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SERMONS 
 
 ^i^-u^^ 
 
 PREACHED TN 
 
 TRINITY CHURCH, UPPER CHELSEA. 
 
 BY THE 
 
 REV. HENRY BLUNT, A.M. 
 
 RECTOR OF STREATHAM, SURREY; 
 
 LATE FELLOW OF PEMBROKE COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE; AND DOMESTIC 
 CHAPLAIN TO HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF RICHMOND. 
 
 if irst American from tje iFourtl; Slontron SETiition. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 HERMAN HOOKER, 
 
 N. W. CORNER CHESNUT AND FIFTH STREETS. 
 1840. 
 
•> '-^ •'«•- ^^v. , , , 
 
 T. K. & P. G. Collins, Printers, 
 No. 1 Lodge Alley. 
 
i f.i:G»0CH882 | 
 
 ■ , thsologig&lJ 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 In compliance with the wish of 
 many of the Author's late congrega- 
 tion, to possess some of those dis- 
 courses, which they heard from time 
 time, during his residence of nearly 
 twelve years among them, he has se- 
 lected the contents of the present 
 volume. His desire while with them, 
 was, as far as he knew himself, to come 
 " not with excellency of speech or of 
 wisdom, declaring unto them the tes- 
 timony of God. For he determined 
 not to know any thing among them 
 save Jesus Christ and him crucified." 
 " That their faith should not stand in 
 the wisdom of men, but in the power 
 
IV PREFACE. 
 
 of God." In presenting them with 
 these reminiscences of his ministry, 
 his intention is still the same, and the 
 highest praise he covets is, that there 
 should not be a sentence that is not 
 entirely in unison with the revealed 
 Word of God, and perfectly intelli- 
 gible to the most uneducated of those, 
 to whom it was his privilege originally 
 to address it. 
 
 To any thing beyond this, the pre- 
 sent discourses have no claim; written 
 as they were amidst the unceasing 
 cares and harassing labors of a large 
 parish, they contain as might be ex- 
 pected, no traces of finished composi- 
 tion, or of profound thought, or of 
 originality of conception. Such as 
 they are, they have been selected 
 simply as appearing among the most 
 useful of the author's pulpit ministra- 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 tions; and as usefulness has always 
 been his highest aim, his prayer is, 
 that He who "possesseth the residue 
 of the Spirit," may enable these dis- 
 courses, in their present shape, to be- 
 come a hundred-fold more useful than 
 when first delivered; that, feeble as 
 they are, they may be made mighty, 
 through God, to awaken the sleeper, 
 to direct the inquirer, to convince the 
 doubtful, to comfort the afflicted, to 
 establish the believer, and, above all, 
 to promote the glory of God in Christ 
 Jesus our Lord. 
 
 St r eat ham Rectory, Surrey , 
 , 29t/i March, 1837. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 SERMON I. 
 
 THE INVITATION OF THE SAVIOUR. 
 
 St. Matthew xi, 28. Come unto me, all ye that labor and 
 are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Page 13. 
 
 SERMON II. 
 
 rORGIVENESS A PRESENT MERCY. 
 
 Isaiah xliv, 22. I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy 
 transgressions, and as a cloud thy sins : return unto 
 me; for I have redeemed thee. Page 30. 
 
 SERMON III. 
 
 SINS OF BELIEVERS ARE PRESUMPTUOUS SINS. 
 
 Psalm xix, 13. (Part.) Keep back thy servant also 
 from presumptuous sins. Page 45. 
 
Vm CONTENTS. 
 
 SERMON IV. 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN NOT YET ARRIVED AT HIS JOUR- 
 NEy's END. 
 
 Deut. xii, 9. For ye are not as yet come to the rest, and 
 to the inheritance, which the Lord your God giveth 
 you. * Page 63. 
 
 SERMON V. 
 
 ACQUAINTANCE WITH GOD. 
 
 Joh xxii, 21. (Part.) Acquaint thyself now with God. 
 
 Page 80. 
 
 SERMON VI. 
 
 GOD MARKING INIQUITY. 
 
 Psalm cxxx, 3, 4. If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniqui- 
 ties, Lord, who shall stand? But there is forgive- 
 ness with thee. Page 99. 
 
 SERMON VII. 
 
 Hebrews xi, 13. These all confessed that they were 
 strangers and pilgrims on the earth. Page 115. 
 
CONTENTS. IX 
 
 SERMON VIII. 
 
 THE SAINTS ON EARTH. 
 
 1 Cor. iii, 21, 22, 23. All things are yours; whether the 
 world, or life, or death, or things present, or things 
 to come; all are yours, and ye are Christ's, and 
 Christ is God's. Page 134. 
 
 SERMON IX. 
 
 THE SAINTS IN HEAVEN. 
 
 Rev. vii, 13-15. And one of the elders answered, saying 
 unto me. What are these which are arrayed in white 
 robesl 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 
 have 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. Page 153, 
 
 SERMON X. 
 
 PREPARATION FOR HEAVEN. 
 
 St. Luke xxi, 31. The kingdom of God is nigh at hand. 
 
 Page 171. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 SERMON XL 
 
 AIDS TO SELF-KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 2 Kings viii, 13. And Hazael " said, But what, is thy 
 servant a dog, that he should do this great thing? 
 
 Page 188. 
 
 SERMON XIL 
 
 THE PENITENT THIEF. 
 
 St. Luke xxiii, 42. And he said unto Jesus, Lord, re- 
 member me when thou comest into thy kingdom. 
 
 Page 208. 
 
 SERMON XIIL 
 
 SIGNS THAT WE ARE " IN CHRIST JESUS.'' 
 
 1 St. John ii, 5. (Part.) Hereby know we that we are 
 in Him. Page 225. 
 
 SERMON XIV. 
 
 THE SAME SUBJECT CONCLUDED. 
 
 Page 246. 
 
CONTENTS. XI 
 
 SERMON XV. 
 
 1 Cor. i, 3. Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our 
 Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Page 270. 
 
SERMONS. 
 
 SERMON I. 
 
 THE INVITATION OF THE SAVIOUR. 
 
 St. Matthew xi, 28. 
 "come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy 
 
 LADEN, AND I WILL GIVE YOU REST." . 
 
 There appears to be in the very construction 
 of the human mind, a peculiar adaptation to 
 the overtures of affection and kindness; so that 
 while we almost instinctively recoil from the 
 language of harshness, our feelings are often 
 subdued into acquiescence, even before our rea- 
 son is convinced, when we are solicited by the 
 voice of tenderness and mercy. 
 
 That powerful and gracious Being, the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, who is intimately acquainted with 
 2 
 
14 THE INVITATION 
 
 all these peculiarities of our nature, had been, 
 in the chapter from which the text is taken, up- 
 braiding the cities wherein most of his mighty 
 works were done, because they repented not. 
 Listen for a moment to His solemn denuncia- 
 tions — "Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto 
 thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works, which 
 were done in you. had been done in Tyre and 
 Sidon, they would have repented long ago in 
 sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you, it 
 shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at 
 the day of judgment than for you. And thou, 
 Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, 
 shalt be brought down to hell; for if the mighty 
 works, which have been done in thee, had been 
 done' in Sodom, it would have remained until 
 this day. But I say unto you, that it shall be 
 more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day 
 of judgment, than for thee." St. Matt, xi, 21-24. 
 Such was the language of Him, who was love 
 itself, who never broke the bruised reed, or 
 quenched the smoking flax; see Isaiah xlii, 3; 
 who never willingly inflicted pain for one single 
 moment upon any human being. We are not 
 therefore surprised, that glad to turn his thoughts 
 from so distressing a subject as the irrevocable 
 
OP THE SAVIOUR. 15 
 
 condemnation of any of his creatures, rejoicing 
 to point out a refuge from the impending storm, 
 and to exchange the language of threatening for 
 the message of salvation and peace, he turns to 
 those around him, and exclaims, " Come unto 
 me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I 
 will give you rest." 
 
 It was necessary thus briefly to call to our 
 recollection the former part of our Lord's con- 
 versation, that we might enter more fully into 
 the additional value which these words derive 
 from their locality, and from the circumstances 
 under which they were spoken. 
 
 In all probability, our Lord was surrounded 
 not only by his disciples, but by some of the 
 inhabitants of those devoted cities whose sen- 
 tence he had pronounced, and who, like Noah 
 and Lot, were anxious to fly from the wrath to 
 come. They had stood in trembling silence 
 during the denunciations of these inevitable 
 woes, and shuddered at every fresh name which 
 fell beneath the malediction of our Lord, lest 
 their own region or their own city should come 
 next in that black catalogue; and at last their 
 worst forebodings were fulfilled, and they heard 
 his threatening vengeance fall upon the town of 
 
16 THE INVITATION 
 
 their nativity, which at that moment enclosed 
 within its walls their wives, their children — all 
 that their hearts held dear on this side heaven. 
 To hearers such as these, what must have been 
 the incalculable value of the invitation of the 
 text? What must have been the unutterable 
 feelings of hope and joy at the instant it was 
 spoken, with which they must have applied it 
 to themselves. They had just been told, that 
 on the day of judgment, Sodom and Gomorrah 
 would fare better than the city which they 
 loved; but now a refuge was proclaimed — a 
 hope held out even for them — and we can almost 
 hear them say. Thank God, there is then a way 
 to escape; thank God, there is a refuge from the 
 storm, a covert from the tempest; there is One 
 to whom even we, the miserable inhabitants of 
 a country worse than Sodom, and more de- 
 praved than Gomorrah, may come and find rest 
 for our souls. 
 
 Let us, then, enter into these feelings, and 
 imagine ourselves, for a few moments, a portion 
 of that little group which surrounded the Saviour 
 of the world, when the words before us were 
 spoken, and then we shall be the better qualified 
 to hsten to them as they deserve to be heard, to 
 
OF THE SAVIOUR. 17 
 
 value them as they deserve to be vakied, not 
 as the words of the minister, not even of the 
 Church, but of the Saviour himself; not as ad- 
 dressed generally and vaguely to all, but to each 
 and every one among us, who is at this moment 
 anxious to hear and to profit by them. 
 
 Bearing this in mind, I shall request you to 
 consider, first, the persons to whom they were 
 delivered. Our Lord addresses '^all who labor 
 and are heavy laden." He did not apply him- 
 self to those, therefore, who were living a life 
 of ease and unconcern in the ill-fated cities of 
 which he had spoken; who, while his denun- 
 ciations were thundering at their gates, were 
 "eating and drinking, marrying and giving in 
 marriage," without a fear or a hope beyond 
 the trifles with which their hearts were filled. 
 These could not be the people to whom the 
 Saviour spake; his words were fitted for far 
 other ears and hearts than theirs, for they could 
 not be said to be among the weary and heavy 
 laden. 
 
 Let us, then, look round us, for men are alike 
 
 in all ages and in every clime, and inquire what 
 
 denomination of persons among ourselves might 
 
 be imagined to be included here. We observe 
 
 2* 
 
18 THE INVITATION 
 
 one class, very numerous and respectable, rising 
 early and retiring late to rest, and eating the 
 bread of carefulness, every hour of every day' 
 engaged in the natural and praiseworthy occu- 
 pation, of providing for themselves, and those 
 dependent upon them, the necessaries or the 
 comforts of life, laboring in the most indefati- 
 gable manner for the bread which perisheth, 
 and often weary and heavy laden with the bur- 
 den of those cares and anxieties of life, which 
 an active mind and an industrious habit have 
 heaped upon them. 
 
 You, then, we should say, addressing our- 
 selves to these, must be precisely the objects of 
 our Lord's invitation. How delighted will you 
 be to learn, that while you are wasting your 
 strength, your energies, in pursuing that which, 
 after all, is but the shadow of happiness and 
 rest, the glorious substance is offered you, "with- 
 out money and without price." Feeling thus, 
 we address you in the words of the servants, 
 who carried forth the king's invitation to his 
 wedding feast, and we say " Come, for all things 
 are now ready." Here are peace, and quiet, 
 and rest, and a cessation from labor and trouble 
 — enjoyments which you evidently prize most 
 
OF THE SAVIOUR. 19 
 
 highly, since you are sacrificing every hour of 
 every day to obtain them — freely offered you 
 for time and for eternity. 
 
 Now, brethren, how many among you will 
 accept the offer? Alas! shall we not find, that 
 perhaps, *^with one consent,'^ certainly with few 
 ■Exceptions, you will begin to make excuse — 
 that one departs, as the parable expresses it, to 
 his farm, another to his merchandize? that all, 
 though ^'laboring and heavy laden," and pro- 
 fessedly seeking rest, have no desire for that 
 kind of rest which Christ would offer them? 
 
 It is clear to a demonstration, then, that you 
 cannot be the people to whom our Lord applies 
 himself. We do not say, that you are not the 
 persons who need the invitation before us; God 
 knows there are very few who need it more. 
 The man, devoted heart and soul to his worldly 
 business, and temporary profits, laying up trea- 
 sure where rust and moth corrupt, and where 
 thieves break through and steal, is an object of 
 as deep concern, and as tender compassion to 
 that gracious Saviour, who is touched with a 
 feeling of all our infirmities, as any of those 
 bhnded Israelites who bowed the knee to Baal, 
 or sacrificed to the golden calf. But before such 
 
20 THE INVITATION 
 
 men will receive the invitation of the text, they 
 must be led to feel and appreciate this com- 
 mandment of our Lord, "Seek ye first the king- 
 dom of God and his righteousness/' St. Matt, 
 vi, 33. They must learn experimentally to 
 know that there is something more desirable 
 than this world, and the fairest portion it can 
 offer them. May God, the Holy Ghost, who 
 can alone impart this feeling, pour it into the 
 hearts of those who need it! 
 
 Disappointed thus in our search, again we 
 look around us, and behold a class of persons 
 bowed down under the burden of formal ob- 
 servances, valuing highly the externals of reli- 
 gion, but neglecting to seek a new heart, a 
 change of nature, a change of life, and that in- 
 terest in the pardoning blood of a Redeemer, 
 without which whosoever liveth is counted dead 
 before God; toiling to work out for themselves, 
 a righteousness by which they may be justified 
 in the sight of the Almighty; striving to satisfy 
 all his demands by their own imperfect perform- 
 ances, and toiling, laboring, heavy laden, but in 
 vain; "Who being ignorant," as the Apostle 
 expresses it, "of God's righteousness, and going 
 about to establish their own righteousness, have 
 
OF THE SAVIOUR. 21 
 
 not submitted themselves to the righteousness 
 
 of God." Rom. x, 3. To you, then, we next 
 
 propose the invitation of tlie text, thinking that 
 
 you at least will be delighted to find, what you 
 
 have so long been vainly seeking, that rest 
 
 which can alone arise from being reconciled to 
 
 God. But here, again, we are in error; you 
 
 assure us that we have grossly overrated your 
 
 deficiencies, and mistaken your wants; that you 
 
 are "not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, 
 
 adulterers, and though you cannot add, with 
 
 the Pharisee, that you "fast twice in the week," 
 
 you take comfort from feeling that you shall 
 
 one day find this rest, in the satisfying nature 
 
 of outward duties and formal observances. You 
 
 are, in fact, seeking that in ordinances, which is 
 
 only to be found in the God of ordinances, and 
 
 thus are wearing life away, as the Christian 
 
 poet has well expressed it — 
 
 "By dropping buckets into empty wells, 
 And growing old in drawing nothing up." 
 
 We have, therefore, still to discover the class 
 to whom our Lord alludes in the invitation be- 
 fore us; and may God grant that our search be 
 not totally in vain ! 
 
 Is there here any individual amona: us, whose 
 
22 THE INVITATION 
 
 conscience has revived within his breast the 
 memory of sins long since committed and for- 
 gotten, who begins to feel that he has Uved too 
 much in neglect of the great end of his exist- 
 ence, and amidst the honorable employments of 
 time, has grievously forgotten the requirements 
 of an approaching eternity; who may address 
 his heart as Job addressed his friend, "Thou 
 writest bitter things against me, and makest me 
 to possess the sins of my youth:" who, when 
 he reflects upon the many known and inten- 
 tional violations of the law of God; the unnum- 
 bered multitudes of unknov/n and unthought-of 
 derelictions of that sacred law, with which his 
 life has teemed, is utterly at a loss how to justify 
 himself before God, or where to look for rest; 
 and, instead of attempting to derive consolation 
 from the purity of his intentions, or the sincerity 
 of his obedience, or the regularity of his out- 
 ward observances, feels too well assured of the 
 inefficiency and unprofitableness of them all, 
 and is content, with the repentant Publican, to 
 say, "God be merciful to me a sinner?" 
 
 To every such individual we would say, 
 "Thou art the man." You are laboring under 
 a weight, which all the devices of all the wis- 
 
OF THE SAVIOUR. 23 
 
 dom of men never have been able to remove: 
 you are^eavy laden with a burden, from which 
 the power of ten thousand worlds cannot relieve 
 you. You, then, are one to whom our Lord 
 expressly speaks, when he says, in what our 
 Church rightly denominates "those comfortable 
 words," "Come unto me, all ye that labor and 
 are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." To 
 you are the offers of this salvation sent, and 
 may the Holy Spirit of God convey them this 
 day in all the riches of their abundant blessed- 
 ness to your soul! The invitation is, as if the 
 Lord of heaven and earth should look down 
 from the throne of his glory, and reading your 
 inmost heart, seeing all its misery and all its 
 woe, seeing that you grieve not merely for the 
 dreaded punishment of your sins, but for the 
 sense of your ingratitude and disobedience to 
 your best of benefactors, should say to you, I 
 know all that you have been, all that you now 
 are, all that you need and wish to be; I have 
 seen every open sin which you have committed; 
 I was present at every secret act which you 
 thought no eye had ever glanced upon; I have 
 heard every unholy word, and, more than this, 
 
24 THE INVITATION 
 
 have witnessed every thought of guilt, every 
 imagination of impurity, every wish of sm which 
 has ever been kindled by a corrupt heart within 
 your bosom: but only "Come unto me," deeply, 
 truly, earnestly repenting of them, and there is 
 pardon for them all. Come to that blood of 
 sprinkling which I have so freely shed, and 
 wash, and be clean. You need a better righte- 
 ousness than your own, and this is the name 
 whereby I am called, "The Lord your Righte- 
 ousness." You desire "that holiness, without 
 which no man shall see the Lord," and I am 
 made unto my people "sanctification." You 
 want "grace to help in every time of need," 
 and out of my fulness do they all receive, and 
 grace for grace. You require an assurance that 
 these promises shall not fail you, and all the 
 promises of God in me are yea, and in me amen, 
 to the glory of God, and all are yours, for you 
 are mine, and I am God's. Are you still fearful 
 lest I should one day change, and all that you 
 are now invited to receive, to live upon, to build 
 upon, should change with me; I am "Jesus 
 Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever;" 
 and whom I love, I love unto the end, for my 
 
OP THE SAVIOUR. 25 
 
 people shall "never perish, neither shall any 
 man pluck them out of my hand." Come unto 
 me, and you shall find rest for your souls. 
 
 But, perhaps, you are still disposed to doubt; 
 you cannot feel, as you know you ought, that 
 this invitation is for you, for no one sinner upon 
 earth more than for you. Be assured, that this 
 is wronging your best, your dearest friend; but 
 He will take compassion upon you even here; 
 He will give the courage, which he expects; 
 He will bestow the faith, which he requires. 
 Say from your heart, if you can truly say so, 
 "Lord, I believe: help thou mine unbelief," 
 and He will do this even for you; He will not 
 only, as he has this day done, call you to him- 
 self, but He will do more. He will draw you to 
 himself; He will so influence your heart, by the 
 sweet attractions of his grace, that you shall 
 feel you cannot stay away from your Redeemer; 
 and yet, that you are not forced contrary to 
 your will; that there is nothing coercive, but 
 that, being "willing in the day of his power," 
 Psalm ex, 3, you come, and rejoice to come, 
 nay, could not but come, to the Lord of all your 
 mercies, even though, as of old, the fires of mar- 
 3 
 
26 THE INVITATION 
 
 tyrdom itself, lay between you, and the God of 
 your salvation. 
 
 We proceed, from urging the invitation, to 
 consider the nature of the promise so closely 
 connected with it in the text, "I will give you 
 rest." The Lord Jesus Christ is the only Being 
 who makes this gratifying offer; Satan, also, 
 well knowing the tendency of the human mind, 
 bids equally high for your allegiance and your 
 hearts; he commands pleasures, profits, honors, 
 all, to promise you the same blessing; but mark 
 how they perform their promise; what is the 
 nature of the rest they bestow upon the sin- 
 awakened soul? Do you remember the rest 
 which Sisera found when he ventured to repose 
 himself, after the battle and the flight, in the tent 
 of Jael? Do you recollect how "she brought 
 him forth butter in a lordly dish," Judges v, 26, 
 and covered him with a mantle, and when he 
 was weary and fast asleep, "put her hand to 
 the nail, and her right hand to the workman's 
 hammer," and "smote the nail into his tem- 
 ples," that he died? Such, brethren, is the rest 
 which sinful pleasures offer you: short, treache- 
 rous, deadly, they teach you to forget your 
 misery, to suppress the rising conflict in your 
 
OF THE SAVIOUR. 27 
 
 breast, to lull to sleep the pangs of conscience, 
 but if you listen to the delusive invitations, if 
 you follow them into the tents of ungodliness, 
 you sleep to wake no more. Who can number 
 the souls now banished from the sight of God, 
 who have been thus beguiled into perdition? 
 Far different from such a rest as this, is the ob- 
 ject of the invitation of our text. 
 
 To you, whose lives are made up of labors 
 and weariness, daily toiling for your daily bread, 
 how refreshing are these Sabbath hours of quiet 
 and repose. To those who have undergone the 
 toils of a long and fatiguing journey, how sweet 
 is the approach of home. Surely, then, to him 
 who knows the burden of a wounded con- 
 science, the torment of unforgiven sin, there can 
 be no g'ift in the treasury of heaven so sweet, 
 so comforting, as rest. "Peace I leave with 
 you, my peace I give unto you ;" " Let not 
 your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid," 
 were among the latest blessings bestowed by 
 the departing Saviour upon his sorrowing dis- 
 ciples:* a peace which flows, not merely from 
 the conviction of his power to forgive sin, but 
 from the sense that he has done so ; that being 
 justified freely by his blood, every sin is washed 
 
28 THE INVITATION 
 
 away, every transgression is already pardoned, 
 blotted for ever from the book of his remem- 
 brance, and to appear no more against us. 
 Well may such a consciousness, when grounded 
 on scriptural authority, work in us that "peace 
 of God which passeth all understanding," that 
 temporary rest on earth, most blessed foretaste 
 of an everlasting rest in heaven. That will be 
 the consummation of the promise; we have 
 now only a single beam of light to cheer us on 
 our way, then will be the full shining of the 
 Sun of Righteousness. " There remaineth, 
 therefore," says the Apostle, "a rest for the 
 people of God." Earth cannot yield it you, 
 for it does not possess it; its sun has never yet, 
 in all his unwearied journeys, shone upon that 
 region where lasting peace is found. There is 
 not that spot upon the wide world's surface, on 
 which you can set your foot with any hope of 
 its stability, at the dreadful day when all shall 
 slide from beneath your tread, except it be upon 
 the rock of your salvation, and "that rock is 
 Christ." There is not even now, whatever be 
 your station and its advantages, whatever be 
 your present domestic enjoyments, or your an- 
 ticipation of approaching happiness, however 
 
OF THE SAVIOUR. 29 
 
 bright, however well founded those hopes may- 
 be, believe me, there is not even now one rest- 
 ing place of which you can with certainty de- 
 clare, Here will I enjoy days and years of tran- 
 quillity and repose; here will I find rest during 
 the remainder of my pilgrimage, except it be, 
 with the beloved Apostle, upon the bosom of 
 your Saviour and your God. Hear then, again, 
 my Christian brethren, his own most gracious, 
 most affectionate invitation, and may His Holy 
 Spirit write it upon the tablets of your hearts, 
 enabling you to accept it, and to bring forth 
 daily, more and more, the blessed and certain 
 fruits which flow from it: "Come unto me, all 
 ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will 
 give you rest.'' 
 
30 FORGIVENESS 
 
 SERMON II. 
 FORGIVENESS A PRESENT MERCY. 
 
 Isaiah xliv, 22. 
 
 *'I HAVE BLOTTED OUT, AS A THICK CLOUD, THY TRANS- 
 - GRESSIONS, AND, AS A CLOUD, THY SINS : RETURN 
 UNTO ME ; FOR I HAVE REDEEMED RHEE." 
 
 No subject can be of greater importance to 
 the babe in Christ, the young man in Christ, the 
 faiher in Christ, than that which these words 
 iUustrate, " I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, 
 thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins;" 
 more especially when viewed in the remarkable 
 connection in which they stand to those that 
 follow them, "return unto me; for I have re- 
 deemed tliee." May God grant, that our con- 
 sideration of them be not without a blessing 
 upon any soul by whom they are this day 
 heard! 
 
 We shall first consider the beautiful propriety 
 
A PRESENT MERCY. 31 
 
 of the Prophet's simile, '^I have blotted out, as 
 a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, 
 thy sins." The comparison is remarkable, but 
 peculiarly just. Our sins may well be likened 
 nnto clouds, as to their number. Who can 
 count the clouds which chase each other across 
 the winter sky? And has not one of the holiest 
 men who ever lived, left upon record the hu- 
 miliating confession, that his sins were not less 
 numerous? "They are more in number, than 
 the hairs of my head." Psalm xl, 15. Then 
 as to their nature: are not t!ie clouds all exhala- 
 tions from the land and sea, the earthly portion 
 of the universe; and are not our sins, in like 
 manner, the produce of our corrupt and earthly 
 nature; do they not all ascend out of the soil of 
 the natural heart, in which every transgression 
 and every sin has its foul and polluted origin? 
 Then, again, as to their effects: do not the 
 clouds hang between us and the sun, and shut 
 out from us the clear and cheering light, and 
 the bright blue sky; and when they greatly 
 thicken, do they not augur storms and tempests? 
 and are not our sins, as we have already seen, 
 and as God has expressly declared, the wall 
 which separates between us and our God, and 
 
32 FORGIVENESS 
 
 hides, as it were, his face from us; and are they 
 not as sure a token of his coming wrath, and of 
 the vengeance from his judgment-seat, as ever 
 the darkest cloud that warned us of the ap- 
 proaching thunder-storm? 
 
 Still further, as to their situation: are not the 
 clouds hung out in mid heaven, high above our 
 heads; and although it appears the simplest 
 thing in nature to dissolve and dissipate them, 
 for ofttimes while we look, the rays of the sun 
 are melting them away, so that the figure which 
 we have just delighted to trace in them, is, even 
 while we gaze, changed, and loosened, and scat- 
 tered, and then gone for ever; yet are they so 
 placed, that weak and transient as they are, not 
 all the united efforts of all the men that ever 
 dwelt upon the wide world's surface, could 
 avail to blot one cloud out of existence. So is 
 it with our sins; from the instant they are com- 
 mitted, from the very moment that the cloud is 
 formed, it hangs out far beyond our reach; no 
 mortal hand can ever touch that sin, no mortal 
 power avail to pardon it. For take it even at 
 its lowest estimate, it may be what we term 
 some triflit]g offence, it matters not, man cannot 
 pardon it; man may avenge his broken law, he 
 
A PRESENT MERCY. 33 
 
 may punish the sin, but he cannot pardon it. 
 He may indeed pardon the crime, for that is the 
 portion of the sin which affects himself, but he 
 can never pardon the sin: he can never, with 
 all the tenderness, and compassion, and forgiv- 
 ing love, that the most affectionate of human 
 hearts is capable of containing, he can never 
 dissipate the smallest cloud that hangs between 
 us and our Maker, so that he must let that 
 alone for ever, for there is but one Being in the 
 universe who has ever said, who can ever say, 
 "I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy trans- 
 gressions for my own name's sake, and will not 
 remember thy sins." 
 
 We see, then, with what peculiar propriety 
 the Prophet has adopted the simile of the text. 
 But we must follow up his idea still further, as 
 the best and clearest method of distinctly setting 
 before you the great doctrine which it contains. 
 
 ''I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy 
 transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins." The 
 idea of blotting out a cloud, seems to be an 
 allusion to that dissolving of these vapors which 
 is continually taking place in the atmosphere, 
 when the heat of the summer sun draws up the 
 moisture of the cloud, and renders it completely 
 
34 FORGIVENESS 
 
 invisible. How accurately, and how instruct- 
 ively, does this portray the constant operation 
 of the Divine grace with regard to the sins of 
 every believing penitent. The Sun of Righte- 
 ousness arises upon them "with healing in its 
 wings," bringing pardon and peace to the soul; 
 a full and free forgiveness is at once, and for 
 ever, made our own; the sin is as completely 
 absorbed, if we may so say, by the Sun of 
 Righteousness, as the clouds, and fogs, and 
 mists of earth are by the sun of nature. It is 
 as impossible to find the former, to bring it forth 
 again to judgment, as it would be to reconstruct 
 the clouds, with all their varied shapes, and 
 hues, and tints, which we looked upon last 
 summer, and which never outlived the day we 
 gazed upon them. 
 
 Blessed consideration, for the souls of God's 
 beUeving and pardoned people. Doubly blessed 
 for you, who having long, and deeply, and peni- 
 tently felt the burden and the weight of sin, 
 have also felt the beams of the Sun of Righte- 
 ousness burst forth and shine upon it with all 
 their splendor; and while you looked, and, it 
 may be, wept to look upon so foul a thmg, so 
 fearful an offence against the God of all your 
 
A PRESENT MERCY. 35 
 
 mercies, it was for ever hidden from your eyes, 
 no more to be seen, no more to be remembered, 
 except with gratitude for its entire and complete 
 removal, while a voice was heard, which spake 
 even to your soul, "I have blotted out, as a 
 thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, 
 thy sins." 
 
 Beloved brethren, learn then but one last les- 
 son of comfort, and of peace, from the Pro- 
 phet's simile. Never cast a glance at that stu- 
 pendous vault, which the mighty Maker of the 
 universe has hung above us and around us; 
 never, while as you behold the clouds passing 
 rapidly across it, think these are fit emblems of 
 my many, my daily, my dark, and desperate 
 sins; without at the same time thinking. If the 
 clouds portray my sins, thanks be to God, the 
 blue vault of heaven, through which they sail, 
 portrays his mercy, even the mercy of Him 
 who pardons them, immeasurable in height, 
 and length, and depth, and breadth, all infinite 
 in love. Why should I then despond? — why 
 should I fear? — why should I for a moment 
 doubt? As easy, that one vast cloud should 
 shroud both hemispheres, should occupy the 
 universe, should shut out for ever and for ever, 
 
36 FORGIVENESS 
 
 sun, moon, and stars, and all the glories of the 
 created heaven, as that my sins, however great, 
 however numerous, should surpass in magni- 
 tude God's pardoning love, God's abounding 
 grace, God's infinite forgiveness, treasured up 
 for me in Christ Jesus, my adorable Redeemer. 
 
 We mentioned in the early part of this dis- 
 course, that one great object in bringing for- 
 ward the passage upon which we have been 
 commenting, was for the sake of illustrating its 
 remarkable connection with the words which 
 follow. 
 
 We say remarkable, because it would so ap- 
 pear, to those who are not in the habit of 
 searching the Word of God, and because, in 
 truth, it must even be remarkable to those who 
 are best acquainted with the depravity of man. 
 
 The text is, as you have seen, an invitation 
 to backsliding Israel to return unto the Lord. 
 Now, the manner in which the generality even 
 of those who are not absolutely ignorant of 
 God's dealing with his fallen and rebellious 
 creatures, would have expected this invitation 
 to have been made, or, at least the order of it, 
 would be the very reverse of that which God 
 has adopted. You would, perhaps, have ex- 
 
A PRESENT MERCY. 37 
 
 pected the Almighty to have said, Return unto 
 me, love me, serve me, prove yourselves to be 
 indeed, in heart and in life, as well as in name 
 and in profession, my people, and I will blot 
 out your transgressions and your sins. Instead 
 of this — and I pray you to remark the impor- 
 tant distinction — the Almighty, who sees the 
 heart, and had no doubt witnessed there, even 
 in the hearts of his people, that sorrow, that 
 contrition, and deep and earnest penitence, 
 which are his own blessed work, begins by tell- 
 ing his backsliding people, I have pardoned, I 
 have forgiven, I have utterly blotted out; now 
 therefore, "return unto me, for I have redeemed 
 thee." 
 
 When will men be content to learn their the- 
 ology from God's own lips, instead of applying 
 first to human systems, and then endeavoring 
 to receive God's Word just so long, and just so 
 far, as it agrees with those systems; and the 
 moment they find the two to be at variance, 
 with the most unexampled audacity and absurd- 
 ity, adhering closely to the system of man's in- 
 vention, and explaining away the word of God's 
 delivery? But, brethren, "we are persuaded 
 better things of you, and things which accom- 
 4 
 
38 FORGIVENESS 
 
 pany salvation, though we thus speak." All 
 we then ask of those among you, who have not 
 yet found the way of pardon, and peace, and 
 holmess, is to dwell prayerfully and thought- 
 fully for a few moments upon the words before 
 us. Hear them, as addressed to you individu- 
 ally, for not one word did your Heavenly Fa- 
 ther ever address to backsliding Israel, which 
 he does not address as affectionately and as 
 earnestly to the backsliding Christian. Hear 
 him, then, saying, Why do you hesitate to re- 
 turn to m.e, the God of all your mercies? is it 
 because you have sinned against me, sinned 
 often, sinned grievously, sinned wilfully? Is 
 this the cloud which hangs between us, is this 
 the wall that separates us ? Is this the cause 
 for which you mourn, and do you oftentimes 
 feel that thought of sin so hateful to you, that 
 you loathe and abhor yourself for its committal? 
 Know, then, that this wall is broken down, this 
 cloud is dispelled, this cause for ever taken 
 away; I have forgiven every act of rebellion, 
 every sin of omission and of commission of 
 which you ever have been guilty, all are 
 cleansed in the blood of the great Sacrifice, and 
 shall never trouble or molest you more; for I 
 
A PRESENT MERCY. 39 
 
 have blotted out, as a thick cloud, your trans- 
 gression, and, as a cloud, your sin; and now 
 "return unto me." 
 
 Can you stand out, brethren, against such an 
 invitation? Can you refuse such terms? Some 
 among you will, perhaps, reply. If I knew that 
 I were pardoned, if I were conscious that my 
 sins were forgiven, I would this instant close 
 with the offers of my God, and begin such a 
 life of holy devotedness to him as earth has sel- 
 dom witnessed ; but this is a thing to be known 
 not here, but hereafter; this is a privilege to be 
 enjoyed not now, but in heaven. We reply, 
 What can convince you of the contrary, if such 
 declarations as you have heard are unable? 
 Who can satisfy you upon this point, if God 
 himself cannot ? Are you still in uncertainty 
 and doubt? What more do you desire? W©uld 
 it tend to the establishment of your mind upon 
 this subject if you could have examples of per- 
 sons actually forgiven while here below? Life 
 is replete with such examples; the Bible is full 
 of thena. Could we call forth the living testi- 
 monies to this blessed truth, we might indeed 
 adopt the language of the Apostle, and point 
 you to the "great cloud of witnesses" by which 
 
40 FORGIVENESS 
 
 we are encompassed; but though this is forbid- 
 den us, the page of Scripture is before us, and 
 who can desire a stronger body of evidence 
 than it contains? 
 
 Look only at David, the man after God's 
 own heart, and yet a heinous sinner; no sooner 
 had he felt and expressed contrition, than the 
 very same prophet, wiio was commissioned to 
 convict him of his sin, was in that self-same 
 hour commanded to assure him of his forgive- 
 ness — "the Lord hath put away thy sin." 
 Look, again, at Isaiah; no sooner had he con- 
 fessed, in the bitterness of his soul, "I am a 
 man of unclean lips," than the serapiiii'n was 
 ordered to say to him, " Thine iniquity is taken 
 away, and thy sin purged." Turn, again, to 
 Hezekiah; no sooner had he declared that he 
 mourned for his sins, even "as a dove, that his 
 eyes failed with looking upward," than he was 
 enabled to»reply, "Thou hast, in love to my 
 soul, delivered it from the pit of corruption: for 
 thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back." 
 While, so far is this from forming a peculiar 
 feature in the old dispensation, and confined to 
 prophets and kings, that it meets us at every 
 portion of the new, and forms the burden of 
 
A PRESENT MERCY. 41 
 
 most of those messages of compassion and love, 
 with which the Lord Jesus Christ greeted his 
 sinning and suffering people, " Son, be of good 
 cheer, thy sins are forgiven." Again, in tlie 
 Epistles, the same great truth is written, as with 
 a sunbeam, for we find St. Paul, not hesitating 
 to say to the whole Ephesian Church, to every 
 one who was a sincere believer, " God, for 
 Christ's sake, hath forgiven you." And St. 
 John, to prove to us, that this high privilege 
 was not reserved for "the young men" and 
 '^ fathers in Christ," but was equally the blessed 
 prerogative of the weakest believer, says at 
 once, to the least child in the family of Christ, 
 " I write unto you, little children, because your 
 sins are forgiven you, for His name's sake." 
 
 We derive, then, from all this accumulated 
 evidence, a weighty corroboration of the great 
 truth so directly deducible from the text, that 
 the pardon of sin, instead of taking place at the 
 great day of account, takes place during the 
 present life, that it is God's work on earth, and 
 not in heaven. The forgiveness of all that is 
 past, of every sin that you have mourned and 
 forsaken, and brought to the blood of sprinkling, 
 is even here most freely and irrevocably made 
 4» 
 
42 FORGIVENESS 
 
 your own; from the hour of this most merciful 
 pardon, you start afresh in your journey of Ufe, 
 having, Uke the fabled pilgrim, dropt your bur- 
 den at the foot of the cross; then you are really 
 enabled to return to Him who has " redeemed 
 you and all mankind," and feeling that grateful 
 love which none but pardoned sinners can ever 
 feel, you begin "to love God with all your 
 heart, and with all your mind, and with all 
 your soul, and with all your strength," and Je- 
 sus Christ whom he hath sent. To a heart thus 
 filled with love, no commandment can be griev- 
 ous: love and obedience, therefore, go hand in 
 hand, and you, the happy possessor of them 
 both, go on your way believing, pardoned, lov- 
 ing, obeying, and rejoicing. 
 
 To every soul, then, among you, this day, 
 who has never yet sought and found God as 
 reconciled to him in Christ Jesus — to every soul, 
 who, having once found him, has backslidden 
 from him, and is now suffering deeply from the 
 hidings of God's countenance — to each and all 
 of both these classes, who are deeply penitent 
 for sin, anxiously desiring, for the Lord Jesus 
 Christ's sake, its full and entire remission; and 
 to each and all of every class here present, feel- 
 
A PRESENT MERCY. 43 
 
 ing and desiring thus, we address the words of 
 God himself, " I have blotted out thy transgres- 
 sions, and thy sins;" no transgression too small, 
 no sin too large, for thou art cleansed in the 
 blood, and pardoned by the love, of an infinite 
 Redeemer, and now "return unto me, for I 
 have redeemed thee." 
 
