•£ -u /^ IJiiiF, of III, Library' bi 71 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2017 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Alternates https://archive.org/details/sermonsofrevchsp00spur_0 M 0 N S SEE or THB REV. C. II. SPURGEON, OF LONDON- FIRST SERIES. — THIRTIETH EDITION wiTn ADDITIONAL DISCOURSES: AND AN Itttrahuliflu anlj Br E. L. MAGOON, D, D. NEW YORK. SHELDON AND COMPANY. BOSTON: COULD AND LINCOLN. CHICAGO: S. C. GRIGGS AND COMPANY 1859. By special arrangement^ Sheldon and Co:MPANy will pub- lish the Sermons of the Rev, C, H, Spurgeon ; and it is the au- thor'" s wish that no parties shall infringe this contract LITHOTYPED BY COWLES AND COMPANY, 17 WASHINGTON STREET, BOSTON. CONTENTS. INTRODUCTION, P^gi SERMON I. — SOTERIIGNTT AND SaLYATION, “ n. — Thb Biblb, ... “ in. — Tns Personality of the Holt Ghost, “ IV. — The Comforter, .... “ V. — Christ Crucified, “ VI. — The Power of the Holy Ghost, ‘‘ Vn. — T he Church of Christ, Vin. — The Eternal Name, “ IX. — Paul’s First Prayer, X. — Joseph Attacked by the Archers, . “ XI. — The Tomb of Jesus, .... “ XII. — The Carnal Mind Enmity against God, . “ XIII. — Christ’s People — Imitators of Him, ‘ XIV. — Thoughts on the Last Battle, . ft XV. — IIeaysn and Hell, . . ^ . M XVI. — Gospel Mirons,. Sj XVII.— Tee ENoaAinro a I § 1 23 45 66 85 II2 134 154 170 192 211 230 252 274 296 321 344 364 INTRODUCTION A BURNING and shining light has suddenly burst upon the moral worlds At its first rising, many were doubtfiil of its source and power ; but, in its early morning, it has already caught the eye of thousands, who rejoice in its beams. The preaching of Mr. Spurgeon in London is one of the most remarkable phenomena of the present times. The loftiest and humblest minds, the rich and the poor, the titled and the lowly, in uncounted crowds, throng the courts where he minis- ters, listen with rapture to his glowing words ; hundreds are pricked to the heart, and God is honored in the conversion of sinners and the joy of his people. What is the secret of the wonderful success attending the labors of a youth of twenty-two ? Whence came he ? Where was he trained for such service ? Will he soon burn out and be forgotten ? These are the earnest inquiries which a brief sketch of his history will, in part at least, answer. Rev. C. H. Spurgeon was born at Kelvedon, in Essex, on the 19th of June, 1834. His father and grandfather are both liv- ing, and are Independent ministers. It is further stated, in the London Patriot^ that the subject of this sketch received his early education at Colchester, and also passed a year in the Agri- cultural College at Maidstone, where he added to his previous knowledge some insight into natural science. Thus equipped, he began the business of life as usher in a school at New- market ; whence he removed to Cambridge, where he held a similar appointment in a day-school, employing the ampler leisure thus secured in improving his own mind* While at (r? vi IKTEODUCTION. Newmarket^' lie began to address the Sunday-school chil- dren, and that in such a style as attracted grown-up hearers. At Cambridge the practice was continued, with the addition of Sunday-evening sermons in the surrounding villages. The Baptist church at Waterbeach called this young Timothy to be their pastor. He accepted the invitation; and, while the chapel was crowded, the church was doubled under his ministry. On the week-days, eleven villages shared the advan- tage of his sermons, which, in one year, amounted to as many as there are days in the year. In January, 1854, Mr. Spur- geon was invited to undertake the pastorate of the Baptist church in New Park street. Not content with discharging the duties of that oflSce, he preaches in many other places during the week. » New Park street chapel stands on the Surrey side of the Thames, near Southwark Bridge a locality which the untrav- elled hereabouts will better understand by being told that it almost exactly corresponds with the Brooklyn end of Catharine ferry. It was on this spot that the great expositor Gill, and the hymnologist Eippon, preached and sung to successive gen- erations long before the advent of the present popular preacher and his immense auditory. Having thus briefly glanced at Mr. Spurgeon’s biography, and the scene of his stated labors, let us proceed to notice more particularly the elements of his professional influence. If we mistake not, he is preeminently intelligent, independent, and honest in purpose, as a servant of Jesus Christ ; and, so long he remains such, no degree of success, however great, ought to be regarded as being either wonderful or dangerous. In the first place, Mr. Spurgeon is an intelligent man. His personal influence implies this, and his published works prove it. He began the assiduous study of books at an early period, and evidently has ever since been a comprehensive reader of whatever he deems of practical use. But he did not heap books so high about his boyhood as to exclude nature from a INTEODUCTION. vii loving and ennobling view. Every realm of elegance and grandeur has been laid under contribution to enlarge and em- bellish his intellect. Hence the richness and variety of illus- tration, which so much enhance the beauty and force of his public discourses. In body and mind he appears redolent of health ; and this has resulted mainly from habitual intercourse with natural charms. His studies at Colchester, and in the Agricultural College at Maidstone, doubtless did much to feed his ardent love of learning, and, especially, to enlarge his knowledge of natural science. As usher in the school at New-^ market, and afterwards while acquitting himself of like func- tions at Cambridge, he accumulated no small amount of literary treasure ; but his best acquisitions were secured in the early and accurate knowledge of human nature, which, through juvenile discipline in diversified life, Providence caused him to possess. Before he left Cambridge, while the dignitaries of the uni- versity and town were enjoying their lettered content, IMr. Spurgeon was wont frequently to address Sunday-schools, in season and out of season ; to visit the neighboring villages, where descending day, as well as opening morn, found him sti busy in refreshing the weary and spiritually destitute. T’ in the very morning of his life, in the dew of his youth, find him in labors more abundant, his ardor and love supplying thx lack of experience, and filling his friends with the highest hopes of his future usefulness and fame, in the service of his Divine Master. Read some of Mr. Spurgeon’s statements touching liis early education, which at once assert the source of its greatest worth, and exemplify the beauty of its blessed influence. Says he : When I hear sweet syllables fall from many lips, keeping measure and time, then I feel elevated, and, forgetting for a time every being terrestrial, I soar aloft towards heaven.” He represents himself as having ^Melighted in the musty old folios INTBODUOTION. rtii which many of his brethren have upon their library shelves,^ and, as for new books, he leaves them to others ” To the Bible he ascribes the discipline of his mental faculties, as well as his knowledge of divine truth. Once, he declares, he put all his knowledge together in glorious confusion ; but now he has a shelf in his head for every thing, and, whatever he reads or hears, he knows where to stow it away. ‘‘ Ever since I have known Christ, I have put Christ in the centre as my sun, and each secular science revolves around it as a planet, while the minor sciences are satellites to their planets.” He can learn every thing now ; and, from his own experience, he exhorts thus : O young man, build thy studio on Calvary 1 There raise thine observatory, and scan, by faith, the lofty things of nature ! Take thee a hermit’s cell in the Garden of Geth- semane, and lave thy brow with the waters of Siloa I ” In one of his sermons, he remarks that the man of one book is often more intelligent than the man of fifty.” In recommending pointed preaching, he makes a remark, which illustrates his own habit of wide wandering for material, connected with the power of sudden and concentrated use. It is not the sheet light- ning, seen in all places, that takes effect ; but it is the forked flash that smites the temple, or scorches the tree.” Another remark sets forth the spontaneity of this rare preacher’s thoughts, and the graceful freshness with which they emanate from his heart and lips. ‘‘ There is much virtue which is like the juice of the grape, which has to be squeezed before you get it ; not like the generous drop of the honeycomb, distilling willingly and freely.” The reader will probably regard the foregoing remarks as striking exponents of the natural intelligence possessed by Mr. Spurgeon, sufficiently illustrative of the early and varied culture he has acquired. We proceed, secondly, to array the proofs of what, in our judgment, is still more auspicious of professional success, — his independence. A preacher is not divinely called and elevated to be a facile INTRODUCTION. LZ weathercock, turned by the wind ; but, like a tower of strength in scenes of danger, not less luminous than resolute, he is to turn the winds. It is fortunate for the interests of commerce that the pharos-keeper is usually compelled, by the circum- stances of his position, to trim his light alone, and pour its effulgence in his own undictated style. If all interested parties, on sea and shore, could but have their individual say as to the best mode of doing the business, a great crowd of impertinent advisers would soon extinguish both the light-master and his lamps. IVIr. Spurgeon exercises great influence in London, because he made his advent therein fresh from the quiet fields of accurate observation and independent thought. He seems to be more than willing to serve anybody, in any reasonable way, without the slightest air of assumption in his manner; but there does not happen to be cash or coercion enough in the great metropolis to create a particular track, in which alone he shall walk and talk. In a discourse on 1 John, v. 4, he says : ‘‘ A very kind friend has told me that, wliile I was preaching in Exeter Hall, I ought to pay deference to the varied opinions of my hearers ; that, albeit I may be a Calvinist and a Baptist, I should recollect that there are a variety of creeds here. Now, if I were to preach nothing but what would please the whole lot of you, what on earth should I do ? I preach what I believe to be true ; and, if the omission of a single truth that I believe would make me king of England throughout eternity, I would not leave it out. Those who do not like what I say, have the option of leaving it. They come here, I suppose, to please themselves ; and, if the truth does not please them, they can leave it." We have thus presented as much testimony as our space will permit, by which a judgment may be formed of Mr. Spurgeon’s intellectual endowments and personal independence. It remains to speak of his apparent honesty of purpose, as the owning guarantee of professional success. It is in this latter INTSODUOTION. trait, we think, that a proper solution may be found of tke problem of this preacher's extraordinary influence. The able editor of the Glasgow Examiner says of him, that His preaching is altogether peculiar, and not very easily described. Probably the following may convey to the reader some idea of it. Some preachers owe much to their personnel^ or presence in the pulpit. Before they open their mouths, there is some- thing about them which causes a sort of awe and respect to creep over the audience. The appearance of this preacher may be said to be interesting rather than commanding. He is quite a youth, and his countenance boyish. He is under, rather than over, the middle size, and has few or none of the physical advantages of the orator in his appearance. But what he lacks in appearance, he has in reality. Soon as he commences to speak, tones of richest melody are heard. A voice, full, sweet, and musical, falls on every ear, and awakens agreeable emotions in every soul in which there is a sympathy for sounds. That most excellent of voices is under perfect control, and can whisper or thunder at the wish of its possessor. And there is poetry in every feature, and every movement, as well as music in the voice. The countenance speaks, — the entire form sympathizes. The action is in complete unison ^ith the sentiments, and the eye listens scarcely less than the ar to the sweetly flowing oratory. But, among the thirty thousand English preachers, and the three thousand Scotch ones, there are many sweet voices, as well as this, and many who have studied the art of speaking with the greatest assi- duity, and yet they fail to attract an audience. Mr. Spurgeon is more than a ‘ voice crying ' ; he has rare powers of obser- vation, recollection, assimilation, and creation. His field of observation is wide and varied. He seems to have opened his eyes to nature in all its varieties ; to science in all its dis- coveries, and to literature in all its departments. Every thing which the eye of man can look upon, or the ear hear, seems to Jiave made an indelible impression on his mental powers. The INTEODUOTION. Xl impression is not only distinctly made, but ineradicably main- tained. Every mountain, every valley, every book, every sentence, which has once come in his way, becomes forever fixed in his recollection. And not only fixed, but becomes the material on which marvellous powers of assimilation vigorously operate. Out of the forms of beauty which his eyes see, other still lovelier forms are created. The loveliest natural landscape is adorned with additional beauty, by the aid of a refined and chastened fancy. The thoughts that have come floating down from the long bygone ages are placed in the crucible of his mind, and, purged of the objectionable, come out bearing his own image and superscription. There is evidently in him great power of assimilative genius, and occasional indications of even a higher order of genius, — even that which creates fresh and new forms of beauty, which bear the distinct mark of his own mind. These higher qualities are evidently greatly aided by a close study of the graces of speaking. The natural has been aided by study, — the gifts of the orator by the graces. Despite an occasional neglect of all the laws of logic and ratiocination, there are evidently a thorough knowledge and appreciation of both. The negligee sometimes forms a pleasing contrast with the precise. The bow, drawn at a venture, may send the arrow more direct to the mark than the bow drawn according to the strictest rules.” The arrangement of Mr. Spurgeon’s sermons is simple and textual. The outline forms a natural contour of the theme, and is scarcely less striking than the facts, arguments, and illus- trations employed to elucidate and enforce its leading truths. As he uses no notes, he is sometimes quite episodical in the course of his demonstrations ; but he never diverges so far as to be unable in a moment to recover his position, with en- hanced interest and ease. There is about him that frank, open heartiness of manner, which hesitates not to express the most startling opinions ; and which, combined with his intense xfl INTRODUCTION. sympathy with the masses, gives its possessor a sublime fas- cination over the popular heart. Twelve thousand listen to him at one time in the open field ; and yet, with all this success, inhere seems to be little or nothing about him of self-conceit. ^ Recollect,” he says, “ who I am, and what I am, — a child, having little education, little learning, ability, or talent.” “ With- out the Spirit of God, I feel I am utterly unable to speak to you. I have not those gifts and talents which qualify men to speak ; I need an afflatus from on high ; otherwise, I stand like other men, and have naught to say. May that be given me, for without it I am dumb ! ” Give him the polite and the noble, give him influence and understanding, and he should fail ; but give him his own praying people, “ meeting in such multi- tudes to pray to God for a blessing,” and he will “ overcome hell itself.” Brother, all hail ! This last drop of ink hastens into words, which may perchance meet your eye, amidst the dust and exhausting strife incident to that great arena of your spiritual gladiatorship. Well, let them assure you of fraternal sympathy at ten thousand altars in far-off climes. When the prospective issue of your glowing thoughts was here announced, orders for the same were promptly returned from every section of our republic : and soon you will be read, as your continued use- fulness is fervently desired, in homes of affluence and cabins of industry, spread under the care of our common Father, from the Eastern Atlantic to the Great Pacific of the West. May Grace still bind thee in humble allegiance to the cross, and render thee yet more radiant, for the benefit of a dark and perishing world. Thus we wrote last June. More than was then anticipated nas been already realized; and we devoutly hope for yet greater success to attend the living voice of this effective preacher and his printed works. elm. New York, April 10th, 1857. SERMON I. SOVEREIGNTY AND SALVATION. “ Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am Qod^ and thtrt is none else.” — Isjliau xIt. 22. Six years ago to-day, as near as possible at this very hour of the day, I was in the gall of bitterness and in the bonds of iniquity,” but had yet, by divine grace, been led to feel the bitterness of that bondage, and to cry out by reason of the soreness of its slavery. Seek- ing rest, and finding none, I stepped within the house of God, and sat there, afraid to look upward, lest I should be utterly cut off, and lest his fierce wrath should consume me. The minister rose in his pulpit, and, as I have done this morning, read this text, “ Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.” I looked that moment; the grace of faith was vouchsafed to me in the self-same instant ; and now I think 1 can say with truth, “ Ere since by faitli I taw tlie stream His flowing wounds supply, Kedeeming love has been my theme. And shall be till I die.” 1 * 2 SERMONS. I shall never forget tliat day, while memory holds its place ; nor can I help repeating this text whenever I remember that hour when first I knew the Lord. How strangely gracious! How wonderfully and marvel- lously kind, that he who heard these words so little time ago for his own soul’s profit, should now ad- dress you this morning as his hearers from the same text, in the full and confident hope that some poor sinner within these walls may hear the glad tidings of salvation for himself also, and may to-day, on this 6th of January, be ‘^turned from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God I ” If it were within the range of human capacity to conceive a time when God dwelt alone, without his creatures, we should then have one of the grandest and most stupendous ideas of God. There was a season when as yet the sun had never run his race, nor com- menced flinging his golden rays across space, to glad- den the earth. There was an era when no stars sparkled in the firmament, for there was no sea of azure in which they might float. There was a time when all that we now behold of God’s great universe was yet unborn, slumbering within the mind of God, as yet uncreate and non-existent; yet there was God, and he was “ over all blessed for ever ; ” though no seraphs hymned his praises, though no strong-winged cherubs flashed like lightning to do his high behests, though he was without a retinue, yet he sat as a king on his throne, the mighty God, for ever to be worshipped — the Dread Supreme, in solemn silence dwelling by himself in vast immensity, making of the placid clouds his canopy, and the light from his own countenance forming the brightness of his glory. God was, and SOVEREIGNTY AND SALVATION. 3 God is. From the beginning God was God; ere worlds had beginning, he was from everlasting to everlasting.” Now, when it pleased him to create his creatures, does it not strike you how infinitely those creatures must have been below himself? If you are potters, and you fashion upon the wheel a vessel, shall that piece of clay arrogate to itself equality with you ? Nay, at what a distance will it be from you, because you have been in part its creator. So when the Al- mighty formed his creatures, was it not consummate impudence, that they should venture for a moment to compare themselves with him ? Yet that arch traitor, that leader of rebels, Satan, sought to climb to the liigh throne of God, soon to find his aim too high, and hell itself not low enough wherein to escape divine vengeance. He knows that God is “ God alone.” Since the world was created, man has imitated Satan ; the creature of a day, the ephemera of an hour, has sought to match itself with the Eternal. Hence it has ever been one of the objects of the great Jehovah, to teach mankind that he is God, and beside him there is none else. This is the lesson he has been teaching the world since it went astray from him. He has been busying himself in breaking down the high places, in exalting the valleys, in casting down imaginations and lofty looks, that all the world might “ Know that the Lord is God alone, He can create, and he destroy.” This morning we shall attempt to show you, in the first place, how God has been teaching this great lesson to the world — that he is God, and beside him there is none else ; and then, secondly, the special way in ivhich he designs to teach it in the matter of salvation— Look 4 SERMONS. unto mcy and be ye saved : for I am God, and there is none else.” I. First, then, How has God been teaching this LESSON to mankind ? We reply, he has taught it, first of all, to false Gods, and to the idolaters who have bowed before them, Man, in his wickedness and sin, has set up a block of wood and stone to be his maker, and has bowed before it. He hath fashioned for himself out of a goodly tree an image made unto the likeness of mortal man, or of the fishes of the sea, or of creeping things of the earth, and he has prostrated his body, and his soul too, before that creature of his own hands, calling it god, while it had neither eyes to see, nor hands to handle, nor ears to hear! But how hath God poured contempt on the ancient gods of the heathen? Where are they now? Are they so much as known ? Where are those false deities before whom the multitudes of Nineveh pros- trated themselves? Ask the moles and the bats, whose companions they are ; or ask the mounds be- neath which they are buried; or go where the idle gazer walketh through the museum — see them there as curiosities, and smile to think that men should ever bow before such gods as these. And where are the gods of Persia? Where are they? The fires are quenched, and the fire-worshipper hath almost ceased out of the earth. Where are the gods of Greece — those gods adorned with poetry, and hymned in the most sublime odes? Where are they? They are gone. Who talks of them now, but as things that vere of yore? Jupiter — doth any one bow before him ? and who is he that adores Saturn ? They are passed away, and they are forgotten. And where are S0VEEEIGJ5^TY AND SALVATION. 5 the gods of Rome ? Doth Janus now command the temple ? or do the vestal virgins now feed their perpet- ual fires ? Are there any now that bow before these gods ? No, they have lost their thrones. And where are the gods of the South Sea Islands — those bloody demons before whom wretched creatures prostrated their bodies? They have well nigh become extinct. Ask the inhabitants of China and Polynesia where are the gods before which they bowed? Ask, and echo says ask, and ask again. They are cast down from their thrones ; they are hurled from their pedes- tals ; their chariots are broken, their sceptres are burnt in the fire, their glories are departed ; God hath gotten unto himself the victory over false gods, and taught their worshippers that he is God, and that beside him there is none else. Are their gods still worshipped, or idols before which the nations bow themselves? Wait but a little while, and ye shall see them fall. Cruel Juggernaut, whose car still crushes in its motion the foolish ones who throw themselves before it, shall yet be the object of derision ; and the most noted idols, such as Budha, and Brahma, and Vishnu, shall yet stoop themselves to the earth, and men shall tread them down as mire in the streets ; for God will teach all men that he is God, and that there is none else. Mark ye, yet again, how God has taught this truth to empires. Empires have risen up, and have been the gods of the era ; their kings and princes have taken to themselves high titles, and have been worshipped by the multitude. But ask the empires whether there is any beside God ? Do you not think you hear the boast- ing soliloquy of Babylon — I sit as a queen, and am no widow ; I shall see no sorrow ; I am god, and there 6 SEBMONS. is none beside me ? ’’ And think ye not now, if ye walk over rained Babylon, that ye will meet aught save the solemn spirit of the Bible, standing like a prophet gray with age, and telling you that there is one God, and that beside him there is none else ? Go ye to Babylon, covered with its sand, the sand of its own rains ; stand ye on the mounds of Nineveh, and let the voice come up — There is one God, and empires sink before him ; there is only one Potentate, and the princes and kings of the earth, with their dynasties and thrones, are shaken by the trampling of his foot.’’ Go, seat yourselves in the temples of Greece; mark ye there what proud words Alexander once did speak ; but now, where is he, and where his empire too ? Sit on the ruined arches of the bridge of Carthage, or walk ye through the desolated theatres of Rome,, and ye will hear a voice in the wild wind amid those ruins — ‘‘I am God, and there is none else.” “ O city, thou didst call thyself eternal ; I have made thee melt away like dew. Thou saidst ‘ I sit on seven hills, and I shall last forever ; ’ I have made thee crumble, and thou art now a miserable and contemptible place, compared with what thou wast. Thou wast once stone, thou madest thyself ; I have made thee stone again, and brought thee low.” O ! how has God taught monarchies and empires that have set themselves up hke new king- doms of heaven, that he is God, and that there is none else! Again : how has he taught this great truth to mon- archs I There are some who have been most proud that have had to learn it in a way more hard than others. Take, for instance, Nebuchadnezzar. His crown is on his head, his purple robe is over bis 80VE11EIGNTY AND SALVATION. 7 shoulders ; he walks through proud Babylon, and says, “Is not this great Babylon which I have builded?” Do you see that creature in the field there ? It is a man. “ A man ? ’’ say you ; its hair has grown like eagle’s feathers, and its nails like bird’s claws ; it walk- eth on all-fom's, and eateth grass, like an ox; it is driven out from men. That is the monarch who said — “Is not this great Babylon that I have builded?” And now he is restored to Babylon’s palace, that he may “bless the Most High who is able to abase those that walk in pride.” Remember another monarch. Look at Herod. He sits in the midst of his people, and he speaks. Hear ye the impious shout ? “ It is the voice of G! od,” they cry, “ and not the voice of man.” The proud monarch gives not God the glory ; he affects the God, and seems to shake the spheres, imagining himself divine. There is a worm that creepeth into his body, and yet another, and another ; and ere that sun has set, he is eaten up of worms. Ah ! monarch ! thou thoughtest of being a God, and worms have eaten thee! Thou hast thought of being more than man ; and what art thou ? Less than man, for worms consume thee, and thou art the prey of cor- ruption. Thus God humbleth the proud ; thus he abaseth the mighty. We might give you instances from modern history ; but the death of a king is all- sufficient to teach this one lesson, if men would but learn it. When kings die, and in funeral pomp are carried to the grave, we are taught the lesson — “I am God, and beside me there is none else.” When we hear of revolutions, and the shaking of empires — when we see old dynasties tremble, and gray-haired monarchs driven from their thrones, then it is that Jehovah 8 SERMONS. seems to put his foot upon land and sea, and with his hand uplifted cries — “ Hear ! ye inhabitaQts of the earth! Ye are but as grasshoppers; ‘I am God, and beside me there is none else.’ ” Again : our God has had much to do to teach this lesson to the ivise men of this world; for as rank, pomp, and power, have set themselves up in the place of God, so has wisdom ; and one of the greatest enemies of Deity has always been the wisdom of man. The wis- dom of man will not see God. Professing themselves to be wise, wise men have become fools. But have ye not noticed, in reading history, how God has abased the pride of wisdom ? In ages long gone by, he sent mighty minds into the world, who devised systems of philosophy. ‘‘ These systems,” they said, ‘‘will last for- ever.” Their pupils thought them infallible, and therefore wrote their sayings on enduring parchment, saying, “ This book will last forever ; succeeding gen- erations of men will read it, and to the last man that book shall be handed down, as the epitome of wis- dom.” “ Ah ! but,” said God, “ that book of yours shall be seen to be folly, ere another hundred years have rolled away.” And so the mighty thoughts of Socra- tes, and the wisdom of Solon, are utterly forgotten now ; and could we hear them speak, the veriest child in our school would laugh to think that he under- standeth more of philosophy than they. But when man has found the vanity of one system, his eyes have sparkled at another ; if Aristotle will not suffice, here is Bacon; now 1 shall know everything; and he sets to work, and says that this new philosophy is to last for- ever. He lays his stones with fair colors, and he thinks that every truth he piles up is a precious imper- SpVEBBIGNTT AND SALVATION. 9 ishable truth* /But> alas ! another century comes, and it is found to be wood, hay, and stubble.^’ A new sect of philosophers rise up, who refute their predeces- sors. So too we have wise men in this day — wise secu- ralists, and so on, who fancy they have obtained the truth ; but within another fifty years — and mark that word — this hair shall not be silvered over with gray, until the last of that race shall have perished, and that man shall be thought a fool that was ever connected with such a race. Systems of infidelity pass away like a dew-drop before the sun ; for God says, “ I am God, and beside me there is none else.’’ This Bible is the stone that shall break in powder philosophy; this is the mighty battering-ram that shall dash all systems of philosophy in pieces ; this is the stone that a woman may yet hurl upon the head of every Abimelech, and he shall utterly be destroyed. O Church of God! fear not ; thou shalt do wonders ; wise men shall be con- founded, and thou shalt know, and they too, that he is God, and that beside him there is none else. ‘‘ Surely,” says one, “ the church of God does not need to be taught this.” Yes, we answer, she does ; for of all beings, those whom God has made the ob- jects of his grace are perhaps the most apt to forget this cardinal truth, that he is God, and that beside him there is none else. How did the church in Canaan for- get it, when they bowed before other gods, and there- fore he brought against them mighty kings and princes, and afflicted them sore. How did Israel forget it; and he carried them away captive into Babylon. And what Israel did, in Canaan and in Babylon, that we do now. We too, too often, forget that he is God, and beside him there is none else. Doth not the Christian 10 SERMONS. know what I mean, when I tell him this great fact? For hath he not done it himself? In certain times prosperity has come upon him ; soft gales have blown his bark along, just where his wild will wished to steer; and he has said within himself: Now I have peace, now I have happiness, now the object I wished for is within my grasp, now I will say. Sit down, my soul, and take thy rest; eat, drink, and be merry; these things will well content me ; make thou these thy god, be thou blessed and happy.” But have we not seen our God dash the goblet to the earth, spill the sweet wine, and instead thereof fill it with gaU ? and as he has given it to us, he has said — Drink it, drink it: you have thought to find a god on earth, but drain the cup and know its bitterness.” When we have drunk it, nauseous the draught was, and we have cried, “ Ah! God, I will drink no more from these things ; thou art God, and beside thee there is none else.” And ah! how often, too, have we devised schemes for the future, without asking God’s permission! Men have said, Like those fooUsh ones whom James mentioned, “ We will do such-and-such things on the morrow ; we will buy and sell and get gain,” whereas they knew not what was to be on the morrow, for long ere the morrow came they were imable to buy and sell ; death had claimed them, and a small span of earth held aU thehr fr^me. God teaches his people every day, by sickness, by affliction, by depression of spirits, by the forsakings of God, by the loss of the Spirit for a sea- son, by the lackings of the joys of his countenance, that he is God, and that beside him there is none else. And we must not forget that there are some special servants of God raised up to do great works, who in a SOVEREIGNTY AND SALVATION. 11 peculiar manner have to learn this lesson. Let a man, for instance, be called to the great work of preaching the gospel. He is successful; God helps him; thou- sands wait at his feet, and multitudes hang upon bis lips ; as truly as that man is a man, he will have a tendency to be exalted above measure,- and too much will he begin to look to himself, and too little to his God. Let men speak who know, and what they know let them speak ; and they will say, “ It is true, it is most true.” K God gives us a special mission, we generally begin to take some honor and glory to our- selves. But in the review of the eminent saints of God, have you never observed how God has made them feel that he was God, and beside him there was none else ? Poor Paul might have thought himself a god, and been pufled up above measure, by reason of the greatness of his revelation, had there not been a thorn in the flesh. But Paul could feel that he was not a god, for he had a thorn in the flesh, and gods could not have thorns in the flesh. Sometimes God teaches the minister, by denying him help on special occasions. We come up into our pulpits, and say, ‘‘ Oh! I wish I could have a good day to-day!” We begin to labor ; we have been just as earnest in prayer, and just as indefatigable ; but it is like a blind horse turning round a mill, or like Samson with Delilah : we shake our vain limbs with vast surprise, make feeble fight,” and win no victories. We are made to see that the Lord is God, and that beside him there is none else. Very frequently God teaches this to the minister, by leading him to see his own sinful nature. He will have such an insight into his own wicked and abominable heart, that he will feel as he comes up the 12 SEUMONS. pulpit stairs that he does not deserve so much as to sit in his pew, much less to preach to his fellows. Although we feel always joy in the declaration of God’s Word, yet we have known what it is to totter on the pulpit steps, under a sense that the chief cf sin- ners should scarcely be allowed to preach to others. Ah ! beloved, I do not think he will be very successful as a minister who is not taken into the depths and blackness of his own soul, and made to exclaim. Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints^ is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gen- tiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.” There is another antidote which God applies in the case of ministers. If he does not deal with them personally, he raises up a host of enemies, that it may be seen that he is God, and God alone. An esteemed friend sent me, yesterday, a valuable old MS. of one of George Whitfield’s hymns which was sung on Kennington Common. It is a splendid hymn, thoroughly Whit- fieldian all through. It showed that his reliance was wholly on the Lord, and that God was within him. What! will a man subject himself to the calumnies of the multitude, will he toil and work day after day un- necessarily, will he stand up Sabbath after Sabbath and preach the gospel and have his name maligned and slandered, if he has not the grace of God in him ? For myself, I can say, that were it not that the love of Christ constrained me, this hour might be the last that I should preach, so far as the ease of the thing is con- cerned. ‘‘ Necessity is laid upon us ; yea, woe is unto us if we preach not the gospel.” But that opposition through which God carries his servants, leads them to see at once that he is God, and that there is none else. SOVEREIGNTY AND SALVATION. 13 If every one applauded, if all were gratified, we should think ourselves God; but, when they hiss and hoot, we turn to our God, and cry, “If on inj fuce, for thy dear n&m®. Shame and reproach should be, I ’ll hail reproach and welcome shame If thou ’It remember me.” 11. This brings us to the second portion of our dis- course. Salvation is God’s greatest work ; and, there- fore, in his greatest work, he specially teaches us this lesson. That he is God, and that beside him there is none else. Our text tells us how he teaches it. He says, Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.’’ He shows us that he is God, and that beside him there is none else, in three ways. First, by the person to whom he directs us ; “ I^ook unto and be ye saved.” Secondly, by the means he tells us to use to obtain mercy : Look,” simply, Look.” And thirdly, by the persons whom he calls to “ look “ Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earthP 1. First, to whom does God tell us to look for salva- tion ? O, does it not lower the pride of man, when wfe liear the Lord say, Look unto me^ and be ye saved, all tlie ends of the earth ? ” It is not, “ Look to your [)riest, and be ye saved : ” if you did, there would be another god, and beside him there would be some one else. It is not ‘‘ Look to yourself:” if so, then there would be a being who might arrogate some of the praise of salvation. But it is Look unto me.” How frequently you who are coming to Christ look to yourselves. ‘‘ O ! ” you say, “ I do not repent enough.’" That is looking to yourself. “ I do not believe enough.” 14 SEUMONS. Thai is looking to yourself. “ I am too unworthy.” That is looking to yourself. “ I cannot discover,’’ says another, “ that I have any righteousness.” It is quite right to say that you have not any righteousness ; but it is quite wrong to look for any. It is, ‘‘ Look unto meP God will have you turn your eye off yourself and look unto him. The hardest thing in the world is to turn a man’s eye off himself ; as long as he lives, he always has a predilection to turn his eyes inside, and look at himself; whereas God says, “ Look unto vieP From the cross of Calvary, where the bleeding hands of Jesus drop mercy ; from the garden of Geth- semane, where the bleeding pores of the Saviour sweat pardons, the cry comes, “ Look mito me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.” From Calvary’s summit, where Jesus cries, “ It is finished,” I hear a shout, Look, and be saved.” But there comes a vile cry from our soul, ‘‘ Nay, look to yourself! look to yourself!” Ah, my hearer, look to yourself, and you will be damned. That certainly will come of it. As long as you look to yourself there is no hope for you. It is not a consideration of what you are, but a consid- eration of what God is, and what Christ is, that can save you* It is looking from yourself to Jesus. O ! there be men that quite misunderstand the gospel ; they think that righteousness qualifies them to come to Christ ; whereas sin is the only qualification for a man to come to Jesus. Good old Crisp says, “ Right- eousness keeps me from Christ: the whole have no need of a physician, but they that are sick. Sin makes me come to Jesus, when sin is felt ; and, in coming to Christ, the more sin I have the more cause I have to hope for m^rcy.” David said, and it was a strange SOVEKEIGNTY AND SALVATION. 15 thing, too, “ Have mercy upon me, for mine iniquity is great.” But, David, why did not you say that it was little ? Because, David knew that the bigger his sins were the better reason for asking mercy. The more vile a man is, the more eagerly 1 invite him to believe in Jesus, A sense of sin is all we have to look for as ministers. We preach to sinners; and let us know that a man will take the title of sinner to himself, and we then say to him, ‘‘ Look unto Christ, and ye shall be saved.” “ Look,” this is all he demands of thee, and even this he gives thee. If thou lookest to thy- self thou art damned; thou art a vile miscreant, filled with loathsomeness, corrupt and corrupting others. But look thou here — seest thou that man hanging on the cross ? Dost thou behold his agonized head drop- ping meekly down upon his breast? Dost thou see that thorny crown, causing drops of blood to trickle down his cheeks? Dost thou see his hands pierced and rent, and his blest feet, supporting the weight of his own frame, rent well nigh in twain with the cruel nails? Sinner! dost thou hear him shriek, “ Eloi, Eloi, lama sabbacthani ” ? Dost thou hear him cry, “ It is finished ? ” Dost thou mark his head hang down in death ? Seest thou that side pierced with the spear, and the body taken from the cross? O, come thou hither! Those hands were nailed for thee; those feet gushed gore for thee ; that side was opened wide for thee; and if thou wantest to know how thou canst find mercy, there it is. Look ! ” ‘‘ Look unto me ! ” Look no longer to Moses. Look no longer to Sinai. Come thou here and look to Calvary, to Calvary’s vi(Ttim, and to Joseph’s grave. And look thou yonder, to the man who near the throne sits with his Father^ 16 SERMONS. crowned with light and immortality. ‘‘ Look, sinner,’^ he says, this morning, to you, “ Look unto me, and be ye saved.” It is in this way God teaches that there is none beside him ; because he makes us look entirely to him, and utterly away from ourselves. 2. But the second thought is, the means of salvation. It is, Look unto me, and be ye saved.” You have often observed, I am sure, that many people are fond of an intricate worship, an involved religion, one they can hardly understand. They cannot endure worship so simple as ours. Then they must have a man dressed in white, and a man dressed in black ; then they must have what they call an altar and a chancel. After a little while, that will not suffice, and they must have flower-pots and candles. The clergyman then becomes a priest, and he must have a variegated dress, with a cross on it. So it goes on : what is simply a plate becomes a paten, and what w^as once a cup becomes a chalice ; and the more complicated the ceremonies are, the better they lilve them. They like their minivSter to stand like a superior being. The world likes a religion they cannot comprehend. But have you never noticed how gloriously simple the Bible is ? It will not have any of your nonsense ; it speaks plain, and nothing but plain things. “ Look I ” There is not an uncon- verted man who likes this, “ Look unto Christ, and be ye saved.” No, he comes to Christ like Naaman to Elijah ; and, when it is said, Go, wash in Jordan,” he replies, “ I verily thought he wmuld come and put his hand on the place, and call on the name of his God. But the idea of telling me to wash in Jordan, what a ridiculous thing! Anybody could do that!” If the prophet had bidden him to do some great thing, would SOVEREIGNTY AND SALVATION* 17 he not have done it ? Ah ! certainly he would. And if, this morning, I could preach that any one who walked from here to Bath without his shoes and stock* ings, or did some impossible thing, should be saved, you would start- off to-morrow morning before break- fast If it would take me seven years to describe the way of salvation, I am sure you would all long to hear it. If only one learned doctor could tell the way to heaven, how would he be run after! And if it were in hard words, with a few scraps of Latin and Greek, it would be all the better. But it is a simple gospel that we have to preach. It is only ‘‘ Look ! ” ‘‘ Ah ! V you say, “ is that the gospel ? I shall not pay any at- tention to that.” But why has God ordered you to do such a simple thing? Just to take down your pride, and to show you that he is God, and that beside him there is none else, O, mark how simple the way of salvation is. It is, “ Look ! look ! look ! ” Four letters, and two of them alike ! ‘‘ Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.” Some divines want a week to tell what you are to do to be saved ; but God the Holy Ghost only wants four letters to do it. ‘‘ Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.” How simple is that way of salvation! and O, how instantaneous ! It takes us some time to move our hand, but a look does not require a moment. So a sinner believes in a moment ; and the moment that sinner believes and trusts in his crucified God for par- don, at once he receives salvation in full through his blood. There may be one that came in here this morn- ing unjustified in his conscience, that will go out jus- tified rather than others. There may be some here, filthy sinners one moment, pardoned the next It is 2 * 18 SERMONS. done in an instant. Look! look! look!” And how universal is it! Because, wherever I am, however far oir, it just says, “ Look ! ” It does not say I am to see ; it only says, “ Look ! ” If we look on a thing in the dark, we cannot see it ; but we have done what we were told. So, if a sinner only looks to Jesus, he will save him; for Jesus in the dark is as good as Jesus in the light; and Jesus, when you cannot see him, is as good as Jesus when you can. It is oiily, “ Look ! ” “ Ah! ” says one, “ I have been trying to see Jesus this year, but I have not seen him.” It does not say, see him, but “ Look unto him.” And it says that they who looked were lightened. If there is an obstacle before you, and you only look in the right direction, it is suf- ficient. “ Look unto me.” It is not seeing Christ so much as looking after him. The will after Christ, the wish after Christ, the desire after Christ, the trusting in Christ, the hanging on Christ, that is what is wanted. ‘‘ Look ! look ! look ! ” Ah ! if the man bitten by the serpent had turned his sightless eyeballs towards the brazen serpent, though he had not seen it, he would still have had his life restored. It is looking, not seeing, that saves the sinner. We say again, how this humbles a man! There is a gentleman who says, “ Well, if it had been a thou- sand pounds that would have saved me, I would have thought nothing of it.” But your gold and silver is cankered ; it is good for nothing. Then, am I to be saved just the same as my servant Betty ? ” Yes, just the same : there is no other way of salvation for you. That is to show man that Jehovah is God, and that beside him there is none else. The wise man says. If it had been to work the most wonderful problem, or SOVEREIGNTY AND SALVATION. to solve the greatest mystery, I would have done it. May I not have some mysterious gospel ? May I not believe in some mysterious religion ? ’’ No ; it is ‘‘Look!” “What! am I to be saved just like that Ragged-School boy, who can’t read his letters ? ” Yes, you must, or you will not be saved at all. Another says, “ I have been very moral and upright; I have ob- served all the laws of the land ; and, if there is any- thing else to do, I will do it. I will eat only fish on Fridays, and keep all the fasts of the church, if that will save me.” No, sir, that will not save you : your good works are good for nothing. “ What! must I be saved in the same way as a harlot or a drunkard ? ” Yes, sir; there is only one way of salvation for all. “ He hath concluded all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.” He hath passed a sentence of con- demnation on all, that the free grace of God might come upon many to salvation. “ Look ! look ! look ! ” This is the simple method of salvation. “ Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.” But, lastly, mark how God has cut down the pride of man, and has exalted himself by the persons v)hom he has called to look, “ Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.” When the Jew heard Isaiah say that, “ Ah ! ” he exclaimed, “ you ought to have said. Look unto me, O Jerusalem, and be saved. That would have been right. But those Gentile dogs, are they to look and be saved ? ” “ Yes,” says God ; “ 1 will show you Jews, that, though I have given you many privileges, I will exalt others above you ; I can do as I will with my own.” Now, who are the ends of the^ earth ? Why, there are poor heathen nations now that are very few de- 20 SERMONS. grees removed from brutes, uncivilized and untaught; but if I might go and tread the desert, and find the Bushman in liis kraal, or go to the South Seas and find a cannibal, 1 would say to the cannibal or the Bushman, ‘‘ Look unto Jesus, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.’’ They are some of ‘‘ the ends of the earth,” and the gospel is sent as much to them as to the polite Grecians, the refined Romans, or the educated Britons. But I think ‘‘the ends of the earth” imply those who have gone the farthest away from Christ. I say, drunkard, that means you. You have been staggering back, till you have got right to the ends of the earth; you have almost had delirium tremens ; you cannot be much worse. There is not a man breathing worse than you. Is there ? Ah ! but God, in order to hum- ble your pride, says to you, “ Look unto me, and be ye saved.” There is another who has lived a life of infamy and sin, until she has ruined herself, and even Satan seems to sweep her out at the back door; but God says, “ Look unto me, and be ye saved, all tlie ends of the earth.” Methinks I see one trembling here, and saying, “ Ah, 1 have not been one of these, sir, but 1 have been something worse ; for I have at- tended the house of God, and I have stifled convictions, and put off all thoughts of Jesus, and now I think he will never have mercy on me.” You are one of them. “ Ends of the earth ! ” So long as I find any who feel like that, I can tell them that they are “ the ends of the earth.” “But,” says another, “ 1 am so peculiar; if ] did not feel as I do, it would be all very well ; but ] feel that my case is a peculiar one.” That is all right; they are a peculiar people. You will do. But another one says, “ There is nobody in the world like me; I do SOVEREIGNTY AND SALVATION. 21 not think you will find a being under the sun that has so many calls, and put them all away, and so many sins on his head. Besides, I have guilt that I should not like to confess to any living creature.” One of “ the ends of the earth ” again ; therefore, all I have to do is to cry out, in the blaster’s name, “ Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth : for I am God, and there is none else.” But thou sayest, sin will not let thee look. I tell thee, sin wih be re- moved the moment thou dost look. ‘‘ But I dare not; he will condemn me; I fear to look^ He will con- demn thee more if thou dost not look. Fear, then, and look ; but do not let thy fearing keep thee from looldng. But he will cast me outl^ Try him. “ But I cannot see himl^ I tell you, it is not seeing, but look- ing. But my eyes are so fixed on the earthy so earthly ^ so worldly P Ah ! but, poor soul, he giveth power to look and live. He saith, Loolc unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.” Take this, dear friends, for a new year’s text, both ye who love the Lord, and ye who are only looldng for the first time. Cliristian ! in all thy troubles through this year, look unto God and be saved. In all thy trials and afflictions, look unto Christ, and find deliv- erance. In all thine agony, poor soul, in all thy re- pentance for thy guilt, look unto Christ, and find par- don. This year remember to put thine eyes heaven- ward, and thine heart heavenward, too. Remember, this day, that thou bind round thyself a golden chain, and put one link of it in the staple in heaven. Look unto Christ; fear not There is no stumbling when a man walks with his eyes up to Jesus. He that looked at the stars fell into the ditch ; but he that looks at 22 SERMONS. Christ walks safely. Keep your eyes up all the yea? long. “ Look unto /itnij and be ye saved ; ” and remem- ber that‘‘Ae is God, and beside Am there is none else.” And thou, poor trembler, what sayest thou? Wilt thou begin the year by looking unto him? You know how sinful you are this morning; you know how filthy you are ; and yet it is possible that, before you open your pew door, and get into the aisle, you will be as justified as the apostles before the throne of God. It is possible that, ere your foot treads the threshold of your door, you will have lost the burden that has been on your back, and you will go on your way, singing, “ I am forgiven, I am forgiven ; I am a miracle of grace ; this day is my spiritual birthday.” O, that it might be such to many of you, that at last I might say, “ Here am I, and the children thou hast given me.” Hear this, convinced sinner ! “ Tl is poor man cried, and the Lord delivered him out of his distresses.” O, taste and see that the Lord is good! Now believe on him; now cast thy guilty soul upon his righteousness ; now plunge thy black soul into the bath of his blood ; now put thy naked soul at the door of the wardrobe of his righteousness ; now seat thy famished soul at the feast of plenty. Now “ Look ! ” How simple does it seem ! And yet it is the hardest thing in the wmrld to bring men to. They never will do it, till constraiuing grace makes them. Yet there it is, “Look!” Go thou away with that thought “ Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the ecHh: for I am God, and there is none else.” SERMON II THE BIBLE. I have written to him the great things of my law, but they were counted as a strange thing.’' — Hosea viii. 12. , This is God’s complaint against Ephraim. It is no mean proof of his goodness, that he stoops to rebuke his erring creatures; it is a great argument of his gra- cious disposition, that he bows his head to notice terres- trial affairs. He might, if he pleased, wrap himself with night as with a garment; he might put the stars around his wrist for bracelets, and bind the suns around his brow for a coronet ; he might dwell alone, far, far above this world, up in the seventh heaven, and look down with calm and silent indifference upon all the do- ings of his creatures ; he might do as the heathens sup- posed their Jove did, sit in perpetual silence, sometimes nodding his awful head to make the fates move as he pleased, but never taking thought of the little things of earth, disposing of them as beneath his notice, en- grossed within his own being, swallowed up within liirn- self, living alone and retired; and I, as one of his creatures, might stand by night upon a mountain-top, 24 SERMONS. and look upon the silent stars and say, “Ye are the eyes of God, but ye look not down on me ; your light is the gift of his omnipotence, but your rays are not smiles of love to me. God, the mighty Creator, has forgotten me ; I am a despicable drop in the ocean ot creation, a sear-leaf in the forest of beings, an atom in the mountain of existence. He knows me not; I am alone, alone, alone.’’ But it is not so, beloved. Our God is of another order. He notices every one of us; there is not a sparrow or a worm but is found in his decrees. There is not a person upon whom his eye is not fixed. Our most secret acts are known to him. Whatsoever we do, or bear, or suffer, the eye of God still rests upon us, and we are beneath his smile — for we are his pe()ple ; or beneath his frown — for we have erred from him. Oh! how ten-thousand-fold merciful is God, that, looking down upon the race of man, he does not smite it out of existence. We see from our text that God looks upon man ; for he says of Ephraim, “ I have wi'itten to him the great things of my law, but they were counted as a strange thing.” But see how, when he observes the sin of man, he does not dash him away and spurn him with his foot; he does not shake him by the neck over the gulf of hell, until his brain doth reel and then di'op him forever ; but rather, he comes down from heaven to plead with his creatures ; he argues with them ; he puts himself, as it were, upon a level with the sinner — states his grievances and pleads his claim. O Ephraim, I have written unto thee the great things of my law, but they have been unto tliee as a strange thing ! I come here to-night in God’s stead, my friends, lo plead with you as God’s ambassador, to charge many TFIE BIBLE. 25 of you with a sin ; to lay it to your hearts by the power of the Spirit, so that you may be convinced of sin, of righteousness, and of a judgment to come. The crime I charge you \\dth is the sin of the text. God has writ- ten to you the great things of his law, but they have been unto you as a strange thing. It is concerning this blessed book, the Bible, that I mean to speak to-night. Here lies rny text — this Word of God. Here is the theme of my discourse, a theme which demands more eloquence than I possess ; a subject upon which a thou- sand orators might speak at once ; a mighty, vast, and comprehensive theme, which might engross all elo- quence throughout eternity, and still it would remain unexhausted. Concerning the Bible, I have three things to say to- night, and they are all in my text. First, its author, have written;’’ secondly, its subjects — the great things of God’s law; and thirdly, its common treat- ment — it has been accounted by most men a strange thing. I. First, then, concerning this book: Who is the au- thor? The text says that it is God. ‘‘/have written to him the great things of my law.” Here lies my Bible — who wrote it ? I open it, and find it consists of a series of tracts. The first five tracts were written by a man called Moses ; I turn on, and I find others. Sometimes I see David is the penman, at other times Solomon. Here I read Micah, then Amos, then Hosea. As I turn further on, to the more luminous pages of the New Tes- tament, I see Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, Paul, Peter, James, and others ; but when I shut up the book, I ask myself, who is the author of it ? Do these men jointly claim the authorship ? Are they the compOs- 3 26 SERMONS. itors of this massive volume ? Do they between them- selves divide the honor? Our holy religion answers, No ! This volume is the writing of the living God : each letter was penned with an Almighty finger; each word in it dropped from the everlasting lips ; each sen- tence was dictated by the Holy Spirit. Albeit, that Moses was employed to wn*ite his histories with his fiery pen, God guided that pen. It may be that David touched his harp, and let sweet Psalms of melody drop from his fingers ; but God moved his hands over the liv- ing strings of his golden harp. It may be that Solomon sang canticles of love, or gave forth words of consum- mate wisdom, but God directed his lips, and made the preacher eloquent. If I follow the thundering Nahum, when his horses plough the waters, or Habakkuk, when he sees the tents of Cushan in affliction ; if I read Malachi, when the earth is burning like an oven ; if I turn to the smooth page of John, who tells of love, or the rugged, fiery chapters of Peter, who speaks of fire devouring God’s enemies; if I tmai to Jude, who launches forth anathemas upon the foes of God, every- where I find God speaking ; it is God’s voice, not man’s; the words are God’s words, the words of the Eternal, the Invisible, the Almighty, the Jehovah of this earth. This Bible is God’s Bible, and when I see it, I seem to hear a voice springing up from it, saying, “I am the book of God; man, read me. I am God’s writing; open my leaf, for I was penned by God ; read it, for he is my author, and you will see him visible and manifest everywhere.” “ I have written to him the g^eat things of my law.” How do you know that God wrote the book ? That is just what I shall not try to prove to you. I could if THE BIBLE. 27 I pleased, to a demonstration, for there are arguments enough, there are reasons enough, did I care to occupy your time to-night in bringing them before you ; but I shall do no such thing. I might teU you, if I pleased, that the grandeur of the style is above that of any mor- tal writing, and that aU the poets who have ever existed could not, with all their works united, give us such sub- lime poetry and such mighty language as is to be found in the Scriptures. I might insist upon it, that the sub- jects of which it treats are beyond the human intellect; that man could never have invented the grand doctrines of a Trinity in the Godhead ; man could not have told us anything of the creation of the universe ; he could never have been the author of the majestic idea of Providence — that all things are ordered according to the w^ill of one great Supreme Being, and work together for good. I might enlarge upon its honesty, since it tells the faults of its writers ; its unity, since it never belies itself; its master simplicity, that he who runs may read it ; and I might mention a hundred more things, which would all prove, to a demonstration, that the book is of God. But I come not here to prove it I am a Christian minister, and you are Christians, or profess to be so ; and there is never any necessity for Christian ministers to make a point of bringing forward Infidel arguments in order to answer them. It is the greatest folly in the world. Infidels, poor creatures, do not know their own arguments till we tell them, and then they glean their blunted shafts to shoot them at the shield of truth again. It is folly to bring forward these fii-ebrands of hell, even if we are well prepared to quench them. Let men of the world learn error of themselves ; do not let us be propagators of their false- 28 SERMONS. hoods. True, there are some preachers who are short of stock, and want them to fill up; but God’s own chosen men need not do that ; they are taught of God, and God supplies them with matter, with language, with power. There may be some one here to-night who has come without faith, a man of reason, a free-thinker. With him I have no argument at all. I profess not to stand here as a controversialist, but as a preacher of things that I know and feel. But I too have been like him. There was an evil hour when once I shipped the anchor of my faith ; I cut the cable of my belief ; I no longer moored myself hard by the coasts of Revelation; 1 allowed my vessel to drift before the wind ; I said to reason, ‘‘Be thou my captain;” I said to my own brain, “ Be thou my rudder;” and I started on my mad voyage. Thank God, it is all over now ; but I will tell you its brief history. It was one hurried sailing over the tem- pestuous ocean of free thought. I went on, and as I went, the skies began to darken ; but to make up for that deficiency, the waters were brilliant with corrusca- tions of brilliancy. I saw sparks flying upward that pleased me, and I thought, “ If this be free thought, it is a happy thing.” IMy thoughts seemed gems, and I scattered stars with both my hands ; but anon, instead of these corruscations of glory, I saw grim fiends, fierce and horrible, start up from the waters, and as I dashed on, they gnashed their teeth, and grinned upon me; they seized the prov/ of my ship and dragged me on, while I, in part, gloried at the rapidity of my motion, but yet shuddered at the terrific rate with which I passed the old land-marks of my faith. As I hurried forward, with an awful speed, I began to doubt my very existence ; I doubted if there were a world, I doubted THE BIBLE. 29 if there were such a thihg as myself. I went to the very verge of the dreary realms of unbelief. I went to the very bottom of the sea of Infidelity. I doubted everything. But here the devil foiled himself : for the very extravagance of the doubt, proved its absurdity. Just when I saw the bottom of that sea, there came a voice which said, “ And can this doubt be true ? ’’ At this very thought I awoke. I started from that death- dream, which, God knows, might have damned my soul, and ruined this, my body, if I had not awoke. When I arose, faith took the helm ; from that moment I doubt- ed not. Faith steered me back; faith cried, “Away, away ! I cast my anchor on Calvary ; I lifted my eye to God ; and here I am, “ alive, and out of hell.” There- fore, I speak what I do know. I have sailed that per- ilous voyage ; I have come safe to land. Ask me again to be an Infidel ! No ; I have tried it ; it was sweet at first, but bitter afterwards. Now, lashed to God’s gos- pel more firmly than ever, standing as on a rock of ada- mant, I defy the arguments of heU to move me ; for “ I know in whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him.” But I shall neither plead nor argue this night. You profess to be Christian men, or else you would not be here. Your professions may be lies; what you my you are, may be the very contrary to what you really are; but still I suppose you ail admit that this is the Word of God. A thought or two then upon it. “ I have written to him the great things of my law.” First, my friends, stand over this volume, and admire its authority. This is no common book. It is not the sayings of the sages of Greece ; here are not the utter- ances of philosophers of past ages. If these wor s 8 * 8EHMONS. yo were wi'itten by man, we might reject them ; but O let me think the solemn thought, that this book is God’s handwriting — that these words are God’s! Let me look at its date ; it is dated from the hills of heaven. Let me look at its letters; they flash glory on my eye. Let me read the chapters ; they are big with meaning and mysteries unknown. Let me turn over the prophecies ; they are pregnant with unthought-of wonders. Oh, book of books! And wast thou writ- ten by my God? Then will I bow before thee.. Thou book of vast authority ! thou art a proclamation from the Emperor of Heaven ; far be it from me to exercise my reason in contradicting thee. Reason, thy place is to stand and find out what this volume means, not to tell what this book ought to say. Come thou, my rea- son, my intellect, sit thou down and listen, for these words are the words of God. I do not know how to enlarge on this thought. Oh ! if you could ever re- member that this Bible was actually and really written by God. Oh! if ye had been let into the secret cham- bers of heaven, if ye had beheld God grasping his pen and writing down these letters — then surely ye umuld respect them; but they are just as much God’s hand- WTiting as if you had seen God wTite them. This Bible is a book of authority ; it is an authorized book, for God has written it. Oh ! tremble, tremble, lest any of you despise it; mark its authority, for it is the Word of God. Then, since God wrote it, mark its truthfulness. If I had written it, there would be worms of critics who would at once swarm on it, and would cover it with their evil spawn ; had I written it, there would be men who would pull it to pieces nt once, and perhaps quite I THE BIBLE. ^ light too. But this is the Word of God; come, search, ye critics, and find a flaw; examine it, from its Genesis to its Revelation, and find an error. This is a vein of pure gold, unalloyed by quartz, or any earthly sub- stance. This is a star without a speck ; a sun without a blot ; a light without darkness ; a moon without its paleness; a glory without a dimness. O Bible! it cannot be said of any other book, that it is perfect and pure ; but of thee we can declare all wisdom is gath- ered up in thee, without a particle of folly. This is the judge that ends the strife, where wit and reason fail. This is the book untainted by any error; but is pure, unalloyed, perfect truth. Why? Because God WTote it. Ah! charge God with error if ye please; tell him that his book is not what it ought to be. I have heard men, with prudish and mock-modesty, who would like to alter the Bible; and (I almost blush to say it) I have heard ministers alter God’s Bible, be- cause they were afraid of it. Have you never heard a man say, “ He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved; but he that believeth not” — what does the Bible say? — Shall be damnedP But that does not happen to be polite enough, so they say, “ Shall be con- demnedP Gentlemen, pull the velvet out of your mouths; speak God’s word; we want none of your alterations. I have heard men in prayer, instead of saying, Make your calling and election sure,” say ‘‘ Make your calling and salvation sure.” Pity they were not born when God lived, far — far back, that they might have taught God how to write. Oh, im- pudence beyond all bounds ! Oh, full-blown self-con- ceit! To attempt to dictate to the All-wise — to teach the Omniscient, and instruct the Eternal. Strange SERMONS. that there should be men so vile as to use the penknift of Jehoiakim, to cut out passages of the word, be- cause they are unpalatable. O ye who dislike certain portions of Holy Writ, rest assured that your taste is corrupt, and that God will not stay for your little opin- ion. Your dislike is the very reason why God wrote it, because you ought not to be suited ; you have no right to be pleased. God wrote what you do not like ; he wrote the truth. Oh! let us bend in reverence before it, for God inspired it. It is pure truth. Here from this fountain gushes aqua vitce — the water of life, without a single particle of earth ; here from this sun there cometh forth rays of radiance, without tho mixture of darkness. Blessed Bible ! thou art all truth. Yet once more, before we leave tliis point, let us stop and consider the merciful nature of God^ in hav- ing written us a Bible at all. Ah, he might have left us without it, to grope our dark way, as blind men seek the wall ; he might have suffered us to wander on with the star of reason as our only guide. 1 recollect a story of Mr. Hume, who so constantly affirmed that the light of reason is abundantly sufficient. Being at a good minister’s house one evening, he had been dis- cussing the question, and declaring his firm belief in the sufficiency of the light of nature. On leaving, the minister offered to hold him a candle to light him down the steps. He said, No; the light of nature would be enough ; the moon would do,” It so happened that the moon was covered with a cloud, and he fell down the steps. ‘‘ Ah ! ” said the minister, you had better have had a little light from above, after all, Mr. Hume.” So, supposing the light of natm*e to be sufficient, we had bet- ter have a little light from above too, and then we shall TIIR BIBLE, 33 be sure to be right Better have two lights than only one. The light of c?>%^iion is a bright light. God may be seen in the stars ; his name is written in gilt letters on the brow of night ; you may discover his glory in the ocean waves, yea, in the trees of the field ; but it is better to read it in two books than in one. You will find it here more clearly revealed ; for he has written this book himself, and he has given you the key to understand it, if you have the Holy Spirit. Ah, bel®ved, let us thank God for this Bible ; let us love it ; let us count it more precious than much fine gold. But let me say one thing, before I pass on to the second point. If this be the Word of God, what will become of some of you who have not read it for the last month ? ‘‘ Month, sir ! I have not read it for this year.” Ay, there are some of you who have not read it at all. Most people treat the Bible very politely. They have a small pocket volume, neatly bound ; they put a white pock ??t-handlverchief round it and carry it to their places of worship ; when they get home, they lay it up in a drawer till next Sunday morning; then it comes out again for a little bit of a treat, and goes to chapel; that is all the poor Bible gets in the way of an airing. That is your style of entertaining this heavenly messenger. There is dust enough on some of your Bibles to write damnation ” with your fingers. There are some of you who have not turned over your Bibles for a long, long, long while, and what think you ? I tell you blunt words, but true words. What will God say at last ? When you shall come before him, he shall say, Did you read my Bible ? ” “ “ I \\Tote you a letter of mercy ; did you read it ? ” « u jj^ebcl ! I have sent thee a letter inviting thee to SERMONS. u me; didst thou ever read it ? ’’ Lord^ I never brokt the seal; I kept it shut up^ “ Wretch ! ” says God, “ then, thou deservest hell, if I sent thee a loving epistle, and thou wouldst not even break the seal ; what shall I do unto thee ? ’’ Oh, let it not be so with you. Be Bible- readers ; be Bible-searchers. II. Our second point is: The subjects on which the Bible treats. The words of the text are these : “ I have written to him the great things of my law.” The Bible treats of great things, and of great things only. There is nothing in tliis Bible which is unimportant. Every verse in it has a solemn meaning ; and if we have not found it out yet, we hope yet to do it. You have seen mummies, wrapped round and round with folds of linen. Well, God’s Bible is like that; it is a vast roll of white linen, woven in the loom of timth ; so you win have to continue unwinding it, roU after roll, before you get the real meaning of it from the very depth ; and, when you have found, as you think, a part of the meaning, you will still need to keep on unwinding, unwinding, and all eternity you will be unwinding the words of this wondrous volume. Yet there is nothing in the Bible but great things. Let Tire divide, so as to be more brief. First, aU things in this Bible are great; but, secondly, some things are the greatest of all. All things in the Bible are great. Some people think it does not matter what doctrines you believe ; that it is immaterial what chuTch you attend ; that all denomi- nations are alike. Well, I dislike Mrs. Bigotry above almost all people in the world, and I never give her any compliment or praise ; but there is another woman I hate equally as much, and that is Mrs. Latitudinari- THE BIBLE. 