brethren, by the 
 mercies of God,' &c. Yesterday the text used was, ' This 
 is My commandment, that ye love one another, as 
 I have loved you.' In the evening I addressed a 
 pretty full congregation (three hundred or more), from 
 this passage, ' And there they crucified Him.' The 
 attention was intense — you might have heard a pin 
 drop. I trust it was a time of blessing to all. I was 
 greatly helped in prayer, and I trust our prayers were 
 heard, indeed I cannot doubt it having been so. One 
 of my hearers was found by R. A. greatly moved, who 
 told him that this evening he would decide for God. 
 This was after the prayer meeting, at which Robert 
 Charlton was present, and the poor man wept and 
 kissed our hands after R. C. had assured him of the 
 great love and power of the Saviour, how ' He would 
 keep him from falling.' I was much moved, because 
 this is the first person who has been known by me as 
 a recipient of such impressions under my ministry. 
 It did not seem a case of mere emotion, but the man 
 appeared to have an awful sense of the need there was 
 to trust and to follow Christ.* . . ." 
 
 In the autumn of tliis year R. and S. M. Barclay 
 explored the Dolomite district of the Tyrol, visiting 
 Munich en route ; they were able only to catch a 
 glimpse, as it were, of its galleries, so rich in art. To 
 
 * Robert Barclay visited liim very soon after the meeting, and 
 
 again in 1871, and writes, "I visited J. D. B r in 6 mo., 1871, 
 
 two years after this, and found him in a most happy state of mind. 
 . ... he had been ill, and in his great pain he thought ' how should 
 I feel now if I had to make my peace with God.' . . . ." 
 
48 
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 enjoy paintings thoroughly, ample time must be given, 
 and much as Robert Barclay loved and appreciated 
 art, he felt that when " out for his holiday " he 
 needed entire rest. The loneliness of these valleys, 
 surrounded by grand dolomite peaks, suited him well. 
 With the eye and hand of an artist he was ever ready 
 with palette and colours, — and choice additions were 
 made to the gleanings of former journeys. 
 
 The following extracts are taken from an article 
 written by him, entitled " A Fortnight in the Dolomite 
 District of the Tyrol," which has been already referred to. 
 
 " . . . . We were soon on our way to Bad Ratzes. 
 All the troubles of fairly getting on our journey 
 vanished in the blue haze of the valley we had left far 
 beneath us. . . . Why is a dolomite mountain different 
 from any other ? The question was answered by 
 weird, jagged forms, rising up before us so as to 
 convince us they were not only substantial realities, 
 but had, so to speak, a very sharply defined personal 
 identity. Higher and higher they towered till, when 
 we arrived at the soft lawn-like alp (a mountain 
 jjasture), the magnificent form of the Schleren, a 
 mountain 8400 ft. above the sea-level, rises out of its 
 narrow setting of pine forests, an obelisk of rock. The 
 little bath house of Ratzes soon appeared, hemmed in 
 between the Seisser Alp and the Schleren, and nestling 
 in the soft pine forests which fringe the ravine. 
 
 " . . . . What a stillness is the stillness of the pine 
 forest, broken only by the hum of insect life, or the 
 distant sound of the streamlet which leaps from steep 
 to steep, and by those * soft and soul-like sounds ' which 
 come and go as the fitful breath of air stirs the 
 
ROBERT BARCLAY. 
 
 49 
 
 branches. All is perfect harmony and peace, and surely 
 this joyous stillness may tell to the Christian of that 
 ' rest which remaineth to the people of God ' in that 
 land which is very far off and yet may be ever near. 
 The sun is sinking fast, and we watch the ever-shifting 
 tints, the lights and shades which pass over that jagged, 
 rifted form above our heads. We mark the transition 
 from twilight to night, the mountain seems to become 
 a living presence — and we are alone with Nature in 
 her cold and stern aspect. Looking only at what 
 is physical in human life, what is its span when 
 measured with the countless ages through which tliat 
 strange and awful form has looked down on these 
 valleys, and when we and many a future generation 
 shall have passed away may continue to do so still ! 
 
 " . . . . How inexpressibly strange is that sleep 
 from which we wake before the memory, and other 
 senses enable us to recall our position ! — perhaps at no 
 moment are we so conscious of the existence of the soul 
 as wholly distinct from the accidents of time and place 
 — slowly the circumstances of the previous day come 
 back to us, and we then say we are ' quite awake,' 
 although we certainly were awake before. 
 
 " At seven o'clock we were climbing the Seisser Alp, 
 with the promise of a splendid day. Surely mountaius 
 of stranger form than the Langkofel and Plattkofel 
 seldom meet the eye of the traveller ! Ere we reached 
 Campitello, in the early afternoon, distant thunder 
 was heard, and the clouds wore a threatening aspect. 
 Most dreary did the little village look as we sougljt its 
 shelter in the rain. 
 
 " The question of eating and drinking seems almost 
 below the notice of the enterprising traveller who 
 would explore these regions, but we may inform him 
 that he must never be astonished if he find nothing 
 
 E 
 
50 
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 for dinner but brown bread, milk, butter (either very 
 bad or very good) and eggs, but the staple dish will 
 probably be soup made with cheese, rice, and water ; if 
 he sets out with these expectations he will sometimes 
 be agreeably surprised. He will be charged in pro- 
 portion, and five shillings a day will pay for food and 
 lodging, 
 
 " Bernard's best room is a good one. After refresh- 
 ing sleep we rose at 4i a.m. to ascend the Fedaga 
 Pass. The Marmolatta, the highest summit in the 
 district, sternly frowned upon us, just disclosing his 
 dark shelving rocky sides, as we wistfully looked 
 out of our little window. Every one prophesied evil 
 of the weather ; their predictions, however, came to 
 naught, and as we climbed the pass the glaciers and 
 precipices Oi Marmolatta glistened in the sunshine — 
 the alpine vegetation, refreshed by the showers, shone 
 forth in new beauty. The little streams fell in elegant 
 tracery over the face of the perpendicular cliffs. The 
 whole creation seemed to sing its morning hymn to the 
 great Creator. From the summit of the pass, the path 
 descends very rapidly with mountains on either side 
 of the most romantic form, and whose volcanic origin 
 is attested by their black, ashy aspect ; in fact some 
 portion of the rock appears to be the consolidated scoria 
 of volcanoes." 
 
 ***** 
 
 " The valley at the junction of the Val Pettorina 
 and the Yal Ombretta presents a scene of concentrated 
 grandeur and loveliness. The Fedaga Pass has been 
 compared to the celebrated pass of the great Scheideck 
 in Switzerland, but such comparisons only disappoint 
 the traveller. The grandeur of the dolomites is not 
 the grandeur of Switzerland. We miss the snowy 
 panorama, the vastness of Swiss scenery, but we gain, 
 
ROBEKT BARCLAY. 
 
 51 
 
 from the precipitous character of tlie dolomites, the 
 near view of mountains eight or ten thousand feet 
 hiofh. In the scene before us we have a succession 
 of the strangest forms and wildest outline combined 
 with the softest loveliness of alp and pine forest. . . . 
 The precipices of the Chivetta reminded us we were 
 not far from Caprile. We immediately sought Madame 
 Pezzie's comfortable little inn. Now it must be under- 
 stood that Madame Pezzie is a character celebrated 
 in the books of English travellers. Are not her 
 praises in the book of Gilbert and Churchill ? . . . . 
 We were important and honoured guests ; we were the 
 bearers of the long promised tea-pot, an article of 
 superfluous luxury, which Mrs. Pezzie was much pleased 
 to possess. Some members of the Alpine Club who 
 had several times experienced Madame Pezzie's care, 
 and the want of a tea-pot, sent by us the gift of a hand- 
 some plated iheiere . . • • 
 
 " We spent the next day on the banks of the match- 
 less Lake of Alleghi. It would be in vain to attempt 
 to depict in words the tremendous precipices of the 
 Civetta, towering over the little lake, with the village of 
 Alleghi and its pretty church-spire forming the middle 
 distance of the picture. It is a gem, and long may 
 landscape painters seek to find its equal in sublimity 
 and loveliness. This lake was formed, about one hun- 
 dred years ago, by a 'berg-fall,' and we were assured 
 that, when the water is clear, chalets could be seen at 
 the bottom. The fir forest remains, many of the trees 
 rising a few inches above the water 
 
 " From Buchenstein our path lay over the Tre Sassi 
 Pass (7053 feet high) to Cortina d'Ampezzo. After 
 reaching the summit, we descended for perhaps an hour, 
 and found ourselves on an elevated plateau. Here we 
 have a circle of the grandest mountains of the district : 
 
 E 2 
 
52 
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 the Tofano, the Malcora, the Antelao, the Pelmo, and 
 the Civetta, and here the landscape painter may find his 
 ideal of the outline of a mountain — the kind of moun- 
 tain which will ' tell ' in a picture. The scene is one 
 of marvellous beauty, and we doubt much if such a circle 
 of distinct mountains, as apart from ranges of moun- 
 tains, exists in Switzerland, . . . 
 
 " At Predazzo, six varieties of volcanic rock are 
 supposed to have been ejected, on an enormous scale, 
 during successive periods : Syenite, the red granite of 
 Predazzo, and four kinds of porphyry. The granite 
 is seen overlying the secondary limestone, which it 
 ought not to do ! The little inn at Predazzo has re- 
 ceived visits from many of the distinguished geologists 
 of Europe. The whole of the dolomite district involves 
 questions of the highest geological interest, and there 
 can be no doubt that it was the great centre of volcanic 
 action in Europe for a very lengthened period. The 
 dolomite limestone is a peculiar species of magnesian 
 limestone, and the problem of its position and formation 
 is still a matter of discussion among geologists 
 
 " The peasants in the Austrian Tyrol are a fine race, 
 and most of them are small farmers and proprietors of 
 land. The politician may here study the problem be- 
 fore us, in reference to Ireland, respecting the policy 
 of facilitating small holdings of land 
 
 " With regard to the condition of the peasants, in 
 a religious point of view, it is most difficult to form 
 an ojDinion. They are all Roman Catholics. . . . At 
 Botzen, there is a Monte Calvario, where the circum- 
 stances of the last days of our Saviour's life are repre- 
 sented life-size. . . . The Roman Catholic religion is 
 essentially a religion of fear, and the pictures, at nearly 
 every oratory in the Tyrol, of the souls in the flames 
 of purgatory, are inexpressibly painful, connected, as 
 
ROBEllT BAllCLAY. 
 
 53 
 
 tliey are, with the payment to the priests for masses to 
 be said for departed relatives and friends, who are only 
 to be got out of the torments depicted, by the prayers 
 of the priests. . . . We must not, however, imagine 
 that real and spiritual religion is non-existent, and that 
 their condition is darkness without a ray of light. . . . 
 
 " We took with us (after our usual practice, which 
 we would earnestly recommend to others) a large 
 number of Testaments and Gospels. This practice 
 originated from an extraordinary incident (see page 
 17). , . . We always find them most gladly received, 
 and usually try to bestow theui in return for some 
 trifling courtesy or service. At our hotel, in a large 
 town, we felt that a door was made open for them. 
 •One of the waiters, who had received a Grospel, begged 
 a Testament for his young master, who, we found, 
 greatly desired it, as he had only the Old Testament. 
 
 " The pretensions of the priest are clashing with the 
 new Government system of education in Austria. We 
 heard that attendance at school on Sunday was made 
 compulsory for two hours for secular education, and 
 was optional as to religious education, and that the 
 members of any denomination could give religious 
 instruction. . . . 
 
 " How often are we disappointed with scenes that 
 are so often visited and described ! The charms 
 of the Unter-Korensee were not described in our guide- 
 books, but that little lake will long live in our me- 
 mories. . . . Sheltered in the silent depths of the 
 pine forest, the lake reflects in its unrufiled waters the 
 torn and rifted precipices of the Latemar. . Fed only 
 by the mountain snows, we gazed into its depths of 
 unsullied purity. What vivid hues of softly-blending 
 azure and emerald are those before us ! Mirrored in 
 its rocky basin we see reflected the glorious tints of 
 
54 
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 both earth and heaven. We sent on our guide, and 
 were alone, and, with thankful hearts to our Father in 
 heaven, enjoyed this scene of enclianting beauty, the 
 work of His hand — 
 
 * These are Thy glorious works, Parent of Good ; 
 Almighty, thine this universal frame— thus wondrous 
 fair ! ' 
 
 " Why is it that we receive so deep and so pure a 
 pleasure from beholding the glories of the physical 
 creation ? Is it not because no shade of evil has passed 
 over these scenes of beauty since the Creator reviewed 
 His work and pronounced it very good ? 
 
 " Doubtless, such scenes are intended to brace the 
 mind and refresh the soul, when weary with the con- 
 templation of human frailty and sin. 
 
 " But we would not exchange the city for the wilder- 
 ness, though we may indulge the longing which a 
 dweller in the city felt — and who has not felt it? — for 
 wings like a dove, to fly away and be at rest. 
 
 ' We cling to the crowded city, 
 Though we shrink from its woe and sin, 
 For we know its boundless measure 
 Of the true and good and fair, 
 Its vast and far-gathered' treasure, 
 All the wealth of soul that is there : 
 And the Home to which we are hasting 
 Is not in some silent glen, 
 The place where our hopes are resting 
 Is a city of living men.' — Bonar. 
 
 " . . . . After securing a sketch of the Latemar, our 
 horse was harnessed in a primeval vehicle, without the 
 luxury of springs ! and we were soon lost to view in 
 the depths of theKarneid Thai. 
 
 " The homeward route was by the shores of the 
 
ROBERT BARCLAY. 
 
 55 
 
 beautiful Lago di Gardi — scenery * whose soft loveliness 
 strangely contrasts with dolomite sternness, and, like 
 sweet music, lulls the soul to rest ' — through Venice, 
 G-enoa, Turin, and over Mont Cenis by the railroad, which 
 has been given up since the completion of the tunnel." 
 
 R. B. returned home thorouglily refreshed, and was 
 again immersed in earnest work. 
 
 In January, 1870, Robert Barclay went to the North 
 of England, and in the course of four weeks delivered 
 his lecture of the " State of the Society " sixteen times, 
 in various towns. 
 
 To his Wife, 
 
 « Huddersfield, 16th, 1st mo., 1870. 
 " My lectures have gone off well. I had a most 
 interesting visit at Ackworth. I. B. arranged for a 
 second meeting for question and discussion, at the 
 School, and great interest was excited ; they all wish 
 me heartily success, and think I am doing a good service. 
 I. B, tells me they are all of my mind there." 
 
 The following letter was written to his wife from 
 Gotham, on the occasion of the funeral of her brother 
 Walter G. Fry, who died after a week's illness. His 
 last words were " I am quite happy, safe in Jesus." 
 
 To his Wife, 
 « Tower House, Gotham, 24th May, 1870. 
 "... . To-day passed off very satisfactorily, and there 
 was I think a very present sense of dear Walter's happy 
 state in heaven. .... The little l>nrying ground. 
 
56 
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 at King's-Weston, is a very beautiful spot, so quiet 
 and peaceful — a glorious day, and tlie foliage in 
 the prime of spring ; a large company were there ; 
 twenty carriages of one kind or another. . . . We 
 had a prayer from Theodore round the grave, very 
 earnest and good, then a sermon from Robert Charlton, 
 to the effect that it is not the apparent greatness or 
 littleness of our faith, but what it rests on, that is the 
 point. Then thy R. B. on ' I am the resurrection, and 
 the life : he that believeth in me, though he were dead, 
 yet shall he live :' ' Whosoever liveth and believeth in 
 me shall never die,' and commenting on dear W.'s 
 last words, ' Safe in Jesus,' very beautiful words, 
 applying them to the assembled people .... bidding 
 those near and dear relations, when they visited that 
 grave, to remember that the words of the angels might 
 be used respecting our Lord's followers — their tomb 
 like our Lord's was an empty tomb — 'He is risen, lie 
 is not here ; behold the jdace where they laid Him.' 
 Then Dr. Ash . . . ." 
 
 ( The letter breaks off here.) 
 
 This summer, in conjunction with other ministers 
 in Tottenham and its neighbourhood, Robert Barclay 
 arranged plans for preaching in the open air, and in 
 this work he assisted. 
 
 To his Wife. 
 
 " 4th July, 1870. 
 . . . Yesterday I took the service myself, Mr. M, 
 very kindly sending two or three persons to lead the 
 singing. After the first liymn was sung the people 
 began to come round, and as there were many going 
 to the Railway Station, many heard who did not 
 
ROBERT BARCLAY. 
 
 57 
 
 coiue close. A number of poor little children directly 
 the hymn began nestled down at my feet, and it was 
 quite touching-, and made one understand the Saviour 
 pointing to the little children, and saying,.' Except ye 
 receive the kingdom of heaven as a little child,' etc. 
 Hardly a person moved away. I was enabled to set 
 forth the Gospel very clearly, illustrating the various 
 subject-matters, and applying it home pretty closely. 
 . ... It was on the Green before the station. On 
 my way home, at the turning for Stonely South, a 
 young man, who had been listening very intently, 
 came back all the way from the station, and taking 
 me by the hand, said, ' Sir, I cannot tell you what good 
 you have done me.^ He was evidently under much 
 emotion ; and T felt that I had my reward, and am 
 greatly comforted. He was in a hurry to get back to 
 his train, I think, and would not stay. It is specially 
 sent, I feel, to revive my faith in the power of our 
 blessed Lord, in bringing home His word to the 
 heart."* 
 
 Robert Barclay and some other gentlemen in Tot- 
 tenham and its neighbourhood, were desirous that a 
 School Board should be established, but their united 
 efforts failed. " They met," says a local paper, "with 
 an opposition which even their opponents could scarcely 
 have anticipated." But the same paper says, " A 
 School Board there must be, we feel certain, in spite of 
 all the effoi ts now being made to provide extra school 
 
 * la the ' Monthly Kecord' for 9th mo., 1870, an article entitled, 
 " Open Air Preaching : my first Attemjjt thus to preach the Gospel 
 in my own Village," gives a short account of this service. — Ed. 
 
58 
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 premises," &c. Robert Barclay was unable after this 
 time to engage in the cause of School Boards, a subject 
 in which he was deeply interested : involving, as he 
 believed, the welfare of the nation ; he entirely ap- 
 proved of compulsory education. He writes : 
 
 " We are on the eve of a great revolution in the in- 
 tellectual, and I trust in the religious life of the nation. 
 The Elementary School Bill will, it cannot be denied, 
 greatly alter our position. It is the first attempt to 
 deal comprehensively with the great question of 
 National Education ; and having carefully examined 
 its j^rovisions, I cannot help expressing the conviction 
 that it will open out a path in the wilderness, and that 
 eventually it will secure means to give every English 
 child a sound education ; and I say this is the first duty 
 of a Christian nation. 
 
 " We have to deal with stern facts respecting our 
 labouring population, and the way in which numbers of 
 parents fail to fulfil their duty to their children. We 
 have laid down the law, that no one in England shall 
 starve for want of bread to nourish the body ; and it is 
 our duty to provide for the mind also, and to give to 
 every child an education which will fit it for the battle 
 of life, and place it in the way of obtaining a livelihood 
 and of gaining that knowledge which will lead it in the 
 way to Heaven. I would go farther, and I am per- 
 suaded this country will go farther, and will esteem the 
 health of mind, the powers of intellect with which God 
 has blessed ils children, its greatest treasure . . . ." 
 
 While diligently studying the history of the past 
 for information for his work, ' The Inner Life of the 
 Religious Societies of the Commonwealth,' Robert Bar- 
 
UOBERT BARCLAY. 
 
 59 
 
 clay was at the same time making himself acquainted 
 with the practical working of various systems of 
 Church government. Firmly attached to his own 
 Religious Society, his mind was nevertheless free 
 from prejudice, and with that breadth and liberality 
 which should mark the true Christian, he was able to 
 appreciate wliat was good and noble in others : he 
 wanted to become more fully acquainted with the 
 " Inner Life " of the Churches of the present day. 
 With this object in view, he visited, to use his own 
 words, " the scene of the labours of some other 
 Churches for the spread of the Gospel." He wrote an 
 account of these visits in a series of articles published 
 in the ' Monthly Record,' from 4th to 9th mo., 1871, 
 under the title " Religious Teaching in other Churches." 
 We quote a few paragraphs ; they breathe the spirit in 
 which these inquiries were made. 
 
 " Let us recollect," writes R. B., " that the oneness of 
 the Church of Christ consists in having one Lord, one 
 faith, one baptism, and one spirit. Let us recollect that 
 Greorge Fox contended that the society he had founded 
 was no ' sect.' All Christians, whether ' Independents,' 
 * Baptists,' ' Seekers,' or ' Finders,' were at perfect 
 liberty to form their own societies for practical pur- 
 poses." He did not avoid them, but preached in 
 their churches, and was received in most instances 
 with openness and Christian love ; and he felt great 
 tenderness towards all who he believed had the one 
 Spirit, the true link of connection between all who 
 loved the Lord. 
 
 "A sincere follower of our Saviour will find himself at 
 
60 
 
 MEMOIll OF 
 
 liome among all such. The prayer of our Blessed Lord 
 has in some seuse its perpetual fulfilment in the per- 
 sons of His true followers, — ' That they be one in us.' 
 Did they come more often into contact, and were the 
 slender barriers which divide them more often broken 
 througl], the latter part of His prophetic prayer would, 
 we believe, be more often accomplished, ' that the 
 world may believe that Thou hast sent Me, and hast 
 loved them as Thou hast loved Me.' " It. B. concludes 
 — " Let them [Friends] not seek to copy the method and 
 practices of others, but carefully study the history of 
 the Church of Christ in the jjast and present ; strive to 
 avoid the innumerable errors in practice and Church 
 structure into which good men have fallen and 
 still fall, and not scruple to adopt any course which 
 seems calculated to promote the cause of the Gos- 
 pel, and which is according to the mind of Christ, 
 being ever willing to receive instruction, and to 
 follow the invisible but guiding hand of the angel 
 who still leads the Church in her journey through 
 the wilderness of this world to the promised land." * 
 
 To him was cordially given the " right hand of 
 fellowship." He was admitted to the class-meetings 
 among the Wesleyans, and was invited to the Chuich 
 meetings among the Baptists. 
 
 Charles H. Spurgeon writes to him : — 
 
 " The land is before you. Spy it out from Dan 
 to Beersheba ; for you are a true man and no 
 Philistine." 
 
 * Series of Articles on " Eeligious Teaching in other Churches," 
 ' Monthly Kecorcl,' 4th mo., to 9th mo., 1871. 
 
ROBERT BARCLAY. 61 
 
 1871. Fcl). In connection witli tlic Rev. A. IT.'s con- 
 gregation (in whose chapel he occasionally preached), 
 Robert Barclay gave two lectnres on Electricity. The 
 subject was treated in a manner well suited to his 
 hearers. R. B. possessed the gift of imparting 
 knowledge in a way which rarely failed to gain the 
 attention of both the young and the old, whether he 
 addressed the working classes or the more highly 
 educated. From these lectures the following are 
 extracts. 
 
 The first lecture was for children. 
 
 ***** 
 
 " . . . . This world is our schooling-place for 
 Heaven, and the Sunday school is the place where you 
 can learu what is worth all the learning in the worM. 
 It is where you can learn the way to 
 
 ' that happy land, 
 Far, far away, 
 Where saints and angels stand, 
 Bright, bright as day.' 
 
 Little boy, little girl — there is a house in the bright 
 shining golden city in Heaven for you. Yes, for all 
 of us, if we will only trust in Jesus our Saviour. He 
 loved little children when He was on earth, and you 
 may be sure He loves them now. 
 
 " [f you would be happy in this world, and happy 
 in the next, love your kind teachers and come to the 
 Sunday school — do ?iot miss a Sunday. I know it is 
 not always pleasant to do so now, though I am sure 
 you are happier afterwards. . . . My glass tubes are 
 dull enough n<»/T, but 1 have learned the r/(///f vaij to 
 
G2 
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 use tliem. Now, dear cliildren, may you use the tilings 
 of this world in the inght way, and all will be happy 
 and all will be bright at last. 
 
 " Now a word for your kind teachers. My friends, 
 you who are nobly giving up your time on Sundays to 
 teach these children : you have your discouragements, — 
 many a time wearied and tired on the Sabbath evening 
 you must have felt your own powerlessness for good. 
 May this evening remind you that, like these dull glasses 
 strewn on the table, the often dull routine of school 
 duty, and even the ignorance, the misery, that appals you, 
 in the hand of Him who has ' all power in heaven aud 
 in earth,' are but means to great and glorious ends. 
 Your trials and difficulties, like them, will wonderfully 
 differ according to the light in which you view them. 
 There is no hovel so mean, there is no home so de- 
 graded, which, transformed by the light of the Gospel, 
 and gilded by the rays of the Sun of Righteousness, 
 may not become to many a child taught in a Sunday 
 school, and taken to an early grave, the ' very gate 
 of heaven.' Look at these cliildren. Do you believe 
 that there is a soul here so dark that Jesus cannot 
 give it light? You believe that to every child here 
 He has given a capacity for never-ending happiness, 
 and do you not believe that He who has the arm 
 of the Omnipotent God is able to make ragged 
 and wretched homes the means of calling forth 
 your pity, your sympathy, your love, and to make 
 you effective instruments to display to them the 
 saving light of His Gospel ? No doubt you visit 
 their homes, carry to them a Christian word, warmly 
 and heartily spoken. Let the parents see that you 
 love the children, and when the veil shall be lifted 
 hereafter you will see the treasure which you have 
 been laying up in heaven ; but even now, with the 
 
ROBERT BARCLAY. 
 
 63 
 
 eye of faith and the clear liglit of the Gospel, we 
 may see that ragged children, altogether born in sin, 
 but brought to His footstool, are the brightest jewels 
 in the Saviour's crown. Let us use all the apparatus, 
 all means within our power : they may sometimes 
 seem to fail, but be very sure of this, that the 
 Gospel is the wisdom of God applied to this life of ours 
 by One who has trod the path of life before. The 
 came is His, and we commend it and our own souls 
 to Him, cheered by the promise ' that they that be wise 
 shall shine as the firmament, and those that turn many 
 to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.' Both 
 to ourselves and the children the dull things of earth 
 gleam with a lustre not their own, they catch something 
 of the light and fire from Heaven ; and when that hope 
 — full of immortality — purchased by a Saviour's love, 
 beams upon the soul, and our feet are steadily set to 
 tread the path our Saviour trod, shall we then think 
 of our trials and difficulties ? Shall we not rather 
 pray, ' Grant, Lord, that of those little ones whom 
 Thou hast given me I may not lose one.' " 
 
 Then followed the scientific portion of the lecture, 
 wliich we omit. 
 
 The following paragraph is from a local paper : — 
 
 " About five hundred children assembled, and their 
 delight at the brilliant experiments was unbounded. 
 Amongst these we may mention ' the flash of lightning,' 
 nine feet long. Several phosphorescent and induction 
 tubes were shown, the front of the platform being occu- 
 pied with them. The electro magnet was exhibited, 
 which would hold up three boys, and easily carried the 
 
 weight of Mr. H . This created great amusement. 
 
 Mr, Barclay ended the lecture by showing a blood-red 
 cross of light, over which was suspended a very beautiful 
 
04 
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 crown of green and pink light, wliicli glowed intensely 
 as if jewelled with coloured fire, and he addressed the 
 children, alhiding to the cross here and the crown 
 hereafter. The second lecture was for adults, and the 
 experiments were of a more scientific character ; it 
 was to the more educated and intelligent part of the 
 audience calculated to exhibit the wonderful character 
 of the forces of magnetism and electricity." 
 
 " According to the programme, I am to say a few 
 words on the relation of science to religion, and I would 
 try to express the profound conviction I entertain that 
 so far from the investigations of modern science having 
 any necessary tendency to shake our confidence in the 
 truth of our most holy religion, the real effect has been 
 and will be to enlarge our ideas of the infinite glory 
 and perfections of the personal God, who is revealed 
 to us in the New Testament as a God of infinite love, 
 seeking our happiness here and our glory hereafter. 
 One thing wliich science reveals to us is our profound 
 ignorance. Fancy yourselves looking at the keys of a 
 piano : your ear will take in eleven octaves of sound, 
 but the very structure of your eye will only take in one 
 octave of the vibrations of light. I shall incidentally 
 show you this evening some of the invisible rays of 
 light given off by the electric spark. I shall try 
 and show you the lines of force encircling a magnet 
 equally invisible. But you can readily imagine, e.g., 
 a Being from another world who should have an organ 
 like the eye capable of directly receiving the facts con- 
 veyed, by what is invisible, and for every ray of light we 
 see there are ten we do not see. We are never so likely 
 to be wise and to come at the truth as when we are 
 deeply convinced that we are very ignorant, and that 
 there are ' more things in heaven and earth than are 
 
ROBERT BARCLAY. 
 
 65 
 
 dreamt of in our philosophy.' .... There is another 
 truth we learn from the study of science and it is this, 
 ' that an honest and candid mind cannot get rid of the 
 idea of a Supreme Mind in the universe.' This was 
 said to me by the celebrated chemist, the late Dr. Miller, 
 when I was studying under his guidance spectroscopic 
 analysis, that wonderful method of seeing at a glance 
 the ray of light produced by the substances of which 
 the sun and stars are composed, the greatest triumph 
 of modern science 
 
 " Then, again, the exquisite balancing of forces, 
 which enables a bird to fly and to catch its prey on 
 the wing, described so ably by the Duke of Argyle, 
 shows, to a candid man, that there is a Master Mind 
 in the universe, whose adjustments and contrivances 
 show infinity of resource and skill. Take, again, the 
 case of an electric eel, which catches and kills its prey 
 by means of an electric apparatus. Is it not impos- 
 sible for a Christian not to feel that He who clothed 
 the grass of the field, and cared for the sparrows, will 
 care for him ? not only now, but when the mystery of 
 this life is over ? 
 
 " . . . ' The cat wanted to know how that wise bird 
 (the owl) spent his time ; and the owl told her that he 
 and all' the generations of owls up to his time had spent 
 it in pondering deeply the question whether the owl 
 came out of tlie egg, or the egg came from the owl ! ' 
 And so we really may go on, unless we are willing to 
 take as a revelation from Heaven that grand old sen- 
 tence of the Book of Genesis, that it was ' Grod who 
 created the heavens and the earth ;' and this throws a 
 flood of light upon the scientific and the ignorant alike. 
 Here is the mystery of the marvellous contrivances of 
 animated nature. Here is the mystery of the unerring- 
 laws which govern the universe : there is a personal 
 
 F 
 
66 
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 God, the mighty mind of this universal frame ; a Grod 
 who created man, in ' the image of God,' in His like- 
 ness, to the end that he should he ahle to understand 
 and admire the works of the Master Mind, the ever- 
 working Master Worker, the Artificer of the universe. 
 There is, I notice, among intelligent mechanics, who are 
 compelled to reason closely from observations and ex- 
 periments, as we shall do this evening, a disposition 
 to exalt experimental reasoning, as if seeing was 
 believing, and seeing the only way to get at the 
 truth. Now I should say that a very large propor- 
 tion of all the truth we can take in comes to us 
 by historical or personal evidence, whether it be in 
 science or religion. There is a great tendency in their 
 minds, from the nature of their occupations, to under- 
 value the agreement of a vast number of our fellow 
 men in attesting the truth of the past, as witnesses to 
 some truth or fact " 
 
 Then followed the lecture upon electricity. 
 To a near Relative. 
 
 « 17 April, 1871. 
 
 " . . . . With regard to your suggestion of a private 
 meeting of those interested in [home] mission work, I 
 think it is a good one, and I have written to J. T. Rice 
 concerning it ; as far as my position is concerned, I do 
 not care to take very energetic means, as I hope I am 
 best employed in getting out the work I have on the 
 anvil, which is quite as much as my time and energies 
 can cope with. . . . The early Friends who founded the 
 Society had clear and definite views — e.g. as to church 
 membership, as to what constitutes a church officer — 
 their duties towards the flock, the method of dealing 
 with offenders — all based on a strictly scriptural view 
 
EGBERT BARCLAY. 
 
 67 
 
 of these things. Again, the view respecting Baptism 
 and the Lord's Supper, the real position of the Society 
 respecting them' — all these questions have to be dealt 
 with in a clear-headed way, not evading the question. 
 . . . My view is that the difficulty will be solved in 
 two ways : first, by clear information, historical and 
 statistical, of our true position, and our relative position 
 to the old Society as to the line of thought on church 
 questions which led to the development of the early 
 Society, &c. I intend to answer this also, to show our 
 relative position at present among Christian churches, 
 and define where our true line of action lies. I think 
 the difficulty will be solved in walking — ' solvitur 
 ambulando.' ... I long to get through my work now 
 in hand. It will deal with the Early Independents, 
 and generally the 'sectaries' of Cromwell's time; and 
 I am tracing the lines of religious thought and the 
 pressure which produced the Independent, Baptist and 
 Quaker polity. I find it hard work, and it will not be 
 a service performed for the Society which has ' cost me 
 nothing.' I quite hope it will excite interest beyond 
 our border ; I have gone to original sources of infor- 
 mation, and many illustrations will be given of the 
 views of the Sectaries, or those who were seeking the 
 abolition of a State Church." 
 
 In June R. B. went a tour in North Wales with his 
 nephew I. H. B. The weather was dull and cold, and 
 he was more than ever convinced of the advantage of 
 Continental travelling ; the clear bracing atmosphere 
 under less cloudy skies was to him so invigorating. 
 
 "Dolgelly, 29 June, 71. 
 " We have had a fine walk up and round Cader 
 Idris. We went up the almost direct ascent called ' the 
 
 F 2 
 
68 
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 Fox's Path,' which name describes it so exactly that I 
 need add very Httle. That wise animal, seeing that to 
 the highest summit there was a straight way — a slope 
 between two precipices — walked up, and so did we ! It 
 was a most trying pull. There is a little spring at the 
 top of the mountain, which further shows the wisdom 
 of the fox in taking this course, as there is no spring 
 on the top except just here. "We then descended the 
 saddle, and came in sight of the precipices on the other 
 side. I have seen nothing so tremendous in England 
 or Scotland. Just where we should least have ex- 
 pected it, the path down to Llyn Cae is found. It 
 looked terribly steep just at the commencement, but 
 here only can we descend. At the bottom is a small 
 black lake — Llyn Cae. . . . This was once, I suppose, 
 the terminal moraine of the glacier. The valley is 
 decidedly alpine, and very wild ; and descending very 
 rapidly by the side of a waterfall and small gorge, we 
 gained a regular road ascending to another alpine-like 
 pass ; then over a fine common or plateau, completely 
 encircled by mountains ; then down to Dolgelly again. 
 To-morrow I propose going by rail to Festiniog, where 
 I shall see the slate quarries " 
 
 On the 8th July he returned home, not feeling 
 as much refreshed from his outing as was generally 
 the case. He was soon closely occupied in various 
 ways. He spent much time following his literary 
 pursuits in the library of the British Museum, and 
 writes : — 
 
 " I am going through the King's Pamphlets — a great 
 many hundred volumes of publications about the time 
 of the Commonwealth; Tracts of the Sectaries, &c." 
 
ROBERT BARCLAY. 
 
 69 
 
 It now became evident to himself, as it had long 
 been to others — that he was overdoing himself ; but 
 such was his energy and industry, that he used to say, 
 "But what do I do?" Robert Barclay had during 
 many years suffered from headaches, but these gene- 
 rally soon gave way to simple remedies. But now 
 he was feeling out of health, and thoroughly over- 
 done ; and on the 18th of October went with his wife 
 to Brighton, where they stayed some weeks. He 
 enjoyed the rest, and, though he still felt far from 
 strong, he was able to attend Meetings as usual, where 
 his voice was often heard in his Master's service. A 
 letter from a friend bears striking testimony to his 
 ministry whilst there. 
 
 The following letters, written a few weeks only 
 before he himself became alarmingly ill, will be read 
 with interest. 
 
 To a near Relative. 
 
 « Brighton, 18th, 10 mo., 1871. 
 " .... I cannot tell you how sudden was the intel- 
 ligence of your illness, and very earnest were our 
 prayers for you, knowing how hard it is to say 
 
 ' The best of wills is God's own will, 
 Shall we not trust Him and bo still ?' 
 
 Resignation to the will of God is the greatest and 
 hardest lesson we have to learn ; and very earnest are 
 
 our desires for you, my dear , that you may receive 
 
 the greatest of all the gifts of His grace These 
 
 severe trials and afflictions, which must have been fore- 
 
70 
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 seen by Him, who knows the end from the beginning, 
 to be needful to produce that change which He designs 
 to effect, often enable us to see that we have not given 
 up all into the Hands of a ' faitliful Creator,' and that 
 we are not yet fully '■at one'' with Grod, through our 
 Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. But if this is not so, 
 still He has promised that He will ' perfect that which 
 concerneth us.' The promise is indeed a blessed one, 
 that he that believeth ' shall not come into judgment, 
 but is passed (now) from death unto life.' The true 
 Christian does not sin, indeed, wilfully ; but still there 
 remains a body of sin which, although not dead, is 
 nailed to the cross : it will often writhe and quiver, but 
 still it is ever becoming in the Christian, through 
 Divine grace, weaker and weaker. And is it not true 
 that God often works a great change in the soul by 
 physical weakness, by letting us feel our powerlessness 
 to think a good thought or to do a good action without 
 Him ? I have been lately very busy over my researches 
 in the British Museum and elsewhere, and hope here in 
 the quiet to get forward with my present work and 
 duty. But I feel more and more that it is not so much 
 vjhat work we do, as the spirit we do it in. ... I send 
 
 this note to , who, I know, will read it to you 
 
 when you are able to bear it. 
 
 " Believe me, with much sympathy and love to you 
 all, &c. &c., 
 
 "Egbert Barclay." 
 To the same. 
 
 " Brigliton, 18 Nov., 1871. 
 " .... I liave staid longer than I expected here, 
 hoping to get greater benefit from the sea than I fear I 
 have done. My digestion and my liver are a little out of 
 sorts, and I am not at my best. Your letter deals with 
 
EGBERT BARCLAY. 
 
 71 
 
 very solemn subjects. . . . Does the idea of the present 
 salvation of the penitent, lowly-minded sinner preclude 
 the idea of striving to the utmost to apprehend that the 
 whole work of Christ may be accomplished in this life ? 
 All Christians do not attain unto the same ' measure ;' 
 but still there is a measure to which they may attain, 
 and that is just the very thing for which they were 
 created. Is not this the ' perfection ' we are to go on 
 to — not the perfection of God, but that which God 
 sees fit we should attain to. I do not wonder at your 
 feelings ; they are natural. ... I think you are justified 
 in your belief, and may safely regard the peace you speak 
 of as the 'joy and the peace in believing,' if, and if 
 only, you find in prayerfully perusing that message 
 from Heaven in the New Testament, that you have the 
 marks of a child of God, which are very many, and the 
 witness of your own spirit that you are a child of God — 
 not that you have been, but that you are now. Can it 
 be supposed that God has restored you to life without 
 some purpose, and is not your sanctification a real 
 work ? Surely nothing can be more mistaken than the 
 view of those who consider religion as precluding all 
 moral action, e.g. in prayerfully perusing the New 
 Testament, and waiting in full belief in the Holy Spirit 
 really ' taking of the things of God and showing them 
 to us,' resting constantly in the ' help of God ' to keep 
 us in that cheerful daily converse of the changed heart with 
 those around us, which serves God more than all, because 
 it shows where our treasure is. Some speak as if this 
 would come without moral effort, after a person is con- 
 verted, and then they say a person is not a child of 
 God if he does not at once spontaneously receive all the 
 marks which, they say, instantly follow conversion. 
 But is there not in a certain sense the continued con- 
 version of the Christian, the constant repentance of sins 
 
72 
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 which are not wilful sins, the constant pressing after 
 a higher degree of real (not hypocritical) holiness of 
 thought, intention, endeavour ; the constant reflection 
 upon his own motives, and desiring something more 
 heavenly, more perfect : not by his own endeavours, 
 but by tlie help, real, constant, ever-present, which 
 enables him to become an example to others, Now, 
 assuming that we have done all this before, surely the 
 solemnity of being so near the gates of death ought to 
 redouble our efforts and desires to fail of nothing which 
 God intends us to reach ; and then is it not, my dear 
 , natural to us to feel as if this would be misunder- 
 stood by those around us — an intense natural dislike to 
 any put on holiness, and a feeling of pride which pre- 
 vents us from attaining that true humility, and prevents 
 others receiving the most benefit, from that chapter in 
 our lives which may speak most loudly our faith and 
 humilitv, and serve Grod more than all the rest. 
 
 " Be sure I write this with a very strong feeling of 
 sympathy with your physical weakness, and inability 
 to turn your thoughts seriously to anything for more 
 than a few minutes at a time. 1 have never been in 
 the position you have been, and have a great deal to 
 learn ; but I have been poorly enough to feel that God 
 must be found while in life and health, and that it is 
 always hard work to turn the thoughts in sickness, and 
 sometimes impossible. 
 
 " Commending you to Him who is ' touched with a 
 feeling of our infirmities,' 
 
 " I am, your affectionate , 
 
 "K. Barclay." 
 
 On his return from Brighton, Robert Barclay became 
 very ill. It was quite apparent that his constant occu- 
 
ROBERT BARCLAY. 
 
 73 
 
 pation which had engaged him for so many years in 
 various ways had been too much for him, and from 
 this time for the next nine months he gave up all his 
 pursuits, and allowed the tired system to recruit. He 
 consulted an eminent physician in London, who recom- 
 mended travelling ; and a voyage being considered 
 desirable, on the 21st of March, accompanied by his wife, 
 he sailed from Southampton. 
 
 The following extracts are chiefly from letters 
 written to R. B.'s eldest child, but as they contain 
 some graphic touches, we have inserted them. 
 
 " S. S. ' Poonali,' off Cape Finistcrre, Spain. 
 Evening of 23rd March, 1872. 
 
 " Here we are, far, far away from our darlings, 
 having had hitherto a capital voyage. After we 
 came on boai'd, and I had written to you, a heavy 
 snow-storm came on, and it was very cold, and we 
 had to wait till 5 o'clock for our dinner ; when we 
 went on deck again we found ourselves in beautiful 
 sunshine, off Yarmouth. The sun went down as we 
 got out into the open sea, and the sailor on the look- 
 out on the forecastle seemed to be doubtful about a 
 dark bank of clouds 'in the eye of the wind.' The 
 first night when we heard the waves roaring so close 
 to our heads, and the wind whistling and blowing so 
 hard, and the rocking in our beds from side to side 
 greater and greater, and the rumble of the screw as it 
 grinds the water at the stern of the vessel, made us 
 think of our darlings at home asleep so quietly on land. 
 Last night, however, we both slept well, and the rolling 
 of the vessel does not trouble us so much, as we are 
 getting what is called our ' sea-legs.' We are having a 
 
74 
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 very fine passage with the wind behind us all the way, 
 and the sails set ; and a very fine sight it has been yes- 
 terday and to-day in the Bay of Biscay, the long Atlantic 
 waves and the vast expanse of blue-black waters, as far 
 as you see on every side, glittering in the sun. 
 
 " We passed close to the ' Aurora ' frigate, one of the 
 Queen's training ships for lads, to make them good 
 sailors. The gulls came all these many miles (fifty or 
 one hundred miles from land) to fly behind the steamer. 
 ' They know as well as we,' said a gentleman, who had 
 been a captain, ' when it is dinner-time.' I threw them 
 some biscuits, and twice a gull swooped down and eat 
 one. This evening, just at sunset, we saw the long line 
 of blue hills of the coast of Spain, and as it became 
 darker the lighthouse off Cape Finisterre. And then 
 we watched the black clouds on a light blue sunset sky 
 on one side, and on the other the pale golden light of 
 the moon on the great waves of the dark blue sea. 
 It is getting warmer already, and we are as idle as idle 
 can be, and do nothing but eat, sleep, and walk about 
 and bask in the sunshine. 
 
 ''''Sunday evening, 25th March. — .... About 12 
 o'clock we passed the Burlings, several small islands 
 (which you will find to the north of Lisbon), and 
 had on om* left a long, beautiful stretch of Portuguese 
 coast with cliffs, and passed the Palace of Mafra, 
 which I saw with a telescope, and its domes. It is so 
 large that during the Portuguese war the English 
 lodged 10,000 troojDS in it. At 5 o'clock we came in 
 sight of the Rock of Lisbon and the mouth of the 
 Tagus, and could just see the Pock with an opera 
 glass. On the right is the summer palace of Cintra. 
 It has been a glorious day, and smooth, compared with 
 former ones. We had service in the saloon, all the 
 sailors formed on deck in two long lines in their clean 
 
EGBERT BARCLAY. 
 
 75 
 
 blue jackets, and Captain Methven — who is very much 
 like the pictures of Nelson : thin, pale-faced, and with 
 grey hair : as sharp and quick as possible, all spring 
 and wire — walked down the line with the second 
 officer. We [the passengers] then went down, and 
 they followed. Captain Methven read the Church 
 Service. . . ." 
 
 On Sunday, or on the following Good Friday, at 
 Robert Barclay's request, all the men who could be 
 spared, gathered together, and he had a service with 
 them. 
 
 To the same. 
 
 " 27th March. 
 
 " I left off my letter the day before we reached 
 Gibraltar : the weather changed towards middle day ; 
 the wind blew hard from the south-west on the right 
 side of the ship, and increased every minute till it 
 ' blew a gale,' or ' a double reefed top-sail breeze,' to 
 use the words of an old sea captain ; and it was a 
 grand sight to see the great Atlantic Ocean lashed into 
 waves and foam by the fierce wind. Only fancy the 
 whistling of the wind and the roaring of the sea^ and 
 how desolate the dreary waste of waters looked — 
 nothing to be seen but sea, sea, sea ; and this becoming 
 rougher and rougher. And how small even this great 
 steamer looked, constantly tossing more and more 
 amidst the driving rain, the spray breaking over the 
 side every now and then, and the waves looking as if 
 they would break over the deck. All the sailors were 
 hard at work furling in the sails. Captain Methven 
 appeared all covered in waterproof and an oilskin cap. 
 The rain and spray soon drove us below, and every 
 now and then we went up to look out. Then the 
 
76 
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 night came on, and the wind blew louder and louder ; 
 but still this splendid ship, driven by the engine, and 
 what is called the screw, steadily held on her way. 
 One could feel the ship was being propelled by main 
 force through the water. When we went to bed we 
 could hardly, with all our practice, undress and get 
 into our funny little beds ; and, when there, to feel the 
 rocking and the thumping of the waves, and the 
 roaring of the sea and wind, and the struggling of the 
 vast power of the screw — was something quite new, and 
 would have made you nestle into bed with mamma, 
 and cling close to her. But we felt that the great sea 
 was the Lord's own making, and that Jesus, our dear 
 Saviour, spent much of His time on the sea, and was 
 asleep on a pillow in a storm. In these large ships 
 everything is done which man can do to render them 
 safe. At last in the night we felt the steamer stop to 
 take soundings, and shortly after we heard that the 
 lighthouse of Trafalgar, on the south-coast of Spain, 
 was seen, and that we should shortly enter the straits, 
 and at 12 o'clock at night all the tossing was over, and 
 the ship cast anchor in the harbour of Gibraltar, and 
 we slept soundly till 5 o'clock, and then saw the 
 great Rock standing up close to us. It turned out a 
 beautiful day. A boat came off from shore laden with 
 oranges and sweet lemons. A man offered me thirty 
 great oranges, rich and ripe, for one shilling ; but this 
 was not cheap, for in the market one of the passengers 
 was offered two hundred for eighteenpence. We bought 
 some, and they tasted delicious, sweeter and with more 
 flavour than those we get in England. We did not think 
 there was time for us to land and to go into the town, 
 as there were only three hours, and sometimes it takes 
 an hour or two to get back : the weather had been so 
 rough, I thought it was wiser not to venture. We 
 
ROBERT BARCLAY. 
 
 77 
 
 had a splendid view of the rock of Gibraltar and the 
 African mountains, so I worked hard to sketch the 
 former, so that you should be able to fancy the scene. 
 Then came the time for starting, and we steamed right 
 on in front of the rock. There are great batteries of can- 
 non as Gibraltar is a strong fortress, which was taken 
 from the Spaniards by the English, and from its position 
 at the mouth of the Mediterranean gives great power to 
 its possessors in time of war. All the rock is mined, 
 and there are galleries for cannon. 
 
 " March. — We first saw the Sierra Nevada 
 (or snowy mountains) in the south coast of Spain, 
 it was rather hazy, but we clearly saw the snow 
 with a glass. The sun has been shining warmly, 
 and the wind has been behind us. The weather most 
 delightful, the sunsets glorious : the sun went down 
 yesterday with glorious pink, purple, and orange 
 clouds, and a green sky ; to-night with intense crim- 
 son, orange, and yellow. This morning early we saw 
 a mountain covered with snow, on the African coast ; 
 we could not learn its name. Perhaps it may be an 
 outlying one of the same range as the Atlas mountains." 
 
 " Valetta, Malta, 1 April, 72. 
 " We arrived here safely on Tuesday night, and 
 I was awoke by the quietness of the vessel, and all at 
 once bang went the cannon on board the ' Poonah.' 
 When we were dressed, at about six in the morning, 
 we found ourselves in the harbour, with forts bristling 
 all round us. This is the great harbour for England's 
 ships of war, and the largest ships can come in safely ; 
 there are two harbours running into the land. We 
 went on Saturday to see the ' Lord Clyde,' an ironclad 
 ship, which was injured off Pantellaria, an island in 
 the Mediterranean, which we passed on Friday. The 
 
78 
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 * Eaby Castle,' a merchant ship, had gone on shore, 
 and the ' Lord Clyde ' tried to pull her off with her 
 steam engine, and coidd not do so ; but got on shore 
 herself. We went to-day to Citta Yecchia, the old city 
 in the middle of the island ; then we saw the cave 
 in which the Apostle Paul is said to have lived for 
 some time. We also went into the catacombs, where 
 they used to bury persons. These catacombs are very 
 old. We each had lighted wax candles, and were led 
 underground some distance through winding, narrow 
 passages. One place was said to be a chapel ; but 
 whether the Christians made these catacombs, or the 
 Phoenicians long before, is not known. Then we drove 
 to the Apostle Paul's Bay ; in the Acts you read that 
 he was cast on an island called Melita ; and we saw 
 the creek into which they thrust in the ship, and 
 where two seas meet, and where the ship was wrecked ; 
 here we lunched. But I forgot to tell you that 
 before we came to Citta Yecchia we went to the gar- 
 dens of St. Antonio, and walked through the orange 
 and lemon plantations, and picked the oranges, and 
 eat them fresh from the trees. The sweet lemons are 
 pleasant in a hot climate. It is as warm here as in a 
 hot English summer. 
 
 " We leave, probably, to-morrow evening for Sy- 
 racuse — the Italian steamers only go if the wind is 
 favourable ; and they say, as something to laugh 
 at here, that an Italian captain ' telegraphed for his 
 umbrella, as he could not go to sea without it ! ' " 
 
 " Taormina, Sicily. 
 
 " I must now write you an account of our doings since 
 we left j\[alta. 
 
 " After breakfast we took a carriage to see the citadel, 
 or fort, of the ancient city, which you will find in your 
 
KOBERT BARCLAY. 
 
 79 
 
 history that Dionysius the Tyrant built over 2000 
 years ago. We rode for miles along the site of the 
 ancient walls/ of which very Httle is left now, because 
 the lazy people who lived afterwards built their houses 
 of the beautiful stones, with which the walls were 
 built. We found, however, just here that they were 
 very perfect ; and after leaving the carriage a gentle- 
 man who accompanied us, and who had travelled here 
 before and studied the ruins, took us to see the 
 fort. Here we found the thick walls built of hewn 
 stone, and a gateway and wonderful passages cut in the 
 rock, and a great trench or ditch like a railway cutting in 
 the rock. We went through these passages, and found 
 the stone as fresh as if it had been cut yesterday by the 
 chisel, and saw the places where the rock was cut to 
 tie up the horses for the soldiers ; some were dark, but 
 we found that we could always at the darkest part see 
 the light, and there was no danger of losing our way. 
 The next day we saw the tomb of Archimedes, the 
 great mechanician. You will read that when Marcellus, 
 the Roman general, came against the city, it was so 
 strong that he could do nothing against it, because 
 Hiero the king had employed Archimedes to make 
 instruments of war, and he made huge cross-bows and 
 engines to throw immense iron arrows and huge stones ; 
 and when his ships attacked the walls, Archimedes had 
 engines which seized the ships and swung them in the 
 air, and dashed them against the walls. It is said he 
 had great mirrors, with which, like a burning-glass, he 
 cast the rays of the sun on their ships and burnt them. 
 War is a very sad, cruel, and wicked thing ; but we must 
 not wonder at nor blame those who used to fight before 
 Christ came and forbade us to fight, and no doubt Archi- 
 medes felt that he was saving his country in turning 
 his wonderful genius for mechanics to such a use. The 
 
80 
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 Roman general, you Avill read, at last conquered, and 
 gave strict orders to his soldiers not to kill Archi- 
 medes. Such was his admiration of his wonderful 
 ingenuity, but a soldier killed him by accident. You 
 will read, too, that Dionysius the Tyrant built or 
 excavated an ear in the rocks, so that he might hear 
 what his prisoners said. They showed us a cavity, 
 in the solid rock, which is supposed to be this place, 
 and even a sheet of paper when torn produces an 
 astonishing sound. Then tliere are the remains of 
 Greek and Roman theatres cut in the solid rock ; all 
 the seats were originally covered with marble, and the 
 Greek theatre held 20,000 persons : the Greek theatre 
 was a half circle, with rows of seats all down. The 
 Roman amphitheatre was an oval ; in the latter we 
 saw the roofed dark galleries all round the amphitheatre, 
 from which the wild beasts were let out for men to fight 
 with, and there are the staples cut in the rock for chain- 
 ing them to. Then we saw the quarries where this 
 great ancient city obtained stone, cut down in the solid 
 rock nearly as deep as St. Vincent Rocks, Clifton ; there 
 were orange and lemon trees growing in the open 
 places in them. We went by railway the next day 
 to Catania, which is a large city just under Mount 
 Etna, the great volcano, and it was beautiful to look 
 down ' Etna Street ' to see the mountain covered with 
 snow, and sparkling in the sunshine. We went a 
 day's easy excursion to Nicholosi, to see the two extinct 
 volcanic cones of Monte Rossi. From these two cones 
 in 1696 the town was overwhelmed with lava. There 
 is a curious old picture in one of the churches represent- 
 ing it. It has been for years in the direct streams of 
 successive eruptions, and has flourished in spite of them. 
 The lava, when decomposed by the rain and sun, in the 
 course of years gives a soil of surpassing richness, and 
 
ROBERT. BARCLAY. 
 
 81 
 
 repays the destruction it causes. The people are rich, 
 and have a fancy for Paisley sliawls and bright-coloured 
 Scotch plaids. The street and houses are of lava. 
 The Greek and Roman theatres and baths are to be 
 seen below the lava, which has buried them. . . . 
 There are found in the interstices of the lava under the 
 sea huge prawns nourished by the vigorous vegetation 
 or the volcanic heat. We had some for dinner ; they 
 were eight inches long, and the antennae another eight 
 inches. Yet they are not lobsters, but prawns ! To-day 
 we are at Taormina, on the other side of Etna — a most 
 beautiful place. On one side we have the glorious view 
 of snowy Etna, nearly li,00t) feet high; and on the 
 other, the deep blue sea, the Straits of Messina. 
 Yesterday we mounted on donkeys, and climbed 
 up to a very strange little village called Mola, on the 
 top of a mountain, and the people of the town turned 
 out to see us. In this place we have given away such 
 a number of Italian Testaments, and the people are 
 quite eager for them, so that to day the little boys in 
 the streets are quite troublesome, crying out, 'I can 
 read ; give me a little book ;' and we give them gospels, 
 and make them read to us, to be sure what they say is 
 true." 
 
 " Messina, Friday, 12 April. 
 We have just left Taormina, a place of sur- 
 passing loveliness. We had on one side the sea running 
 into little rocky bays with islands, and on the other, the 
 snowy sweep of Etna. The little village is perched 
 upon the chlfs, and commands one of the most magnifi- 
 cent combinations of snowy mountain, bright blue sea, 
 and romantic heights it is possible to conceive. We 
 could just see a little white smoke curling out of Etna. 
 "Here are the remains of a large Greek theatre, 
 
82 
 
 MEMOIQ OF 
 
 altered by the Romans, said to be the largest in 
 Europe, and to have held 40,000 persons. This 
 I have attempted to sketch. There were beautiful 
 flowers of all kinds — petunias, irises, pinks, and 
 bee-orchis, besides the acanthus — and the prickly pear, 
 a gigantic cactus, of which they make their hedges. 
 Some of its leaves are a foot or fifteen inches long, and 
 ten inches wide. It grows ten, twelve, or fourteen feet 
 high, and bears the fruit called Indian fig or prickly 
 pears, of a brilliant magenta colour inside. We had 
 a great opening for our Testaments and Gospels 
 at Taormina. The son of the landlord seems to 
 have had his eyes opened when very young by an 
 American lady's tract and Testament. The whole 
 village was roused by the information that we had 
 Gospels and Testaments, so that at last we had to 
 refuse giving, and to trust to this young man's judg- 
 ment as to where they would be best disposed of. We 
 left thirteen Testaments with him, besides those we gave 
 away ourselves. We heard tliat a priest took a gospel 
 from a boy, and burnt it as a ' book most unsuitable 
 for young persons.' . . . At the Railway Station at 
 Gardino we had a run on our gospels, and gave away 
 all we had at hand. In the carriage we found some 
 very attentive recipients, who read in the Testa- 
 ments we gave them the whole way, and even com- 
 mented on texts, showing that the teaching was quite 
 new to them. There are said to be about four hun- 
 dred Protestants at Catania: there is a congregation 
 of one hundred-and-fifty. We worshipped with the 
 former last First day, and found some who sj^oke 
 English. We had very sound and excellent discourse — 
 (in Italian). They furnished us with an English Bible, 
 and we turned to the text, and understood it well. . . . 
 We are greatly enjoying the beauty of the scenery 
 
ROBERT BARCLAY. 
 
 83 
 
 and climate. Eoses, geraniums, petunias in bloom ; a 
 date palm in fruit in the gardens, . . . 
 
 To his Mother. 
 " Hotel Trinacria, Palermo, 19tli, 4th mo. 
 
 " We were so delighted with Messina that we 
 stayed there a week, and I am decidedly better for it, 
 and for our journey. Our window looked out over the 
 harbour. Beautiful mountains on the opposite side ; 
 the highest is covered with snow — Aspromonte, where 
 Garibaldi was taken by the Italian troops. The 
 weather was like a hot English summer, with a cool 
 breeze constantly blowing ; and the water as clear as 
 crystal at the very quay's edge. A more healthy and 
 delightful spot can hardly be imagined. 
 
 . . . There are some charming excursions from 
 Messina — one to Reggio, the ancient Rhegium (on the 
 mainland), mentioned in the account of Paul's voyage to 
 Rome in the Acts ; hence we obtain a beautiful view of 
 Etna. Another to the lighthouse on the ancient Cape 
 Palinurus. Here are the Scylla and Charybdis of ancient 
 poet's song. Scylla is a rock at the opening of the 
 straits ; Charybdis was supposed to be a whirlpool, and 
 here the current is very strong. A third excursion 
 is to the ' Telegra])hico,' an old beacon tower on 
 a mountain. From this point there is a most magnifi- 
 cent view ; each turn of the gradually ascending road 
 unveils more and more of the exquisite beauty of 
 Italian mountain scenery, the colouring is enchanting 
 — far below an ultramarine sea, with a sort of fairyland 
 in the distance. We see all over the straits, and the 
 coast of Sicily near Milazzo ; also Stromboli, whence 
 smoke is nearly always issuing. 
 
 " Palermo, through which we have just driven, is a 
 
 G 2 
 
84 
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 very fine city, with splendid buildings, and traces of the 
 magnificence of bygone time. It is large and populous, 
 and situated on the shore of a wide bay, surrounded by 
 high mountains. It is built in what is called the 
 * Concha d'Oro,' or shell of gold, the name given to this 
 .fertile plain, backed by the range of mountains. The 
 public gardens are magnificent, extending over some 
 acres with marble statues and fountains. We have been 
 walking this morning in orange groves ; the date palm 
 with its flower and fruit flourish in the open air, and 
 many other palms seen in our greenhouses ; the Datura 
 grows as a tree : the bamboo grows well. Some of 
 these latter were upwards of 40 feet high, and a foot 
 in circumference. Yesterday, as we were in the steamer, 
 the soft air was actually perfumed with the orange 
 blossoms from the land, at a distance of two miles or 
 more. To-day the sirocco is blowing, which makes it 
 hotter than we have hitherto had it. 
 
 " We have been spending the time very quietly here, 
 often sketching in the Belmonte Gardens, just under 
 Monte Pelegrino. The aloe grows luxuriantly, and 
 forms hedges with the cactus. This country is rich 
 in flowering trees of the most beautiful kinds ; the 
 Judas tree is very common, full of deep carmine- 
 coloured blossoms. We went yesterday afternoon 
 to the Botanical Gardens. 
 
 ***** 
 
 From Palermo R. and S. M. B. visited most of the 
 places of interest witliin a short distance of the town, 
 including Solentum, Monte Pelegrino, Monte Reale, 
 and the Saracen remains; owing to the unsettled 
 state of Sicily, they were unable to go into the interior, 
 or to visit the far famed ruins of Gerghenti and Soleste. 
 
EGBERT BARCLAY. 
 
 85 
 
 Although Monte Reale is only four miles from 
 Palermo, piquets of soldiers were placed at short 
 intervals. 
 
 " Sorrento, near Naples, 5th of 5th mo. 
 
 " We arrived at Naples on Thursday morning, 
 2nd May, exactly a week after the terrible eruption 
 of Vesuvius. On the Wednesday of the previous week 
 there was a slight outburst of lava, and a great 
 number of persons went up to the observatory to see 
 it at night. About 4 o'clock on Thursday morning a 
 column of black smoke arose from the crater, and 
 about the middle of the day there was the slight 
 shock of an earthquake, and the lava was seen de- 
 scending. By night the spectacle was awfully grand. 
 Three great streams of lava flowed down ; one towards 
 Terro del Greco, and one towards Portici and Resina, 
 and another towards San Georgio and San Sebastiano. 
 The mountain looked as if it had cracked all down, 
 and the lava licked up the houses like wisps of hay. 
 The roads were crowded with people flying with their 
 goods. The Government placed all the vehicles in 
 Naples at their disposal, and the railway worked all 
 night. 
 
 " On the sixth day the lava ceased to flow, having 
 destroyed a part of San Georgio and a large part of 
 San Sebastiano. The noise after this was fearful — like 
 the crash of thunder, the ground quivering with 
 the vibration. To complete the scene, ashes began to 
 fall in Naples on the seventh day, and had only partially 
 ceased when we arrived. A . most fearful thunder- 
 storm was caused by the Sirocco Levante passing over 
 the heated mountain ; and the lightning and thunder, 
 and the bellowing of the mountain on the second day 
 
86 MEMOIR OF 
 
 made a large number of Neapolitan and English leave 
 the city, not knowing what would come next. But 
 all has now ceased, and to-day there was hardly any 
 smoke from Vesuvius. 
 
 " Hotel Tramontana, Sorrento, near Naples, 
 19 May. 
 
 " . , . . To-day we are quietly resting in a spot 
 which is, I think, as near to an ' earthly Paradise ' as 
 any I have ever seen. This hotel, and the Villa Nardi, 
 which is the ' pension ' of the hotel, are perched on lofty 
 cliffs on the north shore of the Bay of Naples, in the 
 midst of a lovely garden, where we can walk in the 
 midst of orange and lemon groves, the golden fruit 
 hanging within our reach. Oranges are almost over, 
 but lemons refreshingly meet our eye e\ erywhere, and 
 the air perfumed with the scent of orange blossom. 
 Sorrento is situated in a slightly rising plain, bounded 
 by high mountains at the back, and is like a well- 
 watered garden, with miles of orange and lemon and 
 olive plantations. Towards the sea, this plain is 
 bounded by cliffs, and below is the intensely blue sea. 
 To our left is the Island of Capri, in the soft dreamy 
 blue haze. Before us, slightly to the right, the darlc 
 mysterious form of Vesuvius, rising from the plain in 
 which Naples and its environs are situated, with an 
 almost imperceptible slope from Portici. He is now 
 slumbering as gently as a giant after his terrible exer- 
 tions of the last three weeks. But there seems every 
 probability of profound rest for the present. Opposite 
 to us, to the left, are the islands of Ischia and Procida, 
 with their beautiful outlines : Naples, Portici, Resina, 
 Torro del Greco, or Torre del Annunciata, facing the 
 shore of the bay like pearls in a diadem. . . . On our 
 extreme right, we see in the distance blue mountains 
 
EGBERT BARCLAY. 
 