 The way is clear for you to God's throne of 
 Grace, and it shall be so for you, persevering in 
 the course upon which you have entered, to his 
 throne of Glory. Now, therefore, as the Apos- 
 tle says, "ye are no more strangers and foreign- 
 ers, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of 
 the household of God, and are built upon the 
 foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus 
 Christ himself being the chief corner-stone." 
 "We beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the 
 mercies of God," this day to present your bo- 
 dies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto 
 God, which is your reasonable service; and may 
 God grant that there be not one heart among 
 us, which shall not make the prayer of repent- 
 ant Israel its own: "Turn thou us, good Lord, 
 and so shall we be turned;" and may each re- 
 ceive, as each unquestionably will receive, if 
 this prayer flow from a broken, and a contrite, 
 
44 FORGIVENESS A PRESENT MERCY. 
 
 and a believing heart, an answer of peace unto 
 his soul. 
 
 Now " unto Him that loved us, and washed 
 us from our sins in his own blood, and hath 
 made us kings and priests unto God and his 
 Father, to him be glory and dominion for ever 
 and ever.^' 
 
SINS OF BELIEVERS, &C. 45 
 
 SERMOxN III. 
 
 SINS OF BELIEVERS ARE PRESUMPTU- 
 
 OUS SINS. 
 
 Psalm xix, 13. (Part.) 
 
 "KEEP BACK THY SERVANT ALSO FROM PRESUMPTUOUS 
 
 SINS." 
 
 There is probably not an individual here 
 present before God this day, who would not 
 acknowledge himself to be a sinner. Not an 
 individual who does not know that the Word of 
 God has said, "There is no man that Uveth, 
 and sinneth not." That " if we say. We have 
 no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is 
 not in us." Yet, were we to take each indivi- 
 dual separately, upon his own acknowledgment, 
 and say to him, You have confessed yourself to 
 be a sinner, you cannot possibly doubt it, your 
 sins are most grievous, most heinous, most de- 
 grading; how undeniable, how certain is it, 
 that, like the men in the parable, with one con- 
 
46 SINS OP BELIEVERS 
 
 sent, you would "begin to make excuse;" all 
 would acknowledge themselves sinners, but, 
 probably, scarcely any but would endeavor to 
 extenuate every sin. It is by this general ad- 
 mission of sinfulness, and this particular igno- 
 rance of sin, that Satan often quiets the mind, 
 satisfying us that our view of our own state is 
 perfectly scriptural, because we do not attempt 
 to deny our guilt, and at the same time, by 
 closing our eyes to any, and to every individual 
 instance of it, he succeeds in keeping us entirely 
 free from all real and heart-felt contrition, and 
 therefore — which is indeed his grand object and 
 aim — in keeping us from the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 the one and only remedy. 
 
 The object of the present discourse, then, 
 shall be to endeavor, by God's grace, not to 
 convince you that you are sinners — this we are 
 fully justified in taking for granted, as you have 
 all professed to join this day in the petition — 
 "Lord, have mercy upon us, miserable siimers" 
 — but to show you that there are many, very 
 many, who in God's sight are presumptuous 
 sinners, and yet are, perhaps, so perfectly satis- 
 fied with their spiritual state, so utterly una- 
 ware of their delinquencies, that they would 
 
ARE PRESUMPTUOUS SINS. 47 
 
 indignantly repel the charge, if brought against 
 them, believing it to have originated in fanati- 
 cism or uncharitableness, and to be entirely 
 groundless. 
 
 One great object of Christian preaching must 
 always be, that, as the Apostle expresses it, 
 "Every mouth may be stopped, and all the 
 world become guilty before God." May the 
 Spirit of God bless the observations that shall 
 be made, to the furtherance of an end so un- 
 palatable to the natural heart, and yet so essen- 
 tial to the well-doing of our souls, and the glory 
 of the Saviour. And may this great end be 
 obtained, not merely as regards the hitherto un- 
 a wakened and indifferent, but even the people 
 of God, to whom, as we shall afterwards show-, 
 the words of the text, in a peculiar manner, 
 appear to apply. 
 
 First, then, and for the purpose of correcting 
 a very common misapprehension of the subject, 
 let us consider the nature of those sins to which 
 David has here applied the appellation of pre- 
 sumptuous sins. The words of the context are, 
 "Who can understand his errors? Cleanse thou 
 me from secret faults. Keep back thy servant, 
 also, from presumptuous sins; let them not have 
 
48 SINS OF BELIEVERS 
 
 dominion over me." ' Presumptuous sins, there- 
 fore, are clearly put in opposition to secret sins. 
 By the inquiry, ^'Who can understand his er- 
 rors?" we apprehend the secret sins to mean, 
 not merely those that, are hidden from our fel- 
 low-men, but those that are scarcely known or 
 understood even by ourselves. For it seems, 
 especially with reference to those secret sins, 
 that David asks, "Who can understand them?" 
 who can know and number them? By pre- 
 sumptuous sins, therefore, will be implied, all 
 those sins which are not thus secret, but are 
 well known to be sins, at the time of their com- 
 mittal. They will, therefore, no doubt, include, 
 but they certainly will not be limited, by those 
 open and gross criminalities, which are chiefly 
 confined to the unrenewed and impenitent, and 
 which all men range under the title of presump- 
 tuous transgressions— murder, adultery, theft, for- 
 nication. Sabbath-breaking, profaneness, drunk- 
 enness, revellings, and such like, of which, says 
 the Apostle, " I tell you before, as I have also 
 told you in time past, that they which do such 
 things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." 
 
 We say, that though they include, they will 
 by no means be limited to these flagrant and 
 
ARE PRESUMPTUOUS SINS. 49 
 
 gross enormities, and we proceed to show the 
 nature of those sins, which while they are too 
 often found to disgrace the Christian calling, 
 even of God's own people, must, however sel- 
 dom they are so contemplated, we fear, be reck- 
 oned among presumptuous sins now, as they 
 will most certainly, if unrepented of, unforsaken, 
 and therefore unforgiven, be visited as presump- 
 tuous sins hereafter. 
 
 The first of these, to which we shall call your 
 attention, as among the most frequent and the 
 most destructive, is this: — 
 
 I. To sin against an enlightened conscience. 
 
 In the natural man, the conscience, although 
 sufficient guide to him on many and great occa- 
 sions as to his conduct towards his fellow-men, 
 is a most inadequate counsellor as to his duty 
 towards God; because, like every other faculty 
 of the human mind, it has most grievously suf- 
 fered by the effects of the fall of our first pa- 
 rents. In the renewed or spiritual man, as the 
 Bible denominates the Christian, the conscience 
 has regained its powers, and reassumed its of- 
 fice, and, being instructed by the Spirit of God, 
 speaks as the representative of God himself 
 within the soul. The consequence is, that it is 
 5 
 
50 SINS OF BELIEVERS 
 
 scarcely possible for the sins of a child of God 
 to be sins of ignorance, and this greatly en- 
 hances their turpitude, and at once makes them 
 sins of presumption. 
 
 To sin, therefore, against the conviction of an 
 enlightened conscience, is certainly, presumptu- 
 ous; but more than this, it is, unquestionably, 
 one of the worst features of a presumptuous 
 sin. We have a remarkable instance of this in 
 the example of Pilate, in whose history we are 
 told, that "he knew that for envy they had de- 
 livered Jesus;" and again, that he distinctly 
 said, " I find no fault in this man." His con- 
 demnation of our Lord after this confession, 
 was, perhaps, as distinct a proof of even a na- 
 tural man sinning against the light of conscience, 
 against the most entire conviction, and, there- 
 fore, also as certain a proof of the most open 
 and presumptuous rebellion against God, as any 
 to be met with in Scripture history. 
 
 Now let us apply this test of that which con- 
 stitutes presumptuous sin, to ourselves, and how 
 many are there among us, who have perhaps 
 scarcely felt themselves to be in any degree 
 sinners before God, who must return from the 
 investigation, if it be conducted only with com- 
 
ARE PRESUMPTUOUS SINS. 51 
 
 mon honesty, with the heartfelt assurance, that 
 they are not only sinners, but open sinners, 
 flagrant sinners, presumptuous sinners; sinners 
 whom nothing but the blood of Christ can ever 
 cleanse, and the infinite love of God in Christ 
 Jesus can ever pardon. Take the events of a 
 single day, or of the week that has just passed 
 over us, and examine, with even 'the slightest 
 degree of carefulness and sincerity, so far as 
 you can recollect them, your thoughts, words, 
 and actions. Then answer to yourself and to 
 God, in how many cases you have sinned against 
 the convictions and remonstrances of an enlight- 
 ened conscience. Examine yourself, first of all, 
 with regard to duties, only bearing in mind that 
 God himself has said, "To him that knoweth to 
 do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin." St. 
 James iv, 17. In how many cases, then, have 
 you sinned wilfully, sinned against conviction, 
 sinned presumptuously, simply by "knowing to 
 do good and doing it not?" Do you live, for 
 instance, in the partial neglect of private prayer, 
 self-examination, reading the Word of God, 
 family prayer? Have you no doubt in your 
 conscience as to the propriety of your course? 
 Have you never heard it clearly demonstrated 
 
52 SINS OP BELIEVERS 
 
 from the Word of God that these things are 
 duties? Do you attempt to deny that they are 
 duties? — No! You are unable; you may pro- 
 fess that you are not convinced; but there is 
 one within who contradicts you to your face, 
 who charges home the unblushing falsehood 
 upon your heart, and who says, Profess what 
 you please, assert what you choose, but I shall 
 one day declare before assembled worlds that it 
 was false; that at the very time you neglected 
 these duties, you "knew to do good, and did it 
 not;" I was convinced that they were duties, 
 and perpetually urged them upon you until you 
 had almost silenced my cry, and stifled my 
 voice. This is the language of your conscience. 
 Again, we will suppose — and, as we are speak- 
 ing to the professing people of God, we trust 
 the supposition is not only probable, but true — 
 that you do not live in any gross or outward 
 transgressions; your situation, your character, 
 your fears, and, above all, the restraining influ- 
 ence of God's grace, prevent you; but are the 
 sins of the mind equally avoided — self-righte- 
 ousness, hypocrisy, worldliness, ambition, covet- 
 ousness, pride of birth, of station, of intellectual 
 superiority, vanity — are the lusts and devices of 
 
ARE PRESUMPTUOUS SINS. 53 
 
 the heart as effectually shunned, as the more 
 visible lusts of the flesh? Or do you hope that 
 these, at least, will never be ranged among pre- 
 sumptuous sins? then bring them to the test we 
 have proposed. What is the verdict which a 
 spiritually enlightened conscience passes on those 
 sins at the moment of their transgression, or as 
 soon as time is given you to reflect? Is there a 
 single instance in which it has not warned, and 
 counselled, and threatened you? — No: again 
 you are compelled to confess that you never 
 cherished one of the unnumbered sins of the 
 mind, or one unclean or unholy desire, one un- 
 kind or uncharitable temper, one unsanctified 
 imagination, one of the untold sins of the heart, 
 that your conscience did not do its duty by re- 
 monstrating, expostulating and warning; and 
 therefore that you never yielded to any one of 
 these temptations, without deserving to be class- 
 ed among presumptuous sinners, without being 
 guilty of presumptuous sins. 
 
 Nor are these delinquencies confined to sin- 
 ning against an enlightened conscience, there 
 are still other considerations which change what 
 the world would term little sins, or common 
 sins, into presumptuous sins, in the case of you 
 5» 
 
54 SINS OP BELIEVERS 
 
 to whom I am speaking. Among these, per- 
 haps, may be especially enumerated, 
 
 II. The sinning after great afflictions, or great 
 mercies. 
 
 1. After great afflictions. It is urged in the 
 book of Chronicles, as one of the heaviest 
 charges ever brought by God against the King 
 of Israel, "In the time of his distress did he 
 trespass yet more against the Lord, this is that 
 King Ahaz," with an air of scorn seldom to be 
 met with in the inspired writers. To continue 
 to wander from God, even when he is smiting 
 us, when health is decaying, when property is 
 departing, when friends are gone; to feel these 
 trials as natural sorrows, but to reap no spiritual 
 benefit from them; to go into the furnace of 
 God's wrath, not like the metal to be softened 
 and purified, until it is so bright as to reflect the 
 image of the refiner, but like the clay which 
 comes forth out of the furnace more hard and 
 more dull, and less pliable than it went in, this 
 is, indeed, a sin of sins, and is a presumptuous 
 sin. 
 
 As after great afflictions, so also 
 
 2. After great mercies. 
 
 In cases such as these, God has, perhaps, in 
 
ARE PRESUMPTUOUS SINS. 55 
 
 his own expressive language, made you " hear 
 the rod and Who hath appointed it." Micah vi, 
 9. You have been laid upon a bed of sickness, 
 and days and weeks have seen you looking, but 
 in vain, for returning health. Then you felt sin 
 to be bitter: then you read your sin in your 
 punishment. How many were the resolutions, 
 how solemn were the vows, with which you 
 voluntarily offered to bind yourself to God, to 
 devote yourself more closely to the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, (o be more than ever earnest, devoted, 
 consistent in every after-business of life, if you 
 were once again restored to health and happi- 
 ness. Or further, while you watched, in trem- 
 bling anxiety, at the bed-side of some dear 
 friend, or some beloved child, when the chasten- 
 ings of God were poured forth upon you, you 
 thought nothing too dear, even to the right 
 hand, or the right eye, to be sacrificed at God's 
 bidding, if this cup might pass from you. And 
 now these trials have passed away, and God 
 did not, in your hour of need, forget to be gra- 
 cious, and prayers were heard, and mercies 
 given, and promises accepted. But was there 
 nothing more than this? Do you think that he 
 
56 SINS OF BELIEVERS 
 
 who recorded your prayers forgot to register 
 your resolutions? Do you think that when. 
 God showered down his mercies, he obliterated 
 your vows? — No: be assured that the book of 
 God's remembrance is a large volume, there is 
 room for all the records of his creatures; not a 
 prayer, not a vow, not a promise, entered there, 
 shall be forgotten; the stream of time for ever 
 rolling over it, cannot efface a single syllable. 
 All your momentary expressions of gratitude 
 are there, as well as all your forgetfulness, and 
 all your sins; and the consequence is, that out 
 of your own mouth shall you be judged; that 
 you shall see in that book, that you have added 
 an emphasis to your sins which nothing else 
 could have done— that underneath every sin 
 which you have committed, you have yourself 
 drawn the deep, dark line of a cold, and selfish, 
 and heartless ingratitude, which blood, and only 
 blood, even the blood of Jesus, can efface. 
 
 The catalogue of presumptuous sins might, 
 without any difficulty, be greatly increased; but 
 we would rather suggest these few instances, 
 that are among the most obvious, and leave 
 you to exercise your own reflection and self- 
 
ARE PRESUMPTUOUS SINS. 57 
 
 examination, to ascertain how many more de- 
 linquencies there are of the same family, with 
 which you are too closely acquainted. 
 
 I have, as you will have observed, chiefly 
 addressed myself to the people of God, and my 
 reason is this, that it is obvious of such only 
 the text is speaking. However improbable we 
 might have thought it, had we conceived pre- 
 sumptuous sins to refer only to gross sins, it is 
 sufficiently clear, both from the person who 
 offered the petition and the words of the peti- 
 tion itself, that God's people are the people al- 
 luded to. The prayer is a prayer of David, and 
 the tenor of it is, "Keep back thy servant." 
 
 Yes, brethren, none more need to be kept 
 back, even from presumptuous sin, than God's 
 servants; even you who have been "born again, 
 not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by 
 the Word of God which liveth and abideth for 
 ever;" 1 St. Peter i, 23; even you of whom St. 
 John declares, " Whosoever is born of God doth 
 not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him; 
 and he cannot sin, because he is born of God;" 
 1 St. John iii, 9; whose habit of mind, there- 
 fore, is essentially opposed to sin; even you 
 need keeping back, daily, hourly, constantly 
 
58 SINS OF BELIEVERS 
 
 keeping back, by the restraining hand of God's 
 grace, from the worst and most presumptuous 
 sins. Nothing, be assured, but daily grace can 
 keep even the most advanced of God's people 
 in any thing approaching to daily holiness; and 
 nothing is more likely to deter you from seeking 
 this daily grace, than thinking lightly, which is 
 too much the case of some religionists of the 
 present day, thinking lightly of the sins of God's 
 people. 
 
 However man may estimate them, it is im- 
 possible for any, who draw their opinions di- 
 rectly from the Word of God, not to perceive, 
 as we have now demonstrated, that the sins of 
 God's people are really the " presumptuous 
 sins," and, as we shall proceed shortly to show, 
 that God is even far more provoked by the sins 
 of his people, than by the sins of the world. 
 The sins of the world anger God, the sins of 
 his people grieve him. There are aggravations 
 in them, of which the worst sins of worldly 
 men, are entirely innocent. 
 
 I. For instance, you never commit a sin, 
 however small, that you do not resist the re- 
 straining principle of grace within the renewed 
 heart, which the unconverted cannot feel. You 
 
ARE PRESUMPTUOUS SINS. 59 
 
 never commit a sin, that you do not, if we may 
 so say, break through the boundary of "mercies 
 countless as the sand," with which God has en- 
 vironed you, and which form a safeguard that 
 the unconverted man possesses not; how much 
 more violent, then, must be the sin which over- 
 leaps it! how much stronger the passions which 
 uproot and destroy that boundary! Why do 
 we all feel that Peter's denial was a sin far 
 more grievous in the sight of God than Pilate's 
 condemnation of our Lord? — because Pilate 
 had never been chosen from among the children 
 of men to be one of the twelve followers of the 
 Saviour; because Pilate had never stood with 
 him on the mount of transfiguration and seen 
 his glory; because Pilate had never sat with 
 him at the same table and witnessed his love. 
 I need not assist you farther in drawing the 
 parallel, between your transgressions and those 
 of an ungodly world. 
 
 II. Again, your sins are worse than others, 
 because you sin against your adoption into 
 God's family. Other men sin against a com- 
 mand; you do more— you sin against a privi- 
 lege. We take it ill when a servant deceives 
 us, but what do we feel when the delinquent is 
 
60 SINS OF BELIEVERS 
 
 a child, a child whom we love, a child for whom 
 we have done, and are even now doing much, 
 and have pledged ourselves to do more? 
 
 III. Your sins are worse than others, because 
 they invariably bring a greater reproach upon 
 religion than the sins of the openly ungodly. 
 Thus said the Prophet to David, after his great 
 and heinous sin, "Because, by this deed, thou 
 hast given great occasion to the enemies of the 
 Lord to blaspheme; the child that is born unto 
 thee shall surely die." 2 Sam. xii, 14. This 
 peculiar feature of the sin was selected by God 
 above all others as the reason why, although 
 pardoned, it should not remain, in this world, 
 unpunished. 
 
 What child of God, then, will refuse to unite 
 in the supplication of the text, "Keep back thy 
 SERVANT from presumptuous sins?'' 
 
 Lastly, I need not remind you that, as exer- 
 tion without prayer, is itself among the very 
 sins of which we are speaking, so prayer with- 
 out exertion, is the veriest mockery ever offered 
 to God. 
 
 Watch, then, over your passions, watch over 
 your temptations, but, above all, watch over 
 your thoughts. All sins commence in the 
 
ARE PRESUMPTUOUS SINS. 61 
 
 thoughts; the most presumptuous sin ever com- 
 mitted, commenced in a small and secret thought; 
 the woman thought that " the tree was good for 
 food, and a tree to be desired to make one 
 wise." There is no sin which may not, by the 
 Strength of Christ, be successfully resisted in the 
 narrow channel of the thoughts; but there are 
 many, which when they have passed that Rubi- 
 con, become invincible; so St. James, "When 
 lust hath conceived (i. e. in the thoughts), it 
 bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, 
 bringeth forth death." St. James i, 15. It is, 
 then, in the egg that you must crush the viper, 
 before he has started into life and armed him 
 with his sting. And let the habit of daily 
 watchfulness be accompanied by the daily pray- 
 er, "Hold thou me up, and I shall be safe;" 
 "Hold up my goings in thy paths, that my foot- 
 steps slip not." Depend upon no former con- 
 quests over sin, however decisive; rely upon no 
 present grace, however powerful; but as each 
 new temptation arises, as each fresh sin presents 
 itself, go again and again to the throne of mer- 
 cy, draw near again and again to the Saviour 
 who has undertaken for you; plead his pro- 
 mises, remind him of his covenant, ask all that 
 6 
 
62 SINS OF BELIEVERSj &C. 
 
 you need, as earnestly, and as completely in the 
 spirit of child-like dependence, and child-like 
 helplessness, as you did in the first hours of 
 your conversion to God. The infant is safe 
 only in the nurse's arms; throughout the long- 
 est course of the most advanced Christian, he is, 
 as regards himself, but an infant in strength, an 
 infant in wisdom, an infant in his utter helpless- 
 ness, and only secure from falling into the most 
 hateful and presumptuous of sins, so long as he 
 is held up in the arms of Christ, and of his free 
 and sovereign grace. "I can do all things," 
 saith St. Paul, " through Christ which strength- 
 enethme." Phil, iv, 13. 
 
 As it is, then, by being complete in Christ, 
 that you are alone looking for your justification 
 before God, so must it be by the daily and 
 hourly aids of his good Spirit, sought continu- 
 ally from him, given continually by him, and 
 employed on your part continually for him, that 
 you must alone look for your sanctification, that 
 you can alone be kept back from presumptuous 
 sins, that you can alone be made "meet to be 
 partakers of the inheritance of the saints in 
 light." 
 
63 
 
 SERMON IV. 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN NOT YET ARRIVED AT 
 HIS JOURNEY'S END. 
 
 Deut. XII, 9. 
 
 FOR YE ARE NOT AS YET COME TO THE REST AND TO 
 THE INHERITANCE, WHICH THE LORD YOUR GOD 
 
 GIVETH YOU. 
 
 In the history of the Israehtes, as every at- 
 tentive reader of God's Word is aware, the so- 
 journ in the wilderness represented, typically, 
 the Christian's pilgrimage; and the promised 
 land of Canaan, the Christian's home. How 
 much additional interest the knowledge of this 
 fact imparts to the mind of the believer, in 
 every perusal of this portion of the Word of 
 God, we need not say. As a proof of it, all 
 will agree, that there is scarcely a book in the 
 Bible, which, when opened, as it were, with 
 this key, affords a higher gratification to the 
 people of God, or is more rich in encourage- 
 
64 CHRISTIAN NOT YET ARRIVED 
 
 merits, warnings, and consolations to them, than 
 the book of Deuteronomy. 
 
 Let us then, take the passage before us, and 
 passing over its primary intention as sufficiently 
 obvious, let us consider it in its typical and 
 accommodated sense, and cherish the lessons 
 which it may please the Spirit of God to enable 
 us to deduce from it, not as conveying any new 
 or striking illustration of Scripture, but simply 
 to warm our affections and elevate our hearts. 
 
 That we may not, in this endeavor, be sup- 
 posed to strain the literal meaning of Holy 
 Writ, it may perhaps be necessary to remind 
 you that both the terms in the text, the ''"rest" 
 and the "inheritance," are distinctly applied, in 
 other portions of the Word of God, to the king- 
 dom of heaven. The first, in the Epistle to the 
 Hebrews, in that well-known passage, " There 
 remaineth, therefore, a rest for the people of 
 God;" Ch. iv; and the second, in the beautiful 
 description of St. Peter, "An inheritance incor- 
 ruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not 
 away." 1 St. Peter i, 4. 
 
 There is a peculiar propriety in these terms 
 as applied to the heavenly Canaan, which no- 
 thing but the experimental knowledge of the 
 
AT HIS journey's END. 65 
 
 Christian can fully appreciate. There is, if we 
 may so say, a practical beauty in the first, and 
 a doctrinal beauty in the second, which the 
 Christian cannot overlook. 
 
 First, observe the doctrinal propriety of the 
 expression, "inheritance,'' as applied to the 
 heavenly Canaan. 
 
 How marked is the distinction between an 
 inheritance and a payment, or an inheritance 
 and a reward. A payment is bestowed for 
 works done, for services received; a reward is 
 bestowed as a recompense for good performed, 
 for exploits achieved. Neither of these, there- 
 fore, could be awarded until these works, or 
 services, or exploits had been fulfilled. Again, 
 each of these argues merit in the recipient, as 
 well as liberality or kindness in the bestower. 
 Now an inheritance presupposes- neither works 
 performed, nor merit in the receiver. An inhe- 
 ritance comes simply by birth; it is that posses- 
 sion which a man is heir to. The eldest son, 
 for instance, is an heir the instant he is born; at 
 the first moment he enters life, he enters also 
 upon the right to the estate which he inherits. 
 The analogy holds good in a peculiar manner, 
 with regard to the heavenly kingdom. It is 
 6* 
 
66 CHRISTIAN NOT YET ARRIVED 
 
 Strictly an inheritance entailed upon every child 
 of God, every heir to the promises, as soon as 
 he is spiritually born of God; for, says the re- 
 vealed Word, "If children, then heirs, heirs of 
 God and joint heirs with Christ/' 
 
 We see, then, the doctrinal propriety with 
 which heaven is described to us as the 'Hnherit- 
 ance^^ of God's people; now let us for a mo- 
 ment contemplate the practical propriety of its 
 description as their "re^/." 
 
 To the man immersed in business or pleasure, 
 whose heart is so deeply engaged in his occupa- 
 tion, that let him be removed from it even for a 
 single day, and no enjoyment will compensate 
 for the privation, there is indeed nothing attract- 
 ive in the anticipation of a world of "rest." 
 Again, to you, my poorer brethren, who labor 
 for the bread which perisheth, and yet have no 
 taste, no desire for that which endureth unto 
 everlasting life, it is vain to talk of a " rest" for 
 which you neither long nor pray. To all, in 
 fact, whatever be their station or their rank, 
 who are engaged in seeking their peace, their 
 enjoyment here below, who know not the hap- 
 piness of serving Him, " whose service is perfect 
 freedom," it would be a hopeless and an unpro- 
 
AT HIS journey's END. 67 
 
 fitable task to speak of a " rest" which to them 
 would be the worst of weariness, or of an " in- 
 heritance" which to them would be the most 
 painful of privations. No ! until we are indeed 
 renewed by the Spirit of God, until we have 
 put off the old man, which is corrupt, and put 
 on the new man, which after God is created in 
 righteousness and true holiness, until we are at 
 least earnestly seeking, and anxiously striving 
 for, a real and vital appropriation of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, and all his benefits, we cannot feel 
 an interest in such a subject. 
 
 Thanks be to God, however, there are at all 
 times, many to Avhom the very sound of rest is 
 unspeakably comforting. The godly poor, for 
 instance, whose days are devoted to toil, whose 
 lot it is to eat "the bread of carefulness," whose 
 every hour brings with it its necessary and 
 praiseworthy occupations, how gladly do they 
 behold the lengthened shadows of evening; 
 how cheerful to them is the dawn of the Sab- 
 bath morning! And why is this? because each 
 of these are signals of repose; the one brings 
 on the comfortable sleep of night, the other the 
 quiet rest and calm enjoyment of this hallowed 
 day. How exactly, then, does such a heaven, 
 
68 CHRISTIAN NOT YET ARRIVED 
 
 as the Word of God describes, meet their neces- 
 sities and their desires — "That rest which re- 
 maineth for the people of God." To know 
 that they are daily preparing for, and daily 
 drawing nearer to a state of existence, upon 
 which the curse that first inflicted labor has 
 never fallen, to know that God has condescend- 
 ed to reveal an attribute of that heavenly king- 
 dom which peculiarly endears it even to them, 
 to be assured that yet a Uttle more of toil, a 
 little more of labor, and this probation-state 
 shall finish, and the Saviour, whom they are 
 now delighting to serve, shall come again and 
 receive them to himself, that where he is, there 
 they may be also. 
 
 And again, the godly men of business, en- 
 gaged, as they are in duty bound to be, in la- 
 boring mentally, while those to whom we have 
 just referred, are laboring corporally, for the 
 bread which perisheth— has the promise of rest 
 no charms for them? Is it no delight to thern 
 to think that there is a state preparing, where 
 they shall, without limit and without end, enjoy 
 those spiritual pleasures of which they must 
 now content themselves with a hasty draught, 
 and then away again? We believe that many 
 
69 
 
 of this large and important class are fully sensi- 
 ble of all the blessedness which that short word 
 includes, and that when they hear of "rest/' 
 they long for the day when the noise of this 
 busy world shall be heard no more, when the 
 office and the counting-house shall be for ever 
 closed, and the crowded resort of men, and the 
 all-engrossing subjects of this world's occupa- 
 tions shall be silenced, and they shall have en- 
 tered into that rest, from which they shall go no 
 more out for ever. 
 
 But is there not still a third class to whom 
 also the description of the text may bring a 
 word of consolation, when it presents to them 
 the Christian's heaven as a place of rest? The 
 godly rich, those members of the higher classes 
 in society, to whom pleasure is a toil, and 
 amusement an occupation, do they never sigh 
 for rest? a rest more substantial, a calm more 
 perfect, than the happiest lot on earth can ever 
 bring. Yes, we doubt not, that those among 
 them, and there are many such, whom circum- 
 stances have placed where, perhaps, their hearts 
 would have never placed them, amidst the la- 
 bors of gaiety, and the disappointments of gra- 
 tification, and the weariness and emptiness of 
 
70 CHRISTIAN NOT YET ARRIVED 
 
 what is miscalled a life of pleasure, even these 
 often feel, with the Psalmist, "0 that I had 
 wings like a dove, for then would I flee away 
 and be at rest/^ 
 
 There is, then, one common ground upon 
 which all the three classes to whom I have al- 
 luded, separate and distinct as they are in their 
 stations, feelings, and occupations, meet in per- 
 fect harmony, and in complete equality, namely, 
 in hailing the rest of which we speak, as a rest 
 from toil or labor, and still more than this, from 
 the struggles and conflicts of sin. This is, un- 
 questionably, the feature which most endears 
 the rest of heaven to the true believer, be his 
 station what it may. The highest and lowest 
 among ourselves can here completely sympa- 
 thise; the evil heart of unbelief is common to 
 us all; the up-risings of pride, and of vanity, of 
 selfishness, of covetousness, however refined 
 and subtle may be their workings in the one, 
 and however coarse and disgusting in the other, 
 are still common to us all, differing in nothing 
 to the eye of God, and differing as little, in the 
 dangers and pains of the conflict, to ourselves. 
 We can then all, and if we are the children of 
 God we shall, most highly appreciate this quali- 
 
AT HIS journey's END. . 71 
 
 fication of our promised home. Who can de- 
 scribe the blessedness of a state in which these 
 daily, hourly, ceaseless struggles shall be un- 
 known? Here, no sooner is one temptation 
 vanquished, than another presents itself; no 
 sooner is one evil device driven out of the heart, 
 than there appears to be almost a conflict among 
 those that remain, for its vacant place; nay, 
 even the very victory itself over some besetting 
 sin, too often brings with it defeat and disgrace, 
 by inducing us to disregard the next encounter. 
 How indescribably comforting then to look for- 
 ward to a time when the last battle shall have 
 been fought, and to a place where toils and 
 conflicts, such as these, are utterly unknown. 
 Perhaps of all the attributes of heaven, this sin- 
 gle one of rest, is the only one which could, 
 with our present limited faculties, thus have 
 met the wants and satisfied the longings of all 
 classes, from the highest to the lowest, and of 
 all and each of the persons in those classes. 
 How merciful is our Heavenly Father, thus to 
 present before the eyes of every child in his 
 redeemed family, just that qualification of his 
 future abode, which every one would have se- 
 lected for himself— rest. Rest from sin, rest 
 
72 ' CHRISTIAN NOT YET ARRIVED 
 
 from labor, rest from suffering, rest from sorrow, 
 rest from every thing but from those blessed, 
 delightful, heart-elevating praises and worship 
 and services of our God, in which the glorified 
 inhabitants of the heavenly inheritance "rest 
 not day nor night," but are for ever and for 
 ever, engaged in one unwearied round of ever- 
 lasting ministrations. 
 
 Such is a faint and shadowy outline of the 
 glorious inheritance, the blessed rest, to which 
 the true Israel of God, are, in this world, con- 
 tinually upon their journey. We address you, 
 then, as Moses did the Israel of old, and we 
 say. Remember, brethren, "Ye are not as yet 
 come to the rest and to the inheritance which 
 the Lord your God giveth you;" and are your 
 feet already weary? Are the first strong feel- 
 ings of resolution with which you commenced 
 the journey, already past? Did you not, as the 
 Lord of the way directed you, " sit down first, 
 and count the cost?" There has no strange 
 thing happened unto you; nothing which He 
 who brought you into the way, and is now em- 
 ployed in guiding you, and keeping you in the 
 the way, did not fully anticipate, when you 
 entered upon the heavenward path. Therefore, 
 
73 
 
 be not discouraged even by the most frequent 
 failures; the Lord is long-suffering, and of great 
 mercy, and willeth not that any should perish, 
 his strength, his wisdom, his love, are all en- 
 gaged for you at this moment, as fully as they 
 were for Israel; not a fall which you have ex- 
 perienced since you commenced upon the path, 
 not a pollution which you have contracted by 
 the way, that he has not provided for; the 
 fountain which he opened for you is for ever 
 flowing; a stream runs from it for ever beside 
 your path, and the voice of the Great Lord of 
 the fountain is for ever sounding in your ears, 
 as to him of old, " Wash, and be clean." No 
 defilement, no pollution too deep for those 
 cleansing waters; only, lose no time in your ap- 
 plication; after every fall, as soon as you regain 
 your footing, away to the living stream, leave 
 not one spot without renewing your visit there, 
 where every humble, every way-worn traveller 
 finds cleansing, refreshment, and consolation. 
 And as you wind along the devious path, the 
 same good Lord has stationed his ministers at 
 every turning, saying, "This is the way, walk 
 ye in it." So that, unknowingly to wander far 
 away from it, is impossible. While he has 
 7 
 
74 CHRISTIAN NOT YET ARRIVED 
 
 again commissioned us to address you, as Mo- 
 ses did the Israelites of old, with many of these 
 encouraging and strengthening directions, "Be- 
 hold, the Lord thy God has set the land before 
 thee: go up and possess it, as the Lord God of 
 thy fathers hath said unto thee. Fear not, nei- 
 ther be discouraged." "It is a good land which 
 the Lord our God doth give us." "In the wil- 
 derness thou hast seen how that the Lord thy 
 God bare thee, as a man doth bear his son, in 
 all the way that ye went, until ye came unto 
 this place." 
 
 Surely here is encouragement sufficient, fully 
 sufficient for the necessities of every individual 
 among you. You have seen that it is indeed a 
 good land, well worthy of every effort, every 
 toil and labor here ; and you have seen, more- 
 over, as Israel saw, and was desired to bear in 
 mind, that "the Lord your God doth give it 
 you," a free gift, an unpurchased inheritance, 
 purchased indeed for you, but unquestionably 
 not purchased by you. You have seen, more- 
 over, in your own experience, how the Lord 
 has borne you up, as a man beareth his son, 
 "as an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over 
 her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh 
 
AT HIS journey's END. 75 
 
 her young and beareth them upon her wings, 
 so the Lord alone has led you even until this 
 day;" Deut. xxxii, 11; and, as Moses says, 
 "unto this place.'' Yes, brethren, from the first 
 hour of your spiritual birth, until the hour that 
 he brought you within these walls, to hear a 
 message of peace this day, even to the present 
 moment and the present place, has your God 
 directed your footsteps, and strengthened your 
 hands, and encouraged your hearts. Could we 
 read aloud the history of every child of God 
 here present, what a commentary, what a cor- 
 roboration would it afford to this assertion ; 
 might we not say to one. Through how many 
 trials and temptations has the Lord safely con- 
 ducted you, when you were compelled almost 
 to say with David, "as for me, my feet were 
 almost gone, my steps had well nigh slipped?" 
 even then the everlasting arms were beneath 
 you, and brought you safely through, and, with 
 the temptation, sent a way to escape, that you 
 might be able to bear it. Might we not say to 
 another. When your afflictions increased upon 
 you, so that their dark waters went, as David 
 says, "even over your soul," and you thought 
 that there was none that cared for you, how 
 
76 CHRISTIAN NOT YET ARRIVED 
 
 wonderfully did the Lord support you, and 
 raised you up friends, or was himself better 
 than all friends to you, and cheered your heart 
 and sanctified your sorrow, and brought some 
 of the brightest flashes of his love, out of the 
 darkest clouds of his visitations! Might we 
 not say to each, there are passages in your his- 
 tory, known only to God and your own soul, 
 which ought to make you ashamed that you 
 should even for one moment, doubt either his 
 power or his will to bring you, in his own good 
 time, in safety to your rest, and to give you an 
 inheritance with all them that are sanctified. 
 "0 ye of little faith, wherefore dost thou doubt?^' 
 But are there any of you who think that 
 your encouragements and consolations have 
 fallen short of what the Lord had led you to 
 expect when you cast in your lot with his peo- 
 ple? then bear in mind, that "ye are not as yet 
 come to the rest," and is it therefore wise, or 
 grateful, or reasonable, that you should repine 
 at the toils and trials of the way? If you had 
 indeed arrived at the inheritance, and found it 
 unworthy of you, unequal to your expectations, 
 unsatisfactory to your soul, we can well imagine 
 your repinings; but you are still on the road, 
 
AT HIS journey's END. k 77 
 
 you are at present but a way-faring man, and 
 will you complain that God gives you not the 
 same entertainment on the journey which he 
 has pledged himself to give you at the journey's 
 end? Ought it not in all reason to be enough, 
 that he has made the way so plain, that "the 
 way-faring man, though a fool, shall not err 
 therein?" That he has so carried you over its 
 rough and stony places, and through its dark 
 forests, and across its rapid streams, and away 
 out of the reach of its lowering tempests, that 
 you escaped, uninjured, even to the present 
 hour? Do you complain that although you 
 have been indeed carried, you have not been 
 comforted, that you have been kept upon the 
 road, but not as others have, in the fulness of 
 assurance and joy? Be not dissatisfied though 
 it be thus with you: there may be, and doubt- 
 less there are, fully sufficient reasons that some 
 of God's strongest consolations should be with- 
 held from you for the present, perhaps your 
 very stability depends on this privation; were 
 you to enjoy all of comfort and encouragement 
 which some enjoy, it might be your ruin, by 
 rendering you a careless, confident, and even an 
 unholy walker. Be content that he who appor- 
 7* 
 
78 CHRISTIAN NOT YET ARRIVED 
 
 tions your afflictions and your trials, apportions 
 also your consolations and your strength, that 
 the one will always be regulated by the other, 
 and that he withholds his consolations in love, 
 quite as certainly as that he vouchsafes them in 
 love; leave it, therefore, to him who has chosen 
 your inheritance for you, to choose also the way 
 by which, and the manner in which, you shall 
 travel to it. Only rest calmly and unhesitating- 
 ly upon the promises of him, "who, according 
 to his abundant mercy, hath begotten you again 
 to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, 
 and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven 
 for you, who are kept by the power of God 
 through faith unto salvation." St. Peter i, 4. 
 You have not yet approached the land of your 
 inheritance; you have not yet descended to the 
 brink of the dark waters of Jordan, which di- 
 vide Canaan from the wilderness; you have not 
 yet, therefore, needed the largest of the pro- 
 mises — "When thou passest through the waters, 
 I will be with thee; and through the rivers, 
 they shall not overflow thee;" Isaiah xliii, 2; 
 you have never yet required the strongest of 
 his consolations, and God acts as carefully in 
 the spiritual world, as in the world of his provi- 
 
AT HIS journey's END. 79 
 
 dence; there is no waste, no unnecessary out- 
 lay, there is just so much bestowed, as you. 
 actually require, and no more. But, remember 
 that all the consolations of God are yours, when 
 you need them, as certainly as that they shall 
 not be yours, before you need them. They are 
 all "yea and amen in Christ Jesus,'-' purchased 
 for you by him, given to you through him, and 
 laid up for you in him. As surely as that " in 
 the world ye shall have tribulation," St. John 
 xvi, 33, so certainly in that tribulation you shall 
 have comfort, from Him who hath said to you, 
 "Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." 
 Ibid. As surely as that a day of trouble awaits 
 you, so certainly in that trouble, shall you have 
 peace, from Him who hath said, "Peace I leave 
 with you, my peace I give unto you." As 
 surely as he has promised you an inheritance, 
 so certainly will he keep it for you, and you for 
 it. As surely as that your eyes shall be closed 
 in darkness, that you shall lie down in the grave, 
 that your heart and your flesh shall fail you, so 
 unquestionably shall God be the "strength of 
 your heart, and your portion for ever." 
 