35 anlsm — a well-known character, who has made the dis- covery that all of us are alike. Now, I believe that a man may be saved in any church. Some have been saved in the Church of Rome — a few blessed men whose names I could mention here. I know, blessed be God, that multitudes are saved in the Church oi England : she has a host of pious, praying men in he^ midst. I think that all sections of Protestant Christians have a remnant according to the election of grace ; and they had need to have, some of them, a little salt, for otherwise they would go to corruption. But when 1 say that, do you imagine that I think them all on a level ? Are they all alike truthful ? One sect says infant baptism is right ; another says it is wrong ; yet you say they are both right. I cannot see that. One teaches we are saved by free grace ; another says that we are not, but are saved by free will ; and yet you be- lieve they are both right. I do not understand that. One says that God loves his people, and never leaves off loving them ; another says that he did not love his people before they loved him — that he often loves them, and then ceases to love them, and turns them away. They may be both right in the main ; but can they both be right when one says ‘‘ Yes,” and the other says “ No?” I must have a pair of spectacles, to enable me to look backwards and forwards at the same time, before I can see that. It cannot be, sirs, that they are both right. But some say they differ upon non-essentials. This text says, “ I have written to him the g-reat things of my law.” There is nothing in God’s Bible which is not great. Did ever any of you sit down to see which was the purest religion? “Oh,” say you, “we never took the trouble. We went just where our father and SERMONS. 36 mother wont.” Ah ! that is a profound reason indeed. You went where your father and mother did. I thought you were sensible people ; I did n’t think you went where other people pulled you, but went of your own selves. I love my parents above all that breathe, and the very thought that they believed a thing to be true, helps me to think it is correct; but I have not followed them; I belong to a different denomination, and I thank God I do. I can receive them as Christian brethren and sisters ; but I never thought that, because they happened to be one thing, I was to be the same. No such thing. God gave me brains, and I will use them ; and if you have any intellect, use it too. Never say it does n’t matter. Whatever God has put here is of emi- nent importance: he would not have written a thing that was indifferent. Whatever is here is of some value ; therefore, search all questions, try all by the Word of God. I am not afraid to have what I preach tried by this book. Only give me a fair field and no favor, and this book; if 1 say anything contrary to it, I will withdraw it the next Sabbath-day. By this 1 stand, by this I fall. Search and see; but don’t say, ‘‘ it does not matter.” If God says a thing, it always must be of importance. But, while all things in God’s word are important, all are not equally iviportanL There are certain funda- mental and vital truths which must be believed, or otherwise no man would be saved. If you want to know what you must believe, if ye would be saved, you will find the great things of God’s law between these two covers ; they are all contained here. As a sort of digest or summary of the great things of law, I remember an old friend of mine once saying, “ Ah! you THE BIBLE. 37 preach the three R’s, and God will always bless you.” I said, ‘‘ What are the three R’s ? ” and he answered, Ruin, redemption, and regeneration.” They contain the sum and substance of divinity. R. for ruin. We were all ruined in the fall ; we were all lost when Adam sinned, and we are all ruined by our own transgres- sions ; we are all ruined by our own evil hearts, and our own wicked wills ; and we all shall be ruined, un- less grace saves us. Then there is a second R. for redemption. We are ransomed by the blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish and without spot ; we are res- cued by his power; we are ransomed by his merits; we are redeemed by his strength. Then there is R. for regeneration. If we would be pardoned, we must also be regenerated ; for no man can partake of re- demption unless he is regenerate. Let him be as good as he pleases ; let him serve God, as he imagines, as much as he lilies ; unless he is regenerate, and has a new heart, a new birth, he will still be in the first R. that is ruin. These things contain an epitome of the gospel. I believe there is a better epitome in the five points of Galvanism: — Election according to the fore knowledge of God; the natural depravity and sinfulness of man; particular redemption by the blood of Christ; effectual calling by the power of the Spirit ; and ulti- mate perseverance by the efforts of God’s might. I think all those need to be believed, in order to salvation ; but I should not lil^e to write a creed like the Athanasian, beginning with “ Whosoever shall be saved, before all things it is necessary that he should hold the Catholic faith, which faith is this,” — when I got so far, I should stop, because I should not know what to write. I hold the catholic faith of the Bible, the whole Bible, and 4 38 SERMONS. nothing but the Bible. It is not for me to draw up creeds ; but I ask you to search the Scriptures, for this is the word of life. God says, I have written to him the great things of my law.” Do you doubt their greatness ? Do ye think they are not worth your attention? Reflect a moment, man. Where art thou standing now ? “ Lo, on a narrow neck of land, ’Twixt two unbounded seas I stand ; An inch of time, a moment’s space. May lodge me in yon heavenly place. Or shut me up in hell.” I recollect standing on a seashore once, upon a narrow neck of land, thoughtless that the tide might come up. The tide kept continually washing up on either side, and, wapped in thoughts, I still stood there, until at last there was the greatest difficulty in getting on shore. You and I stand each day on a narrow neck, and there is one wave coming up there ; see, how near it is to your foot ; and lo! another follows at every tick of the clock ; our hearts, like muffled di'ums, are beating funeral marches to the tomb.” We are always tending downwards to the grave each moment that we live This book tells me that if I am converted, when I die, there is a heaven of joy and love to receive me; it tells me that angels’ pinions shall be stretched, and I, borne by strong cherubic wings, shall out-soar the lightning, and mount beyond the stars, up to the throne of God, to dwell forever. “ Far from a world of grief and sin With God eternally shut in.” Oh ! it makes the hot tear start from my eye, it makes THE BIBLE. 39 my heart too big for this my body, and my brain whirls at the thought of “Jerusalem, my happy home. Name ever dear to me.” Oh ! that sweet scene beyond the clouds ; sweet fields arrayed in living green, and rivers of delight. Are not these great things ? But then, poor unregenerate soul, the Bible says, if thou art lost, thou art lost forever ; it tells thee that if thou diest without Christ, without God, there is no hope for thee; that there is no place without a gleam of hope, where thou shalt read, in burning letters, ‘‘ Ye knew your duty, but ye did it not;” it tells you, that ye shall be driven from his presence with a ‘^depart, ye cursed.” Are not these great things? Yes, sirs, as heaven is desirable, as hell is terrible, as time is short, as eternity is infinite, as the soul is precious, as pain is to be shunned, as heaven is to be sought, as God is eternal, and as his words are sure, these are gi’eat things, things ye ought to listen to. III. Our last point is: The treatvient ivhich the poor Bible receives in this world ; it is accounted a strange thing. What does that mean— -the Bible accounted a strange thing ? In the first place, it means that it is very strange to some people, because they never read it, I remember reading, on one occasion, the sacred story of David and Goliath, and there was a person present, positively grown up to years of maturity, who said to me, Dear me ! what an interestmg story ; what book is that in ? ” And I recollect a person once coming to me in private ; I spoke to her about her soul, she told me how deeply she felt, how she had a desire to serve God, but she found another law in her members. I 40 SERMONS. turned to a passage in Romans, and read to her, ‘‘ The good that I would I do not ; and the evil which I would not that 1 do ! ” She said, “ Is that in the Bible ? I did not know it.’’ I did not blame her, because she had no mterest in the Bible till then ; but I did wonder that there could be found persons who knew nothing about such a passage. Ah ! you know more about your ledg- ers than your Bible ; you know more about your day- books than what God has written ; many of you will read a novel from beginning to end, and what have you got? A mouthful of froth when you have done. But you cannot read the Bible ; that solid, lasting, substan- tial, and satisfying food goes uneaten, locked up in the cupboard of neglect ; while anything that man writes, a catch of the day, is greedily devoured. “ I have writ- ten to him the great things of my law, but they were counted as a strange thing.” Ye have never read it. I bring the broad charge against you. Perhaps, ye say, I ought not to charge you with any such thing. I al- ways think it better to have a worse opinion of you than too good an one. I charge you with this : you do not read your Bibles. Some of you never have read it through. I know I speak what your heart must say is nonest truth. You are not Bible readers. You say you have the Bible in your houses ; do I think you are such heathens as not to have a Bible ? But when did you read it last ? How do you know that your specta- cles, which you have lost, have not been there for the Last three years ? Many people have not turned over its pages for a long time, and God might say unto them, “ I have written unto you the great things of my law, but they have been accounted unto you a strange thing.” THE BIBLE. 41 Others there be who read the Bible; but when they read it, they say it is so horrihly dry. That young man over there says it is a “bore that is the word he ses. He says, “ My mother says to me, when you go up to town, read a chapter every day. Well, I thought I would please her, and I said I would. I am sure I wish I had not. I did not read a chapter yesterday, or the day before. We were so busy, I could not help it.’’ You do not love the Bible, do you ? “No, there is no- thing in it which is interesting.” Ah, I thought so. But a little while ago I could not see anything in it. Do you know why ? Blind men cannot see, can they ? But when the Spirit touches the scales of the eyes, they fall off ; and when he puts eye-salve on, then the Bible becomes precious. I remember a minister who went to see an old lady, and he thought he would give her some precious promises out of the word of God. Turn ing to one, he saw written in the margin “P.,” and he asked, “ What does this mean ?” “ That means precious, sir.” Further down, he saw “ T. and and he asked what the letters meant. “ That,” she said, “means tided and proved, for I have tried and proved it.” If you have tried God’s word and proved it — if it is precious to your soul, then you are Christains ; but those per- sons who despise the Bible, have “ neither part nor lot in the matter.” If it is dry to you, you will be dry at last in hell. If you do not esteem it as better than your necessary food, there is no hope for you ; for you lack the greatest evidence of your Christianity. Alas ! alas ! the worst case is to come. There are some people who hate the Bible^ as well as despise it. Is there such an one stepped in here ? Some of you said, “ Let us go and hear what the young preacher has 4 * 42 SERMONS. to say to US.” This is what he has to say to you: “ Be- hold, ye despisers, and wonder and perish.” This is what he hath to say to you: ‘‘The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all that forget God.” And this, again he has to say to you : “ Behold, there shall come in the last days, mockers, like yourselves, walking after your own lusts.” But more : he tells you to-night that if you are saved, you must find salvation here. There- fore, despise not the Bible ; but search it, read it, and come unto it. Rest thee well assured, O scorner, that thy laughs cannot alter truth, thy jests cannot avert tbine inevitable doom. Though in thy hardihood thou shouldst make a league with death, and sign a covenant with hell — yet swift justice shall overtake thee, and strong vengeance stril^e thee low. In vain dost thou jeer and mock, for eternal verities are mightier than thy sophistries, nor can thy smart sayings alter the divine truth of a single word of this volume of Revelation. Oh ! why dost thou quarrel with thy best friend, and ill-treat thy only refuge ? There yet remains hope, even for the scorner. Hope in a Saviour’s veins. Hope in the Father’s mercy. Hope in the Holy Spirit’s omnipotent agency. I have done when I have said one word. My friend, the philosopher, says it may be very well for me to urge people to read the Bible; but he thinks there are a great many sciences far more interesting and useful than theology. Extremely obliged to you for your opinion^ sir. What science do you mean ? The science of dissecting beetles and arranging butter- flies ? “No,” you say, “certainly not.” The science, then, of arranging stones, and telling us of the strata of the earth ? “ No, not exactly that” Which science, THE BIBLE. 43 then ? Oh, all sciences,’’ say you, “ are better than the science of the Bible.” Ah ! sir, that is your opinion ; and it is because you are far from God, that you say so. But the science of Jesus Christ is the most excel- lent of sciences. Let no one turn away from the Bible because it is not a book of learning and wisdom. It is. Would ye know astronomy? It is here: it tells you of the Sun of Righteousness and the Star of Bethle- hem. Would you know botany? It is here: it tells you of the plant of renown — the Lily of the Valley, and the Rose of Sharon. Would you know geology and mineralogy ? You shall learn it here: for you may read of the Rock of Ages, and the White Stone with the name engraven thereon, which no man knoweth saving he that receive th it. Would ye study history? Here is the most ancient of all the records of the Iiis- tory of the human race. Whate’er your science is, come and bend o’er this book ; your science is here. Come and drink out of this fair fount of knowledge and wisdom, and ye shall find yourselves made wise unto salvation. Wise and foolish, babes and men, gray-headed sires, youths and maidens — I speak to you, I plead with you, I beg of you respect your Bibles, and search them out, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and these are they which testify of Christ. I have done. Let us go home and practice what we have heard. I have heard of a woman, who, when she was asked what she remembered of the minister’s ser- mon, said, “ I don’t recollect anything of it. It was about short weights and bad measures, and I did n’t recollect anything but to go home and huxn the bushel.” So, if you will remember to go home and burn the bushel, 44 SERMONS. if you will recollect to go home and read your Bibles, I shall have said enough. And may God, in his infinite mercy, when you read your Bibles, pour into your soul the illuminating rays of the Sun of Righteousness, by the agency of the ever-adorable Spirit ; then you will read to your profit and to your souPs salvation. We may say of The Bible : “ God’s cabinet of revealed counsel ’t is ! 'Where weal and woe, are ordered so That every man may know which shall be his ; Unless his own mistake, false application make. It is the index to eternity. He cannot miss of endless bliss. That takes this chart to steer by,. Nor can he be mistook, that speaketh by this book. It is the book of God. What if I should Say, God of books, let him that looks Angry at that expression, as too bold. His thoughts in silence smother, till he find such another.** SERMON III THE PERSONALITY OE THE HOLY GHOST. “ And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abi#e with you forever ; even the Spirit of truth ; whom the world cannot receive, be- cause it seeth him not, neither knoweth him j but ye know him j for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.” — John xiv. 16, 17. You will be surprised to hear me announce that I do not intend this morning to say anything about the Holy Spirit as the Comforter. I propose to reserve that for another discourse.* In this discourse I shall endeavor to explain and enforce certain other doctrines, which I believe are plainly taught in this text, and which I hope God the Holy Ghost may make profita- ble to our souls. Old John Newton once said, that there w^ere some books which he could not read — they w^ere good and sound enough ; but, said he, ‘‘ they are books of halfpence; you have to take so much in quantity before you have any value ; there are other books of silver and others of gold, but I have on^ book that is a book of bank-notes ; and every leaf is a bank-note of immense value.” So I found wdth this text, that I had a bank-note of so large a sum that I * See next Sermon. ( 45 ) 46 SERMONS. could not tell it out all this morning. I should have to keep you several hours before I could unfold to you the whole value of this precious promise, one of the last which Christ gave to his people. I invite your attention to this passage because we shall find in it some instruction on four points : first, concerning the true and proper personality of the Holy Ghost; secondly, concerning the united agency of the glorious Three persons in the work of our salvation ; thirdly, we shall find something to establish the doctrine of the in-dwelling of the Holy Ghost in the souls of all believers ; and fourthly, we shall find out the reason why the carnal mind rejects the Holy Ghost. L First of all, we shall have some little instruction concerning the proper personality of the Holy Spirit. We are so much accustomed to talk about the influ- ence of the Holy Ghost and his sacred operations and graces, that we are apt to forget that the Holy Spirit is truly and actually a person — that he is a subsistence — an existence ; or, as we Trinitarians usually say, one person in the essence of the Godhead. I am afraid that, though we do not know it, we have acquired the habit of regarding the Holy Ghost as an emanation flowing from the Father and the Son, but not as being actually a person himself. I know it is not easy to carry about in our mind the idea of the Holy Spirit as a person. I can think of the Father as a person, because his acts are such as I can understand. I see him hang the world in ether ; I behold him swaddling a new-born sea in bands of darkness ; I know it is he who formed the drops of hail, who leadeth forth the stars by their hosts, and calleth them by their name ; I can con- ceive of him as a person, because I behold his operations. PERSONALITY OF THE HOLY GHOST. 47 [ can realize Jesns, the Son of Man, as a real person, be- cause he is bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh. It takes no great stretch of my imagination to picture che babe in Bethlehem, or behold the ^‘rnan of sorrows and acquainted with grief,” or the Idng of mart3nrs, as he was persecuted in Pilate’s hall, or nailed to the ac- cursed tree for our sins. Nor do I find it difficult at times to realize the person of my Jesus sitting on his throne in heaven ; or girt with clouds and wearing the diadem of all creation, calling the earth to judgment, and summoning us to hear our final sentence. But, when I come to deal with the Holy Ghost, his opera- tions are so mysterious, his doings are so secret, his acts are so removed from everything that is of sense, and of the body, that I cannot so easily get the idea of his being a person ; but a person he is. God the Holy Ghost is not an influence, an emanation, a stream of something flowing from the Father; but he is as much an actual person as either God the Son, or God the Father. I shall attempt this morning a little to establish the doctrine, and to show you the truth of it — that God the Holy Spirit is actually a person. The first proof we shall gather from the pool of holy baptism. Let me take you down, as I have taken others, into the pool now concealed, but which I wish were always open to your view. Let me take you to the baptismal font, where believers put on the name of the Lord Jesus, and you shall hear me pronounce the solemn words, “ I baptize thee in the name,” — mark, “in the name,” not names — “of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” Every one who is baptized according to the true form laid down in Scrip- ture, must be a Trinitarian : otherwise his baptism is a 48 SERMONS. farce and a lie, and he himself is found a deceiver and a hypocrite before God. As the Father is mentioned, and as the Son is mentioned, so is the Holy Ghost ; and the whole is summed up as being a Trinity in unity, by its being said, not the names, but the name,” the glorious name, the Jehovah name, “ of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” Let me remind you that the same thing occurs each time you are dismissed from this house of prayer. In pro- nouncing the solemn closing benediction, we involve on your behalf the love of Jesus Christ, the grace of the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit ; and thus, according to the apostolic manner, we make a manifest distinction between the persons, showing that we believe the Father to be a person, the Son to be a person, and the Holy Ghost to be a person. Were there no other proofs in Scripture, I think these would be sufficient for every sensible man. He would see that if the Holy Spirit were a mere influence, he would not be mentioned in conjunction with two, whom we all confess to be actual and proper persons. A second argument arises from the fact, that the Holy Ghost has actually made different appearances on earth. The Great Spirit has manifested himself to man : he has put on a form, so that, whilst he has not been beheld by mortal men, he has been so veiled in an appearance that he was seen, so far as that appear- ance was concerned, by the eyes of all beholders. See you Jesus Christ our Saviour? There is the river Jor- dan, with its shelving banks and its willows weeping at its side. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, descends into the stream, and the holy Baptist John plunges him into the waves. The doors of heaven are opened ; a PERSONALITY OF THE HOLY GHOST. 