 87 
 
 skirting the plain under Vesuvius, where Pompeii and 
 the ancient Stabias, Castellamare, where we stayed, 
 were overwhelmed with cinders and sand, 
 
 " We have visited with very great interest Pompeii 
 and Herculaneum. We saw at the former place a 
 street, part of it freshly excavated ; it was buried in 
 pumice, ashes, and lumps of ejected hard lava, twenty 
 feet deep ! ! The museum of Naples has received 
 the relics of the greatest value. In one point, the 
 Pompeians were wiser than ourselves — there were 
 plenty of ever-running fountains, for drinking and for 
 watering their horses, in the streets, which were well 
 paved, and are deeply worn with the ruts of the chariot 
 wheels. There were high stepping-stones here and 
 there to prevent the Pompeiian ladies from soiling 
 their delicate feet; and the paths by the side were 
 formed in cement with marbles of different colours 
 imbedded with a good foundation of crushed brick. 
 The baths are very extensive, and some of the leaden 
 and bronze pipes appear perfect. The most important 
 house had a fountain in the centre. . . . There is a 
 melancholy interest about the plaster casts of several 
 persons buried in the ashes in the act of flying from 
 the fiery shower. A mother and daughter are there — 
 the mother has buried her face in a handkerchief, and 
 dies apparently without a hope of escape ; the daughter 
 had struggled ; the jewels of gold, necklaces, ear-rings, 
 and a splendid gold chain, are in perfect condition in 
 the Museum of Naples. : . . We went to Amalfi the 
 beginning of last week. The hotel is an old vacated 
 monastery in a lovely situation. The scenery is as 
 romantic as it is possible to conceive, with strange 
 towers and old buildings perched in the rocks. In- 
 deed, I sympathize with a young lady who said, ' I shed 
 tears .when I left Amalfi.' I had, however finished 
 
88 
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 my sketch, and possibly she had not, which made a 
 great difference ! " 
 
 " Rome, 15tb June. 
 
 " .... I must tell you of another visit we paid to 
 Vesuvius. We went up the mountain to the Obser- 
 vatory, where Professor Palmieri stayed all through 
 the eruption watching his instruments. We saw first 
 the earthquake measurer, which registers on paper how 
 many shakes are given to the mountain by the power 
 of the eruption. We continued our excursion over 
 the still hot lava, which had loose earth and cinders 
 on it. Mamma and I rode on ponies till we came to 
 one of the little craters or fumaoli, when we saw the 
 lava all red-hot like a furnace, so that we could stand 
 only a few seconds in front of it, and it fumed out 
 sulphur, salt, &c. . . . 
 
 Ten days only could be devoted to Rome : the sea- 
 son had been remarkably cool, but now summer had 
 come, and on the 12th of June R. and S. M. B. left the 
 south of Italy for Switzerland, where the crisp invigo- 
 rating air of St. Moritz was keenly appreciated after 
 the soft air of Italy ; the contrast of scene was very 
 striking. R. B. writes on the 26th of June, 
 
 " I have just been looking out of the window, and 
 it has been snowing fast . . . Yesterday we drove 
 to the top of the Bernina Pass, 7695 feet high ; it 
 was opened only the evening before. We passed 
 through cuttings of snow nearly or quite twenty feet 
 deep. We met great flocks of the Bergamerza sheep ; 
 they ate bread out of my hand." 
 
ROBERT BARCLAY. 
 
 89 
 
 From St. Moritz and Pontresina the lover of Alpine 
 scenery finds an endlees variety of the most charming 
 excursions, lakes, forests, glaciers, and mountain tops, 
 without attempting the highest peaks, the favourite 
 haunts of the Alpine Club. The florist too has a rich 
 treat ; " the green sward," writes R. B., " is begemmed 
 with flowers of the most lovely kinds, the ' forget-me- 
 not,' in quantities, makes the meadows look as if 
 jewelled with turquoise. In a single walk we gathered 
 more than ninety kinds of flowers." About the middle 
 of July the travellers returned home. R. B. had mate- 
 rially improved in health, but was still far from strong. 
 
 To a near Relative. 
 
 " Malvern, 12th October, 1872. 
 " .... I have, as you can easily conceive, been very 
 busy after so long an absence from home, everything 
 having accumulated, and endeavouring to be careful of 
 myself has not rendered it more easy to get through 
 
 my work of various kinds I can perhaps better 
 
 enter into the trials of those who are in failing health 
 than I could before I was ill — although my trial has 
 been more the feeling of valuable time wasted, the 
 favourite pursuits of my daily life having to be laid aside 
 — than the trial of acute pain, or of positive disease slowly 
 making inroads on strength. I feel how needful it is to 
 seek for strength not our own, to prevent bodily weak- 
 ness from inducing us to lower our standard of attention 
 to daily religious duties and daily religious thoughtful- 
 ness and prayerfulness. We are too apt to associate 
 religious work and activity with a right state of heart. 
 No doubt work acts as a stimulus to [strive] after a 
 
90 
 
 MEMOIK OF 
 
 right state of heart, and the ' doer of the Word ' 
 ' shall be blessed in his deed.' But 1 have thought 
 to-day that what we need to pray for and to strive 
 after is a real faith ; for I greatly doubt, and have seen 
 great reason to doubt, the tendency of the present day 
 to place Love before FaitJi in order of time. Love is a 
 greater thing than Faith, for ' if I have all faith, so 
 that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I 
 am nothing.' I am sure the Apostle, when he puts 
 ' Faith, Hope, and Charity,' would not have allowed 
 me to cojrect his Epistle, and put ' Charity, Hope, 
 Faith.' Love is the crowning glory of the Christian 
 character ; but I think that to hope to attain to it 
 without true childlike faith and trust, for time and eternity, 
 in Christ as our '■ Saviour- God^ without the conviction 
 that ive are those whom God hath purchased with his Own 
 Blood (Acts XX. 28), without being able to say, I know 
 in whom / have believed,' is not according to the 
 things which we have learned in Holy Scripture, or the 
 things which we have been 'assured of by the gra- 
 dual work of the Holy Spirit taking of the things of 
 God and showing them to us. I think we often need 
 to pray for an increase of faith when we are weak in 
 body and able to do little or nothing for our Lord, and 
 to desire a realisation of the tender love which is 
 watching over us, and to strive to believe that the 
 
 Lord's hand is in everything I think there is a 
 
 tendency with us all to forget this, and not the less in 
 this day when a kind of Pantheism is insinuating itself 
 everywhere almost in our literature, which in its mag- 
 nificent view of the orderly sequence of events seems to 
 forget that this is only one side of the attributes of 
 ' Our Father.' I must, however, close. In a word, I 
 think to let in a doubt of the power of Christ to carry 
 on His great work, and to perfect us in all which con- 
 
ROBERT BARCLAY. 
 
 91 
 
 stitiites holiness, without any ordinary opportunities of 
 doing good to others except by our daily lives (and 
 even this in sickness often seems impossible), is a thing 
 against which we need to watch. True faith will 
 always work by love ; and when we seem to ourselves 
 most useless, we need to be ever striving after a 
 right state of mind and attitude of soul, remembering 
 tliat ' they serve who only stand and wait;' for 'God 
 needs not our own works nor our gifts.' 
 
 " Hoping you will not mind being constituted 
 auditor of an evening sermon, I am, with much love 
 to you all, 
 
 " Your affectionate , 
 
 "Robert Barclay." 
 
 In February, 1873, R. and S. M. B. paid a visit to 
 their brother, John Barclay, in Falmouth, and early 
 in the summer they removed from Tottenham, to 
 reside at Reigate. This step was not lightly under- 
 taken ; but on account of R. B.'s health a residence 
 more completely in the country seemed desirable. 
 Perhaps the memory of his early school days, the 
 happy rambles among the hills — " in the clear air, 
 and under the blue skies of Surrey " — made him 
 think of Reigate ; and now, with a deeper pleasure 
 than that of a schoolboy's, did he again wander over 
 these hills, and he often afterwards expressed his 
 tliankfulness that his home was in the midst of such 
 beautiful scenery. 
 
 Before leaving the home in which the first sixteen years 
 of his married life were spent, Robert Barclay writes : 
 
92 
 
 MEMOIE OF 
 
 " Many and earnest are my desires and prayers for 
 guidance and direction in our outward and spiritual 
 course. We both need a more perfect trust and reliance 
 on our heavenly Father's presence and guidance, through 
 the Spirit of Jesus our Lord and Saviour. How very 
 much we have to be thankful for in the past ! Surely 
 one good thing hath not failed — unless it be through 
 our own want of faith, patience, and watchfulness — of 
 all His promises." 
 
 The fervent morning prayer with the gathered house- 
 hold, the calm brightness of his spirit in daily life, told 
 to others where were his confidence and joy : he lived 
 in the sunshine of his Saviour's love, and this sunshine 
 he shed around him. 
 
 Later on in the year R. and S. M. B. spent several 
 weeks in the Engadine, an outing from which R. B. 
 derived much benefit. 
 
 At the yearly meeting, 1874, Robert Barclay was 
 appointed on the committee which was formed to con- 
 sider the subject of the alteration and reconstruction of 
 the " meeting of ministers and elders." In writing to 
 a friend, in January, 1876, R. B. enforces the " neces- 
 sity" of the persons appointed "having spiritual gifts." 
 
 "This," he continues, "seems to me as important for 
 the congregation to bear in mind, as the query to the 
 members of this meeting, whether they faithfully 
 occupy the spiritual gifts entrusted to them ?".... 
 
 "It is an exceedingly important point, and one 
 which places upon the committee a very serious Chris- 
 
ROBERT BARCLAY. 
 
 93 
 
 tian responsibility, so to define the duties and qualifica- 
 tions of their new officers, and of the new meeting, as 
 to exclude those having no gifts for actual service ; and 
 if the new meeting has a large balance of such (whicli 
 it is probable, in spite of all our definitions, it will 
 have) very serious injury instead of benefit may accrue 
 from the change." 
 
 R. and S. M. B. again went to Switzerland, and 
 never did they more enjoy a journey. R. Barclay 
 seemed stronger than for some years past, and once 
 again delighted in long mountain walks. 
 
 Brightly and without a cloud rose the sun on the 
 first morning of 1875, and R. B.'s wife drew his 
 attention to it, and remarked that there seemed to 
 be no " cloud in their bright heaven of blue." The 
 blessing of restored health (alluding to his own) was 
 among many others with which their cup was full to 
 overflowing. Calmly and brightly passed that year 
 away. In August R. and S. M. B. attended the British 
 Association, which was held in Bristol, and at their 
 father's house met many interesting persons. In the 
 autumn, after spending a few weeks in Wales, tliey 
 visited Cambridge, searching in its libraries for further 
 material for the forthcoming volume, in reference to 
 which R. Barclay wrote, in a letter to a friend, " My 
 own work will, I trust, be published within the year ; 
 it has been a most laborious undertaking." 
 
 In the preface to this volume he says that for " the 
 last eight years the leisure of a busy life has been 
 
94 
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 devoted to the collection and arrangement of the 
 materials for this work." They only who have been 
 engaged in historical research can form any idea of the 
 amount of time and labour that he bestowed upon it. 
 Robert Barclay did not live to see the book quite 
 finished : but only the concluding sentences remained to 
 be written. He had looked forward with great interest 
 to its publication, and it would have been a source of 
 real gratification to him to have known how cordially 
 his work has been welcomed. A few weeks after his 
 death the volume was in the possession of many of his 
 friends : one of whom, in thanking his wife for a 
 copy, says, " and as we read we shall thank him also, 
 who now rests from the labour of its pages, but who 
 leaves such a legacy behind, amongst the works which 
 follow him. Perhaps, sealed as it is with his death, it 
 will hold its way with peculiar interest and greater 
 power than if he were still here to watch its progress, 
 thus carrying out his dearest wishes with regard to it." 
 
 To one of his Children. 
 
 " Eeigate, Sunday, 30th Jany. 1876. 
 " I had the pleasure of preaching at New Street 
 Mission Hall in Bristol, there are often five hundred 
 persons present. It was on the occasion of a funeral : 
 a poor woman had died in Christ, and in an assured 
 hope of heaven and happiness. The funeral party 
 consisted of the husband, two daughters, and two 
 sons. ... I preached to them on the text, ' Who are 
 they in white robes, and whence come they? these 
 
ROBERT BARCLAY. 
 
 95 
 
 are they that have come out of great tribulation, and 
 they washed their robes and made them wliite in 
 the blood of the Lamb.' I tried to bring before 
 them the reality and happiness of heaven, and how 
 it consisted in holiness obtained for us, by Christ's 
 precious blood. I quite hope they were comforted. 
 ... I always have great pleasure in preaching there, as I 
 know persons to whom God has blessed it in that place." 
 
 Early in the spring of this year (1876) R. Barclay 
 had to mourn the loss of his beloved mother, and 
 deeply felt the removal of the one parent he had 
 known. He was often with her during her illness, and 
 watched by her bed-side during the last solemn hour. 
 ■ Towards the end of March R. B. suffered from 
 an attack of acute rheumatism, and from this time 
 often complained of what appeared to be neuralgic 
 headache. In August he went with his family to 
 Ventnor, and though often not feeling strong, he never 
 more thoroughly enjoyed a stay at the sea-side, his 
 children being old enough to be his companions; and 
 ever will they remember those bappy holidays, filled 
 with all the pleasure that the sea-side can give. Robert 
 Barclay was a very fond and devoted father, and pecu- 
 liarly able to throw himself into his children's pursuits ; 
 he entered with zest into their amusements and was 
 always bright and joyous with them. In their education 
 he took a deep interest, and j^ossessed a most happy 
 method of teaching, which never failed to engage their 
 attention. 
 
96 
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 Soon after their return from Yentnor, R. B., his 
 wife and eldest daughter, were at Gotham on the 
 occasion of the death of his wife's youngest sister. 
 Allusion has been made to this event, page 13. 
 
 On Sunday, the 23rd of October, Robert Barclay was 
 in Birmingham, and in a letter to his wife he says that 
 at meeting in the morning he preached a sermon on 
 the text — 
 
 " * I pray not that Thou shouldst take them Out of 
 the world ; they are not of the world, even as I am 
 not of the world ; sanctify them through Thy truth ; 
 Thy word is truth,' &c. There was a large congrega- 
 tion of young people ; very few old friends — wonder- 
 fully so ; I exhorted them to greater dedication of heart 
 to Christ, to that progressive sanctification which con- 
 sists in following the character of Christ by the power 
 and help of the Holy S23irit ; [dwelt] upon our having 
 a great High Priest, and so' great a sacrifice, in which 
 the blood of God * (as it is termed in Paul's address to 
 the Ephesian elders) was shed for us, that we may 
 enter into the Holiest. After dinner I lay down and 
 had some rest, then tea and a walk to the Severn 
 Street Mission. This is a congregation formed princi- 
 pany of scholars in the adult Sunday school and their 
 families — there are about three hundred members. . . . 
 I spoke on the parable of the sower in Luke, . . . and 
 was told that the people were much interested and en- 
 joyed the address. ... I am feeling very well this 
 morning ; the weather is fine and clear " 
 
 * Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over 
 the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church 
 of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood." — Acts xx. 28. 
 
KOBER.T BARCLAY. 
 
 97 
 
 How little did Robert Barclay's friends think, when 
 expressing to him the wish that he would more often 
 come to Birmiogham, that they for the last time had 
 heard his voice pleading in his Master's cause. 
 
 After R. B.'s death, and in reference to this visit, a 
 friend writes : " . . . Many have mentioned how in- 
 teresting was the address he gave that morning in 
 Birmingham Meeting. How solemn and touching is 
 the thought of how near Heaven was to him then ! 
 And all who knew and loved him must feel abun- 
 dantly comforted by the assurance of the joy the change 
 must be to him." 
 
 On Sunday, oOtli October, in his own meeting, 
 R. B.'s voice was heard, and we believe again on 
 Thursday, the 3id of November. His friends had 
 been very much struck with his ministry of late, and 
 one prayer was specially commented upon, " as if Robert 
 Barclay were in very near communion with Heaven." 
 A similar remark was made many months before by 
 one who was much impressed by his being " ready for 
 the Kingdom." 
 
 On Friday R. B. went to meet his wife at Reading 
 on her return from Bristol. He looked pale, but 
 was very bright and cheerful, though he complained 
 of neuralgic headache and that morning had seen 
 the doctor. 
 
 The next few days he was not as well as usual, 
 though at times bright and cheerful, and was less 
 inclined to occupy himself. On Tuesday he did not 
 
 H 
 
98 
 
 MEMOII? OF 
 
 get up, feeling raiicli more op})ressed, and suffering 
 from violent headache. Wednesday he seemed de- 
 cidedly better ; but very early on Thursday morn- 
 ing alarming symptoms manifested themselves. It 
 was afterwards found that a blood-vessel in the brain 
 had given way. Thus, before danger was appre- 
 hended, and during the silent hours of the night, con- 
 sciousness was at rest. Almost imperceptibly had his 
 mind been withdrawn from earth ; and in great mercy 
 lie was spared the knowledge that he was now to leave 
 those whom he loved so devotedly. At three o'clock 
 an eminent physician from London saw him. No 
 glimmer of hope remained. It was too evident that 
 the call had come, that Death was near. A day and 
 a half passed on; then, three-quarters of an hour 
 after midnight, on Saturday morning, 11th of No- 
 vember, came the final summons, and his spirit left 
 us. For him we cannot doubt that Death had lost 
 its sting. Perhaps even this beloved one knew not of 
 its presence — knew not that he had been passing 
 through the Dark Valley, until he heard the voice 
 of his dear Lord and Master saying, " Well done, thou 
 good and faithful servant ; thou hast been faithful over 
 a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things, 
 enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." " I am Alpha and 
 Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the 
 Last. Blessed are they that do His commandments, 
 that they may have right to the Tree of Life, and 
 may enter in through the gates into the City," 
 
ROBERT BARCLAY. 
 
 99 
 
 On the 15th of November the mortal remains were 
 laid by the side of his infant children, in the burial- 
 ground at Winchmore Hill, the quiet resting-place 
 of his ancestors for many generations. 
 
 The company of mourners was large, and included 
 most of the employe's of the firm, who testified by their 
 presence the warm regard and esteem they felt for 
 their late Master. Many were the deep feelings of the 
 heart which found utterance in ministry and prayer, 
 both at the grave side and in the Meeting-house. 
 The words spoken of the Lord Jesus were felt to be 
 applicable to the beloved departed one,—" He is risen, 
 he is not here : behold the place where they laid him " 
 — and were revived in a sermon, in the full belief 
 that though his body was laid in the grave, his spirit 
 was with his risen Saviour. 
 
 These verses, repeated by R. B. in a sermon not 
 long before, were cited by one of the mourners. They 
 beautifully express the Christian's faith and the ground 
 of his hope — 
 
 " 'I am the resurrection,' hear Him saying; 
 ' I am the Life ; he that believes on Me 
 Shall never die ; the souls My call obeying 
 Soon where I am for evermore shall be.' 
 
 " Sing hallelujah, light from Heaven apjiearing, 
 The mystery of life and death is plain ; 
 Now to the grave we can descend unfearing, 
 In sure and certain hope to rise again." 
 
 H 2 
 
100 
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 The following texts and portions of texts were found 
 in Eobert Barclay's waistcoat pocket; selected by 
 himself, and in his own writing ; they seemed to come as 
 his last farewell ; a farewell full of hope and comfort : 
 a " message, as it were, from one who had just passed 
 within the veil." 
 
 " ' For ever with the Lord.' 
 
 ' But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning 
 them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, as those that have no hope. 
 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them 
 which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him.' 1 Thcss. iv. 13. 
 
 ' For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. To depart and 
 to be with Christ is far better.' Phil. i. 21. 
 
 ' The righteous is taken away from the evil to come. He shall 
 enter into peace.' Isaiah Ivii. 
 
 ' Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth : 
 Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours ; and 
 their works do follow them.' Bev. xiv. 13. 
 
 ' Let not your heart be troubled : ye believe in God, believe also 
 in Me. In My Father's house are many mansions : if it were not so, 
 I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.' John xiv. 
 
 ' Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far 
 more exceeding and eternal weight of glory ; while we look not at the 
 things which are seen,' etc. 2 Cor. iv. 17. 
 
 ' The beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's 
 bosom.' Luke xvl. 22. 
 
 'Come unto Me, all ye that are weary* and heavy laden.' 
 Matt. xi. 28. 
 
 ' Blessed are they that mourn : for they shall be comforted.' 
 
 ' In the world ye shall have tribulation : but be of good cheer ; I 
 have overcome the world.' 
 
 * Alfoid. 
 
EGBERT BARCLAY. 
 
 101 
 
 'Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord piticth them 
 that fear him, for He knoweth our frame. The mercy of the Lord is 
 from everlasting.' Ps. ciii. 13. 
 
 ' Now for a season ye are in heaviness, that the trial of your faith 
 should be found to praise and honour and glory.' 1 Pet. 
 
 ' But the God of all gi-ace, who hath called us into His kingdom 
 and glory by Christ Jesus, after ye have suffered awhile, stablish.' 
 1 Pet. 
 
 ' They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.' Ps. cxxvi. 
 
 ' To bind up the broken hearted. To comfort all that mourn. 
 To appoint to them that moui'n in Zion beauty for ashes,' etc. Isaiah 
 Ixi. 1, 2, 3. 
 
 'I will not leave you orphans,* I will come to you.' John xiv. 18. 
 
 ' And when the Lord saw her. He had compassion on her, and said 
 unto her, Weep not.' Lulce vii. 13. 
 
 ' In the world ye shall have ti-ibulation, in Me peace. Be of good 
 cheer ; I have overcome the world.' John xvi. 33. 
 
 ' Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on 
 Thee; because he trusteth in Thee. Trust ye in the Lord for over; for 
 in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength.' Isaiah xxvi. 3, 4." 
 
 * Alford. 
 
The impressive circumstances under which ' The 
 Inner Life,' etc., was concluded has induced the Editor 
 to give extracts from a few of the letters addressed to 
 her — by correspondents of the Author holding distin- 
 guished positions in the literary world — thinking they 
 may be read with interest. 
 
MEMOIR OF ROBERT BARCLAY. 
 
 103 
 
 Fivju John Waddington, D.D., Author of ' Congregational 
 
 History.' 
 
 " 9 Surrey Square, January 3, 1876. 
 
 " .... In form, appearance, and the beauty of type and 
 printing, it {the work) is admirable, and must remain for genera- 
 tions to come a remarkable monument to the amazing labour, 
 conscientious care, and literary skill of its deeply-lamented and 
 justly-esteemed author. It is a mine of useful and very rare 
 information, and in tone and spirit all that could be desired. 
 The practical aim of the work is no less excellent. In the 
 feeling of deep regret all must feel at the unexpected removal 
 of Mr. Barclay, it is a great consolation and source of peculiar 
 satisfaction that his book is not left in an unfinished condition. 
 Minor typographical errors, with the utmost care, are unavoid- 
 able, especially in a first edition. Few can imagine the toil 
 that must have been expended in the collection and arrange- 
 ment of the materials in simple and lucid order. I trust the 
 great and sacred object of Mr. Barclay will be accomplished, 
 and that his valedictory words will produce a wide, profound, 
 and lasting impression. I cannot doubt but that in the 
 Society of Friends the work will be regarded as a peculiar 
 treasure, and that you will be cheered by its reception on 
 all hands. 
 
 " I am, &c." 
 
 From Eilwd. B. UndcrhiU, LL.D., Editor of the Hansard-Knollys 
 Society s puhlications. 
 
 " Derwent Lodge, Hampstuad Ilill, 
 " January 4, 1876. 
 
 " .... It is indeed a noble volume, and a remarkable memo- 
 rial of hiy exhaustive research and his devout spirit. All who 
 knew him must be glad to have this record of his zeal for 
 the truth as it is in Jesus, and his earnest desii*e to revive 
 
104 
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 many of the best and most important of the principles 
 and practices of the body of which he was a minister and 
 ornament. It is too soon to speak of the manner in which 
 he has executed his task. But I do know how conscien- 
 tiously and unwearyingly he sought to secure accuracy, and 
 with what candour he was prepared to estimate every form of 
 opinion which came before him. His magnificent volume will 
 be a treasury of knowledge on a siibject very obscurely treated, 
 or known, by historians, and will have a high value in the 
 judgment of every one whose studies have been in the same 
 direction. 
 
 " I am, &c." 
 
 From Cluirles Coffin, Cleric of Indiana Yearly Meeting. 
 
 " Eichmoud, U.S.A., 4 mo. 20, 1877. 
 
 " I wish to inform thee with how much pleasure and profit 
 I have carefully read the valuable book of thy late dear hus- 
 band. I am greatly surprised at the immense labour and 
 research it must have given him. Many things which he 
 mentions are entirely new to me. I fully concur in his con- 
 clusions as to the main cause of the decline of Friends, and 
 hope his book will have an important part in correcting 
 some of these errors. Indeed, I have rarely read a book 
 which has more real value in the present state of the civil 
 
 and religious world During a late conference at 
 
 Baltimore about the Indians, the book was the subject of con- 
 versation in private circles, and is attracting much attention 
 amongst Friends. 
 
 " It will be some satisfaction to thee to know that a work 
 which caused him so much labour is likely to be appreciated 
 and useful. 
 
 " I look upon it as the most valuable book that has been 
 published in our Society for many years. 
 
 " Having fully sympathised with thy dear husband in his 
 preparatory work, I join with thee in rejoicing at its acceptance 
 by the public." 
 
 " I am, &c." 
 
ROBERT BARCLAY. 
 
 105 
 
 From F. Nijjpold, Professor of Cliurcli History of the University, 
 
 Bern. 
 
 [Translated.] 
 
 " Bern, May 1, 1877. 
 
 " . . . . Before I speak about the book, allow me to say a 
 few words concerning the author who was so closely related to 
 yourself. The intelligence of his death while he was still so 
 actively engaged in his wide sphere of studies gave me quite a 
 shock. His learned letters had aroused my warmest interest, 
 and his sudden death immediately before the conclusion of such a 
 Herculean task was very affecting. The question involuntarily 
 suggested itself, Did he not overwork himself ? 
 
 "But I was not the only one pained by the sad tidings, 
 but others as well, who expected great things of his work, as, 
 for instance, my colleague Stern, the author of a work on 
 Milton, which was well received in England. On receiving 
 the mourning card, I felt a great desire to express my heartfelt 
 sympathy, but I did not know to whom to send, as none of the 
 surviving relatives were mentioned upon the card, , . . Now 
 I know whom to address, and must confess at the outset that 
 for a long time no work has made such an impression upon me. 
 The wealth of original matter is no less conspicuous than the 
 rigidly scientific method of treatment, and the spirit of pro- 
 found and devout piety which pervades the whole. As soon as 
 my time allows, I hope to make my opinion known to the 
 German literary world. In the meantime allow me to express 
 to you my heartfelt sympathy in the loss of such a husband. I 
 know two of his friends (De Hoop Scheflfer, of Amsterdam, and 
 Mr. M., of Cambridge), but how glad I should have been to 
 have made his personal acquaintance ! His book will be held 
 in sacred remembrance. 
 
 " I am, &c., &c." 
 
 Professor Nippold again writes : — 
 
 " Bern, January 30, 1878. 
 
 " In the case of a work of such extent and of such import- 
 ance, some time must elapse before it takes root, but for the 
 future there is little doubt about it, as it carries out a series of 
 
106 
 
 MEMOIK OF 
 
 new points of view which are all but foreign to German theo- 
 logians. I have myself placed the excellent work at the head 
 in the Bibliography for a third edition of my latest ' Church 
 History/ where in the introduction to this new edition, the 
 different opinions with regard to the Keformation and its deve- 
 lopment pass in review. . . . Upon German historical research, 
 in particular, I feel sure that the work of your husband will 
 exercise an important and valuable influence. 
 
 " The point upon the right criticism of which Church history 
 depends is the Keformation of the sixteenth century. Either, 
 on the one hand, the Eeformation is understood from a dog- 
 matic point of view — I had rather said misunderstood — con- 
 sidered on the one side by religious parties from their own 
 point of view. Thus, we have Koman Catholic, Lutheran, 
 Calvinistic, Anglican, and a number of other representa- 
 tions. To this extreme, which deals the death-blow to all 
 scientific impartiality, is opposed the other view, which, not 
 satisfied with rejecting dogmatic narrowness, rejects also the 
 Christian element which lies beyond and above all creeds. 
 These views, at the present time widely spread in Germany, 
 are based partly on Buckle, Draper, Hartzsole, and Lecky, 
 although these literary men do not themselves draw these con- 
 clusions. Equally opposed to both these classes of opinion, a 
 school is now forming itself which has learned in the history of 
 the Keformation to distinguish sharply between the universal 
 fermentation process as such, and the formation of new ' Creeds' 
 or independent denominations, to which that of the Tridentine 
 Catholics belong. This school at the same time lays special 
 emphasis on the history quite recently opened up, and based 
 upon the continual investigation of archives, of the religious 
 parties of the sixteenth century, repudiated as sects and 
 fanatics, but which cannot be separated from the general 
 movement, but which undoubtedly possessed elements of truth, 
 which, in the seventeenth century, came to the front afresh in 
 England, and especially in North America, and attained the 
 greatest importance. 
 
 " How the work of your husband fits in precisely here and 
 deals with the subject I need not analyse. The treasures 
 ofi'ered in it speak for themselves." 
 
ROBERT BARCLAY. 
 
 107 
 
 From P. A. Tiele, Conservator of the University Lihranj, Leyden. 
 
 " LeycTen, May 6, 1877. 
 
 " I am much indebted to you for the copy you sent me of the 
 very interesting work of your deceased husband, the report of 
 whose death I received with much sorrow. This work will be 
 an everlasting monument to his great knowledge and true 
 insight into the history of the human mind. ' It is a great loss 
 to the literary world that it has not been granted to him to 
 pursue his important studies. 
 
 " I am, etc., &c." 
 
 From J. G. de Hoop Scheffer, Professor of the University, 
 Amsterdam. 
 
 " January, 1878. 
 
 " This highly interesting work affords far more than its 
 title leads one to expect. It not only takes us back to the days 
 of the commonwealth, nor does it simply exhibit to us a true 
 image of the inner constitution of religious societies founded 
 at "that time, but it also goes some sixty years back in order 
 to inquire into their first origin (chap, ii., vii., and x.), con- 
 taining, moreover, their history after the accession of Charles II. 
 (chap. XX., xxvi.), including the Methodists, while its last three 
 chapters are dedicated to the Universities, to statistical accounts, 
 and to general observations on principles of Church structure. 
 Little touching this subject ever was written. Most historians 
 drew exclusive attention to the great divisions- of the Church, 
 viz., the Eoman Catholics, the Eeformed, the Lutheran ; or in 
 England, the Anglicans and Presbyterians, and did but very 
 superficially describe the smaller ones. And when a few 
 actually made it their serious task, these only gave an account 
 of the external circumstances of the smaller societies and their 
 characteristic opinions, but never in a critical and practical 
 manner has mention been made about their origin or connexion. 
 
 " Whoever wishes rightly to estimate this book must take 
 into account that it is entirely a neiv sort of examination. It 
 was necessary in this research to discover the rarest treatises 
 which were thought to have been lost, to make use of manu- 
 script documents previously unknown, to peruse records which 
 
108 
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 had never been examined before, and to read wearisome polemic 
 writings ; and, further, there was needed an ability to read 
 between the lines, combined with a talent to bring facts before 
 the mind, which can only be gained by great zeal and perse- 
 verance, and requires a vast glance which but few command. 
 
 " It must be owned that the author has occasionally not 
 escaped the danger associated with this combining system, and 
 when stating that different sects correspond, he now and then 
 loses sight of the fact that conformity of feelings being often 
 only the effects of similar circumstances, does not always allow 
 us to state a common origin and descent. 
 
 " On the other hand, the author's demonstration that the 
 origin of the religious sects of the Commonwealth was in 
 the Brownists in the Netherlands, and through them in the 
 Dutch Menonites, cannot but be considered a masterpiece, 
 which opens an entirely new point of view in the history of the 
 Puritans, Baptists, Independents, and Friends. 
 
 " Let me only add that the whole work breathes a spirit of 
 fervent conviction and of warm devotedness, and no one will 
 wonder to find mo fully convinced that all who are able to 
 judge about it will not only own the great merit of this work, 
 but will also respect and love the author who devoted so much 
 time to a task so well finished." 
 
 From Professor Cornelius, of Munich, author of the ' History of the 
 Disturhances in Miinster,' etc., etc. 
 
 [Translated.] 
 
 " Munich, March 18, 1878. 
 
 "... I have now nearly read through Mr. Barclay's book. 
 The mass of materials that his sacrificing industry collected 
 and made use of has astonished me. Whole libraries of rare 
 old printed books, and a great mass of manuscripts, and other 
 documents must have passed through his hands. The evi- 
 dence of his heartfelt interest, and of a tone of thought at once 
 liberal and impartial, and yet full of religious feeling, has 
 awakened in me feelings of profound respect. 
 
 "It is no wonder that the members of the religious societies 
 described in the book should greet the work with great eager- 
 
ROBERT BARCLAY. 
 
 109 
 
 ness ; and also from the literary stand-point it merits great 
 thanks. 
 
 " One point especially claims my attention. I was previously 
 prepossessed with the idea that such an extraordinary move- 
 ment of the English people in the times of the Common- 
 wealth must have produced thoughts and forms of Church 
 government specially original. Now I am taught by Mr. 
 Barclay's book the complete connection of the religious move- 
 ment in England with that of the sixteenth century on the 
 Continent, of which it is a further development. 
 
 " May many be found to follow in Mr. Barclay's path, and 
 may his wish that a more thorough knowledge of the Nether- 
 land Anabaptists in the second half of the sixteenth century 
 find its fulfilment, and that the history of the English followers 
 of Melchior Hofmann in the sixteenth century may, where 
 possible, be rescued from obscurity." 
 
 " I am, &c." 
 
 Extract from a Review ly Professor PauU, of Gditin(/en, of The 
 Inner Life of the Religious Societies of the Commomvealth,' in 
 the ' Guttingische gelehrte- Anzeigen,' April 1878. 
 
 [Translated.] 
 
 " This remarkable book describes, by means of the utterances 
 and the testimony of the actors themselves, the inner life of 
 the English sects, and the manner in which they took shape 
 during the time of the Commonwealth, whereas usually the 
 attention is directed almost exclusively to their external and 
 political relations. In particular, it proposes to show how far 
 the manifold and widely-divergent influences of the several 
 systems of Church government have fulfilled their purpose. 
 The author, a faithful member of the Society of Friends, has 
 set himself the task of throwing light upon the religious 
 history of his country from every point of view, an undertaking 
 which certainly very few will be able to attempt in so impartial 
 and objective a manner 
 
 " It is only very seldom that we Germans have an opportunity 
 of becoming acquainted with the simple straightforwardness 
 and sterling worth of the character of the Quaker, amid the 
 
110 
 
 MEMOIR OF ROBERT BARCLAY. 
 
 duties of every-day life, as a member of civil society. But very 
 few would suppose that in this religious sect more than in any 
 other men of wide learning are to be found peculiarly fitted for 
 historical inquiry, and for the unprejudiced objective depiction 
 of events. In the perusal of such a work as the present, every 
 student of history, however well read, must wonder at the 
 thorough acquaintance with all the authorities, as well as at 
 the maturity of the author's judgment. He exhibits a marvel- 
 lous familiarity with the libraries of the Public Eecord Office, 
 
 of the British Museum, &c. &c , 
 
 He has bestowed considerable study upon foreign literature, 
 especially upon the Dutch and German. German lines are 
 often quoted, as mottoes, at the head of a chapter. The poems 
 of Hans Sachs, Kessler's ' Sabbata,' the writings of Kaspar 
 Schwenkfeld and Jakob Bohme, are as familiar to him as the 
 investigations of more modern historians respecting the various 
 schismatics who arose in the time of the Keformation, as, for 
 instance, Cornelius,' Nippold, Weingarten, and others. Then 
 again it is only in England, owing to the many-sidedness and 
 vigorous pulsation of its religioiis life, that such direct inter- 
 communication is possible, as was his with America and other 
 parts of the globe. The mass of pamphlets, many of them exceed- 
 ingly rare, relating to the history of sects during the last three 
 centuries, with which the author has made himself acquainted, 
 and which he either quotes more or less largely or describes in 
 outline, is perfectly astounding. This quantity of original 
 matter, scattered up and down the work, will be sufficient in 
 itself to secure the work a permanent value, and that not 
 merely for the followers of this or that independent religious 
 sect, nor merely for theologians and students of ecclesiastical 
 history, but for historical inquiry in its wider sense " 
 
sermons/ 
 
SERMON I. 
 
 First Pkeached in 1866. 
 
 THE SUPREMACY OP CHRIST. 
 
 " The Lord sitteth upon the flood : yea, the Lord sitteth King 
 for ever." — -Psalm xxix. 10. 
 
 These words of faith fell from " the sweet singer of 
 Israel " after a storm ; and for us doubtless these words 
 are written, that we may derive the same spirit of 
 faith amid other outward storms of this world, and 
 also during those spiritual storms which may at various 
 points in our earthly pilgrimage beset us. 
 
 My yOung friends, Have you no doubt that Jesus 
 died ? Do you believe that Jesus lives ? Do you 
 believe — not only that " He shewed Himself alive after 
 His passion, by many infallible proofs, being seen of 
 His disciples forty days," but — do you believe that 
 He still lives ? And though there may be a few here 
 who feel inclined to reverse the saying of Job, " The 
 thunder of His power who can understand ?" — those 
 whose faith rests, like David's, upon revealed religion, 
 are more than ever able to look up through nature 
 to nature's God, and amid fresh proofs of His bene- 
 ficence can feel that it is their Father who worketh 
 all things after the counsel of His own will. Do you 
 believe that after He had commanded His disciples 
 
 1 
 
114 
 
 SEKMON I. 
 
 to preach the Gospel and found His Church, " He was 
 taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their 
 sight " ? Do you believe the words of the two angels, 
 " 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 " ? If you do not really and truly 
 believe this, is it any wonder that His Gospel should 
 appear to some of you like an idle tale, or like a 
 dream of philosophy, the maxims of which you acknow- 
 ledge to be beautiful and true, but which have no 
 effect upon your life ? or that the claims of the world 
 keep you halting between two opinions ? If it is 
 thus with you now, can you wonder if, when the 
 storms of life burst upon you in the hour of dis- 
 appointment, sickness, bereavement, or death, you 
 do not feel that " the Lord sitteth upon the flood, 
 the Lord sitteth King for ever " ? All of us must long, 
 that in the hour when weeping friends shall gather round 
 our couch of pain, we may have the faith of one whose 
 memory we honour, and whose voice we miss, who said, 
 " I have no burden on my mind, my trust is unshaken, 
 and I commend you to the glorious display of the love 
 of God, in the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
 Christ." The words of our Lord we hear daily ; the 
 conscience of every one here will testify how far we 
 have received them as the words of God. Have not 
 some of you felt that the words of Jesus are so contrary 
 to the spirit that is actuating your life, that you cannot 
 follow them by halves, and that you could not have 
 the baseness to explain them away, whenever and 
 wherever you found them inconvenient to practise ? 
 These will admit that to the proud spirit of man, the 
 words of the Gospel are foolishness. You who feel 
 the obstacles to the reception of the words of Jesus in 
 your oion hearts, have you never considered that when 
 
THE SUPREMACY OF CHRIRT. 
 
 115 
 
 these words fell from the lips of Jesus— when they 
 were first taught by Apostles — they were equally dis- 
 tasteful. Multiply your own feelings by the feelings of 
 thousands, and then judge of the obstacles which have 
 existed in every age to the acknowledgment of the 
 truth of the Gospel. And yet has it not triumphed 
 over all this, and become a mighty power in the 
 world ? He who was crucified in Judea — of whom it 
 was said, "How knoweth this man letters?" — has a 
 name higher than the kings of the earth. His religion 
 has changed the thoughts and feelings of the .most 
 depraved of men, and still changes them, and induces 
 them to live a life of holiness. "And such were some 
 of yon," the Apostle says to the Corinthians, " but ye 
 are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified 
 in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of 
 our God." Have not empires, religions, philosophies, 
 passed away ? Has not Christianity been assailed 
 from without and within, since Jesus of Nazareth 
 said, " Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My 
 words shall not pass away " ? Have the words of 
 Jesus passed away ? Why have they not ? Is it not 
 because Jesus lives ? Though " He ims dead. He is 
 alive for evermore^' and at the throne of God maketh 
 intercession for us. 
 
 Though all the pomp of earthly rule shall pass away, 
 the kingdom which He has set up in the hearts of His 
 children shall survive the ruins of earth, for Jesus still 
 lives, and is King for ever. He by whom all things 
 were made, visible and invisible, the Ca})tain of our 
 salvation, directs the strife, and will grant His Holy 
 Spirit, and give a place in His army, to every one 
 who is willing to take His yoke upon him, and learn 
 of Him who is meek and lowly of heart. Can you 
 doubt that a faith like that expressed by David, " The 
 
 I 2 
 
116 
 
 SERMON I. 
 
 Lord sitteth upon the flood, the Lord sitteth King for 
 ever," is a faith that overcometh the world, and will 
 give that peace which passe th all understanding ? 
 " The Lord will give strength to His people, the Lord 
 will bless His people with peace ;" and how far more 
 perfect the peace which the Christian enjoys, who 
 knows that Christ has died, and died to wash away 
 his sins in His own blood, as the perfect Saint of 
 Grod; and not only so, but that He ever liveth in 
 heaven to intercede for him, to guard and to guide 
 him by His Holy Spirit, all things being put under 
 Him — to whom all power is given. The Bread of Life 
 is broken for those that hunger ; the Fountain of Life 
 is open to those who are athirst. His Body was 
 broken. His Blood was shed for you — for all. Will 
 you accept this gift of a Saviour who is alive for ever- 
 more ? Will you have Him for your King, to whom 
 your young hearts' loyalty is given, and whose com- 
 mand it is 3^our pleasure to obey ? Will you have 
 Him for your dearest Friend on earth — your Comforter 
 in life, and in the hour of death and in the Day of 
 Judgment your Deliverer? or will you have it that 
 the words of Jesus, long acknowledged to be true, but 
 long neglected, shall judge you at the Last Day ? May 
 you, may I, may we all hear at that day the blessed 
 words, " Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the 
 kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the 
 world." 
 
 i 
 
SERMON II. 
 
 Pkeached at a Mission Hall Service, 1867. 
 
 NOAH'S EXAMPLE. 
 
 " Aud the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the 
 ark ; for thcc have I seen righteous before me in this genera- 
 tion." — Genesis vii. 1. 
 
 We read in the sixth chapter of Genesis and fifth verse 
 that " God saw that the wickedness of man was great 
 in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts 
 of his heart was only evil continually ;" and in the ninth 
 verse that " Noah was a just man and perfect in his 
 generations, and Noah walked with God." 
 
 We are often apt to fancy that the temptations which 
 surround us, and the hindrances we meet in trying to 
 do God's will, are something different from those of 
 other people. We need not wonder, therefore, when 
 we find persons excuse themselves from coming to hear 
 ahout religion — somewhat in this way : " It is all very 
 well for people that are well to do to be religious ; but 
 I am sure I could never be so. I have such a bad set 
 of mates to work with, I have such a bad husband or 
 such an ill-tempered wife, I have such a large family, 
 and they always have something ailing them, I work 
 hard all day and am so tired at night, in fact I have so 
 many trials and temptations, I have not time to attend 
 
118 
 
 SERMON 11. 
 
 to religion. I am an honest, hard-working man, and do 
 my duty by my family : a great deal of this religion 
 is downright hypocrisy. A great many persons turn 
 " religious," and before three months are over the fit 
 passes off and they are a great deal worse than they 
 ever were before. I believe God to be merciful and 
 that He won't be too hard on a poor person like myself, 
 so I hope to go to heaven when I die : — if / don't, there 
 is very little chance for others of my neighbours." And 
 so he goes on in the same path, indulging in his 
 favourite sins, and giving way to temptation; and thus 
 he is led, little by little, every year he lives farther 
 and farther from God, and from the heaven to which he 
 hopes to go. He hears that God has sent from heaven 
 a message to man, and he will not go an hour out of his 
 way to liear what that heaven-sent message is. He is 
 like a man who is told that his pains and aches are from 
 some sad disease which will bring him to his grave, and 
 that there is a medicine which will give him true relief, 
 and at last cure him. He then excuses himself from going 
 to il\Q place, where the medicine is to be had, because of 
 his aches and pains ; because it is only to be had on a 
 certain day when it is not convenient ; and then above 
 all, l)ecause there are certain conditions to be complied 
 with before he can derive the good of it. And so he 
 makes up his mind to disbelieve — first, that there is a 
 medicine, and secondly, that it will cure him ; and he 
 puts off going for it a little while longer. When he is 
 dying he sends some one for the 'medicine, and then he 
 is told, " My poor man, if you had only come yourself 
 long ago you could have been cured, but now I am 
 afraid it is too late." 
 
 But, my friends, no one in this world lives to himself, 
 and no one dies to himself. A life of sin is not like an 
 ordinary disease— it is like the smallpox or fever, it 
 
NOAII'S EXAMPLE. 
 
 119 
 
 spreads to all around. It is something more terrible 
 than we can understand. But we can understand this, 
 that God has created us free, has placed it in the power 
 of man to choose between good and evil : you may 
 wonder why it is, but you must every day feel that 
 it is awfully true. We read of the state of the 
 world before the flood, when the wickedness of man 
 grew and increased till it became so fearfully great that 
 it repented God that He had made man. The world 
 before the flood is placed before the world now as a 
 warning, as an ensample to us who live in this day of 
 an open Bible, of the state to which men may come by 
 not regarding and by not listening to God's message to 
 them — not finding time to attend to it, doing their own 
 will, seeking their own pleasure, and following the 
 devices of their own evil hearts. 
 
 We perhaps disregard God's message in one way, 
 and if we indulge in our favourite sin we must not won- 
 der that another will indulge in his. This was what 
 happened before the flood : men went on from bad to 
 worse, until, we are told in the Bible, there remained 
 only one righteous man, with his family, who alone 
 had not corrupted their way before the Lord, and had 
 not done their best to fill the earth with wrong and 
 violence. Noah was left alone a good man " who 
 walked with God " — that is, strove with all his heart 
 to do God's will. Picture to yourselves what Noah's 
 difficulties and temptations must have been, when the 
 whole earth was corrupt and filled with violence, so 
 that it repented God that He had made man. Would 
 you have walked with God as Noah did, if you had 
 lived before the flood ? If we are God's children, who 
 love and try to obey Him, it will do us good to ask 
 ourselves that question. Are we among those who try 
 to excuse themselves from coming to listen to the good 
 
120 
 
 SERMON II. 
 
 news of tlic Gospel, who call themselves Christians, 
 and who have not made up their minds to trust and to 
 follow Jesus their Saviour ? Consider, I pray you, how 
 it would be now if there were no justice, no purity, 
 no Christian people, no churches, no chapels, no 
 mission-halls, no Sunday-schools, no rule of life like 
 the Bible to walk by, but instead of these blessings 
 the whole world had corrupted its way before God 
 and was filled with violence. You may say this is a 
 fancy picture, but it is that which is placed before 
 us in the Scriptures of truth for our guidance and 
 instruction. 
 
 Now, Noah believed God's word, that He was about 
 to destroy the inhabited parts of the world with a flood 
 if they did not repent. We are told that he preached 
 righteousness to his neighbours, and told the world 
 around him to repent of their wickedness, or that de- 
 struction would come upon them. We can imagine 
 how they scoffed and jeered. 
 
 What strange story have you to tell us ? that we 
 shall be destroyed by a flood ? We will believe it 
 when we see it. You want us to be religious, and so you 
 try to frighten us, in order to make us give up our sins. 
 Tell us something pleasing ; we hate this melancholy 
 message you bring us. Religion has gone out of 
 fashion here. They found it was not profitable, and so 
 they gave it all up. Everything has gone on as it was 
 since the beginning of the creation, and we shall not 
 trouble ourselves because of this message. 
 
 Noah preached, — they laughed, — it was all unheeded ; 
 no one turned from his evil way ; no one believed the 
 message which God sent by Noah to a guilty world. 
 He turned from them with a heavy heart. But he felt 
 also that, like a brave man, he had done his duty. 
 
 He began to work at the ark, or great ship which 
 
NOAIl's EXAMPLE. 
 
 121 
 
 God told liim to build, and thus showed his own 
 faith in the message. The world around him, no 
 doubt, thought him mad, but God comforted and 
 supported him by making a covenant or solemn pro- 
 mise to him that he and all his family should be saved. 
 At last the ark was finished. Day after day passed. 
 The sun set behind the clouds of crimson and gold, it 
 rose again the next day without a cloud. Still no 
 sign of anything unusual. All those around him 
 planted and builded and married, until the day when 
 the flood came. And the Lord said to Noah, " Come 
 thou and all thy house into the Ark ; for thee have I 
 seen righteous before Me in this generation." Darkly 
 and stormily the sun set upon the evening of that 
 day : the wind blew, the rain fell as it never fell 
 before : and when the day dawned the whole world 
 of the wicked had gone to their long and last account ; 
 and, tossed on a stormy sea without a shore was a 
 ship called the Ark, containing that one righteous 
 man and his family. Death yawned about them, but 
 Noah was supported by a faith in the truth, love and 
 faithfulness of a God who will save to the veiy 
 uttermost all who come to Him for shelter, and who 
 will bring those who trust in Him safely across the 
 dark cold stormy waters of death to the land where 
 faith becomes reality. 
 
 Although God has promised that the world shall not 
 again be destroyed by a flood, yet to every one will 
 come a last day. The Apostle Peter tells us (2 Peter 
 iii. 7) that " the heavens and the earth, which are 
 now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved 
 mito fire against the day of judgment and perdition 
 of ungodly men;" and in the 10th verse, that " the 
 day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; 
 in the which the heavens shall pass away with a 
 
122 
 
 SERMON II. 
 
 great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent 
 heat, the earth also and the works that are therein 
 shall be burned up ;" and that there shall come in the 
 last days scoffers who will say, " Where is the promise 
 of His coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all 
 things continue as they were from the beginning of the 
 creation." We may be sure that ice shall see tJds last 
 day. 
 
 " When the trumpet shall command, 
 Through the tombs of every land, 
 All before the throne to stand. 
 What shall I before Him say ? 
 How shall I be safe that day ? 
 When the righteous scarcely may ! " 
 
 Ah ! my friends, that is the question for you and for 
 me. Have we come to hear the Gospel with hearts 
 open to conviction ? Have we tried to obey it as far 
 as we have understood it ? It is not much learning 
 that we want, but simple, trustful, obedient hearts, 
 towards Chiist and His message. The Apostle Peter 
 says, " seeing that all these things shall be dissolved, 
 what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy 
 conversation and godliness." " Nevertheless we " (those 
 who follow the Lord, whose sins are forgiven), " accord- 
 ing to His promise, look for new heavens and a new 
 earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." Peter had lived 
 and walked with Jesus, and therefore he is not at all 
 anxious about this world being destroyed by fire. He 
 had seen His Lord crucified, dead, and buried : he had 
 seen Llim many times with the print of the nails, after 
 He had burst the bonds of death and the grave : and he 
 had seen Him ascend in that crucified Body to Heaven. 
 Do you think he could feel a moment's fear ? No. — 
 His Lord made the world, and this may be the means 
 by which He may make another as easily as the 
 
NOAH'S EXAMPLE. 
 
 123 
 
 smith moulds tlie heated iron with his hammer on 
 his anvil. 
 
 But what the Apostle is anxious about is, that those 
 to whom he is writing, should be persons of " holy con- 
 versation and godliness." How can we, my friends, 
 " live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present 
 world ; looking for that blessed hope and the glorious 
 appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus 
 Christ; Who gave Himself for us, that He might re- 
 deem us (or buy us off) from all iniquity " ? 
 
 What examples, what histories of the iniquities of 
 men, who lived before our times, can show to man the 
 exceeding sinfulness of his heart, and the awful character 
 of sin ? A world of the ungodly destroyed by a flood ? 
 Grod's chosen nation, the Jews, rejecting and dis- 
 obeying the Law of God, which He gave them with 
 His own voice, and wrote for them with His own 
 finger? When God, our Creator, in the fulness of 
 times, sent from Heaven His own Son, by whom He 
 made this world, to take upon Him our nature, saying, 
 " They will reverence my Son," did the Jews listen 
 to His gentle, loving voice ? Did they not, within 
 three short years, reject His message, and with cruel 
 hands crucify the Lord of glory, who came to tell 
 them the way to happiness and Heaven ? Can there 
 be greater proof of the exceeding sinfulness of sin, 
 of the depth of depravity to which the heart of man 
 has fallen ? Yes, there is a greater proof still. Upon 
 His Son, rejected and slain, mocked, scourged, and cru- 
 cified by wicked hands, " God laid the iniquity of us 
 all." He bore our sins in His own Body on the cross, 
 " that we should live unto righteousness." And not 
 only does it tell us of the fearful nature of sin, but 
 what a glorious picture does it give us of the love of 
 God our Heavenly Father, that though the world re- 
 
124 
 
 SERMON IL 
 
 jected His Son, and has scorned and liated Him, He 
 resolves, in the counsel of His all perfect will, that His 
 Son's death shall be the life of the world ! It is not given 
 to ns fully to understand, to know the love of God, 
 which passeth knowledge ; but enough is told to 
 us in the Gospel, to show to all, poor and rich, 
 ignorant and learned, wise and unwise, that if, in 
 God's mercy, we are brought to feel our sin to be 
 very great, the mercy and love of God in Christ Jesus 
 our Lord is greater. It has no limit but our un- 
 Avillingness to receive it. 
 
 God is represented in the Gospel as the rich man 
 who made a great supper at his son's wedding. He 
 made great preparations, and invited the guests. " My 
 oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are 
 now ready ; come to the wedding." Some came, 
 some excused themselves. But the feast is all ready, 
 he must have guests to enjoy it, there still is room ; 
 and so he sends out into the highways and hedges; 
 not only are his servants to invite tlie good, but the 
 bad. But do you mean to say that everybody was 
 to come there — of all the ragged people in filthy 
 clothes — who would come ? and to this prince's wed- 
 ding ? All this was thought of, and when they came 
 to the palace, they found a beautiful new wedding 
 garment for everyone ; and upon condition of wearing 
 this, we are told, they should then all exchange their 
 hard fare for his table. It was not, you will say, 
 a hard condition. Was it fit that a man should 
 come to a wedding in his own dress, when a rich 
 wedding dress was provided ? There was a man who 
 did so, of his own choice, and they cast him out into 
 outer darkness. 
 
 No, my dear friends, we cannot have anytliing in this 
 world without conditions. The Gospel is the message 
 
NOAH'S EXAMPLE. 
 
 125 
 
 the servants brought, inviting all to the wedding. We 
 have the power of refusing to listen, we have the 
 power of refusing to comply with the conditions : and if 
 we will prefer the garments of sin, if we will not accept 
 the splendid dress of our Saviour's righteousness, shall 
 we not be without excuse ? You thirst for something 
 to satisfy your longings, but they can only be quenched 
 at the fountain. You will not be forced to go there 
 to drink. Do we confess that " we have sinned, and 
 come short of the glory of God " ? " Jesus is faithful 
 and just to forgive us our sins." Come to Him in 
 prayer ; ask for His Holy Spirit, to make you love 
 Him and willing to do your best, with all your heart, 
 to " keep His sayings." He is not afar off. He is ever 
 near. Though all the world may scorn you, and point 
 the finger at you — try to do His will only, and He 
 " will purge you from all iniquity," and melt your 
 heart with the thought of His love, which will carry 
 you through and over all. Do you fear that you will 
 fall away ? If you try to follow the message He 
 sends you in the New Testament, you are one of 
 His sheep. " My sheep," He says, " hear My voice, 
 and I know them, and they follow Me : and I give 
 unto them eternal Life ; and they shall never perish, 
 neither shall any man pluck them out of My Father's 
 hand." 
 
 Now, to conclude, let us remember the example of 
 Noah. He did not know half of the glorious things 
 which Grod has revealed to the least of us in this Gospel 
 day. You feel you know but little, he knew far less : 
 but though the wickedness of man was great on the 
 earth, he simply and honestly did what he knew was 
 God's will, and tried all he could, by his example and 
 by persuasion, to induce others to do the same. If 
 this seems hard to you, if no human heart knows your 
 
126 
 
 SEKMON 11. 
 
 troubles and your difficulties, your dangers and your past 
 sins, think of just Noah. If you sin again, remember 
 that you have a loving Friend, who ever liveth to make 
 intercession for the repenting sinner : sti'ive day by day 
 to please the loving Saviour. He will give you, while 
 here on earth, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus, to 
 be your comforter and guide ; and at last, when you 
 must cross the dark cold waters of death. He will say 
 to you, "Come thou and all thy house into the Ark; 
 for thee have I seen righteous before Me in this 
 generation." 
 
SERMON III. 
 
 Preached at a Mission Hall Service, 18()7. 
 
 GOD'S COVENANT WITH ABKAM. 
 
 " And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord aj^poared 
 to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God ; walk 
 before me, and be thou perfect (or upright, sincere). And I 
 will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply 
 thee exceedingly." — Genesis xvii. 1, 2. 
 
 We have here the history of the fact tliat about 
 four thousand years ago, the Almighty God made a 
 covenant with a mortal man. 
 Mark that it is twofold. 
 
 First with the man Ahrani : " Be thou upright, and 
 I will make a covenant between thee and Me." Secondly, 
 in the 7th verse : " I will establish My covenant between 
 Me and thee and thy seed after thee — I will give them 
 the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession, and 
 be their God." 
 
 Here the Almighty God makes a covenant with 
 Abram's children after him — the nation of the Jews, 
 who are the children of Abram. He makes a covenant 
 with them although they are yet to be born : they are 
 made by the Almighty God His chosen nation. 
 
 Between man and man we make covenants or solemn 
 promises — we cause them to be written down. So God 
 has caused His covenants with man to be written down 
 
128 
 
 SERMON IIT. 
 
 in the Bible. For instance, if a man wishes to let a 
 piece of land for bnilding, he makes an agreement with 
 the person who wishes to take it, that as long as that 
 person performs his duty in paying him his rent, so long 
 he will allow him to hold and enjoy the land and all 
 that is upon it. 
 
 In every nation of the world men make this kind of 
 promise one to another. So solemn are such engagements 
 that they are hardly ever broken. The promisa applies 
 to the children, and often to the children's children. 
 
 These covenants between man and man are far more 
 seldom broken than our solemn promises with our Grod 
 and our Saviour ; but very blessed it is to think that 
 though we often break our promises to God, His cove- 
 nants with us sinful men are sure. We may change in 
 our feelings towards God, but He is ever the same, un- 
 changeable. He is, through Jesus Christ our Lord, 
 Our Father," with loving arms ever outspread, long- 
 ing to receive us as His reconciled children, and bless 
 us now and for evermore. 
 
 He hates sin, but loves the sinner. " His will," we 
 are told, " is that all men should be saved, and come to 
 the knowledge of the truth." 
 
 First, we will take God's covenant with Abram's 
 children. From the chapter we have been reading we 
 find that they were to be made a separate nation. If 
 we turn to the 22nd chapter, we read (verses 15-18) 
 that God called by His angel out of heaven the 
 second time, and told him that He would multiply them 
 as the stars of the heaven and as the sand by the 
 sea-shore. His children should become a great nation, 
 as the sand for multitude—" In thy seed shall all the 
 nations of the earth be blessed." 
 
 We have here in the Bible a covenant or solemn 
 promise which we are told was made by the Almighty 
 
GOD'S COVENANT WITH ABRAM. 
 
 129 
 
 God about four thousand years ago with Abram concern- 
 ing- his children, the nation of the Jews. Has it been 
 fulfilled ? Kecollect no one has ever doubted that the 
 Book of Genesis which we are reading was written long 
 before our Saviour came into the world. He speaks of 
 Abraham in a way which makes us quite sure that 
 this Abraham, the father of the Jewish nation, — " your 
 father Abraham," as He said to the Jews, — must have 
 lived ages before our Saviour spake ; and one thousand 
 eight hundred and sixty-seven years have passed since 
 Christ was born. 
 
 I would solemnly put this question to you — because it 
 does not require learning to understand it : Have the 
 words of God, written down in the Bible for our profit 
 and instruction, been fulfilled ? Why, my friends, here 
 in the streets and lanes of Houndsditch we may, if we 
 will only enquire, prove that God's word to Abram 
 four thousand years ago is true to this very hour. The 
 Jews are a separate nation still ; they are kept distinct 
 from all other nations. You know a Jew all over the 
 world. They are very numerous ; though scattered from 
 their country, they are as the stars of heaven for multi- 
 tude." But in whatever country you find them, Christian 
 or Pagan, they still worship the one true God, Jehovah, 
 whom we worship. All this is, if you think of it, very 
 wonderful ; because, if a French or German family 
 lives in England, or if an English family lives in 
 France, in a few generations their nationality becomes 
 lost ; but it is not so with the Jews. 
 
 God has fulfilled His promises to Abraham to a 
 hair's-breadth. His children are a separate nation 
 down to the present time. They worship still the God 
 of Abraham, and our God. 
 
 In them all the nations of the earth have been blessed. 
 Jesus our Saviour was a Jew, One of the children of 
 
 K 
 
130 
 
 SEEMON III. 
 
 Abraham. The greatest blessings of the rehgion of 
 Jesus are spiritual blessings, — a man must be a true 
 Christian to see this and to understand it ; but, as if 
 to make it clear to all that all the nations of the world 
 are blessed in Christ through Abraham, we find that 
 even in outward things they are peculiarly blessed. 
 Christian nations are the greatest, the most free, the 
 most happy of all nations upon earth. 
 
 The children of Abraham are a proof, in the face of 
 the whole world, of the certainty of God's word in the 
 Bible. He promised to them the Land of Canaan for a 
 possession, and there lies the land of Canaan, the Holy 
 Land, desolate, waiting for its owner to come back. God 
 declared by the mouth of our Lord Jesus Christ that 
 Jerusalem should be trodden down of the Gentiles. It 
 is so now. The Holy Land, the land of the Jews, is still 
 comparatively untilled and unoccupied. The Jews dis- 
 obeyed their God, and He has, as prophesied by Moses, 
 " scattered them from the one end of the earth even 
 unto the other." 
 
 But we find also that God makes a covenant with 
 the man Abram, the man of His choice. We may ask, 
 Why did God choose a single nation and ordain that 
 what He has revealed of Himself by His servant Moses, 
 by the Prophets, by His Sou Jesus Christ, by His 
 Apostles, should all come to us through this single 
 nation of the Jews ? God gives no reasons why He 
 chose the nation of the Jews, although we cannot doubt 
 that it was because it was best for the whole of His 
 family that it should be so. But He has told us why 
 He chose Abram as the man whose family was to have 
 the honour of becoming the nation in whom all families 
 of the world were to be blessed. When God first spoke 
 to him He said, " I am the Almighty God : walk before 
 Me and be thou perfect" (or more correctly, upright, 
 
GOD'S COVENANT WITH ABRAM. 131 
 
 sincere). And doubtless God found him to be a man that 
 would command his children after him that they should 
 keep the ways of the Lord, to do justice and judgment. 
 But this was not the only reason. When God tried 
 him by telling him to set out to do a thing which would 
 have destroyed all human possibility of God's many 
 times repeated promises being fulfilled, Abram did not 
 hesitate, but set out to do it. In a word, he believed 
 and trusted God : he believed that what God had pro- 
 mised He was fully able to perform. 
 
 Now, if we read the account of the destruction of the 
 cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, we shall see that Abram 
 was not left in any doubt that God spoke to him. And 
 when Abram was sure that God had spoken, he " stag- 
 gered not through unbelief." This was the man on 
 whom God chose to bestow His greatest honour — not 
 the sinless man, but the sincere man who had faith in his 
 Father and his God, who trusted Him and believed Him 
 — this was the man with whom God made His Covenant. 
 
 Now do we honestly desire God to make a covenant 
 with us ? If it is so, not only will He give us the desire 
 of Jacob, bread to eat and clothing to put on, through 
 all our toilsome journey, but He has promised to make 
 a new covenant, not with one but with all of us : " This 
 is my Covenant which I will make with them when I 
 shall take away their sins:" not only will He "be 
 a Father unto us, and we shall be Hfs sons and 
 daughters :" but He will put His laws in our minds, and 
 in our hearts will He write them," " and our sins and 
 our iniquities will He remember no more." 
 