80 
 
 SERMOxN V. 
 
 ACQUAINTANCE WITH GOD. 
 
 Job XXII, 21. (Part.) 
 
 "ACQUAINT THYSELF NOW WITH GOD." 
 
 That the advice given in these words was 
 sound and judicious, no one who beUeves in the 
 existence of a God, will venture to deny. If 
 there be a God, and if that God is the Being, 
 who regulates every thing which can affect us 
 now, and who arbitrates our portion throughout 
 eternity, then, most assuredly, it is of the very 
 first importance, that we should be acquainted 
 rightly, intimately, savingly acquainted, with 
 this great, and good, and wonderful Being. 
 
 Perhaps, however, an objection, which must 
 be met and answered, may arise in the minds 
 of some, even before the subject is entered 
 upon, that this is a strange topic to select for the 
 consideration of professed believers. Acquaint- 
 
ACQUAINTANCE WITH GOD. 81 
 
 ance with God! — are we not all acquainted 
 with God? are we not at rest to-day from our 
 labors, because this is God's Sabbath? Are we 
 not assembled here,"because this is God's house? 
 Are we not now disposed to listen to the voice 
 of the preacher, simply because he is proclaim- 
 ing God's Word? and shall we be told to ac- 
 quaint ourselves with God, when we thus de- 
 monstrate that we already both know and obey 
 him? In the first ages of Christianity, such an 
 argument would doubtless have been unanswer- 
 able; when all the world was in utter igno- 
 rance, or in avowed hostility to the God of the 
 Bible, you would not have ventured to have 
 risked all which you must have risked by hal- 
 lowing God's Sabbath, and attending his tem- 
 ple, and listening to his Word, unless you had 
 indeed been among the number of those who 
 were willing to "count all things but loss for 
 the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus 
 our Lord;" Philip, iii, 8; in other words, unless 
 you had been truly and vitally acquainted with 
 God. At the present day, however, things are 
 far otherwise: you may do all that I have enu- 
 merated; nay, you may do a great deal more 
 than I shall or can enumerate, and yet be vir- 
 
82 ACQUAINTANCE WITH GOD. 
 
 tually as ignorant of the God of the Christian, 
 as far from the saving knowledge of Him, as 
 the poor Indian, who " sees Him in clouds, and 
 hears Him in the winds." 
 
 May then God himself be present with us 
 this morning, by the promised power of his 
 eternal Spirit, while we endeavor, with the light 
 of his revealed Word, to point out to you two 
 considerations, connected with this important 
 subject viz., 
 
 I. The means; and 
 
 II. The season, for attaining to a true, a Scrip- 
 tural, and a saving acquaintance with the triune 
 Jehovah. 
 
 In considering the means, I shall chiefly con- 
 fine myself to the two great and prominent 
 means revealed to us in Scripture, viz., through 
 Christ, by the Spirit; only briefly alluding to 
 the other more subordinate methods of forming 
 this acquaintance. 
 
 The first means, then, of obtaining this know- 
 ledge, is through the mediation of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 Now, we would ask those among you who 
 might feel disposed to acquiesce in the objection, 
 with which this discourse commenced, viz., that 
 
ACQUAINTANCC WITH GOD. 83 
 
 you were already acquainted with God, are you 
 acquainted with him thus? Do you know God 
 as in Christ Jesus, "reconciling the world to 
 himself, not imputing their trespasses unto 
 them?" And do you so know him — not histo- 
 rically and generally, as all, at least in some de- 
 gree, know him who are born and educated in a 
 Christian country, but experimentally and indi- 
 vidually, as none can know him, unless taught 
 by the influence of his own good Spirit; as re- 
 conciling you to himself, and not imputing your 
 trespasses unto you; as accepting, pardoning, 
 and loving you, for the sake of his dear Son? 
 If you can answer in the affirmative, then, bless- 
 ed be God, you have indeed entered upon an 
 acquaintance with the great Jehovah, which 
 time shall not interrupt, nor eternity itself de- 
 stroy; you who are already thus taught, and 
 thus acquainted, will assuredly bear with me, 
 while I endeavor to lead others to the still wa- 
 ters, and the green pastures, where you have 
 found refreshment and repose; for while you 
 need this instruction least, you will probably be 
 among the number of those, who will tolerate 
 it, and love it most. 
 
 I proceed, however, to address myself more 
 
84 ACQUAINTANCE WITH GOD. 
 
 especially to you who are conscious of no such 
 blessed acquaintance, and I would endeavor 
 shortly to show you, from testimony which can- 
 not be refuted, because it is the testimony of God 
 himself, that the very first step to acquaint your- 
 self with God, is by a simple coming to, or be- 
 lieving in, Christ Jesus. '^ No man hath seen 
 God at any time," said our blessed Lord, " the 
 only-begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the 
 Father, he hath declared him." " If ye had 
 known me, ye should have known my Father 
 also." "He that hath seen me, hath seen the 
 Father." "I am the way, the truth, and the 
 life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by 
 me." Your acquaintance, then, with God, must 
 be commenced at the foot of the cross! This is 
 the prominent truth of the Bible; the truth, 
 without which, all other truths are folly. Seek 
 an acquaintance with God, as a God of creation; 
 search for him among the wondrous structures 
 of his almighty hand; amidst those bright lumi- 
 naries which he has hung on high, as trophies of 
 his majesty and power; amidst the beauteous 
 scenes which he has spread abroad over the sur- 
 face of the earth which we inhabit, as testimo- 
 nies to his benevolence and goodness; amidst 
 
ACQUAINTANCE WITH GOD. 85 
 
 the beatings of a tempestuous sea, or the glare 
 of the Hghtning, and the roar of thunder; amidst 
 the elements which he has awakened as the voice 
 of his terrors and his wrath; and what will be 
 the result? you will return from the contempla- 
 tion, with minds only baffled and confounded by 
 the glories you have beheld; you may have made 
 acquaintance with nature, but, in spite of the 
 poet's assertion, you will have made none with 
 ^' Nature's Cod." You may, indeed, in this 
 manner, have formed some indistinct notions of 
 the power, the majesty, the terrors of the Al- 
 mighty; but all his other attributes, so peculiarly 
 affecting to the human soul, his forbearance, his 
 long-suffering with sin, his unwillingness that 
 any should perish, his mercy, and his love, will 
 be hidden from you in a darkness which no 
 human eye can penetrate, until that darkness 
 is illuminated by the rays which flow^ from the 
 cross of the Redeemer. 
 
 This is the reason, the plain, intelligible rea- 
 son, why, as God's own Word has declared, 
 " the world by wisdom knew not God." 1 Cor. 
 i, 21. Strange, indeed, say the undue exalters 
 of human wisdom, that if revelation be true, 
 men of learning and science should so often be 
 8 
 
86 ACQUAINTANCE WITH GOD. 
 
 unbelievers; strange that we should have infidel 
 historians, infidel mathematicians, and above 
 all infidel astronomers, and infidel anatomists; 
 stranger far, replies the Christian, if they were 
 not so, when the unerring Word of God has 
 proclaimed this everlasting truth, that no man 
 can come to the Father, but by Christ; See St. 
 John, xiv, 6. The men of whom we speak have 
 never attempted so to approach God; and the 
 consequence is; precisely, what the Christian is 
 assured by God that it should be, they are utter- 
 ly and altogether unacquainted with God, and 
 take their puny revenge by ridiculing and dis- 
 crediting his revelation and his Word. 
 * I would, then, address every individual among 
 you who is conscious that he is not, at the pre- 
 sent moment, savingly acquainted with God, and 
 I would say to him. Do you really desire to 
 know God, to know him in such a manner that 
 you shall at once be freed from all slavish fear 
 of him, and shall love him, and serve him, and 
 delight to love and serve him now, and shall 
 dwell with him throughout eternity? Surely 
 many of you will reply from the ground of your 
 hearts, God knows that I do. Then, mark well 
 the road to that blessed acquaintance — make 
 
ACQUAINTANCE WITH GOD. 87 
 
 Jesus Christ, as revealed to you in the Gospel, 
 the first step in your approaches to the Father; 
 make his atonement the basis of your friendship 
 with God. He freely offers to reconcile you to 
 God; do you as freely accept it? Believe that 
 he is in earnest when he thus ofi^rs; and plead 
 his merits, and his righteousness before God as 
 a reason why your sins should be forgiven, and 
 your persons accepted. It is thus that your 
 acquaintance must commence. God cannot be 
 acquainted with sinners. Two cannot walk 
 together, says the Scriptures of truth, unless they 
 be agreed; See Amos, iii, 3; and no method of 
 agreement has ever yet been offered to fallen 
 man, but that which is written in the blood of 
 Christ. This is the plea which God will not, 
 nay, in humility be it spoken, which he cannot 
 reject, because it is the plea of his own appoint- 
 ment. God has declared that the blood of his 
 own dear Son alone cleanseth from all sin, that 
 his righteousness is " unto all, and upon all them 
 that believe.'^ If you, therefore, thus believe, 
 God views you no longer as you are by nature, 
 but as you have become by grace. He sees 
 you as washed in the blood of the Lamb — as 
 clothed in the righteousness of the Redeemer. 
 
88 ACQUAINTANCE WITH GOD. 
 
 His perfect obedience spread over you as a gar- 
 ment, hiding your deformities, veiling your sins. 
 He receives you as a pardoned sinner; nay, 
 more, as an adopted child; as one whom he 
 loves with an everlasting love, and has bound 
 to him by an everlasting covenant. He has, it 
 is true, from all eternity been acquainted with 
 you, but now, by his free and sovereign grace, 
 he has enabled you to acquaint yourself with 
 him, and be at peace. 
 
 We proceed to the second means of becoming 
 acquainted with God. " Through Him" (i. e. 
 Christ), says the inspired Word, " we both have 
 access by one Spirit unto the Father; Eph. ii, 
 18. 
 
 It has been shown, that it is only by coming to 
 Christ that you can approach God; but the work 
 would be left unfinished if we were to suffer 
 you to depart with the misapprehension that you 
 could even thus come to Christ of yourselves. 
 " God, who commanded the light to shine out of 
 darkness must shine into your hearts," to give 
 you the light of the knowledge of "his glory in 
 the face of Jesus Christ." Before, therefore, you 
 can thus come to Christ, you must be influenced 
 by the power of the Holy Spirit. " No man 
 
ACQUAINTANCE WITH GOD. ' 89 
 
 can come to me, except the Father who hath 
 sent me draw him.'^ St. John vi, 44. So far 
 from even desiring to acquaint yourself with 
 God until this be done, you will prefer every 
 body and every thing to God and his salvation. 
 In the depraved and vitiated state of your natu- 
 ral affections, you will prefer the pleasures of 
 religion, and the acquaintance of the men of 
 the world, to the pleasures of religion, and the 
 acquaintance of your Maker; — and I put it to 
 your own personal experience whether you do 
 not so. Until the stony heart be taken away, 
 and the heart of flesh be given, you will have no 
 desire, no inclination, to draw near to God; the 
 clearest statements of divine truth will be un- 
 heard; the greatest blessings will be unimproved; 
 the heaviest afiiictions will be unsanctified. But 
 when this blessed work of the Divine Spirit is 
 done; when the heart is truly converted from 
 the world, and turned to God; then, indeed, are 
 you enabled to close with the gracious offers of 
 your Redeemer, and to be brought by Him, as 
 one of his purchased people, to the footstool of 
 his Father's throne. Then will such an acquain- 
 tance be established with the High and Holy 
 One which inhabiteth eternity, as no change of 
 8* 
 
90 ACQUAINTANCE WITH GOD. 
 
 outward circumstances, no tumult of inward 
 anxieties, shall be able lastingly to interrupt, 
 while the peace of God, which passeth under- 
 standing, shall keep your hearts and minds in 
 the knowledge and love of God, and of his Son, 
 Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
 These, brethren, are the two essential means 
 of acquainting ourselves with God by Christ, 
 through the Spirit; time would fail me, were I 
 at all to dwell upon the many and valuable sub- 
 ordinate means by which this acquaintance is 
 best promoted and enjoyed; such, for example, 
 as the daily careful searching of the Word of 
 God, with holy meditation and prayer; the fre- 
 quent society and conversation of those who are 
 already best acquainted with God, among your 
 neighbors and friends; the constant and devout 
 participation in that holy Sacrament which 
 Christ has ordained in his Church, and which is 
 an especial means of "the strengthening and 
 refreshing of our souls by the body and blood of 
 Christ, as our bodies are by the bread and 
 wine;" private and secret prayer, together with 
 contemplation of God's goodness, and long-suf- 
 fering, and love to each of you individually in 
 all the important features of your lives; and, 
 
ACQUAINTANCE WITH GOD. 91 
 
 though last, by no means of the slightest impor- 
 tance, holy walkhig with God according to the 
 light which you possess, which will tend more 
 than almost any other means to increase your 
 acquaintance, and to heighten your intimacy, 
 with our most holy and heart searching God. 
 
 II. Leaving these suggestions to your own 
 private consideration, I proceed in the second 
 place to bring before you from the words of 
 the text, the proper season for making this 
 acquaintance. What, then, you will perhaps 
 inquire, are not all seasons equally proper for 
 this great work? No, brethren, be assured that 
 they are not. If you doubt me, consider well the 
 words of the text. " Acquaint thyself now with 
 God,'' is His own specific message. It is not 
 in general terms, " acquaint thyself with God;'^ 
 neither does it point to any of those peculiar 
 seasons which we might have anticipated. 
 " Acquaint thyself with God" in the time of 
 trouble, in the day of sorrow, in the hour of 
 sickness; or when old age advances, and other 
 acquaintances fall away. It simply says, "Ac- 
 quaint thyself NOW with God," to-day, as soon 
 as you hear the message ; before the words of 
 the preacher die upon your ear; before you 
 
92 ACQUAINTANCE WITH GOD. 
 
 leave this house, commence upon this great and 
 blessed, but still arduous and difficult, underta- 
 king. 
 
 It is remarkable how imperative, how unde- 
 viating the Word of God is upon this head of 
 our discourse, the season of forming our ac- 
 quaintance with Him. It never, that I am 
 aware of, in a single instance throughout the 
 Avhole book of inspiration, speaks of any season 
 for this great work, but the present. It has, in- 
 deed, threatenings which regard the future, and 
 the future only; it has also promises which 
 regard the future, and the future only; it has 
 joys and sorrows which regard the future only, 
 but it has no such invitations; it has not a single 
 invitation which even hints at any other season 
 than the present; most plainly intimating, that 
 while you are perfectly at liberty to reject the 
 invitation of the passing hour, God Almighty 
 holds himself equally at liberty never to repeat 
 it. 
 
 Observe, only, how strikingly this fact is illus- 
 trated by the language of Scripture: "Behold, 
 now is the accepted time; behold, now is the 
 day of salvation." "Wherefore," as the Holy 
 Ghost saith, "To-day if you will hear his voice, 
 
ACQUAINTANCE WITH GOD. 93 
 
 harden not your hearts/^ "Choose you this 
 day whom you will serve." And perhaps 
 more remarkably than any other, in a text 
 which you all know, but which is generally 
 misquoted, " Remember thy Creator in the days 
 of thy youth." There is no such text in the 
 Bible; the words are, and you may find them 
 at the opening of the 12th chapter of Ecclesi- 
 astes, "Remember now thy Creator in the days 
 of thy youth;" showing, that even in youth, to 
 which the largest promises are made, the same 
 remarkable limitation is still awarded. Re- 
 member God in thy youth; but it must be now, 
 to-day. 
 
 These authorities, and it would be easy to 
 multiply them, are 'fully sufficient to demon- 
 strate what has been asserted, that the only sea- 
 son spoken of in God's Word, for the return 
 and conversion of a sinner, is the present. God 
 invariably says. Come to me to-day; it is the 
 unrenewed heart of stubborn man which alone 
 dares to reply, "I shall wait until to-morrow." 
 
 Is it not, then, a fearful thing to reflect how 
 many there may be among us, who are virtu- 
 ally making this reply at the present moment. 
 The young — you who are thinking. When I am 
 
94 ACQUAINTANCE WITH GOD. 
 
 a little older, when I have left scho(^l, when I 
 am married and settled in the world, I will 
 really endeavor to acquaint myself with God, 
 but not to-day. Men of business — you who 
 are resolving, when you are able to retire from 
 this incessant occupation, or when you have 
 rather less of worldly callings to attend to, that 
 you will acquaint yourselves with God, but not 
 to-day. Parents — you who are anticipating the 
 period when your children shall have grown 
 up, and no longer form the great impediment 
 which they do at present, while engaging so 
 much of your time and attention, and who are 
 fully resolved then really to acquaint yourselves 
 with God. The aged — you who are thinking 
 that a sick bed and a dying hour, will be fully 
 sufficient for these things, and that then you 
 will in earnest seek them. How many are thus, 
 looking to some future and far distant period, 
 how few are saying, to-day! At your own 
 time, and your own leisure, you imagine that 
 you will all seek after God, and devote your- 
 selves far more earnestly, and unreservedly to 
 the great work of salvation that you have ever 
 yet found the time or the inclination to do. 
 My brethren, do not, I beseech you, deceive 
 
ACQUAINTANCE WITH GOD. 95 
 
 yourselves thus; such resolutions as these are 
 as nothing, and worse than nothing, in the sight 
 of God. There is only one Being in the whole 
 universe who can approve them, for, be assured, 
 there is only one being who will ever profit by 
 them — in the language of Scripture — "your ad- 
 versary, the devil, who walketh about, seeking 
 whom he may devour." If you desire to please 
 him, these are the resolutions which delight him 
 most. Yes, we firmly believe that nothing can 
 more rejoice that prince of darkness, while he 
 sits at the door of your heart, watching its secret 
 workings, and ready to catch the seed sown, 
 than to observe these earnest resolutions of a 
 future repentance, a future acquaintance with 
 God, a future devotedness of life and soul to the 
 Redeemer. He cares not how earnest you are 
 in these promises of future services. He would 
 rather you were in earnest, for you will be the 
 less likely to suspect, that such resolutions 
 should be fruitless. He will himself aid you in 
 them, and volunteer all the strength and the 
 solemnity that he can throw into the transac- 
 tion; and he is well content to do so. If you 
 remain his bondsman for the present, you may 
 choose your own master for the future; for he 
 
96 ACQUAINTANCE WITH GOD. 
 
 well knows that the future will one day become 
 the present, and that when it does, it will be as 
 easy for him again to teach you to postpone 
 and procrastinate, aye, every additional time far 
 more easy for him thus to cheat and to delude 
 you than it is to-day. Satan himself, therefore, 
 would not object to enforce the words of my 
 text upon you, if he might but change one little 
 syllable; if he might but expunge the word 
 "now," and read it, ^Acquaint thyself with God 
 to-morrow,' it would forward his dreadful cause 
 more effectually than a thousand common-place 
 delusions. how that juggling fiend is laugh- 
 ing to scorn the man, wise in his own conceit, 
 who is now engaged in suppressing the desire, 
 which has been just awakened for an immedi- 
 ate change of heart and life, and is most gravely 
 resolving that nothing shall prevent a future 
 reformation. 
 
 Upon this point, then, the minister of Christ 
 must take his stand. We say to every one 
 among you who is not at present devoted to the 
 service of his God, acquaint thyself with Him 
 now; to-day, seek access to God by Christ 
 through the Spirit; — to-morrow may not be 
 yours, or if it be, you may have neither the will. 
 
ACQUAINTANCE WITH GOD. 97 
 
 nor the power to improve it. Suffer no worldly- 
 pleasure, no worldly profits, no worldly ridicule 
 or opinion, to keep you back from this most im- 
 portant work. Cleave closely to God, and you 
 may defy the world; its voice will soon be 
 quenched in silence, and all its mockeries be for- 
 gotten in the grave; when the voice of Him 
 whom you serve, will be heard in the accents of 
 commendation and love, loud as the trumpet of 
 the archangel. 
 
 And if there be any one among you " whose 
 heart the Lord hath opened to attend to the 
 things spoken" this morning, and who is saying. 
 Would that I could believe that this invitation 
 were addressed to me; would that I might hope 
 that God would admit me to the blessedness of 
 his acquaintance, and to the enjoyment of his 
 pardoning love; I would not wait for a to- 
 morrow, which may never come; I would 
 indeed go this day, this hour, this instant, 
 and throw myself in penitence and faith at the 
 foot of the cross, and there seek acquaintance 
 with the God of all consolation. My brother, 
 if such an one there be, to you are the words of 
 this salvation sent. Have you grievously sinned 
 and fallen away from God? He is ready to 
 9 
 
98 ACQUAINTANCE WITH GOD. 
 
 heal the breach this day. Are you yet in dark- 
 ness? He is willing this day to say, " Let there 
 be light." Are your offences so numerous that 
 you are ashamed to look up, and have you 
 rejected so many invitations that you have no 
 hope you should to-day be accepted? hear the 
 word of the Lord: " Come now, and let us 
 reason together, saith the Lord; though your 
 sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; 
 though they be red like crimson, they shall be 
 as wool." Isaiah i, 18. Cast yourself, there- 
 fore, unreservedly, on the love of God to you in 
 Christ Jesus; offer a single faithful fervent prayer, 
 *• God be merciful to me a sinner," and you 
 shall speedily experience the soul-satisfying 
 reply, " Him that cometh unto me I will in no 
 wise cast out." St. John, vi, 37. 
 
99 
 
 SERMON VI. 
 
 GOD MARKING INIQUITY. 
 
 Psalm cxxx 3, 4. 
 
 "IF THOU, LORD, SHOULDEST MARK INIQUITIES, O LORD, 
 WHO SHALL STAND ? BUT THERE IS FORGIVENESS 
 WITH THEE." 
 
 There are seasons when every man, whose 
 heart has been in any degree convinced of sin, 
 beholds his iniquities with feelings of regret and 
 consternation peculiarly vivid. Times of trial, 
 times of affliction, but above all, times of prayer, 
 when he is led into closer communion with his 
 God, are pre-eminently among those seasons. 
 Sins, which at other periods but little affect him, 
 which he can pass over almost without a sigh or 
 a thought, are then brought up in terrible array 
 before the soul, and for a few moments the man 
 is almost lost in astonishment at his own auda- 
 city and blindness. While, if he carry on the 
 
100 GOD MARKING INIQUITY. 
 
 feeling, if he turn from looking inward to look- 
 ing upward, from thinking of what he knows of 
 himself to what God knows of him, he is unable 
 to find expressions sufficiently strong with which 
 to describe his own perversity and worthless- 
 ness. He feels as if such a being as himself 
 could have no right to pray; as if one who had 
 sinned so often, so long, so wilfully, were adding 
 to his guilt, by presuming thus to come before 
 God ; and he is almost tempted to doubt whether 
 utter silence, utter neglect of all prayer, would 
 not more become him, than any language, how- 
 ever contrite or however Fmmble. 
 
 Reflections of a very similar nature to these, 
 appear to have been passing through the mind 
 of the Psalmist when he penned the words of 
 the text. He was evidently, in the opening 
 verses of the psalm, addressing the Almighty, 
 during some period of deep affliction, in earnest, 
 fervent supplication; he says, " Out of the depths 
 have I cried unto thee, Lord; Lord, hear my 
 voice; let thine ears be attentive to the voice of 
 my supplication:" and then, as if oppressed by 
 the weight of his numberless transgressions, 
 borne down by the burden of his many sins, he 
 exclaims, " If thou. Lord, shouldest mark iniqui- 
 
GOD MARKING INIQUITY. 101 
 
 ties, Lord, who shall stand?" Then, again, 
 recovering himself from this overwhelming con- 
 sciousness of guilt, he adds, his very prayer, as 
 it were, gasping for breath, " But there is for- 
 giveness with thee." 
 
 The deep feeling of utter sinfulness and worth- 
 lessness, so strikingly displayed by the Psalmist, 
 does not merely mark a particular stage of reli- 
 gious feeUng, it lies at the very root of religion 
 itself; there is no vital godliness without it, it is 
 its universal accompaniment. Let us then medi- 
 tate, for a short time, upon the expressions 
 before us, in the hope, and with the prayer, that 
 by God's grace they may work that in us, which 
 they so clearly and so touchingly evidenced in 
 the holy and devoted David. 
 
 I. First, then, let us learn what is implied in 
 the words before us, viz: — That the Lord is a 
 God who marks iniquity; and, 
 
 II. What is directly asserted, " But there is 
 forgiveness with thee." 
 
 I. There is not a more awful consideration 
 than that which we learn by implication from 
 the text. Whether we consider God as a Being 
 of infinite power, or of infinite purity, the 
 thought is equally solemn, equally appalling. — 
 
102 GOD MARKING INIQUITY. 
 
 That there has been One, standing over us, ever 
 since we were born, and marking in pages, 
 which we cannot obUterate, every sinful action, 
 every unholy word, every false, and profane, and 
 unchaste, and uncharitable thought; and that as 
 time goes on, this marking goes on also; that 
 there is an eye never closed, an ear never dull, 
 a hand never wearied, all engaged in this great 
 work. We look backward, perhaps, through a 
 long vista of departed years, and although we 
 have a certain undenied, and indistinct con- 
 sciousness, that many sins are mingling there, 
 we have forgotten most of their peculiarities, and 
 much that added inconceivably to their guilt, 
 while He who marks" iniquity, has forgotten 
 nothing; He sees every trace and every linea- 
 ment as clearly and as distinctly, as, in the first 
 hour of their commission, they were seen and 
 felt by ourselves, and the effect of this know- 
 ledge of the Most High is, that it is impos- 
 sible for man, sinful, helpless man, to stand 
 before God. For although the Psalmist makes 
 a question of il, asking, "Who shall stand.?" it 
 is just one of those questions which imply the 
 strongest, and the surest assertion; it is as if he 
 had said," Lord, thou dost so mark iniquities. 
 
GOD MARKING INIQUITY. 103 
 
 that I am utterly unable to stand;" or, as the 
 same man elsewhere expresses it, " My iniquities 
 have taken such hold of me, that I am unable to 
 look up." And shall any one venture to assert, 
 that this is too deep a view to take of our iniqui- 
 ties? — is it a deeper view than God is at this 
 moment taking of every unrepented sin, which 
 he has recorded against every individual now 
 present before him? 
 
 No, brethren, where we all fail, is not in set- 
 ting these things in too dark, but in too faint a 
 light; not in painting them with too strong, but 
 with too weak and feeble a touch. Could we 
 see our own sins as God sees them, we verily 
 believe that the sight would instantaneously be 
 productive of one or other of these two conse- 
 quences — it would either drive us to despera- 
 tion, or it would send us to a Saviour. There 
 could be no middle course, no resting place short 
 of this would allay the agony of our souls. Men 
 may talk lightly, and think lightly, and careless- 
 ly of sin, who have never felt the anguish of 
 remorse, the pangs of a convicted conscience, or 
 have never seen the dreadful cost of a Saviour's 
 tear, and of a Saviour's blood, at which its par- 
 don was purchased; but let the Spirit of God 
 
104 GOD MARKING INIQUITY. 
 
 only for one hour, set home upon the heart the 
 true and scriptural sight of sin unrepented, and 
 sin unforgiven, and the longest day to which 
 your mortal life may be extended, will never 
 cast the vail of forgetfulness over that hour of 
 suffering. 
 
 Think only of the anguish, the bitter anguish, 
 which you feel when you reflect upon any sin- 
 gle act, by which you have offended an earthly 
 relative, a father, a mother, a wife, or child, 
 over whom the grave has darkened, and who is 
 now past hearing your regrets, and past forgiv- 
 ing them. It is in vain you reason with your- 
 self, that were they here, they would kindly 
 re-assure you of their pardon, they would affec- 
 tionately convince you that you never willingly 
 injured them, never wilfully grieved them. It 
 is in vain; the regret will follow you, and rea- 
 son itself is insufficient to quiet or to dismiss it. 
 Such, then, is a faint, faint emblem of the suf- 
 fering, which the soul, when once really awak- 
 ened to a sense of its having offended a departed 
 God, even here often endures. It is not the 
 consciousness of its danger which oppresses it, 
 but its ingratitude, its unworthiness, the hateful 
 return it has been making for love, so true, so 
 
GOD MARKING INIQUITY. 105 
 
 tender, so unbounded. This it is which makes 
 the awakened sinner, in the first hours of 
 thoughtfulness and reflection, the wretched, suf- 
 fering being, we sometimes see him. When it 
 pleases a merciful God that this efl'ect is wrought, 
 while time, and grace, and opportunity are all 
 his own, it is but the "light afiiiction" which is 
 working for him the " far more exceeding and 
 eternal weight of glory.'' But when reflection, 
 when anguish for sin, for the first time come 
 upon a dying bed, when they add their pangs 
 to the hour of nature's suff'ering; when the 
 poor, bewildered, and frightened soul gazes 
 wildly around, its eye opening at once to all the 
 fearful prospects that surround it; the grave 
 before it, an existence unknown, unfathomed, 
 stretching away into the infinity that lies be- 
 yond it; and all behind, sin unrepented, sin un- 
 thought of, sin unforgiven, who can recount the 
 sufferings, who can come back to tell, the an- 
 guish of that hour. 
 
 If by agreeing to pass over these things in 
 silence, if by leaving the mind free and undis- 
 turbed, we could make a compromise with God, 
 and obtain from him the assurance that your 
 sins should never be mentioned to you, never 
 
106 GOD MARKING INIQUITY. 
 
 thus brought so painfully to mind, it might be 
 more humane to do so, and be assured we 
 would not draw aside the veil which hides them 
 from your sight. Far pleasanter would it be to 
 us, as ministers, as men, to help you to forget, 
 than thus to compel you to remember; for, be- 
 lieve me, there are few things so painful to a 
 Christian minister, feeling, as he does, that every 
 word which condemns another, condemns also 
 himself, as thus to force your long-forgotten 
 transgressions back upon your recollection, and 
 oblige you to retrace the characters of shame, 
 and guilt, in which they stand recorded against 
 yon. But, brethren, sooner or later it must be 
 done; take this for a truth as certain as the be- 
 ing of a God, or the existence of an universe, 
 that you, and your unrepented sins, must one 
 day meet, and the longer that day is delayed, 
 the sadder will be the meeting, the more terrible 
 the hour, when you and they shall come toge- 
 ther. The only choice which God has given 
 you in this solemn matter is this — the time and 
 the place of your meeting. Your sins must be 
 met now, during the day of God's pardoning 
 mercy, or hereafter, during the day of God's 
 uncompromising judgment. 
 
GOD MARKING INIQUITY. 107 
 
 Raise, then, we beseech you, one heartfelt 
 prayer to God, that to-day may be the time, 
 and this the hour, and this the place, in which 
 you and your unrepented sins may meet for the 
 last time. "Quit you like men," fly not now 
 from enemies, with which you must one day 
 meet in deadly struggle. Call them up now as 
 spectres in the memory, the long, long list of 
 those worst enemies of your soul, and of your 
 God. The many years of thoughtless, God- 
 forgetting youth, the sad additions of licentious 
 manhood, the forgotten prayers, the broken 
 Sabbaths, the neglected commands of Him, who 
 ought to have had your best obedience. The 
 meeting, be it when it may, can never be a 
 peaceful one, the conflict cannot be a slight one; 
 there is no compromise, it must be war even to 
 the death: either your sins, or you, must perish. 
 The question, then, we ask you, as in the pre- 
 sence and in the name of God, is this — You 
 behold your unrepented sins drawn up in ter- 
 rible array before you, are you willing to sacri- 
 fice them at God's bidding, to slay them at his 
 altar, to renounce every lingering desire after 
 them, and to, for ever, cast them from you? 
 Flesh and blood cannot answer this in the 
 
108 GOD MARKING INIQUITY. 
 
 affirmative; of yourself you cannot do it, but 
 you can do all things through Christ strengthen- 
 ing you. He is as near you at this moment, as 
 your sins are. He stands beside the ranks of 
 those your worst and most appalling enemies, 
 and one heartfelt, earnest, faithful prayer to 
 him, one strong resolution, the effort of his own 
 grace, to cast yourself at once upon Him, and 
 the victory is insured. His own right hand 
 shall bring deliverance, and like the Israelites of 
 old, "the enemies which you have seen to-day, 
 you shall see them again no more for ever." 
 Do you hesitate? Do you feel — I am willing to 
 do this with some, with many, but not with all; 
 I am desirous to repent of much, to give up 
 much, to forego and abstain from much, but I 
 must still retain my favorite sin, my heart sin, 
 my besetting lust; all else I will surrender, all 
 else I will immolate, but my pride, my vanity, 
 my covetousness, or my worldliness, I cannot, 
 and I will not utterly forsake. Then, brethren 
 — and let not that seem harsh which a God of 
 love commands us to declare — all else will be 
 in vain; the same long train of evil spirits, 
 which, spectre like, are now passing from before 
 you, and fast fading from your memory, will all 
 
GOD MARKING INIQUITY. 109 
 
 one day return; you shall see them, and recog- 
 nise them again ; but not as at this hour, when 
 by God's promised aid, yours might be the mas- 
 tery, but on a day when theirs shall be the vic- 
 tory and the triumph, yours the humiliation and 
 the defeat. When next you meet, it shall be 
 before the tribunal of your Judge, they to ac- 
 cuse and to condemn you, and you unable to 
 disavow them; united together, the sinner and 
 his sins, in bonds of iron, from which even the 
 fires of eternity shall never separate you. 
 
 But God forbid that this should be applicable 
 to any soul amongst us. Rather let us hope 
 that but one feeling pervades your hearts, the 
 feeling of inextinguishable hate, of unceasing 
 warfare, against those worst and deadliest ene- 
 mies. That although you know you have 
 sinned grievously, and continually; you do, from 
 your very souls lament these sins, and abhor 
 yourself for their committal. We trust that by 
 the grace of God's good Spirit, the feeling with 
 which many are this day hearing of their trans- 
 gressions, assumes something of this character. 
 Deep and numerous although my sins have 
 been, I have desired, and I do, above all earthly 
 things, desire their absence and their pardon. 
 10 
 
l!M> GOD MARKING INIQUITr. 
 
 No slave condemned to toil in fetters in the 
 mine, no chained wretch devoted to the cease- 
 less labors of the galley, ever more ardently 
 longed for his deliverance, or prayed more fer- 
 vently for freedom, than I to be separated from 
 my sins, to burst asunder their chains, and to be 
 freed from them for ever. I hate them because 
 they have injured me, but I hate them tenfold 
 more because they have injured God, the God 
 of all my mercies, the Saviour who died for me, 
 the Holy Spirit who has striven unceasingly 
 with me, through years of opposing ingratitude, 
 and who is even now pleading and struggling 
 for God within my bosom. To be freed from 
 such enemies, from such a burden, what is there 
 upon earth, I would not willingly and cheerfully 
 resign? 
 
 To all, the language of whose hearts is such, 
 we are, thanks be to God, not only permitted, 
 but commanded, to testify of that blessed truth 
 conveyed to us in the conclusion of the text. 
 ^'But there is forgiveness with thee." Yes, 
 brethren, there is forgiveness with God, the 
 power to forgive, the readiness to forgive, nay 
 more, the strong desire to forgive; for his own 
 Word declares that "He willethnot the death of 
 
GOD MARKING INIQUITY. Ill 
 
 a sinner, but rather that he should turn from his 
 wickedness and live." Who can describe the 
 unspeakable comfort which is imparted to the 
 penitent sinner's heart, by the reflection that he 
 has to do with one, who is anxious to forgive, 
 yea, far more anxious, than the most heart- 
 broken and imploring sinner is, to be forgiven. 
 
 You may, perhaps, remember, in the history 
 of one of the kings of our own country, that 
 when some guilty man, who had joined in rebel- 
 lion against him, was brought into his presence, 
 he endeavored to prevail upon him to commu- 
 nicate the intentions of his accomplices, by 
 reminding him of the prospect which lay before 
 him, in these words: — " Remember it is in my 
 power to forgive." " Yes," answered the 
 unhappy man, who knew the character of him 
 to whom he spake, " It is in your power to for- 
 give, but it is not in your nature to do so." How 
 different when you look at the King of kings, 
 against whom, even the best amongst us has 
 rebelled for years and years in succession. Had 
 it merely been revealed to us that it was in 
 God's power to forgive, small would be the 
 comfort of the desponding sinner's heart; but 
 the same Word which assures us that there is 
 
112 GOD MARKING INIQUITY. 
 
 forgiveness in God's power, assures also that there 
 is forgiveness in his nature, for does it not declare, 
 that " He is faithful and just to forgive us our 
 sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness?" 
 All he asks, and all you need, to enable you to 
 be a partaker of this forgiveness, is simply to 
 apply for it, in the way which he himself has 
 pointed out; that " new and living way," as the 
 Apostle calls it, " by the blood of Jesus." 
 