49 miraculous appearance presents itself; a bright light shineth from the sky, brighter than the sun ii all its grandem', and down in a flood of glory descends some- thing which you recognize to be a dove. It rests on Jesus — it sits upon his sacred head, and as the old painters put a halo round the brow of Jesus, so did the Holy Ghost shed a resplendence around the face of him who came to fulfil all righteousness, and erefore commenced with the ordinance of baptism. T e Holy Ghost was seen as a dove, to mark his purity and his gentleness, and he came down like a dove from heaven to show that it is from heaven alone that he descend- eth. Nor is this the only time when the Hoi Ghost has been manifest in a visible shape. You ee that company of disciples gathered together in an upper room ; they are waiting for some promised lessing, and bye-and-bye it shall come. Hark! there is a sound as of a rushing, mighty wind ; it fills all the house where they are sitting, and astonished, they lool around them, wondering what will come next. Soon a bright light appears, shining upon the heads of each : cloven tongues of fire sat upon them. What were th se mar- vellous appearances of wind and flame but a display of the Holy Ghost in his proper person? I say the fact of an appearance manifests that he must be a per- son. An influence could not appear — an attribute could not appear : we cannot see attributes — Ne can- not behold influences. The Holy Ghost must, then, have been a person ; since he was beheld by mortal eyes, and came under the cognizance of mortal sense. Another proof is from the fact, that personal quali- ties are in Scripture ascribed to the Holy Ghost. First, let me read to you a text in which the Holy Ghost is 50 SERMONS. spoken of as having nnderstanding. In the 1st Epistle to the Corinthians, ctiap. ii., you will read, But as it is written, eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him ? Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Here you see an understanding — a power of knowledge is as- cribed to the Holy Ghost. Now, if there be any per- sons here whose minds are of so preposterous a com- plexion that they would ascribe one attribute to another, and would speak of a mere influence having under- standing, then I give up all the argument. But I believe every rational man will admit, that when any- thing is spoken of as having an understanding, it must be an existence — it must, in fact, be a person. In the 12th chapter, v. 10, of the same Epistle, you will find a 'will ascribed to the Holy Spirit. But all these worketh that one and the self-same spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.” So it is plain that the Spirit has a will. He does not come from God simply at God’s will, but he has a will of his own, which is always in keeping with the will of the infinite Jehovah, but is, nevertheless, distinct and separate ; therefore, I say he is a person. In another text, power is ascribed to the Holy Ghost, and power is a thing which can only be ascribed to an existence. In Rom. xv. 13, it is writ- ten, ‘‘ Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost.” I need not insist upon PERSONALITY OF THE HOLY 0HOST. 51 it, because it is self-evident, that wherever you find un- derstanding, will, and power, you must also find an existence ; it cannot be a mere attribute, it cannot be a metaphor, it cannot be a personified influence ; but it must be a person. But I have a proof, which, perhaps, will be more tel- ling upon you than any other. Acts and deeds are as- cribed to the Holy Ghost; therefore, he must be a person. You read in the first chapter of the Book of Genesis, that the Spirit brooded over the surface of the earth, when it was as yet all disorder and confusion. This world was once a mass of chaotic matter , there was no order ; it was like the valley of darkness and of the shadow of death. God the Holy Ghost spread his wings over it; he sowed the seeds of life in it; the germs from which all beings sprang were* implanted by him; he impregnated the earth so that it became capable of life. Now, it must have been a person who brought order out of confusion : it must have been an existence who hovered over this world and made it what it now is. But do we not read in Scripture something more of the Holy Ghost ? Yes, we are told that ‘‘ holy men of old spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.’ When Moses penned the Pentateuch, the Holy Ghost moved his hand ; when David wrote the Psalms, and discoursed sweet music on his harp, it was the Holy Spirit that gave his fingers their seraphic motion ; when Solomon dropped from his lips the words of the pro- verbs of wisdom, or when he hymned the Canticles of love, it was the Holy Ghost who gave him words of knowledge and hymns of rapture. Ah ! and what fire was that which touched the lips of the eloquent Isaiah ? What hand wa% that which came upon Da|iel ? a OF ILL UB. 52 SERMONS. What might was that which made Jeremiah so plaintive in his grief? or what was that which winged Ezekiel and made him, like an eagle, soar into mys- teries aloft, and see the Mighty Unknown beyond our reach ? Who was it that made Amos, the herdsman, a prophet? who taught the rugged Haggai to pro- nounce his thundering sentences? who showed Ha- bakkuk the horses of Jehovah marching through the waters ? or who kindled the burning eloquence of Na- hum ? who caused Malachi to close up the book with the muttering of the word curse ? Who was it in each of these save the Holy Ghost ? and must it not have been a person who spake in and through these ancient witnesses? We must believe it. We cannot avoid believing it when we read that holy men of old spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” And when has the Holy Ghost ceased to have an influence upon men? We find that still he deals with his ministers and with all his saints. Turn to the Acts, and you will find that the Holy Ghost said, “ Separate me Paul and Barnabas for the work.” I never heard of an attribute saying such a thing. The Holy Spirit said to Peter, “ Go to the Centurion, and what I have cleansed, that call not thou common.” The Holy Ghost caught away Philip after he had baptized the Eunuch, and carried him away to another place ; and the Holy Ghost said to Paul, Thou shalt not go into that city, but shall turn into another.” And we know that the Holy Ghost was lied unto by Ananias and Sapphira, when it was said, Thou hast not lied unto man, but unto God.” Again, that power which we feel every day, who are called to preach — that wondrous spell which makes our lips so potent — that power which gives us PERSONALITY OF THE HOLY GHOST. , 5 ? thoughts which are like birds from a far-off region, not the natives of our soul — that influence which I some- times strangely feel, which, if it does not give me poetry and eloquence, gives me a might 1 never felt before, and lifts me above my fellow-man — that majesty with which he clothes his ministers, till in the midst of the battle they cry aha! like the war horse of Job, and move themselves like leviathans in the water — that power which gives us might over men, and causes them to sit and listen as if their ears were chained, as if they were entranced by the power of some magi- cian’s wand — that power must come from a person ; it must come from the Holy Ghost. But is it not said in Scripture, and do we not feel it, dear brethren, that it is the Holy Ghost who regenerates the soul ? It is tl:ke Holy Ghost who quickens us. ‘‘ You hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins.” It is the Holy Spirit who imparts the first germ of life, convincing us of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment to come. And is it not the Holy Spirit, who, after that flame is kindled, still fans it with the breath of his mouth and keeps it alive ? Its author is its preserver. Oh ! can it be said that it is the Holy Ghost who strives in men’s souls ; that it is the Holy Ghost who brings them to the foot of Sinai, and then guides them into the sweet place that is called Calvary — can it be said that he does all these things, and yet is not a person ? It may be said, but it must be said by fools ; for he never can be a wise man who can con- sider that these things can be done by any other than a glorious person — a divine existence. Allow me to give you one moje proof, and I shah have done. Certain feelings are ascribed to the Holy 6 * 54 SERMONS. Ghost, which can only be understood upon the supposi- tion that he is actually a person. In the 4th chapter of Ephesians, v. 30, it is said that the Holy Ghost can be grieved : ‘‘ Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God^ whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.’’ In Isaiah, chap. Ixiii. v. 10, it is said that the Holy Ghost can be vexed : ‘‘But they rebelled, and vexed his Holy Spirit ; therefore he was turned to be their enemy, and he fought against them.” In Acts, chap. vii. v. 51, you read that the Holy Ghost can be resisted: “Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcized in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost ; as your fathers did, so do ye.” And in the 5th chapter, v. 9, of the same book, you will find that the Holy Ghost may be tempted. We are there informed that Peter said to Ananias and Sap- phira, “ How is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord ? ” Now, these things could not be emotions which might be ascribed to a quality or an emanation ; they must be understood to relate to a person ; an influence could not be grieved ; it must be a person who can be grieved, vexed, or resisted. And now, dear brethren, I think I have fully estab- lished the point of the personality of the Holy Ghost ; allow me now, most earnestly, to impress upon you the absolute necessity of being sound upon the doctrine of the Trinity. I knew a man, a good minister of Jesus Christ he is now, and I believe he was before he turned his eyes unto heresy — he began to doubt the glorious divinity of our blessed Lord, and for years did he preach the heterodox doctrine, until one day he hap- pened to hear a very eccentric old minister preaching from the text, “ But there the glorious Lord shall be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams, wherein PERSONALITY OF THE HOLY GHOST. 55 shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby. Thy tacklings are loosed; they could not well strengthen their mast, they could not spread the sail.’’ “ Now,” said the old minister, ‘‘you give up the Trinity, and your tacldings are loosed, you cannot strengthen your masts. Once give up the doctrine of three persons, and your tacldings are all gone ; your mast, which ought to be a support to your vessel, is a rickety one, and shakes.” A gospel without a Trin- ity! it is a pyramid built upon its apex. A gospel without the Trinity ! it is a rope of sand that cannot hold together. A gospel without the Trinity! then, indeed, Satan can overturn it. But, give me a gospel with the Trinity, and the might of hell cannot pre- vail against it; no man can any more overthrow it than a bubble could split a rock, or a feather break in halves a mountain. Get the thought of the three per- sons, and you have the marrow of all divinity. Only know the Father, and know the Son, and know the Holy Ghost to be one, and all things will appear clear. This is the golden key to the secrets of nature ; this is the silken clue of the labyrinths of mystery, and he who understands this, will soon understand as much as mortals e’er can know. II. Now for our second point — the united agency of the three persons in the work of our salvation. Look at the text, and you will find all the tliree persons mentioned. “I” — that is the Son — “will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter.” There are the three persons mentioned, all of them doing something for om* salvation. “ I will pray,” says the Son. “ I will send,” says the Fa^-her. “ I will comfort,” says the Holy Ghost. Now, let us, for 56 SERMONS. a few moments, discourse upon this wondrous theme — the unity of the three persons with regard to the great purpose of the salvation of the elect. When God hrsi made man, he said, “ Let us make man,’’ not let me^ but, Let us make man in our own image.” The covenant Elohim said to each other, “ Let us unitedly become the creator of man.” ‘‘ So, when in ages far gone by, in eternity, they said, ‘‘ Let us save man ; ” it was not the Father who said, Let me save man,” but the three persons conjointly said, with one consent, “ Let us save man.” It is to me a source of sweet comfort to think that it is not one person of the Trinity that is engaged for my salvation ; it is not simply one person of the Godhead who vows that he will redeem me ; but it is a glorious trio of Godlike ones, and the three declare, unitedly, “ Yie will save man.” Now, observe here, that each person is spoken of as performing a separate office. “ I will pray,” says the Son ; that is intercession. I will send,” says the Fa- ther ; that is donation. “ I will comfort,” says the Holy Spirit ; that is supernatural influence. O ! if it were possible for us to see the three persons of the God- head, we should behold one of them standing before the throne, with outstretched hands, crying day and night, “ O Lord, how long? ” We should see one girt with Urim and Thummim, precious stones, on which are written the twelve names of the tribes of Israel ; we should behold him, crying unto his Father, “ Forget not thy promises, forget not thy covenant ; ” we should hear him make mention of our sorrows, and tell forth our griefs on our behalf, for he is our intercessor. And could we behold tlie Father, we should not see him a listless and idle spectator of the intercession of the Son, PERSONALITY OP THE HOLY GHOST. 57 V‘it we should see him with attentive ear listening to every word of Jesus, and granting every petition. Where is the Holy Spirit all the while ? Is he lying idle ? O no ; he is floating over the earth, and when he sees a weary soul, he says, “ Come to Jesus, he will give you rest;’’ when he beholds an eye filled with tears, he wipes away the tears, and bids the mourner look for comfort on the cross ; when he sees the tem- pest-tossed believer, he takes the helm of his soul and speaks the word of consolation ; he helpeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds ; and, ever on his mission of mercy, he flies around the world, being everywhere present. Behold, how the three persons work together. Do not then say, I am grateful to the Son ” — so you ought to be, but God the Son no more saves you than God the Father. Do not imagine that God the Father is a great tyrant, and that God the Son had to die to make him merciful. It was not to make the Father’s love flow towards his people. Oh no. One loves as much as the other ; the three are conjoined in the great purpose of rescuing the elect from damnation. But you must notice another thing in my text, which will show the blessed unity of the three — the one person promises to the other. The Son says, “ I will pray the Father.” “ Very well,” the disciples may have said, ‘‘We can trust you for that.” “ And he will send you.” You see, here is the Son signing a bond on behalf of the Father. “ He will send you another Comforter.” There is a bond on behalf of the Holy Spirit too. “ And he will abide with you forever.” One person speaks for the other, and how could they, if there were any disagreement between 58 SERMONS. them ? If one wished to save, and the other not, they could not promise on another’s behalf. But what- ever the Son says, the Father listens to; whatever the Father promises, the Holy Ghost works; and, what- ever the Holy Ghost injects into the soul, that God the Father fulfils. So, the three together mutually promise on one another’s behalf. There is a bond with three names appended — Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. By three immutable things, as well as by two, the Christian is secured beyond the reach of death and hell. A Trinity of securities, because there is a Trinity of God. HI. Our third point is, the indwelling of the Holy Ghost in believers. Now, beloved, these first two things have been matters of pure doctrine; this is the subject of experience. The indwelling of the Holy Ghost is a subject so profound, and so having to do with the inner man, that no soul will be able tTuly and really to comprehend what I say, unless it has been taught of God. I have heard of an old minister, who told a fellow of one of the Cambridge colleges, that he un- derstood a language that he never learnt in all his life. 1 have not,” he said, even a smattering of Greek, and I know no Latin, but thank God, I can talk the language of Canaan, and that is more than you can.” So, beloved, I shall now have to talk a little of the lan- guage of Canaan. If you cannot comprehend me, I am much afraid it is because you are not of Israelitish extraction ; you are not a child of God, nor an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven. We are told in the text, that Jesus would send the Comforter, who would abide in the saints forever ; who would dwell with them, and be in them. Old IgnatiuS; PERSONALITY OF THE HOLY GHOST. 59 the martyr, used to call himself Theophorus, or the God- bearer, because,” said he, “ I bear about with me the Holy Ghost.” And truly every Christian is a God- bearer. ‘‘ Know ye not that ye are the temples of the Holy Ghost ? for he dwelleth in you.” That man is no Christian who is not the subject of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit ; he may talk well, he may under- stand theology, and be a sound Calvinist ; he will be the child of nature finely dressed, but not the living child. He may be a man of so profound an intellect, so gigantic a soul, so comprehensive a mind, and so lofty an imagination, that he may dive into all the se- crets of nature, may know the path which the eagle’s eye hath not seen, and go into depths where the ken of mortals reacheth not, but he shall not be a Christian with all his knowledge, he shall not be a son of God with all his researches, unless he understands what it is to have the Holy Ghost dwelling in him, and abiding in him; yea, and that forever. Some people call this fanaticism, and they say, “ You are a Quaker; why not follow George Fox?” Well we would not mind that much : we would follow any one who followed the Holy Ghost. Even he, with a)) his eccentricities, I doubt not, was, in many cases, ac- tually inspired by the Ploly Spirit; and whenever I find a man in whom there rests the Spirit of God, the spirit within me leaps to hear the spirit within him, and we feel that we are one. The Spirit of God in one Christian soul recognises the Spirit in another. I re- collect talking with a good man, as I believe he was, who was insisting that it was impossible for us to know whether w^e had the Holy Spirit within us or not. J should like him to be here this morning, because I would 60 SERMONS. read this verse to him, “ But ye know him, for hedwel- ieth with you, and shall be in you.” Ah! you think you cannot tell whether you have the Holy Spirit or not. Can I tell whether I am alive or not ? If I were touched by electricity, could I tell whether I was or not ? I suppose I should ; the shock would be strong enough to make me know where I stood. So, if I have God within me — if I have Deity tabernaclmg in my breast — if I have God the Holy Ghost resting in my heart, and making a temple of my body, do you think I shall know it? Call ye it fanaticism if you will, but I trust that there are some of us who know what it is to be always, or generally, under the influ- ence of the Holy Spirit — always in one sense, gener- ally in another. When we have difficulties, we ask the direction of the Holy Ghost. When we do not under- stand a portion of Holy Scripture, we ask God the Holy Ghost to shine upon us. When we are depressed, the Holy Ghost comforts us. You cannot tell what the wondrous power of the indwelling of the Holy Ghost is; how it pulls back the hand of the saint when he would touch the forbidden thing ; how it prompts him to make a covenant with his eyes; how it binds his feet, lest they should fall in a slippery way ; how it restrains his heart, and keeps him from temptation. O ye, who know nothing of the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, despise it not. O despise not the Holy Ghost, for it is the unpardonable sin. “ He that speaketh a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him, but he that speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall never be forgiven him, either in this life, or that which is to come.” So saith the Word of God. Therefore, PERSONALITY OF THE HOLY GHOST. 61 tremble, lest in anything ye despise the influences of the Holy Spirit. But before closing this point, there is one little word that pleases me very much, that is “ forever.” You knew I should not miss that ; you were certain I could not let it go without observation. ‘‘ Abide with you forever.” I wish I could get an Arminian here to fin- ish my sermon. I fancy I see him taking that word forever.” He would say, “ for — forever ; ” he would have to stammer and stutter ; for he could never get it out all at once. He might stand and pull it about, and at last he would have to say, the translation is wrong.” And then I suppose the poor man would have to prove that the original was wTong too. Ah ! but blessed be God we can read it — ‘‘ He shall abide with you forever.” Once give me the Holy Ghost, and I shall never lose him till “ forever ” has run out ; till eternity has spun its everlasting rounds. IV. Now we have to close up with a brief remark on the reason why the world rejects the Holy Ghost. It is said, “ Whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him.” You know what is sometimes meant by the world ” — those whom God in his wondrous sovereignty passed over when he chose his people: the preterite ones; those passed over in God’s wondrous preterition — not the reprobates who were condemned to damnation by some awful decree; but those passed over by God, when he chose out his elect. These cannot receive the Spirit Again, it means all in a carnal state are not able to procure themselves this divine influence ; and, thus it is true, Whom the world cannot receive.” The unregenerate world of sinners despises the 6 62 SERMONS. Holy Ghost, ‘‘ because it seeth him not.’^ Yes, I be- lieve this is the great secret why many laugh at the idea of the existence of the Holy Ghost — because they see him not. Y^ou tell the worldling, I have the Holy Ghost within me.’’ He says, “ I cannot see it.” He wants it to be something tangible — a thing he can recognize with his senses. Have you ever heard the argument used by a good old Christian against an Infidel doctor ? The doctor said there was no soul, and asked, ‘‘Did you ever see a, soul?” “No,” said the Christian. “ Did you ever hear a soul ? ” “ No.” “ Did you ever smell a soul ? ” “ No.” “ Did you ever taste a soul ? ” “ No.” “ Did you ever feel a soul ? ” “ Y'es,” said the man — “ I feel I have one within me.” “ Well,” said the doctor, “there are four senses against one; you have only one on your side.” “ Very well,” said the Christian, “Did you ever see a pain? ” “ No.” “ Did you ever hear a pain ? ” “ No.” “ Did you ever smell a pain? ” “ No.” “ Did you ever taste a pain?” “ No.” “ Did you ever feel a pain ? ” “ Y"es.” “ And that is quite enough, I suppose, to prove there is a pain ? ” “ Yes.” So the worldling says there is no Holy Ghost, because he cannot see it. Weil, but we feel it. Y^ou say that is fanaticism, and that we never felt it. Suppose you tell me that honey is bitter, I reply, “ No, I am sure you cannot have tasted it ; taste it and try.” So with the Holy Ghost ; if you did but feel his influence, you would no longer say there is no Holy Spirit, because you cannot see it. Are there not many things, even in nature, which we cannot see? Did you ever see the wind ? No ; but ye know there is wind, when ye behold the hurricane tossing the waves about, and rending down the habitations of PERSONALITY OF THE HOLY GHOST. 63 men ; or when, in the soft evening zephyr, it kisses the flowers, and maketh dew-drops hang in pearly coronets around the rose. Did ye ever see electricity? No; but ye know there is such a thing, for it travels along the wires for thousands of miles, and carries our mes- sages ; though you cannot see the thing itself, you know there is such a thing. So you must believe there is a Holy Ghost working in us, both to will and to do, even though it is beyond our senses. But the last reason why worldly men laugh at the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, is, because they do not know it. If they know it by heartfelt experience, and if they recognized its agency in the soul ; if they had ever been touched by it ; if they had been made to tremble under a sense of sin ; if they had had their hearts melted, they would never have doubted the exist- ence of the Holy Ghost. And now, beloved, it says, ‘‘ He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.’’ We will close up with that sweet recollection — the Holy Ghost dwells in all believers, and shall be with them. One word of comment and advice to the saints of God, and to sinners, and I have done. Saints of the Lord! ye have this morning heard that God the Holy Ghost is a person ; ye have had it proved to your souls. What follows from this ? Why, it followeth how earnest ye should be in prayer to the Holy Spirit, as well as for the Holy Spirit Let me say that this is an inference that you should lift up your prayers to the Holy Ghost : that you should cry earnestly unto him ; for he is able to do exceeding abundantly above all you can speak or think. See this mass of people. What is to convert it? See this crowd. Who is to 64 SERMONS. make my Influence permeate through the mass ? You know this place now has a mighty influence, and, God blessing us, it will have an influence not only upon this city, but upon England at large ; for we now employ the press as well as the pulpit ; and certainly, I should say, before the close of the year, more than two hundred thousand of my productions will be scattered through the land — words uttered by my lips, or wTitten by my pen. But how can this influence be rendered for good? How shall God’s glory be promoted by it ? Only by incessant prayer for the Holy Spirit; by constantly calling down the influence of the Holy Ghost upon us ; we want him to rest upon every page that is printed, and upon every word that is uttered. Let us then be doubly earnest in pleading with the Holy Ghost, that he would come and own our labors ; that the whole church at large may be revived thereby, and not ourselves only, but the whole world share in the benefit. Then, to the ungodly, I have this one closing word to say. Ever be careful how you speak of the Holy Ghost. I do not know what the unpardonable sin is, and I do not think any man understands it ; but it is something like this : ‘‘ He that speaketh a word against the Holy Ghost, it shall never be forgiven him.” I do not know what that means ; but tread carefully I There is danger ; there is a pit which our ignorance has covered by sand ; tread carefully ! you may be in it before the next hour. If there is any strife in your heart to-day, perhaps you will go to the ale-house and forget it. Perhaps there is some voice speaking in your soul, and you will put it away. I do not teU you you will be resisting the Holy Ghost, and committing Pfi^ttSONALITY OP THE HOLY GHOST* 65 the unpardonable sin ; but it is somewhere there. Be very careful. O there is no crime on earth, so black as the crime against the Holy Spirit! Ye may blas- pheme the Father, and ye shall be damned for it, unless ye repent ; ye may blaspheme the Son, and heU shall be your portion, unless ye are forgiven ; but blaspheme the Holy Ghost, and thus saith the Lord : “ There is no forgiveness, either in this world nor in the world which is to come.’’ I cannot tell you what it is ; Ido not profess to understand it; but there it is. It is the danger signal ; stop! man, stop! If thou hast despised the Holy Spirit — if thou hast laughed at his revelations, and scorned what Christians call his influence, I beseech thee, stop! This morning seriously deliberate. Perhaps some of you have actually committed the unpardonable sin; stop! Let fear stop you; sit down. Do not drive on so rashly as you have done, Jehu ! O slacken your reins ! Thou who art such a profligate in sin — thou who hast uttered such hard words against the Trinity, stop ! Ah, it makes us all stop. It makes us all draw up, and say, “ Have I not perhaps so done ? ” Let us think of this ; and let us not at any time trifle either with the words or the acts of God the Holy Ghost SERMON IV. THE COMFORTER. ‘ Cut the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever 1 have said unto you.’ — John xiv. 26. Good old Simeon called Jesus the consolation of Israel ; and so he was. Before his actual appearance, his name was the day-star ; cheering the darkness, and prophetic of the rising sun. To him they looked with the same hope which cheers the nightly watcher, when from the lonely castle-top he sees the fairest of the stars, and hails her as the usher of the morn. When he was on earth, he must have been the consolation of all those who were privileged to be his companions. We can imagine how readily the disciples would run to Christ to tell him of their griefs, and how sweetly, with that matchless intonation of his voice, he would speak to them, and bid their fears be gone. Like chil- dren, they would consider him as their Father; and to him every want, every groan, every sorrow, every agony, would at once be carried ; and he, like a wise physician, had a balm for every wound ; he had mingled a cordial for their every care ; and readily did he dispense some ( 06 ) THE COMFORTER. 67 mighty remedy to allay all the fever of their troubles. Oh ! it must have been sweet to have lived with Christ. Surely, sorrows were then but joys in masks, because they gave an opportunity to go to Jesus to have them removed. Oh ! would to God, some of us may say, that we could have lain our weary heads upon the bosom of Jesus, and that our birth had been in that happy era, when we might have heard his kind voice, and seen his kind look, when he said, Let the weary ones come unto me.” But now he was about to die. Great prophecies were to be fulfilled ; and great purposes were to be an- swered; and therefore, Jesus must go. It behoved him to suffer, that he might be made a propitiation for our sins. It behoved him to slumber in the dust awhile, that he might perfume the chamber of the grave to make it — “No more a charnel house to fence The relics of lost innocence.’* It behoved him to have a resurrection, that we, who shall one day be the dead in Christ, might rise first, and in glorious bodies stand upon earth. And it behoved him that he should ascend up on high, that he might lead captivity captive; that he might chain the fiends of hell; that he might lash them to his chariot-wheels, and drag them up high heaven’s hill, to make them feel a second overthrow from his right arm, when he should dash them from the pinnacles of heaven down to the deeper depths beneath. ‘‘ It is right I should go away from you,” said Jesus, ‘‘ for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come.” Jesus must go. Weep, ye disciples : Jesus must be gone. Mourn, y$ poor ones, who are to 68 SERMONS. be left without a Comforter. But hear how kindly Jesus speaks : ‘‘ I will not leave you comfortless, I will pray the Father, and he shall send you another Com- forter, who shall be with you, and shall dwell in you forever.” He would not leave those few poor sheep alone in the wilderness ; he would not desert his child- ren, and leave them fatherless. Albeit that he had a mighty mission which did fill his heart and hand ; albeit he had so much to perform, that we might have thought that even his gigantic intellect would be overburdened; albeit he had so much to suffer, that we might suppose his whole soul to be concentrated upon the thought of the sufferings to be endured. Yet it was not so ; before he left, he gave soothing words of comfort; like the good Samaritan, he poured in oil and wine, and we see what he promised : ‘‘ I will send you another Com- forter — one who shall be just what I have been, yea, even more; who shall console you in your sorrows, re- move your doubts, comfort you in your afflictions, and stand as my vicar on earth, to do that which I would have done had I tarried with you.” Before I discourse of the Holy Ghost as the Com- forter, I must make one or two remarks on the dif- ferent translations of the word rendered Comforter.” The Ehemish translation, which you are aware is adopted by Roman Catholics, has left the word un- translated, and gives it ‘‘ Paraclete.” ‘‘ But the Para- clete, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things.” This is the original Greek word, and it has some other mean- ings beside “ Comforter.” Sometimes it means the monitor or instructor: ‘‘ I will send you another moni-“ lor, another teacher.” Frequently it means “ Advo- THE COMFORTER. 69 cate;” but the most common meaning of the word is that which we have here : I will send you another Com- forter.^^ Plowever, we cannot pass over those other two interpretations without saying something upon them. ‘‘ I will send you another teacher.” Jesus Christ had been the official teacher of his saints whilst on earth. They called no man Rabbi except Christ. They sat at no men’s feet to learn their doctrines; but they had them direct from the lips of him who spake as never man spake.” “ And now,” says he, ‘‘ when I am gone, where shall you find the great infallible teacher ? Shall I set you up a pope at Rome, to whom you shall go, and who shall be your infallible oracle ? Shall I give you the councils of the church to be held to decide all knotty points ? ” Christ said no such thing. “ I am the infallible paraclete, or teacher, and when I am gone, I will send you another teacher, and he shall be the per- son who is to explain Scripture ; he shall be the author- itative oracle of God, who shall make all dark things light, who shall unravel mysteries, who shall untwist all knots of revelation, and shall make you understand what you could not discover, had it not been for his influence.” And, beloved, no man ever learns anything aright, unless he is taught of the Spirit. You may learn election, and you may know it so that you shall be damned by it, if you are not taught of the Holy Ghost ; for 1 have known some who have learned elec- tion to their soul’s destruction : they have learned it so that they said they were of the elect, whereas, they had no marks, no evidences, and no works of the Holy Ghost in their souls. There is a way of learning truth in Satan’s college, and holding it in licentiousness ; but 70 SERMONS. if SO, it shall be to your souls as poison to your veins, and prove your everlasting ruin. No man can Imow Jesus Christ unless he is taught of God. There is no doctrine of the Bible which can be safely, thoroughly, and truly learned, except by the agency of the one author- itative teacher. Ah ! tell me not of systems of divinity; tell me not of schemes of theology ; tell me not of in- fallible commentators, or most learned and most arro- gant doctors ; but tell me of the Great Teacher, who shall instruct us, the sons of God, and shall make us wise to understand aU things. He is the Teacher ; it matters not what this man or that man says ; I rest on no man’s boasting authority, nor will you. Ye are not to be carried away with the craftiness of men, nor sleight of words ; this is the authoritative oracle — the Holy Ghost resting in the hearts of his children. The other translation is advocate. Have you ever thought how the Holy Ghost can be said to be an ad- vocate ? You know Jesus Christ is called the wonder- ful, the counsellor, the mighty God ; but how can the Holy Ghost be said to be an advocate ? I suppose it is thus : he is an advocate on earth to plead against the enemies of the cross. How was it that Paul could so ably plead before Felix and Agrippa ? How was it that the Apostles stood unawed before the magistrates, and confessed their Lord ? How has it come to pass, that in all times God’s ministers have been made fearless as lions, and their brows have been firmer than brass • their hearts sterner than steel, and their words like the language of God ? Why, it was simply for this reason : that it was not the man who pleaded, but it was God the Holy Ghost pleading through him. Have you? never seen an earnest minister, with hands uplifted THE COMFORTER. 71 and eyas dropping tears, pleading with the sons of men ? Have you never admired that portrait from the hand of old John Banyan ? — a grave person with eyes lifted up to heaven, the best of books in his hand, the law of truth written on his lips, the world behind his back, standing as if he pleaded with men, and a crown of gold hanging over his head. Who gave that minister so blessed a manner, and such goodly matter ? Whence came his skill ? Did he acquire it in the college ? Did he learn it in the seminary ? Ah, no. He learned it of the God of Jacob ; he learned it of the Holy Ghost; for the Holy Ghost is the great counsellor who teaches us how to advocate his cause aright. But, besides this, the Holy Ghost is the advocate in men’s hearts. Ah ! I have known men reject a doctrine until the Holy Ghost began to illuminate them. We who are the advocates of the truth, are often very poor pleaders ; we spoil our cause by the words we use ; but it is a mercy that the brief is in the hand of a special pleader, who will advocate successfully, and overcome the sinner’s opposition. Did you ever know him fail once ? Brethren, I speak to your souls : has not God in old times convinced you of sin ? Did not the Holy Ghost come and prove that you were guilty, although no minister could ever get you out of your self-right- eousness ? Did he not advocate Christ’s righteousness? Did he not stand and tell you that your works were filthy rags ? And when you had well-nigh still refused to listen to his voice, did he not fetch hell’s drum and make it sound about your ears ; bidding you look through the vista of future years, and see the tlirone set, and the books open, and the sword brandished, and hell burning, and fiends howling, and the damned shrieking forever? And 72 SERMONS. did he not convince you of the judgment to come ? He is a mighty advocate when he pleads in the soul, of sin, of righteousness, and of the judgment to come. Bles- sed advocate ! plead in my heart ; plead with my con- science. When I sin, make conscience bold to tell me of it; when I err, make conscience speak at once; and when I turn aside to crooked ways, then advocate the cause of righteousness, and bid me sit down in con- fusion, knowing my guiltiness in the sight of God. But there is yet another sense in which the Holy Ghost advocates, and that is, he advocates our cause with Jesus Christ, with groanings that cannot be ut- tered. O my soul ! thou art ready to burst within me. O my heart! thou art swelled with grief. The hot tide of my emotion would well-nigh overflood the chan- nels of my veins. I long to speak, but the very desire chains my tongue. I wish to pray, but the fervency of my feeling curbs my language. There is a groaning within that cannot be uttered. Do you know who can utter that groaning ? who can understand it, and who can put it into heavenly language, and utter it in a ce- lestial tongue, so that Christ can hear it ? O yes ; it is God the Holy Spirit ; he advocates our cause with Christ, and then Christ advocates it with his Father. He is the advocate who maketh intercession for us, with groanings that cannot be uttered. Having thus explained the Spirit’s ofiice as a teacher and advocate, we now come to the translation of our version, the Comforter ; and here I shall have three di- visions : first, the comforter ; secondly, the comfort ; and thirdly, the comforted, L First, then, the Comforter. Briefly let me run over in my mind, and in your minds too, the character- THE COMFORTER, 73 Istics of this glorious Comforter. Let me tell you some of the attributes of his comfort, so that you may un- derstand how well adapted he is to your case. And first, we will remark that God the Holy Ghost is a very loving Comforter. I am in distress, and I want consolation. Some passer by hears of my sorrow, and he steps within, sits down, and essays to cheer me ; he speaks soothing words, but he loves me not ; he is a stranger ; he knows me not at all ; he has only come in to try his skill. And what is the consequence ? His words run o’er me like oil upon a slab of marble ; they are like the pattering rain upon the rock ; they do not break my grief ; it stands unmoved as adamant, because he has no love for me. But let some one who loves me dear as his own life, come and plead with me, then truly his words are music ; they taste like honey : he knows the password of the doors of my heart, and my ear is atten- tive to every word : I catch the intonation of each sylla- ble as it falls, for it is like the harmony of the harps of heaven. Oh ! there is a voice in love, it speaks a lan- guage which is its own : it has an idiom and a brogue which none can mimic; wisdom cannot imitate it; oratory cannot attain unto it ; it is love alone which can reach the mourning heart ; love is the only hand- kerchief which can wipe the mourner’s tears away. And is not the Holy Ghost a loving comforter ? Dost thou know, O saint, how much the Holy Spirit loves thee? Canst thou measure the love of the Spirit? Dost thou know how great is the affection of his soul towards thee? Go measure heaven with thy span; go weigh the mountains in the scales ; go take the ocean’s water, and tell each drop ; go count the sand upon the sea’s wide shore ; and when thou hast accom- 7 74 SERMONS. plished this, thou canst tell how much he loveth thee. He has loved thee long, he has loved thee well, he loved thee ever, and he still shall love thee ; surely he IS the person to comfort thee, because he loves. Admit him, then, to your heart, O Christian, that he may com- fort you in your distress. But next, he is a faithful Comforter. Love some- times proveth unfaithful. Oh ! sharper than a ser- pent’s tooth ” is an unfaithful friend ! Oh ! far more bitter than the gall of bitterness, to have a friend turn from me in my distress ! Oh ! woe of woes, to have one who loves me in my prosperity, forsake me in the dark day of my troubloc Sad indeed ; but such is not God’s Spirit. He ever loves, and loves even to the end — a faithful Comforter. Child of God, you are in trouble. A little while ago, you found him a sweet and loving Comforter; you obtained relief from him when others were but broken cisterns ; he sheltered you in his bosom, and carried you in his arms. Ob, where- fore dost thou distrust him now? Away with thy fears ; for he is a faithful Comforter. ‘‘ Ah ! but,” thou sayest, I fear I shall be sick, and shall be deprived of his ordinances.” Nevertheless, he shall visit thee on thy sick bed, and sit by thy side, to give thee consolation. “ Ah ! but I have distresses greater than you can con- ceive of ; wave upon wave rolleth over me ; deep cail- eth unto deep, at the noise of the Eternal’s water- spouts.” Nevertheless, he will be faithful to his promise. Ah ! but I have sinned.” So thou hast, but sin can- not sever thee from his love ; he loves thee still. Think not, O poor downcast child of God, because the scars of thine old sins have marred thy beauty, that he loves thee less because of that blemish. O no ! He loved THE COMFOKTER. 75 rhee when he foreknew thy sin ; he loved thee with the knowledge of what the aggregate of thy wickedness would be ; and he does not love thee less now. Come to him in all boldness of faith; tell him thou hast grieved him, and he will forget thy wandering, and will receive thee again; the kisses of his love shall be bestowed upon thee, and the arms of his grace shall embrace thee. He is faithful : trust him, he will never deceive you ; trust him, he will never leave you. Again, he is an unwearied Comforter. I have some- times tried to comfort persons, and have been tired. You, now and then, meet with the case of a nervous person. You ask, “ What is your trouble?^’ You are told; and you essay, if possible, to remove it; but while you are preparing your artillery to battle the trou- ble, you find that it has shifted its quarters, and is oc- cupying quite a different position. You change your argument and begin again ; but lo, it is again gone, and you are bewildered. You feel like Hercules, cut- ting off the ever-growing heads of the Hydra, and you give up your task in despair. You meet with persons whom it is impossible to comfort, reminding one of the man who locked himself up in fetters, and tlirew the key away, so that nobody could unlock him. I have found some in the fetters of despair. O, I am the man,” say they, “ that has seen aflliction ; pity me, pity me, O, my friends ; ” and the more you try to comfort such people, the worse they get; and, therefore, out of all heart, we leave them to wander alone, among the tombs of their former joys. But the Holy Ghost is never out of heart with those whom he wishes to com- fort. He attempts to comfort us, and we run away from the sweet cordial ; he gives some sweet di*aught 76 SERMONS. to cure US, and we will not drink it ; he gives some wondrous potion to charm away all our troubles, and we put it away from us. Still he pursues us; and though we say that we will not be comforted, he says we shall be, and when he has said, he does it; he is not to be wearied by all our sins, nor by all our murmur- ings. And oh, how wise a Comforter is the Holy Ghost. Job had comforters, and I think he spoke the truth, when he said, “ Miserable comforters are ye all.” But I dare say they esteemed themselves wise ; and when the young man Elihu rose to speak, they thought he had a world of impudence. Were they not grave and reverend seniors ? ” Did not they comprehend his grief and sorrow ? If they could not comfort him, who could ? But they did not find out the cause. They thought he was not really a child of God, that he was self-righteous, and they gave him the wrong physic. It is a bad case when the doctor mistakes a disease, and gives a wrong prescription, and so, perhaps, kills the patient. Sometimes, when we go and visit people, we mistake their disease ; we want to comfort them on this point, whereas they do not require any such com- fort at all, and they would be better left alone, than spoiled by such unwise comforters as we are. But oh, how wise the Holy Spirit is ! he takes the soul, lays it on the table, and dissects it in a moment ; he finds out the root of the matter, he sees where the complaint is, and then he applies the knife where something is re- quired to be taken away, or puts a plaster where the sore is ; and he never mistakes. O, how wise is the blessed Holy Ghost ; from every comforter I turn and THE COMFORTER. 77 leave them all, for thou art he who alone givest the wisest consolation. Then mark, how safe a Comforter the Holy Ghost is. All comfort is not safe, mark that. There is a young man over there very melancholy. You know how he became so. He stepped into the house of God and heard a powerful preacher, and the word was blessed, and convinced him of sin. When he went home, his father and the rest found there was something different about him, “ Oh,” they said, ‘‘John is mad, he is crazy; ” and what said his mother ? “ Send him into the coun- try for a week ; let him go to the ball, or the theatre.” John, did you find any comfort there ? “ Ah, no; they made me worse, for while I was there, I thought hell might open and swallow me up.” Did you find any relief in the gayeties of the world? “No,” say you, “I thought it was idle waste of time.” Alas! this is miserable comfort, but it is the comfort of the world- ling; and, when a Christian gets into distress, how many will recommend him this remedy and the other. “Go and hear Mr. So-and-so preach;” “have a few friends at your house;” “read such-and-such a consol- ing volume ;” and very likely it is the most unsafe ad- vice in the world. The devil will sometimes come to men’s souls as a false comforter; and he will say to the soul, “what need is there to make all this ado about repentance ? you are no worse than other people;” and he will try to make the soul believe, that what is pre- sumption, is the real assurance of the Holy Ghost; thus he deceives many by false comfort. Ah! there have been many, like infants, destroyed by elixirs, given to lull them to sleep ; many have been ruined by the cry of “ peace, peace,” when there is no peace ; hearing 7 * 78 SERMONS, gentle things, when they ought to be stirred to the quick. Cleopatra’s asp was brought in a basket of dowers; and men’s ruin often lurks in fair and sweet speeches. But the Holy Ghost’s comfort is safe, and you may rest on it. Let him speak the word, and there is a reality about it ; let him give the cup of consolation, and you may drink it to the bottom; for in its depths there are no dregs, nothing to intoxicate or ruin, it is all safe. Moreover, the Holy Ghost is an Comforter: he does not comfort by words, but by deeds. Some com- fort by, “ Be ye warmed, and be ye filled, giving no- thing.” But the Holy Ghost gives, he intercedes with Jesus; he gives us promises, he gives us grace, and so he comforts us. Mark again, he is always a successful Comforter; he never attempts what he cannot accom- plish. Then, to close up, he is an ever-present Comforter, so that you never have to send for him. Your God is al- ways near you; and when you need comfort in your distress, behold the word is nigh thee ; it is in thy mouth, and in thy heart. He is an ever-present help in time of trouble. I wish I had time to expand these thoughts, but I cannot. H. The second thing is, the comfort. Now, there are some persons who make a great mistake about the influence of the Holy Spirit. A foolish man who had a fancy to preach in a certain pulpit, though in truth he was quite incapable of the duty, called upon the minister, and assured him solemnly, that it had been revealed to him by the Holy Ghost that he was to preach in his pulpit. “ Very well,” said the minister, “1 sup- pose I must not doubt your assertion, but as it has not THE COMFORTER. 