 Many are the ways in which God convinces us that 
 He has spoken, and when you hear the Gospel invite 
 you to come to Jesus, to love Him who laid down His 
 life for you ; when the voice of the Church of God, 
 when true believers with one heart and one voice say, 
 
 K 2 
 
132 
 
 SERMON III. 
 
 Come ; when the spirit of Jesus says Come ; when you 
 are persuaded, no matter how, that these are the true 
 payings of Grod, will you, like Abram, trust God's 
 word, God's promises to you ? If we believe His 
 Gospel, and strive this very day to do it, He will 
 work in us, and give us true repentance, and His 
 Holy Spirit. Like Jacob in his dream, you will be 
 standing at the foot of that ladder which leads from 
 earth to heaven. That ladder was a dream then. 
 Thanks be to our God, it is through Christ Jesus 
 our Lord a reality now. To the men of this world 
 it may seem a dream, but to the eye of faith, to the 
 humble follower of the Lord Jesus, it is a blessed, a 
 glorious reality. Yes, my friends, a ladder has been 
 placed upon this earth which reaches to heaven. He 
 who was a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief, 
 stands at the foot of it and bids you climb. Obey 
 Him, and it will every day be easier ; and when you 
 look up, and see God's saints and angels, the holy 
 Apostles and Prophets, with loved ones gone before, 
 beckoning you to their resting place, their home above, 
 and saying. Come up hither, you will recollect that He 
 who bids you climb this ladder, by faith in His Gospel, 
 and by obedience to His commands, and by His Spirit 
 in your hearts, is the glorious King of that bright and 
 countless company. If it was not right that we should 
 have care and sorrow here upon earth, do you think 
 He would have given them to us to bear ? 
 
 May we pray to Him, who has all power in heaven 
 and on earth, to make these trials like the rungs of the 
 ladder, to enable us to climb, so that step by step, we 
 may be drawing near to heaven, while we fulfil our daily 
 duty upon earth. May we follow the example of 
 Abram's faith and trust in God, knowing that His pro- 
 mises to us in the Bible are sure and faithful, and that 
 He is our shield, and exceeding great reward. 
 
SKRMON IV. 
 
 PllEACHED AT AN OpEN AlK SeKVICE. 
 
 CHRIST OUR JUDGE AND SAVIOUR. 
 
 " Dost thou bclievo on tliG Son of God ? Ho answered and said, 
 Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him ? And Jesus 
 said unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh 
 with thee. And he said. Lord, I believe. And he worshipped 
 him. And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this 
 world, that they which see not might see ; and that they which 
 see might bo made blind." — John ix. 35-39. 
 
 We shall all agree that this man had good reason for 
 believing on Jesus Christ our Saviour. I may ask of 
 every individual here, "Dost tliou believe on the Son of 
 God ?" This is a Christian country, but how many 
 there are who, if they were to answer the question 
 honestly, would reply, " No, sir, I do not believe that 
 Jesus Christ is the Son of Grod, and this is the reason 
 why I do not come to church or chapel. I do not 
 wish to hear anything about religion." There may 
 be some here who say, " I, sir, do not believe in Jesus 
 Christ the Son of God ; who is He that I might 
 believe on Him ? " Tliere may be some also who say, 
 " I do not know, and I do not want to hear the question 
 answered, who is He ? If you had come to give me 
 bread, or money, or work, I would listen to you. I am 
 weary and heavy laden ; give me rest from my troubles 
 and I would hear you." 
 
134 
 
 SERMON IV. 
 
 I really do not know that it would be worth while for 
 you or me to talk, or to think much about religion, if 
 we all lived here on earth for ever. If this were the 
 case, the only thing we should have to think about 
 would be, what shall we eat and drink, and how shall 
 we be clothed ? It would then be a matter of very 
 great importance whether we lived in a palace or in a 
 cottage. The man who said, after he had pulled down 
 his barns and built greater^ " Soul, thou hast much 
 goods laid up for many years, take thine ease, eat, 
 drink, and be merry," would then have been quite right. 
 As Grod said to that man, so now He says to men who 
 think only of this life, who are living carelessly and 
 thoughtlessly, forgetting that they have souls as well 
 as bodies : " Thou fool, this night shall thy soul be 
 required of thee :" and then what becomes of all these 
 outward things ? If there is a Grod, if there is a here- 
 after, if there is a heaven of happiness for those who 
 honour God, is it well, my friends, that any should be 
 ignorantly blind ? and because they do not know the 
 way to heaven, or because they only care to know the 
 way to get the good things of this world, should be shut 
 out from happiness in this world and in the next? 
 Now the reason why we are asked to listen to the 
 Gospel, is that we know that we cannot always live 
 on this earth, and that there is a life beyond the grave 
 in which our souls will live for ever. Although 
 we have not the power of making ourselves happy, we 
 have the power, and an awful power it is, of making 
 ourselves as miserable in this world as we wish, if we 
 choose to act contrary to the light which God has 
 given, to shut out the Holy Spirit of God, which tells 
 us the difference between right and wrong. Now I do 
 not know whether it has ever struck you, that there 
 was a time when there were no Sundays, no churches 
 
CHRIST OUR JUDGE AND SAVIOUR. 135 
 
 nor chapels, no Sunday-schools, no gentle and loving 
 Christian teachers, no kind Christian word to the sinner 
 going on in his wickedness, telling him that the wages 
 of sin is death. 
 
 Before our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ left this 
 world, He commanded His disciples to preach the 
 GosjDel to every creature. Now the first thing which 
 the disciples and Apostles of our Lord taught to an un- 
 believing world was this, — that God commands all men 
 everywhere to repent, and for this reason, because He 
 has appointed a day in which He will judge the world 
 by that Man whom He has ordained, and of this He 
 has given assurance — clear proof — in raising Jesus 
 Christ from the dead. They further taught that all men, 
 without any distinction, small and great, should stand 
 before our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and give an 
 account of the things done in the body. This doctrine 
 excited a great deal of attention because it had never 
 been heard of before. A few days ago I travelled by 
 the South- Western Railway ; my attention was excited 
 by coming to a broad heath stretching far away for 
 miles, with the hills in the distance ; all at once we 
 came to a garden laid out with walks, and surprised at 
 its extent we look more closely and find it is a cemetery 
 — the great Woking Cemetery. Here is the great 
 burying-place of London. Have you not often won- 
 dered where the thousands upon thousands who are 
 dying every year in this vast Metropolis are buried ? 
 Here we look upon miles of graves, and as I passed 
 I thought of the important truth set forth in the 
 Gospel, that there certainly will be a day of judgment. 
 
 " A few more years shall roll, 
 A few more seasons come, 
 And we shall be with those that rest 
 ' Beyond ' the silent tomb." 
 
136 
 
 SEEMON IV. 
 
 Rejoice, 0 young man, in thy youth, and let thy 
 heart cheer thee if thou art a Christian ; but, whether 
 thou art a Christian or not, remember that God will 
 bring thee to judgment. Now this judgment is de- 
 scribed in the Gospel as a perfectly just judgment. That 
 is a most important thing. It is not, 0 man, that thou 
 shalt be judged by a harsh, severe, and unjust tyrant, on 
 principles which thou dost not understand, but on those 
 which every creature under heaven will acknowledge 
 to be perfectly just. Men's consciences will then awake 
 and condemn them. All will be strictly cleared up. 
 All the things which have been spoken or done in 
 secret will be revealed. All the great crimes which men 
 here cannot judge will be dealt with as they deserve. 
 Now, 0 man or woman, I appeal to you in the sight of 
 God, can you abide that tremendous day of reckoning ? 
 Do not think that your being wilfully ignorant of the 
 way of salvation will then be passed over. When 
 men are dying they often feel the deep importance of 
 these subjects. I was a few months ago standing by 
 the deathbed of a young man who had had very few 
 advantages ; he was not considered a bad young man, 
 and had supported himself, till I sent him into the 
 Consumptive Hospital. I paid him one sad visit 
 there and prayed with him, and now I stood by his 
 deathbed. He said, " I have been very wicked, but 
 I trust God will pardon me for the sake of Jesus 
 Christ." I replied, " My dear lad, I wish you could 
 feel that He has pardoned you. What would you 
 do if He now restored you to life and health, would 
 you be His ?" He looked at me and said something to 
 this effect, " Ah, what would I not do !" "Have you 
 sought God's forgiveness for all your sins ? What is it 
 that specially troubles you ? Do tell me what it is that 
 hangs most heavily on your mind." He said, "Broken 
 
CHEIST OUR JUDGE AND SAVIOUR. 137 
 
 sabbaths. I bave not done anything very particularly 
 wrong, but I went out holiday keeping on the Sunday. 
 Oh, what would I not do to tell the young fellows I 
 went with, if God should make me better!" He had 
 neglected the opportunities of hearing of the great 
 salvation which is freely offered to a sinful world. 
 Bi-oken sabbaths ! ah, what a heavy source of trouble 
 they have been on many a deathbed ! I believe this 
 young man found peace and salvation. 
 
 A near relative of mine, a young man in the bloom 
 of life and health, after a very short illness, died, and 
 his last words to his weeping sister, when the voice 
 had almost gone were, " I am very happy : safe in 
 Jesus." Are you "safe in Jesus"? if you are not, 
 prepare for that judgment day : listen to the Gospel. 
 It does not flatter you, it tells you the truth, that you 
 are a sinner and that you can never abide the judg- 
 ment day. But, as the Apostle Paul says, " God 
 being rich in mercy, in the great love wherewith He 
 loved us," sent His Son, who was one with Him 
 — into the world to save us from our sins. " God so 
 loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, 
 that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, 
 but have everlasting life. God sent not His Son into 
 the world to condemn the world, but that the world 
 through Him might be saved." " Have I any pleasure, 
 saith the Lord, in the death of the wicked?" Do you 
 believe that He who made you, and who gave you the 
 power of knowing right from wrong, desires that you 
 should be unhappy here and miserable hereafter ? * 
 
 * Evidently unfinished. — Ed. 
 
SERMON V. 
 
 Peeaciied at a Mission Hall Seuvice, 1867. 
 
 LOSS AND GAIN. 
 
 " For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and 
 lose his own soul ? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his 
 soul ? Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my 
 words in this adulterous and sinful generation ; of him also shall 
 the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his 
 Father with the holy angels."— ilfa>-/c viii. 36-38. 
 
 Our Lord in using these words spake in the language 
 of men. Filled with the interests and cares of life to 
 overflowing, men live in the present. How seldom 
 they think of the future life, except when they cheat 
 themselves with delusive hopes, or make themselves 
 wretched with anxieties ! 
 
 " What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or 
 wherewithal shall we be clothed ? " are anxious ques- 
 tions to those who believe in Jesus, as well as to others 
 who do not. But those who love the Lord are different 
 in this — they know that their Father knoweth that 
 they have need of all these things, and that He who 
 provides for the sparrow will provide for them — not 
 by blessing the idle, the careless, the improvident, but 
 by forming in them a new life : so that whatsoever 
 they do, they do heartily, ;vs to the Lord, and not unto 
 
LOSS AND GAIN. 
 
 139 
 
 men. How plainly our Lord puts the question before 
 us ! He knows it must be so ; that we must have our 
 thoughts occupied by earthly things ; that we must 
 often ask ourselves about tliese things, What will this 
 profit me ? what advantage shall I get in exchange for 
 this ? I am tempted to buy something : is this or that 
 most worth buying ? How much will it profit me if 
 I do buy it ? I stop to consider well which is best. 
 Shall I take extra pay for extra hours ? or content 
 myself with short pay for short hours ? We may say, 
 " in all labour there is profit ;" or we may say, " I work 
 too hard already ; I have enough, and I don't think the 
 extra pay a profit." With some men, the more money 
 they get, the less their families profit by it. With the 
 rich, as well as with the poor, this is very often the case. 
 Solomon says, that of all the vanities he saw in this 
 world, the greatest was the man to whom God gave 
 riches, and who had not the power to use them to his 
 real profit ; and it is as true to the workman with forty 
 shillings a week as to the rich man with his thousands. 
 It is not that the things of this world are not good, but 
 it is that the power of using thera rightly is a gift to be 
 sought of God. Man is so made by God that he cannot 
 help asking himself as to outward things. Jesus, who 
 knows what is in man, knows this, and so He puts it 
 to us in a way which forces us to make the reckoning 
 as to heavenly things : " What shall it profit a man, if he 
 shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul ? " He 
 holds out the world before us. It is beautiful and fair ; 
 there are all sorts of chances of our gaining our share 
 of the good things of it. But, mark, it is not a share, 
 but the wliole world, that He throws into the scales and 
 bids you to weigh : the most prosperous course, the 
 fairest future of riches, of honours, of profits, which this 
 world can give you, against an eternity of joy. There 
 
140 
 
 SERMON V. 
 
 is a day of Grod's grace to all who hear the Gospel 
 story ; we all are exhorted to take of the fountain of 
 life freely. 
 
 Have you put off the day of Grod's grace ? Have 
 you never heard His voice in the crowded street, in 
 this Mission Hall, in the stillness of a starlight night, 
 when only here and there a solitary passer-by or the 
 rumble of an empty cab breaks the silence of London ? 
 Did He not ask you, " Are the words of the Gospel, 
 the words of J esus, true ? and, if they are true, have 
 you the courage in you to act as you believe ? " Have 
 you never heard His voice when He has told you that 
 there is " an appointed time to man upon earth " for 
 repentance, for salvation ? When your friend, your 
 companion, or some fondly-loved one, is taken from 
 you, to go you know not whither, have you not heard 
 His voice when the wind whistled round the silent 
 grave, and He has told you, " This is the end of all 
 living; all the pleasures of sin end here. As he has 
 gone, so you too will go ; as the grass grows over his 
 grave, so it will grow over yours " ? " What shall it 
 profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and lose his 
 own soul ? " 
 
 The man whose refuge is not in God then feels the 
 vanity of all that the god of this world can offer him. 
 Your soul's enemy would have you either so busy with 
 the things of this world that you cannot think of the 
 next, or he would have you to feel that this life is not 
 worth living for, and drown remorse in the poisoned 
 cup of sin. " Away with thought — a short life and a 
 merry one ! " Would it not, my friends, be a blessing 
 beyond all price to some of us to experience, in the 
 light of God's countenance, that our life is a great 
 and glorious gift to be used to the glory of God, 
 and to be employed in fulfilling our daily duties as 
 
LOSS AND GAIN. 
 
 141 
 
 to Him, in labouring for the good of others, and in 
 striving that the dull things of earth, its cares and 
 anxieties and bitter trials, may, through the grace of 
 Grod, help us to lay up treasures in heaven ? Though 
 all on this earth will pass away, these heavenly trea- 
 sures will not pass away ; they will there be ours 
 for ever. 
 
 Would it not be a happiness if we all could say. Yes ; 
 I have pondered, I have weighed well that great 
 question, and I have decided ? 
 
 " Hallelujah, I believe, 
 Now the giddy world stands fast, 
 And my soul has found an anchor 
 Till the night of storms be past." 
 
 My burden has fallen from my shoulders and is lost 
 at the foot of His cross. I have nothing — nothing to 
 give in exchange for my soul but thanks_, never-ending 
 thanks to my God. He has found a ransom — 
 
 " My sins were all on Jesus laid, 
 And he has made me whole." 
 
 / believe in Jesus. He shall evermore be my Lord 
 and the Master of my life ; and His words in this 
 Bible, and His Spirit in my heart, shall guide me in 
 my way heavenward. Our Saviour tells us, that if a 
 woman loses a piece of money, she will diligently 
 sweep the house until she finds it ; and she then calls 
 her neighbours, and tells them, " Rejoice with me ; I 
 have found the piece which I had lost." What have 
 you found ? Is it a common piece of money of small 
 value ? Nay, is it not rather the entrance-money of 
 Heaven, stamped with the Image of Heaven's King, 
 a free gift from Himself, without which many shall 
 seek to enter in, in their own way, but shall not be 
 
142 
 
 SERMON V. 
 
 able ? Will you not say to others, by your example 
 and by your words, Rejoice with n?e, for I have found 
 my Saviour ; I have found the joy, the happiness, 
 which I was seeking ? 
 
 " Whosoever will come after Me, let him take up his 
 cross daily, and follow Me." " He who will save his life 
 shall lose it." The laugh of the world, its bitter scorn, 
 its cold indifference, my brother and my sister, is hard 
 to bear. But is it hard to bear ? Then look to the life of 
 Jesus, thy Lord, and see what He has done and suffered 
 for thee in meekness and in gentleness. He who walked 
 on the waves, withered the fig-tree, and blasted it with 
 a word ; He who had the hosts of heaven at his beck 
 and call ; bore the cruel mockery of those He came to 
 save. He hid not His face from shame and spitting ; 
 He bore the cross on which He was crucified well 
 nigh to Calvary. See Him, crowned with a crown of 
 thorns, hanging on the cross, before whom, as God, all 
 the angels in heaven hid their faces and cried " Holy, 
 holy, holy, Lord God Ahnighty." He was wounded 
 for me ; His hands and His feet were pierced for 
 one ; He died, the just, for me, a sinner, to bring 
 me to my Father ; and I am now His reconciled 
 child. Shall we be ashamed of His words now ? 
 Shall we be ashamed of acknowledging such a Master ? 
 Shall we, whom He has redeemed, not show our- 
 selves in our daily life on the Lord's side, and say 
 " As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord " ? 
 Are these your feelings, my friends ; do you believe 
 the Gospel ? It is often preached fervently and 
 earnestly here : you listen, but do these things strike 
 your ears as idle tales, or have you arisen, like Noah, 
 to build your ark according to the pattern God has 
 showed you, and begged others to follow your example, 
 with that earnestness which tells them that if they do 
 
LOSS AND GAIN. 
 
 143 
 
 not, you do believe that the flood of death will come 
 and take them all away, and that you have found the 
 only refuge there will be at last, in the Ark of God ? 
 It is not a loud and noisy profession that we need ; it is 
 not the habit of talking about religion ; but we want 
 changed men and changed women to live among and 
 teach in Christ's name and for His sake the careless, 
 the thoughtless, the vicious, the dishonest, and the un- 
 truthful ; to show them that the life of Jesus is " the 
 power of God unto salvation," both to their bodies 
 and their souls. You may say you cannot do this ; but 
 if you could prove to ten persons who know you that 
 you are sincerely living out your profession of being a 
 Christian — not that you are perfect, but that you are 
 sincere — you would prove to them that they too could 
 live and be profoundly happy in God's world without 
 breaking the commandments of God. We cannot do 
 this of ourselves. Do you think that God will not give 
 us the grace and strength to do this ? Can we doubt 
 that by the lives of true, honest-hearted Christians 
 God may not preach as good sermons as by the voice 
 of many preachers ? Let us think on these things 
 and remember the warning of our dear Saviour's love : 
 " Whosoever shall be ashamed of Me and of My words, 
 of him shall the Son of Man be ashamed when He 
 cometh in the glory of His Father and the holy 
 angels." " Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being 
 left us of entering into His rest, any of you should seem 
 to come short of it." We need not fear anything on 
 this earth with the God who made it on our side, and 
 Jesus with us by His blessed Holy Spirit. Let us trust 
 in Him for all things, and when Jesus our Lord 
 comes again in the glory of His Father, and with the 
 holy angels, we shall not be ashamed, but we shall 
 be clothed in the pure white robe of our Saviour's 
 
144 
 
 SERMON V. 
 
 righteousness. In exchange for " great tribulation " 
 suffered here, we shall find ourselves without fault 
 before the throne of God, with hearts ready to " serve 
 Him day and night in His temple." There will 
 then be no more curse, " but His servants shall serve 
 Him." 
 
SERMON VI. 
 
 Preached at a Mission Hall Service, 18G7. 
 
 FOKGIVENESS AND GRATITUDE. 
 
 " Her sins, which are many, arc forgiven ; for she loved much." 
 Luhe vii. 47. 
 
 The narrative in Luke, chap. vii. verses 36 to 50, is not 
 difficult to understand. It tells us liow a sinner found 
 peace. We may feel sure that this woman had seen 
 and heard our Lord before, that she had seen the mighty 
 miracles that He wrought, that she had heard the 
 gracious words which fell from His lips. You will find 
 in the fifth chapter, 18th verse, an account of the 
 healing of the man sick of the palsy ; how he could 
 not be taken into the house where Jesus was, because 
 of the crowd about the door ; and how they took off the 
 tiling and let the man down on his bed in the midst. 
 
 Our Lord then used these words, " Man, thy sins are 
 forgiven thee : " and in both cases He was among the 
 Pharisees, who were gi'eat professors of religion (and 
 oftentimes great hypocrites). In both instances they 
 were very much offended, and said, "Who is this that 
 forgiveth sins also ? " and " who can forgive sins but 
 God alone ? " Our Lord quickly answered them : " But 
 that ye may knoiD that the Son of Man ] Lath power upon 
 earth to forgive sins (He said unto the sick of the palsy), 
 
 L 
 
146 
 
 SERMON VI. 
 
 I say unto thee, arise, take up thy couch and go unto 
 thine house." Whereupon the man not only walked, 
 hut carried his bed. Two kinds of persons saw the 
 amazing miracle. Some glorified God and were filled 
 with fear, and said, " We have seen strange things to- 
 day." The Pharisees, who wished to be thought 
 righteous by men, did not like to be told that they were 
 sinners, and wickedly tried to find fault with His con- 
 duct. " Why eateth your Master with publicans and 
 sinners ? " His answer to the proud Pharisees was : 
 " They that are whole need not a physician ; but they 
 that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but 
 sinners, to repentance." 
 
 The sinful woman of the city, weary and heavy 
 laden, an enemy to God by wicked works, had often, 
 no doubt, asked the question in her heart, " Who can 
 forgive sins but God alone ? " but she was far from God, 
 and who was to reconcile her to her Father ? The 
 Pharisees, and we may suppose this woman, had the 
 answer to this question, " Who can forgive sins but God 
 alone ? " given to them by the miracle wrought on the 
 man sick of the palsy. He was unable to move a limb, 
 and past the skill of the wisest of earthly physicians, 
 and was cured with a word. " Whether is easier to 
 say, Thy sins be forgiven thee ; or to say. Rise up and 
 walk ? " If your watch stopped, and a man whom you 
 never knew said, " I am the watchmaker, I made that 
 watch," you might doubt his word ; but if you had 
 tried all watchmakers in vain, and this man took your 
 watch and made it to keep perfect time, would you not 
 then believe him ? God made this man : his body, like 
 the watch, was a machine out of order, and Jesus 
 cured him with a word. Here, then, was proof to them 
 all that God was in Christ. Yet some heard Him 
 gladly, and some did not. This woman was a sinner. 
 
FOKGIVENERS AND GTIATITUDE. 
 
 147 
 
 and she knew it well. She listened to the Gospel which 
 Christ taught; she saw, heard, and believed, and was 
 sure that this was the long-expected Jesus, the Saviour 
 of the world, who alone could take away her sin. 
 
 Like the man sick of the palsy, she was powerless — 
 not able of her own will to take a single step. But 
 the Heavenly Physician had come who could cure her 
 — could blot out her sins, and enable her to walk 
 the path to heaven. Therefore the proud Pharisees 
 hated Him. But there were those who hung on His 
 words, who knew they were sinners, and were ready 
 to welcome Him and glorify tlieir deliverer. Is it 
 tlien true that God our Father so loves us, that He has 
 sent His Son from the highest heaven, from all that is 
 pure and holy, to walk among us, and to dwell in the 
 homes of earth, the Friend of the outcast, the sinner, 
 the fallen ? What did Jesus say ? Glorious words. 
 " Thy sins are forgiven thee." Then He has come at 
 last, the long-expected Christ, He of whom Moses and 
 our prophets did write. He has come to save His people 
 from their sins. So what was hidden from those whose 
 hearts were proud, who had wrapped up, cloaked their 
 secret sins, and denied that they were sinners, was 
 plain to those who, like children, opened their hearts, 
 confessed their sin before God their Heavenly Father. 
 The truth came home with power to all upon whose 
 hearts Jesus Christ, the Sun of Righteousness, rose 
 brightly. It came with powder upon hearts stained and 
 polluted, upon those that were helpless, hopeless, fallen 
 — upon souls hurried from misery to misery, no longer 
 their own masters. The dark night of their sin fled 
 away, and the beams of that sun warmed many a 
 cold heart with the light of a Saviour's love, showed 
 clearly to tlie poor benighted wanderers the way to 
 happiness and heaven. 
 
 L 2 
 
148 
 
 SERMON VI. 
 
 Oh, my friends, what a day it is for the sinner when 
 the light of heaven dawns upon his soul through the 
 hearing of the Gospel, and Jesus Christ shows him that 
 there is forgiveness for the dark, the guilty past, that 
 He is mighty to save to the very uttermost all those 
 who come unto God by Him. When the guilty soul 
 who has scorned and hated Him feels, " He loves me, 
 He came from heaven to die for me a sinner." "Born 
 again," the birthday of a soul alive to God. He gives 
 a new heart, a new will — a determination to strive to 
 do His will, a trusting in His promise alone to keep us 
 from falling. Blessed change : once enemies in our 
 minds by wicked works, but now reconciled to our 
 Father and our God. Once delighting in sin ; now it 
 is our joy to do the will of the Lord whom we love. 
 Once feeling that we were heaping sin upon sin, a fear- 
 ful reckoning ; now knowing that all our past sins are 
 forgiven for His sake, and that as we bring our sins 
 day by day before Him in prayer, to His mercy seat, 
 they will be judged and forgiven beforehand, and we 
 shall receive strength and grace sufiScient to keep us 
 from falling, and shall be presented before His presence 
 faultless with exceeding joy. Oh, mighty power of 
 His love. Spirit of Jesus, descend into our souls, 
 melt our cold hearts, break our chains, and enable 
 us once for all to resolve to follow Jesus ! Work 
 this, the greatest of Thy miracles, in the hearts of us 
 sinners. 
 
 We cannot doubt that this great change had been 
 wrought in the heart of this woman. If this blessed 
 change has been wrought in 7is, let us learn from the 
 story of one who was a sinner. In the freshness and 
 warmth of that love she sought her Saviour. Did she 
 seek her old companions, and allow the voice of the 
 Holy Spirit which was calling her to all that was pure 
 
FORGIVENESS AND GRATITUDE. 
 
 149 
 
 and holy to be drowned by their vain conversation, 
 their talk of the world, and the " lust of the flesh, and 
 the lust of the eyes," and their pride in walking a 
 worldly life ? Ah no ! she sought Him again whom 
 she had learned to love. If to-morrow in the stillness 
 of the night your house should be on fire, and you 
 should awake half stifled with smoke and helpless from 
 fear, and you and your children were dragged by some 
 brave fellow from the flames, would you not feel towards 
 him, " What shall I do to prove my gratitude ? " would 
 you not give him some token of your gratitude with 
 your thanks and your tears ? So with this woman, . 
 she presses forward though she is in the house of the 
 Pharisee so proud and self-righteous that he shrinks 
 from the touch of the sinner. She heeds it not, nothing 
 shall hinder her. She is now at His feet, and pours 
 upon them the precious ointment, like otto of roses, 
 worth its weight in gold. She brought a gift to Him 
 who does not look, when you come to Him on your 
 knees at home or here, to see whether you are clothed in 
 broadcloth or in fustian, in silk or in a print dress, or 
 even in rags. She brought a gift which He, the Lord 
 of all, values above all price — tlie tears of a contrite 
 soul, the kiss of a loving heart. Therefore her sins, 
 which were many, were forgiven ; for she loved much. 
 She found her present joy and future exceeding great 
 reward in the words, " Thy sins are forgiven thee, go 
 in peace." My friends, have we brought our box of 
 alabaster ? What have we brought to prove our deep 
 love, the sincerity of our gratitude to Him who has 
 ransomed us from destruction ? Do you expect me to 
 tell you what that gift should be ? Let us not ask that 
 question of our fellow-men, let us fall on our knees 
 before our Father and our God, and pray Him to show 
 us what that is to each of us ; and with loving hearts 
 
150 
 
 SEEMON VI. 
 
 let us not hesitate, but pour it all at the Saviour's feet. 
 We shall then find that the charms of the world have 
 less hold upon us, and instead of the bitter dregs 
 of the cup of sin, we shall possess " the peace of God 
 which passeth all understanding," both now and for 
 ever. 
 
SERMON VII. 
 
 Preached 1867. 
 
 THE FAITH OF JOB. 
 
 " I kuow that my Eedcemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the 
 latter day upon the earth." — Job xix. 25. 
 
 The manifold wisdom of God is strikingly exemplified 
 
 by the preservation of this Book of Job among those 
 
 Holy Scriptures, which, an Apostle assures us, are 
 
 " profitable for instruction" and "able to make us wise 
 
 unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus " 
 
 (2 Tim. iii. 15). We cannot, therefore, doubt that 
 
 lessons of the most solemn import may be drawn by the 
 
 Christian from this portion of the Jewish Scriptures if 
 
 he seeks in that faith which is willing to apply the 
 
 results of his seeking to his daily life. 
 
 The Book of Job shows us that pure and undefiled 
 
 religion existed at an early age of the world, and its 
 
 writer was evidently a man who was endowed with the 
 
 loftiest powers of reason and imagination sanctified to 
 
 the service of his God. There is, in the Book of Job, 
 
 abundant evidence of that wide extent of information 
 
 and breadth of view which prove that the author had 
 
 moved in no contracted sphere, and that it had been 
 
 given him in varied scenes to acquire a knowledge of 
 
 the ways of God in His outward creation, and, above all, 
 
 * 
 
152 
 
 SEKMON VII. 
 
 to acquire that deepest of all knowledge, a knowledge 
 of the working of the human heart under the changing 
 circumstances of life. It brings before us the history of 
 a man of whom God Himself testified that he " was a 
 perfect and an upright man, one who feared God and 
 eschewed evil." It is a sight which God and His 
 holy angels take pleasure in beholding ; and the picture 
 has peculiarly that very feature of human life which 
 we men love to contemplate — real piety surrounded 
 by the dignity and influence which seem appropriate 
 to it, virtue visibly receiving her own reward. We 
 are made to see all this swiftly reversed, and the 
 picture from which we are to receive our instruction is 
 that of righteous Job sitting upon a heap of ashes. 
 Nothing is left of the power he nobly used for the good 
 of others when he " brake the jaws of the wicked and 
 plucked the spoil from his teeth," and " made the 
 widow's heart to sing for joy." Now " those that were 
 younger than he, the children of base men," and " fools 
 had him in derision," and even "those he loved had 
 turned against him." Every spring of earthly comfort 
 was dried up. All hope of life was taken away ; and 
 let us recollect that at this time to Job all beyond the 
 grave was impenetrable darkness, as he touchingly 
 expresses it, " As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth 
 away, so he that goeth down to the grave shall come up 
 no more. He shall return no more to his house, neither 
 shall his place know him any more. I go whence I shall 
 not return, even to the land of darkness and the shadow 
 of death, where the light is as darkness." 
 
 Such, however, was the strength of true faith in God, 
 faith conjoined with a pure and upi-ight walk with Him, 
 that at the very moment of the Tempter's greatest power 
 he used tlie memorable words, " Shall we receive good 
 at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?" 
 
THE FAITH OF JOB. 
 
 153 
 
 The reality and enduring nature of the work of true 
 rehgion on the soul was henceforth manifested before 
 men and angels in the example of Job, "a perfect and 
 an upright man," according to the testimony of God 
 Himself, and one against whom the Adversary, the 
 enemy of all good, could not allege a fault. 
 
 The trial of Job did not, however, end here. In the 
 misery of the body, his mind did not lose its power. 
 The great problems of human life pressed heavily on 
 his soul. Having no hope of life he restlessly asks, 
 " Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery, 
 and life unto the bitter in soul ? Why is this come upon 
 me ? I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither was 
 I quiet ; yet trouble came." 
 
 We live in an age when the face of society is 
 vastly altered, but substituting modern advantages, 
 possessions, and honours, for camels and oxen, and 
 " sitting chief " in the streets of an Eastern city, do 
 we not recognise that like events have taken place in 
 our own time ? The picture is true to the life in all 
 its sweeping details at the present day. Even in our 
 own afflictions, our smaller troubles, has the thought 
 of our heart never been, " Why is this sent me to 
 bear ? I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither 
 was I quiet ; yet trouble came " ? If we have not felt 
 these restless questionings, we may be sure that with 
 few Christians life has passed so calmly to its close 
 that faith has not been rudely shaken ; and that the 
 greatest of all the lessons the human soul has here 
 to learn — true resignation to the will of God — has 
 been taught to them at a time most unwelcome and 
 in a school whose discipline was most hard to bear. 
 If such men as Job and the Apostle Paul had to learn 
 this lesson, shall any of us hope to be exempt ? 
 
 Nothing could exceed the propriety and even delicacy 
 
154 
 
 SERMON VII. 
 
 of Job's friends. " They sat down with him on the 
 ground seven days and seven nights, and none spake a 
 word unto him, for they saw that his grief was very 
 great." They were doubtless truly sincere and reli- 
 gious men, and had no intention of adding to his trials ; 
 but for Job and for the Church in all ages it was 
 ordered differently. His friends had a plain, and it 
 seemed to them a very adequate and satisfactory 
 answer, to give to his question. 
 
 He had sinned — however this was hidden from the 
 sight of his fellow-mortals. To the all-searching eye of 
 God all was open, as were the hearts of the wicked men 
 of old whose foundation was overthrown with a flood. 
 Sudden fear troubled him. " If thou wert pure and 
 upright, surely now He would awake for thee, and 
 make the habitation of thy righteousness prosperous." 
 Job's friends thought it was necessary to induce him 
 to confess that he had sinned, in order to satisfy their 
 theory of the Divine government ; and one of them, 
 perhaps with the view of rendering his confession more 
 easy, in the most sublime and powerful language does 
 away with the broad and eternal distinction between 
 the just man and the sinner in the sight of God. 
 " Behold, He put no trust in His servants, and His 
 angels He charged with folly : how much less in them 
 that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in 
 the dust, which are crushed before the moth." 
 
 If we feel inclined to approve the maxims of Job's 
 friends, let us recollect that we have the testimony of 
 God Himself that they did not speak concerning him 
 the thing that was right. If we condemn them, let us 
 ask ourselves if we have never felt inclined to measure 
 the sin of our brethren by the extent of their afflictions, 
 or their calamities. Job replies, " I have heard many 
 such things : miserable comforters are ye all." This does 
 
THE FAITH OF JOB. 
 
 155 
 
 not explain to me why it is that the tabernacles of 
 robbers prosper, and why a course of life like mine 
 should be followed by calamities so great, that I should 
 go down to the grave with the imputation of secret sin. 
 God forbid that I should ever admit it. " My righteous- 
 ness I hold fast, and will not let it go — my heart shall 
 not reproach me so long as I live." " God hath 
 delivered me to the ungodly, and turned me over 
 into the hands of the wicked." " My face is foul with 
 weeping, and on my eyelids is the shadow of death ; 
 not for any injustice in mine hands ; also my prayer is 
 pure." I admit what you say, that " God will not 
 cast away a perfect man ;" but does he not destroy the 
 perfect and the wicked alike ? " How should man be 
 just with God ?" " If I be wicked, why then labour 
 I in vain ? If I wash myself with snow water, and 
 make my hands never so clean ; yet shalt thou plunge 
 me in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me. 
 For He is not a man as I am, that I should answer Him, 
 and we should come together in judgment. Neither 
 is there any daysman betwixt us that might lay his 
 hands upon us both." " There is hope of a tree, if it 
 be cut down, that it will sprout again." "If a man die, 
 shall he live again ?" 
 
 But the faith of Job seems gradually to become 
 clearer and clearer, till at last he breaks forth with the 
 wonderful and, the Christian will believe, prophetic 
 words, " Oh that my words were now written ! Oh 
 that they were printed in a book ! That they were 
 graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever ! 
 For I know that my Redeemer (my Justifier) liveth_, 
 and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the 
 earth : and though after my skin worms destroy this 
 body, yet in my flesh shall I see God : whom I shall 
 see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not 
 
156 
 
 SEEMON VII. 
 
 another ; though my reins be consumed within me " with 
 earnest desire for that day. Yes, the more brightly 
 the Spirit of God shines into the dark heart of man, the 
 more clearly does he see his need of a Redeemer. The 
 question of Job, " How shall a man he just with God?" 
 is now solved ; the " Daysman " he longed for has come, 
 who "lays His hand upon both" God and man, Jesus 
 Christ, our Brother and our Lord. It is through Him 
 alone that " life and immortality are brought to light ;" 
 it is He alone who has abolished death ; and the ques- 
 tion which perplexed Job must be read in the light 
 of His resurrection. " He was raised again for our 
 justification." He was that Just One, and God is now 
 " the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus." 
 
 The error of Job's friends was one which was 
 specially and pointedly corrected by our Lord and 
 Saviour. Those upon whom the tower of Siloam fell 
 were not sinners above all the Galileans. " Neither did 
 this man sin nor his parents, that he was born blind, 
 but that the works of God niight be made manifest in 
 him." The language of the Gospel is not that of Job's 
 friends, " If thou return to the Almighty, thou shalt 
 be built up, thou shalt put away iniquity far from thy 
 tabernacles. Then shalt thou lay up gold as dust, and 
 thou shalt have plenty of silver." It tells us that " the 
 sa7ne afflictions are accomplished in our brethren that 
 are in the world." To the afflicted the words of the 
 Gospel are, " Consider Him, lest you be weary and 
 faint in your minds ; run with patience the race that 
 is set before you, looking unto Jesus. If you endure 
 chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons. 
 Blessed is the man that endureth temptation, he shall 
 receive the crown of life." Here on earth we are 
 promised such fare as pilgrims may expect who are 
 seeking a better country, and a Comforter and Friend, 
 
THE FAITH OF JOB. 
 
 157 
 
 who ever at the right hand of God maketh intercession 
 for us. The Gospel tells us that Job's question, " Where- 
 fore is life given?" shall at last be answered; "for 
 it hath not entered into the heart of man to conceive 
 the things that God hath prepared for them that love 
 Him." In answer to Job's question, " If a man die, shall 
 he live again?" St. Paul tells us, " Now is Christ risen 
 from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that 
 slept. For since by man came death, by man came also 
 the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so 
 in Christ shall all be made alive," and points to a risen 
 Saviour as a, positive Idstorical fact. This was the fearless 
 preaching of the Apostle in the keen intellectual light 
 of Athens and Corinth, and shows the fulfilment of 
 Job's expectation, " I know that my Redeemer liveth, 
 and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the 
 earth." " God will judge the world by that Man 
 whom He hath ordained, and of this He hath given 
 assurance to all men in that He hath raised Him from 
 the dead." The words of the glorified Saviour to the 
 Churches, and to the beloved disciple trembling with 
 the revealed splendour of His Godhead, were also, 
 " Fear not ; I am the first and the last : I am He that 
 liveth, and was dead ; and, behold, I am alive for ever- 
 more. Amen ; and have the keys of hell and of death." 
 " I know that my Redeemer liveth." 
 
 Here, my friends, is the keystone of the arch which 
 spans the abyss, and amid the cares, the subtle tempta- 
 tions, the struggle and the weariness of life, our steps 
 are quickened in the way by a firm and well-grounded 
 confidence, the precious gift of God, that there is a 
 path above and beyond that which is seen and tem- 
 poral, a path which the vulture's eye hath not seen. 
 
 I know that my Redeemer liveth." It is a solemn 
 question, and very profitable for those who believe 
 
158 
 
 SERMON VII. 
 
 in Jesus to consider, how far this influences our daily 
 life, our thoughts, our feelings, our actions. Do we 
 feel when a sinful, an unworthy thought or action 
 has been indulged in, that we have grieved that 
 loving Friend who ever liveth in heaven ? Do we 
 feel that His tender solicitude, His sympathy in 
 all that concerns our eternal salvation, can only be 
 measured by that which He has done and suffered for 
 us ? Do we bring earthly things before Him in prayer 
 with this feeliug ? 
 
 "He shall stand in the latter day on the earth," 
 " Behold He cometh with clouds, and every eye shall 
 see Him." " If the righteous scarcely be saved," 
 what will be the feeling of tbe habitual sinner, the 
 sinner upon principle, when the words, " Thou shalt 
 come to be our Judge," have come to pass, and he 
 finds that he is unable truly to say, " Therefore helj) 
 Thy servant, whom Thou hast redeemed with Thy most 
 precious blood." The door of mercy is still open. In 
 Christ we see the Father with loving arms ever out- 
 spread, longing to receive us as His reconciled chil- 
 dren. All He asks is, " My son, my daughter, give me 
 thy heart." Until we do this we shall never learn that 
 " there is no fear in love, but that perfect love casteth 
 out fear, for fear hath torment." May we all be able 
 to say, in the humble faith of the follower of Jesus, " I 
 know that my Redeemer liveth." 
 
SEEMON VITT. 
 
 Preached in 1869. 
 
 THE WALK TO EMMAUS. ' 
 
 " But we trusted tliat it had been He which shouhl have redeemed 
 Israel : and beside all this, to-day is the third day since these 
 things were done." — Lihke xxiv. 21. 
 
 We shall recollect that these words form part of the 
 conversation between the disciples journeying to Em- 
 raaiis, and One whom they thought to be a stranger. 
 
 To have a clear view of the circumstances inider 
 which these words were used, let us recall the facts 
 mentioned in the Gospel History. The Body of our 
 Lord had lain in the sepulchre from the evening of the 
 sixth day of the week during that night, and the whole 
 of the Sabbath ; and upon the first day of the week, 
 very early in the morning, Mary Magdalene and the 
 other Mary came to the sepulchre. On the morriiiig 
 of the third day they saw the descent of the angel, 
 whose countenance was like lightning : — the earth- 
 quake, and the rolling back of the stone from the 
 door of the sepulchre, all probably happening in an 
 instant of time. Seeing that the stone was rolled away, 
 and approaching the tomb, they heard the angel telling 
 them not to be afraid, but to go and tell the disciples 
 that the Lord was risen. This must have occupied 
 
160 
 
 SERMON VIII. 
 
 some time, and when Peter and John ran to the 
 tomb, and found it empty, Mary Magdalene fol- 
 lowed them, and lingered behind after they had 
 gone away. Jesus then met and spoke to her, pro- 
 bably at a later period of the day, and she brought 
 the tidings to the disciples that she had "seen the 
 Lord, " that He had spoken with her. It is evident 
 that the disciples had started on their journey to 
 Emmaus before the second account of Mary Magdalene 
 had reached them, but they had heard of Peter and 
 John running to the sepulchre. We cannot doubt 
 they were witnesses of the Crucifixion, or of the taking 
 down of the Body from the Cross, where even Nico- 
 demus was present. They must have known that our 
 Lord was so exhausted in bodily strength by the cruelties 
 practised upon Hira before the Crucifixion, that His 
 death, took place long before that of the two thieves. 
 John at least had seen the thrusting of the spear by the 
 Roman soldier into His side, or the wound it produced ; 
 the disciples must have known that since these things 
 were done no fewer than thirty hours had elapsed, up 
 to the time of the tomb being found empty. It was, 
 we feel, no wonder that with all these sad realties 
 vividly before them, the news of " a vision of angels," 
 of an empty tomb, not only produced little impression 
 upon them, but added to their apprehensions, as they 
 appear not to have had the details which satisfied the 
 minds of Peter and John, that the enemies of J esus had 
 not taken His Body away. In this state of mind they 
 required, not rumours, but solid facts to satisfy them. 
 Not a shadow of doubt could exist in the minds of the 
 two disciples that the Prophet, their gentle and loving 
 teacher, was dead. There were still some words of 
 Jesus to which they clung with an intensity of hope ; 
 but the third day was now drawing to its close. 
 
THE WALK TO EMMAUS. 
 
 161 
 
 Might not the words of the Great Prophet have 
 another apphcation ? Doubtless He had foreseen 
 His cruel death ; doubtless, too, His spirit was with 
 His God. His life. His teaching and His mighty 
 works had convinced them that He was the Son of 
 God, but not a ray of comfort now pierced the 
 gloom. They had trusted that it had been He 
 who should have redeemed Israel. The past seemed 
 like a dream, the sadness of the present was a 
 reality, for their last hope was nearly gone. Is not 
 this walk to Emmaus touchingly natural ? Do we 
 not seek relief to our feelings in the country walk, as 
 we talk together of the loved and honoured dead? 
 They might recall the earnest tones of the Great 
 Teacher — they might feel that His teachings had 
 wrought a great change in them, that longings had 
 been awakened, which life and immortality alone could 
 satisfy. But what result remained of all the wondrous 
 works and mighty teachings of Him who taught as 
 never man taught ? Where was the hope which every 
 Jew rightly cherished, and which kindled in the breast 
 of the disciple of Jesus an enthusiasm which was 
 sanctioned both by reason and faith ? Where was that 
 hope of a kingdom of eartlily power wielded by One so 
 mighty in deeds, as well as words, yet so perfectly just 
 — of earthly justice being administered by that infinite 
 purity of character which put wickedness to shame, 
 which could tear off the mask of hypocrisy and make 
 the right of the poor and the cause of the widow to 
 prosper ? Had not this hope, that He would restore 
 the Kingdom to Israel, disappeared like the mirage in 
 the desert ? and to the vision had succeeded the sterile 
 sand. The shadows of the evening were lengthening, 
 the third day was nearly over. Such is the world ; 
 such is life without Christ. The morning full of 
 
162 
 
 SERMON VIII. 
 
 hope, of promise, of bright and glorious dreams, then 
 the fevered chase of some idol of ambition, or of 
 the intellect, to say nothing of the sinking down 
 into a state of domestic ease and self-indulgence, all 
 the while lulling our consciences to sleep with a religion 
 which is not the religion of Jesus, but one which we 
 have expressly constructed for ourselves, to suit our own 
 inclinations and tastes, by leaving in it what we love, 
 and leaving out of it what we do not like. This is 
 a state in which there is no hope unless the Spirit 
 of God reveals to the soul as in lightning flashes the 
 truth of its utterly lost and ruined condition, and the 
 unchangeable hatred of God to all sin, and that love 
 which is not willing that any should perish, but 
 that all should return, repent, and live. Or it may 
 be that disappointment or sorrow awake us from our 
 dream, and at last we are placed face to face with the 
 stern, hard, and cold realities of life, and feel that we 
 are born to die, and that we have need of a Saviour. 
 There are such moments in the life of every one of us. 
 When death has knocked at our door, by the coming 
 of pain, or when we lay our hand for the first time on 
 the cold brow of one we have fondly loved ; the world 
 must indeed have a firm hold of us if we then feel it 
 can offer to us substantial realities. How many can 
 say then, " But Him they saw not " ! 
 
 Oh, whoever thou art, fellow sinner, who mournest a 
 life wasted, a life misspent, a life in which there has been 
 no faith in Jesus, and so no building for immortality, be 
 very sure that at this hour, when the truth has found an 
 entrance, this same Jesus is near thee. He would ask 
 thee, " What are these communings with thy own heart as 
 thou walkest and art sad ? " He is yet a stranger, but 
 it is the risen Saviour appearing with power in thy 
 heart ; it is He who talks with thee — thy Brother — 
 
THE WALK TO EMMAUS. 163 
 
 yet thy Lord. To Him all power in heaven and earth 
 is given. Bid thy fears to cease. He is the Resur- 
 rection. He is thy life, He will raise thee from the 
 death of sin and the despairing sorrow of the world to 
 the life of Jesus : and this shall be an earnest to thee, 
 that He, who can change thy stony heart and make 
 thee to love and adoringly to follow Him, will change 
 this body of thy humiliation, that it may be fashioned 
 like unto His glorious body. Wilt thou not now accept 
 His offers ? wilt thou not now ask Him to change thy 
 unruly will to His, and commune with Him in submis- 
 sive prayer, while He will yet further expound unto thee 
 the things concerning Himself? Oh, fools and slow of 
 heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. 
 Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to 
 have entered into His glory ? Surely He has borne 
 thy sins ; He has carried thy sorrows ; surely the 
 chastisement of thy peace was upon Him, and with 
 His stripes thou art healed. Have not all like sheep 
 gone astray ; have not all turned to their own way, 
 and has not the Lord laid upon Him the iniquities 
 of all ? 
 
 He ceased ; He made as though He would have gone 
 further. He will not force Himself upon thee an 
 unwelcome guest. Now is the accepted time, as 
 thou vainest thy soul. Constrain that stranger by the 
 earnestness of thy prayer. Leave me not, 0 my 
 Saviour. 
 
 " Abide with me from morn till eve, 
 For without Thee I cannot live ; 
 Abide with me when night is nigh, 
 For without Thee I dare not die." 
 
 He desires only to see thee in earnest. He is more 
 willing to give than thou art to receive. He will break 
 
 M 2 
 
164 
 
 SERMON VIII. 
 
 the bread, and thou shalt know Him. But does not the 
 state of mind in which these disciples were found by 
 our Lord vividly picture the position of the true dis- 
 ciple of the Lord Jesus, who has experienced His 
 presence and His teaching, who has found the Messiah, 
 who is called the Christ; but when pressed down by 
 disappointment and sorrow, by the overpowering 
 sense of the sad realities of life, seems ready to let 
 go his faith in the words of Jesus, that He is alive 
 for evermore, and will come again ? We look around, 
 and begin to have a deep faith in the stability of 
 worldly things, and of worldly principles. How is it 
 with us ? have we as deep a faith in the words of our 
 Lord, for they have not passed away ? 
 
 In this day, in the whirl and hurry of business, in 
 this day of materialism, when the mere mechanism of 
 life is made to absorb so much of its energies, have we 
 known the blessedness of that effort after communion 
 with Him, which is implied in the words " Abide with 
 us," a prayer never put up long in vain ? What assu- 
 rance can we have of Eternal Salvation, if we have not 
 so far yielded up ourselves to Christ and received the 
 Atonement, as to be able even to plead, ^' Abide 
 with me " ? We have the assurance of our Lord, that 
 His coming shall be as a thief in the night ; that as 
 men were doing when Noah entered into the Ark, so 
 they shall be doing when He comes again. 
 
 " The Lord shall come, but not the same 
 As once in lowliness He came ; 
 A silent Man before His foes, 
 A weary Man and full of woes. 
 
 " The Lord shall come, a glorious form 
 With wreath of flame and robe of storm, 
 On cherub wings and wings of wind, 
 Appointed Judge of all mankind. 
 
THE WALK TO EMMAUS. 
 
 165 
 
 " Can this be He once wont to stray, 
 A pilgrim on the workl's highway, 
 Oppressed by power and mocked by pride, 
 The Nazarene, the Crucified ? " 
 
 Let us beware, in this our day, of the spirit of un- 
 belief. " The day is far spent," this is the feeling 
 which should accompany the Christian ; he is not to 
 give way to the feelings of those who say, " Where is 
 the promise of His coming ? " " It will not be in our 
 time," falls from the lips, or is the thought of many a 
 professing Christian. Did not our Master say, " Watch 
 ye, therefore, for ye know not at what hour your Lord 
 shall come " ? Let us not deceive ourselves, let us not 
 put far from us the thought of His coming, for it is 
 inwoven into the very texture of a real Christian. 
 " Every eye shall see Him." How this will be we 
 know not ; it may be thousands of years may fly as in 
 a moment, and when we close our eyes in death, we 
 shall open them upon the scene of His coming in the 
 Resurrection Body. It matters not, so that through 
 His grace and Holy Spirit we may bring home to 
 ourselves now that we, we shall see Him. Is He still 
 a stranger to us, or have our eyes been opened, so that 
 we know Him, whom to know is Life Eternal ? Tbat 
 " every eye shall see Him, and they also which pierced 
 Him," is an awful thought for an unpardoned sinner ; 
 but after the beloved disciple has told us this, he adds, 
 as if to show that it was no matter of dread to him : 
 " Even so. Amen." And again, " Even so, come. Lord 
 Jesus." Unless we can say " Abide with me," now ; 
 unless we have realized that He is our ever present 
 Saviour, how shall we be able to feel, at that awful 
 hour, that " there is no fear in love ; but perfect love 
 casteth out fear" ? We cannot accept Christ by proxy ; 
 the parent cannot accept Him for the child, the husband 
 
166 
 
 SERMON VIII. 
 
 for the wife, the wife for tlie husband. The belonging 
 to a particular congregation, and being considered a 
 Christian by our fellow men, will not make us IBs. 
 He may come near unto us, and expound unto us the 
 things concerning Himself, and knock at the door of 
 our hearts, but if we do not close in with His loving 
 offer of eternal salvation and eternal communion. He 
 may "go further," and the moment for saying "Abide 
 with me " may be lost for ever. 
 
 But let us not lose another lesson from the scene 
 before us, so full of deep, spiritual meaning. The new 
 birth in the soul is between ourselves and our Saviour. 
 It is the result of an offer on His part, and an accept- 
 ance on ours. We must die alone if He abide not 
 with us : but we are not told in Holy Scripture to 
 seek to live alone as the sole condition of enjoying 
 His blessed presence. We see in the Life of our 
 Lord [that there is] the relative proportion between 
 prayer on the mountain alone, His life of loving com- 
 munion with His disciples, His Church, and of active 
 labour for the souls of the multitude and the promotion 
 of His Kingdom, which, in our various allotments and 
 measures, we riiay all strive after and realize. We 
 learn here the Truth, which is abundantly set forth in 
 the New Testament as a part of the Christian religion, 
 that it was while the hearts of His Disciples commimed 
 together about those things which concerned their hopes 
 and fears, that Jesus drew nigh ; and with hearts which 
 burned within them, they entreated Him, though at 
 that moment they knew Him not, " Abide with us, for 
 it is toward evening, and the day is far spent." Then 
 it was that He yielded to their entreaties, and broke 
 the bread, and " they knew Hlmy 
 
 There may be some here who feel that " the day is 
 far spent," and some for whom, though they know it 
 
THE WALK TO EMMAUS. 
 
 167 
 
 not, it may be near eventide. May we, through true 
 and living faith in Jesus, know our " heritage of joy " 
 in these words, " and they knew Him." The period 
 when Death seemed to have its greatyst power was 
 followed by the Resurrection Day, when Death was 
 swallowed up in victory. 
 
 " And they knew Him." He was " their Lord and 
 their Grod," their living Saviour. The mystery of 
 that life of power, yet of sorrow and suffering, was 
 solved, and from that moment the shadow of the 
 Tomb and the darkness of the Grave for ever fled 
 away. 
 
SERMON IX. 
 
 ]JaTE UNCEUTAIN. 
 ELIJAH. 
 
 " But he himself vvcut a day's journey into the mlderness, and eame 
 and sat down under a juniper tree : and ho requested for 
 himself that he might die ; and said, It is enough ; now, O 
 Lord, take away my life ; for 1 am not better than my fathers." 
 — 1 Kings xix. 4. * 
 
 Our thoughts naturally turn from this touching scene 
 back to that upon Mount Carmel. There we saw a 
 manifestation of Divine strength ; here we see human 
 weakness. Why, we seem ready to ask, did this super- 
 human power with which the prophet was then endued 
 now seem to leave him ? Why was this languag-e of 
 deep religious depression permitted to burst from his 
 lips ? The answer is, that we are never told in Holy 
 Scripture that God's messengers were ever raised above 
 other holy and good men, except in those things n'hic/i 
 related to their Divine mission. We are not told that 
 their words or their actions were perfect, except in 
 those things of God which He commissioned them to 
 reveal. The miracles they wrought attested those 
 things of God to the men of the generation in which 
 they lived. The real, tangible and permanent results 
 of their message upon the history of the woi'ld, in 
 founding Divine institutions which exist at the present 
 
ELIJAH. 
 
 169 
 
 day, explains and attests to us both tlie object of those 
 extraordinary manifestations of God's power, which He 
 has seen fit to exert at various momentous periods in 
 His Church, and their reahty. We may be sure, there- 
 fore, that this record of the hour of Ehjah's weakness 
 was as needful to the Church as the other record of 
 Elijah's divinely given strength. This world is repre- 
 sented to us in the Bible as a place of trial, and as a 
 Heavenly appointed schooling for a better. The cha- 
 racter of the man of God is not there described as 
 springing up, like Jonah's gourd, by a sudden exercise 
 of Divine power ; but we have it exhibited to us as a 
 trust in God gradually increasing, and a virtue per- 
 fected by doing and by suffering according to His re- 
 vealed Will, whether it is the formation of the character 
 of the lowliest disciple, or of the loftiest prophet. This 
 heavenly training is compared to the varied influences 
 which produce the growth of the plant. The plant of 
 God's planting is not represented as the natural pro- 
 duction of the soil, but as one which requires the 
 greatest cultivation and care. Naturally, the soil 
 produces tares, briars, and thorns — it is these that 
 grow spontaneously. 
 
 The outward influence to which the plant is sub- 
 jected, the free air, the sunshine, the well-cultivated 
 and well-watered soil, the skill of the husbandman, are 
 not the unseen principle of life, but they determine, to 
 a great extent, its direction, whether towards " bearing 
 fruit " or bringing no fruit to perfection. These external 
 conditions are essential to its life ; they are as much 
 the work and the appointment of the Creator as the 
 life itself. A certain portion of these external in- 
 fluences are placed in the power of man to give or 
 to withhold. Man in the outward, in the spiritual, 
 creation is made, as the Apostle Paul beautifully ex- 
 
170 
 
 SERMON IX. 
 
 presses it, " a worker together with God ;" and when he 
 refuses to be so, the harvest is not fully reaped which 
 God intended, and His will for the happiness and 
 blessing of His people is imperfectly fulfilled, and man 
 for his little hour frustrates the grace and loving 
 purposes of God. It is deeply instructive to notice 
 how God prepared the Prophet Elijah to be the instru- 
 ment of His divine work. In the language of Scrip- 
 ture, " He made him a polished shaft : in His quiver 
 He hid him " — to be used at the moment when all 
 seemed lost, with the unerring aim of Him who is 
 perfect wisdom, love, and power, and who uses human 
 means to effect divine ends, though Omnipotent. 
 
 At the brook Cherith God taught the Prophet abso- 
 lute dependence upon his God, " who giveth to the beast 
 his food and to the young ravens who cry." At Sarepta 
 he was taught, like Peter, that nothing in the Eye of 
 his God is " common or unclean ;" that he was to re- 
 ceive his daily food at the hands of a widow woman, 
 a heathen, and doubtless a worshipper of the false 
 god whose religion he abhorred and opposed with all 
 the force of character with which he was gifted. Day 
 by day he and the widow woman and her son are fed 
 by the exercise of Creative Power. Still the widow 
 remained unconvinced ; perhaps in consequence of the 
 uniformity of the miracle, but doubtless for the very 
 purpose that Elijah might the less wonder at the slow- 
 ness of heart of God's Israel " to believe all that the 
 prophets had spoken." But, as if human nature were 
 still too weak for the struggle, " the Lord brought evil 
 upon the widow with whom he sojourned, by slaying 
 her son ;" and Elijah had to bear the bitter cry, " Art 
 thou come to call my sins to remembrance, and to slay 
 my son? " He was then shown the power of that Arm 
 on which he was to rely, even of Him who raiseth 
 
ELIJAH. 
 
 171 
 
 tlie dead. The poor widow's doubts vanished at 
 the words, " See, thy son liveth ;" and this Gentile 
 convert used the words, " Now I know that thou art 
 a man of God, and that the word in thy mouth is 
 truth." Thus prepared, the Prophet Elijah confronted 
 the guilty king, the prophets of Baal, and the whole 
 nation, with a courage which none but one divinely 
 commissioned could exercise, and God vindicated His 
 claim to reign over Israel in a way which dimmed 
 the splendour of the religion of Baal in the eyes of 
 those who loved and sought the truth ; and the result 
 was the creation of a new era in His Church. 
 
 It is deeply instructive to trace the Divine counsels, 
 as set forth and revealed to us in this portion of Holy 
 Scripture. Truly, God's ways are not our ways, nor 
 His thoughts as our thoughts. The morrow found 
 Elijah a hunted fugitive, and we are made to see the 
 Prophet, who on Mount Carmel had been armed with 
 Divine energy to accomplish Divine purposes, a man 
 with human feelings and human weakness. He sat 
 down under a juniper-tree, and requested for himself 
 that he might die, and said, " It is enough ; now, 
 0 Lord, take away my life ; for I am not better than 
 my fathers." He who knew what was in man first 
 provided for the needs of the body, and then in the 
 solitudes of Horeb He taught His Prophet with the 
 gentleness of an earthly father. How short-sighted, 
 how erring, was Elijah's weak human estimate of the 
 success of the work which God was using feeble flesh to 
 accomplish for Him ! Elijah had expected great visible 
 results, and his faith had failed him. But he was now 
 taught that God was not in the whirlwind — the earth- 
 quake — the fire ; but His presence and working were to 
 be found in the still small voice. It was not in the shout 
 of Israel, the decisive and visible success of God's 
 
172 
 
 SERMON IX. 
 
 messenger, the flush of triumph, that Grod was working 
 out His purposes ; but in the still small voice of con- 
 science awakened from its sleep, in the seven thousand 
 who had not bowed the knee to Baal. The miracle 
 stood alone in Grod's outward creation ; the conduct of 
 the Prophet stands equally alone in His spiritual and 
 moral creation. 
 
 The truth had been placed before them with unmis- 
 takable clearness, " That Jehovah was their king and 
 a great King above all Grods ;" and the conduct of Elijah 
 had given a keenness to the arrow of conviction, and 
 had winged it home to their hearts. They had not 
 bowed the knee to Baal, but had they done their duty 
 to their Grod in times past? Had they confessed Him 
 before men ? Was the example which Grod had enabled 
 the Prophet to give, no rebuke to them ? did it not 
 whisper, in clear and unmistakable accents, what they 
 might have done in their various allotments in life to 
 uphold His religion, and for the honour of His name ? 
 Did not the words of the Prophet recall some long- 
 forgotten sentence of Holy Scripture, which reminded 
 them that they had not done their best to spread the 
 knowledge of God's revealed truth, as Moses had clearly 
 commanded them, among all the people of Israel ? They 
 had failed in their duty to Him, like the men of that 
 generation, of whom the sacred historian had written, as 
 the sum of their practical influence on God's side, 
 " For a long season Israel hath been without the true 
 God, without a teaching priest, and without law." 
 
 The Prophet had known, as no man but Moses had 
 known, the God of Israel as the God of the whirlwind 
 and of the fire— the God whose power was irresistible. 
 He had stood alone for God. There was no human 
 heart to sympathise with him •, he had seen the seven 
 thousand in Israel, the Church of God, silent, and un- 
 
ELIJAH. 
 
 173 
 
 responsive — her witness for lier God hushed. He had 
 heard the voice of the fickle mnltitiide of Israel shout, 
 " The Lord He is God." But on the morrow he found 
 that the stupendous miracle his God had wrought, and 
 the long-prayed-for outward blessing of abundance of 
 rain, had not availed to stay the wrath of Jezebel. 
 It seemed more than human nature could bear ; — 
 and we are told, in one of those passages of Holy 
 Scripture in which we are made to feel its simple 
 truth and power, " He requested for himself that he 
 might die ; and said, It is enough ; now, 0 Lord, 
 take away my life ; for I am not better than my 
 fathers." 
 
 Here we feel that there is a point of contact between 
 the Prophet and ourselves. How true is the picture ! 
 The child of God makes some effort to serve Him, con- 
 vinced that it is his duty to his Father in heaven, to 
 Jesus Christ his Lord — to that Saviour in whose pre- 
 cious blood all his past sins are washed away. The 
 Enemy of all good tells him how useless it is to try 
 to serve God. " Is it any pleasure to the Almighty, 
 is it any gain unto Him ? " The humblest disciple of 
 Jesus may remember, when these feelings overpower 
 him, that, feeble as he is, he is in the path that Prophets 
 and Apostles (" of whom the world was not worthy") 
 have trod before. That path is the path of faith and 
 of obedience to the revealed will of God. The young- 
 believer in Jesus may be comforted by the thought that 
 those who have desired, through his Grace, to be better 
 than their fathers, and who have climbed the loftiest 
 summit, have had also to descend into the deepest and 
 gloomiest valleys ; and that those to whom has been 
 given the clearest vision of the realities of the unseen 
 world, have had, like the Apostles, to have the question 
 addressed to them — " Where is your faith ?"' Still, the 
 
174 
 
 SERMON IX. 
 
 path of trustful and loving obedience, if at times 
 clouded by the mists of earth, is the only path in 
 which the precious influences of the Comforter are 
 known, and on which the light of the Holy Spirit 
 shines, with no uncertain glimmer, but more and more 
 unto the perfect day. 
 