 How great and how numerous are the errors 
 of Christians, yes, even partially enlightened 
 Christians, upon this important point! Some 
 among you, are in all probability carrying about 
 with you a burden of unforgiven sin, checked 
 and frustrated in all your approaches to God, 
 because you will not believe Him upon his 
 Word, will not accept his promises; it is in vain 
 that he assures you, in language which nothing 
 can strengthen, of his willingness to forgive; in 
 vain he multiplies and re-multiplies terms to 
 convey the fact of the entireness, as well as the 
 freeness of this forgiveness, speaking of it at 
 one time as a " blotting out of sin," at another, 
 as a " covering of sin," and again, " as casting 
 it behind his back," and " into the depths of the 
 sea." Still you are hard to learn the gracious 
 
GOD MARKING INIQUITY. 113 
 
 lesson, " slow of heart to believe" the fulness 
 and the completeness of the forgiveness of God, 
 treasured up for every penitent and believing 
 sinner in Christ Jesus. You deeply repent, you 
 pray earnestly for pardon, you seek the atoning 
 blood of Christ, you forsake those things that 
 you have repented of, and yet you feel no com- 
 plete reliance, no perfect assurance, that all has 
 been forgiven, and that you are at this hour, for 
 Christ's sake, a pardoned sinner, an accepted 
 child. Surely this is acting ungratefully by God; 
 what is the desire of his heart? to see his chil- 
 dren happy. Well then, instead of honoring 
 God by a mock humility, you frustrate his de- 
 sire, you grieve his Spirit, when you refuse to 
 accept, as freely as God offers. Forgiveness, 
 instead of lying, as too many imagine, at the 
 end of the Christian course, lies at the very be- 
 ginning. It is the first step in the walk of the 
 new-born child of God. The real course of the 
 Christian commences from the day when he is 
 made one with Christ, and Christ with him, and 
 when he becomes partaker of God's pardoning 
 love. At that hour you are a forgiven sinner, 
 your sentence of condemnation is reversed; 
 God is at peace with you, and you with him, 
 10* 
 
114 GOD MARKING INIQUITY. 
 
 and every thing that has gone before, is blotted 
 from his book for ever; as the Apostle to the 
 Ephesians expresses it, " God, for Christ's sake 
 HATH forgiven you.'' 
 
 May God grant that if we address one who 
 has hitherto lived practically ignorant of these 
 great and blessed truths, they may this day be 
 fastened upon his heart, that he may leave the 
 house of his Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier, 
 a holier and a happier being than he entered it; 
 that he may be enabled to say with Job, " I have 
 heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but 
 now mine eye seeth thee;" and may that bless- 
 edness be his abiding portion, to which the 
 Psalmist alludes when he says, " Blessed is the 
 man whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin 
 is covered: blessed is the man unto whom the 
 Lord imputeth no sin" now, and upon whom, 
 for the sake of our adorable Redeemer, he shall 
 visit no sin hereafter. 
 
115 
 
 SERMON VII. 
 
 THE SAINT'S CONFESSION. 
 
 Hebrews xi, 13. 
 
 "THESE ALL CONFESSED THAT THEY WERE STRANGERS 
 AND PILGRIMS ON THE EARTH." 
 
 How brief, yet how remarkable a confession! 
 and to whom does it apply? To Abel, to Enoch, 
 to Noah, and to Abraham, and to Sarah, and 
 to Isaac, and to Jacob, and to all the family of 
 the faithful. Yes, my brethren, " these all con- 
 fessed," says the Apostle, after having enume- 
 rated a goodly number of the family of God, 
 " that they were strangers and pilgrims on the 
 earth." It was then the confession, and we can 
 show that it ever has been, and ever must be, 
 the confession of the children of God, in all 
 places and at all times. Throughout the large 
 and blessed family of the Redeemer, one cha- 
 racteristic, one distinguishing feature is ever visi- 
 
116 THE saint's CONFESSION. 
 
 ble. They are not of tlie world, even as he was 
 not of the world. Whatever be their ages, 
 whatever be their circumstances, this is true of 
 them all. If there ever had been an individual, 
 who might have felt himself in some degree at 
 home upon earth, it certainly was Abraham, 
 when in the country which was given to him, 
 and to his heirs for ever, by God himself; yet in 
 what terms does the inspired writer speak of him 
 in this country, thus supernaturally made over 
 to him, " Abraham sojourned in the land of pro- 
 mise, as in a strange country." Hebrews, xi, 9. 
 Even in the land of his inheritance, he never 
 felt himself at home. The same, also, was the 
 confession of Moses: "I have been a stranger 
 in a strange land;" Exodus, ii, 22; so again, 
 David, in the midst of the most ample posses- 
 sions, reigning over a wealthy and populous 
 kingdom, anointed to the government, and esta- 
 blished in it by the visible appointment of God 
 himself, expressed precisely the same feeling: 
 "I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as 
 all ray fathers were," Psalm, xxxix, 12; is the 
 confession of his heart; whilst, as a last exam- 
 ple, the highest and the best, we find even our 
 blessed Saviour himself, the Lord of heaven and 
 
117 
 
 earth, during his visit in the flesh to this land of 
 sin and sorrow, exclaiming, " I am not of this 
 world," St. John, xvii, 16; realising what the 
 Psalmist had before declared of him, that he 
 should be a " stranger among his brethren, and 
 an alien among his mother's children." He 
 indeed passed through the world, but it was 
 only to sanctify it as the place of his people's 
 service; his heart and his constant residence 
 were not here, to fix it as their place of rest. 
 We see, then, that the declaration of the text is 
 not an isolated passage, uncorroborated by the 
 general tenor of Holy Writ, but a truth which the 
 experience and the confessions of the people of 
 God, of every age, fully establish and confirm. 
 
 Let us earnestly implore the Divine blessing, 
 and the Divine presence, while we meditate 
 upon those peculiar terms by which the children 
 of God are here portrayed. 
 
 I. They confessed themselves to be " stran- 
 gers upon earth." For the sake of confining 
 ourselves more closely to the immediate subject 
 before us, let us examine the simple definition of 
 the term ; — a stranger is a foreigner, a person 
 born in some other country, and who is for the 
 
tl3 
 
 present separated from his kindred, his inheri- 
 tance, and his home. 
 
 Observe, then, at once, the reason for the ap- 
 phcation of the name; observe the Apostle's 
 motive for recording the simple fact, that all the 
 good and holy men of whom he had been 
 speaking, unite in the confession of the text. 
 The people of God confess themselves strangers, 
 because, speaking in a spiritual sense, they are 
 not born here; this is not their native country. 
 " That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and 
 that which is born of the Spirit is spirit," are 
 the words of our Lord. From the moment that 
 they are born of God, created anew by the 
 Spirit, they take up the confession of the text, 
 because from that moment, their hearts have 
 taken up the feelings from which it flowed; 
 They have become " partakers of the Divine 
 nature," and the renewed heart turns constantly, 
 unceasingly turns, to the land of its nativity, 
 and the man becomes " a new creature in Christ 
 Jesus," becomes also a stranger and a foreigner 
 upon earth, a sincere aspirant after the joys of 
 heaven. 
 
 Again, as the people of God are strangers 
 
THE saint's confession. 119 
 
 upon earth, because it is not the land of their 
 nativity, so also are they strangers, because their 
 inheritance is not here. 
 
 "Blessed be the God and father of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant 
 mercy, hath begotten us again unto a lively hope 
 by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the 
 dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, utidefiled, 
 and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven 
 for you." Our Heavenly father, therefore, has 
 chosen to give us our inheritance "where 
 Christ sitteth at the right hand of God." He 
 might have made the present world, and the 
 present order of things, available, had he so 
 pleased, to his people's happiness; but so far is 
 this from being the fact, that an apostle has as- 
 serted, " If in this life only we have hope in 
 Christ, we are of all men most miserable." At 
 the very best, the present world is a mere place 
 of common entertainment, an inn where friends 
 and enemies, kindred and aliens all partake of 
 the same cheer. Very different will be our 
 Father's house; into that, none but his children, 
 his purchased, pardoned children will be admit- 
 ted, and all who are admitted, will receive the 
 
120 
 
 fulness of blessedness, and an eternal weight of 
 glory, and happiness, and joy. 
 
 Further, the people of God are strangers upon 
 earth, because their kindred are not here. — 
 Where the child's father is, there is his country, 
 and there is his home; and what is your daily 
 acknowledgment? — " Our Father, which art in 
 heaven." That blessed Being then, whom the 
 Spirit of God has taught us to call Abba, Father, 
 is not here. That blessed Being, whom the 
 Word of God has called our Elder Brother, 
 " the first born among many brethren," Rom. 
 viii, 29, is not here; " I go," said he, "to pre- 
 pare a place for you, that where I am, there ye 
 may be also." St. John xiv, 2. The spirits of 
 just men made perfect, whom the Word of God 
 has denominated members of that blessed family 
 to which we even now belong, are not here. — 
 " They shall sit down," said our Lord, " with 
 Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom 
 of God." They have, therefore, already taken 
 their seats in some holier and happier country 
 than the present scene, and we cannot think 
 ourselves at home, while separated from our 
 Father, our Brother, our family, our friends. 
 
121 
 
 II. If it be evident, from these outward cir- 
 cumstances of their lives, that the people of God 
 are strangers upon earth, and ought in every 
 individual case so to feel, and to confess them- 
 selves, it is, in the second place, equally evident 
 from the inward workings of their hearts, that 
 they are " pilgrims" also. 
 
 A pilgrim is, literally, a traveller, a wanderer. 
 Now, in one sense, the term may be applied to 
 all the inhabitants of the earthj we are all pil- 
 grims, because we are all continually moving 
 onward, like the inmates of a vessel, willing or 
 unwilling, to the termination of their voyage. 
 All things here are sliding from beneath us; do 
 what we will, we cannot bind them to us; our 
 closest relationships, our plighted vows, our 
 marriage contracts, are daily rent asunder by 
 the strong hands of time and death. Every 
 thing proves that we are on a journey, in which 
 we may not linger, even for an hour. In this 
 all will agree, it is a mere truism to which we 
 should not refer, were it not for the purpose of 
 making an important distinction. Every man 
 born into the world is, by his condition, a pil- 
 grim. This is a truism, but this is the distinc- 
 tion—that it is reserved for the child of God, in 
 II 
 
122 THE saint's confession. 
 
 sincerity to feel and to confess himself a pilgrim, 
 and to live a pilgrim in his affections and hopes. 
 If no changes were hourly taking place 
 around him, if no graves were daily opening at 
 his feet, if time had closed his wings, and were 
 for ever standing motionless upon this lower 
 sphere, and all vicissitudes had ceased, the con- 
 fession of a child of God would be still the 
 same — I am a pilgrim upon earth. It is true 
 I see no evidence of change around me, I ob- 
 serve nothing transitory without me, but I feel 
 the certainty of this great truth in the very exer- 
 cise of the graces which God has given me ; I 
 feel it in my own soul, I experience its uncer- 
 tainty in my own heart; so long as my faith, 
 and hope, and love remain the poor imperfect 
 graces, which the Word of God has described 
 them, and which, alas! I find them to be within 
 my breast — they are sufficient to convince me, 
 that I am a wanderer and a traveller here. My 
 faith is weak, and I must travel on until I reach 
 far higher regions in the spiritual life, where my 
 faith shall be matured and strengthened. My 
 hope is dull, and I must hasten forward to 
 brighter, and nearer manifestations of the glory 
 that shall be revealed in me, that my hope may 
 
123 
 
 shine clear, and strong, and steadily. My love, 
 even at the best, is poor, and cold, and profitless, 
 to the Being whom I adore, and I must quicken 
 my pace, and finish my pilgrimage, and get 
 within the walls of my Father's house, where 
 my love shall be perfected, and where it shall 
 have the largest exercise, and the fullest scope, 
 and be for ever engaged in the service of Him I 
 love, and for ever casting the crown of its grati- 
 tude before His throne. 
 
 The very imperfection of my graces, then, 
 proves me to be a pilgrim, and teaches me that 
 my rest cannot be here, that I must look for a 
 more advanced and holier state of spiritual ex- 
 istence; that I must "press towards the mark 
 for the prize of the high calling of God, in 
 Christ Jesus," and run the race, and fight the 
 fight, and hasten onward to the incorruptible 
 crown, which cannot be worn on earth, but 
 which is laid up for me in the kingdom of my 
 Father. 
 
 Proceed we now to a more personal applica- 
 tion of the words of the text. 
 
 Anxiety respecting the unrevealed future, is 
 by no means an uncommon state of mind; in- 
 deed we believe it to be a state, of which all 
 
124 THE saint's confession. 
 
 who are in the least degree really awakened to 
 any serious feeling in religion, at times are sen- 
 sible ; the heartfelt desire to ascertain whether 
 they have a well-grounded hope of a participa- 
 tion in that infinity of blessedness which, as 
 Christians, they profess to anticipate. The sub- 
 ject before us, then, offers some valuable tests 
 for determining this important point. We have 
 seen that the words of the text describe the 
 feelings of the real people of God in every age; 
 we have detailed the reasons that they do soj 
 we would, then, urge you to inquire whether 
 they can be considered as in any manner de- 
 scriptive of yourselves. Are you able truly to 
 confess, that you are living, acting, thinking, as 
 if you were a stranger and a pilgrim here? 
 The man of business, who sacrifices every thing 
 future for the claims of the present hour, giving 
 up all his thoughts, his time, his heart, to the 
 one great object of his earthly calling — let me 
 address one word to him. You believe the 
 Bible to be the Word of God, you believe in a 
 coming eternity, a certain judgment, and yet 
 you have no heart for these things. You must, 
 the claims of your family demand that you 
 should, at least so you imagine, give up every 
 
125 
 
 thing at present for the one great object of this 
 world's advantages. Now we desire to pass no 
 sentence upon you; we simply remind you of 
 this striking fact: — you have heard the confes- 
 sion of all God's people in every age; you have 
 seen the truth; you cannot deny the propriety 
 of it; that while they have lived in the world, 
 they have known, and felt, and acted as those 
 who never for a moment were identified with 
 its followers. Is, then, their experience yours? 
 Is yours the life of a pilgrim and a traveller? 
 Do you reply, that you know not to what pecu- 
 liarities in the conduct of such persons we al- 
 lude? Then take up any book of travels, and 
 as you read it, mark the conduct and the feel- 
 ings of the writer. It never enters into his 
 thoughts, to exhaust his strength, his time, his 
 energies, in acquiring possessions in a land, that 
 he is in hourly expectation of leaving, and for 
 ever. He passes cursorily through the country, 
 but never dreams of establishing himself among 
 the natives of it. He endeavors to procure a 
 sufficiency of the good things of the land to 
 supply the exigencies of his journey, but cer- 
 tainly nothing that shall impede his onward 
 passage. By the very nature of the things he 
 11» 
 
126 THE saint's confession. 
 
 seeks, you may in a moment discover the differ- 
 ence between a native and a traveller. He 
 does not, for instance, seek for houses, or land, 
 because, however valuable to the residents, they 
 are worthless, utterly worthless, to the pilgrim; 
 he cannot carry them away with him, neither 
 can they follow him; if he purchase any thing 
 beyond his mere sustenance, it will be the jew- 
 els, the pearls, the valuables which he can take 
 away to that far country whither he is going. 
 Mark the application to yourselves. Could you 
 be so over anxious for the riches, the distinc- 
 tions, the perishable possessions of this world, if 
 you were speaking the language of truth, when 
 you professed yourself a pilgrim? It is impos- 
 sible ; you would seek nothing with a whole 
 heart that you could not carry with you ; you 
 would seek the jewels of the land, the graces of 
 the Spirit, the ornaments of a meek and quiet 
 disposition, a humble heart, a kind and affec- 
 tionate temper, all those endowments which are 
 disregarded here, but of which you have learnt 
 the value ; and while you saw the breathless 
 anxiety, the deadly struggle going forward 
 among the men of this world for the honors 
 and riches of earth, you would feel as travellers 
 
127 
 
 feel in eastern climes, when they see the simple 
 and ignorant natives contesting vehemently for 
 a looking-glass or a bead, but permitting them 
 to carry away unquestioned the most precious 
 things which the land produces. You would, 
 in fact, in all things, feel as a pilgrim feels, and 
 live as a pilgrim lives, using the world as not 
 abusing it, and where your treasure is, there 
 would your heart be also j not in the land of 
 your travels, not in the inn, which you are mak- 
 ing a transient resting-place, but there, " where 
 neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where 
 thieves do not break through and steal." 
 
 But there is yet another test which we would 
 offer you, for ascertaining this important fact. 
 A foreigner is easily distinguished, in every 
 country through which he passes, to be a fo- 
 reigner. However perfectly he may have learn- 
 ed the language, however accurately he may, 
 through courtesy, adopt the innocent customs of 
 those among whom he is for a short time, tarry- 
 ing, there is a certain something which, to the 
 eye of a native, stamps him for a stranger and 
 a foreigner, something to excite the observation 
 of the thoughtless, or the ridicule of the vulgar. 
 They see he is unlike themselves, and this is 
 
128 THE saint's confession. 
 
 always sufficient to occasion animadversion. 
 Now, my brethren, let me again ask, are you 
 willing to be thus characterized, thus distin- 
 guished.^ to be remarked, and sometimes, per- 
 haps, unkindly remarked, as those whose chief 
 object in life is different from the persons around 
 you? who have imbibed different tastes, mo- 
 tives, and opinions, and who demonstrate this 
 by a different manner of life, and tenor of con- 
 duct? and this even at the risk, or rather cer- 
 tainty, of being frequently misunderstood and 
 occasionally misrepresented, the inevitable result 
 of appearing in the world as a citizen of another 
 and a better country? — or, are you so conformed 
 to this world, its pleasures, its fashions, and its 
 follies, that none among whom you live, would 
 ever suspect you to be either a stranger, or a 
 foreigner? Have you so entirely domesticated 
 yourselves among the people of this transitory 
 state, that you can pass hours and days, and 
 •weeks in their society, and never betray, by 
 your language or your actions, that you are the 
 natives of another country in which are your 
 inheritance and your kindred? If so, we fear 
 you are deluding yourself in the belief that you 
 are really born of God. All his children, as we 
 
129 
 
 have seen, can unite in the confession of the 
 text, but you cannot honestly adopt it. You 
 are neither a stranger nor a pilgrim here ; it is, 
 in fact, we fear, only here that you are at home. 
 When you attempt to speak of heaven and hea- 
 venly things, if you ever do attempt it, or to 
 enter into communion with God, if you know 
 any thing of such communion, then it is that 
 you are essentially a stranger and a foreigner; 
 you have so little relish and so little love for 
 these things, that it is sufficiently evident, you 
 are habitually strange to them; you are of the 
 earth, earthy; you are not observed to differ, 
 simply because in heart you do not differ; you 
 have the same views, the same objects, the 
 same pursuits, as the world, which is at "enmity 
 with God," St. James iv, 4, and if you continue 
 thus, what can preserve you from the same 
 lamentable end? 
 
 One word to those among you who really are 
 living as strangers and pilgrims here, and I have 
 done. 
 
 My Christian brethren, we have been endea- 
 voring to point out some few, although but. few, 
 of the shades of difference by which the chil- 
 dren of God may be distinguished here on earth, 
 
130 THE saint's confession. 
 
 and your own experience will, in many cases, 
 we trust, have convinced you, that by the grace 
 of God, these are visible in your life and conver- 
 sation. Suffer me, however, to add a word of 
 caution to those among you, who are willing, 
 heartily to confess that this is not their home, 
 and who are desirous of living as the citizens of 
 a better country, even an heavenly. You are 
 not conformed to the habits and pleasures, the 
 follies and sins of the world through which you 
 are passing; this is well, but it is not enough to 
 despise and to abjure the follies of earth, you 
 must also endeavor to recommend the joys of 
 heaven. One thing is almost invariably found 
 in the conduct of every foreigner, come from 
 what land he may, namely, that he is most anx- 
 ious to impart to those among whom he jour- 
 neys, a favorable impression of the land of his 
 nativity. It is impossible to take up a book of 
 travels without being struck with thi^ peculi- 
 arity. Such, then, should be your feelings in 
 every transaction of your lives, with regard to 
 the good land whither you are going. In all 
 your words, and in all your actions, the desire to 
 elevate that land, and to extol the glory of Him 
 who reigns there, should have the paramount 
 
131 
 
 place. Shall the worldly traveller be for ever 
 endeavoring to advance the interests of his na- 
 tive country, and shall the Christian pilgrim not 
 endeavor so to live, as shall best recommend 
 heaven? Shall the wordly traveller prefer every 
 thing that remindshim of his home, and love every 
 thing in proportion as it resembles that which he 
 has left, and to which he is returning, and shall 
 the Christian pilgrim have no thoughts, no heart, 
 no feelings, for those persons, occupations, or en- 
 joyments, which speak the most plainly of the land 
 whither he is going? It cannot be; if you are 
 really travelling heavenwards, your heart, your 
 thoughts, your words, will not be destitute of all 
 feeling, all mention of that blissful place. Your 
 preference for heaven must begin on earth, your 
 preparation for heaven must be completed here, 
 or you will never be amidst the number of those 
 happy and blissful pilgrims, their journey over, 
 their toils forgotten, who have now for ever sat 
 down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. 
 Be then increasingly in earnest, in cultivating 
 this taste, by prayer which brings you before 
 God's throne of grace; by meditation which, as 
 it were, lifts up your head above the clouds, 
 even into his immediate presence; by the com- 
 
132 THE saint's confession. 
 
 munion of saints, which warms the heart with 
 love to God, and for his sake to every member 
 of his family in heaven and earth. And for 
 your comfort during the miles of your pilgrim- 
 age, which may yet remain to you, as well as to 
 excite you to industry by the way, remember 
 that "the time is short," and that the "fashion 
 of this world passeth away." To some among 
 us the journey may be well nigh over; the road 
 we have passed can be trodden no more, and 
 but a small portion of the pilgrimage probably 
 remains. The towers of the celestial city are 
 already visible in the horizon; yet a little while, 
 and we shall be standing at the gate, and pre- 
 senting our credentials for admittance. That 
 will be indeed a blessed day, to all who are truly 
 reconciled to God, by the blood of his Son, to 
 all who shall stand before Him complete in 
 Christ, when the everlasting doors shall be lifted 
 up, and " an entrance ministered abundantly," 
 into the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
 Christ. The first hour in heaven, will more, 
 infinitely more, than compensate for the longest 
 and weariest pilgrimage ever passed on earth. 
 You will scarcely have entered there, before the 
 toils and the labors of the way will be forgotten. 
 
133 
 
 and every other thought absorbed in this one 
 blissful feeling — Thank God, I have, at length, 
 in safety reached my native land; I am in the 
 presence of my Father, my Brother, my family, 
 my friends; I am in possession of my long-ex- 
 pected inheritance, no more a stranger, no more 
 a pilgrim, but now in the land of my nativity — 
 in the house of my Father — at home for ever. 
 
 13 
 
134 
 
 SERMON VIII. 
 
 THE SAINTS ON EARTH. 
 
 1 Cor. Ill, 21, 22, 23. 
 
 "ALL THINGS ARE YOURS; WHETHER THE WORLD, OR 
 LIEE OR DEATH, OR THINGS PRESENT, OR THINGS TO 
 come; ALL ARE YOURS, AND YE ARE CHRIST's; AND 
 CHRIST IS god's." 
 
 The privileges of a Christian form a subject 
 intelligible only to the Christian. Speak of them 
 to the man of the world, and they excite his 
 astonishment or his contempt. The more you 
 endeavor to enlighten his mind upon so myste- 
 rious a topic, the deeper you enter into its 
 details, and dwell upon all its high, and holy, 
 and heart-cheering realities, the greater danger 
 do you run of increasing the sin of your hearer 
 by increasing his scorn; and instead of winning 
 his attention or his sympathy, of driving him 
 still further from the possession of delights, for 
 which at present he is not prepared. How truly 
 
THE SAINTS ON EARTH. 135 
 
 and affectingly has the Word of God announced, 
 " The natural man receiveth not the things of 
 the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto 
 him: neither can he know them, for they are 
 spiritually discerned." 1 Ep. Cor. ii, 14. 
 
 Such being the case, in our addresses to a 
 mixed congregation, we often feel, to a certain 
 degree, restrained from dwelling upon the many 
 rich and precious discoveries of the Christian 
 privileges bequeathed to us in the Word of our 
 God; we dare not offer indiscriminately "the 
 children's bread," lest it be taken by those 
 whom it could not nourish, and we be charged 
 in the great day, with wrongly dividing the 
 word of truth. 
 
 There are seasons, nevertheless, the present is 
 one,* when we feel especially called upon to 
 address those among you to whom we might 
 say, with the Apostle in the text, " Ye are 
 Christ's;" and to endeavor to offer the words of 
 encouragement and consolation to your hearts, 
 in the manner and in the language, which St. 
 Paul there offered them to his hearers^ by decla- 
 ring, " All things are yours." 
 
 It is unquestionably an astonishing assertion ! 
 * Preached on a Sacrament Sunday. 
 
136 THE SAINTS ON EARTH. 
 
 " All things are yours!" What, all things the 
 property of the poor, despised, afflicted, ignorant 
 followers of the crucified Nazarene; of those 
 who, at the time the Apostle wrote, were a by- 
 word and a proverb, the "o'ffscouring of all 
 things;" 1 Ep. Cor. iv, 13, of those who, in every 
 succeeding age, even at the present day, with 
 all its pretensions to a liberality unknown to its 
 predecessors, are as completely the object of the 
 worldly-wise man's scorn, and the worldly- 
 prudent man's contempt, as they have ever been 
 in any portion of the Church's eventful history. 
 Nevertheless, such is the privilege of your high 
 calling, "All things are yours." "Fear not, 
 little flock," said he who calleth you, and who 
 also will do it, " fear not, little flock, it is your 
 Father's good pleasure to give you the king- 
 dom." St. Luke xii, 32. And with the king- 
 dom, "all things" thereto pertaining, all that 
 can render life happy, death peaceful, time com- 
 fortable, eternity glorious. 
 
 Let us, then, employ our thoughts this morn- 
 ing, in dwelling upon some of the great and 
 imspeakable blessings, which must necessarily 
 be involved, in this inspired declaration. The 
 mind which, if not insensible, is still, perhaps, 
 
THE SAINTS ON EARTH. 137 
 
 but slightly and partially affected by this gene- 
 ral proposition, may, under the teaching of 
 God's grace, be roused to far higher feelings of 
 gratitude, and far more delightful returns of 
 devotedness, obedience, and love, by a closer 
 contemplation of some of the covenanted bless- 
 ings contained in the general and widely-extend- 
 ed promise. 
 
 The Apostle commences, then by the asser- 
 tion, " The world" is yours. 
 
 This is, perhaps, the most astonishing propo- 
 sition of the text. The world, the property of 
 God's people ! That very world, of which they 
 are so plainly told, " Love not the world, neither 
 the things which are in the world. If any man 
 love the world, the love of the Father is not in 
 him;" that very world which has so often 
 driven them, as it were, as outcasts from its 
 surface. Yes, brethren, the whole tenor of 
 God's Word, reveals to us the fact, that it is for 
 the sake of the people of God, and of them 
 alone, that the Almighty tolerates the mass of 
 iniquity and rebellion against himself, with 
 which the world that we inhabit is for ever 
 teeming. If God's people were at once entirely 
 removed from its surface, if the voice of prayer 
 12* 
 
133 THE SAINTS ON EARTH. 
 
 were for ever silenced, if the sacrifice of praise 
 were for ever at an end, and the world was 
 peopled only with the dreadful remnant that 
 remained — the God-forgetting idler, the drunk- 
 ard, the swearer, the murderer, the profane ; and 
 all the voices of men that ascended up to the 
 throne of grace, were, as they would then 
 unquestionably be, but as the dark, black smoke 
 of the bottomless pit, who can doubt that the 
 language of our God would be again, as it was 
 of old, to Moses, "Let me alone, that I may 
 destroy them, and blot out their name from 
 under heaven?" Deut. ix, 14. Who can ques- 
 tion but that the first hour of such an awful state 
 of things, would be the last hour of this world's 
 guilty existence; and that either the winds of 
 heaven, or the fires of hell, would blot out all 
 traces of our miserable abode? 
 
 If, then, you are indeed the believing, obeying, 
 praying people of God, " the world is yours," 
 although you never may possess an acre upon 
 its surface; it is far more truly yours, than it has 
 ever been the property of the most widely- 
 reigning autocrat, who has held its miUions in 
 subjection. Its blessings are yours, for all the 
 good things of the world are not only enjoyed 
 
THE SAINTS ON EARTH. 139 
 
 by the people of God, but enjoyed in a peculiar 
 manner; they come to you with a sweetness 
 and a pleasantness that they can come to none 
 besides, for they are to you the covenanted 
 mercies of a Father, while to others they are 
 but as the chance and promiscuous gifts, fluag 
 from the indiscriminating hand of some unknown 
 and unregarded stranger. 
 
 While others, therefore, enjoy the transient 
 sweetness of the passing hour, you possess the 
 double relish, the sweetness of the blessing, and 
 the love of Him from whom it flows. He who 
 knew the heart of man, far more accurately 
 than most of its erring possessors, was inspired 
 to say, "Better is a dinner of herbs where love 
 is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith." 
 Prov. XV, 17. If this be true — and true it un- 
 questionably is — of poor, frail, perishing human 
 love, what is it of the love of God in Christ 
 Jesus? That dinner of herbs, that dinner of dry 
 bread, is sweet indeed, when sweetened with a 
 Saviour's love, with a sense of his presence, a 
 consciousness of his approbation, a knowledge 
 of himself. Possessing this, God "gives you all 
 things richly to enjoy;" and there is not an 
 
140 THE SAINTS ON EARTH. 
 
 innocent pleasure upon earth, of which you 
 will not partake with a keenness of enjoyment, 
 and an exquisiteness of relish, unknown to 
 grosser appetites, and never experienced by the 
 unrenewed and worldly mind. 
 
 We pass from the pleasures of the world, to 
 its trials and afflictions. Even these are yours; 
 none so heavy; none so grievous, that you do 
 not feel from your inmost heart — I would not 
 have been deprived of this, I would not have 
 gone without this token of my Father's love, 
 for any blessing that the world could offer me. 
 I feel my very trials among my privileges, and 
 would bless God for these my necessary medi- 
 cines, as well as for my daily bread. Doubtless 
 some will say that this is exaggeration, that this 
 is more than even the best of men can realize ; 
 that it is enough to bear afflictions — it is too 
 much to rejoice in them. But there is reason to 
 believe, that if the heart of every true Christian 
 in this assembly were laid open to the inspection 
 of his fellow-men, as it is to Him from whom 
 no secrets are hid, we should be justified in the 
 declaration, that the sorrows and trials of earth 
 are as entirely yours, yours to benefit and to 
 
THE SAINTS ON EARTH. 141 
 
 profit by, yours to be content with, and, in some 
 cases, even to rejoice in, as its brightest plea- 
 sures, and most deUghtful gratifications. 
 
 Yes, my Christian brethren, "the world'' is 
 yours, and all that are in the world; the devil 
 and his worst designs, evil men and their worst 
 enormities, are not beyond the reach of that 
 arm, which overrules every event for the good 
 of God's people. This is the very hell of hell 
 to Satan, that "as his malice is limited by his 
 power, his power is limited by God's sovereign- 
 ty," so that every efibrt of that guilty spirit, for 
 the ruin of God's Church, is overturned for its 
 positive benefit, for the profit of every — even 
 the lowest — member of that Church. How 
 must this daily, hourly discomfiture, and disap- 
 pointment, add even to the pangs of Satan, 
 whatever be their intensity and bitterness; every 
 hour that passes over him, only convincing him 
 the more fully of his own utter impotency, and 
 the triumph of our God; showing him, that 
 even the world, the one vast bait with which 
 he ruins thousands, is made subservient to the 
 eternal interests of God's redeemed people; and 
 that world, of which, in the garden of Eden, he 
 believed he had for ever deprived the eternal 
 
142 THE SAINTS ON EARTH. 
 
 Architect, is still Messiah's world, and shall 
 witness the last great triumph of the Redeemer, 
 when he shall place his foot upon the serpent's 
 head, and consign him to the blackness of dark- 
 ness for ever. 
 
 Again; but "life'^ also is yours, says the 
 Apostle, and "things present." 
 
 Temporal life and spiritual life. How much, 
 then, is embraced in the declaration that life is 
 yours! The seed of immortality, the first bright 
 dawn of an eternal day. And all "things pre- 
 sent," whether spiritual or temporal, which ac- 
 company it. 
 
 I. Spiritual things. 
 
 The grace of justification, by which you have 
 received a full and sufficient pardon for every 
 repented sin; the grace of acceptance, by which 
 you are accepted of God, in Him who is the 
 "Lord our righteousness;" the grace of sancti- 
 fication, by which your blessed Redeemer has 
 not only torn off the chains of your bondage, 
 but replaced them by the jewels of holiness; 
 not only taken away much that was polluted, 
 and vile, and guilty, but clothed you with the 
 robes which angels wear, making you partakers 
 of the Divine nature, that your hearts may be 
 
THE SAINTS ON EARTH. 143 
 
 made "after God's own heart;" the grace of 
 adoption, "Behold, what love the Father hath 
 bestowed upon us, that we should be called the 
 sons of God." Can a mother forget her child, 
 a parent his offspring? And is not our heavenly- 
 Father's love far greater than that of any earth- 
 ly parent? will he not, therefore, bear with your 
 weakness, hear your prayers, provide for your 
 necessities, prepare you for your inheritance? 
 The grace of perseverance, by which, having 
 been made one with God, and God with you, 
 you are strengthened against temptation, sup- 
 ported when weak, restored when fallen, and 
 finally, "kept by the power of God through 
 faith unto salvation." These are "things pre- 
 sent," these are among the spiritual blessings 
 which are your portion here; but the promise 
 even of the present, goes farther than this; it 
 does not exclude things temporal. "He who 
 has given to us his Son," said the Apostle, 
 "how shall he not, with him, also freely give us 
 all things?" And in reference to these very 
 blessings, our Lord has himself declared, "Seek 
 ye first the kingdom of God and His righteous- 
 ness, and all these things shall be added unto 
 you." This is, however, a point of so much 
 
144 THE SAINTS ON EARTH. 
 
 importance to my poorer hearers, that I shall 
 dwell a little longer upon it. I address some 
 among you, perhaps, who are indeed among the 
 true followers of our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
 Christ; and poor and destitute though ye be, 
 are yet the children of the King of kings, and 
 the undoubted objects of his compassion, and 
 consideration, and love. Now, when you read 
 such declarations as those of the Psalmist, " I 
 have been young and now am old, and yet saw 
 I never the righteous forsaken, and his seed 
 begging their bread," Psalm xxxvii, 25, the 
 effect upon your minds may be — I believe to 
 some it has been — rather of a painful than an 
 encouraging nature. You may reasonably feel, 
 if this be true, I fear I have little share in the 
 covenant, for I have often needed not only the 
 luxuries and comforts of life, but even bread 
 itself. 
 
 However opposed, then, the opinion may be 
 to the sentiments of many religious persons in 
 the present day, we confess that we do not be- 
 lieve such declarations of freedom from temporal 
 need and temporal misery, to belong to the dis- 
 pensation under which we live. So far from it, 
 that the very want of the good things of this 
 
THE SAINTS ON EARTH. 145 
 
 world, which would hinder you in your course 
 to heaven, is a part of the promise: it is posi- 
 tively a part of your portion not to have those 
 things, the possession of which, God, in your 
 particular case, sees must be prejudicial to you. 
 Therefore, be assured, and let not your hearts be 
 troubled, while I tell you, if poverty be good 
 for you, you shall have it; if disgrace be good, 
 you shall have it; if contracted circumstances 
 and evil report shall help you towards heaven, 
 you shall not be without them; there is not, in 
 fact, a greater mistake than believing that God's 
 dearest children do not share, and share largely, 
 in the troubles and sorrows, the poverty and 
 necessities of earth, for " if in this life only we 
 have hope in Christ," said a poor and afflicted 
 disciple, " we are of all men most miserable." 1 
 Ep. Cor. XV, 19. While, perhaps, it was our 
 Lord's express intention to convey this to his 
 followers, when he delivered his beautiful and 
 instructive parable of the rich man and Laza- 
 rus; for was not Lazarus a believer? Was he 
 not as sincere a child of God as our Lord ever 
 portrayed? and do we find him preserved from 
 temporal sufferings and distress? Far from it. 
 He lay unpitied at the rich man's gate, refused 
 13 
 
146 THE SAINTS ON EARTH. 
 
 even the crumbs which fell from the rich man's 
 table. 
 
 When, therefore, we say, "things present" 
 are yours, we believe that such a portion of 
 them as shall really be for your eternal welfare, 
 shall not be withheld from you; but we beUeve, 
 at the same time, that that portion may be a 
 very small one; that while God knows it to be 
 not only sufficient for you, but the very best and 
 the fittest you could receive, nothing but his 
 grace enlightening your heart, and making God's 
 will your will, can possibly reconcile it to your- 
 selves. Take a familiar illustration of this; — 
 you do not manifest your love to your children 
 by giving all a large, or all an equal portion, 
 either of food or raiment. The garment of the 
 full-grown boy would ill become the babe in the 
 mother's arms. It is the fittest, not the largest, 
 which you esteem the best for each. And so 
 is it with your heavenly Father. If you are his 
 children, he invariably, whether it be great or 
 small, gives you that portion which is, under 
 every circumstance, as known only to himself, 
 the fittest for you; and though you understand 
 it not, and cannot perceive it now, a day will 
 arrive, either in time or in eternity, when you 
 
THE SAINTS ON EARTH. 147 
 
 will fully acknowledge this great truth, and 
 would not for worlds, have had one blessing 
 more, or one reverse or trouble less, in your 
 earthly lot, than those which He who loves you, 
 has appointed for you. 
 
 The Christian's joy, therefore, with regard to 
 " things present,'' is this — that he has precisely 
 that allotment which comes proportioned by a 
 Father's wisdom, and accompanied by the bless- 
 ing of a Father's love; and this, to the grateful 
 heart of the true child of God, is better, infinite- 
 ly better, than all the surfeiting abundance of 
 him who could cry, " Soul, thou hast much goods 
 laid np for many years, take thine ease, eat, 
 drink, and be merry." St. Luke, xii, 19. 
 
 The Apostle, however, in the text, does not 
 limit the Christian's possession to " life and things 
 present," but he declares that "death and things 
 to come," are yours. 
 
 This is indeed a striking peculiarity of the be- 
 liever's lot. The man of the world may say. 
 Things past have been mine, things present are 
 mine, but we defy him to add — none but the 
 Christian can add— the triumphant conclusion. 
 Things to come shall be mine. How blessed a 
 prerogative of every real follower of God. 
 