79 been revealed to me that I am to let you preach, you must go your way, until it is.” I have heard many fanatical persons say the Holy Spirit revealed this and that to them. Now, that is very generally revealed non- sense. The Holy Ghost does not reveal anything fresh now. ‘ He brings old things to our remembrance. He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have told you.” The canon of revelation is closed, there is no more to be added ; God does not give a fresh revelation, but he rivets the old one. When it has been forgotten, and laid in the dusty chamber of our memory, he fetches it out and cleans the picture, but does not paint a new one. There are no new doctrines, but the old ones are often revived. It is not, I say, by any new revelation that the Spirit comforts. He does so by telling us old things over again; he brings a fresh lamp to manifest the treasures hidden in Scriptm'e; he unlocks the strong chests in which the truth has long lain, and he points to secret chambers filled with untold riches; but he coins no more, for enough is done. Believer! there is enough in the Bible for thee to live upon forever. If thou shouldst outnumber the years of Methuselah, there would be no need for a fresh revelation; if thou shouldst live till Christ should come upon the earth, there would be no necessity for the addition of a single word; if thou shouldst go down as deep as Jonah, or even descend as David said he did, into the belly of hell, still there would be enough in the Bible to comfort thee without a supplementary sentence. But Christ says, He siiall take of mine, and show it unto you.” Now, let me just tell you briefly, what it is the Holy Ghost tells us. Ah! does he not whisper to the heart, Saint, be of so SERMONS. good cheer — there is one who died for thee; look tt Calvary, behold his wounds, see the torrent gushing from his side — there is thy purchaser, and thou art se- cure. He loves thee with an everlasting love, and this chastisement* is meant for thy good; each stroke is working thy healing; by the blueness of the wound thy soul is made better.” “ Whom he loveth he chasteneth^ and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.” Doubt not his grace, because of thy tribulation ; but believe that he loveth thee as much in seasons of trouble, as in times of happiness. And then, moreover, he says, What is aB thy suffering compared with that of thy Lord’s? or what, when weighed in the scales of Jesus’ agonies, is all thy distress?” And especially at times does the Holy Ghost take back the veil of heaven, and lets the soul behold the glory of the upper world! Then it is that the saint can say, ‘‘ O thou art a Comforter to me!” “ Let cares like a wild deluge come, And storms of sorrow fall ; May I but safely reach my home, My God, my heaven, my all.” Some of you could follow, were I to tell of manifesta- tions of heaven. You, too, have left sun, moon, and stars at your feet, while, in your flight, outstripping the tardy lightning, you have seemed to enter the gates of pearl, and tread the golden streets, borne aloft on wings of the Spirit. But here we must not trust ourselves; lest, lost in reverie, we forget our theme. HI. And now, thirdly, who are the comforted per- sons? I like, you know, at the end of my sermon to cry out, Divide ! divide ! ” There are two parties here — some who are comforted, and others who are THE COMFORTER. 81 tne comfortless ones — some who have received the consolations of the Holy Ghost, and some who have not Now let us try and sift you, and see which is the chaff, and which is the wheat ; and may God grant that some of the chaff may, this night, be transformed into his wheat ! You may say, “ How am I to know whether I am a recipient of the comfort of the Holy Ghost?’’ You may know it by one rule. If you have received one blessing from God, you will receive all other blessings too. Let me explain myself. If I could come here as an auctioneer, and sell the gospel off in lots, I should dispose of it all. If I could say, here is justification through the blood of Christ — free; giving away, gratis ; many a one would say, ‘‘ I will have justifica- tion ; give it me : I wish to be justified ; I wish to be pardoned.” Suppose I took sanctification, the giving up of all sin, a thorough change of heart, leaving off drunkenness and swearing ; many would say, ‘‘ I don’t want that ; I should like to go to heaven, but I do not want that holiness ; I should like to be saved at last, but I should like to have my drink still ; I should like to enter glory, but theji. I must have an oath or two on the road.” Nay, but, sinner, if thou hast one bless- ing, thou shalt have all. God will never divide the gospel. He wiU not give justification to that man, and sanctification to another — pardon to one and holi- ness to another. No, it all goes together. Whom he calls, them he justifies ; whom he justifies, them he sanctifies ; and whom he sanctifies, them he also glori- fies. O ! if I could lay down nothing but the comforts of the gospel, ye would fly to them as flies do to honey. When ye come to be ill, ye send for the clergyman. 82 SERMONS. Ah ! you all want your minister then to come and give you consoling words. But, if he be an honest man, he will not give some of you a particle of consolation. He will not commence pouxing oil when the knife would be better. I want to make a man feel his sins before 1 dare tell him anything about Christ. I want to probe into his soul and make him feel that he is lost before 1 tell him anything about the pui'chased bless- ing. It is the ruin of many to tell them, ‘‘ Now just believe on Christ, and that is all you have to do.’’ If, instead of dying, they get better, they rise up white- washed hypocrites — that is all. I have heard of a city missionary who kept a record of two thousand persons who were supposed to be on their death-bed, but recovered, and whom he should have put down as converted persons had they died; and how many do you think lived a Christian life afterwards out of the two thousand? Not two. Positively he could only find one who was found to live afterwards in the fear of God. Is it not horrible that when men and women come to die, they should cry, “comfort, comfort?” and tha1 hence their friends conclude that they are children of God, while, after all, they have no right to consola- tion, but are intruders upon the enclosed grounds of the blessed God. O God, may these people ever be kept from having comfort when they have no right to it! Have you the other blessings? Have you had the com viction of sin ? Have you ever felt your guilt before God? Have your souls been humbled at Jesus’ feet? And have you been made to look to Calvary alone for your refuge ? If not, you have no right to consolation. Do not take an atom of it. The Spirit is a convince! before he is a Comforter; and you must have the other THE COMFORTER. 83 operations of the Holy Spirit, before you can derive anything from this. And now I have done. You have heard what this babbler hath said once more. What has it been? Something about the Comforter. But let me ask you, before you go, what do you know about the Comfor- ter ? Each one of you, before descending the steps of this chapel, let this solemn question thrill through your souls — What do you know of the Comforter ? O ! poor souls, if ye know not the Comforter, I will tell you what you shall know. You shall know the Judge! If ye know not the Comforter on earth, ye shall know the Condemner in the next world, who shall cry, ‘‘ De- part, ye cursed, into everlasting fire in hell.” Well might Whitfield call out, “ O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord ! ” If ye were to live here for- ever, ye might slight the gospel ; if ye had a lease of your lives, ye might despise the Comforter. But, sirs, ye must die. Since last we met together, probably some have gone to their long last home ; and ere we meet again in this sanctuary, some here will be amongst the glorified above, or amongst the damned below. Which will it be ? Let your soul answer. If to-night you fell down dead in your pews, or where you are standing in the gallery, where would you be ? in heaven or in hell? Ah! deceive not your- selves ; let conscience have its perfect work ; and if, in the sight of God, you are obliged to say, “ I tremble and fear lest my portion should be with unbelievers,” listen one moment, and then I have done with thee. ‘‘ He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned.” Weary sinner, hellish sinner, thou who art the devil’s castaway, repro- 84 SERMONS. bate, profligate, harlot, robber, thief, adulterer, fornica- tor, drunkard, swearer, Sabbath-breaker — list! I speak to thee as well as to the rest. I exempt no man. God hath said there is no exemption here. “ Whosoever be- lieveth on the name of Jesus Christ shall be saved.” Sin is no barrier: thy guilt is no obstacle. Whosoever — though he were as black as Satan, though he were filthy as a fiend — whosoever this night believes, shall have every sin forgiven, shall have every crime effaced ; shall have every iniquity blotted out ; shall be saved in the Lord Jesus Christ, and shall stand in heaven safe and secure. That is the glorious gospel. God apply it to your hearts, and give you faith in Jesus ! “We haye listened to the preacher — Truth by him has now been shown ; But we want a greater teacher. From the everlasting throne : APPLICATION Is the work of God alone, SERMON V. CHRIST CRUCIRIED. “But we preach Christ crucifled, unto the Jews a stumbling-block, and unto the Greeks foolishness; but unto them which art called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.” — 1 Coa. I. 23, 24. What contempt hath God poured upon the wisdom of this world! How hath he brought it to nought, and made it appear as nothing. He has allowed it to work out its own conclusions, and prove its own folly. Men boasted that they were wise ; they said that they could find out God to perfection ; and in order that their folly might be refuted once and forever, God gave them the opportunity of so doing. He said, “Worldly wisdom, I will try thee. Thou sayest that thou art mighty, that thine intellect is vast and comprehensive, that thine eye is keen, and thou canst find all secrets ; now, behold, I try thee; I give thee one great problem to solve. Here is the universe ; stars make its canopy, fields and flowers adorn it, and the floods roll o’er its surface ; my name is written therein ; the invisible things of God may be clearly seen in the things which are made.” “Philosophy, I give thee this problem — find me out Here are my works — find me out. Discover in the 8 ( 8 /^- 86 SERMONS. wondrous world which I have made, the way to wor- ship me acceptably. I give thee space enough to do it — there are data enough. Behold the clouds, the earth, and the stars. I give thee time enough ; I will give thee four thousand years, and I will not interfere ; but tliou shalt do as thou wilt with thine own world. I will give thee men enough; for I will make great minds and vast, whom thou shalt call lords of earth ; thou shalt have orators, thou shalt have philosophers. Find me out, O reason ; find me out, O wisdom ; find me out, if thou canst ; find me out unto perfection ; and if thou canst not, then shut thy mouth forever, and then will I teach thee that the wisdom of God is wiser than the wisdom of man; yea, that the foolishness of God is wiser than men.’’ And how did the wisdom of man work out the problem? How did wisdom perform her feat? Look upon the heathen nations; there you see the result of wisdom’s researches. In the time of Jesus Christ, you might have beheld the earth covered with the slime of pollution, a Sodom on a large scale — cor- rupt, filthy, depraved; indulging in vices which we dare not mention ; revelling in lust too abominable even for our imagination to dwell upon for a moment. We find the men prostrating themselves before blocks of wood and stone, adoring ten thousand gods more vicious than themselves. We find, in fact, that reason wrote out her lines with a finger covered with blood and filth; and that she forever cut herself out from all her glory by the vile deeds she did. She would not worship God. She would not bow down to him who is ^‘clearly seen,” but she worshipped any creature — the reptile that crawled, the crocodile, the viper — everything might be a god; but not, forsooth, the God of heaven. Vice cmiisr CRUCIFIED. 87 might be made into a ceremony, the greatest crime might be exalted into a religion; but true worship she xnew nothing of. Poor reason! poor wisdom! how art thou fallen from heaven; like Lucifer, thou son of the morning! thou art lost; thou hast wiitten out thy con- clusion, but a conclusion of consummate folly. “ After that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preach- ing to save them that believe.’’ Wisdom had had its time, and time enough ; it had done its all, and that was little enough ; it had made the world worse than it was before it stepped upon it, and ‘^now,” says God, “foolishness shall overcome wisdom ; now ignorance, as ye call it, shall sweep away science; now (saith God,) humble, child-like faith shall crumble to the dust all the colossal systems your hands have piled.” He calls his warriors. Christ puts his trumpet to his mouth, and up come the warriors, clad in fishermen’s garb, with the brogue of the lake of Gablee — poor humble mariners. Here are the warriors, O wisdom, that are to confound thee ; these are the heroes who shall overcome thy proud philosophers ; these men are to plant their standard upon thy ruined walls, and bid them fall forever ; these men and their successors are to exalt a gospel in the world which ye may laugh at as absurd, which ye may sneer at as folly, but which shall be exalted above the hills, and shall be glorious even to the highest heavens. Since that day, God has always raised up successors of the apostles. I claim to be a successor of the apostles ; not by any lineal descent, but because I have the same roll and charter as any apostle, and am as much called to preach the gospel as Paul himself ; if not as much owned by the 88 SKIOIONS. convcrsioil of sinners, yet, in a measure, blessed of God; and, therefore, here 1 stand, foolish as Paul might be, foolish as Peter, or any of those fishermen ; but still with the might of God I grasp the sword of truth, coming here to “preach Christ and him crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling-block, and unto the Greeks fool- ishness; but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.” Before I enter upon our text, let me very briefly tell you what I believe preaching Christ and him crucified is. My friends, 1 do not believe it is preaching Christ and him crucified, to give people a batch of philoso- phy every Sunday morning and evening, and neglect the truths of this Holy Book. I do not believe it is preaching Christ and him crucified, to leave out the main cardinal doctrines of the Word of God, and preach a religion which is all a mist and a haze, with- out any definite truths whatever. I take it that man does not preach Christ and him crucified, who can get through a sermon without mentioning Christ’s name once ; nor does that man preach Christ and him cruci- fied, who leaves out the Holy Spirit’s work, who never says a word about the Holy Ghost, so that indeed the hearers might say, “We do not so much as know whether there be a Holy Ghost.” And I have my own private opinion, that there is no such thing as preach- ing Christ and him crucified, unless you preach what now-a-days is called Calvinism. I have my own ideas, and those I always state boldly. It is a nickname to call it Calvanism. Calvinism is the gospel, and nothing else. I do not believe we can preach the gospel, if we do not preach justification by faith without works ; no) CHRIST CRUCIFIED. 89 unless we preach the sovereignty of God in his dispen- sation of grace ; nor unless we exalt the electing, un- changeable, eternal, immutable, conquering love of Je- hovah ; nor, I think, can we preach the gospel, unless we base it upon the peculiar redemption which Christ made for his elect and chosen people ; nor can I com- prehend a gospel which lets saints fall away after they are called, and suffers the children of God to be burned in the fires of damnation, after having believed. Such a gospel 1 abhor. The gospel of the Bible is not such a gospel as that. We preach Christ and him crucified in a different fashion, and to aU gainsayers we reply, ‘‘We have not so learned Christ.” * There are three things in the text: first, a gospel re- jected, “ Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the Greeks foolishness;” secondly, a gospel tri- umphant, “ unto those who are called, both Jews and Greeks ; ” and thirdly, a gospel admired ; it is to them who are called “ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” L First, we have here a gospel rejected. One would have imagined that, when God sent his gospel to men, all men would meekly listen, and humbly receive its truths. We should have thought that God’s ministers had but to proclaim that life is brought to light by the gospel, and that Christ is come to save sinners, and every ear would be attentive, every eye would be fixed, and every heart would be wide open to receive the truth. We should have said, judging favorably of our fellow-creatures, that there would not exist in the world a monster so vile, so depraved, so polluted, as to put so much as a stone in the way of the progress of truth; we could not have conceived such a thing; yet 8 * 90 SERMONS. that conception is the truth. When the gospel was* preached, instead of being accepted and admired, one universal hiss went up to heaven ; men could not bear it ; its first preacher they dragged to the brow of the hill, and would have sent him down headlong ; yea, they did more — they nailed him to the cross, and there they let him languish out his dying life in agony such as no man hath borne since. All his chosen ministers have been hated and abhorred by worldlings ; instead of being listened to, they have been scoffed at ; treated as if they were the offscouring of all things, and the very scum of mankind. Look at the holy men in the old times, how they were driven from city to city, perse- cuted, afflicted, tormented, stoned to death, wherevei the enemy had power to do so. Those friends of men those real philanthropists, who came with hearts big with love, and hands full of mercy, and lips pregnant with celestial fire, and souls that burned with holy in- fluence ; those men were treated as if they were spies in the camp, as if they were deserters from the com- mon cause of mankind ; as if they were enemies, and not, as they truly were, the best of friends. Do not suppose, my friends, that men like the gospel any bet- ter now than they did then. There is an idea that you are growing better. I do not believe it. You are growing worse. In many respects men may be better; — outwardly better ; but the heart within is still the same. The human heart of to-day dissected, would be just like the human heart a thousand years ago ; the gall of bitterness within that breast of yours, is just as bitter as the gall of bitterness in that of Simon of old. We have in our hearts the same latent opposition to CHRIST CRUCIFIED. 91 the truth of God ; and hence we find men, even as of old, who scorn the gospel. I shall, in speaking of the gospel rejected, endeavor lo point out the two classes of persons who equally despise the truth. The Jews make it a stumbling- block, and the Greeks account it foolishness. Now these two very respectable gentlemen — the Jew and the Greek — 1 am not going to make these ancient indi- viduals the object of my condemnation, but I look upon them as members of a great parliament, representa- tives of a great constituency, and I shall attempt to show that, if all the race of Jews were cut off, there would be still a great number in the world who would answer to the name of Jews, to whom Christ is a stumbling-block ; and that if Greece were swallowed up by some earthquake, and ceased to be a nation, there would still be the Greek unto whom the gospel would be foolishness. I shall simply introduce the Jew and the Greek, and let them speak a moment to you, in order that you may see the gentlemen who rep- resent you ; the representative men ; the persons who stand for many of you, who as yet are not called by divine grace. The first is a Jew to him the gospel is a stumbling- block. A respectable man the Jew was in his day; all formal religion was concentrated in his person ; he went up to the temple very devoutly ; he tithed all he had, even to the mint and the cummin. You would see him fasting twice in the week, with a face all marked with sadness and sorrow. If you looked at him, he had the law between his eyes ; there was the phylactery, and the borders of his garments of amazing width, that he might never be supposed to be a Gentile 92 dog ; that no one might ever conceive that he was not an Hebrew of pure descent. He had a holy ancestry; he came of a pious family ; a right good man was he. He could not like those Sadducees at all, who had no religion. He was thoroughly a religious man; he stood up for his synagogue ; he would not have that temple on Mount Gerizim ; he could not bear the Samaritans, he had no dealings with them ; he was a religionist of the first order, a man of the very finest kind ; a speci- men of a man who is a moralist, and who loves the ceremonies of the law. Accordingly, when he heard about Christ, he asked who Christ was. “ The Son of a carpenter.” Ah ! “ The son of a carpenter, and his mother’s name was Mary, and his father’s name Joseph.” That of itself is presumption enough,” said he ; “ positive proof, in fact, that he cannot be the Mes- siah.” And what does he say? Why, he says, ‘‘ Woe unto you. Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites.” “ That won’t do.” Moreover, he says, “ It is not by the works of the flesh that any man can enter into the kingdom of heaven.” The Jew tied a double knot in his phy- lactery at once ; he thought he would have the borders of his garment made twice as broad. He bow to the Nazarene ! No, no ; and if so much as a disciple crossed the street, he thought the place polluted, and would not tread in his steps. Do you think he would give up his old father’s religion, the religion which came from Mount Sinai, that old religion that lay in the ark and the overshadowing cherubim ? He give that up ! not he. A vile imposter — that is all Christ was in his eyes. He thought so. “ A stumbling-block to me ; I cannot hear about it ; I will not listen to it” Accordingly, he turned a deaf ear to all the preacher’s CHRIST CRUCIFIED. 93 eloquence, and listened not at all. Farewell, old Jew ! Thou sleepest with thy fathers, and thy generation is a wandering race, still walking the earth. Farewell! 