 How gentle was the admonition — " What doest thou 
 here, Ehjah ?" To remain on the solitudes of Horeb, 
 away from the woild of which he was weary, and there 
 to seek a sinless perfection in the solitude of his soul, 
 was not a part of God's training to make him what 
 his soul had longed to be, " better than his fathers." 
 The remedy of the Great Physician for his sickness 
 was to show him how he might benefit his fellows. 
 The remedy, too, for the state of God's Church, was 
 not the isolation of His people, but religious com- 
 panionship, mutual instruction in His revealed truth, 
 and united labour for the good of His Church, and even 
 to gather the outcasts to the fellowship of the Israel 
 of God. He had further work for Elijah. The first 
 step in the work was to find Elisha, the son of Shaphat, 
 a man of decision of purpose, who could give up all 
 for his God, and withal of tender affection, who could 
 say, in the last mysterious hour of Elijah's life upon 
 earth, " As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, 
 I will not leave thee." In that awful hour, when the 
 powers of the world to come seemed on the point of 
 bursting the frail barrier which in this world " divides 
 the spirit from its kind," we have the results of long reli- 
 gious association and deep religious sympathy revealed 
 to us, in the longing of Elisha for a double portion of 
 the spirit of Elijah. Let us not, as it were, listen to the 
 spirit of the whirlwind, or gaze at the chariots of fire, 
 but remember the long and lowly labours of Elijah 
 and Elisha., in founding the Schools of the Prophets. 
 
ELIJAH. 
 
 175 
 
 The whole tenor of Scripture History shows us that 
 the work of the Prophets was not prophecy alone, but 
 instruction of a kind more spiritual and less legal. 
 The results followed rapidly in the destruction of the 
 religion of Baal as the state religion ; and we find the 
 Jews, on their return from the Captivity, abhorring 
 idolatry, having a strong conviction of the reality of 
 revealed religion, and a deep reverence for the volume 
 of the Scriptures. We see in our Lord's time the 
 great institution of reading the Holy Scriptures in the 
 Synagogues every Sabbath-day ; an institution sanc- 
 tioned by our Lord, and existing at the present day, a 
 visible link with the past, and a proof to us of the 
 power which a long array of miracles, added to the ful- 
 filment of prophecy, lent to the teaching of the Pro- 
 phets. And surely we may say that the Prophet saw 
 of the travail of his soul and was satisfied, when he 
 was summoned from the world of spirits to the Mount 
 of the Transfiguration, to speak with the Redeemer of 
 the World of the wonders of redeeming love. 
 
 How, then, does the example of Elijah appeal to the 
 Christian Church ? If we have sought the strength 
 of the Spirit in religious isolation, let us learn, 
 from the sacred page, that it is given to unswerv- 
 ing faith and obedience to the revealed will of God ; 
 that if it is to be found in the solitude of Horeb, 
 the Mount of God, it is much more abundantly to be 
 found in the living association of true believers in 
 Jesus, and in that striving together for the faith of the 
 Gospel, which is commanded to us as a Church. If we 
 have expected to see the work of the Spirit effected in 
 the world solely by those extraordinary means, which 
 seem most in accordance with our ideas of the creative 
 power of Omnipotence, let us learn that He, the Lord 
 of all, not only creates, but that He uses His servants 
 
176 
 
 SERMON IX. 
 
 to build nnconsciously on His creation. While we ac- 
 knowledge in its fulness the declaration of the Apostle, 
 "■ That if any man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is 
 none of His," we see that every successive dispensation 
 of His Spirit calls forth a larger and a larger amount 
 of human activity in His service. 
 
 Instead of forsaking the true communion of saints, 
 and deeming that to be weak which our Lord has pro- 
 mised to bless, let us remember that the word of know- 
 ledge, the word of wisdom, the use of every human 
 means, and of every human sympathy, all that is human 
 except our sinfulness, is sanctified by the Spirit of Jesus, 
 and has in the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour its ap- 
 pointed place and service, and that it has in the life of 
 Jesus its goal and perfection. 
 
 We shall then know what we desire to know — an 
 increase in personal religion. As one body knit 
 together by that which every joint supplieth, we shall 
 drink into one Spirit — the Spirit of the Man Christ 
 Jesus, our Redeemer, our risen Saviour, our glorified 
 Lord. We shall then no longer use the despairing 
 words as a Church spiritually, " Now, 0 Lord, take 
 away my life ; for I am not better than my fathers." 
 And while as individuals we remember that to the 
 wicked God says, " AVhat hast thou to do to declare My 
 statutes, or to take My name into thy lips ? " it is also 
 said to the believer in Jesus, though he may be a most 
 imperfect Christian, that tlie effort to hand a cup of cold 
 water in the name of Christ shall in no wise lose its 
 reward. 
 
SERMON X. 
 
 Preached at a Mission Hall Service, 1869. 
 
 THE CRUCIFIXION. 
 
 " And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, 
 there they crucified Him, and the malefactors, one on the right 
 hand and the other on the left. Then said Jesus, Forgive 
 
 them ; for they know not what they do And the people 
 
 stood beholding." — Tjulce xxiii. 33-35. 
 
 This scene really took place upon " God's earth." No 
 one has ever doubted that the scene described in these 
 verses really did take place. The greatest infidels, the 
 most daring doubters, the greatest enemies of the 
 religion of Jesus, have never denied that this was the 
 greatest event that ever happened in the world. That 
 Jesus lived, that Jesus died, and that Jesus now has 
 "a name which is above every name," are facts. Ask 
 wliat power for good the world's great soldiers, great 
 statesmen, or great philosophers, have left behind them, 
 after eighteen hundred years ; and whether you are 
 a Christian or not, the more fully you know the more 
 fully you will admit that their power for good is as a 
 shadow which passeth away, compared with the name 
 and the power of Jesus. Men may scoff at Him and 
 revile Him, but His kingdom over the minds of men is 
 becoming greater and greater every day. 
 
 As Christians, we believe that " He must reign, till 
 
 N 
 
178 
 
 SERMON X. 
 
 He hath put all enemies under His feet ; " that " at the 
 name of Jesus every knee shall bow, and every tongue 
 confess that He is Lord," either now in the day of His 
 unutterable love and mercy, or in the day of His j^ower 
 hereafter. Our subject this evening is Christ's death. 
 Be very sure that nothing I can say will make it more 
 of a living reality to us than it was to those who saw 
 it — more solemnly, more awfully true, than it is to you 
 and to me, poor sinful men. There were many who 
 went out of the gates of the city of Jerusalem to see 
 that crucifixion. They were men of like passions with 
 us. What, for instance, was that sight to the cold, 
 hard-hearted, scoffing J ew, careless about all religion ? 
 the man whose only thoughts were about the things of 
 this life, " What shall we eat, what shall we drink, and 
 wherewithal shall we be clothed ? " As there are people 
 now who think this is the only thing that concerns 
 them, so there were then. But such persons generally 
 agree that a man must besides all this have some 
 amusement. This was why this Jew (whom I shall 
 take representative of many) listened to Jesus. 
 
 There were many such as the one I shall describe ; 
 Jews who were Jews outwardly, but who were not 
 inwardly and really the people of Grod. I can more 
 easily describe to you tlie life of Jesus, and the feelings 
 of multitudes, and what they saw and heard, if I select 
 one out of the multitude. We think of this man, then, 
 as one who had seen much of Jesus during the last 
 three years of His life. Jesus had given him something 
 which broke the dull, care-worn, wretched round of that 
 sinful and weary life which finds its all in eating, drink- 
 ing, clothing, and amusing itself, without a thought of 
 preparing for a never-ending eternity. 
 
 Thousands had pressed around to hear Jesus speak, 
 and this Jew had gone with the crowd, for he loved the 
 
THE ('RUCIFIXTON. 
 
 179 
 
 excitement of the hour. Whenever and wherever the 
 people were, Jesus found them. Was it in the morning 
 or in the evening, He was among them ; was it a Pass- 
 over, was it a feast-day, He was there. He lost no 
 opportunity " of doing good, and healing all who were 
 oppressed of the devil." Try to picture the various 
 scenes where Jesus preached — on the hill-side, hy the 
 road-side, in the streets and open places of the city. 
 When this short sentence, among others, for weary souls 
 was uttered, " Come unto me all ye that labour and 
 heavy laden, and I will give you rest;" and again 
 when the words, " Behold a sower went forth to sow," 
 sounded in accents soft and clear over the heads of the 
 multitude, this Jew heard them. Then he missed some 
 part of the discourse, and again the words broke sharply 
 on his ear, " Some seeds fell by the wayside, and the 
 fowls came and devoured them up." On another occa- 
 sion he hears Christ saying, " Take heed to yourselves, 
 lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with sur- 
 feiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life." You 
 may be sure he thought, " Surely Jesus has seen how 1 
 spent last night, in drunkenness and unhallowed plea- 
 sure." He was right. Jesus Christ was perfect Grod 
 and perfect man. He had seen it all, and He sees all 
 which a single night casts its veil over, in yonder great 
 city. One day this Jew heard the words clearly, — too 
 clearly for his peace of mind, — " These shall go away 
 into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life 
 eternal." This man knew he was not righteous. Jesus 
 looked on him as He said pleadingly, "It is better for thee 
 to enter into life with one eye, than having two eyes to be 
 cast into hell fire, where their worm dieth not, and where 
 the fire is not quenched." It was spoken as a man 
 might plead with a sleeper to arise and escape for his 
 life. It told him the plain and awful fruth that he had 
 
 N 2 
 
180 
 
 SERMON X. 
 
 a soul created for an eternity of joy, and that lie must 
 give up all his dearest vices, or lose his soul. 
 
 The people who had a short time before received this 
 Jesus king and welcomed Him to Jerusalem with 
 
 Hosannas — who had cried, " Blessed is He that cometh 
 in the name of the Lord " — who had cut down branches 
 from the palm trees, and spread them and their garments 
 in the way — were now stirred up by the chief priests. 
 They seized Him after Judas had betrayed Him, and 
 they led Him away to Pilate the Roman governor, and 
 begged him to put Jesus to death, on th e false charge 
 that He was encouraging people to resist the payment 
 of tribute or taxes to the Romans, and that He claimed 
 to be a king in opposition to the Roman Emperor. Pilate, 
 having heard that Jesus was a G-alilean, sent Him to 
 Herod the king of Gralilee. Herod sent Jesus back again, 
 and to show that he thought the charge only fit to be 
 ridiculed, he sent Him back again, arrayed in mockery 
 with a splendid kingly purple robe. At last the ques- 
 tion is to be decided : Pilate takes his place at the 
 judgment seat ; the crowd again rush together ; Jesus 
 comes forth wearing the purple robe and crowned with 
 a crown of thorns ; Pilate cries, " Behold the man ! I 
 find no fault in Him. Behold your King ! I will 
 therefore release Him and let Him go." Listen to the 
 shout of the crowd : " Away with Him ! crucify Him ! 
 not this man, but Barabbas." " Now Barabbas was a 
 robber." Did the Jew, of whom we have spoken, want 
 the meek and gentle Jesus to be his king ? No : he 
 and his countrymen wanted the promised Messiah to 
 come as a worldly king, who would have delivered 
 Israel from the power of Rome. But Jesus said, 
 " My kingdom is not of this world." Otherwise they 
 would willingly have made Him their king. Pilate 
 again pleaded, " Shall I crucify your King ? " The 
 
THE CRUCIFIXION. 
 
 181 
 
 crowd is angry — " We have no king but Caesar. If thou 
 let this man go, thou art not Csesar's friend. He that 
 maketh himself a king speaketh against Caesar." 
 
 Ah ! there is always one point where the thorough- 
 going man of the world fails. Pilate well knew that his 
 deeds would not bear inspection at the court of Caesar, 
 the Emperor of Rome. His weak point was there. You, 
 who sin secretly, who sin prudently, you who sin a little, 
 and think you will escape the consequences of that sin, 
 remember Pilate. He would have acted rightly. God 
 strengthened his disposition to do so. He appealed to 
 him by his conscience : He caused Pilate's wife to dream 
 a fearful dream, and to beg him, " Have thou nothing 
 to do with that Just Man." He made Pilate tremble 
 before the words of Him who was the Truth itself. 
 And when his Prisoner told him, " Thou couldst have 
 no power at all against Me, unless it were given thee 
 from above," he not only sought, but earnestly sought, 
 to release Him. But here was the point: "If thou let 
 this man go, thou art not Caesar's friend." Pilate knew 
 well of what they could justly accuse him. Here is 
 the power — the awful power — of a sinful life : it makes 
 a man a coward, afraid to do right. We cannot help 
 believing, as we read, that had Pilate then acted rightlj'-, 
 God's grace might have saved even him. He refused 
 it : he sinned against conviction, and delivered up that 
 Just One to be crucified. It was then of no use to try 
 to appease a guilty conscience, and wash his hands 
 before the multitude, saying, "I am innocent of the 
 blood of this Just Person." This is exactly what a 
 certain class of hardened sinners always say, to white- 
 wash their consciences, when they have led astray, by 
 their example, some poor yoimg man, some poor young 
 woman. Beware, my dear friends, if you value your 
 souls, of flattering yourselves that up to a cei-tain ])oint 
 
182 
 
 SERMON X. 
 
 you had good intentions. You will not be judged at 
 the last day according to your good intentions, but 
 according to your works. 
 
 But, hark ! what are the crowd saying ? They 
 sway to and fro, they cry out with the voice of one 
 man, "Away with Him ! Crucify Him ! His blood be 
 upon us and on our children." A fearful prayer ! 
 God sometimes answers such prayers, and fearfully this 
 was answered by judgments on the Jewish nation. 
 Have you never felt yourself carried away by the ex- 
 citement of the crowd ? So also was this Jew. He had 
 heard in time past the words of teaching, of encourage- 
 ment, of sympathy, of gentle and awful warning, which 
 fell from the lips of our adorable Lord ; but having 
 resisted Grod's grace which hath appeared unto men, he 
 had not the love of God in his heart : the words came to 
 his lips as he joined in the chorus of the crowd — " Away 
 with Him, crucify Him !" My friends, are we sure we 
 should not have joined in that cry ? Are there none 
 here who have a conscience, like the ear which has 
 become dull ; which no longer thrills to the music of 
 the voice of God and of His truth ? whose conscience 
 pleaded long, but pleads no longer ? Do you know 
 what it is to have had a godly father, a praying 
 mother ? Do you condemn the Jew ? Do you know 
 what it is to have had a kind and gentle teacher, who 
 set before you faithfully all that this Jew heard, and a 
 great deal more (for there was perhaps not a Jew in 
 Jerusalem who had heard as much of the words of 
 Jesus as you have heard), words full of love and full of 
 warning, dropping gently into your ear Sunday after 
 Sunday ? Have you never heard the Gospel preached 
 when the Spirit of God smote your heart as with the 
 hammer of His truth ? — when Christ, "the Light of the 
 World," has shown you in one broad glance that you 
 
TPIE CRUCIFIXION. 
 
 183 
 
 are a sinner, that the world and its glories and delights 
 are all passing away from you, and that you must make 
 your choice between being ruled by the world or being 
 ruled by Chiist — that you must choose once for all 
 between Christ and Barabbas, between heaven and 
 hell, cost what it may ? When He has knocked 
 at the door of your heart, have you let Him in ? 
 Do you know the joy of the past being forgiven 
 and having Jesus for your guest ? If it is not so with 
 you, if on the contrary you scorn religion, if you de- 
 spise the followers of Jesus who have the image of their 
 Master, you, like the soldiers, have twisted some portion 
 of His crown of thorns in the loud unfeeling laugh, in 
 the sneer at religious people. Have you not, if you have 
 persecuted Christ's followers, "mocked Him," "spit upon 
 Him"? If you have not done this, have you not torn 
 His loving heart when He offered to you a full, free, 
 and eternal salvation, by coldly saying, " Go Thy way 
 at this time ; when I have a more convenient season 
 I will call for Thee " ? Or have you, like Judas, been 
 once a follower of Christ, and betrayed your Lord ? 
 However great your sin, come, fellow sinner, with me, 
 and see Him who had the hosts of heaven at His beck 
 and call, sink under the weight of that cross they made 
 Him bear. 
 
 " And when they were come to the place, which 
 is called Calvary, there they crucified Him, and the 
 malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on 
 the left." They have nailed to the cross those hands 
 which fed the multitude, which opened the blind eyes, 
 which unstopped the deaf ears, those' life-giving hands 
 one touch of which raised the widow's dead, those 
 feet under whose tread the strong waves grew calm. 
 They have crucified Him at whose word the grave 
 gave up its dead, who yet Avept at the grave of 
 
184 
 
 SERMON X. 
 
 Lazarus, who could share both the sorrow and joy 
 of the lowly cottager at Bethany. But what are 
 those words ? Jesus speaks : surely He is pronouncing 
 the well-earned doom of a world's basest ingratitude. 
 No ; the curse richly merited did not come from those 
 pale and agonised lips : they were words of blessing : — 
 " Father, forgive them, for they know not what they 
 do." Gaze at thy loving Saviour : if so be the eye of 
 faith and the light of His Holy Spirit may show thee 
 Jesus Christ and Him crucified as thy Lord and thy 
 God. This is He " who His own self bare our sins in 
 His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, 
 should live unto righteousness." " All we like sheep 
 have gone astray, we have turned every one to his 
 own way ; and the Lord hath laid on Hira the iniquity 
 of us all." " Behold the Lamb of God which taketli 
 away the sin of the world." Remember, 0 guiltiest of 
 sinners, remember, 0 my soul, that Jesus Christ died 
 for thee. He who knew no sin was made a sin-offering 
 for thee. Thou who thinkest a little sin may be in- 
 dulged in, ask thyself, not what thy estimate of sin is, 
 but what is God's estimate of it. His well-beloved Son 
 left the heights of heaven to suffer all this, and to die 
 for thee, and for me, poor guilty sinners. " Herein is 
 love," — unfathomable love, — " not that we loved God, 
 but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the pro- 
 pitiation for our sins." That Jesus whom thou now seest 
 on the cross crucified for thee is " God manifest in the 
 flesh." If thou art willing to accept Him, this is the only 
 condition. He is thy Saviour. Repent, and believe the 
 Gospel. Repent, and all thy past sins shall be blotted 
 out from the book of God's remembrance, and the times 
 of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. 
 " Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be 
 baved." 
 
THE CKUCIFIXION. 
 
 185 
 
 And there they crucified Him, and the two thieves 
 on either side one. The time is far spent, and they are 
 dying ; and swiftly time is passing, sinner, to thee ; 
 gay and thoughtless as thou art, the inevitable hour 
 must come. God has given thee life for a great and 
 glorious purpose, to glorify Him and to prepare thee 
 for heaven. Thou canst not refuse the choice which 
 is placed before thee ; thou canst not even rid thyself 
 of life, for after death is the judgment. There are 
 three dying before thee, Christ and the two thieves. 
 The impenitent thief feels that his hour is come ; he 
 snatches like a drowning man at a straw, and even 
 in his railing he longs to be saved, but it is the sal- 
 vation of the body he seeks. "If thou be Christ, 
 save thyself and us. Let Christ the King of Israel 
 descend from the cross and save us." Is there any one 
 here who fondly hopes that he will find some way of 
 escape which is not Christ's way ? Will you defer 
 the hour of repentance, and believe that when, to the 
 last hour of your life, you have trampled under foot 
 the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame, that 
 you can then command the grace of a penitent heart ? 
 A death-bed repentance is not at our command. When 
 ungodly men are dying, I fear Satan very often bars 
 the door against Christian men who can speak of the 
 Saviour's love. Godless relations do not like the 
 thought of religion at such a time — how often the 
 doctor tells them, and very rightly, to keep him per- 
 fectly quiet ! and very quiet he is kept, and this ungodly 
 man slips away from the world often without knowing his 
 danger, and without one short hour to prepare to meet 
 his God. And then his friends comfort themselves by 
 the thought how gently and quietly he passed away ; 
 and to what ? — from a life of sin to an awful eternity, 
 having rejected in life and health a loving Saviour. 
 
186 
 
 SERMON X. 
 
 Let ns look at the other picture of the penitent thief, 
 and learn that if to this very hour thou hast no hope, 
 and art without God in the world, however near thou 
 art to. that eternity to which we are all hastening, 
 Jesus can save thee to the very uttermost. The penitent 
 thief shewed godly sorrow and deep repentance. " We 
 suffer justly, we have received the reward of our evil 
 deeds ; Lord, remember me when thou comest into 
 Thy kingdom." Here we have living faith in Jesus 
 as the Son of God. " This is the work of God, that ye 
 believe on Him whom He hath sent." The penitent 
 thief was in that moment justified and sanctified in tlie 
 name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God ; 
 and not only so, we have the proof that the work was 
 a real work in his lieart, by his pleading with his 
 fellow-sinner. There is not one word here to make us 
 believe that this thief had put off the hour of repent- 
 ance, or that he had ever been a Christian, but rather 
 that his day of grace was at the eleventh hour. 
 
 What words of joy to the dying man ! " To-day 
 shalt thou be with me in Paradise." What a change 
 from agony to bliss ! The penitent thief did not pass 
 quietly away, surrounded with every comfort, but he 
 died by the rough blow of the soldier, and in fearful 
 agony. 
 
 Oh, my dear friends, may you and may I die, as our 
 perfect Pattern our blessed Lord and Saviour died, and 
 through Him may we be able to triumjDh over all death's 
 terrors. May we know both now and in that hour, 
 that all our past sins are pardoned, and feel that all 
 our lives long He has been preparing us, by His Holy 
 Spirit, to meet that hour ; and with hearts at one with 
 God, full of blessed peace, through our Lord and 
 Saviour Jesus Christ, may we be able to say with 
 perfect confidence, " Father, into Thine hands I commit 
 
THE CRUCIFIXION. 
 
 187 
 
 my spirit — Thou bast redeemed me, 0 Lord God of 
 Truth." 
 
 " Saviour, perfect my trust, 
 Strengthen the might of my faith ; 
 Let me feel as I would when I stand 
 On the brink of the shore of death ; 
 Feel as I would when my feet 
 Are slipping over the brink. 
 For it may be I am nearer home. 
 Nearer now than I think." 
 
 My friends, the message of the Gospel is very 
 simple and very plain : " Repentance toward God, 
 and faith " — loving trust and confidence — " toward our 
 Lord Jesus Christ." He is our Saviour; He died for 
 me. If your heart is willing to accept Him as your 
 Saviour and your King, delay not a moment, come to 
 Jesus for pardon now. He offers to you eternal salva- 
 tion now. The Scripture says, " Behold, now is the 
 accepted time ; behold now is the day of salvation." 
 To-morrow may never come. The day of God's grace 
 may never come again. Let me beg of you not to 
 leave this place to-night without casting yourself before 
 Him in prayer. If you have never prayed before, pray 
 to-night. " He that spared not Llis own Son, but 
 delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with 
 Him also freely give us all things ? " If you ask bread 
 of your reconciled Father, will He give you a stone ? 
 Do you fear He will leave you ? Did not our blessed 
 Lord say, " I will not leave you comfortless (orphans) : 
 I will come to you" ? He will send to you the Comforter, 
 even His Holy Spirit. If you seek Him day by day in 
 prayer, you shall know that there is "now no con- 
 demnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk 
 not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." You will have 
 the witness of the Spirit in your heart, that He is your 
 
188 
 
 SERMON X. 
 
 reconciled Father, and that yon are the child of God ; 
 and " perfect love " will " cast out fear." Just as an 
 earthly father lifts his tender, loving, trusting, little 
 child over the briars and thorns, pushing them aside, 
 and treading them down, and making a way where 
 there is no way, so will your Heavenly Father care 
 for you ! He will lift you over the thorns and briars 
 that beset the narrow way in this wilderness world. 
 Let us trust in Jesus, and the grave will be to us only 
 the dark gateway which leads to that Paradise where 
 we shall meet the holy and the blessed, and where we 
 shall meet the loved ones who have gone before, and 
 where above all we shall see that Saviour who has died 
 for us. Then shall we perfectly love Him, and fully 
 know the power of the Cross of Christ. 
 
SERMON XI. 
 
 Preached in 1869. 
 
 FAITH AND BELIEF. 
 
 " And the woman said to Elijah, Now by this I know that thou art a 
 man of God, and that the word of the Lord in thy mouth is truth." 
 — 1 Kings xvii. 24. 
 
 These words fell from the lips of the widow of 
 Sarepta, a city of Sidon, when the Prophet Elijah 
 raised her son from the dead. She was mentioned by 
 our Lord in the synagogue of Nazareth, when, as He 
 was accustomed. He stood up to read, He told them 
 that He was the Anointed of God, spoken of by Esaias 
 the Prophet, who was " to preach the Gospel to the 
 poor," " to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliver- 
 ance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the 
 blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised. To 
 preach the acceptable year of the Lord." He told 
 them that although He was the Anointed One, He 
 would not be accepted by his own countrymen : — 
 that Elijah was accepted as " a man of God " by this 
 poor Gentile widow, and that she and Naaman, the 
 Syrian, both Gentiles, were preferred to those who 
 were of God's favoured people, Israel. The revealed 
 truth of God was so contrary to the prejudices of the 
 Jews, that had not Christ exerted a peculiar and miracu- 
 lous power. He would have been hurled headlong from 
 the Ijrow of the hill upon which their city was built. So 
 
190 
 
 SERMON XI. 
 
 it was with the Apostle Paul : they heard him " imto 
 this word," which told them that God had revealed 
 to him that He would send him " far hence to the 
 Gentiles," and that His Gospel was not for any peculiar 
 people, but for the whole world, and then said, "Away 
 with such a fellow from the earth, for it is not fit that 
 he should live." Thus was received that most glorious 
 revelation, that Christ was to be a light to the Gentiles, 
 and to be for salvation unto the ends of the earth. 
 We now see, as it were, visibly foreshadowed in the 
 Old Testament history of the widow of Sarepta, " the 
 mystery," which the Apostle tells us " hath been hid 
 from ages and from generations," " that the Gentiles 
 should be fellow heirs and of the same body." Hence 
 we learn that it was the eternal purpose of God " to 
 gather together in one the people of God who were 
 scattered abroad." 
 
 Now it is important for us to notice that the reasons 
 for believing or trusting in Himself, which God gave 
 to this poor Gentile widow, converted through Elijah's 
 ministry, were the very same reasons which God gave 
 to the Gentiles when He offered to them His new 
 Covenant of grace, mercy, and pence in the Gospel. 
 Her acceptance of His prophet and the word in his 
 mouth, was the result of the outward objective proof 
 of his mission, in the raising of her son from the 
 dead. Perhaps there is nothing more clearly set 
 forth in the New Testament than this, that the 
 same description of power which God gave to His 
 Prophets, our Lord gave to His Apostles. He sent 
 them forth, two and two, before His face, saying unto 
 them, " Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, 
 and say unto them. The kingdom of God is come nigh 
 unto you." After His resurrection we read, that with 
 great poicer the Apostles gave witness of the resurrec- 
 
FAITH AND BELIEF. 
 
 191 
 
 tion of onr Lord, and signs and wonders were done in 
 the name of Jesus. But was this the way in which 
 they were known as having a revelation, a message 
 from Heaven ? This question is distinctly answered in 
 the Epistle to the Hebrews, where we are told that the 
 Grospel, the things which we have heard concerning 
 the great salvation which is in Christ, " which at the 
 first began to be spoken by the Lord," " was confirmed 
 unto us by them that heard Him ; God also hearing them 
 witness, both with signs and vjonders, and divers miracles 
 and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to His own will." 
 Thus, to use the words of our text, it was shown " that 
 they were men of God, and that the word in their 
 mouth was truth." Although the Apostles speak of 
 themselves with great humility, as compassed about 
 with infirmity, they never speak of this as attaching 
 human frailty to their message : the word of the Gospel 
 in their mouth was truth — truth which admitted of 
 no difference of opinion. This word, the everlasting 
 Gospel, which they preached and taught, was so fully 
 attested as a revelation from Heaven, that those who 
 " preached any other gospel " had the sentence pro- 
 nounced against them by the Apostle Paul^ " Let them 
 be accursed," and the Galatians received him, in spite 
 of his human infirmity, "as an angel from heaven, 
 even as Jesus Christ." 
 
 There is a tendency in the present day to rest the 
 superior authority of the words and writings of the 
 Apostles on their superior holiness, a position for 
 which no warrant exists in Holy Scripture : to establish 
 a kind of sliding scale, by which we presume to 
 measure the inspiration of God's Holy Spirit, and 
 venture to decide that Luther was inspired, and that 
 the Apostle Paul was much more inspired. It is true 
 they were both influenced by the Holy Spirit, but each 
 
192 
 
 SERMON XI. 
 
 for a specific purpose. Has not Christ Himself drawn 
 a distinction between the office of an apostle and that of 
 a Christian teacher in all after times, which if we fail 
 to recognise, we break down the distinction between 
 revealed and natural religion ? We are told by the 
 Apostle Paul that not all who have the Spirit of Grod 
 are apostles ; and if men without the signs of an 
 apostle assume to be equal to them, Holy Scriptures are 
 robbed of their Divine authority, and the doctrine of 
 the personality of the Spirit of our Lord and Saviour 
 is gradually exchanged for the indwelling of the spirit 
 of nature, the authority of Scripture is made a mere 
 matter of degree, and slowly and almost imperceptibly 
 Christianity is exchanged for Pantheism, while the 
 outward form of spiritual religion remains. And this 
 is no imaginary danger, but one against which we 
 need to be earnestly and affectionately warned. 
 
 We may fully grant that Grod, by His Holy Spirit, is 
 not only able to communicate His will to His creature, 
 man, but may do so, now in these days. We may 
 believe that the faithful preaching of the Gospel now- 
 a-days is accompanied by a " demonstration of the 
 Spirit," and by " the mighty power of God," when men 
 are changed " from darkness to light, from the power 
 of Satan to God ;" when men who are abominable, and 
 to every good work reprobate, are changed into the 
 pure, meek, and lowly followers of a crucified Saviour ; 
 and that such power is precisely the same work of the 
 same Spirit. 
 
 But it is not less certain that the " demonstration (or 
 proof) of the Spirit and of power " was manifested to 
 the early Church in ways not only the same, but also 
 in ways wholly distinct, wholly diverse. To use the lan- 
 guage of the Epistle to the Hebrews, the Gospel was 
 not only " confirmed " unto the early Christians by the 
 
FAITH AND BELIEF. 
 
 193 
 
 testimony of those who heard our Lord, but God bore 
 them witness, first " by signs and wonders," and secondly 
 by extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost. Tims the 
 Apostle Paul tells us " that from Jerusalem round about 
 unto Illyricum," i.e., over half the civilised world, he 
 " had fully preached the Gospel of Christ, with mighty 
 signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God ;" 
 and in another place he tells us that " signs, wonders, 
 and mighty works " were the signs of an Apostle. 
 " These," he says to those who are disparaging his 
 authority, " were wrought among you." Here, then, 
 we have the ground of the authority which Paul claimed 
 as an Apostle of Christ, and which he says he used to 
 their edification, their building up, and not to their 
 destruction, as it was once manifested by Peter in the 
 case of xVnanias and Sapphira, and by Paul himsell" in a 
 lesser degree in the case of Elymas the sorcerer. But the 
 message " was confirmed unto them," we read, " by gifts 
 of the Holy Ghost." Not only had the early Christians 
 the evidence we have of the abiding presence of the 
 Holy Ghost in a death unto sin, a new birth unto 
 righteousness, in holy desires, right purposes, and just 
 works — but they received from the Apostles personally 
 by outward means an additional assurance of the reality 
 of the presence of their risen Saviour and Intercessor at 
 the right hand of God. 
 
 We are distinctly told that, by the laying on of the 
 Apostles' hands the Holy Ghost was given; and although 
 this evidence was doubtless given in those cases where 
 it was specially needed, the fact of its existence tended 
 greatly to confirm their faith in the fundamental doc- 
 trine of an ever present Saviour. " Know ye not that 
 Jesus Christ is in you," your ever present Comforter and 
 Guide ? "I long to see you," says the Apostle Paul to 
 the Romans, " that /may impart unto you some spiritual 
 
 o 
 
194 
 
 SERMON XI. 
 
 gift, to the end ye may be established." In the case of 
 Cornelius, the Holy Ghost fell on the company who 
 heard the Apostle Peter, " as on iis at the beginning," 
 on the day of Pentecost. When Samaria received the 
 word of God, the Apostles sent Peter and John, who 
 laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy 
 Ghost, whereas previously He was fallen on none of 
 them. At Ephesus Paul found certain disciples, of 
 whom he asked the question, " Have ye received the 
 Holy Ghost since ye believed ? " and they answered, 
 " We have not so much as heard whether there be any 
 Holy Ghost." " And he laid his hands on them, and they 
 spake with tongues and prophesied." In the Epistle 
 to the Corinthians, gifts of the Spirit are spoken of, 
 which had outward and visible signs, over and above 
 the inward and spiritual grace. Now can we doubt 
 that this was ordered in the providence of God to be 
 the means by which the Church of Christ was to be 
 convinced that men thus sealed and furnished by the 
 Holy Ghost with every variety of superhuman proof of 
 their commission from God, were so endued for the 
 purpose of conveying to them, beyond all possibility of 
 doubt as to the fact, the whole revealed will of Christ 
 to His Church. That the Apostles claimed an authority 
 for their words and writings, and for the Gospel they 
 preached, from which they admitted no appeal, is 
 evinced in the clear and unmistakable language they 
 use to the early Churches, to the tenor of which I am 
 unaware of a single exception. " If any man think 
 himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge 
 that the things that I write unto you are the command- 
 ments of the Lord." The distinction is here clearly 
 drawn between a spiritually-minded man and an apostle 
 of Christ. Again, the Apostle tells the Thessalonians 
 that they received the word of God, which they 
 
FAITH AND BELIEF. 
 
 195 
 
 heard of him, not as the word of man, but as the word 
 of God." We receive their words and writings, and 
 the Gospel they taught, precisely as the early Church 
 did, not as the words of men, but as the word of God 
 to His Church. The Church then held and the Church 
 now holds the same precious truths, which are contained 
 in the New Testament Scriptures. Now these proofs of 
 the authority which Christ had given to the Apostles 
 were confirmed by their conduct : " For our exhortation 
 was not of deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor in guile : but 
 as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the 
 gospel, even so we speak ; not as pleasing men, but 
 God, who trieth our hearts. For neither at any time 
 used we flattering words, as ye know, nor a cloke of 
 covetousness ; God is witness : nor of men sought we 
 glory, neither of you, nor yet of others." " Ye are 
 witnesses, and God also, how holily and justly and 
 unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that 
 believe : as ye know how we exhorted and comforted 
 and charged every one of you, as a father doth his chil- 
 dren, that ye would walk worthy of God, who hath 
 called you unto His kingdom and glory." Thus Christ's 
 religion when once accepted was found to be all of a' 
 piece like Christ's garment, " woven without seam from 
 the top. throughout." And how does the perfect purity 
 and holy morality which shine in their writings, carry 
 conviction to the poorest and humblest follower of the 
 Lord Jesus, as he turns over the pages of the New 
 Testament ! 
 
 We have attained to the highest perception of what 
 is pure and holy through the Christian religion, and if 
 we have no other reasons, we may well believe the 
 miracles, because we believe the men who wrote the 
 New Testament : but the early Christians came by 
 means of the miracles to the assurance of the truth of 
 
 0 2 
 
196 
 
 SERMON XL 
 
 the message, and of the Divine Mission of the Apostles. 
 And it was thus that the Christian Scriptures took the 
 place that they now occupy in the Chiistian Church. 
 " The words tliat I speak unto you they are spirit and 
 they are life," said our Lord. Not only have these 
 words used by His Spirit been a fount of purity in an 
 age of inexpressible corruption, but we have only to 
 read the Sermon on the Mount to convince ourselves 
 that after eighteen centuries of Christian teaching 
 they rise far above that which commends itself to the 
 imperfectly enlightened conscience of the professing 
 Christian world, like a snowy mountain which pierces 
 above the mists and clouds of this lower world into the 
 heaven of eternal truth. 
 
 Let us hold fast to the New Testament : let us beware 
 of receiving any other Grospel but the everlasting 
 Gospel, the words of " the Spirit to the Churches." 
 Let us beware of resting the Truth of God intended for 
 all nations, attested by many infallible proofs of an 
 external character, merely upon internal impressions, 
 of substituting the unattested utterances of the Spirit 
 for the attested. 
 
 Thousands can testify of miracles of grace wrought 
 on hearts steeped in sin. If we will seek for the out- 
 ward or the inward proof of the Spirit's work, we shall 
 find it. Thousands can testify of the Spirit's work 
 now, in hearts at one with God ; but they can testify 
 also that it was not by any Gospel revealed in them, 
 but through the New Testament, the Gospel out- 
 wardly declared, that they have received the glad 
 tidings — the knowledge of salvation ; and that the 
 words of spiritually-minded men are not Holy Scrip- 
 ture, and that the Scripture does not receive its sanction 
 because it commends itself to the feelings of spiritually- 
 minded men. 
 
FAITH AND BELIEF. 
 
 197 
 
 The Scripture testifies of the Spirit, and the Spirit 
 testifies of the Scriptures ; and we find in our blessed 
 experience that the Comforter, the Holy Ghost, shines 
 on the sacred page, and availingly brings home to the 
 conscience and heart whatsoever He has said to us. 
 May we know more of the power of His Spirit in 
 making stony hearts contrite and penitent ; and may we 
 be able to exchange the words, " Now I know that thou 
 art a man of Grod, and the word of God in thy mouth 
 is truth," for the words, " Now we believe, not because 
 of thy saying ; for we have heard Him ourselves, and 
 know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the 
 world." It will, my friends, avail us little to know 
 that Christ is the "Saviour of all- men" — unless we 
 know that He is our Saviour, and feel that the Spirit 
 itself beareth witness with our Spirit, and unless we 
 feel that our hearts are at one with Him, and full of 
 measure of " the peace of God that passeth all under- 
 standing." 
 
SERMON XIL 
 
 Date uncertain. 
 
 THE SPOILEK SPOILED. 
 
 " When a strong man armed kcepeth his palace, his goods are in peace : 
 but when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome 
 him, he taketh away from him all his armour wherein ho 
 trusted, and divideth his spoils. He that is not with me is 
 against me : and he that gathereth not with me scattereth." — 
 LuJce xi. 21-23. 
 
 Our Loi'd here speaks of tke god of this world as the 
 " Strong Man " in possession. " His goods " are those 
 who are in the snare of the devil, and they are never so 
 emphatically his as when they are in peace. " The 
 Stronger than he " (as is clearly shown by our Lord's 
 allusion to His power in casting out devils) is our Lord 
 Himself : the " arms " or " armour " of the evil one 
 are the capacities for evil of men who are under his 
 rule. The strong man's empire exists in the hearts 
 and minds of his servants. The adversary finds his 
 weapons there : he has no power to work with, unless 
 he has something receptive to work upon ; and our 
 Lord's mission is " to take from him this armour wherein 
 he trusts," and " to divide his sjDoils." He is able to 
 rob the evil one of his weapons by appropriating and 
 by giving a new direction to those talents and capa- 
 cities of the human soul which were once in the ser- 
 vice of the evil one, and employing them in the service 
 
THE SPOILER SPOILED. 
 
 199 
 
 of Grod. There are some who profess the Christian 
 rehgion who appear to regard the allusions contained 
 in the New Testament to the devil and his angels as 
 a kind of accommodation of the truth to popular 
 superstition and religious error. They see very strongly 
 the difficulty of conceiving how a God of love and 
 wisdom and power can allow his children to be tempted 
 by evil spirits. And yet such an objection cannot be 
 deemed satisfactory by those whose experience of human 
 life and character is wide and deep ; because we know 
 it is a solemn fact that evil spirits in the shape of men 
 and women do tempt others and mar the fairest pros- 
 pects. We know that without divine grace the highest 
 education, the greatest care in moral training, are 
 blasted in a moment by the personal influence of evil 
 men. It is a fact, and an awful fact, that moral evil 
 does exist, and that men who have tasted of its bitter- 
 ness still use their influence to tempt others. It exists 
 quite independently of revealed religion, and whether 
 we feel inclined or not to withhold a portion of our 
 assent from the representations of Holy Scripture. 
 What is set forth by our Lord and His Apostles in the 
 New Testament respecting the world of spirits is not a 
 whit less probahle than the actual, the sad facts, con- 
 nected with the world. 
 
 If we feel difficulties of this kind (and they are 
 difficulties which will present themselves at times to 
 both young and old), we do well to look at the diffi- 
 culties on the opposite side. Can any one for a moment 
 honestly believe that He who came into the world to 
 bear witness unto the Truth — He who asked, eighteen 
 hundred years ago, and still asks, " Which of you 
 convinceth Me of sin?" — should have deliberately con- 
 firmed and established a superstitious error ? But the 
 character of our adorable Lord is not merely handed 
 
200 
 
 SERMON XII. 
 
 down to us in the Gospels as an historical character of 
 the highest purity and hoHness, but it is the pecu- 
 liarity of His religion, to teach perfect truthfulness 
 under all circumstances whatever. How gi-eat are the 
 difficulties we involve ourselves in by rejecting por- 
 tions of revealed truth, because they seem to us im- 
 probable ! 
 
 We have the means of satisfying ourselves whether 
 Christianity has the mark of being from Heaven or of 
 men; but, when we have accepted it as a revelation 
 from Heaven, nothing can be more unreasonable than 
 to select certain portions (quite irrespectively of the fact 
 that the evidence for one and the other is the same) 
 which we choose to believe, and certain portions which 
 we disbelieve : as when we reject this doctrine of the 
 influence of evil spirits upon men's souls. What, is 
 declared in the New Testament to be the object of 
 Christ's coming ? What is the object of the Incarna- 
 tion ? Why did He who is enthroned in the highest 
 heaven "take the form of a servant," and "the like- 
 ness of men " ? Why was He " obedient unto death, 
 even the death of the cross" ? Was it not to accom- 
 plish our Eedemption from the guilt and the power of 
 sin ?• — " to destroy tlie works of the devil" ? Christians 
 are spoken of as a people who have been delivered from 
 the power of darkness, from the prince of the power of 
 the air, the spirit which now worketh in the children of 
 disobedience. The great Apostle reminds us of our true 
 position, when he tells us that we " wrestle not against 
 flesh and blood ;".not merely against the misconception 
 of our fellow men, against their ignorance of their true 
 interests, against the blinding influence of animal pas- 
 sions, but against all these directed (to use the words of 
 the Apostle) by " wicked spirits in heavenly places." 
 Do we believe this ? //" ice do so, cannot we admit that 
 
THE SPOILER SPOILED. 
 
 201 
 
 we very inadequately realise it ? Exactly in proportion 
 as we do realise it, we shall be able to accept the 
 exhortation of the Apostle in the spirit of those who 
 feel its reality and power : " Wherefore take unto 
 you the whole armour of God, that you may be able 
 to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to 
 stand." Exactly as we realise it, we shall the less 
 wonder at the power of evil men, and the weakness 
 of those who do not fully give themselves up to the 
 guidance of the Spirit of Christ. Look at the power 
 w^ielded by the Apostle Paul — and, in later times, by 
 Luther, Fox, Wesley, and Whitfield — and say if this 
 is not more enduring than that of the servants . of the 
 god of this world. 
 
 From the scene of the Temptation, in the Gospel of 
 Matthew, to the closing chapter in the Book of Reve- 
 lation, one idea pervades the whole of the books which 
 we call the New Testament, and that is of a great 
 struggle between a Kingdom of Darkness and a King- 
 dom of Light ; a struggle between " the strong man " 
 and One " stronger than he." All this tends to convince 
 the humble believer in Jesus both of the necessity of 
 personal vigilance and of the necessity of looking for 
 wisdom and strength to the Captain of his salvation. 
 He feels that his life is not as it were a spark struck 
 out from under the chariot- wheels of the glory of an 
 Omnipotent God, but a thing which involves mighty 
 issues. It is a struggle in which the power of the God- 
 head is exerted in frail feeble flesh, and is pledged for 
 its help. It binds the soldier to his leader, to Christ 
 his Saviour, and is a pledge that if he is to be made use 
 of, he will not be forgotten in the day of victory, but 
 will share in the spoils of that day when his Captain 
 binds " the strong man." He feels that He who stooped 
 from His glory to die for a world under the power of 
 
202 
 
 SERMON XII. 
 
 the Evil One — a fallen world — to save guilty sinners, 
 to save him, is a God of the tenderest pity and love, 
 who knows the end from the beginning. He is willing 
 to trust Him who came down from heaven, concernins' 
 those things in heaven which are far beyond his finite 
 capacities, and he believes that what he " knoweth not 
 now he shall know hereafter." 
 
 " He that is not with Me is against Me, and he that 
 gathereth not with Me scattereth." We cannot occupy 
 a neutral position. But how are we to " gather with 
 Him," if we are not yet " delivered from the power of 
 darkness, and translated into the kingdom of God's 
 dear Son, in Whom we have redemption through His 
 blood, even the forgiveness of sins " ? Here is a per- 
 sonal question. How many there are in this day who 
 would not describe themselves as against Christ ! and 
 we should not venture for a moment to be so unchari- 
 table as to say so concerning them. But are you with 
 Christ ? because if we are not with Christ, on His side, 
 and gathering with Him, He tells us we are against 
 Him, and we are still " the goods of the strong man 
 armed who keepeth his palace." Has sin still dominion 
 over us ? If so, we are not under grace. The early 
 Christians, in their baptism, not only renounced the 
 pomps and vanities of this wicked world, and all the 
 sinful lusts of the flesh, but a part of their vow was " to 
 live and fight as the soldiers of Christ and of God." 
 
 But before we can fight for Christ, we must be in 
 the kingdom of Christ, and have passed out of the 
 state in which we are under the bondage of " the 
 strong man armed who keepeth his palace." 
 
 There may be those who reply : " I do not know if it 
 can be said that I am with Christ, on His side and 
 gathering with Him. I certainly am not against Him ; 
 I lead an inoffensive life ; I live honestly ; 1 speak the 
 
THE SPOILER SPOILED. 
 
 203 
 
 truth ; I am sober, just, temperate ; there is not a stain 
 upon my character ; nothing which an adversary could 
 put his finger upon that I am aware of in my outward 
 conduct." All this is well ; but even when all this harm- 
 lessness flows from a right principle it is the least part 
 of the religion of Christ ; but in you it does not flow 
 from a right principle. Can you say with regard to 
 yourself, " the love of Christ constraineth us ; 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 live unto tliemselves, but unto Him that died 
 for them, and rose again ? " You are not on Christ's side 
 in the great conflict ; you are not with Him ; you are 
 not gathering with Him ; and, therefore, if you cannot 
 say in the secret of your own hearts you are His, Christ 
 tells you you are against Him ; you are still in the 
 kingdom of the devil— his slaves, and soldiers in his 
 23alace,and although " in peace," it is a false peace. When 
 the Stronger than he comes and knocks at the door will 
 you not let Him in, and will you not say^ " I acknow- 
 ledge that Thy love is indeed strong ; I yield to Thee. 
 Thou art stronger than the god of this world. Come 
 in ; Thou shalt sup with me " ? 
 
SERMON XIIL 
 Preached 1870. 
 
 FAITH AND WORKS. 
 
 " Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered 
 Isaac his son upon the altar ? Seest thou how faith wrought 
 
 imth his works, and by works was faith made perfect 
 
 Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by 
 faith only."— James ii. 21, 22, 24. 
 
 It is most important for us to remember that the truths 
 revealed by the Gospel are not merely verbal state- 
 ments (which like the words in a creed depend upon 
 their verbal precision or consistency), but they are 
 great facts concerning the spiritual world, and exist 
 quite independently of the words by which they are 
 related to us in the New Testament. 
 
 We look at the same spiritual truths, but they are 
 presented to us in Holy Scripture from dilferent points 
 of view. 
 
 This is especially the case with the doctrine of justi- 
 fication by faith and the relation between the faith and 
 the works of a Christian, as set forth by the Apostle 
 Paul and the Apostle James. If we dwell merely on the 
 words by which they express themselves, we may for a 
 moment conceive that they are contradicting one an- 
 other ; while if we seek their whole scope and meaning 
 
FAITH AND WORKS. 
 
 205 
 
 we shall find that they are only treating the same 
 subject from different points of view. There are grounds 
 for believing that the Epistle of James was written 
 before the Epistle to the Romans, and therefore none 
 for supposing that the Apostle James wrote for the 
 purpose of more accurately defining the statement of 
 the doctrine of justification by faith contained in that 
 Epistle. 
 
 In the Epistle to the Romans the Apostle Paul sets 
 forth how every sinner whom God by His Spirit has 
 caused to hear the Gospel, and who lovingly accepts 
 the offer of salvation, is justified by faith. He tells 
 us that this pardon of our past sins, and reconcihation 
 to God which he calls justification, is not earned by 
 any works done in order to merit it. " To him that 
 imrketh^ the reward is not reckoned of grace but of 
 debt : " the pardon of our past sins is the gift of God : 
 it is simply an act of " grace," or free mercy on the 
 part of God towards sinful man. The love of God 
 in Christ can be known only by those who are willing 
 to enter the narrow way through the wicket gate of 
 pardon. 
 
 There were many at Rome to whom the Apostle 
 Paul wrote who would have understood and highly 
 valued a plan by which they could win the " immor- 
 tality which was brought to light by the Gospel " by 
 their own works ; but here was the very distinction 
 between Christianity and philosophy ; and the Apostle 
 in one vigorous sentence shows that the love of God in 
 Christ reaches far beyond the utmost dream of phi- 
 losophy : " It is the ungodhj that He justifieth :" — a sen- 
 tence which only the penitent sinner can receive with 
 unutterable joy, but which sends the rich and the full 
 empty away. " I came not to call the righteous," says 
 our blessed Lord, " but sinners to repentance." 
 
206 
 
 SERMON XIII. 
 
 If thou art a sinner, Jesus stands with arms open 
 wide to welcome thee. He says, " I, even I, am He 
 that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own 
 sake, and will not remember thy sins." Forgiveness 
 of past sins is the foundation of all true love to 
 the Saviour. Like children, men seek to pluck the 
 flowers of a virtuous life, and to plant them to adorn 
 and beautify their gardens, instead of seeking the root 
 which will cause them naturally and enduringly to 
 grow. The soul instinctively cries " Who shall deliver 
 me from this body of death ? " The consequences of 
 past sin are by the righteous law of God's universe 
 inevitable and crushing ; but thanks be to God, Christ 
 in the strength of His Divinity has borne our sins and 
 has found a ransom. " It is God that justifieth : who is 
 he that condemneth ?" 
 
 Such being the doctrine of justification by faith, the 
 Apostle Paul speaks of that act of loving trust which 
 caused Abraham not to stagger at the promises of God, 
 but to believe that what God had promised He was 
 fully able to perform : an act which made Abraham 
 at one with the purposes of God, by which he was par- 
 doned through the same Saviour as ourselves — through 
 " the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world," 
 typified by the ram caught in the bush, and would 
 have been pardoned even had he died before he set 
 out on the journey to Mount Moriah. 
 
 The Apostle James is speaking of something that 
 followed that act, or those prior acts of faith, and he 
 tells us that Abraham in the hour of trial, when he 
 had offered up Isaac, was justified by his works also, or 
 by the evidence which his works gave to angels and 
 to men of the reality of his faith in God. 
 
 Let us recollect that the Apostle James does not once 
 say that Abraham was not justified by faith, and that 
 
FAITH AND WORKS. 
 
 207 
 
 when he speaks of a man being justified by the evidence 
 of his works he uses the word " works " in a sense 
 wholly distinct from that of the Apostle Paul. The 
 Apostle James speaks of a man being " justified by 
 works," meaning works which are the result of loving 
 faith ; works which are wrought by the Spirit of Christ 
 in His faithful followers, works which evidence their 
 faith, and are ever tending to perfect it. The Apostle 
 Paul, on the other hand, is speaking of the " works of 
 the Law," the doing of certain outward things in order 
 to purchase salvation. He is speaking not of works 
 wrought by the Holy Spirit, but of the " works of the 
 flesh," and directs us to seek that great inwai^d change 
 which is the gift of Grod — the present salvation of a 
 pardoned soul. When the Apostle Paul is speaking of 
 the results of this great change, how closely do his 
 expressions correspond to those of the Apostle James ! 
 He tells us that the righteousness of the law is ful- 
 filled in those who walk not after the flesh but after the 
 Spirit ; that not the hearers of the law shall be just 
 before God, bat the doers of the law shall be justified ; 
 and lie goes on to show that so far from " making void " 
 the great moral law of God written both in the law of 
 Moses and the human heart, we show the means by 
 which it can actually he fulfilled by sinful man. We 
 shall find on the one hand the whole doctrine of justi- 
 fication by faith, as taught by the Apostle Paul, taught 
 by our Lord in His reply to those who asked Him, 
 " What shall we do that we might work the works of 
 God ? " " This is the work of God, that ye might believe 
 on Him whom He hath sent." All, all is included in 
 the loving acceptance of Christ precisely as the plant is 
 included in the seed, although the development of the 
 seed requires the most sedulous care or it will bring no 
 fruit to perfection. On the other hand we shall find 
 
208 
 
 SERMON XIII. 
 
 that our Lord stamps with His own mint mnrk (if that 
 were needed) the teaching of the Apostle James, almost 
 in the very words in which the Apostle expresses him- 
 self — " Every idle word which men shall speak they 
 shall give an account thereof at the day of judgment; 
 for hy thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy 
 words thou shalt be condemned." 
 
 The evidence which our words and our works give 
 that our faith in Christ has or has not done its work 
 will be accepted at that day. " Behold, I cotne quickly, 
 and My reward is with Me, to give every man^ according 
 as his work " (not as his faith) " shall be." He will 
 then know His sheep, for the seal of His holiness will be 
 upon them all. The blotting out of their sins from the 
 book of condemnation and the inscription of their 
 names in the book of life will then be justified by the 
 results. Are there any of us here who are in danger 
 of forgetting that " if we sin wilfully after we have 
 received a knowledge of the truth/' if we are indulging 
 knowingly any course of conduct which is sinful, 
 " there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin " ? We 
 cannot be partly Christ's and partly the world's, and 
 yet believe that we are justified, pardoned, forgiven 
 sinners. " What doth it profit, my brethren, though a 
 man say he have faith, and have not works ? can faith 
 save him ? " I will give you, says the Apostle James, 
 an instance of what I mean. If, for example, " a 
 brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily food, 
 and one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye 
 warmed and filled ; notwithstanding ye give them not 
 those things which are needful to the body, what doth 
 it profit ? " Much more, if our brethren and sisters are 
 destitute of Christ's Gospel, and what is worse, destitute 
 of the desire to seek it — have we faith if we do not 
 seek by our words, by our exertions, or at least by our 
 
FAITH AND WORKS. 
 
 209 
 
 money, to extend it to them ? And if we do not so, is 
 it really true that we feel ourselves poor guilty sinners, 
 saved not by our merits so much beyond those of others, 
 but by His mercy, and yet that we can act thus ? We 
 say our faith is " weak," but may we not profitably ex- 
 amine ourselves, whether it is a faith which overcomes 
 the world, or a faith which is overcome by the world. 
 But our self-examination may go further, and we may 
 inquire of our own hearts, and I would join you in 
 that examination, whether it is a faith which, in the 
 common details of life, its tenderest relations, its 
 humblest duties, " worketh by love," to the conscious 
 purifying of the soul. For if it be not, "we may 
 bestow all our goods to feed the poor," we may be even 
 martyrs for the cause of Christ, may " give our bodies 
 to be burned," and it will profit us nothing. Are we 
 walking as those who truly believe the Gospel, and re- 
 membering how short and how fleeting are the hours of 
 our pilgrimage, do we walk in that love which " sufferetli 
 long and is kind," is " not easily provoked, thinketh no 
 evil," not to the good and gentle only, but to all those 
 who are around us ? Does the Holy Spirit drive out 
 all hard thoughts of others ? Do we remember that 
 
 " A few more years shall roll, 
 A few more seasons come, 
 And we shall be with those that rest 
 ' Beyond ' the silent tomb " ? 
 
 Then when those years are gone, and when we are gone, 
 we shall have no regrets. Faith will have wrought 
 with our works, and by works will our faith be made 
 perfect. Having put on the new man, which after God 
 is created in righteousness and true holiness, we shall 
 be able with a well-grounded hope to " rejoice in the 
 Lord alway," receiving the earnest even here of our 
 inheritance in heaven. 
 
 P 
 
SERMON XIV. 
 
 Preached at Bunhill Fields (Open Air Meeting), 1871. 
 
 LIFE THROUGH FAITH. 
 
 " Verily, verily, I say unto you. He that heareth my word, and 
 believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall 
 not come into condemnation ; but is passed from death unto life." 
 John V. 24. 
 
 I SOMETIMES fancy that some of our working people 
 think that the Christian religion is the special inherit- 
 ance of well-to-do people. Some of the men who lie 
 buried here, if they were to rise from their graves, could 
 tell us something of the amazing love of God in Christ, 
 in the midst of trial, trouble, and distress. They were 
 men who were willing to be led to prison, to be stripped 
 of all they possessed, to be sold as slaves, and die a 
 martyr's death joyfully, rather than allow Englishmen 
 and their children to be robbed of the glorious privilege 
 of having a free Gospel in a free land. But, my 
 friends, do the working men and women in this country 
 value suflSciently this blessing of having Christ's Gospel, 
 which has been bought for them by the sufferings of 
 thousands of good men who lived when religion did not 
 walk so much about in silver slippers, and was not so 
 much applauded. It is not two hundred years ago 
 since the last martyr was burned for her religion in 
 Smithfield : possibly some of the people buried here saw 
 
LIFE THROUGH FAITH. 211 
 
 her lay the straw round herself, and praise God. And 
 two hundred years ago we should have been clapped in 
 prison for assembling here to worship our Father in 
 heaven. The great and increasing sin of English work- 
 ing men and women is, I fear, their not being willing 
 to give Christ's Grospel a hearing. I suppose there are 
 some persons who think that at the judgment day they 
 will have less sin to answer for if they are able to plead 
 that they know nothing about the message of love and 
 mercy contained in Christ's Gospel ; on the same prin- 
 ciple that lads who want to trespass don't look at the 
 notice-board, so that they may be able to say, if they 
 are caught, " they did not know they were doing 
 wrong." They are very foolish, for the very first ques- 
 tion they are asked in court is, " Did you not see the 
 notice-board ? " If they say they did not, the magis- 
 trate says, " Then you ought to have seen it." If they 
 say they did, but did not read, the judge says, and 
 rightly, " You ought to have read it." So at the day 
 of judgment. Now, Christianity professes to be a 
 message from Heaven, and if so, it is worth looking 
 into. It tells us, that the God who made you and me, 
 who made that hand of yours with all its beautiful 
 mechanism, the Creator, the Lord of life and glory (for 
 God made all things by Jesus Christ), that He, like a 
 great and glorious king, laid aside His glory, dismissed 
 the bright train of holy angels, left the purity and holi- 
 ness of heaven, to come down and dwell in the form of 
 the Man Christ Jesus, as a father in the homes of earth. 
 He saw with human eyes our sorrows. He felt hunger and 
 thirst. He had not where to lay His head. He saw what 
 the tears of a widow were like. He wept with the sisters 
 at the grave of Lazarus, while in Him dwelt the power 
 which caused life to stir the sheeted dead, and could 
 
 p 2 
 
212 
 
 SERMON XIV. 
 
 say with the power of the Omnipotent God, before the 
 very tomb, " Lazarus, come forth." It is the Gospel 
 which tells you how men, guilty men, led Him as a 
 lamb to the slaughter, and how the blood of Jesus 
 Christ — oh, amazing love ! — was shed for the sins 
 of a guilty world, who crucified their Saviour, while 
 He said, " Father, forgive them ; they know not 
 what they do." Hard measure, indeed, do men deal 
 out to their God. Here is a message from Heaven, 
 and will you say in effect, " I do not wish to get 
 to heaven — the golden city with its pearl gates I 
 never wish to see. I do not wish to live for ever, ever 
 increasing in happiness with the spirits of good men 
 made perfect and with God's bright and holy angels, 
 to meet those I loved on earth, who, having found 
 their Saviour, have gone to their eternal rest." Oh, 
 what madness is this ! but the folly of the sinner is still 
 greater than all this. Do you think that at the day of 
 judgment you will put off God with such miserable 
 excuses as that working men have not time to attend 
 to religion, when they have time to shoot, to fish, to 
 fly pigeons, to catch blackbirds, to train dogs, on 
 Sunday and on Saturday afternoons, and to go to the 
 theatre and the music hall ? God knows how the 
 Saturday night and the Sunday are spent. Like the 
 silly ostrich when he is hunted, the sinner as it were 
 hides his head in the sand when he is in dano-er of 
 hearing the Gospel. God's Holy Spirit in his heart is 
 every now and then telling him plainly, " The wages 
 of sin is death." He is knocking at the door of your 
 hearts, and asking, " When will you listen to the 
 story of My love?" When, will you let in yoiir 
 loving Saviour, pleading with you, seeking His lost 
 sheep — the wilful and foolish sheep ? Oh, my brother, 
 
LIFE THROUGH FAITH. 
 
 213 
 
 niy sister, have you never heard His voice, in Chequer 
 Alley, in the mission hall, in the silent streets, or on 
 a starlight Sunday night when nothing but the rumble 
 of an empty cab or a sohtary passer-by breaks the 
 silence of great London ? — in your empty room when 
 you have retired to rest, has not that silent voice 
 asked you, " Is the Gospel, are the words of Jesus 
 true ? " And if they are, have you the courage to lay 
 hold of the help offered you by God, and to act as 
 you believe ? When some friend, some fondly loved 
 one is taken from you to go — you, unbelieving one, 
 may know, or may know not, whither — have you not 
 heard God's silent voice in your heart, when the wind 
 moaned round the cold, the silent grave, and He has 
 told you, "This is the end of all living: as he has 
 gone, so you too shall go ; as the grass grows over 
 his grave, so it shall grow over your grave " ? " What 
 shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world and 
 lose his own soul ? " The man of this world then feels 
 the vanity of all that this world can offer him. Eiches, 
 can he take them away ? Pleasure — can he, can you, 
 my sister, enjoy it, when you are not able to say, *' I 
 know that my Redeemer liveth" ? Can you say, " Oh, 
 loving Saviour, Thou art mine; Thou canst redeem me 
 from the power of the grave, for Thou who hast been my 
 joy in life, my Brother, my Saviour, my Lord, Thou 
 wilt receive me." When will you be able to say this ? 
 " He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that 
 sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come 
 into condemnation." What a promise to the attentive 
 hearer of the Gospel ! He that heareth My word, 
 My offer of salvation, and believeth — accepts it, takes 
 his God at His word, trusts Him, repents, and like the 
 little child is willing to follow Him — hath everlast- 
 
214 
 
 SERMON XIV. 
 
 ing life. How deeply so ever you Lave sinned — 
 you may be slipping, slipping over tlie brink of 
 TIell — but clasp your Saviour's hand, and you shall 
 be safe. 
 
 " Eeturn, return, 
 From all thy crooked ways ; 
 
 Jesus will save the lost, 
 The fallen He will raise. 
 
 Look to Him who beckons thee 
 
 From the Cross so lovingly ; 
 See His open arms extended. 
 
 Fear not to seek entrance there, 
 Where no grief is unbefriended. 
 
 Where no sinner need despair." 
 
 " He that heareth My word, and believetli on Him 
 that sent Me, hath everlasting life." Blessed promise ! 
 The same power that raised Lazarus can raise your 
 soul from the death of sin to a new life in Christ Jesus. 
 The judgment day shall have no fears, for you shall 
 not come into judgment, but you have passed from 
 death unto life. This is what you and I want, pardon 
 for the past, hope for the future — a Saviour for our 
 past sins, One who is ever pleading for us at the 
 throne of God, a Saviour ever present by His Spirit, 
 to enable us to fulfil His will, to take us by the hand, 
 and lovingly lead us along our pathway, rejoicingly to 
 heaven. 
 
 You can now bear the clouds, the rain, the storm, 
 for you know that the sunshine of Grod's presence is 
 behind the cloud. The grave to you is but the dark 
 gateway which leads to the light — if you are really 
 lieeing from the City of Destruction. Delay not one 
 moment, but accept, with an honest and true heart, 
 God's offer to you of eternal salvation, and remember, 
 
LIFE THROUGH FAITH. 
 
 215 
 
 as you go from tliis place, that " the street called By- 
 and-By leads to the house called Never." 
 