148 THE SAINTS ON EARTH. 
 
 How marked the superiority of the Christian. 
 Are you, through grace, a believer in the Lord 
 Jesus Christ? and do you ever ask, What will ' 
 the coming times bring with them? How much 
 of moral evil, how much of physical evil, how 
 much of spiritual evil, lies brooding, dark and 
 lowering, beneath their wings? I know not, I 
 cannot know, what will happen, but of this I 
 am assured, with a certainty which nothing can 
 affect, with an assurance which nothing can de- 
 stroy, that He in whom I trust, is the Alpha 
 and Omega, the beginning and the end, that he 
 can and will control the last acts of his provi- 
 dence, as surely and as mercifully as he has 
 already done the first acts of his grace, and that 
 He, even He, has declared, that " things to 
 come" are mine; arranged for my happiness, 
 sanctified to my service, blessed to my present 
 and eternal welfare. Why then should I de- 
 spond? why should I even perplex myself? 
 " Let the potsherds strive with the potsherds of 
 the earth;" Isaiah, xlv, 9; "let the dead bury 
 their dead." I will rest calmly and securely in 
 the promises, in the power of my Almighty Sa- 
 viour, " for all power is given to him in heaven 
 and in earth," and what he has said, he can, and 
 
THE SAINTS ON EARTH. 149 
 
 therefore he will assuredly bring to pass, and 
 overrule the mightiest events which can ever 
 happen in the world, for the benefit even of me, 
 the poorest and most insignificant of his chil- 
 dren. Things past have not injured me, things 
 present do not injure me, things to come cannot 
 injure me; this is the cool and dispassionate 
 conviction of my soul. How unspeakably great 
 are the privileges, how strong, therefore, should 
 be the confidence of the Christian. 
 
 Are any among you, however, disposed to 
 add — It is true, for I believe my Redeemer's 
 promise; things present, and things to come, 
 however threatening and disastrous, are, and by 
 the wonderful workings of his providence and 
 grace, shall be my own; but there is yet one 
 enemy I dare not face, there is one hour for 
 which my faithless heart still quakes: that hour 
 is the hour which shall, for ever, call me hence 
 — that enemy is death. Be of good courage, 
 brethren, this constant infirmity of our nature 
 has not been forgotten in our promised privi- 
 leges. It might have been sufficient to have in- 
 cluded it in the "all things'' which are ours; it 
 might have contented our hearts to know and to 
 feel that if " things to come" be ours, death must 
 13» 
 
150 THE SAINTS ON EARTH. 
 
 necessarily be one, and therefore needed no 
 separate enumeration, but " He who came" 
 expressly, "to destroy him that had the power 
 of death, and. deliver them who, through fear 
 of death, were all their lifetime subject to bon- 
 dage," Hebrews, ii, 15; has not failed to speak, 
 even to our very weaknesses and our fears, upon, 
 this deeply interesting point. He tells us, dis- 
 tinctly, by the mouth of this holy Apostle, that 
 even " death" is ours — ours not indeed to escape 
 from, that would, be a faithless and a coward 
 wish, but ours to meet, ours to oppose, and 
 ours to conquer, in the strength and through the 
 merits of our Redeemer. Yes, the time must 
 arrive when what has happened to all, shall 
 happen to you, " when the grasshopper shall be 
 a burden, and desire shall fail; when the silver 
 cord shall be loosed, and the golden bowl be 
 broken; when the dust shall return to the earth 
 as it was, and the spirit shall return unto God 
 who gave it." Eccles. xii, 5. What is not the 
 assurance worth, which can stand against that 
 hour? which shall be calm, when all around are 
 agitated, peaceful, when all around are anxious, 
 and enable you to say, " I know whom I have 
 believed, and am persuaded that he is able to 
 
THE SAINTS ON EARTH. 151 
 
 keep that which I have committed unto him, 
 against that day;" 2 Tim. i, 12; " my flesh and 
 my heart fuileth," there is no promise that they 
 shall do otherwise, 'for they are of the earth, 
 earthy; "my flesh and my heart faileth, but 
 God is the strength of my heart, and my portion 
 for ever." Psalm, Ixxiii, 26. Thus, through 
 the grace of your conquering Redeemer, death 
 will be yours, its sting drawn out, its terrors 
 quelled, its power for ever broken. And this 
 to the faintest and weakest believer among you, 
 as certainly and unquestionably, as to the strong- 
 est and most advanced. If you are indeed 
 placed upon a rock, though you stand but a sin- 
 gle foot above the highest limit of the waves, 
 you are as secure as he who stands ten thousand 
 feet above your head, and that rock must fall, 
 before your life be perilled. So is it with the 
 Rock of Ages! Whether life or death, or things 
 present, or things to come, all are yours, if you 
 are Christ's, for Christ is God's. 
 
 Such is a faint outline of the incalculable pri- 
 vileges of the saints on earth! Ought not every 
 one among us, then, to ask his heart in sincerity, 
 the great question upon which an eternity will 
 depend — Am I the Lord Jesus Christ's? have I 
 
153 THE SAINTS ON EARTH. 
 
 fled to Him for refuge, for pardon, for grace, for 
 strength? Is all my trust, all my righteousness, 
 all my hope, in Him, and in Him alone? If you 
 possess a belief, a reasonable, a scriptural, a 
 well-grounded belief that it is, not a word which 
 we have spoken this day, not a promise, not a 
 privilege, which does not belong to yourself. " All 
 are yours;" grace which the world cannot take" 
 away, peace which the world cannot understand, 
 promises which the world cannot appreciate; 
 " All are yours." Live daily more and more in 
 the belief and in the enjoyment of them, then 
 shall life, with all its trials, be to you but a sea- 
 son of preparation for joys which shall never 
 end; and death, with all its agonies, but the 
 gate through which you shall pass from your 
 prison to your palace; and " things to come," 
 with all the infinity of their blessedness, shall be 
 your purchased portion, your enduring inheri 
 tance, when " things present" shall have passed 
 away for ever. 
 
153 
 
 SERMOxN IX. 
 
 THE SAINTS IN HEAVEN. 
 
 Rev. VII, 13-15. 
 
 "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 KNOWEST. AND HE SAID 
 TO ME, THESE ARE THEY WHICH CAME OUT OF GREAT 
 TRIBULATION, AND HAVE WASHED THEIR ROBES, AND 
 MADE THEM WHITE IN THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB. 
 THEREFORE ARE THEY BEFORE THE THRONE OF GOD, 
 AND SERVE HIM DAY AND NIGHT IN HIS TEMPLE." 
 
 Since we last assembled in this house of 
 prayer, our Church has celebrated the return of 
 one of the most important festivals in the Chris- 
 tian year — the ascension into heaven of our 
 Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. All that re- 
 mained to set the seal of Omnipotence to the 
 great and glorious work of man's redemption, 
 was on that day achieved; when He, who was 
 
154 THE SAINTS IN HEAVEN. 
 
 more than conqueror over Satan, sin, and death, 
 returned to, the bosom of the Father, from 
 whence he came, again to receive blessing, and 
 honor, and glory, and power, of which, as we 
 are told, the ten thousand times ten thousand of 
 the hosts of heaven pronounced him " worthy." 
 Our Church, well knowing how little disposed 
 the hearts and minds of her members would be 
 to dwell upon these high and elevating subjects; 
 how much we are all bound down to earth, by 
 the world, its duties and its entanglements; most 
 wisely does not content herself with the beauti- 
 fully appropriate services which she selects for 
 the anniversary of the ascension, but again, by 
 her Collect and Scriptures for to-day, endeavors 
 to maintain and strengthen the feeling which , 
 she hopes her former efforts may have enkin- 
 dled. She is unwilling to suffer the blessed 
 theme to depart from our memories, and she • 
 uses all her holy influence to retain it there. It 
 is as though she had stood with the disciples on 
 the Mount of the Ascension, and with them had 
 "looked steadfastly towards heaven as He went 
 up," and was still, like those same disciples, un- 
 able to withdraw her gaze from the stream of 
 light and glory which had broken in upon her, 
 
THE SAINTS IN HEAVEN. 155 
 
 when the everlasting doors were opened, and 
 the King of Glory re-entered the celestial abodes. 
 
 While, then, the parting beams of the ascend- 
 ing Saviour, like the last rays of sun-set, thus 
 gleam upon us, let us strive to promote the de- 
 signs of our Church, and by God's grace, give, 
 if it be but for this Sabbath hour, some thought, 
 and enjoy some foretaste of higher feelings than 
 those of earth, by endeavoring, in imagination, 
 but imagination sanctified and chastened by the 
 revealed Word of God, to follow in the train of 
 our Lord, and to take one transient gaze even 
 within the portals of heaven itself. 
 
 For our guide in this blissful meditation, let 
 us adopt that portion of Holy Writ which forms 
 the context to the passage we have selected. 
 Let us endeavor to see, with the eye of faith, 
 what John, the beloved Apostle, saw by actual 
 vision. Hear his own description: "After this," 
 that is, after, in obedience to the invitation, 
 "Come up hither, and I will show thee things 
 which must be hereafter," he had stood, as it 
 were, upon the threshold of heaven, and after 
 he had seen the Jewish Church, the one hun- 
 dred and forty-four thousand, the remnant that 
 should be saved with an everlasting salvation, 
 
156 THE SAINTS IN HEAVEN. 
 
 and who were for ever received into the man- 
 sions of the blessed, all sealed by the angel of 
 the living God. "After this/' he continues, "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. 
 
 Here, by the light of prophetic vision, we see 
 the whole Gentile Church, as it is partially ga- 
 thered even now, as it shall be most abundantly 
 filled up, when, in the language of our burial 
 service, it shall "please God, of his gracious 
 goodness, to accomplish the number of his elect, 
 and to hasten his kingdom." Let us, then, 
 dwell for a moment upon this first sight in that 
 country "whither our Saviour Christ is gone 
 before." Of the unutterable glories and myste- 
 ries of the throne, and of Him who sits upon it, 
 we dare not speak ; that must be reserved for 
 the day when we shall have dropped the body 
 of sin and death which now encumbers us, and 
 when the veil shall be removed from our hearts. 
 But concerning those before the throne, that 
 great and blessed multitude, as both their place 
 and their employment are revealed to us, we 
 
THE SAINTS IN HEAVEN. 157 
 
 need not be silent. First, then, we shall ob- 
 serve their place — they stand "before the throne 
 and before the Lamb." Their post is evidently 
 the highest in honor, and glory, and happiness 
 of all the hosts of heaven, for they are imme- 
 diately in front of the throne, npon which is the 
 High and Holy One, who "inhabiteth the praises 
 of eternity." 
 
 Now, observe the next order of Beings who 
 encircle that throne of "light Avhich no man 
 may approach unto;" "And all the angels," 
 says the Word of God, "stood round about the 
 throne, and about the elders," i. e. the angels, 
 the host of heaven, are there, but they stand 
 "round about" that countless multitude who 
 are admitted the nearest and the closest to the 
 Eternal One. Thus much for their places; with 
 regard to their employments, they are essentially 
 the same, for they are all, as the Divine Word 
 expresses it, the "ministers of God who do his 
 pleasure," occupied in the scene before us in 
 praising and glorifying the One great object of 
 their adoration and their love, and doubtless 
 employed throughout all time, and throughout 
 all space, in carrying forward the wonderful 
 14 
 
158 THE SAINTS IN HEAVEN. 
 
 designs of the wisdom, and the power, and the 
 love of Deity, in regions at present utterly in- 
 scrutable to mortal eye, and entirely inaccessible 
 to human inquiry. 
 
 Still, though the employment of the heavenly 
 host, and of the spirits of just men made perfect, 
 be, as we have seen, essentially the same in the 
 scene before us, viz. the ascription of praise and 
 glory to the triune Jehovah, the language in 
 which it is conveyed is as different, and as 
 remarkably different, as these two orders of 
 beings are themselves. This is the hymn of 
 angels — ^*Amen: blessing, and glory, and wis- 
 dom and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, 
 and might, be unto our God for ever and ever;" 
 Rev. vii, 11, 12; a simple and beautiful chorus, 
 an ascription of praise to the Lord God Omni- 
 potent. Now, mark the distinctive feature in 
 the hymn of that unnumbered multitude who 
 stand next and nearest to the throne of God — 
 " They cried with a loud voice, saying. Salvation 
 to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and 
 unto the Lamb;" Rev. vii, 10; or as the praises 
 of the same worshippers are given still more at 
 length in the 5th chapter, « Thou art worthy. 
 
THE SAINTS IN HEAVEN. 159 
 
 for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to 
 God by thy blood, out of every kindred, and 
 tongue, and people, and nation." Rev. v, 9. 
 
 You observe the difference. In the hymn of 
 the angels, there is no reference to the Lamb of 
 God which taketh away the sins of the world, 
 no mention of the great work of redemption, 
 which for them was never needed, for they kept 
 their first estate, and are still the pure and spot- 
 less beings they were created. 
 
 In the hymn of the countless multitude of the 
 spirits of the just, the one great theme of saints 
 in heaven and saints on earth, forms the burden 
 of their song, " Thou hast redeemed us to God 
 by thy blood." How striking a peculiarity! 
 Throughout the ages of eternity, the saints shall 
 never sing the angels' song; the angels can 
 never be partakers of the peculiar feelings of 
 the gratitude of the saints; that feeling which 
 must, for ever and for ever, fill the hearts, and 
 engage the voices of those who have once been 
 lost, and ruined, and sin-polluted upon earth. — 
 Yes, when unnumbered ages shall have passed 
 away, the heart of every glorified spirit in the 
 kingdom of our Father, will still be occupied 
 even to overflowing with one great, and blessed, 
 
160 THE SAINTS IN HEAVEN. 
 
 and overpowering recollection: heaven was 
 once closed against me by my own sins; hell 
 was prepared for me by my own obduracy and 
 impenitence; but thanks be to God, I was re- 
 deemed by the blood of Him who sits upon the 
 throne, and rescued by his power from sin, from 
 Satan, and from self, and brought hither, an 
 everlasting monument of the love of my Re- 
 deemer. 
 
 No sooner had St. John heard those heavenly 
 strains, and seen this glorious company, than 
 one of the elders answered saying unto him, 
 " What are these which are arrayed in white 
 robes? and whence came they?'^ speaking evi- 
 dently of the multitude which stood the nearest 
 to the throne, because, as we have seen, they 
 only were so attired. St. John answered, "Sir, 
 thou knowest;" then the elder replied, "These 
 are they which came out of great tribulation, 
 and have washed their robes, and made them 
 white in the blood of the Lamb; therefore they 
 are before the throne of God." Wonderful and 
 instructive truth! Of all that have entered 
 heaven from this world of sin and misery, one 
 universal characteristic is, that they have come 
 " out of great tribulation." 
 
THE SAINTS IN HEAVEN. 161 
 
 The multitude whom, by the eye of faith, we 
 now see standing before the throne, although so 
 numerous that no man can number them, so 
 diverse that all nations, and kindreds, and peo- 
 ple, and tongues, have there, their representa- 
 tives; comprising, therefore, those of the highest 
 refinement, and those of the lowest barbarism; 
 those who, while on earth, fared sumptuously 
 every day, and those who lay unheeded at many 
 a rich man's gate; this multitude contains not 
 an individual who has not come out of great 
 tribulation, who has not once labored, and tra- 
 vailed, and mourned, and suffered upon earth. 
 It is the description, not of one, but of all. It is 
 not that there is here and there, in that vast 
 multitude, a poor and wretched creature, whose 
 lot on earth was filled with misery and woe, and 
 to whom, in compensation for all he then had 
 undergone, the Almighty has now vouchsafed 
 an eternal weight of glory; no, of that unnum- 
 bered number, this is universally, unexceptiona- 
 bly true. All came " out of great tribulation.'^ 
 Sorrow once had set its seal on the heart of 
 each, and whatever was his station, there were 
 griefs known, probably only to God and to him- 
 14* 
 
160 THE SAINTS IN HEAVEN. 
 
 self, and for which God alone provided the alle- 
 viation and the cure. 
 
 How improbable is such a statement! Is 
 heaven filled only with those who once were 
 mourners here? What, then, becomes of the 
 happy? of those for whom the world has never 
 had a cross? Brethren, if this be your difficulty, 
 it is easily answered. Where will you find 
 such? Where live these invariably happy ones? 
 Where is the lot, however high, and noble, and 
 joyous, in which grief and suffering, at some 
 period, do not plant a thorn? But it is of more 
 than this, that the passage before us speaks. 
 
 Let us then, in imagination, draw near that 
 happy throng who surround the throne, and let 
 us question some among them, upon whose 
 countenances, care has left no trace, and sorrow 
 apparently has never imprinted a single furrow. 
 Is it true, can it be possible, that in the world 
 you suffered tribulation? Yes, blessed be God, 
 mine wns a lot of trial, of poverty, and of dis- 
 appointment; of the good things of the world, 
 as we thought them while on earth, I never was 
 partaker, but by the grace of my God, my po- 
 verty led me to strive after the true riches, even 
 the unsearchable riches of Christ, and they were 
 
THE SAINTS IN HEAVEN. 163 
 
 mine: free, sovereign, undeserved mercy, made 
 them mine, and kept them mine, until it brought 
 me here; and in me the Word of my God has 
 been abundantly fulfilled, that he hath "chosen 
 the poor of this world, rich in faith, and heirs 
 of the kingdom." St. James, ii, 5. 
 
 And you, again, were you also thus wretched, 
 and miserable, and poverty-stricken upon earth? 
 No, it was my lot to say with David, ^' the Unes 
 are fallen to me in pleasant places, yea, I have 
 a goodly heritage," Psalm, xvi, 6; for God hath 
 given me all things richly to enjoy. You, then, 
 escaped the tribulation from which all around 
 you suffered? Far from it; I had those to whom 
 my heart was tenderly attached, taken from me 
 at the moment when my love was strongest, and 
 my need of them, most urgent. I wept many 
 a bitter tear, I mourned through many an hour 
 of sorrow; but the trial was from my heavenly 
 Father's hand; and by his grace those tears of 
 sorrow were converted into tears of joy, and my 
 tribulation was made the means of winning me 
 to himself. I had heard much, read much, and 
 thought much of this blessed place, but never 
 should I have been here, had not these precious 
 
164 THE SAINTS IN HEAVEN. 
 
 trials taught me the emptiness of all, I then pos- 
 sessed, and brought me to the Saviour's feet. 
 
 But yet once more. Were you also among 
 the poor and the desolate? or among the be- 
 reaved, and the widowed, and the stricken ones? 
 No! mine was yet a different lot. The arrow 
 of conviction of sin, struck me in my career of 
 worldliness and mirth, and brought me at once 
 to that point which many have attained only by 
 years of sickness, or days of sorrow. The sight 
 of my own heart, the knowledge of its plague 
 and its pollution, sent home upon me by the 
 Spirit of God, was my "great tribulation." I 
 could truly say with David, " My sin was ever 
 before me;" " I went heavily as one that mourn- 
 eth for his mother," until it pleased my heaven- 
 ly Father to turn my mourning into joy, by re- 
 vealing his Son in me, and fulfilling to me, the 
 chief of sinners, his own most blessed promise, 
 "He that now goeth on his way weeping, and 
 beareth forth good seed, shall doubtless come 
 again with joy, and bring his sheaves with him." 
 Psalm, exxvi, 6. 
 
 Were we thus to search through all the ranks 
 of that vast multitude, and speak thus, one by 
 
THE SAINTS IN HEAVEN. 165 
 
 one, with every individual of whom it is com- 
 posed, each would assuredly tell us the same truth, 
 that some trial, some trouble, some sorrow, some 
 privation, some sickness, some anxiety, was 
 needed in most cases, before he was made deep- 
 ly conscious of, and penitent for his sins, and be- 
 came united in heart and soul to the Redeemer; 
 but, certainly, in all cases, yes, in every particu- 
 lar instance, before he attained to " the stature 
 of the fulness of Christ," and was "made meet 
 to be a partaker of the inheritance of the saints 
 in light.'' 
 
 And is this the truth of Scripture, brethren? 
 Do yon really believe it? Then ought it not to 
 change your views, and moderate your grief 
 under every disappointment, and trial, and afflic- 
 tion? Whatever be the nature of the sorrow 
 under which you suffer, it is your privilege, if 
 you are a child of God, to consider— this is a 
 portion of the " tribulation," which my Lord 
 promised to each, and all his followers here be- 
 low, when he said, " In the world ye shall have 
 tribulation;" can I follow him in sincerity, and 
 yet escape it? This is a portion of the " great 
 tribulation," by which every saint in glory was 
 once exercised, and out of which he was triuni- 
 
166 THE SAINTS IN HEAVEN. 
 
 phantly delivered; I could never join that happy 
 throng, if I travelled not the road, by which 
 they journeyed, and suffered not by those sanc- 
 tifying and purifying fires, through which they 
 passed. Let this, then, be your consolation — 
 " Beloved, think it not strange concerning the 
 fiery trial which is to try you, as though some 
 strange thing happened unto you; but rejoice, 
 inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's suffer- 
 ings; that when his glory shall be revealed, ye 
 may be glad also with exceeding joy." 1 St. Peter 
 iv, 12. While on the other hand, to those 
 among you who may feel — I am preserved from 
 all these sorrows, my lot is a happy and an un- 
 clouded one; surely if I were a child of God, I 
 should experience something at least of the 
 tribulations of his people. Be patient, bre- 
 thren, we have often heard this language, and 
 have marked well the speakers, and as years 
 have passed away, we have seen them all, with- 
 out exception, sooner or later, under the chasten- 
 ing hand of their heavenly Father, brightening 
 in the furnace, the fires of which have been kin- 
 dled by his love. Only bear in mind, that it is 
 not the trial, but the effect of the trial, which 
 must form the subject of your anxiety. It is 
 
THE SAINTS IN HEAVEN. 167 
 
 not, Have you suffered? or how long, or how 
 greatly suffered? but. Has it wrought the work 
 for which it was in mercy sent— the bringing 
 to Christ, or the building up in Christ Jesus, of 
 your immortal souls? 
 
 The consideration leads us, in conclusion, to 
 one other characteristic, equally striking, and 
 equally universal, with that upon which we 
 have been meditating. We have seen that all 
 those who stand before the throne of God, have 
 travelled by the same road, in having come 
 out of much tribulation; but all are likewise 
 clothed in similar vestments, for, as we have 
 read, " they stand before the throne and before 
 the Lamb, clothed with white robes." Whence 
 was this? Listen again to the Elder, who ex- 
 plained it to St. John: "These are they which 
 came out of great tribulation, and have washed 
 their robes and made them white in the blood of 
 the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne 
 of God." 
 
 How does this correct one of the most com- 
 mon misapprehensions of the natural heart? 
 How many would have pronounced that the 
 trials, and the troubles, the sicknesses, and sor- 
 rows of the Saints on earth, were the cause of 
 
168 THE SAINTS IN HEAVEN. 
 
 their being now, the Saints in heaven. How 
 entirely the misapprehension is corrected here, I 
 need not tell. It is not, they labored, they suf- 
 fered, they agonized on earth, and therefore are 
 they here. But, "they washed their robes and 
 made them white in the blood of the Lamb — 
 THEREFORE are they before the throne of God." 
 In every individual case, then, the affliction had 
 been a sanctified affliction, i. e., in the language 
 of the Apostle, the tribulation had worked "pa- 
 tience," patience under God's chastening hand, 
 "and patience, experience," experience of the 
 saving love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord, 
 "and experience, hope," hope of the salvation 
 which Christ has purchased, the good hope, 
 through grace, of his everlasting kingdom. It 
 was not until this was done, until each had fled 
 for refuge to the hope set before him in the 
 Gospel, until each had for himself washed his 
 robe and made it white in the blood of the 
 Lamb, that he possessed the smallest title to the 
 inheritance which he now enjoys. 
 
 Brethren, is it possible that with such a truth 
 as this, so clearly proclaimed as it is in all the 
 doctrinal portions of Scripture; so wonderfully, 
 because, if we may so express it, so incidentally 
 
THE SAINTS IN HEAVEN. 169 
 
 exemplified in this, which may almost be called 
 an historical portion of Holy Writ, there should 
 be one among us, looking to any thing else 
 which the world can offer, for his admittance 
 into the heavenly abodes? 
 
 No! brethren, the single word "therefore" 
 would prevent you, for it preaches far plainer 
 than a thousand homilies. It contracts the 
 whole Gospel into a single line. Observe its 
 force. You have not sought the cleansing effi- 
 cacy of the blood of Christ. But you have 
 suffered much — we allow it. You have given 
 much — we grant it. You have known and 
 practised much of high and honorable dealing, 
 in all your intercourse with your fellow-men — 
 we acknowledge it. You have come out of 
 great tribulation— we deny it not. The hour 
 of death is over, and you stand at heaven's 
 gate, seeking for admittance. It does not open. 
 All within, are clothed in the white robe which 
 they put on, on earth, " therefore they are before 
 the throne of God." You cannot enter there, 
 you are unclothed with this garment, you re- 
 jected it, like the ungrateful guest at the mar- 
 riage supper, when it was freely offered you> 
 " therefore," you are for ever excluded. 
 15 
 
170 THE SAINTS IN HEAVEN. 
 
 Will you complain of this? It is impossible. 
 You will be speechless. Or, if you speak, it 
 will only be to acknowledge the justice, the' 
 propriety, nay, the absolute necessity, of the 
 sentence, "I never knew you, depart from me, 
 all ye workers of iniquity." 
 
 Need we, then, urge you, this day, this hour, 
 to seek a place with the ascended Saviour; to 
 lay aside every weight, and the sin which does 
 so easily beset you, and to run with patience 
 the race that is set before you, looking unto 
 Jesus, the Author and Finisher of your faith; 
 asking, and asking as the only boon that heaven 
 itself holds, worth your seeking, for His blood 
 to pardon, His Spirit to cleanse. His righteous- 
 ness to clothe you ; that, having even now put 
 on the garments of a Saviour's righteousness, 
 the robes of purity and peace, of those who are 
 before the throne, you may, on the day of your 
 departure hence, "have right," as the Word of 
 God strongly expresses it, a right, not of merit, 
 but of fitness, "to the tree of life, and may enter 
 in through the gates into the city," Rev. xxii, 
 14, and take your place among that unnum- 
 bered multitude, who, having once been admit- 
 ted there, shall go no more out for ever. 
 
171 
 
 SERMOxN X. 
 
 PREPARATION FOR HEAVEN. 
 
 St. Luke xxi, 31. 
 
 It is the wise and benevolent intention of our 
 Church, at this season* of the Christian year, to 
 draw the thoughts and feeUngs of her people 
 towards some of the highest mysteries, and the 
 most elevating promises, of the religion they 
 profess. Thus, at one time, she leads us, by 
 her appropriate selections of Scripture, to look 
 forward to the holy anniversary of our Lord's 
 first coming in the flesh; at another, by the 
 same judicious arrangement, to his second com- 
 ing to judge the world. She intermingles these 
 great and solemn truths, with many fair, and 
 blessed, and soul-encouraging visions of future 
 * Advent. 
 
172 PREPARATION FOR HEAVEN. 
 
 glory, which God has prepared for those who 
 love him. 
 
 Among the portions of Scripture to which we 
 allude, and which the Church has selected for 
 these valuable and important purposes, the Gos- 
 pel of this day* deserves the serious considera- 
 tion of her people. There is little doubt, that it 
 refers primarily to the destruction of Jerusalem, 
 and that, in the language of Eastern metaphor, 
 " the sun, and the moon, and the stars" repre- 
 sented, and were well understood, by our Lord's 
 hearers, to represent, the different powers and 
 dignities of earth. Thus, when these same 
 terms are adopted in the Book of Ecclesiastes, 
 the Jewish commentators upon the text, declare, 
 that by the sun, they understand " the kingdom 
 of the house of Davidj" by the moon, the " San- 
 hedrin;" and by the stars, " the Rabbles." — 
 Tliere is little doubt, therefore, that however 
 perplexing such a description, as we have read 
 this morning, may be to us, it was, to those to 
 whom it was primarily addressed, perfectly in- 
 telligible, perfectly clear; and that the Jews 
 entered as fully into all the warnings and all the 
 threatenings of the prophecy, as they did into 
 * The Second Sunday in Advent. 
 
PREPARATION FOR HEAVEN. 173 
 
 those of the parable of the vineyard and the 
 husbandmen, when, notwithstanding the veil of 
 metaphor beneath which it was shrouded, they 
 so feelingly exclaimed — " God forbid." 
 
 Thus, when they heard, in the language of 
 the text, that " the kingdom of God was nigh at 
 hand," and that that "generation should not 
 pass away till all were fulfilled," they perfectly 
 understood, not merely that this was a predic- 
 tion of the end of the world, and the final close 
 of all things, and the revelation of the everlast- 
 ing kingdom of God; but that, in its primary 
 sense, it foretold a more visible and glorious 
 display of the kingdom of the Messiah, in the 
 destruction of his enemies, in the overthrow of 
 their nation, their rulers, and themselves. 
 
 This primary sense of the prophecy, has been 
 most mideniably fulfilled. The Son of man 
 came, as he had promised, with power and great 
 glory, and "the kingdom of God, which was 
 nigh at hand," when he spake the words of the 
 text, shortly afterwards actually arrived; and 
 before that generation passed away, the Roman 
 eagle had fleshed his beak within their crowded 
 city, and had flapped his wings over the smoking 
 ruins of their temple. 
 
 15* 
 
174 PREPARATION FOR HEAVEN. 
 
 But there is, as all revelation assures us, yet 
 another fulfilment of the text, awaiting the peo- 
 ple of God, one in which you, and I, and all 
 must bear a part; the day on which this king- 
 dom of God, which even now " is nigh at hand" 
 to every individual among us — for who will say 
 that death, before another sun hath set, shall not 
 introduce him there? — the day on which that 
 world of mystery shall be laid open to us, and 
 we shall find that, as expected visitors, as invi- 
 ted guests, its riches and its pleasures, its delights 
 and its enjoyments, shall be for ever made our 
 own; or, as banished and degraded outcasts, the 
 things belonging to our peace, shall be for ever 
 hidden from our eyes; while the, remembrance 
 that they once were freely offered, presented to 
 us, pressed upon us, will remain only to add 
 bitterness to our pangs, and fuel to our fires, 
 throughout eternity. 
 
 It is, then, of this future and glorious king- 
 dom that we would this day speak; of a city of 
 which the Word of God assures us, that all the 
 ideas, that man has ever formed of splendor and 
 magnificence, are but as the mere tinsel of a toy, 
 when compared with its ineffable realities; of 
 which the same word has said, " The city had 
 
PREPARATION FOR HEAVEN. 175 
 
 no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine 
 in it; for the glory of God did Hghten it, and the 
 Lamb is the Hght thereof;" and again, " I saw 
 no temple therein, for the Lord God Almighty 
 and the Lamb are the temple of it;" Rev. xxi, 
 22 'j a city, of which, after all the magnificence 
 which language can portray, has this reserved 
 for its last, its best, its highest commendation — 
 " There shall in no wise enter into it any thing 
 that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abom- 
 ination, or maketh a lie, but they which are 
 written in the Lamb's book of life." Rev. xxi, 
 27. Such is the " kingdom of God," of which 
 we speak, a kingdom which God has promised; 
 for has not our Lord declared, " It is your 
 Father's good pleasure to give you the king- 
 dom;" a kingdom which Christ himself has pur- 
 chased and bequeathed, and settled upon his 
 children; for was not his latest prayer on earth, 
 " Father, I will that they whom thou hast given 
 me be with me where I am;" a kingdom, to 
 which, every true Christian is anxiously look- 
 ing; for which, by the influences of God's Holy 
 Spirit, he is daily preparing; and in which, 
 through the merits of God's dear Son, he is 
 hoping to take up his everlasting abode. 
 
176 PREPARATION FOR HEAVEN. 
 
 Probably, there is not an individual now pre- 
 sent who does not desire, and even more than 
 this, who does not expect, to enter into this hea- 
 venly kingdom. But, then, a mistake upon this 
 subject would be fatal; let us therefore, consider, 
 with all plainness, some few practical points, 
 which may materially aid us in determining, 
 whether we have a sure and scriptural ground 
 for this expectation. 
 
 I. To be partakers of the heavenly kingdom, 
 it must be clear to every man of common under- 
 standing and common reflection, that we must 
 possess such qualifications as shall render us, in 
 the language of Scripture, " meet to be parta- 
 kers." The work of Christ would, with humil- 
 ity be it spoken, be a most imperfect work, if 
 heaven were not a prepared place, and its inhabi- 
 tants a prepared people. 
 
 It is not enough, then, that heaven is pur- 
 chased and prepared for us, but we must be pre- 
 pared for it. This is the point upon which the 
 whole inquiry before us hinges; for if we are 
 not preparing for heaven, it is obvious to a de- 
 monstration, that heaven is not, and cannot be 
 prepared for us. 
 
 Let me, then, urge you to inquire. Have you 
 
PREPARATION FOR HEAVEN. 177 
 
 reason to think that you are the possessors of 
 such thoughts, feeUngs, affections, habits, man- 
 ner of life, as can afford you a well-grounded 
 hope that you are daily becoming more and 
 more " meet to be partakers of the inheritance 
 of the saints in light?" In other words, Have 
 you reason to hope that you are heavenly in 
 your thoughts and conversation, and heavenly 
 in your lives and conduct? 
 
 First, as regards your thoughts and conversa- 
 tion. 
 
 It is impossible, that you should be really in 
 earnest in this great business of life, the prepa- 
 ration for eternity, without its engaging a por- 
 tion, and a very large portion of your conside- 
 ration; where there is nothing of Christ, nothing 
 of heaven, in the thoughts, it is utterly impossi- 
 ble that there should be any thing of Christ in 
 the soul. It is easy for men to say, and men 
 will say, that they are so occupied by the neces- 
 sary business and pursuits of life, that they have 
 no time, no opportunity, to think frequently, and 
 converse occasionally, upon these high themes, 
 that they have scarcely the power, even if they 
 possessed the inclination, to recall their thoughts 
 from the bustle of the world, to the preparation 
 
178 PREPARATION FOR HEAVEN. 
 
 for heaven. Here, then, is a point upon which 
 we are distinctly at issue, and let us try the 
 question by one of daily occurrence, you your- 
 selves being the judges. We would say to the 
 man most engaged among you, in the self-same 
 all-absorbing duties, which will not allow him 
 to think of heaven; had you ever a truly be- 
 loved and affect ionate friend, or child, or wife, 
 suffering from dangerous and perhaps fatal ill- 
 ness, every hour expecting to bring with it some 
 fearful change, or some important crisis? and if 
 so, when you were compelled to leave this object 
 of your tenderest affection, to pursue the accus- 
 tomed duties of your daily calling, did no thought 
 of her whom you had left upon a sick and dying 
 bed, ever force its way and struggle upward in 
 the mind, through all the mass of opposing ele- 
 ments with which that mind was filled? did the 
 rising sigh, or even the starting tear, never re- 
 mind you, amid your busiest hours, and most 
 engrossing occupations, of her whom you had 
 left suffering at home upon a bed of anguish? 
 did you never allude to her situation, never 
 speak upon the subject, never mention her name; 
 in short, did she never once throughout the busy 
 day, so much as cross your mind, and steal a 
 
PREPARATION FOR HEAVEN. 179 
 
 few moments from the pressing occupations 
 around you? Surely, there are few, perhaps 
 there are none, whose hearts are not devoid of 
 the common sympathies of our nature, who will 
 deny that such things have been, that such things 
 are. Nay, more, is there one among you, who 
 would not despise the man who should confess 
 that there is no person, no subject of sufficient 
 interest, to divide within his breast, the sove- 
 reignty of this world's business, and pursuits? 
 
 Then, brethren, if this be so, why is it other- 
 wise with regard to heaven? Why has that 
 high subject no prominent place in your reflec- 
 tions, no interest in your thoughts, no place in 
 your conversation? Why does your mind never 
 revert with anxious solicitude to that happy 
 kingdom, and inquire, whether you are walking 
 in the road which leads to it? The answer is 
 obvious; because it has no strong, no real hold 
 upon your heart; every worldly duty, and plea- 
 sure, and person, and pursuit, has a larger por- 
 tion of your affections than this one, this great, 
 this all-important subject; and, therefore, while 
 all partake, according to their respective places 
 in your estimation, of your time, of your thoughts 
 
180 PREPARATION FOR HEAVEN. 
 
 and your conversation, this, and this alone, is 
 overlooked and forgotten. 
 
 But we must pass on to our second and still 
 more important inquiry. Have you good rea- 
 son to hope that you are heavenly in your lives 
 and conduct? 
 
 There are, indeed, most grievous mistakes 
 upon this point, even in the Christian world. 
 The man who is continually occupied in the pur- 
 suits of his daily calling, is apt to reply to such 
 an inquiry, How is it possible for me to be hea- 
 venly in my life and conduct? If I were a 
 minister of religion, or if my time were my 
 own, and I could devote it to spiritual research, 
 or spiritual occupations, then, indeed, I might be 
 heavenly in my daily conduct, but now it is not 
 to be expected, it is impossible. 
 
 There cannot, brethren, be a grosser misap- 
 prehension; for observe, every portion of God's 
 providential arrangements, proves that it was his 
 intention that men should be employed, as men 
 are employed, when innocently engaged in the 
 duties of their worldly calling; and therefore, it 
 is evident, that if God ever intended that we 
 should be heavenly while on earth, he intended 
 
PREPARATION FOR HEAVEN. 181 
 
 we should be so while m those calUngs. If, 
 therefore, the beUef that " the kingdom of God 
 is nigh at hand," be an influential principle, be 
 assured it will accompany you to the office, and 
 to the exchange, as certainly as to the house of 
 prayer, or to the sacramental table. And what 
 will be the eflect? — that you will be as superior 
 to the mere man of the world in the uprightness 
 of your conduct, the honor and integrity of your 
 transactions, the fairness and honesty of your 
 dealings, as you are in spiritual knowledge and 
 in heavenly anticipations; because you will be 
 constantly living as on the borders of an unseen 
 world, into which you are conscious you may 
 at any one moment be summoned, and the joys, 
 the hopes, and anticipations of which, mingle 
 with every feeling of your heart. 
 
 If you are not thus influenced, be assured 
 that you are not, in the scriptural sense of the 
 phrase, heavenly in your lives and conduct, you 
 are not, as the true people of God have always 
 been, "a peculiar people," forming, in the midst 
 of the world in which they are placed, a living 
 testimony to the existence of another world, 
 infinitely higher, infinitely better, to which their 
 hearts and hopes are tending. 
 16 
 
182 PREPARATION FOR HEAVEN. 
 
 Bear this in mind, then, and avoid the misap- 
 prehension to which we have referred. Re- 
 member, that we are not advocating the absurd- 
 ity, sometimes unjustly attributed to us, that the 
 intelligent man of business, is to give up the 
 counting-house for the closet, or the active 
 tradesman, resign the ledger for the Bible, the 
 Hves of useful members of society, for the exist- 
 ence of useless ascetics; but that both are to 
 carry from the closet, and from the Bible, those 
 invaluable principles, which exalt and dignify, 
 and, I might almost say, sanctify the common 
 relationships, and the every-day pursuits, of the 
 most humble walks of life, and that both will 
 thus be enabled to glorify God the most abun- 
 dantly in the station to which it has pleased 
 Him to call them. 
 