 I have set before you this day life and peace, death 
 and evil ; therefore choose life, life eternal_, pleasures 
 for evermore. 
 
SERMON XV. 
 
 Preached at a Mission Hall Service, 1871. 
 
 THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS. 
 
 " And Abraham said, Son, remember." — Luke xvi. 25. 
 
 We sometimes forget that the Gospel of Christ is a 
 message from heaven ; but it is preached to us by men. 
 " No man," says our blessed Lord, " hath ascended up 
 to heaven but He that came down from heaven, even 
 the Son of Man which is in heaven," " God manifest 
 in the flesh," Jesus our Lord and our God ; who was 
 in heaven, even when He was on earth, because 
 heaven could never leave Him who made it. Now 
 this history is told us by One who had been in heaven, 
 who knew all those mysteries of the world beyond the 
 grave, which we long to know and approach with awe. 
 The story is of two persons, one of whom had great 
 advantages, while the other had very few. One had 
 earthly riches, but had never laid up treasure in heaven ; 
 while the other had earthly poverty, and even bodily 
 misery, which were no fault of his, and he was laid at 
 the rich man's gate full of sores. But this beggar had 
 sought and obtained heavenly riches, "an house not 
 made with hands, eternal in the heavens." These men 
 lived, and you are told how they lived ; they died, and 
 you are told how they died ; and then the veil is lifted, 
 and you see after death where they are. And more 
 
THE KICH MAN AND LAZARUS. 
 
 217 
 
 than this, you are told not only that one was happy 
 and one was miserable, but you are told why the one 
 was happy and why the other was miserable, and 
 the thoughts which constituted his misery. You are 
 told the state of mind he was in, and the regrets he 
 had there. What a solemn thought it is, how care- 
 lessly we sometimes listen to the Gospel Sunday after 
 Sunday ; and yet time is swiftly passing, and in one 
 of these two states we soon shall be, but the story of 
 our lives will be the same when told. The rich man 
 is not described as having done anything positively 
 wicked, and he enjoyed his position without a thought 
 beyond this life. But " in hell he lifted up his eyes, 
 being in torments." Had he acted during his life in 
 the spirit in which the poor man had lived during 
 those years of suffering, would he, think you, have 
 been where you see him ? Can you doubt that the 
 poor man, if he had cursed Grod and died, as Job's 
 wife recommended him in like case to do, do you 
 think he would have been in Abraham's bosom ? Of 
 what use would the story be to us if it did not teach the 
 lesson that we to whom the Grospel is preached may 
 escape the doom of the rich man who fared sumptuously 
 every day ? Surely this story was related that you 
 and I may see before it is too late our future history. 
 Do not let us shrink from learning the lesson the 
 picture is intended to teach. This picture was drawn 
 for us by One who alone was able to do it, by One who 
 represents the amazing love of God, by Him who for 
 us men, and for our salvation, stooped from His home 
 in glory to live a life on earth. Fie had not, we are 
 told, " where to lay His head." The rich, and doubt- 
 less also the poor, " ministered to Him of their substance." 
 And did He not give proof of His love in that He died 
 for us ? It was He who gave this history, and therefore 
 
218 
 
 SERMON XV. 
 
 we are sure that it was not to make us sad or unhappy, 
 or to make us feel that there is no way of escape, but 
 that it was told us in all that amazing love that brought 
 Him from heaven. Now let us see if we can read it 
 aright and learn the lesson of warning, of instruction, 
 and of comfort, which we know it is intended to give ; 
 that we may grasp it as an intense reality — that we 
 may catch a glimpse of the things after death, which 
 through God's grace may availingly apply the lesson 
 to our lives, and 
 
 " Teach us to live tliat we may dread 
 The grave as little as our bed : 
 Teach us to die that so we may 
 Eise glorious at the judgment day." 
 
 What great facts do we learn from the narrative ! 
 We learn that the righteous and the wicked shall be sepa- 
 rated ; that there is " a great gulf fixed ; so that they 
 that would pass from hence to you cannot, neither 
 can they pass to us that would come from thence." 
 Hell is set before us in Holy Scripture as a place, and 
 all that the power of language can do is employed to 
 render that place fearful to us. When we die, these 
 bodies of ours will pass away and be changed ; but 
 there will be no change in the soul. " He that is 
 unjust, let him be unjust still ; and he that is filthy, 
 let him be filthy still ; and he that is righteous, let 
 him be righteous still ; and he that is holy, let him be 
 holy still." Do you wonder if between the righteous 
 and the wicked after death in God's wisdom there is a 
 " great gulf fixed " ? do you wonder how it is that 
 Hell is a place of torment ? A state of mind at enmity 
 to God, a radical dislike and hatred of the character 
 and spirit of Christ must be itself a torment. If you 
 are not reconciled to God, at one with Him and with 
 His dear Son, although you may have many good points, 
 
THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS. 
 
 219 
 
 though 3'oii may be, as people say, " good sort of men 
 and women," if that great change has not taken place 
 in your heart and will, and unless you have resolved to 
 follow Christ, and to receive His righteousness into 
 your souls ; and unless you are being changed after 
 Christ's image, you have in you that disposition of 
 character and soul which will lead you ever downwards, 
 ever farther from Grod, " for the wrath of God abideth 
 on him." How about your character, my brother, my 
 sister ? do you feel that it is getting more heavenly — 
 that you are getting nearer Heaven ? The Scripture 
 calls Heaven the " land of uprightness ; " it is the abode 
 of "just men made perfect." Do you feel that you are 
 acting more justly, more uprightly, in the common 
 things of life, and are giving up that which you know 
 to be sinful, for Jesus' sake ? " Without holiness no 
 man shall see the Lord." " Blessed are the pure in heart, 
 for they shall see God." Into the Holy City nothing 
 which is impure shall enter. Do you shrink from that 
 place of torment with unutterable dread ? Do you long 
 to know if you are going to Heaven ? Then ask your- 
 self whether, amid all your weakness, you feel that you 
 are progressing in the path of holiness. Can you come 
 to God through Jesus Christ for pardon ? have you 
 accepted the new life which He would give yoii ? 
 There is no standing still ; every day is bringing you 
 nearer Heaven or Hell, Do you feel a longing to 
 enter Heaven, so that you may obtain the glorious 
 resurrection ; and that men may place on your tomb- 
 stone the inscription : — 
 
 " He is sleeping now like Lazarus upon his Father's breast, 
 Where the wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at 
 rest. 
 
 Sin shall never stain his brow, nor doubt his faith assail, 
 Nor his meek trust in Jesus Christ, or the Holy Spirit fail " ? 
 
220 
 
 SERMON XV. 
 
 But, llow are we to reach Heaven ? How are we 
 to obtain that heavenly character ? Lazarus means 
 " the Lord my Helper." Why is Lazarus described 
 as sitting in Abraham's bosom ? Was not Abraham 
 the father of the faithful, and is it not according to 
 Grod's blessed word, " through faith and patience we 
 inherit the promises " ? And what are the promises 
 to the believer in Jesus ? "I will dwell in them, and 
 walk in them ; and I will be to them a Grod, and they 
 shall be to me a people." You can never in your own 
 strength and righteousness reach Heaven : the en- 
 trance into that life — that new life, in which the Chris- 
 tian is said to be alive from the dead — is through faith, 
 through living trust in Jesus. " This is the record," 
 says the beloved Apostle, " that God hath given to us 
 eternal life, and this life is in His Son." " If we 
 confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us 
 our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 
 " If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we 
 have fellowship one with another, and the blood of 
 Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin." Do 
 you long for that new life ? Come to Him who is 
 saying to you : " Behold, I stand at the door and knock ; 
 if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will 
 come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with 
 Me." If we truly believe in Him, we have the witness 
 in ourselves. " He that heareth My word, and believeth 
 on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall 
 not come into condemnation, but is passed from death 
 unto life." 
 
 Now, what is the great lesson tanght by the whole 
 history, and how may it help us to lose the spirit of 
 fear and to obtain the spirit of adoption ? What 
 is it that the spirit of the rich man is grieving over ? 
 His first thought was to alleviate his wretched state. 
 
THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS. 
 
 221 
 
 " Father Abraham, send Lazarus." Alas, it is too late ! 
 " Son, remember," are the words which carry home an 
 awful lesson to us. " Son, remember." There is, then, 
 memory in a future world. Will you, my brother, my 
 sister, carry the memory of unrepented, unforgiven sin 
 to another world, or will you wash away your sins in 
 the blood of Christ? Accept His grace, and couple 
 with your remembrance the sense of His amazing love ; 
 and that remembrance will raise in your hearts the 
 song of the redeemed, " Worthy is the Lamb that was 
 slain, and has redeemed us." 
 
 Now let us specially mark the latter part of the nar- 
 rative, where the rich man by those words, " Son, 
 remember," has the bitter memory brought before liira 
 of neglected opportunities. He had been clothed in 
 purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every 
 day. He had forgotten Lazarus, the poor beggar, 
 who was not some able-bodied man too lazy to work, 
 and had come to beg, but a man laid at his gate full of 
 sores. Do you condemn the rich man ? Then honestly 
 ask yourselves how would you spend your money if 
 you were rich ? My dear friends, be sure that if we 
 are without the spirit of Christ, if we do not use 
 our opportunities in accordance with His intention, 
 Satan will find means to snare the rich man by his 
 riches, and the poor man by his poverty. Unless 
 by God's power the world is under our feet, and the 
 opportunities which our position giyes us are used to 
 His glory, we may have the words addressed to us, 
 " Son, remember." The rich man's next thought was, 
 " Oh, that some additional opportunities of escaping my 
 sad doom were afforded to my five brethren now upon 
 the earth !" How does this unveil to us the despe- 
 rate folly of those who in the day of God's grace, 
 of His gentle knocking, will not open the door, will 
 
222 
 
 SERMON XV. 
 
 not give up their hearts to Him who is wooing them : 
 " My son, my daughter, give Me thy heart. I will 
 undertake for thee. Fear thou not, for I am with thee : 
 be not dismayed, for I am thy God : I will strengthen 
 thee ; yea, I will help thee ; yea, I will uphold thee 
 with the right hand of My righteousness." " Surely," 
 cries the lost soul, longing for his poor brethren whom 
 he sees treading the same path that he had trodden, " if 
 Lazarus were to go — one who had been in Heaven, 
 who could bring them a direct message all about the 
 happiness of Heaven — and say, ' I have come back from 
 Heaven with a message which will tell you two things : 
 first, how to get to that glorious world ; and, secondly, 
 a message from your rich brother : he is in Hell, and 
 he has told me to bring the tidings, and testify to 
 you of his torments ; he remembers his lost oppor- 
 tunities, he begs you to use yours. God has sent 
 this message to you : do as I have done, believe 
 in that precious Saviour, follow Him, and you shall 
 have the Light of Life : now is the time, to-morrow 
 you may be where the rich man is,' would not my 
 brethren, if they had such a messenger with such a 
 message, turn, repent, and live ? " " No," replies the 
 Father of the Faithful, " bitterly as you repent lost 
 opportunities, you do not know the state into which 
 such people bring themselves. They would not repent, 
 though one went to them from the dead." 
 
 Has not One come to us, my friends, from the dead, 
 from the eternal world ? and is He not calling some 
 here this evening ? " Turn ye, turn ye ; why will ye die, 
 O house of Israel ? I will be merciful to thy unrighteous- 
 ness, and thy sins and thy iniquities will I remember 
 no more." How blessed is the message of the Gospel ! 
 pardon for the past, and a present salvation ; a new 
 birth unto righteousness ; a new nature ; the new man 
 
THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS. 223 
 
 which is being created in us, — Heaven begun in a 
 changed character, the blessed foretaste of eternal bliss ! 
 Hear now on earth from a fellow mortal the words, 
 " Son, remember." If those opportunities which Grod 
 has given you are improved through the grace and 
 power of His Holy Spirit which He will give you — for 
 if an earthly father will give bread to his child, how 
 much more will not He give the Holy Spirit to those 
 who ask Him? — if we remember now, we may be sure 
 that those words, " Son, remember," will never be 
 addressed to us when it is too late to mourn over pre- 
 cious opportunities lost. Oh, my friends, let us be 
 willing to read the story of our lives and amend them 
 while yet there is time, trust in Jesus, walk in His 
 Spirit, receive the blessed assurance that there is one 
 of those many mansions prepared for us in Heaven. 
 
SERMON XVI. 
 
 Preached 1872. 
 
 CHRIST THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 
 
 " I am the Light of the World : he that followeth me shall not walk 
 in darkness, but shall have the Light of Life." — John viii. 12. 
 
 We read that our Lord came to the Temple " early in 
 the morning," and that "all the people," probably 
 those who came to worship, " came unto Him, and He sat 
 down and taught them." It would seem as if He was 
 for a short period interrupted ; and in all probability, 
 when He commenced again to teach the people, seated 
 on the steps of tlie Temple, the sun was rising in all 
 the splendour of the unclouded East ; and following 
 His usual custom He seizes the passing glories of the 
 natural world as the fitting means of imjDressing upon 
 them the enduring realities of the spiritual world. " I 
 am the Light of the World : he that followeth Me shall 
 not walk in darkness, but shall have the Light of Life." 
 What a clear announcement we have here of our 
 Lord's Divinity ! Not a Light, but the Light of the 
 World. It was He who called the Patriarchs, who led 
 Moses the shepherd of His flock, who spake the lively 
 oracles to the Church in the Mount Sinai. It was He 
 who inspired the Sweet Singer of Israel, and the Pio- 
 pliets, to utter the things concerning Himself. It was 
 
CHRIST THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 
 
 225 
 
 He who was to be a Light to the G-entiles, and to be 
 for salvation to the ends of the earth. "I am the 
 Light of the World," What a claim is this ! If the 
 words now demand our complete acceptance or our abso- 
 lute rejection, how much more must they have done so 
 when He stood before men in His low estate ? It is clear 
 that these words were understood by His adversaries 
 as a declaration of His Messiahship. " Thou bearest 
 record of Thyself," they said. To those who are well 
 acquainted with human life, nothing perhaps more fully 
 manifests our Lord's Divine and perfect character than 
 His manner of dealing with objectors and adversaries. 
 Would not the human character which could make 
 such a claim have met the questioners of it with lofty 
 self-assertions followed by impatience and disdain ? On 
 the contrary, the answer of our Lord has an unruffled 
 calmness about it, coupled with an acknowledgment 
 of their perfect right to ask the question. " I do bear 
 witness of myself. My testimony is worthy of belief ; 
 for I do always the things which please God ; but you 
 know well that My witness does not stand alone : 
 there is another who beareth witness of Me — the 
 Father that sent Me, He beareth witness of Me." It is 
 worthy of notice that our Lord, in working the miracle 
 on the man who was blind from his birth, again used 
 the words, " As long as I am in the world I am the 
 Light of the world." The miracle was wrought, and 
 He attached the proof to the assertion, and thus He 
 manifested forth His glory. 
 
 But there is a character which is drawn with Divine 
 power in Holy Scripture : the more clearly the light of 
 truth is manifested to it, the more liatred it shows to 
 Him who brings it, and who wings the arrow home. 
 The truth condemns the subtle workings of a mind at 
 enmity with God, though seemingly at peace with Him. 
 
 Q 
 
226 
 
 SERMON XVI. 
 
 "If ye were blind, ye should have no sin : but now ye 
 say we see," and act against the clearest conviction. 
 Those, on the other hand, whose hearts are open, like 
 the blind man who had received sight, and are ready to 
 receive Christ when they know who He is who talketh 
 with them and can reply to the question, " Dost thou 
 believe in the Son of God ? " " Lord, I believe," and to 
 worship Him. First the natural blindness is removed, 
 and then the spiritual blindness. 
 
 We are very apt to forget that the tenor of the 
 Gospel history shows that a fuller and fuller revelation 
 of our Lord's Divinity took place towards the close of 
 His mission. It was no sudden thought whicb took 
 possession of the disciples' minds, but we are shown its 
 working and development from the time when they 
 were convinced that He was a man sent from God, 
 to the time when they put the searching question, 
 " Show us the Father." How was that question 
 answered ? Was it in the words, " No man hath seen God 
 at any time : the only begotten Son of God, He hath 
 revealed Him." No, this was not the answer, although 
 that was another side of the same glorious truth ; but it 
 was thus answered, " He that hath seen Me hath seen 
 the Father." Then we come to the confession of the 
 once doubting but now adoring Apostle, " My Lord 
 and my God :" an expression which even an angel 
 of Heaven would have been bound to refuse like the 
 angel in the Book of Revelation : " See thou do it 
 not, for I am thy fellow-servant : worship God," It 
 was a conviction deepened into certainty like the 
 morning twilight brightening into day, till the truth of 
 our Lord's proper Divinity burst upon their bewildered 
 sight in a blaze of glory. How diiferent were their 
 conceptions of the person of the Messiah after the words 
 were pronounced, " He is risen, He is not here !" And 
 
CHRIST THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 227 
 
 when they stood around and saw Him ascend to His 
 Father and their Father, when they received the pro- 
 mise of the Spirit of the ever-living Saviour in the 
 person of the Holy Ghost, the . Comforter, then they 
 knew the full meaning of the words, " / am the Light 
 of the World : he that followeth Me shall not walk in 
 darkness, hut shall have the Light of Life." The 
 Gospel of Christ was the fuller revelation to the world 
 of a personal God, a Creator of such intense love and 
 sympathy that He laid aside His divine glory, " took 
 upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the 
 likeness of men;" and not only so, "became obedient 
 unto death, even the death of the cross." We are not 
 directed to the hidden working of an unseen and imper- 
 sonal influence, a vital energy working throughout the 
 Universe, in creation, in ourselves, in the Man Christ 
 Jesus — or as it were, to the invisible rays of Hglit, for a 
 moment perchance rendered visible in the intense moral 
 darkness in which a Socrates or a Plato lived and died. 
 We are directed to one burning spot in the Heavens, to 
 the Sun of the spiritual world, to the Light of Life. 
 Like travellers before the dawn we have no longer to 
 examine our steps with the lantern of our own finite con- 
 ceptions of the things which belong to our souls' peace, 
 but the Sun of Righteousness has risen to us with 
 healing in His wings. The God of the Christian is not 
 the God of the Pantheist. The Christian sees and 
 accepts God in the Person of Christ ; he sees in Jesus the 
 " Father who pitieth His children ;" and yet, although 
 he does not attempt to explain the manner of the exist- 
 ence of God, he believes that God is in every place, 
 beholding the evil and the good, as a Spirit and yet a 
 Person, as the subtle and all pervading rays, and yet as 
 the " Sun of the soul, our Saviour dear," in whom 
 " dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." " He 
 
 Q 2 
 
228 
 
 SERMON XVI. 
 
 that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall 
 have the Light of Life." The humble following of 
 Jesus is the condition of our having Him as our Light : 
 " If any man will do his (the Father's) will, he shall 
 know of the doctrine." There is no greater source 
 of spiritual darkness — nay, may we not say that there 
 is no abiding source of spiritual darkness, but the un- 
 willingness to follow Christ. With the highly culti- 
 vated and intellectual, as well as the ignorant and 
 uncultivated, it is the testimony of the Spirit of God 
 (which the closest acquaintance with the world is con- 
 tinually confirming) that their condemnation consists in 
 this, " that Light has come into the world " to them, 
 and that they refuse the offers of the Holy Spirit, made 
 at a moment when a ray of light, the bright sunshine 
 from the presence of Jesus, shines upon their spiritual 
 path — they refuse the light which would show them 
 the steps they are to take, which will lead them to 
 Heaven and into the favour and presence of God. In 
 a word "they love darkness rather than light;" they 
 desire not to " do truth and come to the light," so that 
 their secret sins may be made manifest and judged now. 
 With the uncultivated the result of " doing despite unto 
 the Spirit of grace " is often a visible plunge into the 
 paths of vice ; but with the highly cultivated, although 
 the result is substantially the same, in the case of these 
 it often takes the form of unfairly reasoning away and 
 getting rid of the force of revealed truth, inducing 
 our conscience to accommodate the truth of God to 
 what we could wish it to he rather than accepting it 
 simply and plainly as what it is. Let us be very sure that 
 the change in the heart is the same in the intellectual 
 as in the vulgar. A celebrated sceptical writer of the 
 last century, to explain to a Christian friend the change 
 which his conversion had made in himself, tore out a 
 
CHRIST THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 
 
 229 
 
 blank leaf of his Bible and wrote the following lines, 
 which if practical experience is worth anything, vividly 
 describes the change of which we are speaking : — 
 
 " The stoutest heart that ever beat 
 Hath been subdued in me ; 
 The wildest will that ever rose 
 To scorn Thy cause and aid Thy foes, 
 Is quelled, my Grod, by Thee. 
 
 " Thy will and not my will be done ; 
 My heart be ever Thine. 
 Confessing Thee the Mighty Word, 
 I hail thee Christ, my Lord, my Grod, 
 And make Thy Name my sign." 
 
 How does an acknowledgment of the Person of our 
 adorable Lord as the Light of Life, the Sun of the 
 spiritual world, as " our Lord and our God," the 
 crucified Lord of Grlory, give a clear view of the great 
 leading doctrines of the Gospel. Light implies dark- 
 ness. Are we not conscious of depths of depravity in 
 the human heart which our plumbline cannot sound ? 
 Shall we cause the young to think lightly of the differ- 
 ence between good and evil ? If we are not lost sinners 
 without the sunshine of His presence, how is it 
 that the mission of our Lord is described as " to seek 
 and to save that which was lost " ? Unless we see the 
 light of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus 
 Christ, how can we see Him as " the Lamb of God 
 who taketh away the sin of the world," and as the 
 scapegoat who bears it away into the land of for- 
 getfulness ? Is not the teaching of the New Testa- 
 ment on every page, " that whatsoever a man soweth 
 that shall he also reap ; " that for every idle word 
 which man shall speak he shall give an account 
 at the day of judgment ? Does not the same Apostle 
 
230 
 
 SERMON XVI. 
 
 who tells us tliat " God is love," also tell us that the 
 wrath of God ahideth on those who refuse to believe 
 and to accept the Saviour ? Does he not tell us that 
 those who are in the habit of committing known and 
 wilful sin, are not the children of God — but that they 
 are " the children of the devil " ? Is it not the plain 
 teaching of the Gospel that Christ " our Passover is 
 sacrificed for us ;" and can it mean otlierwise than 
 this, that since Christ was actually sacrificed for us 
 upon the Passover night, therefore in Him God can 
 justly pass over the sins of His obedient people ; and 
 that if they, placing faith or trust in Him, apply 
 the spiritual means of escape which He has plainly 
 offered them in the sacrifice of Christ, they will be 
 safe from the destroying angel of His infinite and 
 eternal justice ? Can we see in the Gospel the love of 
 God separate from that of justice ? Do we not see 
 the mercy of God in Christ Jesus extended for the sake 
 of the One Righteous to a guilty world ? 
 
 Is not the longing for righteousness, perfect and abso- 
 lute justice in the face of awful and high-handed violation 
 of justice, mercy, and truth, in the face of those crimes 
 which might make the angels weep — a feature of the 
 highest and holiest human character ? And is not the 
 Christian asked to lay aside and subdue his natural 
 feelings, and tremble and adore God, believing in the 
 assurance, that it is " God who taketh vengeance," and 
 that perfect retribution is in the hands of perfect know- 
 ledge and infinite holiness ? Is not the doctrine of the 
 Gospel that the justice of God is reconciled with His 
 mercy in Christ ? What would be the assurances of our 
 salvation from the inevitable and eternal consequence 
 of past sin, if we did not feel that He, in the power of 
 His Divinity, can justly stay the arm of that justice 
 without which God Himself would not be God, and 
 
CHRIST THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 
 
 231 
 
 His moral world would vanish ? "I am the Light of 
 the World : he that followeth Me shall not walk in 
 darkness, but shall have the Light of Life." Dost thou 
 seek light on the path of duty ? Art thou a traveller 
 towards the land of uprightness, one who is hoping to 
 meet the holy, the just, and the good, all that is exalted 
 and worthy of our love ? We may be sure that this 
 character will only be possessed by those who have the 
 deepest sense of their own sinfulness and shortcomings, 
 and who know the cleansing power of " the water and 
 the blood," — " not the water only, but the water and the 
 blood." Art thou bewildered by the teaching of men, 
 and desirest the teaching of God ? Then look to Jesus, 
 the Light of the World, and follow Him. " Agonise 
 to enter in at the strait gate ;" for be sure of this, 
 that it is revealed in the Grospel there are " no pardons 
 in the tomb, and brief is mercy's day." Look to Him 
 who is thy Sun, and thou shalt not walk in darkness, 
 but shalt have the Light of Life. From the cross of 
 Him who died for thee, a light shall stream forth u^Jon 
 thy path, and thou shalt see in that love which brought 
 the Son of God from Heaven to a world of suffering and 
 woe, a new revelation on thy path of duty — whether 
 thy future life is to be one of doing or suffering. The 
 sacrifice of thyself to Him is the least thou canst offer, 
 and then the sacrifice of thyself for the sake of others 
 will be an easy yoke and a light burden, and thou wilt 
 be able to say — 
 
 " I looked to Jesus, and I found 
 In Him my Light, my Sun ; 
 And in that Light of Life I'll walk 
 Till travelling days are done." 
 
SERMON XVII. 
 
 Pkeached 1873. 
 
 TAKING UP THE CROSS. 
 
 " And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples 
 also, ho said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him 
 deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whoso- 
 ever will save his life shall lose it ; but whosoever shall lose his 
 life for my sake and the Gospel's, the same shall save it." — Mark 
 viii. 34, 35. 
 
 No doubt our blessed Lord intended these words to 
 have an indirect allusion to the mamier of His own 
 death. Doubtless having this great sacrifice always 
 before Him, He intended that these words should 
 receive their full force and meaning after His death and 
 resurrection. They must however have had at the 
 time they were uttered a plain and obvious meaning for 
 those whom He called about Him. Our Lord addressed 
 the great masses of the people, and used illustrations in 
 His ministry which were familiar and best fitted to 
 impress upon the minds of His hearers the solemn 
 truths He came to reveal. The figure used here is an 
 instance of this : the criminal condemned to death was, 
 we well know, compelled to bear his cross. There 
 were those among His hearers, even among His disciples, 
 who required to be reminded that to " follow " Him 
 
TAKING UP THE CROSS. 
 
 233 
 
 would be impossible to those who were preferring the 
 pleasures of an easy and quiet life in this world to the 
 inevitable hardships and dangers which they must now 
 incur if they would follow Him, whose whole life was 
 one act of cross-bearing. 
 
 The daily cross — life's inevitable load of trials — is 
 compared to the cross which the criminal was com- 
 pelled to bear. He might try to escape to " save 
 his life," but the effort would be unavailing, and he 
 would by the very act " lose " it. We speak, and 
 rightly speak, of the daily trials of life as crosses. 
 Those who are most fully acquainted ' with human life 
 are most fully aware that " man is born unto trouble 
 as the sparks fly upwards." The labouring portion of 
 mankind and the middle classes have — in that incessant 
 labour which is needful to provide for those they love, 
 in the thorns and thistles with which the ground is 
 beset — their crosses. The rich, on the other hand, 
 have- the care and anxiety of the possession of riches, 
 and all have ample opportunity to deny themselves — 
 
 " Eoom to deny themselves, a road 
 To bring them daily nearer God." 
 
 The loss of children, of friends, and of worldly 
 possessions is common to all, and even in those posi- 
 tions where persons seem to be singularly exempt from 
 outward trials, it is proverbial that there is a some- 
 thing in every house " which mars their blessedness and 
 breaks their rest." How often we observe that men and 
 women are tried precisely where they are weakest. How 
 are we willing to bear almost every variety of cross, but 
 that which is appointed to us as ours ! Our trial has 
 peculiar circumstances, and the language of the human 
 heart in all the changing scenes of life is still, " Is there 
 any sorrow like unto my sorrow ? " But what is the 
 
234 
 
 SEEMON XVII. 
 
 lesson we are to learn from our text ? Is it not that we 
 are to " take up " these crosses ; to accept them as the 
 appointed means in our Grod and Fatlier's infinitely wise 
 and perfect way by which He will train us for Heaven ? 
 The Christian's life is a life of faith, and he is supported 
 by that childlike trust which believes that what he 
 " knoweth not now he shall know hereafter." And he 
 knows little of his own heart if he does not find there 
 dispositions and tempers still uncrucified, which would 
 be strangely at variance with the atmosphere of Heaven. 
 But these crosses are inevitable. Neither the worldly- 
 minded man nor tlie heavenly-minded man can escape 
 bearing them ; and the difference between the Christian 
 and the man of the world is this : that the one, by 
 the help of the indwelling spirit of Jesus, his Lord 
 and Master, takes up and bears " his daily cross," 
 confessing that he is a criminal, and with the feelings 
 of a criminal who is pardoned, who is walking in the 
 steps of his Lord here, and will in the end receive that 
 life eternal : while the other, the man of the world, in 
 trying to escape from the inevitable cross, in not seeking 
 for help from Him who bore that cross before, and who 
 alone can enable him to bear it, is often crushed by it. 
 The " sorrow of the world worketh death :" and if 
 he bear not that cross as his Lord bore it, he will not 
 save his life, but lose it, instead of keeping it to life 
 eternal. 
 
 Let us look more closely at the words of our Lord. 
 " Whosoever will come after Me, let him take up his 
 cross, and follow Me." Is there no other cross for the 
 Christian than the daily one of which we have been 
 sjieaking — this cross which is inevitable ? 
 
 Is it not clear that if we would be Christians, if we 
 would " follow " Christ, we must bear our daily cross in 
 the same sense that He bore it ? And was the cross 
 
TAKING UP THE CROSS. 
 
 235 
 
 which our Lord bore in His life merely that which was 
 unavoidable ? Was it simply the patient bearing of all 
 the trials which are incident to humanity ? He bore 
 hunger and thirst. He had not where to lay His head. 
 But did the life of our Lord exemplify no other cross- 
 bearing ? Was not the cross of Christ exactly that 
 which He might readily have avoided ? Are we to 
 " follow " Him in this respect, or not ? Is the world so 
 changed since He left it, that it is unnecessary for His 
 followers to take up their crosses even as He took up 
 His? 
 
 Is there no sorrow and sufiering now left in the 
 world ? It may be easy (whether we do it or not) " to 
 rejoice with them that do rejoice," but do we " weep 
 with them that weep " ? Is there no ignorance of the 
 way of salvation left in the world in this our day ? 
 Are there none now who, instead of being grateful for 
 Christian instruction, reject it, or say in substance, 
 " Dost thou teach us ? " Are there no difEculties to be 
 overcome, in striving to fulfil the injunction of our 
 Lord " to feed his sheep," or no tendency in the human 
 mind to say, " Am I my brother's keeper ? " And when 
 Christ has expressly commissioned us, and distinctly 
 promised His help — to make excuse and turn the com- 
 mission over to God again ? We say, "Be ye warmed 
 and filled," and yet do not seek the aid of the Holy 
 Spirit to give those things which are needful for 
 the soul. Are there no occasions when Christians 
 . ought to rebuke open profanity and vice ? Are 
 there no Scribes, no Pharisees, whose hollowness and 
 hypocrisy in opposing the Lord's work has to be 
 exposed ? — no Sadducees whose doubts have to be 
 answered ? Is the faithful preaching of the cross 
 of Christ welcome now ? Does the human heart love 
 to be brought to a sense of its guilt, of its utterly lost 
 
236 
 
 SERMON XVII. 
 
 and undone condition ? Is it more willing tlian in our 
 Lord's time to accept Jesus of Nazareth, tlie lowly 
 Saviour, as its Lord and its God ? Let us be very 
 sure.that in this sense every sincere, every real follower 
 of the Lord has his or her cross to bear, one which 
 must be boldly taken up. The cross of Christ 
 has to be taken up — first in deep submission to the 
 will of God, as expressed in His providence. His 
 revealed will ; and then also in that determined oppo- 
 sition to the kingdom of Satan which every faithful 
 soldier of Christ is bound by the very terms of 
 discipleship to give, and without which, to use our 
 Lord's words, " he cannot be My disciple." And yet 
 do not we shrink ? Oh, how some of us shrink 
 from bearing this cross ! Is there not something de- 
 fective in the Christianity which prevails in the present 
 day ? Do we not seek to live an easy and quiet 
 life in this \Yorld, and love to have all men speak 
 well of us, more than becomes the disciples of a cruci- 
 fied Lord ? But we may shrink from bearing our 
 cross, and yet after all bear it. Let us look to the 
 life of our adorable Lord. We know that even He 
 shrank at that moment of His agony from what was 
 comprehended in His cross. If we did not shrink from 
 trial, there would be no cross. The cross of Christ 
 implies in itself that perfect freedom of choice^ in which 
 all its glory and all its excellency consists. Even that 
 last act of our Lord's life, His death and sacrifice on 
 the cross, was, He tells us, no necessity. It was purely 
 voluntary. " For no man taketh My life from Me. I 
 lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, 
 and I have power to take it again : this commandment 
 have I received from My Father." 
 
 The world has at last seen the glory and the beauty 
 of the cross of Christ, and the sceptical philosophy of 
 
TAKING UP THE CROSS. 
 
 237 
 
 our day would confuse with it " the self-sacrifice of 
 the Stoic," whose beauty is as the beauty of the 
 corpse, compared with the beauty of the living body ; 
 and the true Christian may be said to " start, for soul 
 is wanting there." No one can bear the cross 
 of Christ unless he is warmed by the love of Christ, 
 unless he has the spirit of Christ as a motive power. 
 Human nature has not changed ; Christ's religion is 
 now, as it was of old, " to the Jews " (formal legal 
 Christians), " a stumbling-block," and " to the Greeks," 
 (to that eclectic intellectualism of our day which is not 
 seeking the whole truth), " foolishness." My young 
 friends, be very sure there is no easier time to take up 
 the cross of Christ than in the freshness of our youth. 
 There is no easier way into the path that leadeth to 
 life than by bearing the cross of Christ. Does not 
 Satan recommend to you the broad road, by assuring 
 you that in this path there will be no crosses ? He 
 may not tempt the highly cultivated into the ways of 
 open vice, but he implants those principles of action, 
 and those habits which have led many in paths in 
 which either their usefulness is destroyed, or in paths 
 from which they would once have shrunk with abhor- 
 rence and dismay ; and all this may be clearly traced 
 to the unwillingness to take up the cross in the time of 
 youth, in the family, in the school, or in the shop. 
 Would you shrink from avowing your honest convic- 
 tion ? If there be a God ; if Christ lived, died, and 
 rose again ; if the power of His spirit in softening the 
 hard heart, or in breaking the stony heart, be a living 
 . reality ; if the Christian religion be not only true but 
 awfully true, and you know it, and/eeZ it to he so, will 
 you be ashamed of your Lord ? Let me tell some here, 
 that the more tightly they grasp their cross, through 
 the help of Him who bore that cross before, the lighter 
 
238 
 
 SERMON XVII. 
 
 vnll he its burden ; that the more they honour their 
 Lord and their God, the more He will honour them ; 
 the more they will see of the glory and the beauty of 
 the life of Jesus ; the more fully will they possess that 
 peace of God which consists in the perfect forgiveness 
 of the past, and in the perfect confidence that He who 
 is the Creator of all things, as well as their Saviour 
 and the finisher of their faith, will be with them in 
 life and in death. For they will not have to bear the 
 cross alone. At every step along that painful way, the 
 way of the cross, they will have the sympathy of Jesus, 
 and will be conscious that " He knoweth the way that 
 they take," that it is He " who is able to keep them from 
 falling, and to present them faultless before the presence 
 of His glory with exceeding joy." One word more — Is 
 there one here who is " ashamed of Him, and of His 
 words " ? Have you made your choice ? do you really 
 prefer the smile of the world to the cross and the 
 reproach of Christ ? Hear then the words of Jesns, 
 the Maker and Upholder of this universe : " Whoso- 
 ever shall be ashamed of Me and My words in this 
 adulterous and sinful' generation, of him shall the Son 
 of Man be ashamed when He cometh in the glory of 
 His Father, with the holy angels," If we are ashamed 
 of Christ before our fellow men, what will it be to be 
 ashamed of Him before an assembled Heaven ? " And 
 the door was shut." Do those words mean that we 
 may now trifle with our conscience, or that there is 
 now no place of repentance ? Thanks be to God, the 
 door is not now shut — it is open. " Behold, I stand at 
 the door and knock : if any man hear My voice, and 
 open the door, I will come in and sup with him, and 
 he with Me." May we all know more of that blessed 
 presence, and of that peace of God which passeth all 
 understanding ! 
 
SERMON 
 
 XVITI. 
 
 Preached in 1873. 
 
 LIFE'S WOKK. 
 
 "Jesus said unto them, My meat is to tlo the will of him that sent 
 me, and to finish his work." — John iv. 34. 
 
 We shall recollect that these words were uttered wheD 
 our Lord was found by His disciples sitting on the well 
 of Samaria, and they marvelled that He talked with the 
 woman, and, knowing that He was weary, they pressed 
 Him, saying, " Master, eat." He had just announced 
 Himself to the woman as " the Messiah, which is called 
 Christ." The whole world had longed for a clearer 
 manifestation of God. At last " the Desire of all 
 nations " had come. He had come, not in the pomp of 
 worldly power, not in the kingly state which the Jew 
 expected. There was much to stumble the Jew, much to 
 stumble the Greek ; but to the humble, teachable soul 
 who received Him He was found to be the Christ, 
 the Power of God, and the Wisdom of God. Our 
 Lord says His mission is " to do the will " and " to 
 finish the work " of God. And this leads us to the 
 consideration that there is a will and a work of God, 
 which the Christ was to fulfil, in which He was to be 
 wounded for our transgressions, the chastisement of our 
 peace was to be upon Him, and with His stripes we 
 
240 
 
 SERMON XVIII. 
 
 were to be healed : " All we like sheep had gone 
 astray, and the Lord laid upon Him the iniquity of 
 us all ;" " He made His soul an offering for sin." In 
 His life, in His cross, and in His resurrection and 
 ascension, we see the great and glorious truth written, 
 " that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto 
 Himself," and not reckoning to them their sins. " The 
 desire of all nations " was fulfilled in the provision of a 
 way by which, even while we are enemies to God by 
 wicked works, we may be reconciled to God by the 
 death of His Son, " whom God hath set forth to be a 
 propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His 
 righteousness for the remission of sins that are past ;" 
 and we have now " liberty (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." "The Desire of all 
 nations " was fulfiUe^^ in Christ, who exhibited to the 
 world a life wholly and entirely dedicated to the 
 service of God. " I came down from Heaven not to do 
 Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me." In 
 His sayings while on earth ; in the prayer at the close 
 of His life, in which He casts as it were, a glance over 
 the work of His life, " Father, I have glorified Thee on 
 the earth, I have finished the work which Thou gavest 
 Me to do ; I have manifested Thy name unto the men 
 which Thou gavest Me out of the world," we see that the 
 one great thought of His divine mission, of the work 
 of His life, was ever present with Him. " I have a 
 baptism to be baptized with, and how am I straitened 
 until it be accomplished : " and when that work of 
 suffering was consummated. His last words were, " It 
 is finished." Doubtless this referred, in the first j^lace, 
 to the great work of man's redemption ; but it was true 
 in another sense of His life's work. Blessed will it be 
 
LIFE'S WORK. 
 
 241 
 
 for us if we too are able to say at that hour, " It is 
 finished : my hfe's work is done :" and, " Holy Father, 
 now come I to Thee." If we wkh, and all of us must 
 wish, to be able to say this, we must ever bear in mind 
 that we too, like Him who was our perfect pattern, 
 have a work to do. We have not given to ourselves 
 the work of our lives : God has laid it upon us. Seen in 
 the light of nature, our lives may appear as insignificant 
 as those of the insects which dance in the sunbeam ; but 
 seen in the light of Christ, in the light of His resurrec- 
 tion, in the light of His promises to give unto His sheep 
 everlasting life, eternal glory, in the light of the assur- 
 ance that He has gone away to prepare for us one of 
 the many mansions in His Father's house, and that we 
 shall be " like Him," how does our life become a thing 
 of mighty issues ! 
 
 "We see now that in this world nothing is small, 
 nothing is unimportant, that everything has a meaning, 
 that everything has an object, and we know that the 
 soul of man is to live for ever; and therefore that 
 which happens to us, if we use it aright, is intended 
 to forward the work of preparation in ourselves and in 
 others for an eternal life in Heaven. Nothing is now 
 common: all is hallowed. Our lives have an enduring 
 object, and when our Lord says, " My meat is to do 
 the will of Him that sent Me, and to finish His work," 
 we see that the calling of the members of His mystical 
 Body is to follow Him who is our holy Head according 
 to the measure of every part ; and the spirit which 
 animated the Captain of our salvation ought to animate 
 the lowliest, the feeblest, the humblest of His soldiers. 
 
 Now for the practical application of these words 
 of our Lord. His disciples marvelled that He talked 
 with the woman of Samaria. Hungry and thirsty, 
 wearied with His journey, the opportunity was not 
 
 li 
 
242 
 
 SERMON XYIIL 
 
 lost. The deep sparkling water was before Him, 
 and it was used to show her that there was " a well of 
 water, springing up unto everlasting life," which would 
 satisfy the heart's deepest and most hidden longing 
 — the longing of the sinner after holiness and recon- 
 ciliation with God. " My meat is to do the will of 
 Him that sent Me, and to finish His work. Say not ye. 
 There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest ? 
 Behold, T say unto you. Lift up your eyes, and look 
 on the fields ; for they are white already to harvest. 
 And he that rcapeth receivetli wages, and gathereth 
 fruit unto life eternal." Oh, that God would remove 
 the scales from our eyes when we complain that there 
 is no work for us to do ! 
 
 If the Lord had asked thee, my brother, my sister, 
 to (3o some great ivork, wouldst thou not have done it ? 
 He asks thee to do the will and to finish the work 
 to which He has called thee, in the Spirit of thy 
 Lord and Master, who sat thus on the well, and con- 
 versed with the Samaritan woman, with whom His 
 people, the Jews, liad no dealings. And what was the 
 result ? " Many more believed because of His own 
 word ; and said unto the woman, Now we believe, not 
 because of thy saying : for we have heard Him our- 
 selves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the 
 Saviour of the world." And thus the poor woman 
 was permitted to convince others ; she was allowed 
 to bring them to the feet of the Saviour. And 
 here is another important fact which should show 
 us how onr work is to become reproductive. Only 
 let us recollect that the way in which we are to do this 
 work is between ourselves and our God ; if we are not 
 willing to do His will we shall not even know of His 
 teacliing, whether it be of God. To do the icill of 
 Him that sent tliee into the world, is tlie first, tlie in-- 
 
LIFE'S WORK. 
 
 243 
 
 dispensable condition of thy doing His work. But 
 the more hidden manifestations of His will concerning 
 us are only to be known by our first doing our duty 
 to our Grod and our fellow men, as it is plainly 
 revealed in the word of our Lord and Master, and 
 of His Apostles. If we have not been faithful in 
 that which is least, if we have not sought to do those 
 things which are commanded by our Lord as positive 
 duties, can we expect to be made rulers over more? 
 
 But there is a deeper lesson in our Lord's words, 
 " My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to 
 finish His work." " One soweth and another reapeth." 
 Our Lord here lays down for the weary labourer a most 
 precious truth — all labour in the Christian harvest field 
 is not followed by a visible harvest. If thou wouldst 
 labour in the field of thy Lord, thy motto must be not 
 success but duty ; to do the will of Him that sent thee, to 
 labour, not carelessly, not faithlessly, not leaving thy 
 work half done, because the fruit does not apj^ear, but 
 to rejoice in it in faith and hope ; and live always seek- 
 ing to finish thy work. Thy part is to do the will 
 of thy Master, remembering that "he that goeth 
 forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubt- 
 less come again with rejoicing," if not here, hereafter, 
 " bringing his sheaves with him." If sickness, disease, 
 or feebleness hinder thee from active service, remember, 
 that " they also serve who only stand and wait," and 
 that the greatest work of grace in the soul is that of 
 resignation to the will of God. That which we see 
 mirrored in the words " My meat is to do the will of 
 Him that sent Me, and to finish His work," is a con- 
 dition of soul. " Thy kingdom come, Thy will be 
 done," are the first and the chief petitions which our 
 Lord teaches us to offer ; and the desire to obtain these 
 must be the condition of those who are seeking that 
 
 R 2 
 
244 
 
 SERMON XYIII. 
 
 blessed country where the niglit of weeping will be 
 exchanged for the morning of joy, where what is dark 
 and mysterious here will be seen to be the work of a 
 • Father's loving hand. Then most surely " he that 
 reapeth will receive wages and gather fruit," the seed 
 of which was sown here in sorrow and in the dark 
 and cloudy day, but which will then prove to have 
 been sown for the life eternal. 
 
SERMON XIX. 
 
 Peeached in 1873. 
 
 THE VOICE OF THE SON OF GOD. 
 
 " Verily, verily, I say unto you. The hour is coming, and now is, 
 when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God : and they 
 that hear shall live."^ — John v. 25. 
 
 It sliould be remembered that these words were uttered 
 by our blessed Lord on the occasion of His curing the 
 man at the Pool of Bethesda, and that they are a part 
 of the conversation which commences with the words, 
 "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work;" upon which 
 we read that " the Jews sought the more to kill Him, 
 because He not only had broken the Sabbath, but said 
 also that God was His Father, making Himself equal 
 with God." How inexpressibly important is this testi- 
 mony of His adversaries, that He whom we call Lord and 
 Master claimed equality with God ! He is charged with 
 this, and how does He meet the charge ? Did He refuse 
 to be acknowledged as equal with God, and assert that 
 He was a Messenger sent from Heaven, with a special 
 message of the Divine power? Oh, no; our blessed Lord 
 does not say this, but His words, as it were, cut away 
 the bridge and leave His adversaries no alternative, but 
 either to proclaim Him a blasphemer and an impostor, 
 or to admit His claim to Divinity. He tells-them that 
 
246 
 
 SEKMON XIX. 
 
 " as the Father hath life in Himself ; so hath He given 
 to the Sou to have life in Himself ; and hath given Hiui 
 authority to execute judgment also, because He is the 
 Son of Man." Man shall be judged by Man — by God in 
 the person of man. " Marvel not at this :" " for all that 
 are in the graves shall hear His voice, And shall come 
 forth ; they that have done good, unto the resurrection 
 of life ; and they that have done evil, unto the resur- 
 rection of damnation." We are hardly able to grasp 
 the greatness of the change in the ideas of men which 
 has been wrought by these few sentences. 
 
 A heathen king in our times listened unmoved to a 
 statement of all the fundamental truths of Christianity, 
 till the missionary came to this ; then he asked, " And 
 shall they all come ? " He was answered, " Yes, all 
 that are in the graves shall come forth at that day." 
 He was deeply moved. " Hear it, hear it," said he to 
 his wise men ; " they shall all come. I have slain my 
 thousands, and shall they come ? " Are there not men 
 and women in the world who could say, if they had 
 equal simplicity, " I have wronged, I have tempted, I 
 know not how many. By my conduct, by my conver- 
 sation, by my example, they have been tempted to look 
 lightly upon sin, and shall they come? 1 have lived 
 apparently an honourable and respectable life, but 1 re- 
 member certain passages of it which are unrepented 
 of and unforgiven, which are known only to a few. I 
 would give worlds not to have them divulged by these 
 persons, and shall they come? Shall these who will 
 be able to reproach me for the loss of their eternal sal- 
 vation, either from what I have done, or from what 
 I have left undone, shall they come ? " 
 
 Truly this is the revelation of a truth at which the 
 stoutest heart must tremble which has not an interest 
 in Christ, which is not united to Him by faith and love ; 
 
THE VOICE OF THE SON OP GOD. 
 
 217 
 
 and for this reason, that although the idea of a final 
 judgment as regards themselves may be set aside by 
 tliose who conceive they are living a strictly moral life, 
 they are all ready to believe in its possibility in rela- 
 tion to those who have been guilty of violating the 
 instincts of humanity and of human justice. And 
 these persons will fully concede that if there be a 
 God in whom reside the attributes of perfect justice and 
 perfect holiness, He will bring every secret work into 
 judgment in a future life. If this be so far in accord- 
 ance with the nature of man, that the instincts, as it 
 were, of society cry out for enlightened justice in pro- 
 portion to the advance in civilisation, it cannot be 
 supposed by such persons that the exact and outwardly 
 unexceptionable life which they suppose they are 
 leading will not be brought to the same judgment ; 
 nor if this judgment is to be just, that it will not take 
 into full consideration the various advantages which 
 they have possessed in life ; all which are barriers to 
 the commission of great crimes. Again, some actions 
 which in the ignorant and ill-trained would be great 
 virtues in the eye of God may possess in ourselves 
 nothing which commends us in His holy sight ; for 
 " that which is highly esteemed among men," our 
 Lord tells us, is often " abomination in the sight of 
 God." Our Lord saw that many who cast into the 
 treasury of God " cast in much ;" yet our hearts agree 
 with the judgment that the poor widow who " cast in 
 two mites, tvhich make a farthing," had " cast in more 
 than they all." We all acknowledge that " to the poor 
 the Gospel is to be preached," and to the rich too •, for 
 if it be not preached we may be sure that " the know- 
 ledge of God will not cover the earth as the waters 
 cover the sea." We fully agree that offerings of per- 
 sonal service and of money are to be devoted to the 
 
248 
 
 SERMON XIX. 
 
 service of God ; but there are some who profess to be 
 Christians wlio would do well to consider whether they 
 really have a more than nominal belief, that " the hour is 
 coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice 
 of the Son of God;" and to remember that the difference 
 between their professions and their conduct, if it be 
 not now in fear and trembling submitted to Christ's 
 judgment through their own consciences, enlightened by 
 His Holy Spirit and judged now, will bring them to 
 a heavier condemnation than that of the professed un- 
 believer. What will be the judgment of those who care- 
 lessly float down the stream of society, who might be 
 the salt of the earth, and the light of the world, and are 
 not ? What unutterable evils might be alleviated and 
 cured, if instead of wishing to bargain with God for an 
 easy life, they allowed themselves to be carried by His 
 Spirit whither they would not, and were willi7ig to be re- 
 cipients of that Holy Spirit, that Divine sympathy for the 
 fallen, the lost, which would bear them over the barriers 
 of all in the world within them, or the world without 
 them which is opposed to the will of God concerning 
 them ! And surely one of the most unmistakable por- 
 tions of His will as revealed to us in the pages of 
 Holy Scripture, and which He intends to accomplish by 
 human means, is this, that He would have it testified 
 that it is not His will that any should perish. No, 
 not that one of these little ones should perish, but 
 that all should come to repentance. 
 
 How often does the Christian have cause for the 
 reflection, even when he turns his eye from the 
 world which makes no profession, to the " world in 
 the Church," " Surel}^ every man walketh in a vain 
 show ; surely they are disquieted in vain." Every 
 course of conduct (whether it be a heaping up of riches 
 or a heaping up of causes of disquietude) which will 
 
THE VOICE OF THE SON OF GOD. 
 
 249 
 
 not yield a harvest of love and joy in the fields of that 
 land which may seem to be very far off, but which to 
 the Christian is ever near in his remembrance and his 
 affections, is emphatically a vain show. Surely every 
 course of conduct which will not bear to be brought in 
 prayer to the mercy seat of Christ now, will not bear the 
 judgment of that Great Day of account hereafter. " For 
 if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, 
 and knoweth all things." 
 
 " The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall 
 hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear 
 shall live." Christ is the resurrection now of the 
 dead spiritually. Dear young peojjle, do not some 
 of your hearts tell you that i/ou are spiritually dead ? 
 that you have no zest in the things of religion ? 
 that Christ and His service is not the object of your 
 thoughts and affections? You may not be morally 
 wicked, but are your hearts right in the sight of God ? 
 Christ is not seeking to take you out of the world of 
 beauty which He has made, but to keep you from the 
 evil of the world by asking for your faith and your love. 
 He is seeking to draw out your hearts heavenward, and 
 to set earth and earthly things in their right places, so 
 as to become the path to heaven which He has hallowed 
 and sanctified, to show you how to pass through things 
 temporal, that you may not miss of things eternal. You 
 may have professed to believe in Him with cold intellec- 
 tual belief, but that is not a belief in Him as your Saviour, 
 He would — oh, matchless condescension and love ! — 
 make you his friends. You may, like the young man in 
 the Gospel, have done all ; kept the commandments : but 
 He calls you to follow Him, and let them that are spirit- 
 ually dead bury their dead. It is He who is alive for 
 evermore, who is the resurrection, and who calls you : 
 and will not He " in the great love ivhcrewiih He loved us 
 
250 
 
 SEEMON XIX. 
 
 quicken us " to a new life ? " God hath given to us 
 eternal life, and this life is in His Son." It is to this 
 eternal life that Christ is calling you. " He that heareth 
 My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath 
 everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation ; 
 but is passed from death unto life." How blessed are 
 those who are willing to hear and accept the offers of 
 salvation ! They, as they abide in Christ, have eternal 
 life : they are not walking in uncertainty ; they do His 
 commandments from fervent love to Him, and have a 
 right to the tree of life, and they rejoice in a present 
 salvation, which will ere long be perfected in Heaven. 
 
 * 
 
SERMON XX. 
 
 Peeached in 1873. 
 
 GOD IS NOT MOCKED. 
 
 " Be not deceived ; God is not mocked : for whatsoever a man soweth, 
 that shall be also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of 
 the flesh reap corrnption ; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall 
 of the Sjiirit reap life everlasting." — Gal. vi. 7, 8. 
 
 Time is swiftly passing away ! If we have ever 
 floated down the stream of some broad river, have we 
 not noticed how unconscious we become that we are 
 rapidly changing our position with reference to the 
 objects on its banks ? Our attention is for a moment 
 arrested by some trifling matter, and we look back, and 
 are surprised to find how quickly some distant range 
 of hills, some lofty cliffs with which our eye has become 
 familiar, has vanished from our sight. Thus the 
 schoolboy leaves school, and for a while feels a school- 
 boy still ; life flows pleasantly onwards ; he is then 
 interested and absorbed by the calling or profession 
 he has chosen ; but changes come — his father dies, 
 he marries, and finds new duties and new responsi- 
 bilities crowding upon him, and becomes conscious that 
 if he has not changed, his relation to things about him 
 has greatly changed. Happy indeed are those who, 
 through the grace of God, are alive to their true posi- 
 
252 
 
 SERMON XX. 
 
 tion in this world, as beings born for immortality, 
 before it is forced upon their notice by the solemn 
 realities of life. But it is not the young alone who are 
 cheated by the illusion which makes us fancy that we 
 are standing still. Men in middle life allow themselves 
 to be absorbed so entirely by the cares of the day, by 
 the busy round of daily duties, that they forget — nay, 
 it is unwelcome to them to remember — that, whether 
 they are conscious of it or not, they are occupying 
 every year a difierent position towards others, that 
 they are either fulfilling or neglecting to fulfil the 
 duties towards those around them to which their God 
 has called them. The aged, too, are apt to forget this, 
 and to view the present through a mist, while what 
 has passed away alone seems true. None of us can 
 grasp the truth of the present unless we fully recognise 
 that all is changing. We are all swiftly passing down 
 the river of life to the ocean, which we must cross, 
 whether with chart, compass, and Pilot, or without 
 them — whether we have acquired the principles of navi- 
 gation which must guide us, or whether we have resolved 
 to trust to ourselves and our ignorance, and to reject 
 the skill, knowledge, and help, which is so freely 
 offered to us by One who M^ould pilot us through the 
 rocks and shoals, the difficulties and the dangers ot 
 life. Sail up that stream we cannot, and whether pre- 
 pared or not, our bark must brave the dangers of that 
 unknown ocean of eternity. Will it add to our peace 
 of mind, if we sleep as do others, and are awoke by 
 One who knocks loudly at our cabin door and reminds 
 us that we have as yet rejected His offers and set at 
 naught His counsels, and points out to us on the banks 
 of the river some slight indications of the ocean tide ? 
 No ; surely, our real happiness is inseparably connected 
 with true wisdom, with our acquiring those principles 
 
GOD IS NOT MOCKED. 253 
 
 and obtaining those dispositions whicli are absolutely 
 needful to enable ns to apply them rightly while we are 
 on the calm unruffled stream, in the bright and unwearied 
 morning of life. When we are awoke by the distant 
 sound of the waves of that ocean as they break upon the 
 last visible shores of the river, it may be then too late. 
 
 " Be not deceived ; God is not mocked : for whatso- 
 ever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he 
 that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corrup- 
 tion ; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit 
 reap life everlasting." Men may think they can mock 
 and set at naught God, but it is not really so. " God 
 is not mocked." You may openly or secretly set at 
 naught His holy laws, but in the end, as in the 
 natural world, so in the spiritual world, as you sow 
 you will reap. Fearful indeed are the results of sin 
 here. Shall we hide from ourselves the fact that the 
 extremes of human misery are the result of that viola- 
 tion of our conscience, of that transgression of God's 
 holy laws written with His finger upon the heart of 
 man ? There are some whose hearts are far from God 
 who see this. They sin upon principle, but they sin 
 prudently ; they use the self-control God has given 
 them to escape the outward consequences of their sins. 
 They use what is capable of the noblest uses for the 
 basest ; their very success in evading the penalties of 
 sin here, leads them to doubt a judgment hereafter. 
 " Where," say they, " is the promise of His coming ? 
 for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as 
 they were from the beginning of the Creation." They 
 mock God, and have forgotten that God cannot be 
 mocked. They are defiling the soul, the temple of 
 God — their own soul and that of others ; and 
 whosoever defileth the temple of God him will 
 God destroy. Like volcanic fires which slumber, 
 
254 
 
 SERMON XX. 
 
 conscience and remorse may and do awake even 
 on this side the grave ; but beyond it ichatsoever a 
 man soweth that shall he also reap, and to such as these 
 the harvest will be a shapeless and mouldering " heap 
 in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow," There 
 are others who are sowing to the flesh who look upon 
 religion merely as a means of obtaining the honour and 
 respect of our fellow men : they act in their daily lives 
 (as to their principles, although not by any means 
 entirely so in their practice) contrary to the spirit of 
 the religion of the New Testament. Their religion 
 has the form of godliness, but the true motive power is 
 absent. An exact performance of religious duties may 
 deceive men, but " Grod is not mocked." " Beware," 
 said our blessed Lord, " of the leaven of the Pharisees, 
 which is hypocrisy." Our Lord did not blame the Pha- 
 risees because they " tithed the mint, anise, and cum- 
 min," but because they omitted from their religion its 
 essence — judgment, mercy, and the love of God. 
 
 They were sowing to the flesh, although they were 
 zealous for the maintenance of the outward ordinances 
 of religion. The intention of the Divine Founder was 
 forgotten, and they converted them into subtle contriv- 
 ances for frustrating the progress of true religion. In 
 every age of the world this class of persons have been 
 the most successful instruments of the " god of this 
 world " : they were compared by our Lord to " graves 
 that appeared not," and the " men that walked over 
 them were not aware of them." They crucified the Chief 
 Shepherd, they persecuted the under shepherds, and 
 they have scattered the sheep. Our Lord used language 
 respecting them which pierces through the thickest 
 covering which is not of His Spirit — it reaches to the 
 very thoughts and intents of the heart — when He said, 
 " T know you, that ye have not the love of God in you," 
 
GOD IS NOT MOCKED. 
 
 255 
 
 If onr inward and outward life and conduct do not 
 evidence this, whatever our pretensions may be, we are 
 sowing to the flesh ; we are not of the number of His 
 sheep, and we shall reap the fruit of our own devices. 
 
 But there are others also who are " sowing to the 
 flesh," upon whom the Lord looks with the tenderest 
 solicitude and love. They feel the flush of young life, 
 the world is in their hearts : may they not take 
 the glittering cup which is raised to their lips ? Reli- 
 gion seems to them to be incompatible with that 
 capacity for enjoyment which God has given them. 
 The world of nature with its sunny landscape of 
 alluring hopes and promised joys seems to them in 
 antagonism with the world of grace. Do not fancy 
 that He, thy Creator, He who made this world with all 
 its life and beauty, grudges thee any happiness. Thy 
 God has keener joys for thee than those which are for 
 a moment. Those tempting fruits which tliou wouldst 
 pluck are " Dead Sea fruits, which fade to ashes on the 
 lips." Thy spirit will "return to God who gave it." 
 Thou art an inheritor of immortality ; there is a judg- 
 ment to come. The law of the eternal world is this : 
 " Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap ": 
 therefore "Remember now thy Creator in the days of 
 thy youth," ere "the evil days come when thou shalt 
 say, I have no pleasure in them." The words of our 
 Lord to the young man who was entering upon the 
 pleasures of life with peculiar dangers — for he had 
 great possessions — were words of intense love ; and the 
 words of love will often leave us sadder than before. 
 They were the words of Him who alone could hold the 
 balance between the joys of earth and the joys of 
 Heaven. They were the words of Him who came down 
 from Heaven, and He therefore knew what joy would 
 thrill a soul on entering into life eternal. " One thing 
 
256 
 
 SEEMOX XX. 
 
 thou lackest : take up thy cross and follow Me. " He that 
 followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have 
 the Light of Life." Wilt thou follow Him who lived and 
 died for thee ? Wilt thou trust His love ? For if thou 
 wilt, thou shalt know Him to be the Light of the 
 World, and thy life shall expand like the seed into a 
 thing of new meaning and Divine beauty in the sun- 
 shine of a Saviour's love. Thou shalt not live in vain, 
 and that Light shall guide thee in the darkest passages 
 of this world, and gild even the tomb with the light 
 of His Resurrection. Thou wilt have sown to the Spirit, 
 and thou shalt of the Spirit reap life everlasting. 
 
 The Apostle Paul tells us that we have an animal 
 nature, and that we have a spiritual nature. " If ye 
 live after the flesh, ye shall die ; but if ye through 
 the spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall 
 live." This spiritual nature is the seed-ground, in which 
 flourish plants which will produce their fruit in eternity. 
 What, then, is the kind of seed we are sowing ? " For 
 whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." 
 God gives us a perfect choice of what we will sow : 
 and there are thousands of seeds which may be sown 
 here. We cannot fathom human motives and gauge the 
 true value of all human actions, but in the eternal world 
 they will be all classed with perfect accuracy. We are 
 either sowing to the flesh or sowing to the Spirit. Are 
 you, my young friends, sowing now in your youth tlie 
 seeds of all that is noble and Christlike ? or is your 
 standard a lower one ? Are you selecting those seeds to 
 sow which your Saviour has pointed out ? Are we 
 sowing, through the daily supply of the Spirit of Jesus, 
 here on earth, tliat which will produce " love, joy, 
 peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meek- 
 ness, temperance " ? If we are, whatever mistakes men 
 make about us, such seed will spring up, bud, blossom. 
 
GOD IS NOT MOCKED. 
 
 257 
 
 and bear fruit an hundredfold, both here and in the 
 fields of Heaven. For the time is coming when "he 
 that is unjust, will be unjnst still ; he that is filthy, will 
 be filthy still ; he that is righteous, will be righteous 
 still ; and he that is holy, will be holy still." That time 
 is not yet come ; but " be not deceived." Our hearts 
 are deceitful above all things. Do not let any of us 
 try to evade the question, Are we the " sons of Grod " ? 
 are u-e "Christ's"? If we are, we have the Spirit of 
 God : if we have received the atonement, we are at 
 one with God and can call Him " Father." . If we are 
 Christ's, we have crucijied the flesh, with the evil affec- 
 tions and lusts. Is it really so with us ? But here 
 the scoffer and trembling believer may ask» Is the flesh 
 therefore dead in believers ? No ; it is not dead, but it 
 is nailed to the cross. We do indeed feel it writhing 
 and struggling, but by God's grace becoming weaker 
 and weaker. Sin exists in the believer; for " if we say 
 that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves but though 
 it exists it does not reign, for " sin shall not have 
 dominion over " those who are " under grace." The 
 sinner has the spirit of bondage : these have the 
 spirit of adoption. The sinner is the slave of sin ; 
 sin is becoming in him stronger and stronger, his 
 chains heavier and heavier. The believer knows by 
 actual experience that the Spirit does help his in- 
 firmities ; that the same Saviour who has washed away 
 his sins in His own blood does dwell in his heart. In 
 the measure in which ho walks in the 'steps of his risen 
 Lord, he has the blessed witness of the Spirit that he is 
 a child of God, and his own spirit is conscious at times 
 of the fact that the flesh is becoming weaker, and that 
 although he is in himself utter weakness, and the 
 struggle may seem long and doubtful, he is able to 
 thank God, who always causeth him to triumph in 
 
 s 
 
258 
 
 SERMON XX. 
 
 Christ. Through the Spirit of Jesus his Lord, he feels 
 the blessed assurance that a real righteousness, even 
 Christ's righteousness, is both bestowed as a free gift 
 and is being wrought out in him, and that his loving 
 Lord, who walks at his side, is able to keep him from 
 falling. 
 
 Once more : Be not deceived ; God is not mocked : 
 whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. 
 He that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap 
 corruption ; but he that soweth to the Spirit, shall of 
 the Spirit leap life everlasting." Let us observe that 
 " the second death " is here presented to us as the 
 certain consequence, the "/rM2Y," of our own doings. 
 He is the God of nature, and the laws of the spiritual 
 world are represented as no less unchangeable than the 
 laws of the natural world. He, as our loving Heavenly 
 Father, has pointed out to us that there is one way, 
 and one way only, whereby to obtain our eternal salva- 
 tion — repentance towards God, and faith towards our 
 Lord Jesus Christ ; a loving trust, bringing forth 
 works meet for repentance. He has Ireely offered 
 it to us all. God does not mock the sinner. He 
 has expressly declared that He " willeth not the 
 death of the sinner," that " it is not His will that 
 one of these little ones should perish." But not 
 only so. He seeks the long-lost wanderer ; He rouses 
 us ; He stands at the door and knocks ; He convinces 
 us of sin ; He pleads with us. He ivill have mercy 
 on those who sow the tears of repentance. His loving 
 arms are open wide to receive all His children who 
 will determine to say, " I will arise, and go to my 
 Father, and say unto Him, Father, I have sinned." 
 But He will not coerce the human will which neither 
 love nor fear can move. If some, untouched by the 
 pleading of His Cross and His Spirit, v:Ul still sow 
 
GOD IS NOT MOCKED. 
 
 259 
 
 to the flesh, Christ tells them plainly they will reap 
 corruption — a corruption which can only be measured 
 by Him. But if we have been planted in the likeness 
 of His death, if we have known that death unto sin, 
 we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection ; 
 and, having sown to the Spirit, we shall of the Spirit 
 reap life everlasting. 
 
 s 2 
 
SERMON XXL 
 
 Preached in 1874. 
 
 PARABLE OF THE SOWER. 
 
 " A sower went out to sow his seed : and as lie sowed, some fell by 
 the way side ; and it was trodden down, and tlie fowls of the air 
 
 devoiu-ed it The seed is the word of God. Those by 
 
 the way side are they that hear ; then cometh the devil, and 
 taheth away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe 
 and be saved." — Ltike viii. 5, 11, 12. 
 
 " When any one lieareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth 
 it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which 
 was sown in his heart." — Matt. xiii. 19. 
 
 This parable of our blessed Lord is one of a series 
 of parables, describing the nature of the kingdom of 
 God. We have the parable of the sower of the good 
 seed and the tares, of the treasure hid in the field, of 
 the merchantman seeking goodly pearls, of the net cast 
 into the sea, of the householder bringing forth out of 
 his treasure things new and old. These parables were 
 probably all contained in one discourse, uttered on the 
 shores of the Lake of Grennesaret, from the little ship 
 that the disciples had appointed to wait upon him. A 
 traveller on the shores of that Lake describes one 
 of the little fields of wheat, with a narrow beaten path 
 running through it, with the rocky ground, where 
 
PARABLE OF THE SOWER. 
 
 261 
 
 the seed had no deepness of earth ; here and theie 
 great thorn bushes growing, with the seed striving to 
 raise its head between tlie thorns ; and the good 
 ground, where the wheat grew, bearing thirtyfold, 
 sixtjfold, and one hundredfold (for the seed had been 
 sown everywhere). Our Lord tells us, the seed is the 
 word of God. The sower may be taken to mean our 
 Lord Himself as the Great Sower, and also those 
 whom He sends to sow the seed of the Kingdom, the 
 preachers of the Gospel. The soil may be taken as the 
 field of the human heart, not as a dead impassive 
 thing, but rather as the ground over which we as 
 cultivators have power. One quality it has, and that 
 is the capability of receiving the seed. " The first 
 man," says the Apostle, " is of the earth, earthy." The 
 analogy is all the closer when we consider that the seed 
 is indued with the capacity of absorbing the earthy 
 particles and of rearranging them. The soil has not 
 life. Man cannot give himself the seed of eternal 
 life, but he can receive it. The soil and the seed 
 together form the new creation, the new creature 
 " which after God is created in righteousness and true 
 holiness." 
 
 It is not uncommon to speak of those who hear the 
 word of the Kingdom, the preaching of the Gospel, as 
 being divided into two classes of persons, and into two 
 only, the converted and the unconverted : the former 
 being spoken of as if they had nothing more to do — as 
 if we were not exhorted in Holy Scripture " to give 
 diligence to make our calling and election sure," and 
 " to work out our own salvation with fear and trem- 
 bling," remembering that " it is God that worketh in 
 us." It is, however, certain, that in the parable of the 
 sower, not only is the broad distinction of the con- 
 verted and the unconverted lecognised in the seed 
 
262 
 
 SERMON XXI. 
 
 which fell on the beaten path and never entered into 
 the ground, but also even where the seed of the 
 Kingdom not only was received into the soil and grew, 
 and not only grew but flourished to such an extent, 
 that it was not until the harvest that it could be re- 
 cognised that the fruit was not produced. 
 
 But we have to do at present with one portion only 
 of the field, that which was trodden down ; and it is 
 most important to notice that the wayside is just the 
 same kind of soil as any other part of the field. This 
 part unquestionably relates to the unconverted hearers 
 of the Gospel. Why are they still unconverted ? Why 
 is it that the seed could not obtain access into this part 
 of the field ? The answer is, because it was trodden 
 down, and the seed just rested on its hard surface, and 
 this was the reason why the fowls of the air immediately 
 pounced down and carried it off. 
 
 What is it that treads down the soil of the human 
 heart ? In some it is habit and custom : in some it is 
 the business of life. We let all the passers-by trample 
 down the soft and impressible ground. It is naturally 
 soft and impressible, but the older we grow, if we 
 have not given up our hearts to the truth, the harder 
 and harder it will become. 
 
 The world, with its business and its many interests, 
 absorbs our attention, and the ground is less and 
 less open to receive impressions. It is pressed and 
 hardened down by the business, the pleasures, the 
 harmless things of life ; there is less and less time, 
 less and less inclination to receive the seed of the 
 kingdom, the message of the Gospel : but how^ever 
 these occupations may alienate, there is nothing which 
 hardens the heart like sin. The sinner regards religion 
 as something which will interfere with his pleasure, 
 which will cause unpleasant thoughts; he is not at 
 
PARABLE OF THE SOWEK. 
 
 263 
 
 peace or at one with God, and therefore he hardens 
 his heart against the message which God's servants 
 bring, and does not even give it an entrance, and he 
 does not seek seriously to consider and apply it ; and 
 so, to use our Lord's own words, " he understandeth 
 it not." 
 
 But the saddest and most awful thought of all is, 
 that the feet of the sowers become the very means 
 by which, unless we are willing to receive the 
 seed, the soil is trodden down. The very preaching 
 of the Gospel, week after week, to those who do not 
 open their hearts to the truth, tends to harden their 
 hearts. It is the regular thing, it is the proper 
 thing to do, to go to church, chapel, or meeting ; 
 but it is treated as a thing which has nothing to do 
 with the real life of the soul. The hearers discuss the 
 form of the sermon, or criticise it, and talk of it, so 
 that it does not enter into the heart ; the soil is 
 trampled down, and becomes so hard that the seed 
 just lies on the surface ; and " the fowls of the air," 
 the light-winged innocent-looking agents which Satan 
 makes use of, the business, the pleasure, the light- 
 laughing humour of the company, are down in a 
 moment ; and they catch away the seed which was 
 sown : " the devil taketh away the word out of 
 their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved." 
 A minister of great experience, who had done much 
 for the evangelisation of the east end of London, 
 once said to me, " I have known persons who have 
 regularly sat for ten or twenty years under the most 
 powerful Gospel ministry, but with whom it seems only 
 to have hardened their hearts ; while if you go to 
 some stratum of society where no care whatever has 
 been exercised, where they have never heard the 
 Gospel, and have no idea of what true religion is, how 
 
264 
 
 SERMON XXI. 
 
 earnestly do they listen and drink in the blessed words 
 of God's love to them in Christ ! how they open their 
 hearts to receive the word preached ! It is exactly 
 what all their lives long they have needed, and they 
 receive it as it is in truth, the word of God, which 
 effectually worketh in those that believe ; and so it is 
 with them, even in the most unlikely positions for any 
 Christian to bring forth fruit ; they do so to the praise 
 and glory of God." 
 
 Then may not the thought of the little piece of field 
 which some may feel has been somewhat trodden down 
 and hardened give us by analogy the way in which it 
 is to be made soft again ? May it not be possible to do 
 as the farmer would do, if lie had some piece of field 
 across which men and animals were constantly passing ? 
 May we not pray for ability to put some sort of hurdles 
 across, to prevent the mere animal portion of our life, 
 whether of pleasure, of business, or of our own animal 
 passions, from crushing the spiritual life, and pre- 
 venting us from giving earnest heed to the things 
 which we have heard, lest at any time we should let 
 them slip ? We may pray for strength to dig up the 
 ground, and thus open our hearts to receive the word, 
 when it shall be again sown, for it will be sown again 
 and again. Then there are times when God drives His 
 great ploughshare over the field, throwing aside the 
 hardened path, moving the stones and rocks ready to 
 be gathered out, rooting up the great thorn bushes. Is 
 it not so ? Can I not appeal to the hearts of both those 
 who have received and of those who have not received 
 the Gospel, that this is so, and that God does at times 
 soften their hearts, and render these more earnest in seek- 
 ing to make their calling and election sure. May 
 God grant that those who have not yet known 
 Him may be " not only almost, but altogether " Chris- 
 
PARABLE OF THE SOWER. 265 
 
 tians ! " And they shall be Mine, saith the Lord, in 
 that day when I make up My jewels ; and I will spare 
 them as a man spareth his own son." May we not 
 only hear the word, but in an honest and good heart 
 through the power of the Holy Spirit keep it, and 
 saved by the precious blood of Christ and walking in 
 His ways, may we all be part of the great harvest 
 field when the harvest of this world is reaped. 
 
SERMON XXII. 
 
 Preached 1874. 
 
 A PINNACLE A POSITION OF DANGER. 
 
 " Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him 
 on a pinnacle of the temple, and saith unto him, If thou be 
 the Son of God, cast thyseK down : for it is written, He shall 
 give his angels charge concerning thee (to keep thee in all 
 thy ways) : and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at 
 any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. Jesus said unto 
 him, It is written again. Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy 
 God.:'— Matt. iv. 5-8. 
 
 There are persons who regard the scenes of tlie Temp- 
 tation as allegorical, and more especially there are those 
 who, while they call themselves Christians, are apt 
 somewhat thoughtlessly in some cases, or intentionally 
 in others, to regard Satan the Tempter as a figure of 
 speech, a poetical embodiment of the principle of evil, 
 in the same way that we speak of Hope, Fear, Virtue, 
 or Justice. There are, however, good grounds for 
 believing that the Temptation is an incident as strictly 
 historical as any other incident of our Lord's life, and 
 that the Temptation was presented to him by Satan in a 
 personal form. The denial of the existence of a personal 
 Tempter simply because it appears to be improbable is 
 a danger against which I would affectionately warn all 
 
A PINNACLE A POSITION OF DANGER. 267 
 
 here, and would assure them, that intellectually there 
 is no resting place for their feet, and that the issue of 
 their opinions, or if they yield to the temptation, will 
 be the denial of the existence of a personal God, — the 
 God of the Bible, our loving Father which is in Heaven. 
 If there are no evil angels, there are no good angels, 
 and the whole significance and explanation of our state 
 of trial here, as described in Holy Scripture, is lost. We 
 are told there, that there is a world of spirits to which 
 good and evil are things of awful and tremendous 
 import, and that our final destiny will be either with 
 the devil and his angels, or with those blessed beings 
 who are " sent forth to minister to them who shall be 
 heirs of salvation " — even as they ministered here on 
 earth to our blessed Lord after the Temptation — and 
 in the tenderness of their sympathy are filled with 
 holy joy in Heaven their dwelling place over one sinner 
 that repenteth. If we throw away our faith in a per- 
 sonal God, and in a world of good and evil spirits, 
 good and evil will soon be to us empty names ; we 
 shall have thrown away all which can hallow and ennoble 
 human life. It is our power of choice between good 
 and evil, and the very depth to which we can fall, 
 which measures the exalted nature of man, and the 
 greatness of his calling by the Lord of life and glory, 
 who left the brightness of that glory to show to sinful 
 man how he may overcome, " even as I also overcame, 
 and am set down with my Father on His throne." 
 
 In the first place we may remark that there was 
 such a pinnacle in the Temple, which overlooked 
 the ravine of the brook Kedron, and which was 
 called Herod's porch ; and in the next place, that the 
 plain and obvious point of the Temptation was this — 
 that our Lord being perfect Man, it behoved Him to 
 be " tempted in all points like as we are ; that His 
 
268 
 
 SERMON XXII. 
 
 temptations were in proportion to the superhuman 
 powers with which He was invested ; — that the power 
 of working miracles was not given to any man, not 
 even to our blessed Lord, for the mere purpose of using 
 it for such objects as the two suggested by the Evil one, 
 but only for the purposes Grod intended. If we turn 
 to Psalm xci. we shall find that the promise was not 
 as quoted by the Evil one, but it was " that the angels 
 should keep Him (the Messiah) in all His ways" that is, 
 in those ways which God had commanded, in the way 
 of His duty. And as Jesus our blessed Lord was to be 
 " made in all things like unto His brethren," so are we 
 His brethren to be made in all things like unto Him by 
 the working of His mighty power. The life of Jesus 
 from its commencement to its close is a mirror in which 
 each of His sincere followers may see something which 
 bears a likeness to his own spiritual course. 
 
 In proportion as He sanctifies us, body, soul, and 
 spirit, we are made like unto Him, not only in purity 
 and holiness, but also in our temptations, our trials, our 
 humiliation, our agony, and our final triumph. The 
 life of our Lord began and ended with temptation, from 
 the scene in the desert, and in the Temple, to that in the 
 garden of Gethsemane. Dost thou love thy Lord ? 
 Then remember, disciple, whether thou art young or old 
 in years, or in grace, that He has told thee, " the dis- 
 ciple is not above his Master, nor the servant above 
 his Lord." If we would be Christians our life must be 
 one of spiritual strife — of spiritual struggle : as are the 
 Christian's temptations, so will be his triumph. It 
 will not be bought cheaply : we must wrestle and strive, 
 and strive lawfully ; we must put on the whole armour 
 of God, which we are offered, or we may be very sure 
 we shall not stand against the wiles of the devil. 
 
 Let us then consider this temptation of our Lord, 
 
A PINNACLE A TOSITION OF DANGER. 269 
 
 and let us not conceive for a moment that it does not 
 concern us, and tliat it can present no likeness to our 
 temptations. It is one from which, in the varying 
 circumstances of life, perhaps no man is exempt, 
 certainly not those of high and noble natures. Satan 
 set him on a pinnacle of the Temple of God. It was a 
 high place, and it was a holy place. Does not Holy 
 Scripture specially and particularly point out the 
 peculiar dangers and perils, and oftentimes the disas- 
 trous fall, of those who have been placed in high 
 and holy places ? 
 
 In the Temple and Church of God there was one 
 whom God exalted in Israel, of whom it was said, 
 " Thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of 
 the Lord to blaspheme." David's examj^le still gives 
 occasion to the enemies ; while it warns and instructs 
 all who thoughtfully read of his intense sufferings, 
 his deep contrition, humility, and final pardon, and re- 
 storation to a state of holiness. Was not Elijah raised 
 as it were upon a pinnacle when he was made the in- 
 strument of the challenge between Baal, the snn-god, and 
 the God of Israel ? " If the Lord be God, follow Him ; 
 but if Baal, then follow Him." The miracle was wrought : 
 but on the morrow was not the prophet in a state of 
 spiritual danger when hunted by Jezebel ? He sat down 
 under the juniper-bush, and requested for himself that 
 he might die." And was he not taught that in the still 
 small voice of duty God was to be found? Was not 
 Judas placed on a pinnacle ? Was he less than an 
 Apostle ? Was not Peter placed on a pinnacle ? Did 
 he not cast himself down when he denied his Lord? 
 There is nothing in which Satan delights more than to 
 bring Christians, when they are in the Temple of God, 
 to a pinnacle. If they look to the right hand or to the 
 left there seems to be no escape; they feel themselves 
 
270 
 
 SERMON XXII. 
 
 insecure ; they cease to trust in God, and to be still, and 
 to see the salvation of God ; and Satan begs them 
 to trust in themselves and their own spiritual powers 
 or attainments, instead of trusting in God in the path 
 of their duty. When the Christian minister yields to 
 the temptation to abdicate the high function of his 
 calling, ceases to warn the wicked, ceases " to cry aloud 
 and spare not," because he feels his own danger — is 
 not this casting himself down and hoping that God 
 will care lor him and preserve him and deliver him 
 otherwise than in the path of his duty ? Because 
 Christians in high and holy places may have cast 
 themselves down, shall the Christian worker for his 
 Lord stay his hand ? Shall the lowly Christian cease 
 to confess his Lord with his mouth before men, because 
 others have dishonoured Him? Is not this casting 
 himself down ? Is not this taking the advice of the Evil 
 one, and carrying out the very thing which he intended ? 
 We may perhaps say, happy are they who are not called 
 to high and holy places in the Church of God. There is 
 no Christian man or woman in the world who is not 
 called with a high and holy calling, and there are no 
 Christian men or women who are not at certain periods 
 of their lives placed on a pinnacle. Nay, let us say, 
 happy are they who are in the way in which God has 
 called them, whether on perilous heights or in the green 
 pastures, and beside the still waters of the valley of 
 humiliation. 
 
 The Christian is especially on a pinnacle when in a 
 position of peculiar outward trial and extremity ; and as 
 long as we are in these bodies we are occasionally so 
 placed, and our faith has often to be combined with 
 patience. It is far better not to move at all than to 
 move, believing that we shall receive Divine help if 
 we knowingly swerve (because of our difficulty) from 
 
A PINNACLE A POSITION OF DANGEE. 271 
 
 that which we know is the plain and simple rule of 
 right, in the vain presuming faith that we shall then 
 he helped : if we do so, we cast ourselves down. Some 
 young disciple may say, "Who then can be saved?" 
 Do you not recollect that it is prophesied that " an high- 
 way shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called 
 the Way of Holiness ; the unclean shall not pass over 
 it ; but it shall be for those : the wayfaring men, though 
 fools, shall not err therein. No lion shall be there, nor 
 any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be 
 found there ; but the redeemed shall walk there." But 
 we are not told that if we wilfully wander ojf that way 
 of holiness into the jungle of superstition, into the 
 stormy wilderness of unbelief or despair, that we shall 
 be over and over again sought by the good Shepherd. 
 
 Do you see that green spot in the distance, far away 
 from the path of holiness ? It is the morass of sin. 
 Tread as lightly as you will, you will be defiled by the 
 mire ; and the longer you traverse it, the more certain 
 it becomes that you will be plunged at last in the mire 
 and filth. 
 
 My dear young friends, sincere Christian people do 
 not get all at once off the way of holiness. Beware of 
 small departures to the right hand or to the left. He 
 that walketh uprightly walketh surely. Press forward 
 on the path. If Christ has redeemed you with His 
 most precious blood, press forward on the path of holi- 
 ness, not in your own strength, but with faith and 
 patience. Arm yourselves with every weapon in 
 Christ's armoury, but especially with that weapon which 
 is called "all prayer " — " praying always and watching 
 thereunto with all perseverance." 
 
 I remember a pamphlet which, when I was a younger 
 man, impressed me, and will serve as an illustration to 
 show how religious men and honourable men get off 
 
272 
 
 SERMON XXII. 
 
 the way of lioliiicss ; and it will show, too, that the 
 world knows well what that way is, and marks well 
 the conduct of religions and honourable men. And it 
 marks them because they are on a pinnacle. Specula- 
 tion manifested itself in new commercial undertakings, 
 and one person after another lent his name to support 
 that which promised an immediate rather than a per- 
 manent and legitimate gain, till at last honourable 
 names, men of the highest principle, were sought 
 and obtained, and the following conversation took 
 place between two unscrupulous speculators who 
 were engaged in floating an unsound company :— 
 
 " We will try and get Mr. 's name." " Oh, 
 
 that cannot be done. He never lends his name to any- 
 thing that is not of the highest character." " Oh, yes, 
 it used, I know, to be so ; but he has now become 
 accustomed to it." Yes — gradually accustomed to sin. 
 
 " Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." It is no 
 sin to be tempted : — He my Lord and Master, He who 
 was perfect Man, He was tempted, yet without sin, 
 and therefore He knows how to succour them that are 
 tempted, and " will with the temptation also make a 
 way to escape that we may be able to bear it." May 
 we, my friends, have a deeper sense of the power of 
 Satan and of sin. " Have we resisted unto blood 
 striving, against sin"? "Looking unto Jesus, the 
 author and finisher of our faith/' let us " make straight 
 paths unto our feet," following the path of holiness 
 without which no man shall see the Lord, serving 
 God with reverence and godly fear, striving after a 
 higher and a nobler life, not after bread, not after 
 the objects of ambition. May we never swerve from 
 the way of strict holiness — remembering that if we are 
 Christians we have now already, oh, wondrous thought, 
 come unto " the general assembly and Church of the 
 
A PINNACLE A POSITION OF DANGER 273 
 
 Firstborn, whicli are written in Heaven, and to God 
 the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made 
 perfect." May we never weigh our conduct and con- 
 versation by the judgment of men, but may we act 
 in our inmost soul as those who are not ashamed of 
 Jesus, who bring their deeds to the light, who over- 
 come by the blood of the Lamb and the word of 
 their testimony, not loving their lives unto the 
 death. May we thus honour the name of our Lord and 
 Saviour, who having loved His own who are in the 
 world, will love them unto the end. 
 
 1 - 
 
SERMON XXIII. 
 
 Date UNCEr.TAiN. 
 ELECTION. 
 
 " Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through 
 Banctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the 
 blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, bo multi- 
 plied."— 1 Peter i. 2. 
 
 No one can have failed to remark that the writers of 
 the New Testament frequently use the words elect, 
 predestinated, called, chosen, and no thoughtful men 
 can doubt the great importance of our clearly under- 
 standing the meaning of these words. That there is a 
 doctrine of election taught in the New Testament is 
 freely admitted by all those who call themselves Chris- 
 tians, and there can be no doubt also that there is 
 scarcely any part of the New Testament which has 
 occasioned so many distressing doubts and fears to 
 those who are young in the faith and knowledge of the 
 Gospel, the good tidings of great joy to all people. It 
 is peculiarly important to the young in our religious 
 Society, because if they have not a clear view of the 
 reasons why our religious Society has rejected as un- 
 scriptural, all those theories in which it is represented 
 that God has from all eternity elected particular persons 
 to eternal life and others to eternal condemnation, 
 they are peculiarly liable to have their feith in Christ 
 shaken, or even, in some cases, destroyed, by that which 
 
ELECTION. 
 
 275 
 
 to others makes not only no difference in their conduct, 
 hut which leads them day by day to admire with the 
 most devout feelings that distinguishing grace of God 
 which has given them by many signs so strong an 
 assurance of their salvation. We may at the outset 
 entirely place aside, as having nothing to do with 
 our subject, the question whether God's knowledge of 
 future events practically abolishes human freedom. 
 We know absolutely nothing of the nature of God, 
 excepting what He has revealed, and the question is 
 simply. What did the writers of the New Testament 
 mean ? 
 
 Who are the elect or chosen of whom they speak ? 
 Are they (whoever they are) arbitrarily chosen accord- 
 ing to the determinate counsel of God ? and if so, to 
 what are they chosen ? Our blessed Lord uses the 
 words, " Many are called, but few are chosen ; " but He 
 obviously does not use them in the same connection as 
 the Apostles. Once He uses them to show that those 
 who are called by Him to service in His Church early 
 in the day may not be more eminently blessed than 
 those who are called later in life, and once to show that 
 although the wedding garment is offered to all, all will 
 not accept of it. But the Apostles all appear to use 
 the words in the same sense. We shall recollect that 
 the Apostles not only were Jews, but that part of their 
 mission was to explain what to a Jew was a most 
 strange and inexplicable circumstance connected with 
 Christianity, that God should turn away from His elect 
 people, and that to the Gentiles also the gift of eternal 
 life through Christ should be freely offered. The 
 Apostle Paul tells them that God has not cast away 
 His people which He foreknew; but just as in the time 
 of Elijah there was a faithful remnant, so those whose 
 ears had been opened to hear the word of the Gospel 
 
 * T 2 
 
276 
 
 SERMON XXIII. 
 
 were the election of grace, as he calls it, and that they 
 and the Gentiles who had been admitted to the privi- 
 leges of hearing the word of the Gospel through their 
 fall, are now the elect people of God. 
 
 In the ninth chapter of Romans the Apostle asserts 
 the power of God to extend His chosen people, and 
 reminds them that God had not acted in His choice of 
 them as the elect people of God upon the principles of 
 bare lineal descent, but that the revelation of His mercy 
 and goodness to nations has not been dependent upon 
 any goodness of theirs, but on His sovereign will and 
 pleasure. Not that God had no reasons, but that " He 
 giveth not account " to His creature man " of any of 
 His matters." God blesses some nations with peculiar 
 blessings which He withholds from others. Why we 
 have had all the blessings of the full blaze of Gospel 
 light, and why the nations in the centre of Africa 
 should have been hitherto shut out from that light ; 
 why the Jews should have been so blessed with a clearer 
 revealing of the attributes of God than other nations, is 
 according to the determinate counsel of God's will ; and 
 if we deny to God the attribute of justice because He 
 deals so with the creatures which He has made, we lay 
 ourselves open to the reply, " Nay, but, 0 man, who art 
 thou that repliest against God ? Shall the thing formed 
 say to Him that formed it. Why hast Thou made me 
 thus?" why am I born in a position in which I have 
 less light than others ? " Hath not the potter power 
 over the clay of the same lumjD to make one vessel unto 
 honour and another unto dishonour ? " — one nation to 
 honourable and another to mean uses ? — for the Potter 
 makes all to some use. " What if God, willing to show 
 His wrath, and to make His power known, endured 
 with much long suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to 
 destruction ? and that He might make known the riches 
 
ELECTION. 
 
 277 
 
 of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had 
 afore prepared unto His glory ? " 
 
 The Potter makes two vessels : one, the Jewish 
 nation, God saw fit to devote to honour ; the other, 
 the Egyptian nation, He devotes to less honour to make 
 His power known. Now says Paul, in the present era, 
 God has in the same manner chosen the Gentiles and 
 Jews to whom the Gospel has been preached, and who 
 have received it with open ears, vessels to honour. 
 The Jews, who have rejected Christ, He now makes 
 vessels to less honour ; but He, as the great Potter, 
 neither casts any away, nor destroys any. " God hath 
 not cast away His people," and through their rejection 
 of His Gospel He intends in His endurance, His 
 long-suffering, to bring about His great purposes for 
 the blessing of the world. " If the fall of them be 
 the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them 
 the riches of the Gentiles — if the casting away of them 
 be the reconciling of the world to God, what shall 
 the receiving of them be, but life from the dead ? " 
 What then, were God's favoured nation, the Jews, 
 elected, chosen, predestinated to ? Not, surely, to final 
 salvation, but to peculiar religious privileges — not to a 
 blessiug absolutely, but to a special privilege and ad- 
 vantage, and the offer and opportunity of obtaining 
 temporal blessings, not extended to the other nations 
 of the world, and of having committed to them the 
 oracles of God. The Jews were not chosen for their 
 obedience, for they were a peculiarly disobedient j^eople ; 
 and the blessings and privileges to which they were 
 elected and predestinated depended entirely upon their 
 accepting them, and upon their obedience. They were 
 left free to choose between blessing and cursing ; a 
 blessing if they attended to the voice of the Lord their 
 God, and a curse if they refused to obey. 
 
SERMON XXIV. 
 
 Preached 1874. 
 
 THE REALITY OF HEAVEN. 
 
 " After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could 
 number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, 
 stood before the Throne, and 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 ansv^•ered, saying unto me, What are these 
 which are arrayed in white robes ? and whence came they ? 
 And I said unto him. Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me. 
 These are they which came out of great tribulation, and they 
 washed * their robes, and made them white in the blood of the 
 Lamb. Therefore are they before the Throne of God, and serve 
 Him day and night in His Temple : and He that sitteth on the 
 Throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, 
 neither thirst any more ; neither shall the sun light on them, 
 nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the 
 Throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living foun- 
 tains of waters ; and God shall wipe away all tears from their 
 eyes."— BeiJ. vii. 9, 10, 13-17. 
 
 During our Lord's life the question was asked Him, 
 *' Lord, are there few that be saved ? " Our Lord can 
 
 * " They washed." — Alford's version. 
 
THE REALITY OF HEAVEN. 
 
 279 
 
 liardly be said to have replied to the question so as to 
 satisfy the questioner, and the answer was of personal 
 application : " Strive to enter in at the strait gate ; 
 for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and 
 shall not be able " (Luke xiii. 24) ; " for wide is the 
 gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, 
 and many there be which go in thereat : because strait 
 is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto 
 life, and few there be that find it " (Matt. vii. 13, 14). 
 But whether it will always be so, or whether the 
 number will be relatively greater or smaller of those 
 who will be finally saved, is not told us. God, we 
 are told, " will have all men to be saved, and to come 
 unto the knowledge of the truth ;" and the reason 
 why there are so many who go the way that leadeth to 
 destruction is that they are free agents, and they " will 
 not come unto Him that they might have life." Many 
 are willing to say, " Lord, Lord," to profess outwardly 
 that they are His disciples, especially when it is re- 
 spectable to do so ; but they will not come to Christ 
 that " they might have life." They do not desire a 
 vital Christianity. They are as yet unwilling to yield 
 their will, their life, their all. They will not take up 
 their cross, and so " they cannot be His disciples," and 
 " know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, 
 and be filled with all the fulness of Grod." Our hearts 
 may be at times filled with sorrow when we ask, " Lord, 
 are there few that be saved ? " but then our hearts 
 are cheered by the assurance that Christ's religion will 
 not fail of its object, that the multitude of those that 
 are saved will be " innumerable ;" and not only so, but 
 there will be no narrow circle of select persons, but it 
 will include those " of every kindred, and tongue, and 
 people, and nation." 
 
 Ought not this consideration to widen the scope 
 
 T 3 
 
280 
 
 SERMON XXIV. 
 
 our charity, and furnish some gauge to our own hearts 
 to' ascertain whether we are ascending heavenwards ? 
 If we found out a poor person that loved Christ with 
 sincerity, should we clasp his hand and feel that, not- 
 withstanding the difference of worldly position, he was 
 our brother in Christ, that he would go to the same 
 Heaven as ourselves ? Would not the tear in his eye 
 and in our eye show that there is a link which hinds 
 us to our one Lord — a link which differs as much from 
 worldly ties as earth is apart from Heaven, as time 
 from eternity ? So our hearts kindle at the deeds 
 of Christian love, even at the softening of the voice 
 and at a single glance from one who truly loves the 
 Lord, however widely he differs from us in creed, in 
 practice, in opinion. These feelings, which are common 
 to every sincere Christian, are surely a proof that 
 Christian love is a living reality; that "the Church 
 on earth and Church in Heaven but one communion 
 make." The effect upon our daily lives should be to 
 cause us, while recognising the fact that differences of 
 intellect and of taste are implanted in us by our Creator, 
 to strive to see in those whom we believe to be sincere 
 Cliristians points of excellence. Christian gifts and 
 graces, which we ourselves do not possess, points of 
 agreement, and not points of difference. While firmly 
 holding to all that we believe is Christ's will con- 
 cerning us^ to believe that He can use even those who 
 are sincerely mistaken in their views to His glory and to 
 the advancement of His truth. For " now we see through 
 a glass darkly, but then face to face ; now we know in 
 part, but then shall we know even as we are known." 
 
 Here, then, is the great point in which the Church 
 in Heaven and the- Church on earth unite. They 
 unite round Christ as the central object of their ado- 
 ration, of their desires, of their love. Let us try to 
 
THE REALITY OF HEAVEN. 
 
 281 
 
 find some other points in wliicli the description of the 
 Church in Heaven closely links it to its former state 
 when here on earth. We must recollect, and we do 
 not always do so, that the Book of Revelation is 
 highly figurative. You will find that its pictures of 
 Heaven are symbolical. We are ready often to pro- 
 nounce it a sealed book, forgetting that the angel 
 expressly says, " Seal not the sayings of the prophecy 
 of this book, for the time is at hand ;" and ever and 
 anon the stormy and dark clouds of Patmos have rifts 
 of clear blue sky. The very imagery employed has 
 reference to the personal character of those who are 
 before the throne. If it were desirable that we should 
 have a minute account of Heaven, it might not be 
 possible to describe it to us unless we were endued 
 with new faculties ; and the object of this description 
 is to delineate what we can understand. We shall find 
 that there is an intimate correspondence between the 
 account of the state of the glorified in Heaven and that 
 •state into which those who love Christ here on earth are 
 continually striving, through His grace, to bring their own 
 characters. Their " white robes " are the emblem of 
 stainless purity : " nothing which defileth, or maketh a 
 lie," can enter Heaven. Then we are told how they 
 obtained this purity. The white linen represents the 
 righteousness of the saints : " they washed their robes," 
 that is, not when they came to Heaven, but here on 
 earth. " They washed their robes, and made them 
 white in the blood of the Lamb." It was not a robe 
 which merely covered their faults, because they were 
 without fiiult. It was a real righteousness, a trans- 
 parency of character which will be able to stand in the 
 ineffable and piercing light of the throne. They " came 
 out of great tribulation." Here the metaphor brings us 
 back to the ancient method of separating the corn from 
 
282 
 
 SERMON XXIV. 
 
 the ear by passing it under a wooden roller. The 
 object was not to crush or injure, but to obtain the 
 hard and precious grain. Surely the object of earthly 
 trial is a blessed one ; it separates us from that which 
 often clings as closely to some of the different parts 
 of our character as the chaff to the kernels of wheat. 
 They had " palms in their hands," the emblem both of 
 victory and of great joy. They were saved, but they 
 did not ascribe their salvation to their own virtuous 
 efforts ; but their virtuous efforts were the result of 
 their love to Christ and their union with Him, and they 
 ascribe " salvation unto our Grod and unto the Lamb." 
 There is no trace of spiritual pride, but there is the 
 same stamp of character that we see in the humble, 
 devoted follower of the Lord Jesus here on earth. " We 
 show unto you," says the beloved Apostle, "that eternal 
 life which was with the Father." The beginning of 
 that eternal life is therefore here. The entrance to it is 
 through faith in Christ : but if our faith does not bring 
 the virtues of Heaven into our heart; if our faith is 
 merely a preference for certain familiar phrases and 
 sounds ; if, after having received these promises, we do 
 not strive through the promised aid of the Holy Spirit 
 to cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, 
 perfecting holiness in the fear of Grod, we may well fear 
 that we have not a faith which purifies the soul, and 
 that our character is not ripening for Heaven. 
 
 There is a distinct line of connection between the 
 glorified state of the faithful in Heaven and those who 
 love Christ on earth. There is a resemblance between 
 the character of the society in Heaven and all that is 
 most pure and virtuous, most happy and heavenly 
 on earth. Is there the slightest scriptural ground for 
 supposing that we lose our identity in Heaven ? Did 
 not Moses and Elias appear at the Transfiguration and 
 
THE REALITY OF HEAVEN. 283 
 
 speak to our Lord ou that subject which must have 
 been the most interesting to them of any subject on 
 earth — the completion of the Divine scheme in which 
 each of them had played so prominent a part ? Again, 
 in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus we have 
 the patriarch Abraham represented as a distinct charac- 
 ter in Heaven. Heaven is described to us not only as a 
 locality but as a spiritual state. When we return home 
 after a long journey, it is not the outward material 
 surroundings of our home which occupy us. We have 
 passed through scenes of far greater beauty. We may 
 have enjoyed greater ease and self-indulgence ; but it 
 is the character of the persons which really constitutes 
 our home. So we have reason to believe it will be in 
 Heaven. There is no ground whatever to think that 
 all particular friendships will there be lost. The sources 
 of our greatest and purest happiness here depend upon 
 our friendships. We do not find that the holier a man 
 becomes the less able he is to cultivate private friend- 
 ships and particular attachments. 
 
 Do we love knowledge ? There will be no limit to 
 our knowledge then. But the central point round 
 which the glorified gather, " the spirits of just men 
 made perfect," is the throne of God and the Lamb. 
 " There is no fear in love, for perfect love casteth out 
 fear." The whole of that countless multitude love Him, 
 because He first loved them. The intense love of the 
 parents is the centre around which the love of the chil- 
 dren in a family gathers, and around which their mutual 
 love is manifested ; and to see Christ, to see Him as He 
 is, has been the longing of the Christian heart from the 
 days of the Apostles to the present time. How import- 
 ant, therefore, it is for all of us, younger and older, to 
 choose our friendships for eternity, to seek to love those 
 who we know love Christ, and while not breaking 
 
284 
 
 SERMON XXIV. 
 
 away from our eartMy friends, to seek by earnest 
 prayer and by e>- hibiting something of the loveliness 
 of Christ's character through the power of the Holy 
 Spirit to transmute worldly friendships into that friend- 
 ship which is heavenly and eternal. " I pray not 
 that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, but 
 that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil." " Beloved, 
 now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear 
 what we shall be : but we know that, when He shall 
 appear, we shall be like Him ; for we shall see Him as 
 He is. And every man that hath this hope in him 
 purifieth himself, even as He is pure." Is it so with us ? 
 But beyond all this we are told that " eye hath not 
 seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart 
 of man, the things which God hath prepared for them 
 that love Him." 
 
 " What no human eye hath seen, 
 What no mortal ear hath heard, 
 What on thought bath never been 
 In its noblest flights conferred, 
 This hath God prepared in store, 
 For His people evermore. 
 
 " Heavenly landscapes calmly bright, 
 Life's pure river murmuring low, 
 
 Forms of loveliness and light. 
 Lost to earth long time ago : 
 
 Yes, mine own lamented long, 
 
 Thine amid the angel throng." 
 
 This is a thought, surely, which gives a reality to 
 Heaven, and there are doubtless many here whose joy 
 upon earth has been darkened by a Father's loving 
 hand, in order to show them that this is not their abid- 
 ing rest, and to enable them to feel that they have a 
 little one, a father, a mother, a brother, a sister, or a 
 friend in Heaven. Heaven has assumed a reality which 
 
THE REALITY OF HEAVEN. 
 
 285 
 
 it never had before : and as we advance in life, when 
 the shadows deepen and one after another of our 
 dearest friends crosses the river, sad indeed will it be for 
 us if we do not " read our title clear to mansions in the 
 skies ;" if we have not washed our robes and made them 
 white ill the blood of the Lamb ; if we cannot dwell with 
 joy on " the sayings of this book," and are not living in 
 a state of preparation for the time when it will be pro- 
 claimed, " He that is unjust let him be unjust still : and 
 he which is filthy let him be filthy still : and he that is 
 righteous let him l)e righteous still : and he that is holy 
 let him be holy still." "And, behold, I come quickly, 
 to give every man according as his work shall be." 
 We are saved by faith, but we are judged according to 
 our works. " I am Alpha and Omega, the Beginning 
 and the End, the First and the Last. Blessed are they 
 that do His commandments, that they may have right 
 to the Tree of Life, and may enter in through the gates 
 into the city." 
 
 " Are you ready for the meeting 
 
 With the Saviour in the air ? 
 Longing for that holy greeting 
 
 With the ransomed myriads there ? 
 If not ready, if not ready, 
 Oh, for that great day prepare." 
 
SERMON XXV. 
 
 Preached in 1874. 
 
 REGENEKATION. 
 
 " Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is horn of God." — 
 1 John V. 1. 
 
 " But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become 
 the sons of God, even to them tliat believe on His Name : which 
 were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the 
 will of man, but of God." — John i. 12, 13. 
 
 We shall recollect that our Lord taught the doctrine of 
 justification by faith, when some asked Him, " What 
 shall we do that we might work the works of God ? " 
 " This," said He, " is the work of God, that ye believe 
 on Him whom He hath sent." All that is needful to 
 our salvation is included in this one act of the soul, 
 when it is drawn to Christ by the Father, and exercises 
 not a merely intellectual belief, but through the 
 enabling power of the Holy Spirit, a loving trust and 
 confidence in Christ, as the Lamb of God, able and 
 willing to take away the sins of the world, and to take 
 away and pardon our sins. Such as these who " have 
 nothing to pay " He frankly forgives. Our Lord also 
 taught in His conversation with Nicodemus the doctrine 
 of the new birth. Nicodemus came to Jesus by night, 
 and said unto him. Rabbi, we know that Thou art a 
 
REGENERATION. 
 
 287 
 
 teacher come from God : for no man can do these 
 miracles that thou doest, except God be with him," 
 But our Lord reminds him that our salvation is not a 
 (question of knowledge, but that a vital change is 
 needed in human nature. " Verily, verily, I say unto 
 thee. Except a man be born again, he cannot see the 
 kingdom of God." 
 
 These two doctrines, the doctrine of justification by 
 faith, or the pardon of our past sins, and the doctrine 
 of the new birth, may very justly be said to be funda- 
 mental doctrines of the Christian religion. The one 
 relates to what Christ has done for us, the other to 
 what Christ has done m us ; and they appear to be 
 wrought in us at one and the same moment ; for 
 " whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born 
 of God," and " to as many as received Him to them 
 gave He power to become the sons of God, even to 
 them that believe on His name : who were born, not of 
 blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of 
 man, but of God " : which appears to show that the par- 
 don of our sin and the new birth are given us at one 
 and the same moment. He gives us therefore in the new 
 birth power to become the sons of God — not, as I under- 
 stand it, the mere privilege, but the actual power. This 
 is given to those who are " born not of blood," that is, it 
 is not given by natural descent. The Jews prided them- 
 selves that they were the children of Abraham, God's 
 favoured people. We may have a similar feeling, 
 because we have been educated as Christian cliildren of 
 pious parents, members of some religious society ; but 
 this will not make us cliildren of God. 
 
 Again, what does "of the will of man," mean? 
 It was common to adopt children, and bring them into 
 a family by mans will. Christians are sometimes 
 called the adopted cliildren of God ; but the difference 
 
288 
 
 SEBMON XXV. 
 
 is this, that there is no change in a child which in the 
 ordinary course of events is adopted. But when God 
 adopts as His children He works a vital change, and 
 " if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature ; old 
 things are passed away; behold, all things are be- 
 come new." There are some views occasionally taken 
 respecting the nature of justification by faith, which 
 have tended more than anything to throw discredit 
 upon the true and scriptural doctrine. They are what 
 are called the covering of our sins by justification, the 
 covering righteousness of Christ. For instance, the 
 white robes in the Revelation are held to be the 
 righteausness of Christ, which is maintained to cover 
 over, and to cover up, our filthy polluted nature, 
 although the white robes of the glorified are said to 
 be the righteousness of the saijits ; so that a man is 
 not really changed by being pardoned by God, but 
 God shuts His eyes, and does not see it. It is said 
 that " God sees no sin in His (justified) Jacob, and no 
 perverseness in His (believing) Israel." But the state 
 of the Christian is not described in Holy Scripture to 
 be that of sinning and repenting, sinning and repent- 
 ing ; but we are described as having " put off the old 
 man with his deeds," and having " put on the new man, 
 who is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him 
 who created Him." We are now the children of God ; 
 and the new birth within us, " created in righteousness 
 and true holiness," although it is done at once, and 
 is holy, is the efficient cause of' our sanctification. As 
 God's children we are designed by Him to grow up in 
 all things to Him, and to reach " the measure of the 
 stature of the fulness of Christ." It is God's intention 
 " to establish our hearts unblamable in lioliness before 
 God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, with all his saints." 
 
REGENEKATION. 
 
 289 
 
 Now let us consider what are the scriptural marks of the 
 new birth. We are told that " whatsoever is born of God 
 overcometh the world," and that this is the" victory which 
 overcometh the world, even our faith." The world to the 
 true child of God is under his feet, not over his head. 
 " He that is born of God doeth righteousness," and " he 
 that is born of God doth not commit sin." This is one 
 of the hardest sayings in the New Testament for the 
 corrupt heart of man to understand ; but we must not 
 interpret the Apostle differently in one place from 
 another, but we must interpret him in such a 
 way as makes him consistent with himself ; and we 
 may gain much light on the subject by considering 
 that what he says a little before is equivalent : " Who- 
 soever abideth in Him sinneth not." The Christian, 
 as long as he abides in Christ (which he may do, if he 
 watches and prays always), sinneth not willingly. As 
 long as he remains in Christ, the life-giving vine, he will 
 bring forth fruit ; if he abides not in Christ, he is cast 
 forth as a branch that is withered. He that is born of 
 Him is righteous ; that is, he not only does not indulge 
 in wilful sin, but Christ gives him a real righteousness, 
 and enables him to work the works of God ; and the 
 prophecy is fulfilled in him, " I will put my law in their 
 inward parts, and write it in their hearts." Another 
 mark of the new birth and that we are children of God 
 is, that we love God, and love one another ; and we are 
 told distinctly in Holy Scripture to strive after perfec- 
 tion in holiness. The object of this new birth is holiness. 
 We are told by the Apostle Paul that he had not at- 
 tained this, but his attitude was that of running, 
 stretching out his hand to take hold, to apprehend, 
 that for which he had been taken hold of by Christ. 
 But we are instructed by the Apostle to strive after 
 holiness, lest we should be ashamed at the coming of 
 
 u 
 
290 
 
 SEKMON XXV. 
 
 our Lord ; and, wonderful thought ! that although it is 
 not for any works of righteousness that we have done, 
 it is God's will and intention that our love should be 
 made perfect. Why ? That we may have boldness in 
 the day of judgment, because as He is so are we in this 
 U'Orld. According to His mercy He saved us. How ? 
 By the ivashing of regeneration, or the neio birth, and the 
 renewing or renovation of the Holy Ghost, which is 
 shed on us abundantly, through Jesus Christ our 
 Saviour. The child of God receives the beginning and 
 the continuation of his spiritual life, breathed upon him 
 from God, from whom l^e receives all holy desires and 
 spiritual blessings ; and by prayer and communion 
 with Him he breathes out his soul to God, desiring 
 greater holiness, and, as it were, by this spiritual re- 
 spiration, his life is maintained. May we all receive, 
 day by day, more of His Spirit, and increase in the 
 knowledge and the love of God. 
 
SERMON XXVI. 
 
 Preached 1874. 
 
 JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH. 
 
 " Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through 
 our Lord Jesus Christ." — Bom. v. 1. 
 
 This seiittnce of the Apostle Paul appears to sum up 
 the great doctrine of justification by faith in Christ as 
 the Messiah, the Redeemer of the world, who was to 
 fulfil all righteousness ; as the atonement or reconcilia- 
 tion between God and man ; as the pure and spotless 
 Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world; 
 and as the Scapegoat who bears away our sins to the 
 land of forgetfulness, typified under the Jewish law 
 and fulfilled in Christ in whom " dwelt all the fulness 
 of the Godhead bodily." The Apostle has shown to 
 the Roman Christians that every man, whether Jew 
 or -Gentile, is conscious of one great law of God con- 
 demning sin ; that the very condemnation which men, 
 whether Jews or Gentiles, pass upon others, shows 
 their consciousness of the difference between righteous- 
 ness and unrighteousness. Those who had not the Mosaic 
 law for their guidance had God's moral law written in 
 their hearts. Those who were, under the law of Moses 
 had this revealed confirmation of the same law of God, 
 
 u 2 
 
292 
 
 SERMON XXVI. 
 
 and having more light, would have greater condemna- 
 tion. The Gospel of Christ revealed the great fact that 
 God had appointed a day in the which He would judge 
 the world ; and the conscience of both Jew and Greek 
 would condemn them before a holy and just God, not 
 because they had not done that which was impossible, 
 not because they had not attained to the perfect 
 righteousness of God, but because the conscience of 
 every man would witness that he had broken that 
 which he well knew to be the holy, just, and good 
 , law of God. They had a perfect consciousness that 
 they had broken this law of God when they had the 
 power to keep it — a power imjjaired by the sin of our 
 first parents, but not destroyed ; and in so far as they 
 had the knowledge of God's law, and grace and power 
 to keep it, so far they were guilty of sin. The result 
 of sin was spiritual death. The condemnation was 
 this, that light had come into the world, but that men 
 loved darkness rather than light. The judgment of 
 God as revealed under the' Christian dispensation, the 
 Apostle tells us, will be perfectly righteous and in 
 accordance with a just and holy God. He will judge 
 the world, whether Jew or Gentile, on principles already 
 implanted in man's nature, and which men will 
 acknowledge to be perfectly just. " God will render 
 to every man according to his deeds." There will be no 
 " respect of persons before God." The precise views of 
 truth given to them, the exact circumstances under 
 which they have acted, the testimony of their con- 
 sciences, the way in which they have hushed or neg- 
 lected its testimony, all this will be laid bare, all will 
 be revealed " in the day when God shall judge the 
 secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my Gospel." 
 To him that worketh good, glory, honour, peace, 
 immortality, eternal life will be given ; but to those 
 
JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH. 
 
 293 
 
 who " do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteous- 
 ness," " tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man 
 that doeth evil." All will be cleared, no evasion will 
 stand us in stead ; and the perfect truth and righteous- 
 ness of God's judgment upon those who do such things 
 will be manifested before men and angels. This is that 
 which is revealed to man in the Gospel, that we shall 
 all without respect of persons, whether Christian, Jew, 
 or Pagan, be judged according to our works. " I saw 
 the dead, small and great, stand before God ; the 
 books were opened, and they were judged according to 
 their works." As the Jews had greater light, so much 
 the greater would be their condemnation. Thinkest 
 thou, 0 self-righteous man, who condemnest another, 
 that thou shalt escape the judgment of God, for thou 
 thyself doest the same kind of things. It is not, 0 man, 
 that thou shalt be judged by a severe and unrighteous 
 tyrant, on principles which thou art altogether un- 
 acquainted with ; for in the judgment thou wilt thy- 
 self vindicate the perfect justice of God. Such is the 
 greatness of our sin that on this principle the whole 
 world will be found guilty : every mouth will be 
 stopped ; there will be nothing which we can reasonably 
 allege to vindicate ourselves, nothing to prevent the 
 natural consequence of our sins — spiritual death. As 
 in human affairs, thousands of right steps will occa- 
 sionally not avert the natural inevitable consequences 
 of one wrong step, consequences with which we do not 
 blame our God, but ourselves. 
 
 In view of all this, we feel constrained to cry out, 
 " How shall a man be just with God ? " Surely this is 
 the most awful, the most pressing question of our lives. 
 If to the perfect man who feared God and eschewed 
 evil this was a pressing question, much more fearful it is 
 to the nominal Christian or to the habitual and wilful 
 
294 
 
 SERMON XXVI. 
 
 sinner, whether secretly or openly so ; "these are 
 heapiug up wrath against the day of wrath and the 
 revelation of the righteous judgment of God." If we 
 call ourselves Christians, still let us remember there 
 will be no difference in this point, for every man will be 
 judged according to his works. He that is unjust at 
 that day will be unjust still ; he that is filthy, filthy 
 still : as the tree falls so it will lie. . But thanks be to 
 God for His unspeakable gift; blessed be His lioly 
 Name, this is not the whole of the message of the 
 Gospel. Side by side with tliis awful truth respecting 
 the eternal world is revealed another : that when God 
 looked from Heaven, and viewing this fallen world, said, 
 " There is none that doeth good," in " the great love 
 wherewith He loved us," being " rich in mercy," " He 
 sent His Son into the world that the world through 
 Him might be saved." Christ was that just One whom 
 God required to see, and that just One "bore our sins 
 in His own Body on the tree." Do not let us ask the 
 question, how He bore our sins. Do not let us ask the 
 question how this great sacrifice which He voluntarily 
 offered, who stooped from His Godhead to our humanity 
 to save a guilty world, enabled God to be just. Let us 
 simply accept the offer of His stupendous grace, mercy, 
 and love. 
 
 It is enough to know now that Christ loved us and 
 gave Himself for us. Thanks be to God, the most 
 degraded can understand that. It is enough for us to 
 know, that in Him the Father's love shone forth while 
 here below, and that at once God and man. He as- 
 cended up where He was before, and that God is " the 
 Justifier of him that believeth in Jesus." Art thou 
 convinced of sin ? Art thou convinced that l ighteous- 
 ness once appeared in this world absolutely wrought 
 out and perfected in the Man Christ Jesus ? Art thou 
 
JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH. 295 
 
 convinced " of judgment to come," and that thou canst 
 never vindicate thy own rigliteousness before that 
 dread tribunal ; that, however pure Ihy life may have 
 been to the eye of thy fellow men, thy own knowledge 
 of the law of God, and thy own conscience, will tell 
 thee that thou art a sinner, poor and miserable, and 
 blind and naked. If, after all thy striving in thy own 
 strength to fulfil the law of God, thou art ready to 
 cry, " Who shall deliver me from this body of death," 
 be very sure this is a mark of His grace, to make thee 
 feel thy need. He offers Himself to thee. Jesus died 
 for thee. Dost thou accept Him ? If so, He will 
 justify tiiee, not in tlie sense of justifying thy sins 
 (that is the sense in which man justifies), but in the 
 sense of blotting out thy sins, of pardoning thee, and of 
 making thee just. Tliy past sins shall be found no more 
 at all. He in the strength of His divinity has borne 
 thy sins ; they are by His divine power annihilated ; 
 they are gone. God does not reckon thee anything 
 but what thou really art, and thou art, if thou art justi- 
 fied, a pardoned sinner — a sinner whose sins are done 
 away, and therefore He will not impute to thee what 
 does not really exist. If at that moment in His inscru- 
 table counsels thy life should be taken aWay, thou art 
 saved with an everlasting salvation. It is thy God 
 who justifieth. He has done the work ; thou wast once 
 a guilty sinner, but thy sins are done away. He has 
 made thee just, and who is he that will condemn 
 thee ? 
 
 " Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace 
 
 with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ," and 
 
 " access into this grace wherein we stand." This is 
 
 teaching which is unacceptable to the hard heart of 
 
 those who are described as " going about to estal)lish 
 
 their own righteousness," and to those who, looking 
 
 * 
 
296 
 
 SEKMON XXA^I. 
 
 at the sins of others, like the Pharisee, " thank 
 God that they are not as other men, extortioners, 
 nnjust, or even as this puLHcan." But this law of 
 God, perfectly jDure, holy, and just, shall condemn them 
 with a condemnation the more crushing because founded 
 on the very principle which they acknowledge in judg- 
 ing others. Our Lord's are awful words, " They that 
 are whole need not a physician : I came not to call 
 the righteous, but sinners to repentance." It is the 
 ungodly that He justifieth. Dost thou not feel that 
 tliou art an ungodly, guilty, lost, undone sinner ? 
 Canst thou justify thyself at the Judgment Day ? Oh, 
 no ! Then go straight to Him, the Judge of all, in the 
 day of His mercy. Plead thou no works, no righteous- 
 ness of thy own, no humility, contrition, sincerity. In 
 no wise ! That were in very deed to deny the Lord 
 who bought thee. No ! plead thou simply the blood 
 of the covenant, the ransom paid for thy proud, stub- 
 born, sinful soul, and thou shalt know that God justi- 
 fieth the ungodly. And now He will give the power 
 thou hast long sighed for in vain, to become a child 
 of God, Avhich He gives to all without any ex- 
 ception who thus believe on His name. We shall 
 understand the beloved disciple when he says, " Be- 
 loved, now are we the sons of God ; and it doth not 
 yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when 
 He shall appear we shall be like Him, for we shall 
 see Him as He is. And every one that hath this hope 
 purifieth himself, even as He is pure." He seeks 
 to walk after the Spirit, in the steps of his Lord, and 
 finds that what before was impossible is now possible, 
 and that being purged from his past sins, and trusting 
 in an ever living, ever present Saviour, the righteous- 
 ness of tlie law is fulfilled in us " who walk not after 
 the flesh, but after the Spirit." If we are really justi- 
 
JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH. 
 
 297 
 
 fied, we are at one with the Father ; we have the spirit 
 which cries, " Abba, Father," dear Father, " and the 
 Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are 
 the children of God." We work the works of God. 
 Our sinful nature yet remains, but a vital change is 
 wrought, and it does not reign. Sin may for a moment 
 prevail, but it has no longer dominion. Now we find 
 that we have not followed cunningly devised fables, 
 but our ever present Lord is made unto us of God, 
 wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. 
 We keep His commandments, for through His grace 
 we are justified by faith, we are sanctified by His 
 Spirit, and have peace with God through our Lord 
 Jesus Christ. Have we this peace ? Let us, if we 
 have it not, seek it in the sjjirit of the merchant who 
 was ever seeking goodly pearls. 
 
 " Ah, tlie heart that once has bathed 
 In salvation's boundless sea, 
 In its waters drops the burden 
 Of a lifetime's misery." 
 
 The new birth has commenced, and though its results 
 are not yet complete, we have peace with God, peace 
 amid the troubles of this world, and the assurance of 
 peace through a blessed eternity. 
 
SERMON XXVIL 
 Pheached 1874. 
 
 THE TEMPLE OF GOD. 
 
 " And Jesus went into tlie Temple of God, and cast out all tliem that 
 Bold and bought in the Temple, and overthrew the tables of the 
 money-changers, and the seats of them that sold doves, and said 
 unto them, My house shall be called a house of prayer [for all 
 people] ; but ye have made it a den of thieves. And the blind 
 and the lame came to Him in the Temple ; and He healed them." 
 —Matt. xxi. 12-14. 
 
 The Prophet Malachi in a very remarkable chapter 
 prophesies that " the Lord whom ye seek (the Messiah) 
 shall suddenly come to His temple ;" and then asks the 
 question, " But who may abide the day of His coming ? " 
 and clearly foretells that the coming of the Lord to His 
 temj)le will not be altogether welcome. He will come, 
 he says, as " a refiner and purifier." He will come as 
 " a swift witness against adulterers, false swearers, those 
 that oppress the widow and the fatherless, and that turn 
 away the stranger from his right, and fear not Me, saith 
 the Lord of Hosts "; against those who rob Grod of tithes 
 and offerings ; against those who say " it is vain to 
 serve God." And the prophecy closes with the assur- 
 ance that there shall be in the' coming days a discern- 
 ment given between " him that serveth God and him 
 that serveth Him not "; and that " a book of remem- 
 
THE TEMPLE OF GOD. 
 
 299 
 
 brance shall be written " before God " for them that 
 feared the Lord and that tliought upon His name ; and 
 they shall be Mine, saith the Lord of Hosts, in that day 
 when I make up My jewels." Now, the relation we 
 have by the Evangelist of the way in which the Lord 
 came outwardly to His temple may suggest to us His 
 coming to the temple of the human heart ; for we are 
 told the soul of every Christian is a temple : " Ye also," 
 says the Apostle, "are being builded together for an 
 habitation of Grod through the Spirit." The soul be- 
 comes this temple at the time of its conversion : formerly 
 it was a habitation for the evil one, and by regenera- 
 tion, or the new birth, it becomes " an habitation of Grod 
 through the Spirit." Tlie stones of the temple on Mount 
 Mori ah were common stones till they were consecrated for 
 God's house and service. So the talents, the capabili- 
 ties, the powers, and, above all, the affections, become, 
 by conversion and regeneration, a dwelling-place for 
 Jesus. 
 
 He refines and purifies them, and the figure of the 
 legal consecration becomes in the Gospel scheme a real 
 and vital holiness. " Know ye not," says the Apostle 
 Paul, " that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit 
 of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple 
 of God, him shall God destroy ; for the temple of God is 
 holy, which temple ye are." What a glorious idea this 
 gives of the state of the heart of a true and sincere 
 follower of Christ ! His heart is a temple : it is a joyous 
 place ; it is filled with the songs of gratitude and praise ; 
 it is filled with the music of a Saviour's name, of Him 
 who has bought him with a price, who has ransomed 
 him from destruction. T/m^e is the incense of thanks- 
 giving ; there is the light of the Holy Spirit ever burn- 
 ing in the seven-branched candlestick. There is the 
 seat whence prayer ascends, and above it is the Shekinah, 
 
300 
 
 SEEMON XXVII. 
 
 the presence of His God and Father shining upon him 
 in a soft and holy light. He knows that there is the 
 special presence of Him who said " Lo, I am with you 
 alway, even to the end of the world," The veil is for 
 ever rent in twain, and he has now " boldness to enter 
 into the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and 
 living way which He has consecrated for us, through 
 the veil, that is to say, His flesh ;" and when we " draw 
 near with a true heart in full assurance of faith," we 
 have as surely as the word of the Omnipotent God can 
 make it, the promise, that if we ask anything according 
 to His will. He will give it us. " I will do it." " Ask 
 and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full." And 
 there is nothing, we may be sure, more certainly His 
 " will " than our sanctification ; and we may therefore 
 ask Him " to sanctify us wholly," and that His temple 
 may again and again be purged and purified and con- 
 secrated to His service. 
 
 Now let us recollect that the sheep and the oxen, 
 the doves and the tables of the money-changers, 
 were all in themselves needful and right. The sheep 
 and oxen and doves were for the sacrifices appointed 
 in the law by the Lord God, and the money-changers 
 were essential because the money-offering of the atone- 
 ment was to be Israelitish money. But it was the 
 bringing these things even into the outer court of the 
 Temple that defiled it. God's house of prayer was 
 made a den of thieves when the world and worldly 
 motives were brought into the Church and Temple 
 of God. 
 
 So it is with the temple of the heart. How does 
 selfishness, how do selfish schemes gradually creep into 
 Christian hearts — nay, how do they sometimes at last 
 find a footing in the inmost shrine ! The profession is 
 then like the barren fig-tree. " Cut it down ; why cum- 
 
THE TEMPLE OF GOD. 
 
 301 
 
 bereth it the ground ? " Then interposes the dresser of 
 the vineyard, " Lord, let it alone this year also ; I will 
 dig about it and dung it : after that if it bear not fruit 
 Thou shalt cut it down." And was there not a fig-tree 
 on which our Lord pronounced the awful words for our 
 instruction, " No fruit grow on thee henceforward for 
 ever " ? Our Lord comes suddenly to His temple, how- 
 ever, not to destroy but to purge. " Whom the Lord 
 loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth " (notice the word) 
 " scourgeth every son whom He receiveth." The 
 Christian whose heart has once been purged from his 
 old sins is not in a position of absolute security because 
 he is in Christ, but only if he abide in Christ and is 
 bringing forth really good fruit. Satan is trying by 
 every means in his power, with as good pretexts as he 
 tried those who first edged in the doves into the sanc- 
 tuary of God, to cause things and actions good in them- 
 selves to become a snare to us. He has many ways of 
 ensnaring us. Pride comes in when God has filled 
 our barns with plenty, and with it covetousness. The 
 successful man of business has his temptations. " I will 
 pull down my barns and build greater." "Is not this 
 great Babylon," said Nebuchadnezzar, in the height of 
 his power, " which I have built ? " Did he do wrong 
 in the mere act of building a splendid city for a great 
 nation ? No ; it was because his heart was lifted up that 
 he sinned. How poor Peter was scourged for his self- 
 confidence ! how David for his lust ! Our Lord weaves 
 the very leading-thongs of our sin into a means of our 
 chastisement. " Ye cannot serve God and Mammon." 
 " Seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not," 
 is the stern rebuke, when the love of money or the love 
 of power is usurping the place which should be occupied 
 by the love of our Master. He will not have our idols 
 set up in our hearts if they are still to be " temples of 
 
302 
 
 SEKMON XXVII. 
 
 the Holy Ghost," " habitations of God through the 
 Spirit." 
 
 Are there none here to whom the Lord has suddenly 
 come, and with the scourge of small cords has met them 
 with the words, " Take these things hence " ? I recollect 
 when in Pompeii, I saw, in what two thousand years ago 
 was a large and splendid house, a shrine or temple 
 where the Lares and Penates were placed ; and its shape 
 and form are still in existence, in professedly Christian 
 lands, under a Christian guise. Is there not sometimes, 
 my friends, something which has a resemblance to this 
 in Christian hearts, or in Christian families, — relics of 
 the old nature, things not quite sanctioned by our con- 
 science, dispositions of mind not quite in accordance 
 with the mind which was in Christ Jesus, which have 
 nevertheless been entertained until we are almost uncon- 
 scious of our danger ? and then, not in anger but in love, 
 the Lord suddenly comes to His temple, and if our 
 heart is still to be His temple we feel the chastening ; 
 and may not the Lord's choicest earthly blessings 
 misused become, if not idols, yet like the doves, not 
 occupying their right place ? 
 