 And now, brethren, having before us, plain 
 and practical definitions of these things, let us 
 proceed to that personal application, that heart- 
 searching view of them, which can alone render 
 this subject profitable to our souls. No doubt I 
 am addressing many, in whose conduct, as far 
 as man is the judge, there is, perhaps, nothing 
 to condemn, in whose character, little to disap- 
 prove, to whose daily intercourse with their 
 
PREPARATION FOR HEAVEN. 183 
 
 fellow-men, no reasonable exception can be 
 taken, and yet, were they to speak truly, they 
 would be compelled to confess, that they have 
 fallen short of every test which has this day 
 been applied to them, A man seldom rises 
 above his principles, and such men are perfectly 
 conscious that there is nothing heavenly, nothing 
 spiritual, in any of the thoughts of their mind, 
 the affections of their heart, the principles of 
 their lives. They have, in fact, never desired 
 that there should be; they have, throughout 
 life, regulated their conduct by that which, per- 
 haps, may be deemed even a high standard 
 among the honorable and upright men of the 
 world, but which, in the sight of God, and 
 when seen in the light of eternity, is so low a 
 standard, that it finds no place in the Word, or 
 in the mind of the holy and heart-searching 
 Jehovah. And they are satisfied with this; but, 
 brethren, do not deceive yourselves, God is not 
 satisfied; if his Word be true, he cannot be 
 satisfied. He has said, "My son, give me thy 
 heart;" and while you have given him the 
 mere profession of the lips, you have, perhaps, 
 given your heart to any, or to every one, of his 
 creatures, in preference to Himself He has 
 
184 PREPARATION FOR HEAVEN. 
 
 declared that there is a kingdom nigh unto you, 
 which he calls "the kingdom of God/' and into 
 which a day, an hour, a moment, is sufficient to' 
 introduce you: and He has urged upon you the 
 necessity of seeking first this kingdom, that you 
 may stand always ready, always prepared, for 
 your great and solemn change. You acknow- 
 ledge, that this has never formed the subject of 
 your efforts, and your desires, but you are con- 
 tented, in the place of it, to point to your rela- 
 tive duties, and to your honest and honorable 
 dealings, and to expect that these, which have 
 reference only to the world which now is, to 
 the kingdom in which you are now dwelling, 
 should be accepted of God as a meet and fitting 
 preparation, for the kingdom of eternity. Sure- 
 ly, upon every other subject, the absurdity of 
 such a mode of reasoning would be sufficiently 
 apparent. You may, for instance, have been a 
 most conscientious man of business, your habits 
 of bartering and exchange, of buying and sell- 
 ing, quite unexceptionable, but, then, in heaven 
 there is neither buying nor selling; what, there- 
 fore, can this profit you in the way of prepara- 
 tion? You may have been a most intellectual 
 man of science, have dived into all its secrets, 
 
PREPARATION FOR HEAVEN. 185 
 
 and have searched all causes and all effects, but 
 what comparison will the profoundest discove- 
 ries of science, bear to the knowledge, with 
 which the first moment in heaven, will endow 
 the enlightened soul of the poorest and most 
 ignorant peasant? You may have spoken all 
 languages, but what will the most perfect ac- 
 quirement of all the languages of the world, 
 profit you in that kingdom, which the confusion 
 of tongues has never reached, and where but 
 one tongue is ever heard? You may have been 
 a most excellent parent, or dutiful child, but in 
 heaven there is but one parent and one family, 
 and the only virtues you have ever cultivated, 
 will there find no employment. You may have 
 been a most admirable husband, or most affec- 
 tionate wife, but in heaven "there is neither 
 marrying nor giving in marriage." All these 
 things, then, praiseworthy as they are — for do 
 not mistake me, I am not underrating their 
 value, God forbid — but all these things of them- 
 selves, and practised without any reference to 
 God's will, and God's Word, can form no pre- 
 paration for that kingdom, upon the very brink 
 of which, your foot is at this moment standing; 
 and if your next step were to be within the 
 16* 
 
186 PREPARATION FOR HEAVEN. 
 
 veil, if the next moment were to find you in 
 eternity, I do not scruple to say that any, and 
 that all these virtues and endowments, would 
 be utterly unavailing, to secure you one hour's 
 participation in the joys of that glorious inhe- 
 ritance. 
 
 Be warned, then, brethren, if this be the path 
 which you are treading, it cannot lead you to 
 our Father's kingdom. It may lead to honor, re- 
 spectability and wealth; you may be loved, and 
 applauded, and aduiired, but then, as our Lord 
 himself said, " Ye have received your consola- 
 tion;" St. Luke, vi, 24; you must not, you can- 
 not complain, that while you have guided your 
 conduct by the opinions and manners of one 
 kingdom, you have missed, how widely and irre- 
 vocably missed the other. The only way to the 
 kingdom of which I speak, lies through the 
 close, and intimate, and personal union with that 
 blessed Redeemer who hath declared, " No man 
 Cometh unto the Father, but by me." The only 
 preparation for that kingdom, must commence 
 in that change of heart, that renewal of heart, 
 that preparation of heart, which the Word of 
 God assures us is " from the Lord." The only 
 acquirements which can fit you for a participa- 
 
PREPARATION FOR HEAVEN. 187 
 
 tion ill that kingdom, is the acquirement of those 
 feelings of a sincere and fervent love to God, in 
 Christ Jesus our Lord, which regulates the con- 
 duct, influences the affections, conforms the whole 
 mind, and temper, and disposition, and man, to 
 the mind which was in Christ Jesus, and to the 
 image of our God. The only habits which, 
 even while on earth, can promote the same 
 blessed end, are the habits of a holy obedience 
 to the will of our God, of frequent and intimate 
 communion with Him, and of the delightful ex- 
 ercise of praising His glorious name. Duties 
 and occupations which, by anticipating, even 
 while on earth, in some measure, the duties and 
 occupations, and pursuits of heaven, will indeed 
 qualify you for its eternal and infinitely blessed 
 abodes — those abodes which the most perfect 
 performance of duties could never merit, but 
 which the Lord Jesus Christ has purchased for 
 his believing and obeying followers, and in which 
 he is even now awaiting the hour, when the 
 " everlasting doors'^ shall be lifted up, and his 
 redeemed people shall enter in. 
 
18S 
 
 SERMOxN XL 
 
 AIDS TO SELF-KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 2 Kings, viii, 13. 
 
 " AND HAZAEL SAID, BUT WHAt! IS THY SERVANT A 
 DOG, THAT HE SHOULD DO THIS GREAT THING?" 
 
 Of all knowledge, that which we learn with 
 the greatest difficulty, and dwell upon the most 
 reluctantly, and forget the most readily, is the 
 knowledge of our own hearts. The man of the 
 world never, in the Christian's meaning of the 
 phrase, knows himself; he has no line to fathom, 
 no gauge to measure, no eye to see, no heart to 
 conceive, the undiscovered depths of iniquity 
 which lie within. Even the child of God is oft- 
 times ignorant of this important knowledge, or 
 learns it not, except by " line upon line, precept 
 upon precept," failure upon failure, sin upon 
 sin, it is taught him by the unerring spirit of wis- 
 dom and truth. 
 
AIDS TO SELF-KNOWLEDGE. 189 
 
 The striking incident from wtiich the text is 
 taken, will well illustrate the truth of these re- 
 marks, and at the same time by God's grace, 
 afford us an opportunity of offering a few prac- 
 tical lessons for the attainment of one of the 
 most desirable objects which can interest the 
 true Christian — the knowledge of himself. 
 
 We read at the seventh verse of the chapter 
 before us, that Benhadad, the king of Syria, was 
 sick, and it was told him that Elisha, the pro- 
 phet, was come down to Damascus. Benhadad 
 although an idolater, had probably often heard 
 Naaman, his captain of the host, whose leprosy 
 had been miraculously cured by Elisha, speak of 
 the wonder-working powers of this man of 
 God; he had himself suffered by the supernatu- 
 ral knowledge of the prophet, and had, not long 
 before, tried, although unsuccessfully, to destroy 
 him; but feeling anxious to ascertain the result 
 of his present sickness, he determines to inquire 
 of this prophet of the God of Israel. Accord- 
 ingly, " The king said to Hazael, Take a pre- 
 sent in thine hand and go, meet the man of 
 God, and inquire of the Lord, by him saying, 
 Shall I recover of this disease?'^ " So Hazael 
 went to meet the prophet, with a present of 
 
190 AIDS TO SELF-KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 every good thing in Damascus, forty camels bur- 
 den, and came and stood before him, and said, 
 Thy son, Benhadad, king of Syria, hath sent 
 me to thee, saying. Shall I recover of this dis- 
 ease?" We will not stay to comment vipon the 
 difference of the feelings, with which the people 
 of God are regarded in the days of affliction, 
 from those with which they are beheld in the 
 unclouded hour of health and happiness. You, 
 who like to follow up the reflection, will find in the 
 sixth chapter, this same king, Benhadad, sending 
 an armed force to bring the prophet of the Lord 
 to him, eit.her dead or alive, as one of his most 
 formidable opponents; but, now from the bed 
 of sickness, he cannot send too humbly, or too 
 kindly, " Thy son, Benhadad,'^ to secure the 
 good offices of one who has the Lord for his 
 God. 
 
 As soon as Hazael had made the inquiry, 
 with which his master had charged him, the 
 prophet replies, '^ Go, say unto him. Thou may- 
 est surely recover; howbeit the Lord hath 
 showed me that he shall surely die;" obviously 
 inferring, that there was nothing mortal in the 
 malady, with which the King was afflicted, and 
 that therefore, as regarded natural causes, he 
 
AIDS TO SELF-KNOWLEDGE. 191 
 
 might unquestionably recover; but that, not- 
 withstanding this, the prophet foresaw that he 
 should die. And Hazael "settled his counte- 
 nance steadfastly," i. e. attempted to look grave 
 and sorrowful at this mournful intelligence, 
 until, from the man of God gazing calmly in his 
 face, and seeing through his hypocrisy, " he was 
 ashamed." We do not apprehend that there 
 was any intention at that moment in the heart 
 of Hazael, of engaging in those sins, of which he 
 was afterwards guilty, but that there was a 
 degree of satisfaction at the predicted death of 
 his master, which he found it difficult to repress. 
 Then, we are told, " the man of God wept." 
 " And Hazael said. Why weepest my Lord ? 
 And he answered. Because I know the evil that 
 thou wilt do to the children of Israel; their 
 strong-holds wilt thou set on fire, and their 
 young men wilt thou slay with the sword, and 
 wilt dash their children, and rip up their women 
 with child." "And Hazael said, But what! 
 is thy servant a dog, that he should do this 
 great thing? And Elisha answered. The Lord 
 hath showed me that thou shalt be king over 
 Syria." The prophet enters into no particulars; 
 he does not predict the atrocious means by 
 
192 AIDS TO SELF-KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 which he should succeed to the sovereign pow- 
 er: he says nothing that could instigate Hazael 
 to those deeds which he had foretold, and thus ' 
 cause the prediction to work its own fulfilment; 
 he simply tells him, that he knows he shall be 
 king, and that the day of prosperity will decide, 
 whether he be indeed capable of the enormities, 
 which the prophet had foretold. The subse- 
 quent events are very briefly recounted. Ha- 
 zael returned to his master, and carried with him 
 a false report of what the prophet had said, 
 assuring him not that he might recover, which 
 Elisha had really declared, but that he certainly 
 should recover, which Elisha had as distinctly 
 denied. Within four-and twenty hours of his 
 arrival, Hazael commences upon his work of 
 blood, by the murder of his benefactor; for we 
 are told, that " He took a thick cloth, and dipped 
 it in water, and spread it over Benhadad's face," 
 while lying either asleep or helpless through the 
 debilitating effects of his sickness, " so that he 
 died; and Hazael reigned in his stead." 2 Kings 
 viii, 15. 
 
 It is not my intention, to dwell upon the par- 
 ticulars of this remarkable history; the only 
 point to which I wish to direct your attention, is 
 
AIDS TO SELF-KNOWLEDGE. 193 
 
 the utter ignorance, the absolute incredulity of 
 Hazael with regard to those things that were in 
 his heart, and which, in so short a period, were 
 developed in his conduct. 
 
 When the prophet foretells his guilt, Hazael 
 appears absolutely lost in astonishment at the 
 improbability of such a charge; he does not 
 think it enough to deny the possibility in the 
 strongest and plainest manner, but he asks, 
 almost scoffingly, " But what! is thy servant a 
 dog, that he should do this?" Have I changed 
 my nature, am I become a wild beast, that you 
 should consider me even capable of actions such 
 as these? Yet, as you have seen, within four- 
 and-twenty hours, he fully verified all that the 
 prophet had spoken; and by the means which 
 he adopted to obtain the throne, gave fearful 
 promise of what might be expected when he 
 had secured it. While, from his subsequent 
 history, we learn that such were his cruelties 
 and his oppressions of the house of Israel, so 
 widely depopulating, and so effectually destruc- 
 tive, that he left them but " fifty horsemen, and 
 ten chariots, and ten thousand foot-men," for, to 
 use the expressive language of the inspired his- 
 17 
 
194 AIDS TO SELF-KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 torian, "he had made them like the dust by- 
 threshing." 2 Kings xiii, 3 — 7. 
 
 Now, my brethern, to apply this instructive 
 narrative to ourselves. 
 
 May we not, first, deduce at least this impor- 
 tant lesson from it, that there are the germs of 
 sins in the heart of man, of which he has him- 
 self, perhaps, no conception, but which require 
 only the day of temptation, to nurture them up 
 into the most frightful and prolific fruitfulness. 
 It was well said, by one of old, that, " It is the 
 hot sun which draws out the adder." When 
 Hazael declares himself incapable of the atroci- 
 ties which Elisha had predicted, the prophet 
 contents himself with the reply, "The Lord 
 hath showed me that thou shalt be king." The 
 prophet knew enough of human nature to know, 
 that if these things were in the heart of Hazael, 
 the day of prosperity would develop them; and, 
 in this single sentence, gave him warning 
 enough, had Hazael been a follower of the God 
 of Israel, to send him to his own heart, in the 
 way of self-examination, and to a throne of 
 mercy, where he might have found grace to help 
 him in his hour of need, and strength to with- 
 
AIDS TO SELF-KNOWLEDGE. 195 
 
 Stand the fearful assault of the evil one, which 
 was awaiting him. 
 
 Such, doubtless, was the prophet's intention, 
 and such shall be my endeavor, in the remain- 
 ing portion of this discourse, in which I shall 
 attempt to offer you some plain and practical 
 rules, by which you may be assisted in discover- 
 ing the sins which are in your heart, before, 
 like Hazael, you are taught them, by the fear- 
 ful exhibition of them, in actual practice and 
 positive transgression. 
 
 First, then, establish it as a principle in your 
 own mind, that you are not beyond the reach of 
 any temptation, however degrading, of any sin, 
 however debasing, by which the fallen children 
 of Adam can be led astray. It is from an over- 
 weening, an unscriptural security, that men are 
 more often ruined, than from almost any other 
 weakness of our fallen nature. Let the Word 
 of God, or the preacher of that Word, describe 
 the depravity, or the deceits of the human heart 
 in what terms he may; let him prove it by argu- 
 ment: let him illustrate it by experience; let 
 him establish it by the express declaration of the 
 living God, it matters not; a large portion of his 
 hearers will always rebel against it, will consi- 
 
196 AIDS TO SELF-KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 der it derogatory to the boasted dignity of 
 human nature, and disparaging to themselves; 
 and when warned of their danger, when cau- 
 tioned against those sins which do so easily be- 
 set them, such is their bUndness, that the first 
 impulse of their hearts is, " Am I a dog, that I 
 should do this?^' 
 
 But, brethren, we trust that many among you 
 have not so learned Christ; we trust you do not 
 imagine that, if God's grace were withheld, 
 there is any height of impiety to which you 
 might not soar, any depth of iniquity to which 
 you might not sink; for, be assured, that it is a 
 peculiar feature in God's children, to be tho- 
 roughly convinced of this great truth. The be- 
 hef of it, is perfectly consistent with the fullest 
 dependence upon God, for grace to enable them 
 to resist these evils, and the fullest assurance 
 that, thus assisted, they shall resist them. Yet 
 is it a delighful testimony to the true humility 
 of their hearts, when they feel every day and 
 every hour, their liability even to the widest 
 departures from God, and their sense of this lia- 
 bility increasing, even while the probability of 
 it is daily diminishing. How beautifully was 
 this evidenced in the Apostles; although only 
 
AIDS TO SELF-KNOWLEDGE. 197 
 
 one of the twelve could have imagined himself 
 capable of betraying his Master, every one of 
 the twelve, asked in sincerity, " Lord, is it I?" 
 knowing that there were depths in his heart, 
 which Christ alone could fathom. So fully im- 
 pressed was the martyr Bradford with the impor- 
 tant truth of which we are speaking, that 
 according to a well-known anecdote, while see- 
 ing a criminal carried past to execution, he could 
 not help crying aloud, " There, but for Divine 
 grace, goes John Bradford." He felt that it 
 was God, and God alone, who, as he had at first 
 made him to differ, so was he daily keeping him 
 by his restraining grace, from those sins to which 
 the flesh was continually lusting. How remark- 
 able a contrast does this form, to the unhappy 
 man of whose history we have been speaking. 
 The one, blinded by the spirit of the world, be- 
 lieving that his very nature must be changed, 
 before he could be guilty of such enormities as 
 had been predicted; the other, enlightened by 
 the Spirit of God, knowing that there was no 
 iniquity too great, no sin too heinous, for his 
 fallen nature to commit, if he were not "kept by 
 the power of God, through faith unto salva- 
 tion." 
 
 17* 
 
198 AIDS TO SELF-KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 But, important as it is to establish this prin- 
 ciple in your minds, that it may lead you the 
 more earnestly to watchfulness and prayer; if 
 you are really desirous to know your own hearts 
 in this matter, it will not content you to attain to 
 this kind of general knowledge of yourselves. 
 You will desire something more specific, you 
 will not be satisfied with knowing that there is 
 no part of the fortress which is absolutely im- 
 pregnable; but you will be anxious, like a skilful 
 general, to ascertain, in your own individual 
 case, which are the weakest points, where the 
 assaults of the enemy shall be most effectual, 
 and the fiery darts of the wicked one take the 
 most fatal effect. 
 
 This is sometimes a very difficult matter to 
 determine, even for those who are the most sin- 
 cerely and conscientiously desirous to ascertain 
 it. You are, perhaps, externally at least, a good 
 deal under the restraining power of religion, 
 your most besetting sins are so cut, and pruned, 
 and clipped, and kept down by different mo- 
 tives, some worldly and some religious, which, 
 in the present state of Christian society, are 
 more or less brought to bear upon all men, that 
 it may not be easy, even for yourselves to deter- 
 
AIDS TO SELF-KNOWLEDGE. 199 
 
 mine, what those sins are which are in your 
 hearts, and through which your spiritual enemy 
 can make his most successful attacks. The 
 Apostle to the Hebrews, seems to have an espe- 
 cial reference to this state of mind, when he 
 says, "Looking diligently, **** lest any root of 
 bitterness springing up, trouble you, and thereby 
 many be defiled.'' Heb. xii, 15. Search care- 
 fully, lest although the branches have been cut 
 off, and even the stem has been levelled, the 
 root may remain in the ground uneradicated; 
 and, lest this " root of bitterness" should, if it 
 lie undiscovered in the heart, one day again 
 spring up, and bear a fearful and a deadly har- 
 vest. 
 
 We proceed, then, to assist you to ascertain, 
 in your own particular case — for this will greatly 
 vary — w6at is this " root of bitterness," and 
 what the class to which it belongs. 
 
 First, if you have at different times, while 
 under the preaching of the Word of God, or in 
 trouble or difficulty, or in any other of the cir- 
 cumstances of life, felt a desire to know more of 
 God, to close with his offers of salvation, or, in 
 the language of Scripture, to come to Christ, re- 
 collect what was that sin, or what were those 
 
200 AIDS TO SELF-KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 sins — for there may have been more than one, 
 although there is usually one, especially promi- 
 nent upon such occasions — which prevented 
 you from closing with the offers of salvation, 
 and being made one with Christ, and Christ 
 with you. Why did you not at that time come? 
 What was it which kept you back? Was it, as 
 with the young man whom Jesus loved, your 
 worldliness? Was it, as with Judas, your covet- 
 ousness? Was it, as with Herod, your licen- 
 tiousness? Was it, as with Pilate, your fear of 
 the world? Was it, as with Hazael, your am- 
 bition? Was it, as with thousands, your immo- 
 ral habits, or your worldly companions? Be 
 assured, that whatever that sin was, which, 
 when God was reasoning with your soul, was 
 effectual in keeping you back from Christ, th'e 
 temptation to that sin, however repressed and 
 kept under, forms one of your greatest present 
 dangers, is still lying hidden as a root under 
 ground, and is one of the points from which the 
 devil most successfully urges his attacks. 
 
 Again; to learn still more distinctly what 
 these roots of bitterness are in your heart, ob- 
 serve these two criteria: — Remark upon what 
 subjects are your thoughts the most frequently 
 
AIDS TO SELF-KNOWLEDGE. 201 
 
 engaged, while in the midst of your occupations. 
 Your thoughts are the immediate issues of your 
 soul; as his thoughts are, so is the man; and as 
 the first crush of the grape gives its strongest 
 and sweetest flavor, so the first gush of thought, 
 close to the fountain-head, before it has had 
 time for mingling, or diluting, or diverting from 
 external circumstances, or habits of self control, 
 will, more than anything else, tend to discover 
 to you the nature of the fount from which it 
 flows. The thoughts of the trifler, let him be 
 employed how he may, are for ever breaking 
 forth upon his dress, his furniture, his equipage, 
 his follies; the thoughts of the covetous, are, in 
 in the same manner, continually returning to his 
 profits, his wealth, his accumulations; of the 
 licentious, to his past enjoyments or coming 
 delights; of the designing, to his future schemes. 
 Mark, then, to what subject your thoughts, 
 when disentangled from immediate occupation, 
 most instinctively turn, or most naturally and 
 quickly fly, and, by God's grace, you will not 
 long remain in ignorance of what is in your 
 heart. You will ascertain, if you examine 
 honestly, the state of the fountain, by the incipi- 
 ent state of the stream which gushes from it.— 
 
202 AIDS TO SELF-KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 If that be clear and pellucid, or if that be miid- 
 ded and troubled, you cannot remain long in 
 doubt of the state of the fountain-head. 
 
 But again; let me offer another criterion. — 
 Observe what sin most interrupts you when 
 engaged in holy duties, in prayer, in reading, in 
 hearing the Word of God. Many a sin, the 
 root of which lies concealed in the recesses of 
 the heart, and of which, at other times, we 
 never think, springs up at moments such as 
 these, by the nurturing influences of our spiri- 
 tual enemy; while that enemy obtains a tempo- 
 rary triumph, by the very unexpectedness, and 
 improbability of the attack. Learn, therefore, 
 to turn even these temptations of Satan, to the 
 spiritual good of your soul; let them teach you 
 how much of evil, even of the worst of evils, of 
 actual profaneness and blasphemy, of atheism 
 and hypocrisy, of insincerity and uncleanness, of 
 ambition and worldliness, remains in the heart, 
 or can find entrance into the mind, even of the 
 renewed children of God, and let this humble 
 you, and send you again and again, to the blood 
 of sprinkling for pardon, and to the throne of 
 grace for strength. 
 
 Lastly, brethren, having discovered by such 
 
AIDS TO SELF-KNOWLEDGE. 203 
 
 means as have now been pointed out, or by the 
 still more painful method of actual transgression, 
 what are those secret roots of bitterness which 
 lie beneath the soil, always watching a favora- 
 ble moment to shoot forth and spring up, let us 
 inquire what should be our conduct with regard 
 to them, how may we best hope, by God's grace, 
 to succeed in utterly eradicating them. 
 
 Let us, to help us in the inquiry, look at the 
 examples of the holy men of old. The great 
 sin to which St. Paul, in the days of his spiritual 
 darkness, had been tempted, and by which he 
 had so fearfully been led away captive, was the 
 sin of persecution; now you will observe, that 
 in his after-life, he never forgot this; in all his 
 confessions, the persecuting spirit which had 
 once led him astray, finds a prominent place. — 
 Thus we hear him at one time say, "When the 
 blood of thy martyr Stephen was shed, I also 
 was standing by, and consenting unto his 
 death?" Acts xii, 20; at another, "who was be- 
 fore a blasphemer and a persecutor." 1 Tim. i, 
 13. And again, on two different occasions, 
 " who am not meet to be called an apostle, 
 because I persecuted the Church of God." 1 Cor. 
 XV, 9; Gal. i, 13. Whatever other sins he omit- 
 
204 AIDS TO SELF-KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 ted to enumerate, this was never forgotten, pro- 
 ving how prominent a situation it held in his 
 recollection and thoughts. It had, no doubt, 
 been long since repented of, long since blotted 
 out in the pardoning blood of Jesus, expunged 
 from the book of God's remembrance; but it 
 was never eradicated from his own heart. So 
 let it be with yourselves; the best preservative 
 against the future inroads of sin, is to retain in 
 the memory, and in the heart, a humbling, peni- 
 tent, soul-abasing recollection of former trans- 
 gressions. While rejoicing in the fullest assu- 
 rance, for that is what St. Paul did, that you 
 have obtained mercy, that you are actually and 
 undoubtedly pardoned, let the recollection teach 
 you, with a daily increasing gratitude to God, a 
 daily increasing distrust of self; let it lead you 
 to the duty of obeying the Apostolical injunc- 
 tion, " See that ye walk circumspectly;" Ephes. 
 V, 15; and there are few ways of doing this more 
 effectually, than by cultivating this recollected- 
 ness of mind with regard to former sins, for it 
 will teach you to fly, as from a pestilence, every 
 place, every person, every pleasure, every em- 
 ployment, which has, on past occasions, been to 
 you a cause, or an encouragement of evil. Re- 
 
AIDS TO SELF-KNOWLEDGE. 205 
 
 member, as a fact which cannot be questioned, 
 that many a sin, the very apprehension of which 
 you would ridicule to-day, may, if God permit, 
 be committed by you to-morrow. Therefore, 
 " be not high-minded, but fear." Not only keep 
 this humbling recollection of your past trans- 
 gressions in your mind, but dread every ap- 
 proach to those sins which have so easily beset 
 you, and the roots of which may, perhaps, still 
 lie undiscovered in your heart. How strikingly 
 ^ was this state of mind exhibited by the Apostle 
 Peter, after his repentance. Before his fall, his 
 great temptation appears to have been, a false 
 and carnal security; so confident was he of his 
 own strength, so certain that he should never 
 desert his Master, that his answer, when warned 
 of his danger, was, in presumption and certainty, 
 little short of that of Hazael, " Though all men 
 forsake thee, yet will not I." But after his 
 fall and his recovery, even the thrice-repeated 
 inquiry of our Lord, " Lovest thou me more 
 than these?" almost, as it were, inviting him to 
 a comparison between others and himself, could 
 draw from him not one word that savored of his 
 former sin; he had learnt, painfullly learnt, to 
 18 
 
206 AIDS TO SELF-KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 make no more comparisons; so circumspect, so 
 careful, so humble had he now become, and so 
 anxious to keep at the greatest possible distance, 
 from all that had once been his peril and his 
 ruin. 
 
 Follow, then, these great examples, and 
 though the flesh will still, even in the most ad- 
 vanced Christian, war against the Spirit, it shall 
 no longer overcome. Stronger, far stronger is He 
 that is with you, than all who are against you; 
 and as you go forward in the Christian life, 
 walking closely with your God, holding, as it 
 were, by the hand, your guiding and compas- 
 sionate Saviour, who has already taken away 
 the condemning power of your sin, the reigning 
 power of it shall be daily weakened, the roots 
 of bitterness daily dug up and cast out, and the 
 good seed shall bring forth daily, more and more 
 abundantly, to the glory of your heavenly Fa- 
 ther. Until, when the journey draws to a close, 
 you shall find, to your unutterable and everlast- 
 ing happiness, that every sin is vanquished, 
 every enemy overcome, and that your place is 
 appointed you among that "glorious Church, 
 not having spot nor wrinkle nor any such thing; 
 
AIDS TO SELF-KNOWLEDGE. 207 
 
 but holy and without blemish," Ephes. v, 27; 
 which the Redeemer, having purchased with his 
 blood, shall present unto himself, as the partner 
 both of his perfections and his joys, throughout 
 eternity. 
 
208 
 
 SERMON XII. 
 
 THE PENITENT THIEF. 
 
 St. Luke xxiii, 42. 
 
 "AND HE SAID UNTO JESUS, LORD, REMEMBER ME WHEN 
 THOU COMEST INTO THY KINGDOM." 
 
 The chapter from which the text is taken, 
 presents us with the most concise, yet affecting 
 detail, of our Lord's sufferings and death to be 
 met with in Holy Writ. We behold him in the 
 presence of Pilate and of Herod, when, " as a 
 sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened 
 not his mouth." We see him, after the unjust 
 sentence had been passed upon him, so regard- 
 less of his own approaching agonies, that, while 
 led " as a lamb to the slaughter,^' he was able 
 to warn, to exhort, to counsel, and to comfort 
 others, as if their woes, and theirs alone, were 
 the pangs that pierced his heart. But the most 
 triumphant act of our Lord's earthly sojourn. 
 
THE PENITENT THIEF. 209 
 
 the act in which his mercy and love, his divinity 
 and power, shone out with the richest histre, as 
 the last rays of the setting sun, surpass in love- 
 liness all its mid-day splendor, was the act which 
 fulfilled, and abundantly more than fulfilled, the 
 petition of the text. 
 
 May the same Spirit who inspired the faith 
 and dictated the language of that petition, be 
 with us while considering it, and enable us to 
 feel something of that holy love and confidence 
 which, under such different and far less encou- 
 raging circumstances, possessed the heart of him 
 who offered it. 
 
 In meditating, however, upon this remarkable 
 incident, we must bear in mind, that perhaps, 
 no circumstance of our Lord's life, has been so 
 much misinterpreted and abused, as the conver- 
 sion and pardon of the thief on the cross. Per- 
 sons living a life of idleness and thoughtlessness, 
 when for a passing moment troubled by the 
 apprehensions of death and eternity, comfort 
 themselves with the recollection of this dying 
 malefactor, and believe that, because he so rea- 
 dily obtained mercy, they shall experience no 
 difficulty in securing it. Others, again, who 
 have sunk still deeper into sin, who have har- 
 18* 
 
210 THE PENITENT THIEF. 
 
 dened their hearts against conviction, and are 
 living in utter hostility to the Saviour of whom we 
 speak, if ever they are disturbed by compunctious 
 visitings of conscience, quiet these intrusions by 
 the narrative before us, vainly hoping that what 
 our Lord once did, and but once, under circum- 
 stances the most peculiar and remarkable that 
 ever occurred since the foundation of the world, 
 he is equally ready, at all times, and under any 
 circumstances, to do again. While even the 
 habitual formalist, the man who for years in suc- 
 cession attends the means of grace, and the 
 ordinances of God, without deriving or attempt- 
 ing to derive the benefits they are intended to 
 impart, without knowing more, or loving more, 
 or obeying more, than he did when first he heard 
 the name of Christ, still derives confidence from 
 the pardon of the dying malefactor; and should 
 he think at all upon the peril and uncertainty 
 in which he lives, consoles himself with the 
 idea, that if the last hours of the cross were 
 sufficiently early for the penitent thief, the 
 first hours of sicknessj the first intimation of 
 danger, will assuredly be sufficiently early for 
 himself. 
 
 It is, then, as much with the desire of disa- 
 
THE PENITENT THIEF. 211 
 
 busing your minds of all such misappropria- 
 tions of this instructive incident, as of bringing 
 peace to the troubled soul, and comfort to the 
 heart of the truly contrite, humble, believing 
 penitent, that we have selected the case in ques- 
 tion. 
 
 Our endeavor shall be, 
 
 I. To point out that, so far from the example 
 before us, tending to encourage delay in the 
 great work of repentance, and of turning the 
 heart to God, if we attentively analyse the peni- 
 tence of the dying thief, we shall discover in it 
 all those component parts of a sincere and scrip- 
 tural repentance, which, under ordinary circum- 
 stances, require the whole heart and soul, and 
 mind, and strength, and which are scarcely ever 
 manifested, when this great work is left to be 
 achieved in the few short, dark, and delirious 
 hours of mortal sickness. 
 
 II. We shall attempt to show, what lessons of 
 comfort may legitimately be derived from it. 
 
 I. Observe carefully the very first words 
 which are recorded of the dying malefactor. His 
 companion in iniquity and in suffering, had 
 been reviling Christ, even from the cross, and 
 had united with the Chief Priests and Pharisees 
 
212 THE PENITENT THIEF. 
 
 in the last and most bitter taunts, by which they 
 had added the " trial of cruel mockings/' to the 
 other agonies of the crucifixion, " He saved 
 others, himself he cannot save;'^ " If thou be 
 Christ, save thyself and us.^' The penitent 
 thief, "answering, rebuked him, saying. Dost 
 not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same 
 condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we 
 receive the due reward of our deeds; but this 
 man hath done nothing amiss. ^' 
 
 Here are almost as many evidences of the 
 operation of the Divine grace upon the heart of 
 the speaker, as there are words in the sentence. 
 
 First, the knowledge of himself, and the con- 
 viction of his own sinfulness, " We suffer justly." 
 He does not say, " You suffer justly," but we; 
 acknowledging at once his own guilt, his own 
 utter worthlessness and depravity; that he de- 
 served, justly deserved, even the lingering and 
 horrible death which he was then enduring. — 
 Under whatever circumstances, a true repen- 
 tance is exhibited, be assured that this will 
 always form a distinguished characteristic, the 
 deep conviction of our own sinfulness, and of the 
 unquestionable justice of God, as manifested in 
 our punishment. Tried by these tests, how 
 
THE PENITENT THIEF. 213 
 
 seldom will what is called a death-bed repen- 
 tance, satisfy an impartial and candid inquirer. 
 
 It has been my painful duty, as. a minister, to 
 witness many such scenes, where, after a life of 
 sin, or a course of forgetfulness of God, contempt 
 of his Word, indifference to all his offers of 
 mercy, through the appointed Mediator, a near 
 view of eternity, " a fearful looking for of judg- 
 ment and fiery indignation," have taken pos- 
 session of the mind, and deeply affected the 
 heart. But what has been the consequence? 
 There has been indeed a most distressing devel- 
 opement of the weakness of our nature, when 
 unsupported by Divine grace, a most sensitive 
 shrinking from death, and all that is to happen 
 after death; but there has seldom been a single 
 trace of that feeling of sinfulness and misery, 
 that acknowledgment of the justice of God, 
 that filial fear of God, which marked the peni- 
 tence of the dying malefactor. So far from it, 
 that in cases such as I allude to, the language is 
 is more frequently of a nature rather reflecting 
 upon the injustice, than acknowledging the jus- 
 tice of what the Almighty has ordained; too 
 often the dying man consoles himself with the 
 retrospect of what he has not done amiss, the 
 
214 THE PENITENT THIEF. 
 
 reflection that he has not gone very widely 
 astray, that he has injured no one, that he has 
 been no man's enemy, that he shall not be pun-' 
 ished, having " done nothing amiss;" or else he 
 satisfies himself with a sort of general acknow- 
 ledgment that " all have sinned and come short 
 of the glory of God," and then feels some degree 
 of complacency that he does not except himself. 
 
 How different, how widely different, were 
 the meekness, the contrition, the self-condemna- 
 tion, the heartfelt bitterness of this confession, 
 "We indeed justly, for we receive the due re- 
 ward of our deeds." Though the nails had 
 pierced his hands and feet, though bleeding at 
 every pore, he felt it all too little for his deserv- 
 ings. Who could doubt the sincerity of such a 
 man's repentance? 
 
 But there is far more even than this in the 
 case before us; this indeed marked a godly sor- 
 row, a true "repentance towards God," but 
 there was that also, which evidenced a genuine 
 "faith in our Lord Jesus Christ;" a faith so 
 remarkable, originating at such a moment, and 
 exercised in such a manner, that we may safely 
 challenge the whole world to produce its parallel. 
 The dying malefactor, having testified his sense 
 
THE PENITENT THIEF. 215 
 
 of his own unworthiness and guilt, and having 
 declared, that the fear of God restrained him 
 from adding yet another sin to his already deep- 
 ly-laden account; having reproved the obduracy 
 and profaneness of his companion, and having 
 publicly acknowledged his conviction of the 
 perfect innocency of Him whom he had beheld, 
 scourged as a slave, and now hanging disgraced 
 upon the cross as a criminal, "this man hath 
 done nothing amiss," turns to that apparently 
 helpless and expiring sufferer, and in one single 
 sentence acknowledges his kingly power,- and 
 his unquestionable divinity, "Lord, remember 
 me when thou comest into thy kingdom." Is 
 it possible, under all the circumstances, to con- 
 ceive an exercise of faith more satisfactory or 
 more complete? At a time when the disciples 
 had forsaken their divine Master, and fled from 
 the dreadful scene; when even the women, 
 those who loved him best, and clung to him the 
 most closely, "stood afar off beholding these 
 things;" when, upon this world's surface, there 
 appeared not another human being, to exchange 
 even one word of common sympathy with the 
 helpless sufferer; here was a man who addressed 
 him in the language of humble, faithful prayer; 
 
216 THE PENITENT THIEF. 
 
 acknowledging him as his king, his friend, his 
 God. Not a trace of doubt is visible in that 
 remarkable petition, "when thou comest." He 
 was as confident of the Saviour's reign, and of 
 the Saviour's kingdom, as if, with Stephen, he 
 had seen the heavens opened, and Jesus stand- 
 ing at the right hand of God. 
 
 How wonderful must have been the influence 
 of the Spirit of the Most High upon that man's 
 heart, to have produced such a prayer, at such 
 a moment! so much faith, so much importunity, 
 so much humility. He does not ask to sit on 
 the right hand of Christ, or on his left, as James 
 and John had asked, although he had indeed 
 done what they at that time had never done — 
 he had drunk of the same cup of agony, and 
 been baptized with the same baptism of suffer- 
 ing, as his Saviour and Redeemer — but all he 
 asks is, to be remembered ; to have a place in 
 his Lord's recollection, a portion in his Redeem- 
 er's heart. He seeks no diminution of those 
 protracted and indescribable agonies, through 
 which he was passing, and it is worthy of ob- 
 servation that he received none; his miseries 
 were lengthened out, as those of the impenitent 
 and hardened malefactor; his legs also were 
 
THE PENITENT THIEF. 217 
 
 broken by the Roman soldiers; he died the 
 common death, with pains unmitigated and suf- 
 ferings undiminished, but there was no syllable 
 of repining, no murmur of discontent; though 
 he lived on through those dark hours of agony, 
 his voice was heard no more; all his hopes and 
 his desires were for eternity; "when thou comest 
 into thy kingdom, remember me;" that will be 
 time sufficient; I am content to be forgotten 
 now, if I may but be remembered then. 
 
 Who can be surprised that such a petition 
 was most amply granted: "Verily I say unto 
 thee. To-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise." 
 