 Sometimes we are told not to make our children, 
 our wife, our husband, our idols by loving them too 
 dearly ; but I have never been able to find any passage 
 of Holy Writ which forbids, but many which incul- 
 cate, an ideal of the most intense domestic love. We 
 are told to love our wives as Christ loved the Church. 
 How is it possible to love our children too well ? But 
 may we not forget that this most beautiful thing on 
 earth, this intense love, was implanted not merely for 
 earthly purposes that we might obtain earthly happiness, 
 but for Heavenly purposes also ? Is this deep human 
 love transmuted by the Saviour's touch into earnest 
 prayer for our children's highest welfare ? and not only 
 
THE TEMPLE OF GOD. 
 
 303 
 
 so, but do we labour as well as pray, in the certainty 
 that our labour will be accepted and owned of Him? Is 
 our union in the sweetest of all human ties accompanied 
 by a higher and holier union of soul respecting the 
 things which concern our eternal peace ? Do we strive 
 not only to be helpmeets one to another in the things 
 of earth, but to support, to animate, to help each other 
 on the path to Heaven ? Are there none here who, 
 like the sisters in Bethany, when a deep heart-sorrow 
 has burst upon them, have sent for the Saviour to come 
 and abide in their house ? But let us be sure that if 
 our earthly affections are not thus sanctified, kept in 
 their right place, in subordination to the will of God, 
 they may become like the sheep, oxen, and doves 
 thrust from the temple ; " for he that loveth father or 
 mother, son or daughter, more than Me,'' says our 
 blessed Lord, " is not worthy of Me." 
 
 Lastly, does not this action of our blessed Lord supply 
 a warning to those who, on whatever pretext, use His 
 outward visible Church for unholy purposes — just as the 
 people who sold and bought used it for their own profit 
 on the best possible pretexts? Do you suppose that 
 after our Lord had cleared the Temple with the whip of 
 small cords these people never used the Temple again ? 
 No doubt they laughed at the whole matter on the 
 morrow. But our Lord came again to this Temple, not 
 to cleanse and to purify, but to destroy ; and there was 
 great tribulation, such as was not up to that time, 
 " no," said He, " nor ever shall be." Not one stone 
 was left on another in that Temple, and it was made an 
 astonishment, a by-word, and an hissing unto this day. 
 " If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God 
 destroy ; for the temple of God is holy, which temple 
 ye are." 
 
SERMON XXVIir. 
 
 Preached 1875. 
 
 THE GIFT OF GOD. 
 
 " The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through 
 Jesus Christ our Lord." — Bom. vi. 23. 
 
 This passage sums up the reply of the Apostle Paul in 
 the sixth chapter of Romans, to an objector who asks 
 whether the meaning of the Christian doctrine of justi- 
 fication by faith is that we are " to continue in sin, 
 that grace may abound." 
 
 The reply of the Apostle is to this effect : " We who 
 are Christians have really and actually died to sin. 
 There is an analogy between Christ's resurrection to a 
 heavenly life and our position as pardoned sinners : 
 a new life has commenced in us ; we have yielded our- 
 selves wholly to Grod, as those who are alive from the 
 dead ; our life on earth is now, although weak and 
 feeble, the beginning of the resurrection life ; our 
 members are now yielded as instruments of righteous- 
 ness to God. Sin has no longer dominion over us : ye 
 were the servants of sin, ye are now the servants of 
 righteousness unto holiness, or unto your sanctification. 
 What fruit had you then from sin ? None whatever ; 
 and you are now deeply ashamed of your past life 
 when ye yielded your members unto iniquity." Wliat 
 
THE GIFT OF GOD. 
 
 305 
 
 a proof this was of their being really pardoned sinners ! 
 They were without shame before, but now they are 
 ashamed^ and being made free from their past sins and 
 being made servants unto God, a new birth, a new life 
 has commenced. You have the fi'uit of that, says the 
 Apostle, " You have your fruit unto holiness or unto 
 sanctification, and the end will be everlasting life." 
 The Apostle then closes his argument with this 
 pregnant sentence, which is our text — as if to say, Now 
 I have done ; but before I pass on to another branch of 
 my subject, recollect this, and the question will never 
 suggest itself to you, whether Christians may continue 
 in sin, go on in wilful sin, and remain Christians still. 
 " The wages of sin is death ; but the gift of God is life 
 eternal in Jesus Christ our Lord." The Apostle Paul 
 tells us there is no middle state : we are either servants 
 of God or of the devil. " His servants ye are to whom 
 ye ohey,'' whether you are a poor insnared sinner, or 
 the greatest of the Lord's saints. If you sin wilfully 
 because you have so good a Saviour, or for any other 
 ostensible reason, recollect that the devil will pay you 
 most punctually your wages ; and the wages of sin is 
 death — a living death, the death of the soul. Our 
 blessed Lord tells us that there are icages in His service 
 too : " He that reapeth receiveth wages and gathereth 
 fruit (mark that we have here the same idea), gathereth 
 fruit unto life eternal." The Apostle also tells us, that 
 " God is not unrighteous or unjust to forget our work 
 and labour of love," although our work and labour of 
 love will not purchase our salvation : we shall, however, 
 gather by it blessed fruit, frnit which will remain 
 unto life eternal. 
 
 There is an intentional wording of the text, so as to 
 shut out the idea that our salvation from the guilt of 
 sin can be earned. If it were otherwise the natural 
 
 X 
 
306 
 
 SEKMON XXVIII. 
 
 form of the sentence would run thus: "The wages of sin 
 is death ; but the wages of righteousness is eternal life." 
 But the Apostle clearly intends to place his meaning 
 beyond the power of misconception, and to show us 
 that eternal life is not a thing to be earned, but is 
 the gift of God. It is " not by works of righteousness 
 which we have done, but according to His mercy, that 
 He saveth us by the washing of regeneration (by the 
 new birth) and the renewing of the Holy Grhost, which 
 He shed on us abundantly," by the gradual work of 
 the Holy Spirit, the progress of our spiritual life in our 
 sanctification. 
 
 How many persons — e. g., in the Romish Church, 
 and out of it too— not understanding Christ's way of 
 salvation, have wearily spent long lives in endea- 
 vouring to earn their salvation by the merit of their 
 good works, which never could be really good until 
 the right motive was implanted in their breast, love 
 to Christ ; and they have, therefore, served God as a 
 hard taskmaster instead of serving Him as a gracious 
 Father, and accepting the precious gift of a present salva- 
 tion from past sin, not earned, but given. " The gift of 
 God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord." " He 
 that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that 
 sent Me, hath everlasling life, and shall not come into 
 condemnation ; but is passed from death unto life." 
 How greatly do some Christians suffer from not accept- 
 ing in simple faith this portion of the Gospel of Christ, 
 and therefore not receiving the blessed assurance of their 
 sonship ! " The Spirit itself beareth witness with our 
 spirits that we are the children of God ; and if children, 
 then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if so 
 be that we suffer with Him ;" for "if we suffer, we shall 
 also reign with Him." So, then, although while there 
 are no conditions to be performed by us to receive this 
 
THE GIFT OF GOD. 
 
 307 
 
 present salvation, there are conditions to be performed 
 on our part if we would remain children of God ; for 
 " if we deny Him, He also will deny us." It is not, 
 therefore, correct according to the New Testament to 
 say that after our conversion we can do nothing towards 
 our salvation from the power of sin. 
 
 Our salvation from past sin is accomplished. It is 
 a present salvation, because it places the child of God 
 in the precious privilege of being " no longer all his 
 lifetime subject to bondage through fear of death." 
 But although the new birth has commenced, and it 
 commences at the moment when we are justified by 
 faith and our past sins are forgiven, it is not yet com- 
 pleted. There are two salvations spoken of in the New 
 Testament, or rather two parts of one great salvation. 
 The first is our present salvation from the guilt of past 
 sin, the second is our future salvation from the power 
 of sin, in which we have our " fruit unto holiness (unto 
 sanctification), and in the end everlasting life." It is 
 this salvation which we are commanded to " work out," 
 because it is now God which worketh in us to will and 
 to do. The power to will and to do comes from God ; 
 the use of the power comes from man. You say you 
 are sons, therefore heirs : then a life of filial, loving 
 obedience and holy exertion is required of you. You 
 are not to be idle, but " followers of them who through 
 faith and patience inherit the promises." The Holy 
 Spirit dwells in you, the Divine energy ; you can now 
 " do all things through Christ, who strengtheneth " 
 you. Are you availing yourselves of it ? If you have 
 received the atonement, then, being at one with God 
 through Christ, the Divine power co-operates with your 
 will, which is at one with the purposes of God. We 
 are to work out our own salvation, because it is now 
 God which worketh in us. We are to do it with fear 
 
 X 2 
 
308 
 
 SERMON XXVIII. 
 
 and trembling, lest we should fall into the least sin ; 
 and yet such is the blessing as to the man that " feareth 
 alway," that he rests in the assurance that " He who 
 has begun a good work in us will perform it until the 
 day of Christ," and " stablish our hearts unblamable in 
 holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ ;" that He will " keep us from 
 falling, and present us faultless before His presence." 
 There is no special licence to the believer from his King 
 to sin little sins under the Gospel. Our Lord speaks 
 of His sheep, not as those simply who have faith, and, 
 having faith, are in a position to work the works of 
 God," but He tells us His sheep are those who " hear 
 His voice, and follow Him." The Christian is not 
 under Moses' law, but he is under an infinitely higher, 
 holier, and more comprehensive law, even " the law of 
 the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus," a law which, our 
 Lord tells us, extends not merely to outward actions, 
 but to the thoughts and intents of the heart. 
 
 " The gift of God " is not only forgiveness of past sin 
 but " eternal life." The doctrine of the Gospel is, there- 
 fore, that the wages of sin is death — to the believer as well 
 as to the unbeliever. We can hardly conceal from our- 
 selves the fact that the wages of sin is peculiarly fearful 
 to the believer. Instead of the believer being in a better 
 position than the unbeliever if he commit wilful sin, he 
 is a great deal worse ; for " if we sin wilfully after we 
 have received the knowledge of the truth, there re- 
 maineth no more sacrifice for sin, but a certain fearful 
 looking for of judgment." " These things," says the 
 Apostle, " I write unto you, that ye sin not ,• but if any 
 man sin" — that is, if any Christian through un watch- 
 fulness falls into sin — " we have an advocate with the 
 Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous." The Christian is 
 one who has his conversation in the world in simplicity 
 
THiE GIFT OF GOD. 
 
 309 
 
 and godly sincerity, and exercises himself to have a 
 conscience void of offence. " His eye is single, and 
 therefore his wliole body is full of light,'' and he walks 
 in the light. The essential character of the man who 
 is born of Grod is that he does not commit (wilful) sin ; 
 and it is precisely in this that the Apostle tells us the 
 children of God and the children of the devil are mani- 
 fested. But it may be objected, that supposing a child 
 of God does commit a wilful sin, is he shut out from 
 that forgiveness which is so freely offered even to the 
 worst of sinners ? Cannot such a one come to Christ 
 to have his sins forgiven ? Yes ; he can come, if Jesus 
 bids him come. He can come, if the " Father draw 
 him." But can any of us sin wilfully, and go on 
 sinning, and be certain that the Father loill again draw 
 us ? Can we give ourselves, when we will, true repen- 
 tance and His Holy Spirit ? If, therefore, we apply 
 expressions to wilful sin which lead the wilful sinner 
 to suppose that he can appropriate all the encouraging 
 promises of the Gospel, and that grace does abound 
 while he continues in wilful sin, we are practically 
 teaching him that the wages of sin is not death. Let 
 us, therefore, not be highminded, but fear. Unless we 
 watch as well as pray, unless we labour as well as 
 trust, we may slide into the service of Satan while 
 professing to be the Lord's saints. 
 
 Are we not, my friends, in danger, if we have per- 
 suaded ourselves that because Christ has done all, 
 and will do all, therefore we need not do anything? 
 Must we not be in very great danger, if we have 
 persuaded ourselves that because we are " in Christ " 
 there is to be no more choosing the narrow way, no 
 more striving, running, waiting, watching, wrestling 
 in prayer, fighting, working, denying ourselves, taking 
 up our cross daily ; in a word, that we are equipped 
 
310 
 
 SEEMON XXVIII. 
 
 for the Christian warfare, if we take up the shield of 
 faith only and depreciate all the other weapons pro- 
 vided by God — weapons, recollect, which involve human 
 effort, and with which the fighting is done ? 
 
 You put faith in God. His gift is eternal life. He 
 gives you a present inheritance, and He promises to you 
 a future. Suppose it to be a farm. You can do nothing 
 to improve the farm if you have not faith : you cannot 
 make the crops grow, or ensure the harvest, any more 
 than you can add one cubit to your stature. But 
 if a farmer, because he believes that man cannot make 
 the harvest or secure the inheritance, does not labour 
 in the way God has appointed, does not so put 
 his faith into exercise as to produce good fruits, 
 may not God's sentence be, "Take from him the 
 talent, and give it unto him that hath ten talents ; 
 for unto every man that hath shall be given, but from 
 him that hath not shall be taken away even that he 
 hath" ? 
 
 But to those who have never truly known Christ, 
 yet who are athirst, the blessed words are, Come. 
 Have you not heard upon the mountains, poor wander- 
 ing sheep, the loving Shepherd's voice ? Does He not 
 draw you with the " cords of love," does He not bid 
 you come ? Come, taste and see that the Lord is good. 
 Blessed are they who put their trust in Him. May 
 you be able to say — 
 
 " I was a wandering sheep : 
 I did not love the fold ; 
 I did not love my Shepherd's voice ; 
 I would not be controlled. 
 The Shepherd sought his sheep ; 
 The Father sought his child. 
 He followed me o'er vale and hill, 
 O'er desert waste and wild. 
 
THE GIFT OP GOD. 
 
 311 
 
 " Jesus my Shepherd is : 
 'Twas He that loved my soul ; 
 'Twas He that washed me in hia blood ; 
 'Twas He that made me whole ; 
 'Twas He that sought the lost, 
 That found the wandering sheep ; 
 'Twas He that brought me to the fold, 
 'Tis He that still doth keep." 
 
 To conclude, let us recollect the love of God is no 
 less shown when it teaches us, in sad and warning 
 tones, that " the wages of sin is death," than when it 
 proclaims that the gift of God is eternal life. Love 
 shows to us the excellence of the strait gate and the 
 narrow way of holiness. May we find the loving Hand 
 which will guide us, and may we never let it go. 
 
SERMON XXIX. 
 
 Preached 1875. 
 
 SANCTIFICATION A PKOGRESSIVE WORK. 
 
 " The very God of peace sanctify you wholly ; and 1 pray God your 
 whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the 
 coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that calleth 
 you, who also will do it." — 1 Thess. v. 23, 24. 
 
 These words occur at the close of the First Epistle of 
 Paul to the Thessalonians, and it is instructive to notice 
 that even the great Apostle of the Gentiles, before 
 dwelling on the inseparable connection between Chris- 
 tianity and holiness, and between Christianity and a 
 personal progress in holiness, finds it needful to remind 
 them that his ministry was prompted by love to their 
 souls, that it had cost them nothing, and that he and 
 his companions had " exhorted, and comforted, and 
 charged every one of them, as a father doth his children, 
 that they would walk worthy of God, who had called 
 them unto His kingdom and glory." This apostle had 
 found, after long experience, that there were a great 
 many persons who were very willing to hear him 
 " concerning the faith of Christ," but when he reasoned 
 of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, 
 they said, " Go thy way for this time ; when I have a 
 convenient season I will call for thee." And there 
 were others in the rich city of Thessalonica whom it 
 was necessary to remind, that he and his companions 
 
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 qJ%^ ^^--v^ ^^-t^.^^ aJ'--/l^ ei,^ V^'^^ 
 
SANCTIFICATION A PROGRESSIVE WORK. 313 
 
 were "allowed of Grod to be put in trust with the 
 Gospel," and that, therefore, they spoke, " not as 
 pleasing men, but God which trieth our hearts." " For 
 neither at any time used we flattering words, as ye 
 know ; nor a cloak of covetousness, God is witness ; nor 
 of man sought we glory, neither of you, nor yet of 
 others." If he spoke plain home truths, it was because 
 he was " affectionately desirous " of their highest in- 
 terests, "lest the day of the Lord — that day which was 
 to try every man's work — should find them unprepared." 
 It was, therefore, not because they were not eminent 
 Christians, " complete in Christ," in Thessalonica, that 
 he urged upon them the importance of personal holi- 
 ness, and a continual growth in holiness, but in perfor- 
 mance of his trust, and because their souls were dear 
 unto him. 
 
 These Thessalonians were not only Christians; but 
 very eminent Christians ; they had turned from idols 
 to serve the living and true God ; they received the 
 word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost ; 
 so that they were examples to all that believed in 
 Macedonia. They were a great means of spreading the 
 Gospel through the whole district ; they had great faith ; 
 for not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every 
 place their faith to God ward was spread abroad ; they 
 were the " hope, joy, crown of rejoicing," of the Apostle, 
 and his " glory and joy." Timothy had just returned 
 from visiting them, and reported that their faith had been 
 severely tried by persecution, and they had not yielded 
 to the Tempter. And yet, in spite of all this, a very 
 earnest solicitude breathes through the whole epistle, 
 not only that they should be holy, but that they should 
 grow in holiness, and " abound more and more." The 
 fact was, that in Thessalonica they were surrounded by 
 an exceedingly low state of moral feeling, such as now 
 
314 
 
 SEEMON XXIX. 
 
 prevails in heathen countries. " This is the will of Grod," 
 Paul tells them, "even your sanctification." "God 
 hath not called us unto uncleanness" of mind, of 
 thought, of feeling, " but unto holiness." The aim and 
 object of their increasing and abounding in love one 
 towards another, was to perfect that which was lacking 
 in their faith, and in order that God might " establish 
 their hearts unblameable in holiness." 
 
 If any Christians were ever complete in Christ, these 
 were the persons ; and yet we see, not by any elaborate 
 theological argument, but by the simple light of Holy 
 Scripture, that they were persons not ivholly sanctified, 
 or it would not be needful for the Apostle to pray thus 
 for them. He prays that their " whole spirit and soul 
 and body may be preserved blameless unto the coming 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ," and expresses the assurance 
 that, although the work was not yet done, it would be 
 done. The Apostle believed that God would " sanctify 
 them wholly," and " that their whole spirit and soul 
 and body," the highest portion of the mind, the spirit, 
 the will, and the lower portion of the mind, the soul, 
 with its affections and desires, and even this body of our 
 humiliation, would be sanctified wholly, and preserved 
 blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 It cannot be too often repeated that the great object 
 of Christianity is to save us not only from the guilt, 
 but from the power of sin. We must know ourselves 
 to be cleansed by " the water and the blood," which are 
 
 of sin the double cure." This is the will of God, 
 even our sanctification. We are to be partakers of the 
 Divine nature, " having escaped the corruption which 
 is in the world through lust." We must not only put 
 off the old man, but must put on the new man, which 
 after God is created in righteousness and true holiness 
 or holiness of truth. 
 
SANCTIFICATION A PROGEESSIVE WORK. 315 
 
 But is this holiness progressive ? It is sometimes 
 said that " when Jesus Christ cured people He generally 
 cured them all at once." Yes, He did ; but we have 
 not only one evil propensity, but a great many, to be 
 healed. And sometimes He cures them one by one, and 
 sometimes, as in the case of the blind man, He removes 
 first one part of our moral blindness, and then the other. 
 
 But does not the Apostle say, " And such were some of 
 you ; but ye are washed ; but ye are sanctified ; but ye 
 are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the 
 Spirit of our God " ? When God has forgiven us all 
 our sins are we not born again and sanctified ? Yes, 
 my brother, we are justified and born again, and 
 sanctified in one and the same moment ; but is the new- 
 born babe the same as the strong man ? Because the 
 believer is sanctified, is he wholly sanctified ? Does not 
 our own heart tell us that although Christ may have 
 taken up His abode there, yet that in the Christian's 
 heart " He sits as a refiner with fire and a fuller with 
 soap" ? that much still remains to be done ? that inward 
 sin still exists, although it no longer has dominion 
 over us ? 
 
 But are we not " complete in Christ " ? Yes, surely 
 we are ; we are filled up with Christ if we truly believe 
 and accept Him. " Of His fulness have we all received," 
 says the Apostle John; and the words of the two 
 Apostles are the same in the original, and the two 
 passages are identical in meaning. 
 
 But is it not said, " By one offering He hath perfected 
 for ever them that are sanctified " ? Does not this show 
 most clearly that our sanctification is done at once and 
 for ever ? No, for the original really signifies " are being 
 sanctified," which gives an entirely different meaning, 
 namely, that we have no right to claim Jesus as our 
 Saviour, and His blood to cleanse us from all sin, 
 
316 
 
 SERMON XXIX. 
 
 imless in some degree we can humbly believe that 
 the work of the Holy Spirit is going forward in onr 
 hearts, and that we are being sanctified. We do not 
 purchase Heaven by being sanctified, but. are made fit 
 for it. To as many as receive Christ, " to them He gives 
 power to become the sons of Grod, even to those who 
 believe on His name." The object for which Christ has 
 purchased us is our sanctification. Sanctification is not 
 a righteousness which He puts on us, but which He 
 works in us. The beginning of sanctification is the new 
 birth, and this is effected at once, but it is an instan- 
 taneous work only in its beginning, and a gradual work 
 as we go forward from the state of childhood 'to the 
 measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. 
 
 Christ's righteousness is not anything of an occult 
 nature. The Apostle Paul, when he wrote to the 
 heathen world, found it in possession of such words as 
 "truth," "righteousness," "honest," "just," and "pure," 
 and he used these words to describe what he called 
 "righteousness" and "holiness" and "truth." The 
 righteousness and holiness of Christ's true-hearted 
 followers bears a mint-mark, even the image of Christ. 
 It is not like the coinage which in some countries 
 passes current, because a little state chooses to reckon 
 it worth so much (although the brass peeps through 
 the thin silver coating). It is like the pure gold, 
 the value of which is recognised in all lands. Our 
 Lord taught, " Except your righteousness exceed the 
 righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, ye shall 
 not enter into the kingdom of God." And we find 
 His Apostle teaching a morality which embraces 
 whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are 
 just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are 
 lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, whatso- 
 ever men call virtue and crown with praise. 
 
SANCTIFICATION A PROGRESSIVE WORK. 317 
 
 But Christ's righteousness and Cbrist's hohness are 
 not merely a lovely ideal, intended to be talked about 
 and not to be practised : but an ideal which has been 
 realised in the world in Jesus of Nazareth, our Brother 
 and our Lord, a blessed reality, a visible proof of the 
 possibility to flesh and blood of a real holiness which 
 is recognised by every nation and every tongue as that 
 which they have longed after ; and therefore if Christ's 
 righteousness is substituted in us for our own righteous- 
 ness we shall be growing in a likeness to our Lord and 
 Master, who left us an example that we should follow 
 in His steps. " As He that has called you is holy, so 
 be ye holy in all manner of conversation." 
 
 If then sanctification is a progressive work, let us 
 not shrink from applying, each of us to ourselves, a 
 sharp practical test. Christ came to make us holy. 
 Some of us remember the love of our espousals. We 
 remember when He said to us, " Son, thy sins be 
 forgiven thee," " Daughter, go in peace." We found 
 in Him our refuge. We felt that nothing we had 
 done, and nothing we could do, would atone for our 
 past sins. We found in Him salvation from the guilt 
 of sin. But have we, my friends, found in Him inward 
 holiness? Have we been followers of God, as dear 
 children ? Are we better than we were five, ten, 
 twenty, thirty years ago ? Have we since that time 
 been advancing in the dedication of ourselves, and 
 all that we have to His glory ? Or have we been 
 advancing in self-seeking and self-indulgence ? Has 
 the honour of our Lord, our Master, our King, been 
 dearer to us every year we have lived ? Is the aim of 
 our lives clearer and purer ? Is our eye more single, 
 and our whole body more full of light ? We trust we 
 are getting nearer to Heaven as we grow in years, 
 but have we more of the heavenly character, or are we 
 
318 
 
 SERMON XXIX. 
 
 allowing more and more place to some over-mastering 
 lust ? Judas loved his Lord once, but one master- 
 passion indulged, caused him, though he lived with 
 Christ, to sell his Master ? Does the peace of God, 
 which passeth all understanding, keep our hearts and 
 minds ? and if it does not, why does it not ? Or if 
 we have peace, is it coupled with the answer of a good 
 conscience towards God ? Ob, my friends, they little 
 know the Christian's heart who think it is a self-con- 
 gratulating heaven — that the Christian goes to his couch 
 at night counting up his good deeds and saying to him- 
 self, " Well done, good and faithful servant. God, I 
 thank thee that I am not as other men are, extortioners, 
 unjust, or even as this publican." The true Christians 
 are they who are following after holiness, who are 
 seeking to be partakers of the Divine nature by the 
 renewing power of the Holy Spirit, who see the depth 
 of their own sinfulness, and who know that the 
 greatness of the sacrifice for sin is the measure of the 
 exceeding sinfulness of sin. They are His cross-bearing 
 disciples. They are able to say — 
 
 " Jesus, I my cross have taken, 
 All to leave and follow Thee ; 
 Destitute, despised, forsaken, 
 
 Thou from hence my all shalt be. 
 
 Let the world despise and leave me — • 
 
 They have left my Saviour too — 
 Human hearts and looks deceive me ; 
 
 Thou art not like man untrue : 
 And while Thou shalt smile upon me, 
 
 God of wisdom, love, and might, 
 Foes may hate, and friends may shun me : 
 
 Show Thy face, and all is bright." 
 
SERMON XXX. 
 
 Preached 1875. 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN'S RACE AND GOAL. 
 
 " Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man 
 shall see the Lord."— ilefe. xii. 14. 
 
 This passage occurs in tliat wonderful chapter of the 
 Epistle to the Hebrews, which commences, " Where- 
 fore, seeing that we are compassed about with so great 
 a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, 
 and the sin that doth so easily beset us, and let us 
 run with patience the race that is set before us, looking 
 unto Jesus." 
 
 The idea running through this chapter is that this 
 world is the Christian's training for Heaven. Our 
 Christian course is here, as elsewhere in the New 
 Testament, compared to a race. It is never in any part 
 of the New Testament compared to a voyage in which, 
 after we have chosen our captain and taken our passage, 
 we are landed without further effort at our desired 
 haven. It is a race : we shall have to strain every 
 nerve, to throw aside everything which hinders our 
 running, and to press forward, looking unto Jesus. He 
 has run over the same course ; He has reached the goal ; 
 He stands there to encourage us amid the cloud of 
 witnesses — the martyrs of our Grod. Let us run the race 
 
320 
 
 SERMON XXX. 
 
 with patience. Art thou weary of the cross, my brother, 
 my sister ? He bore the cross for thee, and art thou so 
 impatient of thy cross ? He endured so great contra- 
 diction of sinners against Himself; and dost thou 
 chafe under the slightest contradiction ? Art thou 
 chastened ? Is the light and glory of this life marred 
 for thee? Then the Lord is dealing with thee as a son, 
 as a daughter. He chastens thee for thy profit, that 
 thou mayest be a " partaker of His holiness :" He is 
 calling thee to higher and to nobler views of life : He 
 intends thee to be holy here on earth : He sees for 
 thee a high and glorious calling, even to be partaker of 
 His holiness. Whatever thy position is — whether in 
 riches or in poverty, in sorrow or in joy — lift up the 
 hands that hang down, and the feeble knees, and make 
 a straight path for thy feet, for remember thou art 
 running a race. Stop to bind up the lame, for their 
 faces are set towards the crown. A collision in a race 
 is not impossible, for there are those standing in thy 
 way who have ceased running, who are encumbering 
 the race-course. There are those whom Bunyan calls 
 ^Ir. Facing-both-ways, with one eye looking behind 
 them and one eye before. " Follow holiness, without 
 which no man shall see the Lord." "They which 
 run in a race," says the Apostle Paul, " run all, but 
 one receiveth the prize. So run that ye may ob- 
 tain. And every man that striveth for the mastery 
 is temperate in all things. Now they do it to ob- 
 tain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible." 
 " If a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not 
 crowned, except he strive lawfully " — i. e., in accord- 
 ance with the rules. The conclusion is certainly 
 inevitable that if we would obtain an incorruptible 
 crown we must run and strive — and run and strive 
 lawfully. 
 
THE CHRISTIAN'S RACE AND GOAL. 
 
 321 
 
 Are not the images employed in Scripture respecting 
 the work of Christianity, after our conversion, such as 
 imply the most sustained effort ? — a race which is to 
 be run, a narrow path by which many shall seek to 
 enter into life, and those only who strive shall enter ? 
 — a battle to be won, which requires the whole armour 
 of God, which we are invited to put on ? And just as 
 a courser may be said scarcely to have won the race, so 
 it is said by the Apostle : " If the righteous scarcely be 
 saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear ? " 
 Now, if these are the uniform representations "of Holy 
 Scripture, we are bound, as we value our souls, not 
 to put them away from us, nor to close our eyes and 
 ears to them, as the ostrich when it is pursued by 
 horsemen and cannot escape, thrusts its head into the 
 sand, that it may no longer see them. Only at our 
 peril can we hide from ourselves any portion of revealed 
 truth, and select the most comforting and most con- 
 soling passages of Holy Scripture, and shut our eyes 
 to those which reveal to us. our real spiritual jiosition, 
 and it may be. Our real danger. What should we say 
 to the wisdom of the man who, afflicted with a serious, 
 and perhaps a mortal disease, selected out of the medi- 
 cines prescribed, those which were most pleasant to 
 his taste, or comforting to his feelings, and paid no 
 attention to tlie order in which, or the purposes for 
 which they were prescribed ? 
 
 Look around in the world, and consider how far the 
 reception of the good news that " Christ died for all " 
 has really had the effect of leading men to live " not 
 unto themselves, but unto Him that died for them and 
 rose again." Are they not more like men who have 
 been lulled to sleep by the soutid of a pleasant song, 
 than those who have been roused to exertion by the call, 
 " Follow after holiness " ? — who know that " without 
 
322 
 
 SEEMON XXX. 
 
 holiness no man sliall see the Lord," and who work out 
 their own salvation with fear and trembling ? " 
 
 There may he some here who would say, " We cannot 
 but admit that these views are strictly Scriptural, but 
 we cannot reconcile them with other views which you 
 have also set forth, which, while they seem to have 
 equal Scriptural authority, seem to be simpler, and 
 more calculated to comfort and console us — e.g., 'He 
 that heareth my Word, and believethon Him that sent 
 Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into con- 
 demnation (or judgment), but is passed from death unto 
 life.' After preaching salvation by faith only, are 
 you now preaching salvation by works ? Does not the 
 Apostle Paul say, that unto him that worketh not, but 
 believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith 
 is counted for righteousness? Does not God justify 
 or pardon the ungodly — him who is full of all evil, 
 empty of all good? Does not God pardon such a 
 one without any preceding goodness ? Does He not 
 justify him by grace alone, and is not faith counted 
 or reckoned to him for righteousness as if he had 
 fulfilled all righteousness?" Yes, we believe all this, 
 but the Apostle does not say that it is reckoned to him 
 for subsequent righteousness ; he merely says that his 
 faith is counted to him ^ov preceding righteousness. 
 
 He does teach that there is no real righteousness in 
 the sinner hefoi^e faith ; but where does he teach that 
 there is none after it ? He asks, " Do we, through faith, 
 make void the law ? — the law that says, ' Thou shalt 
 love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all 
 thy soul, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbour as 
 thyself.' " " Nay," he replies, " we establish the law ; " 
 and he proceeds to show how this is done. " God, 
 sending His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and 
 for sin, condemned sin in the flesh : that the righteous- 
 
THE CHRISTIAN'S RACE AND GOAL. 323 
 
 ness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not 
 after the flesh, but after the Spirit." Christ gave Him- 
 self for us, to " redeem us from all iniquity, and purify 
 unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." 
 If we are conscious that we are " following after 
 holiness ; " if we are striving day by day, by the 
 help of the Holy Spirit, to " walk in the Spirit," 
 and thus fulfil the " holy, just, and good " law of 
 God written in our hearts, as well as in the words 
 of God and of Christ ; we shall have a perfect confi- 
 dence — a faith as strong as that which we have in the 
 forgiveness of our past sins — " that He which hath 
 begun a good work in us will perform it until the 
 day of Jesus Christ." We shall then, if we continue 
 diligent, " he found of Him in peace without spot and 
 blameless." " Follow after holiness (or sanctification), 
 without which no man shall see the Lord." 
 
 How, then, are we to run this race which is set before 
 us ? The answer is, we are to run, looking to Jesus — 
 He is our pattern — " forgetting those things which are 
 behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are 
 before." We are to " press toward the mark for the 
 prize of our high calling of God in Christ Jesus." Not 
 as though we had already attained either or were already 
 perfect; but we follow after in order that we may 
 " apprehend " or take hold of " that for which we 
 are apprehended by Christ Jesus." " We shall be 
 like Him, for we shall see Him as He is," says the 
 Apostle John ; and every man — i. e., every Christian — 
 *' that hath this hope in Him, purifieth himself as He 
 is pure." Christian holiness is therefore a growing 
 conformity to the image of Christ. " Let no man 
 deceive you," as many will desire to do : " he that 
 doeth (is doing) righteousness is righteous." At the 
 great day of final account we are told that we shall all, 
 
 Y 2 
 
324 
 
 SERMON XXX. 
 
 whether saints or sinners, be judged by our works. 
 As the tree falls, so it will Jie. If the result of what 
 we have incorrectly called our " faith " has not been 
 that we have grown up into Him in all things, which 
 is the Head, even Christ, the word will then be, " He 
 that is unjust, let him be unjust still ; and. he which is 
 filthy, let him be filthy still ; and he that is righteous, 
 let him be righteous still ; and he that is holy, let him 
 be holy still." 
 
 " What is our calHng's glorious hope 
 But inward holiness ? 
 For this to Jesus I look, up, 
 And calmly wait for this." 
 
 Such is the glorious character of the salvation which 
 is by Christ. He saves both from the guilt and from 
 the power of sin — gives purity as well as pardon. Let 
 us mark the distinctness of these two parts of our salva- 
 tion. Christ has not only blotted out our past sins, not 
 only paid our debt, not only made an end of transgres- 
 sion, but brought in everlasting righteousness. Heaven 
 is the land of uprightness, and therefore we must be- 
 come upright. All the acts and virtues of renewed souls 
 heaped together will not purchase Heaven. Our pardon 
 froni the guilt of past sin was purchased by the blood 
 of Jesus, but by it was purchased also the gift of 
 His Holy Spirit, the Spirit of holiness by which we 
 are prepared for Heaven, by which we follow after 
 that holiness, without which no man shall see the 
 Lord. 
 
 " Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy 
 laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon 
 you, and learn of Me ; for I am meek and lowly of heart, 
 and ye shall find rest unto your souls." Is this at 
 variance with the representation we have been consider- 
 ing to-day of our Christian course as a race ? Surely it 
 
THE CHRISTIAN'S RACE. AND GOAL. 325 
 
 is not. . Christ does not promise to our bodies or to our 
 minds the rest of sloth or inaction, or rest to him who is 
 not following after holiness ; but He promises the rest of 
 a heart and soul at one with Grod, amid the trials and 
 perplexities of life. Does the man who is running in a 
 race, who is nearing the goal with his energies nerved 
 to the utmost, feel any fatigue or weariness ? So the 
 Christian whose heart and soul are set on his heavenly 
 home, who is running the heavenly race, looking 
 to Jesus, who is encouraged by the sweet smile of a 
 Saviour's love, finds rest to his soul ; it is here that 
 true rest is to be found, the rest for the soul- that is 
 growing in likeness to his Lord, and is a partaker 
 of His holiness. Love to God and love to men will 
 lighten every task ; our labour will not be in vain in 
 the Lord. Christ's yoke will thus be easy and His 
 burden light, while we press toward the mark for the 
 prize of our high calling of Grod in Christ Jesus. 
 
SERMON XXXI. 
 
 Preached 1875. 
 
 EEFLECTED GLORY. 
 
 " I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that 
 Thou shouldest keep them from the eTil. They -are not of tho 
 world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through 
 Thy truth : Thy word is truth."— JoAw xvii. 15-17. 
 
 This prayer of our blessed Lord expresses the same 
 kind of solicitude which we find that the Apostle Paul 
 also felt for the Thessalonians, for the growth of His dis- 
 ciples in holiness. It seems to breathe over us the very 
 atmosphere of Heaven, while it does not lift us above the 
 sphere of our common duties. " I am praying-," said 
 our Lord, " not for the world, but for them which Thou 
 hast given Me, for they are Thine!' No stronger 
 language could be used as to their conversion and 
 adoption into the family of God. " They are not of the 
 world, even as I am not of the world;" and yet how 
 touchingly appropriate do we feel the words which 
 follow : " Holy Father, keep through Thy own name 
 those whom Thou hast given Me." There are three 
 petitions which are linked together, as it were, with a 
 golden chain ; and these petitions, " Keep them from the 
 evil," "Sanctify them through Thy truth," and "That 
 they may be one," follow each other. "Holy Father, 
 keep through Thy own name those whom Thou hast 
 
REFLECTED GLORY. 
 
 327 
 
 given Me ;" they are yet in the world, with its snares, 
 its sore temptations, its bitter trials ; Satan desires to 
 have them ; therefore, " Sanctify them by Thy truth : 
 Thy Word is truth." 
 
 The great change has been wrought in them, by 
 which they are now children of God. " Thine, they 
 are not of the world." They need, not ouly to be " kept 
 from the evil," they need a still further change in their 
 characters : therefore, " Sanctify them by Thy truth : 
 Thy Word is truth." 
 
 They are to grow in a holiness which does not re- 
 quire to be " taken out of the world." Kept by God's 
 almighty power, the rough blasts, the storms of this 
 world, were only to cause this plant to flourish and bear 
 seed and fruit. Our Lord prayed, therefore, for the 
 sanctification of those who should believe on Him 
 through the word of His Apostles." The result of this 
 sanctification is also sought in the prayer " that they all 
 may be one ;" " that they also may be one in Us ; that 
 the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me." 
 One, not in essence, but in qualities. That as Christ 
 reflected the image of God, so they should reflect the 
 image and qualities of Christ, and that in consequence 
 of this essential, visible, positive change in their cha- 
 racter, the world, the clever, clear-headed, honest, wicked 
 world, should, by seeing something real in the measure 
 of the growing heavenly character of the disciples of 
 Jesus, believe in the Divine . mission and the Divinity 
 of Christ. Is not this one of the greatest triumphs of 
 the Gospel, the influence of the personal character of a 
 Christian ? — not upon his fellow-Christians, not upon 
 those who think alike, who are of the same church or 
 party, but on the unbelieving world. " The glory which 
 thou gavest Me, I have given them ; " and is it not so ? 
 Who are the men whose characters gather lustre even 
 
328 
 
 SERMON XXXI. 
 
 here on earth as time rolls on ? They are those who 
 have followed after holiness ; who have striven in all 
 things to conform themselves to the pattern of Christ 
 their Master, by the power of His life-giving Spirit ; — 
 not those who have held right opinions in all things, 
 but those who have followed Christ with a holy sin- 
 cerity, who have not consciously broken the least of His 
 commands, and who in their thoughts, words, and 
 actions, are conscientiously striving after the image of 
 Christ. Such men are the " great cloud of witnesses," 
 and the men who have " obtained a good report through 
 faith." They are now dragged out of their obscurity, 
 and men find something of the glory of Christ gilding 
 their character. There have been such men in the 
 annals of our own country, the results of whose personal 
 character as well as their personal labours have left 
 their mark upon the world. Leighton, Fox, Bunyan, 
 Baxter, the Wesleys, Fletcher of Madeley, Whitfield, 
 Stephen Grrellet, and many others. Is their reputation 
 diminishing and fading away or increasing ? "The answer 
 must be tliat their reputation is increasing. No worldly 
 person who has a spark of honesty and generosity can 
 read their writings and fail to be struck with the sin- 
 cerity of their intentions, the rectitude of their aim, 
 even when they did not manifestly reach the mark. 
 It is impossible not to notice how, starting as it were 
 from all points of the compass as to religious opinions, 
 as they drew near the confines of the eternal world, 
 they united round the common centre of perfect love 
 to Christ, and love to those who they thought loved 
 Him in sincerity. They were one, not in opinion or 
 practices, but one in love to Christ, one in dedication, 
 one in spirit, even in the spirit of holiness. 
 
 The world greatly needs an apostolic succession of 
 such men ; but shall we obtain them unless there is a 
 
REFLECTED GLORY. 
 
 329 
 
 greater perception on the part of Christians generally, 
 of the necessity of our " following after holiness, with- 
 out which no man shall see the Lord " ? — unless we 
 see that the very object of our having a Great High 
 Priest, that the very object of so great a sacrifice, in 
 which the blood of Jesus, or, as it is spoken of in Holy 
 Scripture, the blood of God,* was shed for us, was that 
 " liberty " should be given to us to enter into the 
 Holiest ; and that we should be " conformed to the 
 image of His Son," in our personal characters ? 
 
 How then is this progressive sanctification to be 
 efi'ected ? How are we to be conformed to the image 
 of Christ ? Let us listen to the words of Christ ; 
 " Sanctify them through Thy truth," They were 
 already children of God : they had received the sancti- 
 fication of adoption, but this was a sanctification to be 
 effected in the future — the growth and expansion of 
 the new birth, a progressive sanctification, of which our 
 Lord was speaking. It was not that they were not 
 free from sin ; it was not that they were not dedi- 
 cated to Christ ; nor was it even that a radical and 
 vital change in the bent of their wills and intentions 
 had not taken place ; but a change beyond all this was 
 needed, a growth in holiness. The change which the 
 Apostle Paul speaks of when he says — and I beg you 
 to mark the words — " We all, with open (or unveiled) 
 face, beholding as in a mirror, the glory of the 
 Lord, are beimj changed into the same image from 
 glory to glory." And how was this change to be 
 effected ? The beholding the glory of the Lord in the 
 face of Jesus Christ, is an act of our will ; but the 
 
 * " Take heed therefore imto yourselves, and to all the flock, 
 over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the 
 Church of God, which He hath purchased with His own blood." — 
 Ads XX. 28. 
 
330 
 
 SERMON XXXI. 
 
 change itself, resulting from it, is " even by the Lord 
 the Spirit," by the mighty working by which He is 
 " able to subdue all things unto Himself." But what is 
 this " glory of the Lord " into which we all are to be 
 changed ? The Apostle states, " we all," that is, all true 
 
 Christians, beholding as in a glass the glory of the 
 Lord, are being changed into the same image from glory 
 to glory." In the words of our Lord, " The glory which 
 Thou gavest Me, I have given them." What can this 
 glory be, but the glory of His holiness, the glory of the 
 heavenly character, now revealed to us in the face of 
 Jesus Christ ? 
 
 Deeply true it is, that the more we advance in 
 holiness, the more we see of His glory, of the beauty of 
 holiness. But the glory of Christ's holiness is no 
 fanciful ideal, no dream of the philosopher, no airy 
 abstraction, no idol of the intellect, but something 
 which has been realised in the world. It has been 
 revealed to us by One who lived the life of the sons 
 of men, who bore our weariness, who shared our toil, 
 who sympathised with our sorrows, who wept over 
 Jerusalem, and at the grave of Lazarus. 
 
 This divine, yet human, holiness, has been revealed 
 to us by Him who was our Brother, yet our Lord, and 
 who said, " I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life ;" 
 who said, " The glory which Thou gavest Me, I have 
 given them. Sanctify them through Thy truth : Thy 
 word is truth." '■' I sanctify Myself that they also 
 might be sanctified through the truth." Christ is the 
 embodiment of God's truth. 
 
 The question, How are our souls to be purified ? is 
 answered thus : They are " purified by obeying the truth 
 through the Spirit." " We all, with open face, behold- 
 ing, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, are being 
 changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even 
 
REFLECTED GLORY. 
 
 331 
 
 as by tlie Lord the Spirit ;" and the more earnestly 
 the Christian " beholds," the more glorious does that 
 image appear, in which he sees the beauty of the linea- 
 ments of His Saviour's character. Thus he finds Him 
 to be " the Way, the Truth, and the Life," " the Light 
 of the World," and experiences more fully every year 
 he follows Him, the truth of the promise, He that 
 followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have 
 the Light of Life," 
 
 Here is the clue to the mystery of the labyrinth of 
 life. AYe are here that we may grow in grace, that we 
 may advance in holiness. We are here that we may 
 bear the cross of Christ, that as we are partakers of the 
 sufferings of Christ, we may be partakers of His con- 
 solation. Earthly care is intended to be a heavenly 
 discipline, God has given " some apostles, and some 
 prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors 
 and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, for the 
 work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of 
 Christ, till we all come in the unity of the faith, and 
 the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect Man, 
 unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." 
 If there be no advance in holiness, what is the object of 
 the Christian ministry ? 
 
 Oh, weary one, who may have stumbled on the 
 dark mountains, who, amidst all thy doubts, trials 
 and fears, hast felt thy need of inward holiness, and 
 of a Saviour from past sin, remember there is no 
 entrance into the path of holiness but by Christ the 
 Door, no continuance but by Christ the Way. He calls 
 loudly to thee, " Follow Me : let the dead bury their 
 dead." Then thou shalt no longer walk in darkness, 
 thou shalt have the Light of Life. Thy past sins shall 
 be found no more at all ; thou shalt know yet more and 
 more the infinite love of thy Saviour, who is drawing 
 
332 
 
 SERMON XXXI. 
 
 thee to Himself, and — oh, wondrous thought ! — will 
 give to thee His glory, the glory of His holiness. Follow 
 Him, and He shall be made imto thee more and more 
 fully, even here, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, 
 and redemption. 
 
 " If any man love Me, let him follow Me, and where 
 I am, there shall My servant be." 
 
 " ' I am the Eesurrection,' hear Him saying, 
 ' I am the Life : he that believes on Me 
 Shall never die ; the souls My call obeying 
 Soon where I am for evermore shall be.' 
 
 " Sing Hallelujah, Light from Heaven appearing. 
 The mystery of life and death is plain : 
 Now to the grave we can descend unfearing, 
 In sure and certain hope to rise again." 
 
SERMON XXXII. 
 
 Pkeached 1875. 
 
 — oo^OJoo — 
 
 THE MIRACULOUS DRAUGHT OF FISHES. 
 
 " When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees saying, 
 Depart from me ; for I am a sinful man, 0 Lord. For he was 
 astonished, and all they that were with him, at the draught of 
 the fishes which they had taken." — Lulce v. 8, 9. 
 
 The miracle of the draught of fishes is essentially a 
 parable in the lessons it is doubtless intended to convey 
 to all succeeding ages ; but it is well for us to recollect 
 that we must accept it as a fact before we can treat it 
 as a parable. It is so with the whole of the Christian 
 teaching contained in the New Testament. The fact 
 comes first, and out of the fact comes the doctrine. If 
 there were no miraculous draught of fishes ; if there 
 were no cures of the sick ; if there were no death, 
 resurrection, and ascension ; but if. these were merely 
 parables, intended to teach us moral and spiritual 
 lessons, such as a death unto sin and a rising again 
 unto righteousness ; or if these were the mistakes of 
 well-intentioned but unenlightened men ; we must, with 
 the Apostle, boldly say, " Then is our preaching vain, 
 and your faith is also vain." As he still more forcibly 
 expresses it, " yea, and we (the Apostles) are found 
 false witnesses of God, because we have testified of 
 
334 
 
 SEEMON XXXII. 
 
 God that He raised up Christ." " If Christ be not 
 raised up, your faith is vain ; you are yet in your sins." 
 The teaching which would find us deep meaning in 
 our Lord's words but reheve us from the necessity of 
 believing in the facts of His life, although veiled in the 
 most eloquent and spiritually-minded words, is not 
 Christian teaching. It is not by deceptions and delu- 
 sions that we are led onward and upward to the Light — 
 to the Light of Life. 
 
 Throwing aside then that teaching which represents 
 the Gospel miracles as merely parables, which sub- 
 stantially suppresses the consideration that, if they are 
 not facts, the instruction obtained from them is lighter 
 than vanity, and can never satisfy the need of an im- 
 mortal soul which is earnestly seeking in truth the 
 way to Heaven, we may, in the miraculous draught of 
 fishes, recognise first, that from the fact of a miracle 
 having taken place resulted the conviction of Peter 
 and the other Apostles, James and John, that oar Lord 
 was indeed a messenger from Heaven, and that His 
 message was not of men. The miracle was, in its 
 immediate bearing and in its first intention, adapted 
 to the special purpose of producing a deep impres- 
 sion upon the fishermen of Galilee. It furnished the 
 greatest proof we can have of the depth and reality of 
 that impression by their " forsaking all and following " > 
 our Lord. But this change in their outward life was 
 the result of a change in their hearts. To Peter, 
 always ready to express what was passing in his soul, 
 the miracle associated the power of our Lord with 
 the thought of His Person and character. All at once 
 the sinlessness of the Person of Christ burst upon his 
 view, and he cried, " Depart from me ; for I am a sinful 
 man, 0 Lord." This is the account of the conversion 
 of a man of great simplicity, whom we cannot believe 
 
THE MIRACULOUS DRAUGHT OF FISHES. 335 
 
 to have been otherwise than a man of irreproachable 
 character. And is there not a striking coincidence 
 between the story of the conversion of Peter and the 
 conversion of persons who have been carefully educated, 
 who have never been guilty of gross sin, whose bitterest 
 enemies would find it difficult to put their fingers 
 upon a serious blot, or reproach them with what the 
 world would call sin ? A deep conviction of the truth 
 of the Grospel history first, an admiration of the Person, 
 and then a conviction of the sinlessness of Christ — 
 some of the most eminent servants, of Christ who have 
 ever lived have thus been brought to the feet of the 
 Saviour. It has been the resolute and honest efibrt 
 to follow Him which has impressed them with the 
 distance between their own character and the perfect 
 sinlessness of the character of Christ, and their own 
 powerlessness to attain to it without a new creation 
 taking place in them. And as with travellers, the 
 higher they have climbed the more prepared they are 
 to realise the heights which are beyond, the Divine 
 glory breaks upon them, and their language is, " I 
 have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear, but now 
 mine eye seeth Thee ; therefore I repent, and abhor 
 myself in dust and ashes. Depart from me, for I am 
 a sinful man, O Lord. Oh, wretched man that I 
 am ! I consent to the law that it is good : nay, I de- 
 light in it after the inner man ; but I see another law 
 in my members, which brings me into captivity to the 
 law of sin and death. Who can bring a clean thing 
 out of an unclean ?" Such is at last the conclusion 
 of the awakened soul, stripped of all its righteousness, 
 when the height and the depth of the sinlessness of a 
 suffering Saviour is revealed to it, and it seeks help 
 of Him. Like the prodigal, when he is yet a great way 
 off, the Saviour meets him. 
 
336 
 
 SERMON XXXII. 
 
 Thus while it must be recollected that the precise 
 way in which men are convinced of the Divine cha- 
 racter of Christ varies according to the various cir- 
 cumstances of meu, to us the miracle of the draught 
 of fishes has a convincing power. But further, this 
 miracle is prophetic. It foreshadows the course of 
 the Gospel, the perseverance and final success of the 
 Christian Church, the character and object of the 
 Christian ministry, its painful labours and weariness, 
 its small results ; and yet, that when perchance its 
 ministers have toiled, and rightly toiled, all night 
 and taken nothing, and are reduced to a willing- 
 ness to be shown by His word where to let down the 
 net, no. small blessing shall attend it. There is no 
 failure, though there may seem at the moment to be 
 small results. Can we venture to say that this miracle 
 is not confirmed to us of the present day by over- 
 whelming evidence ? Here were three Galilean fisher- 
 men. We see that if their conversion was at the 
 beginning, the preparation - for their work was at 
 the end of our Lord's ministry. The professed belief- 
 and conviction of the mighty power of Christ came 
 first, then of His sinlessness, then of His Messiahship, 
 then of His having a great and mysterious work as a 
 Prince and a Saviour, then of His proper Divinity, as 
 able to burst the bonds of death and sit down with His 
 Father on His throne as an ever-present Saviour and 
 Intercessor, as the Holy Spirit the Comforter. Acting 
 on this faith, these fishermen threw the Gospel net on 
 the world's waters, with results which have changed 
 the course of its history : not by skilfully using the 
 world's passions and rearranging its forces, but by tlie 
 power given to them by Christ to reproduce the same 
 individual change as that which was wrought in Peter. 
 It is this which has altered men's characters, reversed 
 
THE MIRACULOUS DRAUGHT OF FISHES. 337 
 
 the course of men's lives, by infusing absolutely new 
 desires and new motives, has changed and is still 
 changing the whole aspect of the moral world. Amidst 
 all earthly changes, the spirit of Christianity has re- 
 mained the same ; the same effects upon individual 
 men and women have been reproduced through long 
 ages. And when those whom He has made fishers 
 of men, feeling their own powerlessness by the experi- 
 ence of the long night of fruitless efforts, have been 
 willing to attend to His word and His directions, the 
 result has over and over again been the innumerable 
 multitude of fishes. 
 
 The weary fisherman, as the morning is dawning, 
 may fall asleep, and only awake to see with joy un- 
 speakable that though his labour was weary, it was 
 not in vain. The net, filled with an innumerable 
 multitude of fishes, is drawn safely to shore on that 
 strand where the sun is brightly shining which shall 
 never more go down, and the Master has called him 
 to eternal rest, but it may be to higher service. 
 
 There is nothing either in worldly or spiritual things 
 so disheartening as to believe that we are pursuing a 
 right course, and yet for failure ever to attend us. 
 The aim has not been reached, we are weary, we have 
 toiled through the long and dark night, the morning 
 seems to be breaking, the object of our labour seems to 
 be as far off as ever. But we must pray for a faith 
 which is triumphant in failure, and whatever the 
 nature of our trial may be, let us remember that He 
 who once trod this barren strand, and by His footsteps 
 hallowed our pathway, descfibes the aim of His life, 
 not as success but duty, " My meat is to do the will of 
 Him that sent Me and to finish His work." His perfect 
 sinlessness was manifested not only in that He did no 
 sin, but also in His leaving undone no portion of that 
 
 z 
 
338 
 
 SERMON XXXII. 
 
 work wliicli was given Him to do : "I have glorified 
 Thee on the eartli, I have finished the work which 
 Thou gavest Me to do." Thus it was that the seed of 
 His kingdom was sowd, and thus it must he sown, in 
 perfect confidence that in this work there is no faihu'e, 
 and that if witli the seed of the kingdom tares grow 
 here, the reapers — God's angels — will surely separate 
 them and gather the wheat into the heavenly garner. 
 Then will the harvest of earthly sorrow he reaped, 
 and prove to have heen a heavenly discipline leading 
 to joy for evermore. 
 
SERMON XXXIII. 
 
 Preached 1875. 
 
 FAITH INCLUDES BELIEF. 
 
 " Now faitli is tlie substance of things hoped for, the evidence of 
 
 things not seen But without faith it is impossible to 
 
 please Him : for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, 
 and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him." 
 — Hebrews xi. 1, 6. 
 
 The Apostle Paul says to Timothy : " Hold fast the 
 form of sound words, which thou hast heard of nie, in 
 faith and love which is in Christ Jesus." We may 
 think little of words, but it is certain that a good deal 
 of stress is laid in Holy Scripture upon words — " sound 
 teaching," " wholesome words, even the words of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ." By our " words we shall be 
 justified, and by our words we shall be condemned." 
 And may we not say that the terms we constantly use 
 in religious convej^sation and in our preacldng may be 
 compared to current coin, which the whole community 
 have an interest in keeping perfectly pure and of the 
 right weight. So it is with terms, such as faith, justi- 
 fication, sanctification. They are apt, like coins, to be 
 clipped of some small portion of their scriptural mean- 
 ing ; and we do well constantly, as it were, to take 
 them to the mint and compare them, or rather the 
 
 z 2 
 
340 
 
 SEKMON XXXIII. 
 
 meaning which we have come to attach to them, with 
 Holy Scripture. The word translated " faith " in our 
 Bibles, if looked for in a Greek dictionary, will be 
 found equivalent to trust in a person. The word 
 " believe " is the verb obtained from it, " to have trust 
 in a person." That this is very different from our ordi- 
 nary word believe is shown by remembering there are 
 very many persons whom we believe, whom we should 
 not for a moment trust in. 
 
 It must be profitable for us to inquire what the faith 
 spoken of in the New Testament includes, for we are 
 here clearly told that " without faith it is impossible 
 to please Grod, for he that cometh to God must believe 
 that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those that 
 diligently seek Him." Those who " come to God " 
 are those who are on their way to faith ; and we are 
 here told that before they can have faith they must at 
 least " believe that God is, and that He is a rewarder 
 of those who diligently seek Him." Faith is a Scrip- 
 ture term which is used in a larger sense than belief. 
 We are here told it is essential to faith to believe that 
 God is, and that He is a rewarder of them that dili- 
 gently seek Him. Every one who has faith believes ; 
 but every one who believes has not necessarily all that 
 is comprehended in the term faith ; belief is a part 
 of faith, not the whole. Belief is an act of the intellect, 
 and if we carefully consider the persons who are com- 
 mended for their faith in the eleventh chapter of the 
 Hebrews, we shall find that they were not simply weak 
 credulous persons, whose belief was quickly given and 
 on the slenderest possible grounds, but they were all 
 persons to whom were given far stronger reasons than 
 to ourselves, and in most cases special and miraculous 
 reasons, for their belief. We see that they are not com- 
 mended for believing against their reason, but that they 
 
FAITH INCLUDES BELIEF. 
 
 341 
 
 were really convinced (and some of them were very 
 slow in believing) that God had spoken. They, like 
 Abraham, staggered not at the promises of God, but 
 believed that what He had promised He was fully able 
 to perform. They were commended because they acted 
 according to their convictions, and did what God com- 
 manded them to do, and from the heart heartily ; for, 
 as Paul says, " with the heart man believeth unto right- 
 eousness ;" and thus the belief here spoken of was a 
 belief of the intellect and a belief of the heart. 
 
 But though we are told in Scripture that he that has 
 faith must believe, faith is more than belief either of 
 the intellect or of the heart, or even both together. We 
 are told in our text that it is the substance, the ground, 
 the confidence of things hoped for, the evidence of things 
 not seen ; in a word, it is that unshaken trust in God 
 as our Heavenly Father, in Christ as our Saviour, and 
 in the Holy Ghost as our Sanctifier, which is wrought 
 in the heart of the Christian by the Holy Spirit ; it is 
 a real substantial thing, which, as this whole chapter 
 so clearly shows us, is capable of doing very wonderful 
 things. 
 
 To as many as receive Christ, He gives power, real 
 and positive power, not merely the privilege, as has 
 been sometimes said, but the ^' power to become the sons 
 of God, even to those that believe on His name ; which 
 are born not of blood, nor of the will of man, but of 
 God." And therefore we see that a great mistake as 
 to the nature of faith is contained in the hymn which 
 says, " I ivill believe that Jesus died for me." It is 
 a mistake intellectually, and a mistake spiritually ; 
 because, in the first place, we cannot believe without 
 being convinced ; and in the second, if we are intel- 
 lectually convinced that Jesus is the Christ, we cannot 
 say so from the heart, except by the Holy Ghost — we 
 
342 
 
 SERMON XXXIII. 
 
 " cannot come to Christ except the Father draw us.' 
 And while no man that cometh to Him is cast out, this 
 is the very ground on which the least disposition to 
 arise and go to our Father is not to be neglected, 
 under the idea that we can at any future moment say, 
 " I will believe," and that the soul will then be saved. 
 There are times of special grace which should be at 
 once availed of, for the desire to come to Christ is not 
 at our command. 
 
 Some weeks ago I read a tract by a lady, on Faith, in 
 which she undertook to correct the views of nearly the 
 whole religious world, as to the meaning of the scrip- 
 tural word, Faith. Faith is belief, it said, and nothing 
 more : simply believe, and you have faith. It went on 
 to say that the greatest of all sins was unbelief, or 
 rather that unbelief was something more deadly and 
 hateful to Grod than sin ; because, it said, " the soul 
 that is lost, is lost, not on account of its sin, but on 
 account of its unbelief ; for ' he that believeth on Him is 
 not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned 
 already, because he hath not believed in the name of 
 the only begotten Son of God.' " 
 
 I took my Bible, and found that this was not the text 
 as a whole, and that it explained what this condemna- 
 tion was : And this is the condemnation, that light is 
 come into the world, and men loved darkness rather 
 than light, because their deeds were evil. For every 
 one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh 
 to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he 
 that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may 
 be made manifest, that they are wrought in God." So 
 far from implying that moral people generally are con- 
 demned as such, because they have not faith, or because 
 their deeds as such are not approved by God, the text 
 distinctly points out that these moral people are those 
 
FAITH INCLUDES BELIEF. 
 
 343 
 
 wlio are on their way to faitli ; they love the light and the 
 truth, and they are sure to come to Christ, who is the 
 Truth itself and the Light of the World, and availingly 
 to believe on Him. Those who 'believe not, are those 
 who love darkness rather than light because their deeds 
 are evil. These are condemned already, because Christ 
 the Light shone upon them, showed them the path of 
 duty, and they would not take it because they loved 
 their sins too well. I could not help remembering that 
 we are distinctly told in Holy Scripture, *' the devils 
 believe and tremble," and that they were not lost 
 because they did not believe, but because of their sin. 
 God loves rather him who says, " I go not," but after- 
 wards repents and goes, than the man who is con- 
 stantly saying, " I go, sir," " Lord, I believe," and goes 
 not, and does not do the woi'k of a living faith, and does 
 not yield to the work of the Spirit in his heart, which 
 would make him a better and a better man, and more 
 and more like Christ in his disposition and temper. 
 
 We may well tremble for the Christianity which goes 
 so far from the spirit of Christianity, as to value a ]3ro- 
 i'ession of faith more highly than love — the love for 
 God and man ; which values the profession of faith 
 more than the fruit of faith, which is holiness ; which 
 implies that any one who is doing truth and seeking 
 after the light, but who does not yet believe, is con- 
 demned. No, my brother, this is the condemnation, if 
 light is come into the world — to thee — if Christ, the 
 Light of the World, has shone into thy heart, manifesting 
 ihy duty, showing thee who is thy King, that there is 
 something to be done, something to be given up, some 
 cross to be borne for the sake of Jesus. All thy belief 
 in the prophets concerning Christ, concerning His life, 
 His miracles. His being a Prince and a Saviour, to give 
 repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins ; all thy 
 
344 
 
 SERMON XXXIII. 
 
 clear views of the Atonement, of His death, resurrection, 
 and ascension, and the coming of the Holy Grhost, will 
 avail thee nothing — they will only add to thy con- 
 demnation — if thou dost not so believe as to do His 
 will. It is not the profession of belief alone that thy 
 God requires, although He requires this, but the acting 
 out tliy belief. Christ has convinced thee of the truth 
 of things unseen, and now, like those worthies of the 
 ancient Church, if thou wouldest have such a faith as 
 theirs, thy belief must go out into action, and it will 
 become instinct with the Spirit of God, and enable thee 
 to follow in the steps of those " who through faith 
 subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained 
 promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the 
 violence of fire." The faith of those servants of 
 God was a growing faith ; they went on from faith 
 to faith. We must be careful not to assert that there 
 are no degrees in faith, and make sad the hearts of chil- 
 dren of God, whom He has not made sad. There is the 
 faith of the servant of the Lord which enables him to 
 fear God and work righteousness ; for even such as 
 these, the Apostle tells us, in every nation are "ac- 
 cepted" w^ith God. There is a farther experience than 
 this ; but we cannot say that those who do not yet know 
 their sins are forgiven, if they fear God and work 
 righteousness, have not faith. We ought to assure 
 them that they shall know, if they follow on to know 
 the Lord, that they " shall see greater things than 
 these," and that the Spirit will at last bear witness with 
 their spirit, that they are the children of God. 
 
 The children of God — this reminds us that we speak, 
 and rightly speak, of the faith of a little child. Let us 
 test our description of a saving faith by this compari- 
 son. A little child trusts in a loving and kind parent : 
 his faith is nut a blind belief, or a forced and unnatural 
 
FAITH INCLUDES BELIEF. 
 
 345 
 
 belief, but it is a perfect trust, founded on the very best 
 reasons its tender age is capable of receiving. It is a 
 thing of tlie intellect, and a thing of the heart. It is 
 not a faith which is by one act of will completed for ever, 
 but a thing which goes on (if the parent is a truly 
 good and wise parent) increasing by means of the 
 intellect and the heart, just in proportion as it is exer- 
 cised and acted upon. 
 
 Have you this faith of the little child towards God ? 
 Has it been to you the ground or " substance of things 
 hoped for, the evidence of things not seen " ? Are 
 heavenly or earthly things your great desire? Are 
 you fleeing from sin as from the face of a serpent ? 
 For sin is the transgression of what you know to be the 
 law of God — that moral law which is written both in 
 the Old Testament and the New, and on the fleshy 
 tables of the heart, — that law which is not made void 
 by faith, but established in all its glorious parts in the 
 life and teaching of our Saviour. Do we "believe 
 that God is, and that He is a rewarder of them that 
 diligently seek Him " ? Does our faith enable us to 
 endure sorrow and suffering and present trial, as seeing 
 Him who is invisible ? Do we mean to say that sal- 
 vation through faith means that we are saved if we 
 only believe that we are saved ? — that we have only to 
 reckon ourselves dead to sin, and we are so ? " Examine 
 yourselves, prove your own selves : know you not that 
 Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates ?" 
 
 Let us earnestly covet the best gifts. May we all 
 seek this faith which is the evidence of things not 
 seen — this deep inward trust founded upon reasonable 
 evidence, external and internal, in God as our Father, 
 in Jesus Christ as our Saviour, and in the Person of 
 the Holy Ghost as our Sanctifier, 
 
 This faith will purify our hearts, not through a mere 
 
346 
 
 SERMON XXXIII. 
 
 belief that we are holy making us so, but by leading us 
 to live as seeing Grod ; as seeing Him who is invisible ; 
 by leading us to take up our daily cross and follow 
 Christ our Saviour. Oh, Christian men and women, 
 will not such faith lead us by the assisting power of 
 the Holy Spirit to mortify our members which are 
 upon the earth ? Will it not lead us to love ourselves 
 less and the Lord Jesus more ? Thus humbly following 
 Him upon earth, our faith will at last be changed to 
 sight. 
 
SERMON XXXIV. 
 
 Preached 1876. 
 
 GATHEKING SOULS FOR CHRIST. 
 
 " He that is not with me is against me : and he that gathcreth not 
 with me scattercth." — Lulce xi. 23. 
 
 It cannot be said that the view thrown before us in 
 the verses preceding, of the " strong man who keepeth 
 his palace " and " the Stronger than he " who " comes 
 upon him and divideth his spoils," is any isolated 
 view of the nature of the kingdom of Clirist. From 
 the scene of the Temptation in the Gospel of Matthew 
 to the closing chapters of the Book of Revelation, one 
 idea pervades the books which we call the New Testa- 
 ment, and this is of a great struggle, of a kingdom 
 of darkness and a kingdom of light, of the contrast 
 between the strong and the Stronger than he. When 
 we have clearly before us the nature of the kingdom 
 of Christ and the object of Christ's coming, which 
 is summed ujj in the comprehensive sentence of the 
 Apostle John, " For this purpose the Son of God was 
 manifested, that He might destroy the works of tlie 
 devil," we are better prepared to take a clear and 
 scriptural view of our own personal position as 
 followers of Christ. If we are not fighting on the side 
 of Christ against the god of this world we are fighting 
 
348 
 
 SERMON XXXIV. 
 
 against Christ : and lest we should in any way lose the 
 force of our Lord's words, we should recollect that when 
 He reversed them by saying, " He that is not against 
 us is on our part," He applied these words not to 
 a Mary passively sitting at His feet, but to the case of 
 one who was actively engaged in labouring for the 
 promotion of His kingdom, and was endued with His 
 power to that end ; simply to show how we ought, 
 as Christians, to welcome the labours of any one who 
 preaches the Gospel and casts out devils, although 
 he may not be doing it in what we deem a regular 
 and orderly way. For it is a very common objection 
 to any one who goes out of the ordinary way to serve 
 his Lord, that it is true he saves souls, but it is inex- 
 cusable because they are saved in an irregular manner. 
 
 Our Lord, in saying " He that gathereth not with me 
 scattereth," has been speaking of a contest for the souls 
 of men ; and what " gathering " can this be, but the 
 gathering of souls to Christ, of doing our part, how- 
 ever small, in labouring for the promotion of His king- 
 dom in the souls of our fellow men? Surely these 
 words were left on record to prevent Christians 
 from forgetting this aspect of their position, and 
 lapsing into a state of indifference to the spiritual con- 
 dition of others, and to the progress of the Gospel 
 in the world. We have here the special, the most 
 subtle temptation of the spiritually minded ; to think 
 solely of our own salvation, of the cultivation of our 
 own spiritual comforts and enjoyments. Some Chris- 
 tians might reasonably be supposed to have read the 
 exhortation of the Apostle thus : " Look on your 
 own things, and not on the things of others." " Christ 
 will care for others ; He does not need our help or 
 service ;" — as if, because our Captain is Almighty, His 
 honour and the extension of His kingdom did not con- 
 
GATHERING SOULS FOR CHRIST. 
 
 349 
 
 cern His soldiers ; as if He had reserved that position 
 to Himself which He has emphatically bequeathed 
 to us, and His soldiers had only to contend with 
 their own insubordinate dispositions, and not with the 
 enemy ; as if we had no position to take wi th Him 
 of antagonism to the kingdom of darkness ; as if He 
 was to " gather " alone, and had never invited us to 
 " gather with Him." 
 
 Let us ask ourselves if experience of actual life does 
 not corroborate this view of the subtle character of this 
 temptation. There are Christians who once felt they 
 were guilty sinners, who once felt the power of that 
 pardoning love which redeemed them from the guilt of 
 past sin, and spoke peace to their troubled souls. They 
 felt and acted as those who knew that Christ had died 
 for them, and therefore they could no longer live unto 
 themselves, but unto Him who died for them. They 
 spoke the word of the Gospel here and there, they 
 handed the tract to those who scornfully received it, 
 they engaged in some small public service for Christ. 
 But they were conscious of their own shortcomings, and 
 soon sensitively felt the influence of those who they 
 thought were Christians of a far higher stamp than 
 themselv^es, gently repressing by a sure but almost 
 imperceptible pressure all active service for Christ. 
 Their efforts, they hinted, were beyond their acquire- 
 ments in the Christian life. Then doubts arose. Had 
 not this course something of ostentation in it ? Were 
 they not cultivating leaves before due attention had been 
 paid to the root ? And if they were to fall away after 
 such a course it would bring the greater discredit upon 
 the cause of Clirist and upon themselves. Their " first 
 works," the result of their " first love," were checked, 
 perhaps, as is often the case, by those who lay claim to, 
 and obtain the reputation of being spiritually minded. 
 
350 
 
 SERMON XXXIV. 
 
 The plant was checked instead of fostered in its growth 
 by these husbandmen, who despised the leaves, who 
 declared that everything which was not the rich, ripe, 
 perfect, golden grain was nothing worth, and forgot 
 that the leaves must come first. " First the blade, then 
 the (immature) ear, then the full corn in the ear." The 
 results have been disastrous in every portion of the 
 Church of Christ, and Christians abound who now only 
 half believe the Gospel because they have not acted 
 with their whole heart up to the extent of their belief, 
 and who wonder that they do not feel that earnestness, 
 fervour and zeal which they once felt, and which they 
 are convinced ought to be experienced by the disciple 
 of Jesus. These Christians, who do not act up to their 
 convictions, and publicly and actively confess Christ, 
 and serve Him faithfully, are very much in the state 
 described by a great poet, who puts the plaintive tone 
 into his Easter hymn : 
 
 " His glory we bemoan 
 
 Our spirits languish comfortless alone." 
 
 Whereas the feeling of the true Christian is, " I am not 
 alone, but the Father is with me." We may be very 
 sure that in proportion as men do not act up to their 
 perception of the requirements of the Christian religion, 
 they soon cease really to believe it ; and this is the real 
 source of large portions of the scepticism of modern times 
 which appears under the guise of rational Christianity. 
 The language of the risen Saviour to the Church of 
 Laodicea describes the state into which nominal Chris- 
 tians fall when they are afraid to serve Christ fully, and 
 afraid to serve the world fully, and it is, we are told, a 
 worse state and more offensive in the Divine sight than 
 irreligion. " I would thou wert cold or hot, but thou 
 art lukewarm." 
 
GATHERING SOULS FOR CHRIST. 
 
 351 
 
 But it may be said, Are there not truly Christian 
 men and women who have sought as it were to retire 
 from the outer world, to avoid the conflict with sin 
 except in their own hearts, who seek to attract the 
 world to Christ by the passive exhibition of a more 
 saintly standard of (christian practice ? And in order to 
 do this they create artificial barriers between themselves 
 and their fellow men. It matters not how this is 
 effected. The principle is the same : to separate them- 
 selves from the world and to avoid the occasion for sin 
 by avoiding the contact with it, instead of avoiding all 
 appearance of evil while remaining in the world. Who 
 will dare to say that when this has been done in 
 simple faith, it has not been blessed to the indi- 
 vidual ? But it is not the type of Christian practice 
 we find in the New Testament, and it has not developed 
 the highest type of Christian character, for that is 
 essentially the character which, like our Lord, is " per- 
 fected by sulferings," not voluntarily undergone, but 
 incurred by following Christ in our actions. His design 
 is not to take us out of the world, but to keep us 
 from the evil which is in it ; and this phase of Chris- 
 tianity fosters the idea that our religion is unfitted for 
 the rough every-day world. 
 
 The truth is, that the struggle we have spoken of is 
 a part of the appointed means by which the soldiers of 
 Christ are " kept from evil." To represent the contest 
 between the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of 
 light, between " the strong man and the Stronger than 
 he," as one which is only waging in each man's soul, and 
 which does not concern our relations with our fellow 
 men, with the evil world around us, is a view in- 
 compatible with the scope of the religion of the New 
 Testament. It is indeed no slight misapprehension. It 
 is an error which goes to the very root and groundwork 
 
352 
 
 SEEMON XXXIV. 
 
 of the Christian f;\ith. Let us take for instance the 
 Apostle Paul's definitions of the conditions of our sal- 
 vation, " tliat if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the 
 Lord Jesus, and slialt beHeve in thine lieart that God 
 raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." It is a 
 faith which produces the fruits of a changed life, and 
 one of the essential conditions of this changed life is 
 that we " confess with our mouth the Lord Jesus." But 
 how shall we " gather with Him," how shall we show our- 
 selves with Him, " on His side "? What answer to this 
 can there be, but that in our varied positions we should 
 (it will always be at the cost of suffering to ourselves) 
 "confess with our mouth the Lord Jesus"? Do we 
 persuade men, " whether we eat or drink, or whatsoever 
 we do, that we do all to the glory of God "? Are all 
 that we come in contact with persuaded, not that we 
 are very moral and inoffensive peojDle, very careful to 
 avoid the rude struggle between good and evil in the 
 world, but rather that " the love of Christ constraineth 
 us, because we thus judge that if one died for all then 
 were all dead, and that He died for all that we should 
 not henceforth live unto ourselves, but unto Him that 
 died for us " ? Are we using all the opportunities which 
 our varied positions yield of gathering " with Him ? 
 Satan would persuade us that our lives are useless, that 
 it is useless to contend with the strong man : and he is 
 right, unless we range ourselves on the side of the 
 Stronger than he, unless we become the weapons of 
 Him who can alone spoil the strong- man, unless all the 
 faculties and dispositions of our soul are surrendered 
 without reserve to Christ, we shall not gather with Him, 
 • — and " he that gathereth not with Me scattereth." Our 
 lives require an object higher and holier than the mere 
 struggle for material things, food and clothing and 
 self-indulgence. Here is an object worthy of immortal 
 
CxATHERING SOULS FOR CHRIST. 353 
 
 souls — to gather with Him. Who is He ? He is One 
 who chose the path of suffering, but who now has a 
 name which is above every name, One to whom every 
 knee shall bow, either in the day of His power hereafter, 
 or now in profound adoration at the intrinsic excellency 
 of the character in which alone we see infinite beauty 
 and perfection, a living Person for whom we feel inex- 
 pressible love, and of whom we have the endearing con- 
 viction that He is alive now and. that He loves us. This 
 faith in our Captain will alone nerve our arm for the 
 conflict. Can we all " gather with Him " ? Yes. Such 
 is His condescension. He calls us His friends. Even the 
 least of us is a " worker together with Him," unless we 
 have received the grace of God in vain. Does not this 
 view of life hallow and ennoble it ? Will not loyalty 
 to Christ render hard tilings easy and bitter things 
 sweet ? If He has shown us the way of the Cross, does 
 He not ever hold out before us the Crown ? And does 
 not the Church triumphant in Heaven beckon us on- 
 ward to a state where " they cease from their labours 
 and tlieir works follow them " ? 
 
 2 A 
 
SERMON XXXV. 
 
 Preached 1876. 
 
 A CALL TO DECISION. 
 
 " How long halt ye between two opinions ? if the Lord be God, 
 follow Him : but if Baal, then follow him."- — 1 Kings xviii. 21. 
 
 We read in tlie Book of Job, and the Book of 
 Numbers, enough to show us that the religion of 
 Baal was a very widely spread, a very ancient, and 
 a very seductive religion. Our young friends will 
 remember that not very far from Sidon, the 
 city from which Jezebel came, there remains to the 
 present day, in the ruins of Baalbek, or the City of 
 the Sun, an evidence of the vast power which the 
 religion of Baal exercised. These ruins are the wonder 
 of the traveller, and give a solemn reality to the scene 
 which the Spirit of God has placed before us, for our 
 instruction, in this passage of Scripture. It seems cer- 
 tain that the religion of Baal exercised great influence 
 over both the educated and the uneducated. Of all 
 false and idolatrous religions, the worship of the sun, 
 as the source of light and heat, commended itself most 
 highly to the educated. To the uneducated, on the 
 other hand, nothing is apt to appear so important as 
 an appropriate and gorgeous ceremonial ; and the 
 
A CALL TO DECISION. 
 
 355 
 
 religion of Baal satisfied the needs of both classes. It 
 had everything" in it which was most in accordance 
 with man's natural inclinations, while the true religion^ 
 which was confined to a very small portion of the 
 world, was despised, and was opposed in every point 
 to man's sinful propensities. 
 
 The whole context of the history seems therefore to 
 lead us to the conclusion that just at that moment when 
 the profession of the false religion was imperiling the 
 true, Grod saw fit to interfere by the agency of Elijah. 
 Not only was he fitted by natural temperament, but God 
 seems to have educated him gradually for this great 
 work, so that he was able in God's name boldly to demand 
 of Ahab, " Gather me together all Israel unto Mount 
 Carmel, the prophets of Baal, four hundred and fifty 
 men, and the prophets of the groves four hundred, which 
 eat at Jezebel's table" — boldly to demand of the Israel- 
 ites, " How long halt ye between two opinions ? If the 
 Lord be God, follow Him ; but if Baal, then follow him." 
 The test proposed was peculiarly appropriate. " The 
 God who answereth by Jive, He is the God." The god 
 of heavenly fire would surely vindicate his claims, and 
 the people would be satisfied. The despair of the wor- 
 shippers of Baal, when the sun was fast sinking on the 
 horizon, is vividly contrasted, in the sacred page, with 
 the calm confidence of the Prophet, as he built again 
 the altar of the true God, for the darkness and tlie light 
 were both alike to Him. You know the rest of the 
 story, how the fire of tlie Lord fell and consumed the 
 burnt sacrifice, and the wood and the stones, although 
 drenched with water ; and we seem to hear the shout of 
 all Israel, " The Lord, He is the God ; The Lord, He is 
 the God ! " 
 
 But in contemplating this impressive scene, we must 
 not lose the lessons which it is intended to convey to all 
 
 2 A 2 
 
356 
 
 SEEMON XXXV. 
 
 ages, even to the present time. " If the Lord be God, 
 follow Him." What words for us in this age to ponder ! 
 Is there such a thing as following Baal in the present 
 day ? It is true the religion has passed away, but not 
 the spirit which gave the power to that religion. Baal 
 worship may stand for the religion of the world. At 
 the present time, are not men constructing religions 
 for themselves very much on the same principle as 
 that of Baal ? — deifying, as it were, the forces of nature, 
 and endeavouring to represent, without any proof what- 
 ever, that the forces of nature have in some undefined 
 way an originating or creative power ? What is this 
 but substantially the error of the worshippers of the 
 sun, who worshipped the creature or created thing 
 more than the Creator who formed and ])lanned it, and 
 adjusted and controlled its forces, so as to produce the 
 result in a universe of created things? This error 
 formed one half of the religion of Baal, and we shall 
 find the other half to consist in the substitution of a 
 religion of form for one of spiritual and intense reality. 
 
 The religion of Baal has passed away, but the religion 
 of nature and ceremonial remains. " Wherefore halt ye 
 between two opinions ? If the Lord be God, follow 
 Him : but if Baal, then follow Him." If you, my young 
 friends, if we in middle life, or even if those among us 
 with silvery hairs are living in the mere outward show 
 of religion ; if we maintain it merely because we 
 think the world would not go on and be kept in order 
 without an outward show of religion, and of morality, 
 all will avail us nothing. If we do not believe in our 
 hearts that God has spoken, that the Light of the 
 World has come ; — if we see not that 
 
 " In mortal weakness once was veiled Tliy might, 
 Light of eternal day " : — 
 
A CALL TO DECISION. 
 
 357 
 
 all this outward semblance of religion will avail us 
 nothing. The religion of Christ is true, and this is the 
 reason why God calls upon you to follow it. His words 
 throughout the Bible, from the first chapter of Genesis 
 to the last chapter of Revelation, are substantially of 
 the tenor of the words of Elijah : " If the Lord be 
 God, follow Him : but if Baal, then follow him.'' 
 
 The Jew was not asked to believe in revealed religion 
 without inquiry : and as with the Jew so with the Chris- 
 tian. " If thy children ask thee in times to come, What 
 mean these testimonies, statutes, and judgments ? " they 
 were not taught to answer, " It is the rehgion of our 
 country, your parents, and friends ; believe it, believe 
 it." But we shall recollect they were expressly directed 
 to explain to their children the history of the events 
 which led to those great and good testimonies, statutes, 
 and judgments, and to show them that such things were 
 worthy of God. So in the New Testament, every 
 Christian is directed to give an intelligent and reason- 
 able answer to every one who asks of him a reason of 
 the hope that is in him. 
 
 There is another point in which our position as 
 Christians resembles that of the Jews ; it is in our 
 advantages and privileges. We who have heard the 
 word of the Gospel, and are God's elect, have been 
 chosen by Him to hear the word of the Gospel, 
 chosen to this special privilege. Plow many millions 
 of the human race have never had that privilege ! 
 We have been chosen to special advantages which 
 render it comparatively easy when we hear the voice 
 of God calling to us, " If the Lord be God, follow 
 Him," to say " Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth, 
 I will follow Thee as far as I understand Thy require- 
 ments." How great, dear young people, are your pri- 
 vileges ! Has not Christ's Gospel been explained to you 
 
358 
 
 SERMON XXXV. 
 
 by loving Christian parents, friends, and teachers ? Wo 
 are cast upon life in a Christian land. The knowledge 
 and influences of Christianity have been around our 
 path and dwelling from our earliest years, and how 
 often are they entwined with the heart's best feelings, 
 in the tenderness of a father's affection, in the depth 
 of a mother's love ! 
 
 Those parents who feel that " this God is our God 
 for ever and ever — He will be our guide even unto 
 death," will not bring up their children in a spirit 
 of worldly policy, but will delight in showing to them 
 both Zion's bulwarks, with their strong foundations 
 deep in the solid rock of fact, and Zion's palaces — 
 Christ's character, " in its shape how lovely " ! Now 
 that your eyes may be touched by the Saviour's finger, 
 may see in Him " the Lamb of God who taketh away 
 the sin of the world," may see in His human character 
 the lineaments of Heaven, brought down and revealed 
 to us on earth, you must, dear young people, choose 
 whom ye will serve. The choice is now as of old, 
 between the religion of Christ and the religion of the 
 world. But from what a high vantage ground do you 
 who have been so blessed make the great choice between 
 good and evil, truth and falsehood, the broad and the 
 narrow way ! You are upon the mountain where you 
 tread the solid rock, where you enjoy the clear moral 
 atmosphere which a truly Christian education inevit- 
 ably gives ; your eyes are not blinded by the fog, or 
 your feet impeded by the mire of the plain ; and when 
 by God's grace you try to make some straight steps for- 
 ward, you at least can see the narrow path before you. 
 Is not this a position of great responsibility ? God does 
 not give us privileges and blessings without holding us 
 responsible for their use. We cannot, if we would, 
 refuse the gift of life with its responsibilities ; for after 
 
A CALL TO DECISION. 
 
 359 
 
 this life is another. We may, however, reject the 
 immortal crown which the Lord the righteous Judge 
 will give in that day unto all those who love His 
 appearing ; but we cannot do away with the debt of 
 gratitude we owe to God for the surroundings of love 
 and the blessings of happiness and of knowledge with 
 which our Grod and Father has blessed us according to 
 the counsel of His allwise and perfect will. 
 
 Are you halting between two opinions ? If you love 
 the truth, there is no fear which you will choose — Christ 
 or Baal. Then walk while you have the light, lest dark- 
 ness come upon you. Seek the Truth : but be sure 
 you follow it as far as you have found it, or you will 
 be still halting between two opinions ; you may wait 
 until your association with the world, and your pur- 
 suit of the things of it, blunt your spiritual percep- 
 tions — your keen sense of the noble and the base. 
 Your indecision may sow the seed of that most fearful 
 thing, a gradual deterioration of moral character ; for 
 the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and 
 the pride of life, will ..not become less powerful 
 for your halting. " He that hath My commandments 
 and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me," says our 
 Lord. 
 
 Let us accept a warning from the conduct of the 
 Israelites, who fell on their knees and shouted, " The 
 Lord, He is the God." How many, think you, of the 
 many thousands of Israelites who then were convinced 
 that the Lord was God, followed Him, with Elijah, 
 Elisha, Obadiah, and other faithful followers of Je- 
 hovah ? 
 
 If we are waiting for some further illumination, some 
 mighty impulses which shall carry us away in a moment, 
 make all within us pure and holy, kindle steadfast 
 faith, and holy love to Jesus, without one positive effort 
 
360 
 
 SERMON XXXV. 
 
 on our part to do His will, to run, to figlit, to strive by 
 the aid of the Holy Spirit, without the decision to 
 take up the Cross of Him who bore the Cross for us 
 and follow in the steps of His most holy Life — we may 
 wait, and wait in vain. 
 
 May the Lord breathe into our hearts a growing- 
 faith that " we have not followed cunningly devised 
 fables," and may we now no longer " halt between two 
 opinions," but acknowledging the Lord to be God, join 
 in spirit the company who met on the Holy Mount, 
 Moses and Elijah, the representatives of the Church of 
 the past and of the present, and the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 who is the representative of the Chiurch of the 
 glorified, the Church of the future in Heaven ! Then 
 shall we thus judge, that He died for all, in order that 
 they who live should not henceforth live unto them- 
 selves, but unto Hi in who died for them and rose 
 again; and following Him in His humiliation, we 
 shall find ourselves at last where He, our adorable and 
 most blessed Saviour, is. 
 
SERMON XXXV r. 
 
 Preached Sept., 187G. 
 
 THE BARREN FIG-TREE. 
 
 " And seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, He came, if haply He 
 might find anything thereon : and when He came to it, He 
 found nothing but leaves ; for the time of figs was not yet. 
 And Jesus answered and said unto it, No man eat fruit of thee 
 
 hereafter for ever. And His disciples heard it And 
 
 Jesus answering saith unto them. Have faith in God." — Mark 
 xi. 13, 14, 22. 
 
 We shall recollect that this incident occurred during 
 the few last days of our Saviour's life. He took up His 
 abode at Bethany six days before tlie Passover, in that 
 quiet home, where He was so welcome, the home of 
 His friend Lazarus and his sisters, Mary and Martha. 
 On the first of these six days the pious family had 
 specially shown their gratitude in making Him a 
 supper, and it was then that Mary poured the pi ecious 
 and costly nard upon His head, and received the re- 
 bid^e of the calculating Jews, and the commendation 
 of her Lord. Then followed the triumphant procession 
 formed by the people in consequence of the raising of 
 Lazarus from the dead. How welcome the evening 
 retreat into the bosom of that happy and grateful 
 family, after the teaching of the day, with its incidents 
 of strife with the Pharisees, enraged against our Lord 
 just in proportion as His mission attested itself more 
 and more clearly to be that of the Messiah ! 
 
362 
 
 SEKMON XXXVI. 
 
 How much was pressed into those few days! So 
 anxious was He to forward His great mission and to 
 fulfil all the work of the day, that we seem to see Him 
 in the narrative hurrying from the home at Bethany 
 early in the morning to the scene of His labour in 
 Jerusalem. It was not the first time that our Lord 
 disregarded the needs of His body when the needs of 
 human souls depended on it. Here we learn that our 
 Lord, like ourselves, " hungered," and seeing a fig-tree 
 full of leaves, went expecting to find fruit to supply 
 His pressing need. We read that the " time of figs 
 was not yet ;" and superficial readers, and those who 
 indulge a disposition towards what is called " rational- 
 istic" teaching (although nothing to my mind seems 
 more irrational than this school of opinion) have founded 
 upon this an objection to the divine character of our 
 Lord. " This," cried a young student from Oxford, 
 full of the new light which he had gathered from those 
 who are busily engaged in sapping and mining in the 
 hope that the citadel of our Faith will one day fall into 
 their hands, " shows me that Jesus indulged in that 
 impatience which we as men feel when exhausted, and 
 cursed the innocent tree because He did not find fruit 
 at the wrong season of the year." To say nothing of 
 the self-sufiiciency and assurance which attributes such 
 conduct to the Son of God, nothing shows more com- 
 pletely our own possession of a wrong spirit, or rather 
 that a wrong spirit j^ossesses us, than to assume without 
 the very clearest evidence that the actions of good men 
 are actuated by wrong motives — how often we find this 
 decisive proof of a heart not fully cleansed and sancti- 
 fied, in the imputing to actions we do not understand 
 the very motives which, were we in a similar case, 
 would have actuated us^ and thus pass judgment on and 
 condemn ourselves ! 
 
THE BARKEN FIG-TREE. 
 
 363 
 
 But let us see whether this action of our Lord, if we 
 look more closely at all the circumstances of it, may 
 not only vindicate itself, but really be accounted for, so 
 as not merely to remove this shallow objection, but, as 
 it is one of the two only destructive miracles recorded 
 of our blessed Lord, to exhibit clearly the worthy objects 
 He had in view. Let us first deal with the difficulty 
 in which the Apostle Mark seems to involve us in the 
 details with which he clothes his narrative — altliough 
 at the period at which he wrote, it is probable that no 
 difficulty would have presented itself to the most youth- 
 ful of his readers. 
 
 Around the city of Jerusalem in those days were 
 many paths planted at the public expense with fig- 
 trees, to afford shade and refreshment to the passers-by. 
 To one of these trees Jesus went, attracted by its 
 vigorous leaves, and hoping to find fruit. It was, it is 
 true, not the time of fruit bearing ; but we are informed 
 by Josephus that there were only two months in the 
 year in which fruit would not be likely to be found, 
 because the ripe figs gradually dry upon the trees, and 
 are at all seasons fit for food ; so that, had it been a 
 fruit-bearing tree, there would be fruit in some stage 
 upon it ; but in this case there were leaves only. 
 
 His disciples lieard the words that He uttered : " Let 
 no man eat fruit of thee henceforward for ever." Can 
 we doubt that He meant them to hear those words ? and 
 was there no analogy between that great city so high 
 in religious profession, whose priests and scribes, whose 
 Pharisees and whose Sadducees had the beautiful out- 
 side profession of religion, and yet were so soon to 
 crucify the Lord of Glory ? Were there none among 
 Christ's disciples who needed the lesson that it is 
 possible for a man to be clothed with the beautiful 
 leaves of religious profession, to perform all his 
 duties with exactitude, and yet not be a fruit-bearing 
 
364 
 
 SERMON XXXVI. 
 
 tree ? Did not Peter need that lesson, who was so 
 forward to profess his faith in Christ — and yet, 
 when brought to the test, only a few days later, so 
 quickly denied his Lord ? Did not Judas need that 
 lesson to show him that the fig-leaves of hypocrisy 
 could not long cover his sin, and that after having been 
 warned again and again, and been specially rebuked only 
 a few days before, and shown that his love of money 
 was greater than his love for Christ his Master, that 
 there must come a time when the Dresser of the vine- 
 yard says, " Cut it down " ? One last warning in Christ's 
 mercy, speaking to him far more loudly than words, 
 and exhibiting the Divine character of Him who could 
 blast the fig-tree, was given only a day or two before 
 he took his last resolve to betray his Master with a 
 kiss. It was a silent lesson, which spoke far more 
 eloquently to the conscience, to the hidden spiritual 
 needs of these two men, than an individual applica- 
 tion would have done. And Peter seems to have 
 caught the meaning of his Master ; for the next morn- 
 ing he calls it to remembrance, saying, " Eabbi, behold, 
 the fig-tree which Thou cursedst is withered away." 
 
 Our Lord left the application of what may be termed 
 the silent lesson of the miracle to the Disciples them- 
 selves, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. But 
 what do we learn from the whole of this teaching, 
 which is all linked together ? First^ the danger of 
 living in the mere forms of religion, and assuming that, 
 because we have some sort of faith, we are safe ; when 
 our anxiety should be to examine ourselves, to see 
 whether the Lord will ^nd fruit. Secondly, the danger 
 of hypocrisy being engendered by such a religious life. 
 Thirdly, how we are to escape such dangers. First, 
 if we are unconverted, by seeking the pearl of great 
 price in a living faith in Christ and the works of the 
 Spirit ; secondly, if we are converted, our religious life 
 
THE BARREN FIG-TREE. 
 
 365 
 
 is to he maintained by cultivating faith and prayer 
 through the power of the Holy Spirit — that availing 
 prayer which, in accordance with God's will, is always 
 answered, and that one condition of its fulfilment is 
 our being in the loving, gentle, forgiving spirit of our 
 Lord. And then our Lord draws a lesson respecting 
 the importance of faith and prayer, and the conditions 
 of its efficacy. 
 
 And now for the application of these three lessons 
 to ourselves. Are we not living at a time in which 
 we specially need to remember, what thousands seem 
 to forget, how worthless and how deceiving are the 
 forms of religion, if they are not conducing to the 
 production and the ripening of that fruit which Christ 
 will one day seek on us ? We are told that judgment 
 will begin at the house of God, and that if we, while 
 having the time and opportunity, judge ourselves^ lay 
 open our hearts to God's judgment 7iou\ to the sword 
 of that Spirit which pierceth even to the dividing of 
 the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the 
 thoughts and intents of the heart, we shall not be 
 judged ; our " sins will go beforehand to judgment." 
 He shows us that faith and prayer will remove moun- 
 tains of difficulties both in outward and spiritual thing.'). 
 We must have " faith in God," whether at the begin- 
 ning of our religious course or as we go forward on our 
 journey. But a man who thinks he has faith should 
 constantly ask himself if he has the fruits of faith. 
 " What doth it profit, my 1)rethren, if a man say 
 he have faith, and have not works?" Can such a 
 faith save him? Oh, no! that faith which has not 
 works, which does not produce inward and outward 
 holiness, which does not stamp the image of God on the 
 heart and purify us, as He is pure, is not the faith of 
 the Gospel. It is an unholy, an unsaving faith ; and 
 if thou art resting in this, thou art still building thy 
 
366 
 
 SEEMON XXXVI. 
 
 house iijDon the sand. Hast thou really built upon 
 the rock Christ Jesus ? Or art thou merely like the fig- 
 tree covered with the leaves, and looking like a fruit- 
 bearing tree ? Art thou merely believing that Christ 
 died for the sins of the world and for thee, and living 
 a harmless, innocent life, removed for the present from 
 all the trials and provings of the world, and knowing 
 that all this innocence and harmlessness is not the 
 result of right princijDles, but merely of religious train- 
 ing ? If it flows from this, if there is no cross-bearing 
 at all in it, it is no part of Christ's religion ; it is not the 
 fruit which He seeks. " Every tree," says our Lord, 
 " that beareth not good fruit shall be cut down and 
 cast into the fire." Nothing less than the fruit of 
 inward and outward holiness will Christ seek. You 
 know well that you are not united to Christ, rooted and 
 grounded in Him, and yet you are passing in the world 
 for a Christian, but where are the fruits of the Spirit in 
 your daily life and conduct ? You may have a rehgion 
 of forms, or a religion without forms ; but have you 
 " love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, 
 faith, meekness, temperance " ? Are you year by year 
 loving God, and Jesus Christ whom He hath sent, 
 more and more ? Does Christ's religion improve your 
 character, and lead you to make greater and greater 
 sacrifices for Him and His blessed cause ? or is your 
 character deteriorating, and instead of receiving from 
 Christ, through the Spirit, the righteousness which 
 is the end and aim of His coming, are you pleading 
 His righteousness as a cover for your unrighteousness ? 
 You profess to love Christ. Then does your religion 
 bring forth the fruits of the Spirit ? Does the tree 
 really produce as it grows older more and more fruit ?* 
 
 * Evidently unfinislicd. — Ed. 
 
FRAGMENTS. 
 
 " If any man tliink himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him 
 acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the 
 commandments of the Lord." — 1 Cor. xiv, 37. 
 
 The Apostles speak of themselves in the New Testa- 
 ment with great humility, and as compassed about 
 with human infirmity. " Unto me," the Apostle Paul 
 says, "the least of all saints, is this grace given, that 
 I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable 
 riches of Christ." He lays no claim to a superior or 
 exalted holiness any more than the least of all saints ; 
 but in this passage he distinctly claims that, by virtue 
 of his office and calling, his words and writings are 
 far above the ordinary prophetical gift — far above the 
 gift of teaching of the spiritualiy-minded Christian, 
 " If any man think himself to be a prophet, or 
 spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I 
 write unto you are the commandments of the Lord." 
 Even as the Apostle Peter exhorts believers to " be 
 mindful of the words which were spoken before by 
 the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the 
 Apostles of the Lord and Saviour." But how did the 
 Apostle Paul defend his apostolic authority when it was 
 impugned ? for this will be a kind of crucial test as to 
 what his authority really rested upon, with the members 
 of the Corinthian Church ? " Truly the signs of an 
 
368 
 
 FEAGMENTS. 
 
 Apostle were wrought among yon, in all patience, in 
 signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds." We shall miss 
 the whole instruction intended to be conveyed, unless 
 we consider that we have here the Apostle earnestly 
 appealing to an adverse party in the Corinthian Church, 
 not merely respecting miracles, but miracles of such 
 a character, that they unquestionably established his 
 claim to apostolic authority. Of the character of these 
 we have several instances, and particularly that by 
 laying-on of the Apostle's hands the Holy Grhost was 
 given. We have the case of Cornelius, when, at the 
 coming of Peter, the Holy Ghost fell on the company, 
 " as on us at the beginning." We have some cases — 
 such as those of Elymas the sorcerer, and of Ananias 
 and Sapphira— where the power was used which the 
 Apostle Paul speaks of as given to him for edification. 
 
 We may very rightly believe that the faithful 
 preaching of the Grospel in the present day, will, if we 
 are only faithful to Christ our Master, be accompanied 
 with " the demonstration of the Spirit and of power," 
 in those miracles of grace, by which men are turned 
 from darkness to light, by which men who are " abomi- 
 nable, and to every good work reprobate," are changed 
 into the faithful, pure, meek, and lowly followers of a 
 crucified Saviour. But this " demonstration of the 
 Spirit and of power " was vouchsafed or given to the 
 early Church, not only as at the present day in the 
 general preaching of the Gospel, but in a way wholly 
 diverse — in a way which enabled the Apostle to say — 
 what none of the most gifted preachers of the Gospel 
 since apostolic times has ever dared to say — " If any 
 man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let 
 him acknowledge that the things I write unto you are 
 the commandments of the Lord." It is one of the 
 characteristics of the Christian miracles, that whether 
 
FRAGMENTS. 
 
 369 
 
 tliey were wrought as signs, to prove the truth of the 
 Christian reh'gion, or whether they were wrought to 
 prove the special inspiration of the words of the 
 Apostles as being the commandments of the Lord, they 
 were not empty wonders ; but contained a distinct 
 meaning, and had a clear and direct issue, the establish- 
 ment of the truth of the Christian religion, and the 
 truth and reliable character of the preaching and 
 writings of the Apostles of Christ, 
 
 In a word, we receive the teaching of the Apostles 
 and Evangelists as the Thessalonians did, " not as the 
 word of men, but as the word of Grod." And if we 
 refer to the First Epistle to the Thessalonians, we see 
 what great stress Paul lays upon the vital power of 
 the Gospel, as witnessing in the lives of its teachers, 
 as well as in signs and wonders. He shows how these 
 external proofs of the authority which Christ had 
 given to His Apostles were confirmed by their con- 
 duct. Thus Christ's religion, when once accepted, was 
 found to be all of a piece, like Christ's garment, with- 
 out seam from the top throughout. And as the early 
 Christians received their convictions of the truth of the 
 message by means of the signs wrought by the Apostles 
 we may well believe the miracles, because we must 
 believe the men who wrote the New Testament. How 
 does this perfect purity of intention — this holy morality 
 — which shines in their writings, appeal to the con- 
 science, and carry conviction to the poorest and hum- 
 blest, as well as to the most intellectual followers of the 
 Lord Jesus, as they turn over the pages of the New 
 Testament ! 
 
 At the same time, it is important for us to beai' in 
 mind that Holy Scripture does not receive its sanc- 
 tion merely because it commends itself to the feelings 
 of spiritually-minded men ; that the Gospel is not a 
 
 * ' 2 B 
 
370 
 
 FRAGMENTS. 
 
 message from Heaven merely because we feel it to be 
 so, but because of its coming to us with full credentials, 
 because " at the first it began to be spoken by the 
 Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard 
 Him ; G-od also bearing them witness both with signs 
 and wonders, and divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy 
 Grhost, according to His own will." What an exempli- 
 fication of the folly of the human heart, to refuse to 
 believe that the vast and increasing river of Christianity 
 had an adequate source ! they will acknowledge an 
 effect, but they will not admit the only explanation 
 which has ever been offered of its cause. For we can- 
 not conceal from ourselves that if Christianity be not a 
 religion from Heaven, if its origin was not attested by 
 miracles, then the greatest system of falsehood and 
 deception which has ever arisen in the world, has given 
 rise to the purest, the most truthful, and transparently 
 sincere religion — a religion which has been the salt of 
 the world, and has preserved it from utter corruption. 
 We need to seek the truth without us, and to attend 
 to the spirit within us, before we have the disposition 
 to which God offers a new heart. " Ask and ye shall 
 receive, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be 
 opened unto you," are the blessed words of our Lord ; 
 and we shall soon find that the Comforter, the Holy 
 Ghost, shines on the sacred page, and availingly brings 
 home to our conscience, to our reason, to our heart, that 
 He and He alone has the words of eternal life, and 
 the key of David which can unlock the treasury of 
 Heaven. Happy is he who is seeking pearls, the real, 
 tlie true — who does not spare the search ; for he shall 
 assuredly find the Pearl of Great Price. 
 
FEAGMENTS. 
 
 373 
 
 " The wages of sin is death ; but the gift of God is eternal life 
 through (or in) Jesus Christ our Lord." — Rom. vi. 23. 
 
 There is sometliing very stirring in the wording of 
 this text, which ends one portion of the argument in 
 the sixth chapter of Romans, in which the Apostle deals 
 with the objection to the doctrine of justification by 
 faith, " Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound ?" 
 Men will not work without wages of some kind : they 
 may work for love, or work for money ; they may work 
 for a present or they may work for a future reward. 
 But they sometimes make the mistake of working for 
 those who promise fair and afterwards deceive them : and 
 thus they are rewarded who serve him. " The wages 
 of sin is death." Sin may bring present enjoyment, but 
 the enjoyment is like 
 
 " The Dead Sea fruit 
 Whicli fades to ashes on the lips." 
 
 The wages of sin is not the death of the body, but the 
 death of the soul. The analogy between the outward 
 and the spiritual world is often very striking. The 
 God of nature is the God of grace, and when we seek 
 for illustrations of spiritual truth, we can never do 
 wrong in taking them from the outward creation. The 
 spiritual analogies to be found in the change of the 
 caterpillar to the chrysalis, and then to the butterfly or 
 moth, are so wonderful, that the very word {psyche) 
 among the ancient Greeks for " soul," was the same as 
 for "butterfly." Now modern investigation has shown 
 that a distinct moth or butterfly, only undeveloped, 
 exists in the body of every caterpillar ; so that the 
 caterpillar is the mask, or outward covering, of the 
 future butterfly within ; and yet has all the organs of 
 
 2 B 2 
 
372 
 
 FRAGMENTS. 
 
 digestion, respiration, &c., entirely distinct from the 
 butterfly which it encloses. This identity is continued 
 in the chrysalis, and as it were from the tomb issues in 
 its proper time the perfect butterfly. But sometimes 
 this process is marred — there are numerous tribes of 
 insects called Ichneumon flies, which are provided with 
 apparatus by which they pierce the body of the cater- 
 pillar before it becomes a chrysalis. Now the most 
 wonderful part of all is, that they do not lay their 
 eggs so as to injure any of the organs of the caterpillar, 
 but they are deposited in the undeveloped butterfly, and 
 when the period arrives for the further development 
 of the creature, nothing remains but the empty skin. 
 The larvae which have been developed from the eggs of 
 the Ichneumon fly, have spared the caterpillar's life, 
 but they have destroyed the Psyche, the butterfly. 
 What a striking emblem this is of the work of sin ! 
 Just as in the caterpillar, the work of sin may not be 
 detected till it is too late, and till the last great change 
 comes. But if its operation is not arrested, the in- 
 evitable result is spiritual death. Whereas the work 
 of Christ is to make us free from sin, so that we 
 have our fruit unto holiness, and in the end everlasting 
 life. Meanwhile this, our natural life, is intended by 
 God to minister to our spiritual life, the life of the 
 soul. 
 
FRAGMENTS. 
 
 373 
 
 " But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto 
 the world."— GaZ. vi. 14. 
 
 The Apostle, in this sixth chapter of G-alatians, speaks 
 to some in the Church evidently in the language of 
 doubt and warning. He reminds them that a man 
 may think himself to be something — a Christian — when 
 he is nothing, and may deceive himself; and adds 
 perhaps the most awful warning to Christian professors 
 contained in Holy Scripture : " Be not deceived ; God 
 is not mocked : for whatsoever a man soweth_, that shall 
 he also reap." " Every man shall bear his own burden." 
 There are those in the Galatian Church who " desire to 
 make a fair shew in the flesh," " lest they should suffer 
 persecution for the cross of Christ," " Let every man 
 prove his own work," If you would be Christ's, you 
 must feel that you are a sinner and redeemed : neither 
 to be a Hebrew of the Hebrews, nor to belong to 
 Quakerism, nor to the most orthodox church on earth, 
 nor to live in the delusion that we are not as other men 
 are, will avail anything, unless we are new creatures, 
 unless " old things have passed away, and all things 
 become new." " And all things are of God who hath 
 reconciled us to Himself by the death of His Son." Now, 
 if we be reconciled to God by the death of His Son, 
 the first thought of the renewed heart is, " What can 
 I render to the Lord for all His benefits ?" — the free 
 gift of forgiveness, of righteousness, of redemption, 
 of sanctification ; the gift of an ever-present Saviour, 
 of the Holy Ghost ; the gift of freedom of soul, " the 
 gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord " — 
 the great thought of the renewed heart is, He 
 lias borne the cross for me, and now what can I 
 
374 
 
 FRAGMENTS. 
 
 render ? I will take up and bear my cross in His 
 name and for His sake. But the Apostle Paul goes 
 still further, and says, " Grod forbid that I should glory 
 save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, whereby 
 the world is crucified to me, and I unto the world." 
 I glory no longer in the things of earth, or in the 
 religious distinctions of a narrow and past dispensation 
 which applied to a single nation, but I glory in the 
 cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, which applies to every 
 nation under heaven, for they are all redeemed by the 
 precious blood of Christ. It is a salvation alike for the 
 prince and the beggar. I glory in the cross of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, because I feel that it has saved me. 
 I know that the " old man " is nailed to the cross, 
 and that God's new creation, the " new man which is 
 created in righteousness and true holiness," has com- 
 menced. The old man is not dead in me, but it is 
 dying : the new man is not yet fully formed, but it is 
 being created by the Spirit of my Saviour, and I follow 
 on, " if that I may apprehend (take hold of) that for 
 which I am taken hold of by Christ Jesus." 
 
 Now the sight by faith of the cross of our Lord and 
 Saviour Jesus Christ conveys different lessons to us at 
 different periods of our life. Some years ago, I went in 
 the High Alps one of those expeditions which produce 
 in the mind of the young and strong a vivid sense of 
 enjoyment among the glorious works of Grod which He 
 has pronounced " very good." The thought of the 
 Christian is this : " My Father made them all and the 
 analogy between the works of nature and the works of 
 grace often suggests thoughts which may be profitable to 
 others as well as to ourselves. The young and strong 
 are all starting on a journey : the path which leadeth 
 to life is a narrow path, and ofttimes the way is less 
 distinct than at others. How glorious is the crispness 
 
FRAGMENTS. 
 
 375 
 
 of the frosty morning ! the sun is brightly shining, and 
 will doubtless soon dispel the thin mist which hangs 
 over our narrow snowy path. There is a Sun, a Sun of 
 Righteousness, which will light us on our way, and will 
 warm our hearts as we start on our journey over the 
 cold and stony wilderness of this world, up those rocky 
 and almost inaccessible heights. Our faith is strong, our 
 youthful hopes beat high, but we cannot conceal from our- 
 selves that there are dangers on the right hand and on 
 the left : there are precipices where all hopes have been 
 abandoned, there are slippery paths upon the icy slopes, 
 where a false step may be fatal, the slippery paths of 
 youth, in which, although the traveller may escape de- 
 struction, yet, weary and footsore, he is delayed and 
 hindered on his journey. He loses the glorious 
 prospect from the heights, or is benighted, and scarcely, 
 with fear and trembling, again finds the road ere it 
 be too late. 
 
 # * * * * 
 
 What so suitable for the commencement of the journey 
 as a clear view of Ilim who for us men and for our 
 salvation endured the cross ? He died for us. " We 
 suffer indeed justly, but this man hath done nothing 
 amiss." Have you, my young friends, accepted a 
 crucified Saviour, the sinless One who was made a sin 
 offering for us, who knew no sin ? May we not say, in 
 the figurative language of a well-known hymn, 
 
 " There is life for a look at the Crucified One, 
 There is life in this moment for thee " ? 
 
 Hast thou gazed upon His cross, and hast thou felt that 
 thou must give thy heart, thy whole heart to Him, and 
 follow in the narrow way, which loads by the cross of 
 Christ ? Hast thou felt the burden of thy past sin roll 
 from thy shoulders and be lost at the foot of the Cross, 
 
3'76 
 
 FRAGMENTS. 
 
 and felt tliat thou canst say with the Apostle, Hence- 
 forth, farewell my glorying in the things of this 
 world : " God forbid that I should glory, save in the 
 cross of our Lord Jesus Christ ; " and now with a light 
 heart and earnest tread my feet go forward in the 
 narrow way ? 
 
 We go forward ; and how sometimes does the 
 Christian feel that there are points in his journey 
 when he is doubtful as to his path — critical points 
 in life's journey ! What is that far above us which 
 is suddenly revealed at a turning in our path? It 
 is the cross again ; and thou shalt hear a voice 
 behind thee, saying, " This is the way, walk thou in 
 it." The sun is at last rising in its strength ; the 
 mists are clearing away ; the path is full before us ; and 
 after many a severe labour and long weary climb, as in 
 the natural, so in our spiritual journey, we arrive at the 
 summit of the Delectable Mountains. Before us is the 
 glorious panorama of the mountains of Grod. We see 
 the dangers we have been led safely past ; we still 
 see the narrow path before us ; let us rest awhile ; we 
 think we see heights of purity and holiness which 
 here we shall never climb, though we may climb them 
 hereafter. There are depths we shall never, never ex- 
 plore. Far, far in the distance is a valley where, after 
 the toils of life in many a -varied scene and distant 
 clime, the industrious inhabitants return to their native 
 land, and there seek a quiet resting-place, a kind of 
 land of Beulah, before the close of their earthly pil- 
 grimage. Are there not as in the natural so in the 
 spiritual journey points of vantage ground ? "I have 
 written unto you, young men," says the Apostle, " be- 
 cause ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in 
 you." " Love not the world, neither the things that 
 are in the world. If any man love the world, the love 
 
FKAGMENTS. 
 
 377 
 
 of the Father is not in him." " God forbid that I 
 should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ." It is by following in the way of the cross of 
 Christ, my young friends, that you will obtain that 
 clearness of vision in Divine things that you long for. 
 
 How often is it that at the threshold of the Christian 
 journey, this imperfect sight, this mist which hangs 
 over the landscape, becomes a hindrance, or Satan 
 urges it as an excuse against the Christian's going 
 forward in the path of duty ! " Strait is the gate 
 and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life." It is 
 our duty to press forward in the way of the cross. 
 There was a proverb in the ancient Christian Church, 
 which, in our own times, may well be revived : " Via 
 crucis, via lucis," " The way of the cross is the way of 
 light." Yes, truly, it is not only the way of light, but 
 the way into the sunshine also, above the damps and 
 mists of doubt and unbelief into the clear atmosphere 
 of Christian light, where the rays of the Sun of Right- 
 eousness give not only clearness of vision of all which 
 here we need to know, but warmth : the light of love, 
 of joy and peace, in believing. 
 
378 
 
 FEAGMENTS. 
 
 " Then shall the Kingdom of Heaven be likened unto ten virgins, 
 which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the Bridegroom. 
 And five of them were wise, and five foolish." — Matt. xxv. 1,2. 
 
 We shall recollect that the subject treated of in this 
 and in the preceding chapter of the Gospel of Mat- 
 thew is the coming of Christ ; and that the lesson to 
 be drawn from it, of watchfulness and diligence, and 
 of the strict account we shall have to give to our Lord 
 at His coming, is applied in the four parables to various 
 classes of persons. In the parable of the " faithful and 
 wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his 
 household, to give them their meat in due season," we 
 see how blessed he is if his lord when he cometh shall 
 find him so doing ; and the awful consequence of his 
 losing faith in his master's word, and ceasing to give 
 heed to his directions. 
 
 We are at present concerned with the parable of the 
 virgins, and we may remark that the words at its close, 
 " Watch, therefore, for ye know neither the day nor 
 the hour when the Son of Man cometh," and the words 
 with which the next parable begins, " For the Kingdom 
 of Heaven is like unto a man travelling into a far 
 country," who called his own servants, and delivered 
 unto them his goods, seem to link the parable of the 
 virgins and that of the talents very closely together, 
 and to exemplify the dangers to which what may be 
 termed the passive and active sides of the Christian 
 character, are severally liable. Christianity is not 
 composed entirely of a state of right feeling or entirely 
 of a course of right action, but these are inseparably 
 connected in the character of the true Christian. The 
 foolish virgins failed, because they thought their part 
 too easy, while the man who received the one talent. 
 
FEAGMENTB. 
 
 379 
 
 thought his part too hard. In the parable of the 
 virgins we have most clearly portrayed the Christian 
 Church. The faces of all are Zionwards, they are 
 all going to the marriage supper of the Lamb. The 
 foolish virgins are not mere professors, and they are 
 not hypocrites. But, you will say, perhaps the foolish 
 virgins had not the oil of Divine grace, and will 
 remark that without it faith is dead ; but we know 
 that they had oil in their lamps, and that the lamps 
 were burning when they set out on their journey. Their 
 fault was that they took no store of oil in their vessels 
 with their lamps, and they did not take the precaution 
 on their journey to apply to those that sold, and now it 
 was too late. They went carelessly on their journey, 
 forgetting that their lamps must be brightly shining to 
 beautify the marriage procession. They did not use all 
 diligence to make their calling and election sure, so that 
 they might never fall, and " that an entrance might be 
 abundantly ministered to them " into their Lord's king- 
 dom. Like the man in the parable of the talents, they 
 had not made sufiScient use of their opportunities. 
 " Those that sell " must be understood to represent the 
 appointed means of grace which comes from God, but 
 which Grod dispenses often through human instrumen- 
 tality. These foolish virgins had not remembered 
 that it was not enough to have their lights burning, 
 to have their intentions clearly manifested by setting 
 out on their journey, but that it was also necessary 
 for them to seek with earnest vigilance the means of 
 replenishing their store of oil. It was not enough 
 once to have had oil. 
 
 What a striking picture is this of the Oriental 
 wedding ! " While the bridegroom tarried they all 
 slumbered and slept, and at midnight was a cry heard, 
 " Behold, the bridegroom cometh." Now the procession 
 
380 
 
 FRAGMENTS. 
 
 advances, ever swelled and beautified by the long lines 
 of torches falling in from all sides into the procession, 
 showing us how, from the east and the west, from the 
 north and the south, they shall all meet, their lights 
 no longer obscured by the mists of earth, half hidden 
 by the dark night, shining alone or in groups of 
 the five or the ten, but each lending splendour to the 
 marriage supper of the Lamb. Then we have the 
 mansion into which the procession enters, gloriously 
 bright, and they that were ready went in with the 
 bridegroom, and the door was shut. Which will be 
 our portion ? will it be with those who are wise^ who 
 " endure to the end," who " shall shine as the stars for 
 ever and ever " ? Or of those who say, " Lord, 
 Lord," but have not done those things which He has 
 said — who have once known what it was to start on 
 their journey to Heaven, with their lamps filled with 
 the light of Faith and the oil of Grrace in their hearts, 
 kindled with the love of Christ, but who from want of 
 watchfulness and prayer, and seeking fresh supplies of 
 the Spirit of Jesus directly from God, have allowed 
 their lamps to go out ? 
 
FKAGMENTS. 
 
 381 
 
 " I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that 
 thou shouldest keep them from the evil." — John xvii. 15. 
 
 What blessed words are these to those who love 
 the Lord and are necessarily engaged in the busy 
 world ! How blessed to feel that " He in whom 
 dwelt all the fulness of the Grodhead bodily " — at the 
 close of that human life, in which He was " tempted in 
 all points like as we are, yet without sin," should, after 
 experiencing all the trials of human life, desire that His 
 followers should not be " taken out of the world," but 
 that they be kept from the evil " which is in the world. 
 And in this we may see the Divine character of Christ. 
 Perhaps there has been no temptation to which the 
 highest, the purest and noblest human characters have 
 been so prone as this, of wishing to escape from the 
 world. Wearied with the perverseness of sin, "the con- 
 tradiction of sinners" which formed so great a part of 
 our Lord's trial, the ignorance, the folly, the dulness 
 of apprehension, the want of a true longing and taste 
 for heavenly things, they have retired from the world, 
 given themselves up to meditation and converse with 
 God and prayer, and at intervals, as a sacred duty, they 
 have come forth from their seclusion to benefit their 
 fellows — but, as it were, hopelessly, unless others were 
 prepared to do as they themselves had done, to give 
 up all. 
 
 They have separated themselves from the world — have 
 given up their business, have reduced their physical 
 needs to the narrowest limits, have devoted the surplus 
 to the poor. Far be it from me to say that any course 
 of conduct which is the result of conscientious convic- 
 tions is not fully accepted by our Father which is in 
 Heaven ; but then there are two questions which arise — 
 
382 
 
 FEAGMENTS. 
 
 First, Is this course of conduct one which is truly in 
 accordance with the teaching and example of our Lord ? 
 His conduct was the reverse of asceticism. Although 
 we find Him withdrawing from the crowd for prayer and 
 retirement, His ordinary life was one ceaseless round of 
 labour and duties, performed in the greatest publicity : 
 " They had not leisure so much as to eat." The second 
 point which we may observe is, that we have never 
 found that the course of life which we have been de- 
 scribing is compatible with extensive usefulness, and for 
 this reason — that these excellent people have narrowed 
 the circle of their Christian influence ; and while the 
 spirit of their lives was calculated to be extremely 
 useful, their ascetic views of Christianity, as a matter 
 of fact and experience, were constantly narrowing their 
 opportunities of doing good. 
 
 We are called to deny ourselves, to take up our cross 
 daily, and follow Christ ; but it does not follow that if 
 we transferred our abode of our own accord from a 
 mansion to a cottage we should be serving Christ 
 more fully, or taking up what He has designed for ow 
 cross. 
 
 " Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see 
 God." 
 
 Like the mantle which fell from Elijah as he was 
 taken up into Heaven, so Christ leaves to His believing, 
 true-hearted followers, not an immunity from the toils, 
 the trials, the temptations of the world, but that 
 heavenly character, which is capable of being ever 
 more and more sanctified, by obeying the truth through 
 the Spirit. We are, as the Apostle Paul says, " pre- 
 destinated," not as individuals but as Christians, " to 
 be conformed to the image of His Son," our blessed 
 Saviour. But in that sanctification there is a heavenly 
 
FRAGMENTS. 
 
 383 
 
 glory, bequeathed to us as His dying legacy, for, being 
 made perfect in His likeness, we shall be at last fitted 
 to be where He is ; " and the glory which Thou gavest 
 Me I have given them. Father, I will that they also 
 whom Thou hast given Me be with Me where I am ; 
 that they may behold My glory, which Thou hast 
 given Me." 
 
 My young friends, you may be told that it is impos- 
 sible for a man to engage in the world of business 
 or professional life and to succeed as a Christian may 
 legitimately wish to succeed, while keeping his hands 
 clean and his heart pure ; that it is impossible to follow 
 the example and to tread in the steps of Christ your 
 Saviour, to be baptized, i.e. purified, washed, by that 
 baptism of suffering with which He was baptized, 
 because He was God, and t/ou are sinful men and 
 women. But you may be very sure that those who 
 tell you this, whether they be worldly-minded persons 
 or Christians, are " blind guides ; and if the blind lead 
 the blind, both shall fall into the ditch." " If thine eye 
 be single, thy whole body shall be full of light." If thou 
 followest Him, thou shalt not walk in darkness ; but if 
 thou ceasest to follow Him, thy Saviour, darkness ever 
 increasing will be thy portion. For His conduct and 
 example, explained by the Holy Spirit who dwelleth in 
 thee, and taketh of the things of Christ and showeth 
 them unto thee, is thi/ example, tliT/ perfect pattern, 
 for this outward and inward Christian life and walk to 
 which thou art called. " Arm thyself likewise with the 
 same mind." 
 
 What is the great principle of Christianity as applied 
 to the world ? We clearly are not to desire, amid our 
 difficulties, our conflicts, our sufferings, to be taken out 
 of the world. 
 
 . . . " Using the world as not abusing it, for 
 
384 
 
 FKAGMENTS. 
 
 the fashion of this world passeth away." All things 
 are ours if we are Christ's. Our life here is a glorious 
 opportunity if we would use it aright. We are all to 
 use this world as Christ used it ; that we may redeem 
 the time, and " do good " after the example of the 
 Christ, who is the Truth ; — by obeying the Truth, by 
 hearing the sayings of Christ, and with believing 
 hearts doing them ; striving not to talk about our faith, 
 but to show our faitb hy our works ; — and our souls will 
 be purified by the Holy Spirit. And this " use" of the 
 world is only to be fully accomplished by our striving, 
 with the aid of the Holy Spirit, to convert our 
 opportunities, however large or however small they 
 may be, into opportunities of spiritual blessing to 
 others. If much has been given to us, much will be 
 required : if we are entrusted, for instance, with great 
 wealth, how should we rejoice in the opportunity of 
 largely forwarding Christ's blessed cause at home and 
 abroad ! 
 
 Will any one venture to assert that if a Christian is 
 ever striving to do kind actions from the love of 
 Christ, his character will not become more loving and 
 more kind ? . . . . Does not more grace follow faith- 
 ful actions, if he is constantly judging himself by the 
 pattern and example of Christ, and striving to do those 
 things which Christ says ? The Lord loves and incites 
 us to those works of faith ; they are His good works ; 
 they tend to increase that holiness towards which we 
 are progressing, even " the measure of the stature of 
 the fulness of Christ." 
 
 1 Peter ii. . . . 11th verse. The Apostle, after 
 having laid down the principles of the doctrine of 
 Christ, goes on to speak of that practice which must 
 
FRAGMENTS. 
 
 385 
 
 flow from them if tbey have really sprung up in 
 our hearts. If there is a new spring opened in the 
 barren ground — streams must flow from it. The 
 idea is still of constant stirring. First he spoke of the 
 effort to take hold of those means of grace which God 
 has provided; now he speaks of earnest effort — the 
 strift in practice, in the daily life. 
 
 As there are now, so there were then, men who were 
 glad to understand the theory of religion, but the proof 
 whether the real change of heart had been wrought — 
 was in the way in which they welcomed the practical 
 home-thrust of the Apostle intreating them to " ab- 
 stain from fleshly lusts," — that is, all undue desires, 
 all undue and misapplied use of earthly things. The 
 Apostle John also speaks of these — " the desires of the 
 flesh, of the eyes and the pride of life." Some persons 
 seem to think that such exhortations as these are not 
 at all suited for Christians^ but the Apostles Peter and 
 John clearly apply them to Christians. 
 
 The feverish pressing thirst after gain is a besetting 
 sin of Christians. The pride of life — the desire to 
 occupy what is called a " proper position," and have 
 all men speak well of them. 
 
 The Christian has a glorious and infinitely exalted 
 calling, and he is a king, he is a priest ; his position 
 and holiness should place him above the low fleshly 
 motives and aims of worldly men. He receives the 
 consolations of the SjDirit of God — and communion with 
 God himself — thus raising him towards the position of 
 the angels of God. 
 
 " As strangers " — whatever others do — remember 
 you are chosen and called out of the spirit of the world 
 — brought into a new society — citizens of another city. 
 You are only travellers here. 
 
 A Christian must walk warily, for within him there 
 
 * 2 c 
 
386 
 
 FRAGMENTS. 
 
 is a sinful nature. He must be diligent in his outward 
 calling, must exercise prudence and care. He may use 
 the world, as not abusing it — but still he is not a man 
 at ease in it — he is only a traveller, and as a traveller 
 he may do with indifferent fare, without delicacies — this 
 world is not his home. His portion is not in this life, 
 his heart is set on the Home which his Saviour is 
 preparing for him. He strives to keep this idea before 
 him. 
 
 The necessary attention to things which concern the 
 body is a condition of his present state, but he may by 
 not keeping this reality constantly before him, that he 
 is a traveller — bring his immortal soul into slavery, 
 which was never intended by his God. 
 
 All these things must be weighed in the light 
 of Grod's countenance, and in the light in which the 
 thought of a death-bed will shed upon the value of 
 earthly things. 
 
 12th verse. The object of a Christian in his out- 
 ward conversation, should be that God shall be glorified. 
 We all much forget and greatly neglect this. 
 
 24th verse. The Apostle seems compelled here 
 to bring in Christ's great sacrifice, that He bare our 
 sins in His own body on the tree. That which is 
 deepest in the heart is generally most in the mouth, 
 if it is of interest to all. " God commended His love to 
 us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died 
 for us." (Rom. v. 8.) The person of Christ united 
 the Almightiness of the Godhead with the nature of 
 man. 
 
 We are not told in Scripture why it was necessary 
 that God should in the person of Christ bear our sins, 
 or how, or in what sense He bore them ; angels desire 
 to look into these things. It is enough for us to know, 
 
FRAGMEI^TS. 
 
 387 
 
 that if we accept tlie blessed offers of Plis grace, our 
 j^ast sins are forgiven, and that the inevitable effect 
 of sin, the death of the soul, is done away — that 
 Christ as Grod has interposed, an act of the Divinity 
 by which the inevitable result of past sin is turned 
 away from us. It is enough for us to rejoice in this 
 great salvation. 
 
 FINIS. 
 
LONDON : 
 
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 STAMFORD STIIEEI ASD CHAUIHG .CROSS. 
 
Now Ready, Price 12s. 
 
 Third Edition. Zvo. 700 pages. Printed from the 
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 THE INNER LIFE 
 
 or THK 
 
 RELIGIOUS SOCIETIES OF THE COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 BY ROBERT BARCLAY. 
 
 LONDON : HODDER AND STOUGHTON, PATEKNOSTER ROW. 
 
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