 If, brethren, you ever are inclined to strength- 
 en yourselves in a false security, or in worldly 
 indifference, by the example before us, and to 
 think that faith and repentance cannot come too 
 late; we would entreat you, honestly and care- 
 fully to examine all these particulars of the inci- 
 dent, from which you draw encouragements for 
 your delay, and we firmly believe that the im- 
 pression left upon your minds would be, that if 
 you are ever to attain to the blessed assurance 
 vouchsafed to the dying malefactor, you cannot 
 begin too soon: that there is a holy hatred of 
 sin to be attained; a recognition of the Divine 
 19 
 
218 THE PENITENT THIEF. 
 
 justice; a simple, confiding trust in the Redeem- 
 er; an earnest desire, as the fruits of this faith, 
 to benefit our fellow-creatures; a calm and 
 peaceful looking to eternity; and an indifference 
 not only to the honors, and pleasures, and ad- 
 vantages, but to the ills, the miseries, and the 
 sufferings of this world ; each and all of which, 
 were most eminently manifested by the dying 
 thief, and to attain which, you will find, that 
 the fullest powers of the mind, the warmest 
 affections of the heart, and the earliest and most 
 anxious solicitude, will not be too powerful, too 
 ardent, too early, for the great work to be 
 achieved. 
 
 Perhaps, from the view which we have taken 
 of this deeply instructive narrative, some may 
 be led to inquire — are there, then no encourage- 
 ments to be drawn, no consolations to be derived 
 by the sinner, even at the eleventh hour, from so 
 glorious a display of his Redeemer's power and 
 mercy as this affords him? We will not 
 reply, that there are none; but, we candidly 
 confess, that, as faithful interpreters of Divine 
 truth, we cannot venture to assert, that there are 
 many. When all the circumstances which were 
 combined, are taken into consideration, although 
 
THE PENITENT THIEF. 219 
 
 we will not say, as one of the older writers of 
 our Church upon this subject has beautifully- 
 said, " Christ must die again, and thou must be 
 crucified with him, before such a day as that 
 shall come again; for, although on the days of 
 coronations, and great espousals, the streets be 
 hung with tapestry, and the prisoners be let 
 loose, and the conduits run with wine, yet if a 
 man be cast into prison, at any other time, he 
 will be left to be executed, and if a man go to 
 the conduits at any other time, he will find only 
 water." Although we will not presume thus to 
 limit the infinite grace of our Redeemer to that 
 tremendous day, and to that solemn hour; we 
 would most earnestly entreat you not to trust to 
 such another day, and such another instance. 
 We grant that a true repentance cannot come too 
 late, but who is to ascertain that a late repen- 
 tance is a true, and therefore an acceptable re- 
 pentance? Who is even to insure to you the 
 opportunity of this late repentance? Doubtless 
 the bed of sickness has often been made the 
 blessed scene of a total change of heart and 
 aflfections, and some most eminent instances 
 might be given of repentance vouchsafed, of 
 grace offered and accepted, of pardon most mer- 
 
220 THE PENITENT THIEF. 
 
 cifully bestowed within the walls of the cham- 
 ber, from which the sinner is to go no more out 
 again, into the follies and the allurements of the 
 world; but we ask, Who will insure to you the 
 certainty even of a bed of sickness, much less the 
 certainty that Divine grace, so frequently neglect- 
 ed in health, shall be at that season forced upon 
 your acceptance? Are there no sudden deaths? 
 Are there no instances of a few hours', or a few 
 days' illness, during the whole of which the 
 sufferer is absolutely incapacitated from every 
 degree of mental exertion, by bodily languor or 
 by bodily pain? And will you run the hazard 
 of an eternity of happiness, against such a pro- 
 bability as this? Could any thing short of men- 
 tal aberration, induce you deUberately to make 
 such a choice? Imagine even the very best 
 alternative that can await you, and how little 
 comfort does the prospect hold forth. Perhaps, 
 after living a life of sinful forgetfulness of God, 
 you may be brought during the few painful and 
 melancholy hours, which mark the close of such 
 a life, to a knowledge of the Redeemer, to a 
 deep conviction of sin, and to some degree of 
 love to God, and of meetness for the inheritance 
 of the saints in light. How difficult, in such a 
 
THE PENITENT THIEF. 221 
 
 case, to ascertain what is really the effect of 
 Divine grace, and what the specious counterfeit 
 produced by the dread of death, the terrors of 
 approaching judgment. As the ministers of 
 Christ, we may leave you in hope of the never- 
 failing mercies of an infinitely merciful Redeem- 
 er; but seldom indeed can we, in instances such 
 as these, assure your own minds; seldom can we 
 comfort your weeping friends by any thing be- 
 yond a hope, a faint and doubtful hope, which 
 the heart indeed, in every case, loves to cherish, 
 even while the mind and judgment stand trem- 
 blingly aloof, and refuse all share in the decision. 
 While even the language of hope itself, loses 
 much of its hilarity and joy, from the recollec- 
 tion, How many similar instances we have wit- 
 nessed, in which returning health has brought 
 back returning worldliness and sin; while every 
 trace of faith and penitence, which we had so 
 highly valued on the bed of sickness, and from 
 which, if the sinner had died, we should have 
 ventured to deduce our hope of his salvation, 
 has utterly and for ever disappeared. 
 
 Do you then ask, brethren, what comfort you 
 may derive from the narrative we have been 
 considering? One important lesson to be de- 
 
222 THE PENITENT THIEF. 
 
 rived from it, is this — That if our gracious 
 Redeemer could thus readily, pardon the dying 
 malefactor, who had never, probably, until 
 those hours of agony, heard of the name of 
 Christ, and who at such an hour might be glad 
 to cling to any hope, much more will He accept 
 and pardon you, whatever be your sins, how- 
 ever great, or however habitual and confirmed, 
 if you now come in the days of health and hap- 
 piness, with the same penitence, and the same 
 faith, offering, from a broken and contrite heart 
 the same petition, " Lord, remember me." 
 
 This is a lesson which the incident we have 
 been considering, well may teach us; this is the 
 consolation which it may really impart; but if 
 you will only look to it for future succor, for par- 
 don at the eleventh hour, for acceptance when 
 the few remaining sands of life are quickly ebb- 
 ing from the glass, be assured that you are lean- 
 ing upon a broken reed: and that, if you per- 
 sist in tlie delusion, the sin, the misery, the dis- 
 appointment must be your own. 
 
 The present moment, then, is the only time at 
 which we can insure to you the fulfilment of 
 the petition in the text. Make it your ear- 
 nest, faithful, lieartfelt petition now, and it will 
 
THE PENITENT THIEF. 223 
 
 not, cannot be denied you. Say, Lord, behold 
 my sinfulness, behold the hardness of my heart, 
 the coldness of my affections, the waywardness 
 of my will; behold all my poverty, all my neces- 
 sity; see my utter inability to help myself, and 
 *• remember me." " There is forgiveness with 
 thee, that thou mightest be feared;" bestow it 
 upon me. There is grace with thee, that thou 
 mightest be loved; deny it not to me. There is 
 pleasure at thy right hand for ever; give me 
 my portion there, and. I will ask no more; only, 
 " Lord remember me," now thou art in thy 
 kingdom. The answer to such a prayer will 
 be, for these are the words of Him to whom you 
 pray, " Can a woman forget her sucking child, 
 that she should not have compassion on the son 
 of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will 
 I not forget thee." I have gone to prepare a 
 place for thee, that where I am, there may also 
 my servants be; Satan hath desired to have 
 thee, that he may sift thee as wheat; but I have 
 prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not. For all 
 that the Father giveth me shall come tome: and 
 him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast 
 out. Cleave to me with all thy heart, and with 
 all thy soul and with all thy strength; and when 
 
224 THE PENITENT THIEF. 
 
 thy heart and thy flesh fail thee, I will be the 
 strength of thine heart, and thy portion for ever. 
 Such, in effect, is the gracious answer which our 
 Lord has vouchsafed to thousands of his praying 
 people, and such will he this day vouchsafe to 
 you, if you, from a contrite and believing heart, 
 present the petition of the text. 
 
 That you may be enabled by Divine grace, so 
 to do, may God of his infinite mercy grant, 
 through our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
225 
 
 SERMOxN XIII. 
 
 SIGNS THAT WE ARE "IN CHRIST 
 JESUS." 
 
 1 St. John ii, 5. (Part.) 
 
 To be, what in Scripture phraseology is termed 
 " in Christ Jesus," i. e. to be a partaker, by faith, 
 of that union with the Saviour, which the Word 
 of God continually presents, and for which the 
 Church of England continually prays, is the one 
 great and leading anxiety of every truly enlight- 
 ened mind. The reason for this anxiety is ob- 
 vious, it is in Him alone that we can possess 
 that righteousness which will satisfy God, for 
 the Apostle says, " He hath made him to be sin 
 for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made 
 the righteousness of God, in Him." 2 Ep. Cor. 
 V, 21. It is in Him alone that we can stand the 
 scrutinising eye of our Judge, and be secured 
 
226 SIGNS THAT WE ARE 
 
 against the vengeance of a broken law; for, the 
 Word of God says again, " There is, therefore, 
 now no condemnation to them which are in ' 
 Christ Jesus." Rom. viii, 1. It is in Him alone 
 that we can be preserved from the devices of 
 our spiritual adversaries, the iniquity of our own 
 hearts, and the fiery darts of the wicked one, 
 for the same inspired Word has said, " The name 
 of the Lord is a strong tower, the righteous 
 runneth into it and is safe." Prov. xviii, 10. 
 
 This being, then, to the spiritual reader of 
 Holy Writ, an unquestionable truth, a truth 
 most merciful and most consolatory, a truth 
 which the renewed mind receives without hesi- 
 tation, and without distrust, it is not my inten- 
 tion to endeavor to demonstrate it upon the 
 present occasion, but to apply myself more 
 immediately to the direct purport of the text — 
 " Hereby know we that we are in Him." The 
 consideration, therefore, not of the great, and 
 unspeakable, and inestimable benefits of being 
 in Christ, but of the method whereby we may 
 ascertain that we are ourselves,' individually, 
 partakers of it, is what I desire especially to 
 bring before you. 
 
 May the Holy vSpirit of God accompany these 
 
IN CHRIST JESUS. 227 
 
 reflections to every soul among us, with his 
 especial blessing; to you who are really *<iri 
 Christ Jesus," and know it not, and therefore 
 enjoy but a very small portion of that peace, 
 and happiness, and abiding consolation, which 
 ought to be your own, by making you sensible 
 that you are even now partakers of this indes- 
 cribable mercy, which shall, by God's grace, 
 issue in your infinite and eternal felicity; and on 
 the other hand, to you who are not in Christ 
 Jesus, that you may learn the important truth, 
 that there is far, far more in religion, than you 
 have ever yet experienced, and that, while you 
 are contenting yourselves with the mere out- 
 ward form and ceremonial observance, with the 
 mere shell of the imperishable fruit of Paradise, 
 there is that within which you have never tasted, 
 a reality and a sweetness, a consolation and a 
 joy, which you have never found, of which you 
 have at present no experience, and in your pre- 
 sent state can form no conception. 
 
 The method in which we propose to investi- 
 gate this subject is, by bringing forward certain 
 evidences, with which the word of God has fur- 
 nished us, upon this peculiarly difficult, and yet 
 important question; hoping, thus, that we may 
 
228 SIGNS THAT WE ARE 
 
 be enabled to expose the false professor to his 
 own heart, while we trust we may be permit- 
 ted at the same time, to establish and comfort 
 the true. 
 
 I. There is a very common mistake, which 
 greatly increases the difficulty of the subject 
 before us, viz., that the visible Church of Christ, 
 and the invisible Church, are one and the same 
 thing. The truth is, that although the visible 
 Church includes the invisible, they are by no 
 means synonymous, since, while many are " in 
 Christ," by an outward profession many of these 
 same persons are not in Christ by a true, and 
 living, and obeying faith; are not, therefore, 
 partakers of that spiritual union which binds the 
 real believer to the Saviour, as the living branch 
 to the living vine, to which our Lord so beauti- 
 fully compared himself. St. John xv, 5. Indeed, 
 were it otherwise, the words of the text — and 
 there are many of a similar tendency — could 
 never occur, since the very fact, that all to whom 
 St. John wrote, were baptised and professing 
 Christians, 'would establish, beyond question, 
 that they were all " in Christ," as spiritual 
 Christians, and therefore would render every 
 evidence of such a fact, useless and unnecessary. 
 
IN CHRIST JESUS. 229 
 
 So far from this being the case, the Epistle 
 before us is full of these evidences. For instance, 
 " We know that we have passed from death 
 unto life," not because we have been partakers 
 of the Sacrament of Baptism, but, " because we 
 love the brethren." Again, " Hereby know we 
 that we are in Him, because he hath given us of 
 his Spirit." 
 
 Taking, then, these declarations of the Word 
 of God for our guide, we would commence, by 
 asking each individual among you. Whereby 
 know you that you are "in Christ?" What 
 reason have you for thinking so? Are you 
 satisfied of the fact, because you have been made 
 a partaker of the Holy Sacrament of Christian 
 Baptism? or because you have joined a Chris- 
 tian congregation, or been partaker, with them, 
 of Christian ordinances? Alas! a moment's re- 
 flection will convince you that this is insufficient;- 
 have we not reason to fear, that some of the 
 most deeply ruined, of those who have perished 
 everlastingly, have done the same? Let us, 
 then, advance a little further into the inquiry. — 
 Do you imagine that you have been in Christ 
 from your earliest infancy; or, have you any 
 20 
 
230 SIGNS THAT WE ARE 
 
 just ground for hoping that you have become so, 
 within your own recollection? 
 
 We do not say, that there are none who can 
 reasonably believe that they have been " in 
 Christ," using the phrase, as the Apostle uses it 
 in the text, in its highest spiritual meaning, even 
 from the hour of their baptism, because we 
 firmly believe that there are such instances, in 
 which the grace bestowed at the baptismal font, 
 has remained, shedding its blessed influence 
 throughout the years of the future man. But 
 these, we fear, form the rare exception, not the 
 general rule; and, therefore, we rather address 
 ourselves in this discourse to the great mass of 
 Christian hearers, than to the few who have 
 been thus highly favored; and we would ask 
 you, who are not conscious of this early renewal 
 unto holiness, and the consequent sanclification 
 which attend it, whereby, know ye that ye are 
 in Christ? Or, which is the same thing, that 
 you possess a true, a living, a saving faith in 
 Him? The first sign, which we would propose 
 to you, to assist you in answering the inquiry, 
 is this — 
 
 I. The manner in which you became possess- 
 ed of this faith. 
 
IN CHRIST JESUS. 231 
 
 II. The preparation of heart which went 
 before, or accompanied it; and 
 
 III. Some of the features of this faith. 
 
 I. We would inquire, was your faith wrought 
 in you, or confirmed in you, by reading the 
 Word of God, or by hearing it faithfully prea- 
 ched.^ Did this convince, and humble, and 
 incline you to seek Christ as a Saviour? or, if it 
 was not the primary instrument, employed by 
 God in this great work, has the revealed Word 
 tended to confirm and establish your faith? We 
 mention this, first, because it is God's usual 
 method of bringing his people within the blessed 
 relationship, of which we are speaking. Afflic- 
 tions, trials, sorrows, are all made subservient 
 by God, to the preparation, and promotion of 
 this faith; but his Word emphatically says, "So 
 then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by 
 the Word of God;'' Rom. x, 17; and again, 
 "Of his own will begat he us, with the word of 
 TRUTH.'^ St. James i, 18. So, faith was wrought 
 in the three thousand converts, on the day of 
 Pentecost, by the preaching of Peter; so St. 
 Paul's faith was confirmed by the preaching 
 of Ananias; so, Lydia's by the instructions of 
 St. Paul; so, the Eunuch's was wrought in him 
 
232 SIGNS THAT WE ARE 
 
 by the teaching of Philip ; and the same of many- 
 others. Now, if you think that you are "in 
 Christ,'^ i. e., that you possess this saving, jus- 
 tifying faith, and yet have no recollection how, 
 or when, or where you obtained it, we have 
 almost as much reason to suspect its genuine- 
 ness as we have, when a person possesses 
 goods of which he can give no probable account, 
 to suspect that they do not rightly belong to 
 him. While, therefore, we most certainly would 
 not say, that you must necessarily remember 
 the day and the hour when, or the preacher 
 by whom, this great work was wrought in 
 you, you must, if it be a genuine work, know 
 something, either of its origin, or its confirma- 
 tion. There must be a distinctive feeling in 
 your mind, that whereas you were blind, now 
 you see; that old things have passed away, that 
 all things have become new; that you are now 
 enabled to discover something of your own heart, 
 with which you were not always acquainted; to 
 know something of the heinousness of sin, of 
 which you were formerly ignorant; and to feel 
 something of that Scriptural love to God, as re- 
 vealed in the person of his Son, something of 
 the unspeakable preciousness of a Saviour, 
 
IN CHRIST JESUS. 233 
 
 which you could not always appreciate; and 
 that the Word of God, either read, and meditated 
 upon with prayer in private, or heard and atten- 
 ded to, Acts xvi. 16, in the public ministrations, 
 was the instrument blessed to this great end. — 
 This, then, is the first sign upon which, with a 
 confidence proportioned to its clearness and cer- 
 tainty, you may lay your hand, and say, " Here- 
 by, I know that I am in him." 
 
 Most earnestly would we beseech you to con- 
 sider, after you leave this house, the sign of 
 which we are now speaking. If you have never 
 read the Word of God with serious and devout 
 attention, and fervent prayer, to find what is the 
 mind of the Spirit; if you have never dwelt 
 frequently upon those truths, which you have 
 heard in the house of God, is it not evident that 
 you cannot really, savingly be " in Christ?" 
 You have obviously cut yourself off, from the 
 only two means, which God has vouchsafed for 
 communicating to man, His will. You cannot 
 suppose, for a moment, that God has vouchsafed 
 you a distinct and separate revelation, and there- 
 fore there is no alternative; it is undeniable that 
 you have no share, at present, in that mercy of 
 which you have, perhaps, been fully persuaded, 
 20* 
 
234 SIGNS THAT WE ARE 
 
 that you were in complete and undisturbed pos- 
 session. 
 
 II. The second sign to which we shall advert - 
 as an evidence, by which you may know whe- 
 ther you are " in Christ," or, whether Christ be 
 truly yours — for in Scripture, the phrases are 
 synonymous — is, if your heart were ever pre- 
 pared for receiving Him, as the stones were pre- 
 pared for Solomon's Temple, or as a palace is 
 prepared for the residence of a king. It was 
 prophesied of our Lord, that at his coming, 
 "Every valley should be exalted, and every 
 mountain and hill should be made low;" Isaiah 
 xl, 4; metaphorical language indeed, expressive 
 of the manner in which the roads, over which 
 the ancient monarchs were about to travel, used 
 in those days to be prepared for their passage. 
 But, however metaphorical, no doubt strictly 
 applicable, not only to the coming of Christ in 
 the flesh, but to his coming by faith into the 
 heart of every believer. The way must be pre- 
 pared for him, by that blessed Spirit, from whom 
 alone, as the Word of God assures us the pre- 
 parations of the heart," Prov. xvi, 1, proceed. 
 Every mountain must still be laid low at the 
 Saviour's approach; every high thing, and every 
 
IN CHRIST JESUS. 235 
 
 haughty thought, which exalteth itself against 
 the knowledge of God, must be cast down. 
 
 For instance, you once, perhaps, esteemed 
 yourself sufficiently holy, sufficiently righteous, 
 from the honesty of your intentions, and the in- 
 tegrity of your life; perhaps, like the Pharisee, 
 you thanked God that you were not as other 
 men are; these swellings of self-righteousness, 
 then, are the mountains which must be laid low, 
 so low that they must be completely levelled, that 
 not a single thought of your own worth, or 
 merits, or righteousness, may raise its head 
 against the entrance of your Lord; so low, that 
 instead of saying, or even thinking, that you 
 " are rich and increased with goods," you must 
 feel in your inmost soul, that you are " wretch- 
 ed, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and na- 
 ked;" Rev. iii, 17; ready to say with Jacob, "I 
 am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, 
 which thou hast showed unto thy servant;" 
 Gen. xxxii, 10; with David, " I am a worm, and 
 no man;" Psalm xxii, 6; with the Prodigal, " I 
 am no more worthy to be called thy son;" St. 
 Luke XV, 1 9 ; with St. Paul, " of sinners I am 
 chief;" 1 Ep. Tim. i, 15. Has this, then, been 
 in any degree the case withjyourselves? Are you 
 
236 SIGNS THAT WE ARE 
 
 conscious of any such " preparations of heart" 
 as we are describing? or, while imagining that 
 you are " in Christ," are you still of a high look, 
 and of a haughty carriage before God; still satis- 
 fied with your own righteousness, of which you 
 have never yet seen the emptiness and insuffi- 
 ciency, never yet trampled it into the dust, be- 
 neath the cross of your Redeemer? And do 
 you imagine that Christ has passed over these 
 mountains and taken possession of your heart? 
 Be not deceived, it cannot be; wherever he 
 comes, he levels all before him; remember his 
 own words, " Except ye be converted, and be- 
 come as little children," — pride and self-right- 
 eousness are no infant sins — " ye shall not enter 
 into the kingdom of heaven." St. Matt xviii, 3. 
 Again, while every mountain must be brought 
 down, every valley must be exalted, all low and 
 despairing thoughts, so dishonorable to God, 
 must be eradicated, that these low places, to 
 carry on the metaphor, may be filled up with the 
 " unsearchable riches of Christ." 
 
 These " preparations of heart" do not usually 
 stand alone, they are often strongly mingled with 
 grievous and trying visitations of spiritual sor- 
 row, and the fears of eternal condemnation, the 
 
IN. CHRIST JESUS. 237 
 
 dread of not being accepted, with which God 
 frequently penetrates the heart before he bestows 
 Christ upon us, as the plough is driven through 
 the hardened land, before the corn is sown. For 
 be assured that a broken and a bleeding Saviour 
 will enter only into a broken and a bleeding 
 heart; broken for its sins and from its siijs; bleed- 
 ing with pain and anguish, at its long hostility 
 and alienation from God. 
 
 The evidence of which we are now speaking, 
 is a very important one, and one which we can- 
 not but fear, is much neglected at the present 
 day. There is no doubt, that a certain class of 
 religionists were in the habit of dwelling too 
 exclusively and too systematically upon it; and 
 this is probably the reason, that the natural re- 
 action in the human mind has taken place, and 
 that it is now so much overlooked and under- 
 valued. 
 
 And what is the consequence? — that the work 
 of grace in too many instances, is no longer the 
 deep, heart-searching work of the Spirit of God, 
 which it used to be, in the best days of the 
 Church of Christ, and which it must be, in every 
 case that shall survive, but a slight, superficial, 
 notional thing, if not wholly seated in the ima- 
 
238 SIGNS THAT WE ARE 
 
 gination and the head, floating only on the sur- 
 face of the affections, and not going down into 
 the recesses of a prepared and softened, and 
 therefore "an honest and good heart." It is 
 thus, that there never was a time when persons 
 professing religion, were so carried about by 
 every wind of doctrine, so unsettled in their 
 creed, and so unstable, consequently, in their 
 practice, as at the present moment. Never, 
 therefore, was there a time when it was more 
 essential to look well to the ground-work of re- 
 ligion in the mind; to examine its foundation in 
 the heart; to see whether, in our own case, there 
 has been this preparing work, of which we are 
 speaking, or whether, like too many around us, 
 we have shot up at once, with an unnatural pre- 
 cocity, into the heights of its privileges, or the 
 depths of its mysteries, or the mazes of its specu- 
 lations, embracing its consolations and its joys, 
 but knowing little, very little, of those prepara- 
 tory feelings of deep compunction and godly 
 sorrowing for sin, of self-loathing, and self- 
 abasement, and self-distrust, of which, to a 
 greater or less degree, every true disciple of the 
 Lord Jesus Christ must be partaker. Of this, 
 then — not indeed when standing alone, for there 
 
IN CHRIST JESUS. 239 
 
 may be all these convictions of sin, without a 
 true and scriptural conversion — but of this, if it 
 be found in us in conjunction with the other 
 signs of which we are now speaking, we may 
 safely predicate, in the language of the text, 
 "Hereby we know that we are in Him." 
 
 HI. Proceed we to the consideration of the 
 third sign, which we. have mentioned, as ena- 
 bling us to adopt the declaration of the text, 
 viz.. 
 
 From some of the pecuHar characteristics of 
 our faith. True faith, generally speaking, has 
 a time of infancy as well as maturity. It is not 
 born a perfect man. In the natural world, such 
 a sight would be as monstrous as unnatural; — 
 in the spiritual world it would be little less. 
 
 The fabled goddess of the heathens sprung 
 into life perfect in every point, and even armed 
 from head to foot, but this is not the case with 
 the faith of the Christian. Be careful, then, of 
 an error, not very uncommon at the present day, 
 that the only true and desirable faith is that 
 which is perfect and complete at once, attaining 
 to as full an assurance, the moment it is born, as 
 after years of Christian practice and Christian 
 experience. That such a faith, so full and com- 
 
240 SIGNS THAT WE ARE 
 
 plete, in its maturest fruit, may occasionally be 
 vouchsafed, we will not dispute; but that it is 
 not the usual method in which it is described in 
 Scripture, we are equally certain. It is there 
 likened to the grain of mustard seed, which our 
 Lord tells us is among the smallest of all seeds, 
 so that you can scarcely discern it, and that 
 thus it is with faith, the believer being scarcely 
 able, at first, to ascertain whether he possesses 
 it. That, as the minute seed becomes, in time, 
 the strong and flourishing plant, so the feeble 
 faith becomes, in due time, under the fertilizing 
 effects of the Spirit of God, the strong, and stable, 
 and durable tree. Like the new-born infant, 
 which can neither speak nor stand alone, but is 
 carried in the arms of others, and lives upon 
 nothing but the simplest aliment, feeding and 
 crying occupying the first and earliest hours of 
 life; such is, generally speaking, the true and 
 genuine faith of the infant believer; an alternate 
 state of hungering for the Word of God, and of 
 sorrowing for sin; unable to stand alone, looking 
 for the aid of stronger Christians, to bear it up, 
 glad of every little help to carry it forward on 
 its infant course. It is often, also, a weeping 
 faith, full of doubtings, temptations, and fears, 
 
IN CHRIST JESUS. 241 
 
 as the poor man in the Gospel cried, " Lord, I 
 heUeve; help thou mine unbeUef." St. Mark ix, 
 24. This is, in fact, the manner in which our 
 Lord perpetually speaks of it. He does not 
 compare it to the " burning flax," but to the 
 " smoking flax," smoking with the desire after 
 God, but the fire not strong enough to flame 
 with comforts. He does not compare it even 
 to the reed in its natural state, which, at the 
 very best, is so weak a thing that a bird can 
 scarcely settle upon it, but to the " bruised reed," 
 the very feeblest thing we can imagine. But 
 while this is the infancy of faith, if it be a true 
 faith, every day, and every hour, is giving it 
 strength, and bringing it forward into manhood; 
 it does not he in the heart like a stone, unchan- 
 ged and unchangeable, but like a prolific seed 
 in the fertile earth, realising what St. Paul ex- 
 presses, when he says, "The righteousness of 
 God is revealed from faith to faith." Rom i, 17. 
 from one degree of faith to another, and well 
 exemplified in the spiritual life of Nicodemus, 
 whose faith was at first so small, and timid, and 
 shrinking, that he dared not visit Christ, until 
 the darkness of night could shroud him from the 
 eye of the scoffer j and yet we find, that this 
 21 
 
242 SIGNS THAT WE ARE 
 
 same trembling disciple, could, but a short time 
 afterwards, go openly to the Roman Governor, 
 with Joseph of Arimathea, in the hour of our 
 Lord's greatest humiliation, and of his disciple's 
 greatest danger, and boldly beg the body of his 
 Saviour. What a remarkable proof that his 
 faith had not been stationary! Does, then, your 
 own experience, testify to any thing resembling 
 this, in your Christian life? Do you remember 
 the time when your faith was so weak, that 
 you dreaded to be thought more in earnest, or 
 more anxious for the salvation of your soul, 
 than those around you; and are you now, 
 through grace, comparatively indifferent to hu- 
 man opinion, and ready, cost what it may, to 
 confess Christ before men? Be thankful to Him 
 from whom this increase comes; it is the Lord's 
 own work; to him be all the glory! 
 
 However possible, then, it is for faith to grow 
 with such rapidity, that the hour of its birth, 
 and of its maturity, may be too closely allied to 
 be distinguished, we believe that faith to be the 
 safest evidence, as it usually is the most perma- 
 nent grace, which increases gradually to " the 
 measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ," 
 Ephes. iv, 13, producing "first the blade, then 
 
IN CHRIST JESUS. 243 
 
 the ear, after that, the full corn in the ear." 
 St. Mark iv, 2S. While the faith, which, like 
 the gourd of Jonah, springs up in a night, like 
 that same gourd, too often perishes in a night; 
 unnatural and early ripeness bringing with it 
 unnatural and early rottenness. 
 
 The faith of which we are speaking, has 
 usually its infancy and its increase, but in both 
 of them, before it can form a satisfactory evi- 
 dence, it must possess this unfailing character- 
 istic; it must be perfectly simple in its object. 
 It must look to the Lord Jesus Christ, and to 
 Him alone, for all it seeks for here, for all it 
 hopes for hereafter. The very weakest faith 
 will realise, and, if genuine, must realise, this 
 as surely, and as savingly, as the very strongest. 
 But do not deceive yourselves, my beloved 
 brethren, nothing is so easy to describe, nothing 
 so difficult to possess, as this child-like, simple 
 grace, of which we are speaking — the direct act 
 of the Spirit of God upon the heart. Examine 
 yourselves most carefully upon this head, pray 
 to God to probe your hearts, and to lay them 
 open to your own apprehension. See that 
 there be nothing mingled with the only object 
 of the Christian faith — a suffering, a crucified, a 
 
244 SIGNS THAT WE ARE 
 
 risen, and a returning Redeemer. See that 
 while one eye is fixed upon Him, the other be 
 not turned inward upon yourself, to unite any, 
 however small a portion, of your own work to 
 his great, and perfect, and finished sacrifice. If, 
 after dihgent and prayerful self-examination, 
 you are enabled to say, I desire to trust in none 
 but Christ; I desire to be taught by none but 
 Christ; I desire to be ruled by none but Christ; 
 I desire none but Christ for my consolation 
 here, I desire none but Christ for my security, 
 and my happiness hereafter. However faint 
 these feelings may be, however weak or minute 
 be their apparent hold upon your heart, be not 
 cast down; they are the "seed of mustard," 
 they are the "smoking flax," they are the 
 "bruised reed;" and you may say of the weak- 
 est, and the frailest faith like this, " Hereby I 
 know that I am in Him," even in Christ Jesus, 
 the alpha and omega, the beginning and the 
 end, the author and the finisher. I trust, that I 
 shall not be in Him to-day, as a dear and par- 
 doned child, and out of Him to-morrow, as a 
 cast-off and ruined reprobate; surely He who has 
 sown in me the seed, will not forsake me before 
 that seed be a tree, and has brought forth fruit to 
 
IN CHRIST JESUS. 245 
 
 life everlasting: He will complete that which 
 he has committed to me, He will keep that 
 which I have committed to Him, against that 
 day. 
 
 21* 
 
246 
 
 SERMOxN XIV. 
 
 (continuation.) 
 
 SIGNS THAT WE ARE "IN CHRIST 
 JESUS." 
 
 1 St. John ii, 5. (Part.) 
 
 " HEREBY WE KHOW THAT WE ARE IN HIM." 
 
 It was my endeavor, at the opening of the 
 last discourse from these words, to demonstrate, 
 first, from Holy Writ, that to be " in Christ Je- 
 sus," i. e., to be united to him by a living and 
 saving faith, evidencing itself in all holy con- 
 versation and godliness, was the highest privi- 
 lege of man. Next, to show, that it was an 
 unquestionable scriptural truth, that every such 
 believer in Christ Jesus, or, in Bible phraseo- 
 logy, all who are " in Him," may arrive at the 
 comfortable and blessed knowledge that they 
 are in Him; and lastly, from different evidences 
 
SIGNS THAT WE ARE IN CHRIST JESUS. 247 
 
 with which the Word of God has furnished us, 
 to assist you in determining, each for himself, 
 this great and unutterably important point. 
 Our object, in selecting the subject, was not 
 only the obvious one, to which we alluded in 
 the last discourse, viz., the conviction of the 
 false professor to his own heart, and the comfort 
 of the true; but still further, to endeavor to 
 meet the objections, first, of that large class of 
 sincere, but ill-instructed persons, who imagine, 
 that 130 presumption is so great, as that of en- 
 deavoring, while on earth, to ascertain, with 
 any degree of certainty their state as regards 
 eternity, by showing these persons, from the 
 Word of God, that it is the direct intention of 
 the Spirit of God that all true Christians should 
 arrive at this most comfortable conclusion; and 
 next to endeavor to disabuse the minds of an- 
 other and very different class among our hear- 
 ers, of an error extremely prevalent, that no 
 evidences must be spught, to prove that we are 
 in Christ Jesus: that the very search is a strong 
 criterion of a legal spirit, and shows that we are 
 yet mere babes in the knowledge of Divine 
 truth. 
 
248 SIGNS THAT WE ARE 
 
 The evidences which we have already brought 
 before you to establish the important fact that 
 you are " in Christ/^ are these: 
 
 I. Have you any recollection of the time 
 when, or the manner in which, you were first 
 led to seek Him, or have since been confirmed 
 and strengthened in your knowledge of Him? 
 
 II. Are you conscious of any "preparations of 
 heart," any compunctious visitings for sin, and 
 godly sorrow for it, any reduction of self-right- 
 eousness and bringing down of the high look 
 and haughty carriage of the natural heart, as 
 preceding and accompanying the reception of 
 the Saviour? And, 
 
 III. Are the features of your faith such, as 
 the Bible always attributes to that grace, when 
 it is the genuine work of the Spirit of God; for 
 instance, its original weakness and feebleness; 
 its perceptible increase; and the undivided one- 
 ness, the complete singleness of its object, desir- 
 ing to " know nothing but Jesus Christ and Him 
 crucified." 
 
 We proceed now to offer two more features, 
 by which the genuineness of your faith may be 
 determined, forming, therefore, two more evi- 
 
IN CHRIST JESUS. 249 
 
 dences whereby you may know that you are 
 " in Christ Jesus." These are, obedience and 
 love. 
 
 I. Obedience. " Hereby we do know, that 
 we know Him," says St. John, "if we keep his 
 commandments." 1 St. John ii, 3. And again, 
 " He that keepeth his commandments dwelleth 
 in Him, and He in him." 1 St. John iii, 24. Obe- 
 dience, then, may be considered as a very satis- 
 factory evidence that you are " in Christ." But 
 you will observe that the obedience, which can 
 alone be considered as a feature of that faith, 
 which demonstrates that you are in Christ, is 
 of this nature; it is an universal obedience; it 
 has respect to all God's commandments; it con- 
 sists in a settled resolution in the strength of the 
 Lord, to forsake all sin, and a settled purpose, 
 and determination to please God in all things. 
 You will, perhaps, ask. Is then the possessor of 
 this obedience expected to attain perfection? We 
 reply, certainly not! There is no man, that liv- 
 eth and sinneth not, and if we say, that we have 
 no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is 
 not in us. But, perfection, although not to be 
 attained here below, is to be perpetually aimed 
 at, and striven for, in obedience to our Lord's 
 
260 SIGNS THAT WE ARE 
 
 command, " Be ye therefore perfect, even as 
 your Father which is in Heaven is perfect." St. 
 Matt. V, 48. The obedience of which we speak, 
 differs from all other obedience in this respect, 
 that it does not willingly tolerate a single sin; 
 God has expressly said of all his spiritual chil- 
 dren, " I will put my laws into their mind, and 
 write them in their hearts;" Heb. viii, 10; i. e., 
 I will implant in them a spiritual knowledge of 
 my laws, and a hearty desire and inclination to 
 fulfil even the least of them; it is in reference 
 to this that St. James says, " Whosoever shall 
 keep the whole law and yet offend in one point, 
 he is guilty of all." St. James ii, 10. Where 
 he evidently does not and cannot mean, that he 
 who breaks a single commandment, is guilty of 
 breaking all, but he who allows himself in the 
 willing and habitual transgression of a single 
 command, proves by this fact, that although he 
 does not actually break the whole law, his heart 
 is not upright before God, and that there is no 
 security against his breaking every other com- 
 mand, if the temptation and opportunity were 
 afforded him. You will, therefore, at once per- 
 ceive the nature of your obedience, if you are 
 in Christ, and if you are not in Christ. If you 
 
IN CHRIST JESUS. 251 
 
 are not in Christ, you may make many resolu- 
 tions against those sins which have injnred your 
 property, your health, your character, and we 
 believe there is scarcely an individual living, 
 who has not made some such, yea, many such 
 resolutions; but even as respects these, your re- 
 solutions will not be so much against the sins, 
 as against the disgrace and punishment of them. 
 But it will never be an universal resolution, 
 there will always be a reservation in favor of 
 some secret, and most endeared lust, there will 
 be some sin, which, even when most in earnest, 
 you do not intend really and for ever to give 
 up; and if you examine your own heart strictly, 
 and probe it thoroughly, you will be conscious, 
 even at the time, that there is some cherished 
 sin, of which you say, as Jacob said of Benja- 
 min, *• This shall not go." Some sin, to which 
 you will cling as Herod, who, although we are 
 told that he heard John gladly, and did many 
 things, still had one beloved lust in reserve, 
 which he never intended to give up, and which 
 was ultimately the ruin of his soul; as Judas, 
 and the young man in the Gospel, clung to their 
 covetousness, and Demas to the present world; 
 until each of these persons, all professors of re- 
 
252 SIGNS THAT WE ARE 
 
 ligion to a certain extent perished in his iniquity. 
 Wherever this is the case, it is not the obedience 
 of which we are speaking, it is no evidence at 
 all that you are "in Christ;" and however you 
 may deceive yourself with the idea, that God 
 will accept this partial obedience, be assured his 
 Word is true, when it declares that though the 
 sinner " bless himself in his heart; saying, I shall 
 have peace, though I walk in the imagination of 
 mine heart, the Lord will not spare him, but the 
 anger of the Lord and his jealousy shall smoke 
 against that man, and the Lord shall blot out his 
 name from under heaven.'^ Deut. xxix, 19, 20. 
 How different is the obedience of a child of 
 God; although there is much weakness, there is 
 no intentional reservation; there is a holy reso- 
 lution, made in the strength of God's good Spirit, 
 to give up all sin, however dear, and however 
 cherished, at his command. The sins which 
 have been most favored, and have hitherto led 
 you captive the most willingly, will be the most 
 dreaded, and the most denied; yes, they will be 
 the very first, which you will devote as a thank- 
 offering to your God. You will pray against 
 all sm, but you will watch daily, hourly, mo- 
 mentarily against these, with an unceasing 
 
IN CHRIST JESUS. 253 
 
 watch, and an unsparing warfare. If unholy- 
 tempers have most easily beset you, you will 
 earnestly watch against the first hasty word, or 
 uncharitable expression. If sins of licentious- 
 ness have polluted you, you will dread even an 
 unchaste thought, and shrink from all ap- 
 proaches to an immoral word or action. You 
 will, even, as Job declares that he did, " make a 
 covenant with your eyes," that you may avoid 
 the poison which so quickly passes from the eye 
 to the heart. Thus it will be in all things; if 
 you are " in Christ," while trusting to His righ- 
 teousness, and to that alone, wherein to stand 
 before God, you will be as anxious in the work 
 of your sanctification, as if you were absolutely 
 dependent upon its tattered shreds, for your 
 wedding garment. Yet, in all this, you will be 
 so far from any thing like self-righteousness of 
 spirit, that there will be no one who can hold 
 your obedience of so little value, in point of 
 merit, as yourself. No one who can more truly 
 say, than you will yourself humbly acknowledge 
 that you are still but '^ an unprofitable servant." 
 From obedience, we pass to the second fea- 
 ture which we have enumerated, even love. — 
 That this is a sure and certain sign of a true and 
 22 
 
254 SIGNS THAT WE ARE 
 
 living faith, is distinctly proved by St. Paul, 
 when he declares that " faith worketh by love/' 
 That it is also a scriptural evidence of our being 
 in Christ, is stated by St. John, when he says, 
 "We know that we have passed from death 
 unto life, because we love the brethren." 1 St. 
 John iii, 14. And again, " Every one that loveth, 
 is born of God, and knoweth God." Ibid, iv, 7. 
 We shall consider love, then, as the next evi- 
 dence that you are " in Christ," and although 
 St. John, in the words just quoted, speaks exclu- 
 sively of the love of the brethren, it is obvious 
 that this must be preceded by the grateful love 
 of God, in Christ Jesus our Lord, for he says, 
 <^ By this we know that we love the children of 
 God, when we love God;" speaking, therefore, 
 of love to God, as essentially necessary before 
 we can love his children. Are you, then, at all 
 conscious of this love to God? Loving him, or 
 rather desiring to love him, with all your heart, 
 and mind, and soul, and strength? Delighting 
 to dwell upon all his mercies to you, especially 
 those of redemption, with continual thankfulness 
 and joy? Able to say, with the Psalmist, " How 
 precious are thy thoughts unto me, God?" 
 And again, " Whom have I in heaven but thee, 
 
IN CHRIST JESUS. 255 
 
 and there is none upon earth whom I desire in 
 comparison of thee?" Realising, in fact, the 
 declaration of St. Peter, " To you who beUeve, 
 He is precious?" This is a test most trying, 
 even to the deeply-spiritual and renewed mind. 
 Who can answer satisfactorily to his own feelings 
 upon this point? Who does not feel that his 
 love to God is the coldest, weakest, most humil- 
 iating portion of his Christian life? We have 
 all an abundance of love, for every poor, frail, 
 undeserving object who approaches us; but how 
 little, how less than little, for Him who deserves 
 all we have ever felt, or ever can feel? How 
 does the excess of our affection for earthly ob- 
 jects, condemn the defects of our love to Christ, 
 because it so clearly proves that it is not the 
 want of the power to love which precludes us, 
 for we can all love strongly, deeply, permanently 
 when any of the works of his own hand are the 
 subjects of it, and yet we cannot warm our 
 hearts to any thing which deserves the name of 
 love, when God himself, in the person of his 
 dear Son, offers himself to our affections and 
 oui: heart. 
 
 But, let us pass from the love of God, to the 
 love of his ordinances. How will you answer 
 
256 SIGNS THAT WE ARE 
 
 to this test? Are you able, instead of thinking 
 the worship of God a weariness, or his service a 
 restraint, to long for it, and delight in it, to hail- 
 the Sabbath morn with pleasure, not because it 
 ushers in a day of idleness, but a day of holy 
 communion with your God? Considering, not 
 how small a portion of this day will satisfy Him, 
 but how large a portion you can render him; 
 loving the sound of the Sabbath-bells above all 
 other music, and the courts of the house of our 
 God, above all other assemblies. 
 
 When this love of ordinances accompanies the 
 love of Him who is the Lord of ordinances, it is 
 a valuable test; it is one to the faithfnhiess and 
 truth of which ten thousand hearts, blessed be 
 God, are on this sacred day responding through- 
 out our Christian land, and to the reality of 
 which, not a few among yourselves, no doubt, 
 are at this moment testifying. 
 
 But the love of which we speak is, as we have 
 seen, not confined to the love of God, or of his 
 day, or of his ordinances; it regards, especially 
 when spoken of as an evidence by St. John, the 
 love of the brethren, for, as he again declares, 
 " Every one that loveth him that begat, loveth 
 him also that is begotten of him." 1 St. John v. 
 
IN CHRIST JESUS. 257 
 
 1. This sign, from the frequent reference made 
 to it by St. John, we believe to be a very impor- 
 tant one, a mark which is often to be found in 
 the true child of God, when other evidences are, 
 for a time, clouded and indistinct. The reason, 
 probably, that this sign is so prominent, in the 
 epistle before us is, that it was the evidence 
 peculiarly manifested in St. John's own life and 
 conversation, for we know, from the earliest 
 Church history which has been bequeathed to 
 us, that his single monition, whenever in ex- 
 treme old age, he entered the society of his bro- 
 ther Christians, was this reiterated expression of 
 affectionate good will — "Little children, love 
 one another." That, as an evidence, it is as 
 important, as it is obligatory as a duty, is clear 
 from this reflection, that it is utterly impossi- 
 ble, to love the grace of God in the heart of ano- 
 ther, unless the grace of God be shed abroad in 
 your own. It is, therefore, a remarkably con- 
 clusive test; you will never see a man of the 
 world who can stand this test. Observe, gene- 
 rally speaking, the open and undisguised hostil- 
 ity, the ill-concealed sneer, the bitter sarcasm, 
 with which such men speak of the people of 
 God. The very thought of them is wormwood 
 22* 
 
25S SIGNS THAT WE ARE 
 
 and gall; and although the men of the world 
 may, in some companies, be compelled to listen, 
 to their praises, or even to add their own faint 
 approbation to the heartfelt commendation of 
 others, it is too evident by the pleasure with 
 which they hear of the real or imaginary deUn- 
 quencies of God's people, that, as David said, 
 " Though the words of their mouth be smoother 
 than oil, there is war in their hearts;" war, 
 which, unless the usages of society controlled it, 
 and the power of God kept it within its present 
 boundaries, would even now break out, as of 
 old, into acts of persecution, as well as words of 
 bitterness, against tlie peace and happiness of 
 God's Church. The love, therefore, of the bre- 
 thren, is an evidence of spiritual life, continually 
 referred to in Holy Writ, and upon which the 
 most humble-minded believer may look, with 
 thanksgiving and gratitude, to Him from whom 
 Cometh every good and perfect gift. 
 
 Remember, however, that before you can with 
 any degree of safety, say of this love in your 
 own case," Hereby I know that I am in Him," 
 it must possess these two qualifications: It must 
 be a spiritual love, arising from the image of 
 Christ reflected by those you love: and it must 
 
IN CHRIST JESUS. 259 
 
 be an universal love, not to one, but to all our 
 Lord's redeemed family. The reason is obvious. 
 You may love the brethren because they are 
 amiable, or clever, or entertaining, or useful to 
 you, or because they are strongly attached to 
 yourself, and able and willing to promote your 
 worldly interests; but this can form no evidence 
 that you are " in Christ;" for our Lord has ex- 
 pressly declared, that it is only when you receive 
 a prophet in the name of a prophet, that you 
 may hope for a prophet's reward; it is only 
 when you receive a righteous man in the name 
 of a righteous man, that you can look for a 
 righteous man's reward; this, therefore, must be 
 a spiritual love. It must also be an universal 
 love, since if you love the people of Christ, be- 
 cause they are the people of ('hrist, the same 
 reason which exists for loving one, exists for 
 loving all; for the Apostle to the Corinthians 
 says, " We have been all made to drink into one 
 spirit." You will, therefore, love the people of 
 God under all circumstances; for instance, though 
 they be hated and despised of others, as much 
 as if they were the objects of universal regard 
 and esteem; you will love them, though they be 
 poor in this world's goods, though they have 
 
260 SIGNS THAT WE ARE 
 
 many infirmities, though you have never even 
 seen them, and have only heard-of them by the 
 reports of others. If they are in necessity, you 
 will supply their wants to the very utmost of 
 your power, yea, and even beyond your power, 
 as St. Paul declared the Macedonian Churches, 
 2 Cor. viii, 2, 3, had done. You will delight in 
 their society, infinitely more than in the society 
 of the great or the wealthy, or the learned, or 
 the entertaining; you will endeavor to unite 
 yourself to them, as David to Jonathan, in a 
 friendship which neither time nor eternity shall 
 sever. With regard to all other society, you 
 may tolerate it, but you will be unable to love 
 it; you may endure it, but you will not seek it; 
 for " what communion hath light with darkness? 
 and what fellowship hath righteousness with un- 
 righteousness? and what concord hath Christ 
 with Belial?" " Can two walk together except 
 they be agreed?" says the Prophet Amos. You 
 will, indeed, love all men with a natural love, 
 and in your necessary communion with them, 
 you will exercise kindness and urbanity towards 
 them. You will manifest your religion to them, 
 under as agreeable a garb as it can wear, con- 
 sistently with strict integrity and uprightness; 
 
IN CHRIST JESUS. 261 
 
 remembering that the corn and the tares must 
 grow together till the harvest, that the iron and 
 clay must be side by side, although they never 
 can incorporate; and, therefore, in all your inter- 
 course with the world, you will act like men 
 who are guided by this affecting consideration — 
 if these tares remain tares, they must inevitably 
 be burnt up — if this clay remain clay, it must 
 one day be ground to powder. For the sake of 
 the Lord our God, I will therefore seek to do 
 them good; but I will have no part or lot in 
 them, lest when the destroying angel come, he 
 see not the blood sprinkled on the door-posts, 
 and I be destroyed with the Egyptians. Such 
 a reflection as this, while it makes you walk 
 most anxiously yourself, in your Redeemer's 
 footsteps, will fill you with a strong feeling of 
 tenderness and pity, " towards them that are 
 without." Col. iv, 5. You will imitate the ex- 
 ample of St. Paul, who evinced his deep and 
 earnest desire for the conversion of his bitterest 
 enemies, when he exclaimed before Agrippa, 
 " Would to God, that not only thou, but all that 
 hear me this day, were both almost and alto- 
 gether such as I am." And could he feel thus 
 for his greatest enemies and persecutors, and can 
 
262 SIGNS THAT WE ARE 
 
 yon, if you are in Christ, be indifferent as to the 
 religious state of your friends? Are you daily and 
 hourly, it may be, closely and intimately associ- 
 ating, from necessity, with those whom you fear 
 have no saving interest in the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 and does this excite no feeling of sorrow in 
 your heart? is there no secret prayer for them? 
 no effort to bring them within the fold, in which 
 you have partaken of the green pastures, and 
 sat beside the still waters? and is your wife, or 
 your husband, or your child, or your parent, or 
 your friend, in such a state? Then, brethren, 
 mourn for your want of love to a tenderly be- 
 seeching God, to a crucified Saviour, to a perish- 
 ing soul. Can you endure the thought, that any 
 with whom you are now in habits of necessary 
 and perhaps affectionate intercourse, should dwell 
 amidst everlasting burnings? They cannot feel 
 for themselves, they are blinded by the god of 
 this world, but cannot you feel for them? Be 
 assured, all is not right in your own heart if you 
 do not; if it be thus hard, thus callous, to the 
 fate of others, surely it is not the same " mind 
 which was also in Christ Jesus;" Philip, ii, 5; who 
 expostulated, and entreated, and wept, and pray- 
 ed for those who were without, even to the last 
 
IN CHRIST JESUS. 263 
 
 hour of his mortal existence; and, in the over- 
 flowings of His own sufferings and woes, felt as 
 acutely, as tenderly, as He had ever felt, for the 
 souls of others. If this, therefore, be wanting, 
 be assured that one test, one very striking test, is 
 absent, of which to say, " Hereby I know that 
 I am in Him." 
 
 The last sign of which we shall speak, and 
 of which we must speak briefly, is that declared 
 by St. Paul in his Epistle to the Romans, " The 
 Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that 
 we are the children of God." There are, we 
 believe, at the present day, those who maintain 
 that this is the only evidence to which we can 
 truly refer, for the knowledge of our interest in 
 Christ; thus denying every sign which can be 
 drawn from the fruits of the Spirit. Surely this 
 is, as if they were to aver that the fruit, when 
 hanging in large and living clusters from the 
 growing vine, could still form no sufficient evi- 
 dence that the tree was alive. The whole of 
 this Epistle is far too complete a refutation of 
 this error, to render it needful for me to do more 
 than to allude to it. 
 
 The sign of which we are now speaking, is 
 distinctly referred to in the sixth chapter of this 
 
264 SIGNS THAT WE ARE 
 
 Epistle, "Hereby know we that we dwell in 
 Him and he in us, because he hath given us of 
 his Spirit." 
 
 You will, perhaps, ask, If the Spirit of God is 
 to bear witness with my spirit, how am I to 
 ascertain that it is indeed the witness of God's 
 Spirit, and not a delusion of Satan? 
 
 We answer, by these marks following: — 
 
 I. The Holy Spirit of God witnesses only by, 
 and according to, the revealed and written 
 Word of God. 
 
 His method of witnessing to you that you are 
 "in Christ," is simply by discovering the pro- 
 mises in the Word to your consciences; per- 
 suading you that they belong, not merely to 
 the Church in general, but to you individually; 
 convincing you, that your sorrow for sin has 
 been real, your love to the brethren sincere. 
 Whenever he bears his witness, he fills your 
 heart with love and thankfulness to God, and a 
 desire after more holiness of life, and more con- 
 sistency of obedience. But on the contrary, if 
 you are made more bold and presumptuous, by 
 what you consider the witness of the Spirit; if 
 you allow yourself, with less anxiety, in the 
 commission of any secret sin; if you grow more 
 
IN CHRIST JESUS. 265 
 
 careless and remiss in your secret duties, more 
 indifierent in your prayers, more cold in your 
 love, more regardless of your temper, less con- 
 scientious in your dealings with your fellow- 
 men, more anxious to be thought the favorite 
 of God, than to secure, and to enjoy, and to live 
 upon His favor; we do not scruple to say, that 
 the witness within you is a false witness, a 
 messenger of him who was a liar from the 
 beginning, and that you are listening to your 
 ruin. 
 
 If any are still of opinion that notwithstand- 
 ing these marks, there must always be some 
 difficulty in ascertaining the genuineness of the 
 evidence in question, we would rest the matter 
 upon this single consideration: — Can you for 
 a moment suppose that God would promise 
 you such an evidence as that of his Spirit, 
 witnessing with your spirit, that you are in 
 Christ, and yet should not possess the power, 
 or the inclination to convince you when the 
 promise was fulfilled? No; be assured, that 
 the witness of the Spirit always brings with it 
 its own witness, even a secret manifestation and 
 assurance to the conscience, that it is the Spirit 
 of God, and not a delusion of Satan. 
 23 
 
266 SIGNS THAT WE ARE 
 
 Upon this, therefore, you may rely, without 
 hesitation, and without reserve, for doubting the 
 possibiUty of such an evidence, is as dishonor- 
 able to God, as it is prejudicial to your own 
 spiritual peace and comfort. 
 
 My Christian brethren, the evidences where- 
 by you may know that you are "in Christ," 
 deduced, as we believe, simply from the Word 
 of God, are now before you. All that is re- 
 quired of you is, to take these evidences home 
 to your secret meditations and prayers. Try 
 them, not by human systems, however highly 
 approved, but bring them to the test of God's 
 written Word; if they speak not according to 
 that, reject them at once — there is no truth in 
 them. Make this search, not in your own 
 strength; ^« ask of Him who giveth liberally 
 and upbraideth not," to reveal these things to 
 you. You are each and all, either in Christ, or 
 you are out of Christ; there is no third position 
 in which any human being can stand. If you 
 are not in Him, we need not tell you that your 
 baptism has been fruitless, your religious pro- 
 fession an empty name, as empty as the sound- 
 ing brass, or the tinkling cymbal; a worthless 
 counterfeit, which may deceive and satisfy you 
 
IN CHRIST JESUS. 267 
 
 here, but which will utterly fail you on the 
 great day, and leave you the lielpless object of 
 God's inextinguishable justice. 
 
 Would to God that something which has 
 now been said, might strike home upon the 
 hearts of such among you, and convince them 
 that they are at present destitute of all which 
 can make their death peaceful, and their eter- 
 nity happy: that they are sowing to the wind, 
 and must inevitably reap the whirlwind. 
 While, to you whose hearts can answer to all, 
 or to any of these evidences, what peace, what 
 consolation, what unspeakable joy may be your 
 own, while saying, under the teaching of God's 
 good Spirit, " Hereby I know that I am in 
 him." Knowing this, you know that secret of 
 contentment and comfort here, which the world 
 can neither bestow nor value. Let " the pot- 
 sherds strive with the potsherds of the earth," 
 as the Prophet says: while in the sea of pohtics, 
 or in the troubled waters of worldly ambition, 
 whether it be of power or of wealth, they are 
 wasting their little hour, and vainly imagining 
 they are seeking all that is worth attaining, He 
 who sits in the heaven laughs them to scorn; 
 the Lord has them in derision. One poor peni- 
 
26S SIGNS THAT WE ARE 
 
 tent sinner, received into Christ's holy and hap- 
 py fold, is of more account in the sight of the 
 God of heaven, than all the bustling, intriguing, 
 worldly-wise, and worldly-prudent men, who 
 are stirring heaven and earth for some poor 
 perishing object, which is, when seen in the 
 light of eternity, of as little value as the child's 
 bauble, or the school-boy's rattle. While the 
 object which your are seeking, and which many 
 of you have doubtless found, is daily and hourly 
 increasing in interest and in value, as life and 
 time, and all belonging to them, are wearing 
 fast away. Every day is strengthening your 
 hold of this object, and increasing your joy, and 
 bringing nearer its complete and final consum- 
 mation. You are " in Christ" now, one of his 
 mystical body, his redeemed people, his first- 
 born Church. Where shall you be, what shall 
 you be, when the earth, and all that is therein, 
 shall be burnt up? Where shall you be, and 
 what shall you be, when millions upon millions 
 of unnumbered ages shall have rolled away? 
 Blessed be the name and promises of our God, 
 "in Christ," still perfected and glorified, but 
 still a member of the same Church, and rejoic- 
 ing even for ever, and for ever, in the presence 
 
IN CHRIST JESUS. 269 
 
 of the same Saviour. And will you now go 
 away and be as careless, and as thoughtless, 
 and as worldly as those around you? God for- 
 bid! If you know that you are in Christ, live 
 to Him, honor Him, glorify Him, long for the 
 day when that, which the Spirit of God has 
 now revealed to your own heart, shall be re- 
 vealed by the voice of Christ himself, to assem- 
 bled worlds, and he shall say of you, while 
 heaven and earth are passing away, and all 
 that hath been is no more, " Father, I will that 
 they whom thou hast given me, be with me 
 where I am, that they may behold my glory.^' 
 
 23' 
 
270 
 
 SERiMOxN XV. 
 
 THE MINISTER'S LAST WISH FOR HIS 
 PEOPLE. 
 
 1 Cor. I, 3. 
 
 " GRACE BE UNTO YOU, AND PEACE, FROM GOD OUR 
 FATHER, AND FROM THE LORD JESUS CHRIST." 
 
 It is a custom sanctioned by antiquity, and 
 endeared by the earliest and fondest recollec- 
 tions of the human heart, that relatives and 
 friends, upon the different joyous anniversaries 
 which mark their lives, should meet with mutual 
 expressions of affection and good-will. In youth, 
 these congratulations partake of the thought- 
 lessness and joyousness of all around us, and 
 are generally limited to the many wished-for re- 
 turns of the festive day, or to many years of 
 health and prosperity. As we advance in life, 
 especially if we advance also in Christian know- 
 ledge, and Christian love, these anniversaries 
 
THE minister's LAST WISH, &C. 271 
 
 partake, if not of a solemn, at least of a more 
 sober and subdued character, while our former 
 vague expressions of good-will, become gradu- 
 ally moulded into benedictions and prayers; and 
 Ave meet on such occasions, with the feelings of 
 persons, who hoping to dwell together through- 
 out eternity, cannot be satisfied to limit their 
 good wishes, to the transitory scenes of this mor- 
 tal life, but are anxious to carry them forward 
 to that blissful and boundless state which Hes 
 beyond it. That such was the feeling of the 
 Apostle towards those to whom he was writing, 
 the benediction of the text abundantly testifies; 
 he was evidently anxious, from the overflowings 
 of a warm and affectionate heart, to convey to 
 those he loved, so far as his sincere aspirations 
 could convey them, the same spiritual gifts and 
 graces, and anticipations of happiness, which he 
 himself possessed, and delighted in, " with joy 
 unspeakable, and full of glory." 
 
 Upon this day, then, beloved brethren, the 
 tenth anniversary of our union as minister and 
 people, it is not unnatural that our thoughts 
 should be mutually occupied with feelings and 
 wishes such as these. That, as your minister, 
 appointed by God, and as one who " must give 
 
272 THE minister's last wish 
 
 account/' Hebrews xiii, 17, I should, from the 
 very ground of my heart, humbly, yet fervently 
 desire, that this aspiration, for all and every 
 one among you, should be heard, and for the 
 sake of our blessed Mediator, registered for ful- 
 filment in the courts of the heavenly temple — 
 '' Grace be unto you, and peace from God our 
 Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ." 
 
 To some, perhaps, it might, on such an occa- 
 sion as the present appear more appropriate, that 
 I should revert to the many failures and short- 
 comings, the infirmities, disappointments, and 
 sins, which have marked my ministry among 
 you, rather than permit my feelings to take the 
 shape of a benediction: but deeply penetrated 
 as I trust I am by the recollection, and pained 
 by the sense of these things, I feel that they are 
 not the subjects to bring before a congregation; 
 they are indeed of the highest interest, and of the 
 deepest import to my own soul; but as it is ''with 
 me a very small thing that I should be judged of 
 you or of man's judgment," for " He that judg- 
 eth me is the Lord," so it is with me a very 
 solemn conviction, that these topics are not cal- 
 culated for the pulpit, but should be confined 
 strictly to the .secret intercourse between God 
 
FOR HIS PEOPLE. 273 
 
 and our own souls. It is enough, upon this 
 head, that I have been " with you in weakness, 
 and in fear, and in much trembling," but that 
 we serve a Master who is touched with a feeling 
 of all our infirmities, and whose blood cleanseth 
 from all sin; a Shepherd full of tenderness, and 
 full of love, to whom we must one day give an 
 account of onr ministry; and, blessed be God, to 
 whom we would rather render that account 
 than to the kindest, dearest, most sympathising 
 of earthly friends, with whom God has ever 
 blessed us. 
 
 Upon the present occasion, then, 1 shall con- 
 fine myself to desiring for you those abundant 
 blessings, to which I have already adverted, and 
 which are so concisely, yet fully, comprised in 
 the text. 
 
 Let us commence by considering, generally, 
 what is implied in the language of the Apostle. 
 
 I. " Grace be unto you." 
 
 Who can correctly define, who can adequately 
 expatiate upon that word, so sweet, so endeared, 
 so comprehensive — the grace of God! It is not 
 health, it is not honor, it is not fame, it is not 
 riches, but it is something which as infinitely 
 outweighs, and as immeasureably excels them 
 
274 THE minister's last wish 
 
 all, as the soul outvalues the body, and as eter- 
 nity outmeasures time. For, if the Word of 
 God be true. Divine grace is the very life of the 
 soul ; we are utterly lost, until grace seeks and 
 finds us; we are entirely dead, until grace raises 
 and quickens us; we are irrevocably ruined, 
 until grace redeems and saves us. All mercies, 
 all duties, meet and are concentrated in this 
 little word; and, in wishing you the fulness of 
 grace, we desire for you, on the part of God, the 
 largest abundance of His love to you, filling 
 your heart, and, on the part of man, the largest 
 returns of your love to Him, filling your life, 
 and exemplifying itself in your daily walk and 
 conversation. 
 
 H. <' Grace be unto you, and peace." 
 These blessings, the Apostle knew were some- 
 times separated. There are many who, in sea- 
 sons of spiritual desertion or temptation, possess 
 grace, but have no peace; and again, there are 
 many living in carelessness and indifference, with 
 hearts unchanged and minds unrenewed, who 
 possess peace, such peace as the world can bestow, 
 although they have no grace. In the benedic- 
 tion of the text, both are united, that it may at 
 once be visible, that the grace, which St. Paul 
 
FOT HIS PEOPLE. 275 
 
 desired for his converts, was that grace which 
 would sooner or later, bring peace with her into 
 the heart, as her holy and happy handmaid; and 
 the peace which he desired for them, that peace 
 which could not exist long in a state of separa- 
 tion from her mistress, but wherever grace en- 
 tered, would unquestionably enter in her train. 
 
 This double blessing, the Apostle speaks of, 
 as flowing from a double spring, "Grace be 
 unto you, and peace from God our Father, and 
 from the Lord Jesus Christ.^' From God the 
 Father, because he bestows them upon us of 
 His own free will, and from God the Son, be- 
 cause He works them in us, by his own free 
 Spirit. 
 
 Having observed thus much generally upon 
 the different portions of the Apostle's benedic- 
 tion, let us proceed to consider them a little 
 more in detail. 
 
 I. In saying, "Grace be unto you," we 
 would desire from God our Father, through 
 our Lord Jesus Christ, that he would render 
 you by the power of His Spirit, partakers of 
 that grace of God, which justifies you, or ena- 
 bles you to be accounted holy before God; that 
 grace which brings you at once to the Lord 
 
276 THE minister's last wish 
 
 Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins, 
 the curse of sin being removed, the guilt of sin 
 washed away, the power of sin and the predo- 
 minancy of sin in your heart, being for ever 
 broken. 
 
 We trust that as regards many to whom we 
 are now speaking, the object of this benediction 
 has been already accomplished, but must we 
 not at the same time fear, that there are still 
 some in every Christian congregation, to whom 
 it is experimentally known? 
 
 Do I address none among you, who are yet 
 at a distance from Him, who said, " No man 
 Cometh unto the Father, but by me," and, 
 therefore, are still at a distance from God? 
 None who are content if they perform the ex- 
 ternal duties of religion, and avoid all gross and 
 crying immoralities, and yet cannot for a mo- 
 ment imagine that they have ever received the 
 offers of a crucified Saviour, and entered into 
 close and intimate communion with Him? You 
 have, it may be, constantly attended a house of 
 prayer, you have, therefore, offered many peti- 
 tions, you have heard many discourses, in which 
 the free grace of God in Christ Jesus, to accept 
 and justify your persons, has been clearly 
 
FOR HIS PEOPLE. 277 
 
 pointed out to you; you have even, perhaps, 
 approved of what you have heard, pronounced 
 it to be agreeable to the revealed Word of God, 
 and yet it has effected no soUd and substantial 
 lodging-place in your heart. Your affections 
 are unrenewed, your temper unimproved, your 
 lusts unconquered. What good then has been 
 wrought by all the ministrations at which you 
 have been present? Have you reason to hope, 
 that you have been rendered, in any degree, 
 more meet to be partakers of the inheritance of 
 the saints in light? More conformed to the will 
 of God, more likened to the image of Christ Je- 
 sus our Lord? No I yourselves being the 
 judges, you confess that you are not. You 
 may, indeed have attained to a greater know- 
 ledge of God's Word and God's will, but the 
 Bible assures us, that " With the heart man be- 
 lieveth unto righteousness,'^ and your heart 
 remains unchanged. 
 
 Surely, then, as the " Helpers of your joy," 
 1 Cor. i, 24, we have great and pressing reasons 
 for offering, as we do this day from our inmost 
 heart, the benediction of the text, " Grace be 
 unto you." 
 
 Brethren, however lightly the world may 
 24 
 
278 THE minister's last wish 
 
 regard the connection between minister and 
 people, however lowly it may estimate the mi- 
 nisterial office, we cannot but feel the connec- 
 tion to be one of the most solemn, most endear- 
 ing relationships which can occupy the heart of 
 man, and the office the most sublime which 
 can engage his powers. The revealed Word of 
 God is the foundation of this feeling, for it has 
 placed the ministerial office in a point of view 
 the most exalted and the most impressive. It 
 does not indeed tell us, as a new, and, as we 
 believe, an erring party in our own Church, is 
 at present teUing us, that we are " intrusted 
 with the awful and mysterious gift of making 
 the bread and wine, Christ's body and blood," 
 and that we " have power over the gifts of the 
 Holy Ghost," with many other assumptions 
 more worthy of the darkest days of Popery, 
 than of the Gospel light in which we live, but it 
 does tell us, that "We are ambassadors for 
 Christ, as though God did beseech you by us;" 
 2 Cor. V, 20; and it does commission us to 
 " pray you in Christ's stead. Be ye reconciled 
 to God." It urges us, as " Workers together 
 with Him, to beseech you that ye receive not 
 the grace of God in vain." 2 Cor. vi, 1. Surely, 
 
FOR HIS PEOPLE. 279 
 
 then, it is an especial portion of our duty, as the 
 minister of God, to endeavor to impress upon 
 you your need of the blessing in the text. For 
 can there be a more affecting feeUng to the 
 heart of a minister, than the thought that he 
 speaks, week after week, to some who do not 
 hear, to some who will not hear; while he 
 knows that the day may come, and deeply fears 
 that it must come, when God shall say, judici- 
 ally, of all such, " They shall not hear.'^ Is it 
 not sufficient most deeply to pain our hearts, to 
 know that he who stands before you, as the 
 ambassador of Christ, bringing his offers of grace 
 and peace freely to every soul among you, may 
 hereafter be compelled to confront you as your 
 accuser; to prove that you were plainly warned, 
 that you were strongly counselled, that you 
 were affectionately entreated to receive the 
 grace of God, and that you listened, agreed to 
 the propriety, confessed your necessity, and then 
 calmly and deliberately put these offers from 
 you, and waited for a more " convenient sea- 
 son.'^ 
 
 If you are conscious that this describes your 
 own state at the present moment, how earnestly 
 would we beseech the God and Father of our 
 
2S0 
 
 Lord Jesus Christ, that you might no longer 
 hesitate, no longer procrastinate, but to-day, 
 while it is called to-day, be united to Him in a 
 bond which shall never be broken, and be made 
 the recipient of his renewing, justifying, sancti- 
 fying grace. 
 
 But, the Apostle, as we have seen, did not 
 confine his good wishes to his converts, merely 
 to an abundance of grace, valuable as is that 
 bkssing; he also desired for them "Peace:" 
 " Grace be unto you, and peace." Here, how- 
 ever, we must for a moment pause; we have 
 besought of God for you all, without distinction 
 and without reserve, a large portion of His grace; 
 to the ungodly, converting and renewing grace; 
 to the godly, sanctifying and supporting grace; 
 but we dare not be thus general, in our petitions 
 for the blessing, of which we are no^v about to 
 speak. We cannot venture to desire " Peace," 
 indiscriminately for all. Were we to wish, 
 " Peace," for any of you, brethren, who are still 
 separated from God, still unrenewed, and unjus- 
 tified, living ia the world and to the world, it 
 would be to ask for you the heaviest of ills, the 
 most bitter of all maledictions. Such a peace 
 the prophet Isaiah has not scrupled to designate 
 
FOR HIS PEOPLE. 281 
 
 as a "covenant with death, an agreement with 
 hell;" the strongest mark of displeasure with 
 which an offended God can visit you, is to estab- 
 lish this covenant, to respect this agreement, to 
 perpetuate this peace. No, my brethren, to you 
 who have not been made the subjects of God's 
 justifying and sanctifying grace, we wish any 
 thing, every thing, but peace. We do so with 
 the sincerest feelings of affection and love, and 
 this, not merely to your perishing bodies, but to 
 your undying souls; we desire for you, every 
 cross, every sorrow, every trial, every disap- 
 pointment, every arrow with which the quiver 
 of God is charged, until some one may pierce 
 your heart, and the hand which holds the bow 
 may pluck you as a brand from the burning, 
 and place you in safety upon the Rock, where 
 alone to be at peace, is to be eternally and un^ 
 speakably happy. 
 
 We charge you, above all things, beware of 
 the peace of the world; it is a dying, fading, 
 transitory thing; nay, it is worse than this, it is 
 a betraying, deluding, eternally-destroying thing. 
 We do not tell you that the world can give no 
 peace; the lives, and even the deaths, of many 
 of its most devoted followers would contradict 
 24* 
 
282 
 
 us; it can give a temporary repose, as even our 
 Lord himself acknowledged, when he said, 
 speaking of the " peace" which he bequeaths 
 his people, " Not as the world giveth, give I 
 unto you." It does continually give it; it pre- 
 sents it as one of the most common, as well as 
 the most noxious of its immunities; it holds the 
 poisoned chalice to the lips of all its votaries, 
 and if you have not drunk it, the grace of God 
 has alone prevented you. This peace of the 
 world, although but temporary, lasts often to the 
 very verge of time, so that even inspiration itself 
 has declared, that " the wicked have no bands 
 in their death." Lide the bird, of which travel- 
 lers tell, that fans its victims with its pinions, 
 until their sleep be sound, while it draws the 
 life-blood from their body, and gives them no 
 waking moment, until their temporary slumbers 
 are made perpetual, by the cold hand of death; 
 so does the world lull into slumber the poor 
 deceived soul, and keep it thus, in an unbroken 
 calm, even to the solemn moment, when it 
 awakes in eternity, and its peace is for the first 
 time broken, by the worm which shall never 
 die, and the fire which shall never be quenched. 
 May God, in his infinite mercy, preserve us from 
 
FOR HIS PEOPLE. 283 
 
 such a peace as this: so far from wishing it to 
 be the portion of any among yon, we most ear- 
 nestly pray God that you may never be the ob- 
 jects of it, or, if you are for a time soothed by 
 the spirit of the world in which you live, into 
 slumbers such as these, that you may be aroused, 
 awakened, and for ever disenthralled from its 
 dreadful fascinations. 
 
 When we say, " Peace be unto you," then, 
 we address those only who have been the sub- 
 jects of that justifying and sanctifying grace of 
 which we have already spoken. The desire of 
 our hearts for you this day, is " peace." Peace 
 in life, peace in death, peace throughout eternityj 
 we believe that we can ask for you, from the 
 treasury of God, no higher, richer, or more satis- 
 fying portion. 
 
 Peace in life, we pray may be yours; peace 
 in all the increasingly difficult duties, with which 
 as we advance in years, life must abound. May 
 every duty to which you are called, however 
 difficult, or however harassing, reflect, in passing, 
 such peace upon your conscience, that you may 
 find, as David found, that " in keeping God's 
 commandments there is great reward," and that, 
 at the close of your course, you may be enabled 
 
284 THE minister's last wish 
 
 to say with St. Paul, " Our rejoicing is this, the 
 testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity 
 and godly sincerity, by the grace of God, we 
 have had our conversation in the world." — 
 Again, peace be yours, peace in all the trials, 
 and sorrows, and disappointments of life, that 
 peace "with which a stranger intermeddleth 
 not," which flows from the sense of God's par- 
 doning love, of your union with Christ, of your 
 promised and approaching felicity. A peace 
 which the heaviest storms shall not disperse, 
 nor the wildest tempests terrify. A peace which 
 shall outlive all trials, all sorrows, all disappoint- 
 ments, which shall gain fresh strength from every 
 visitation, and shall become more firm, and 
 solid, and unchangeable, as all earthly props are 
 taken from you, and all worldly comforts fail. 
 
 Peace in death, we pray may be yours. Dy- 
 ing grace for a dying hour. We shall all greatly 
 need it, for we shall have that to do which we 
 have never done, and which our finite powers 
 are- but little calculated to achieve; to meet the 
 last enemy^ to fight, to conquer, yea, to be more 
 than conqueror through Him that loved us. 
 Then will be seen, as Moses said, " Who are 
 the Lord's, and who is holy;" Numbers xvi, 5; 
 
FOR HIS PEOPLE. 285 
 
 who have received the offers of a Saviour, and 
 been clothed in the garments of salvation, and 
 made meet to sit down at the marriage supper 
 of the Lamb. Many of you, who have never 
 before known peace, shall know it then; and 
 some, perhaps, be permitted to feel such happi- 
 ness at that solemn hour, as one who has now 
 departed to his rest, felt, when he thus expressed 
 himself on the eve of nature's dissolution, " Is 
 this dying? would that it might last for ever!" 
 For be assured, that however great your dread 
 of the last enemy may now be, his terrors shall 
 lose their power as he approaches, and you shall 
 find, that as Satan is but a chained lion, so death 
 is but a stingless serpent, to you who are " in 
 Christ Jesus." For has He not revealed that 
 He came to " Deliver them who, through fear 
 of death, are all their life-time subject to bon- 
 dage?" Heb. ii, 15. 
 
 Lastly, Peace throughout eternity, we pray 
 may be yours. Yes, beloved brethren, this is 
 the consummation, and nothing short of this 
 is the consummation of our desires and prayers 
 for all, and for each of you, peace throughout 
 eternity. Having enjoyed peace in the perform- 
 
286 THE minister's last wish 
 
 ance of all duties; in the endurance of all trials; 
 in the resistance of all temptations: and having 
 experienced its solace on the bed of sickness, and 
 at the hour of death may you enter upon that 
 eternal and unbroken "rest which remaineth for 
 the people of God;'' that peace which no sin 
 shall interrupt, no sorrow sully; that peace which 
 has existed through all eternity, and shall exist 
 through all eternity, in the immediate presence 
 of the Triune Jehovah, in the Church of the 
 First-born, for which all church-membership on 
 earth, is the preparation, and of which it is the 
 faint and imperfect type. That will be, indeed 
 a glorious day, when prayer shall be exchanged 
 for praise; when discourses, dark and imperfect 
 discourses, concerning God and his Christ, shall 
 give place to the open vision of Him, to seeing 
 with our own eyes, the "King in his beauty," 
 to hearing with our own ears, the blissful accents 
 of his voice; when sacramental recollections of 
 Him shall cease, and we shall sit down at His 
 table, and be partakers of his throne; when 
 these earthly temples, in which we have so often 
 and so long delighted to meet together for the 
 worship of God, yea, when all temples shall 
 
FOR HIS PEOPLE. 287 
 
 have passed away, no longer needed; for we 
 shall " see no temple there, for God Almighty 
 and the Lamb are the temple of it." 
 
 May these holy services which we have been 
 permitted to commence together, be perpetuated 
 in the far more perfect and blessed services above. 
 May many among you be then " our joy and 
 crown of rejoicing;" and may we be yours, 
 when ministers and people shall meet in the pre- 
 sence of Him, whose name we bear, and whose 
 love shall be the everlasting subject of our song; 
 when that grace, which we now desire for you 
 and for ourselves, shall be exchanged for glory, 
 and that peace, for ever perfected in the eternal 
 mansions of our Father's house. 
 
 THE END.