1 have done with thee. Alas ! poor wretch, that Christ, who was thy stumbling-block, shall be thy judge, and on thy head shall be that loud curse. “ His blood be on us and on our children.” But I am going to find out IVIr. Jew here in Exeter HaU — persons who answer to his description — to whom Jesus Christ is a stumbling-block. Let me introduce you to yourselves, some of you. You were of a pious family too, were you not ? Yes. And you have a religion which you love ; you love it so far as the chrysalis of it goes, the outside, the covering, the husk. You would not have one rubric altered, nor one of those dear old arches taken down, nor the stained glass removed, for aU the world ; and any man who should say a word against such things, you would set down as. a heretic at once. Or, perhaps, you do not go to such a place of worship, but you love some plain old meeting-house, where your forefathers worshipped, called a dissenting chapel. Ah! it is a beautiful plain place ; you love it, you love its ordinances, you love its exterior ; and*if any one spoke against the place, how vexed you would feel. You think that what they do there, they ought to do every- where ; in fact, your church is a model one ; the place where you go is exactly the sort of place for everybody; and if I were to ask you why you hope to go to heaven, you would perhaps say, ‘‘Because I am a Bap- tist,” or, “ Because I am an Episcopalian,” or whatever other sect you belong to. There is yourself; I know Jesus Christ wiU be to you a stumbling-block. If I come and tell you, that all your going to the house of 94 SERMON^, God is good for nothing ; if I tell you that all those many times you have been singing and praying, all pass for nothing in the sight of God, because you are a hypo- crite and a formalist. If I tell you that your heart is not right with God, and that unless it is so, aU the external is good for nothing, I know what you will say, — “I shan’t hear that young man again.” It is a stumbling-block. If you had stepped in anywhere where you had heard formalism exalted : if you had been told ‘‘ this must you do, and this other must you do, and then you will be saved,” you would highly ap- prove of it. But how many are there externally reli- gious, with .whose characters you could find no fault, but who have never had the regenerating influence of the Holy Ghost ; who never were made to lie prostrate on their face before Calvary’s cross ; who never turned a wistful eye to yonder Saviour crucified ; who never put their trust in him that was slain for the sons of men. They love a superficial religion, but when a man talks deeper than that, they set it down for cant. You may love all that is external about religion, just as you may love a man for his clothes — caring nothing for the man himself. K so, I know you are one of those who reject the gospel. You will hear me preach ; and while I speak about the externals, you will hear me with attention ; whilst I plead for morality, and argue against drunkenness, or show the heinousness of Sab- bath-breaking, all well and good ; but if once I say. Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye can in no wise enter into the kingdom of God ; ” if once I tell you that you must be elected of God : that you must be purchased with the Saviour’s blood — that you must be converted by the Holy Ghost — you say, He CHRIST CRUCIFIED. 95 is a fanatic! Away with him, away with him! We do not want to hear that any more.” Christ crucified, is to the Jew — the ceremonialist — a stumbling-block But there is another specimen of this Jew to be found. He is thoroughly orthodox in his sentiments. As for forms and ceremonies, he thinl^s nothing about them. He goes to a place of worship where he learns sound doctrine. He will hear nothing but what is true. He likes that we should have good works and morality He is a good man, and no one can find fault with him. Here he is, regular in his Sunday pew. In the market he walks before men in all honesty — so you would imagine. Ask him about any doctrine, and he can give you a disquisition upon it. In fact, he could write a treatise upon anything in the Bible, and a great many things besides. He kuows almost everything ; and here, up in this dark attic of the head, his religion has taken up its abode ; he has a best parlor dov/n in his heart, but his religion never goes there — that is shut against it. He has money in there — Mammon, worldiness; or he has something else — self-love, pride. Perhaps he loves to hear experimental preaching ; he admires it all ; in fact, he loves anything that is sound. But then, he has not any sound in himself ; or rather, it is all sound, and there is no substance. He likes to hear true doctrine ; but it never penetrates his inner man. You never see him weep. Preach to him about Christ crucified, a glorious subject, and you never see a tear roll down his cheek ; tell him of the mighty in- fluence of the Holy Ghost — he admires you for it, but he never had the hand of the Holy Spirit on his soul ; tell him about communion with God, plunging in God- head’s deepest sea, and being lost in its immensity — the 96 SERMONfir. man loves to hear, but he never experiences, he has never communed with Christ; and accordingly, when you once begin to strike home ; when you lay him on the table, take out your dissecting knife, begin to cut him up, and show him his own heart, let him see what it is by nature, and what it must become by grace — the man starts, he cannot stand that ; he wants none of that — Christ received in the heart, and accepted. Al- beit that he loves it enough in the head, ’t is to him a stumbling-block, and he casts it away. Do you see yourselves here, my friends ? See yourselves as others see you ? See yourselves as God sees you ? For so it is, here be many to whom Christ is as much a stum- bling-block now as ever he was. O ye formalists ! I speak to you ; O ye who have the nutshell, but abhor the kernel ; O ye who like the trappings and the dress, but care not for that fair virgin who is clothed there- with ; O ye who lO^e the paint and the tinsel, but abhor the solid gold, I speak to you ; I ask you, does your religion give you solid comfort? Can you stare death in the face with it, and say, ‘‘ I know that my Redeemer liveth?” Can you close your eyes at night, and your vesper song shall be : “ I to the end must endure. As sure as the earnest is giv^en? Can you bless God for affliction ? Can you plunge in, accoutred as ye are, and swim through all the floods of trial? Can you march triumphant through the lion’s den, laugh at affliction, and bid defiance to hell ? Can you ? No ! Your gospel is an effeminate thing — a thing of words and sounds, and not of power. Cast it from you, I beseech you ; it is not worth your keep- CHRIST CRUCIFIED. 97 ing; and when you come before the throne of God, you will find it will fail you, and fail you so that you shall never find another ; for lost, ruined, destroyed, ye shall find that Christ, who is now a^avdalov^ a stum- bling-block, will be your judge. 1 have found out the Jew, and I have now to dis- cover the Greek. He is a person of quite a different exterior to the Jew. As to the phylactery, to him it is all rubbish ; and as to the broad hemmed garment, he despises it. He does not care for the forms of religion ; he has an intense aversion, in fact, to broad-brimmed hats, or to everything which looks like outward show. He likes eloquence; he admires a smart saying; he loves a quaint expression ; he lilces to read the last new book ; he is a Greek, and to him the gospel is foolish- ness. The Greek is a gentleman found everywhere, now-a-days; manufactured sometimes in colleges, con- stantly made in schools, produced everywhere. He is on the exchange, in the market; he keeps a shop, rides in a carriage ; he is noble, a gentleman ; he is everywhere, even in court. He is thoroughly wise. Ask him anything, and he knows it. Ask for a quota- tion from any of the old poets, or any one else, and he can give it you. If you are a Mohammedan, and plead the claims of your religion, he will hear you very pa- tiently. But if you are a Christian, and talk to him of Jesus Christ, “ Stop your cant,’’ he says, “ I don’t want to hear anything about that.” This Grecian gentleman believes all philosophy except the true one; he studies all wisdom except the wisdom of God ; he likes all learning except spiritual learning ; he loves everything except that which God approves; he likes everything which man makes, and nothing which comes from God ; 98 SERMONS. it is foolishness to him, confounded foolishness. You have only to discourse about one doctrine in the Bible, and he shuts his ears ; he wishes no longer for your company — it is foolishness. I have met this gentleman a great many times. Once, when I saw him, he told me he did not believe in any religion at all ; and when I said I did, and had a hope that when I died I should go to heaven, he said he dared say it was very comfort- able, but he did not believe in religion, and that he was sure it was best to live as nature dictated. Another time he spoke well of all religions, and believed they were very good in their place, and all true ; and he had. no doubt that, if a man were sincere in any kind of religion, he would be all right at last. I told him I did not think so, and that I believed there was but one re- ligion revealed of God — the religion of God’s elect, the religion which is the gift of Jesus. He then said I was a bigot, and wished me good morning. It was to him foolishness. He had nothing to do with me at all. He either liked no religion, or every religion. Another time I held him by the coat button, and I discussed with him a little about faith. He said, It is all very well, I believe that is true Protestant doctrine.” But presently I said something about election, and he said, ‘‘ I don’t lil^e that ; many people have preached that and turned it to bad account.” I then hinted some- thing about free grace ; but that he could not endure, it was to him foolishness. He was a polished Greek, and thought that if he were not chosen, he ought to be. He never liked that passage, “ God hath chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the wise, and the things which are not, to bring to nought things that are.” He thought it was very discreditable to the Bi- CHRIST CRUCIFIED. 99 . and when the book was revised, he had no doubt it would be cut out. To such a man — for he is here this morning, very likely come to hear this reed shaken of the wind — I have to say this : Ah ! thou wise man, full of worldly wisdom ; thy wisdom will stand thee here, but what wilt thou do in the swellings of Jordan ? Philosophy may do well for thee to lean upon whilst thou walkest through this world; but the river is deep, and thou wilt want something more than that. If thou hast not the arm of the Most High to hold thee up in the flood and cheer thee with promises, thou wilt sink, man; with all thy philosophy, thou wilt sink ; with all thy learning, thou shalt sink, and be washed into that awful ocean of eternal torment, where thou shalt be forever. Ah ! Greeks, it may be foolishness to you, but ye shall see the man your judge, and then shall ye rue the day that e’er ye said that God’s gospel was foolishness. 11. Having spoken thus far upon the gospel rejected^ I shall now briefly speak upon the gospel tiiumphant. Unto us who are called, both Jews and Greeks, it is the power of God, and the wisdom of God.” Yonder man rejects the gospel, despises grace, and laughs at it as a delusion. Here is another man who laughed at it too ; but God will fetch him down upon his knees. Christ shall not die for nothing. The Holy Ghost shall not strive in vain. God hath said, “ My word shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I plea?^ , and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be a! andantly satisfied.” If one sinner is not saved, ano ler shall be. The Jew and the Greek shall never dr pulate heaven. The choirs of glory shall not lose 100 SERMONS. a single songster by all the opposition of Jews an^ Greeks; for God hath said it; some shall be called; some shall be saved ; some shall be rescued. “ Perish the virtue, as it ought, abhorred. And the fool with it, who insults his Lord. The atonement a Redeemer’s love has wrought Is not for you — the righteous need it not. See’st thou yon harlot wooing all she meets. The worn-out nuisance of the public streets. Herself from morn to night, from night to morn, Her own abhorrence, and as much your scorn: The gracious shower, unlimited and free. Shall fall on her, when Heaven denies it thee. Of all that wisdom dictates, this the drift, That man is dead in sin, and life a gift.” If the righteous and good are not saved, if they re- ject the gospel, there are others who are to be called, others who shall be rescued ; for Clirist will not lose the merits of his agonies, or the purchase of his blood. ‘‘ Unto us who are called^ I received a note this week asking me to explain that word, called ; because in one passage it says, “ many are called but few are chosen,” while in another it appears that aU who are called must be chosen. Now, let me observe that there are two calls. As my old friend, John Bunyan, says, the hen has two calls, the common cluck, which she gives daily and hourly, and the special one, which she means for her little chickens. So there is a general call, a call made to every man ; every man hears it. Many are called by it ; all you are called this morning in that sense, but very few are chosen. The other is a special call, the children’s call. You know how the bell sounds over the work- shop, to call the men to work — that is a general call. A father goes to the door and calls out, ‘‘John, it is CHRIST CRUCIFIED. 101 dinner-time ” — that is the special call. Many are called with the general call, but they are not chosen; the special call is for the children only, and that is what is meant in the text, ‘‘ Unto us who are called, both Jews and Greeks, the power of God and the wisdom of God.” That call is always a special one. While I stand here and call men, nobody comes; while I preach to sinners universally, no good is done; it is like the sheet lightning you sometimes see on the sum- mer’s evening, beautiful, grand ; but whoever heard of anything being struck by it ? But the special call is the forked flash from heaven ; it strikes somewhere ; it is the arrow sent in between the joints of the harness. The call which saves is lil^e that of Jesus, when he said “ Mary,” and she said unto him ‘‘ Rabboni.” Do you know anything about that special call, my beloved? Did Jesus ever call you by name ? Canst thou recol- lect the hour when he whispered thy name in thine ear, when he said, “ Come to me?” If so, you will grant the truth of what I am going to say next about It — that it is an effectual call. There is no resisting it. When God calls, with his special call, there is no stand- ing out. Ah! I know I laughed at religion; I des- pised, I abhorred it ; but that call ! Oh, I would not come. But God said, ‘‘ Thou shalt come. All that the Father giveth to me shall come.” “ Lord, I will not.” “ But thou shalt,” said God. And I have gone up to God’s house sometimes almost with a resolution that I would not listen, but listen I must. Oh, how the word came into my soul! Was there a power of re- sistance? No; I was thrown down ; each bone seemed to be broken ; I was saved by effectual grace. I ap- peal to your experience, my friends. When God took 102 SERMONS. you in hand, could you withstand him? You stood against your minister times enough. Sickness did not break you down ; disease did not bring you to God’s feet ; eloquence did not convince you ; but when God puts his hand to the work, ah! then what a change. Like Saul, with his horses going to Damascus, that voice from heaven said, “ I am Jesus whom thou per- secutest.” ‘‘ Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me ? ” There was no going further then. That was an effect- ual call. Like that, again, which Jesus gave to Zac- cheus, when he was up in the tree ; stepping under the tree, he said, ^^Zaccheus, come down, to-day I must abide in thy house.” Zaccheus was taken in the net ; he heard his own name ; the call sank into his soul ; he could not stop up in the tree, for an almighty im- pulse drew him down. And I could tell you some singular instances of persons going to the house of God and having their characters described, limned out to perfection, so that they have said, “ He is painting me, he is painting me.” Just as I might say to that young man here, who stole his master’s gloves yester- day, that Jesus calls him to repentance. It may be that there is such a person here; and when the call comes to a peculiar character, it generally comes with a special power. God gives his ministers a brush, and shows them how to use it in painting life-like portraits, and tbus the sinner hears the special call. I cannot give the special call ; God alone can give it, and I leave it with him. Some must be called. Jew and Greek may laugh, but still there are some who are called, both Jews and Greeks. Then, to close up this second point, it is a great mercy that many a Jew has been made to drop his seif CHRIST CRUCIFIED. 103 righteousness ; many a legalist has been made to drop his legalism, and come to Christ; and many a Greek has bowed his genius at the throne of God’s gospel. We have a few such. As Cowper says: “ We boast some rich ones whom the gospel sways, And one who wears a coronet, and prays; Like gleanings of an olive tree they show, Here and there one upon the topmost bough.” III. Now we come to our third point, a gospel ad- mired; unto to us who are called of God, it is the power of God, and the wisdom of God. Now, beloved, this must be a matter of pure experience between your souls and God. If you are called of God this morn- ing, you will know it. I know there are times when a Christian has to say, ’T is a point I long to know. Oft it causes anxious thought ; Do I love the Lord or no ? Am I his, or am I not? ” But, if a man never in his life knew himself to be a Christian, he never was a Christian. If he never had a moment of confidence, when he could say, “ Now I know in whom I have believed,” I think I do not utter a harsh thing when I say, that that man could not have been born again ; for I do not understand how a man can be born again and not know it ; I do not under- stand how a man can be lulled and then made alive again, and not know it; how a man can pass from death unto life, and not know it ; how a man can be brought out of darkness into marvellous liberty without knowing it. I am sure I know it when I shout out my old verse ^ 104 SERMONS. “ Now freed from sin, I walk at large, My Saviour’s blood ’s my full discharge ; At his dear feet content I lay, A sinner saved, and homage pay.” There are moments when the eyes glisten witl joy ’ and we can say, we are persuaded, confident, certain.’’ I do not wish to distress any one who is under doubt Often gloomy doubts will prevail ; there are seasons when you fear you have not been called, when you doubt your interest in Christ. Ah ! what a mercy it is that it is not your hold of Christ that saves you, but his hold of you ! What a sweet fact that it is not how you grasp his hand, but his grasp of yours, that saves you. Yet I think you ought to know, some time or other, whether you are called of God. If so, you will follow me in the next part of my discourse, which is a matter of pure experience ; unto us who are saved, it is “ Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.” The gospel is, to the true believer, a thing of power. It is Christ, the power of God. Power, sir! Aye, there is a power in God’s gospel. Power, sir ! Aye, a mighty power. Once I, hke Mazeppa, bound on the wild horse of my lust, bound hand and foot, incapable of resistance, was galloping on with hell’s wolves be- hind me, howling for my body and my soul, as their just and lawful prey. There came a mighty hand which stopped that wild horse, cut my bands, set me down, and brought me into liberty. Is there power, sir ? Aye, there is power ; and he who has felt it, must acknowledge it. There was a time when I lived in the strong old castle of my sins, and rested on my works. There came a trumpeter to the door, and bade me CHRIST CRUCIFIED. 105 open it. I with anger chid him from the porch, and said he ne’er should enter. There came a goodly per- sonage, with loving countenance; his hands were marked with scars, where nails were driven, and his feet had nail-prints too ; he lifted up his cross, using it as a hammer; at the first blow the gate of my preju- dice shook ; at the second it trembled more, at the third down it fell, and in he came ; and he said, Arise, and stand upon thy feet, for I have loved thee with an ever- lasting love.” A thing of power ! Ah ! it is a thing of power. I have felt it here^ in this heart ; I have the witness of the Spirit within, and know it is a thing of might, because it has conquered me ; it has bowed me down. “ Ilis free grace alone, from tlie first to the last, Hath won my afiection, and held my soul fast.** The gospel, to the Christian, is a thing of power. What is it that makes the young man devote himself, as a missionary, to the cause of God, to leave father and mother, and go into distant lands ? It is a thing of power that does it; it is the gospel. What is it that constrains yondei' minister, in the midst of the cholera, to climb up that creaking staircase, and stand by the bed of some dying creature who* has that dire disease? It must be a thing of power which leads him to venture his life ; it is love of the cross of Christ which bids him do it. What is that which enables one man to stand up before a multitude of his fellows, all unprepared it may be, but determined that he will speak nothing but Christ, and him crucified ? What is it that enables him to cry, like the war horse of Job, in battle, Aha! and mov® glorious in might? It is a 106 SERMONS. thing of power that does it : it is Christ crucified. And what emboldens that timid female to walk down that dark laiie some wet evening, that she may go and sit beside the victim of a contagious fever? What strengtliens her to go through that den of thieves, and pass by the profligate and profane ? What influences her to enter into that charnel house of death, and there sit down and whisper words of comfort ? Does gold make her do it? They are too poor to give her gold. Does fame make her do it ? She shall never be known nor written among the mighty women of this earth. What makes her do it? Is it love of merit? No; she knows she has no desert before high heaven. What impels her to it ? It is the power, the thing of power ; it is the cross of Christ : she loves it, and she there- fore says, “ Were the whole realm of nature mine. That were a present far too small ; Love so amazing, so divine, Demands my soul, my life, my all.” But I behold another scene. A martyr is going to the stake ; the' halbert men are around him ; the crowds are mocking, but he is marching steadily on. See, they bind him, with a chain around his middle, to the stake ; they heap faggots all about him ; the flame is lighted up ; listen to his words : ‘‘ Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name.’’ The flames are kindling round his legs ; the fire is burning him even to the bone ; see him lift up his hands and say, “ I know that my Redeemer liveth, and though the fire devour this body, yet in my flesh shall I see the Lord.” Behold him clutch the stake and kiss it, as if he loved it, and hear him say, For every chain of iron CHRIST CRUCIFIED. 107 that man girdeth me with, God shall give me a chain of gold ; for all these faggots, and this ignominy and shame, he shall increase the weight of my eternal glory.” See all the under parts of his body are con- sumed ; still he lives in the torture ; at last he bows himself, and the upper part of his body falls over ; and as he falls you hear him say, “ Into thy hands 1 com- mend my Spirit.” What wondrous magic was on him, sirs? What made that man strong? What helped him to bear that cruelty ? What made him stand un- moved in the flames ? It was the thing of power ; it was the cross of Jesus crucified. For unto us who are saved it is the power of God.” But behold another scene far different. There is no crowd there; it is a silent room. There is a poor pallet, a lonely bed : a physician standing by. There is a young girl: her face is blanched by consumption; long hath the worm eaten her cheek, and though some- times the flush came, it was the death flush of the de- ceitful consumption. There she lieth, weak, pale, wan, worn, dying, yet behold a smile upon her face, as if she had seen an angel. She speaketh, and there is music in her voice. Joan of Arc of old was not half so mighty as that girl. She is wrestling with dragons on her death-bed ; but see her composure, and hear her dying sonnet : “ Jesns, lover of my soul. Let me to thy bosom fly, While the nearer waters roll, While the tempest still is high. Hide me, 0 my Saviour, hide, Till this storm of life be past. Safe into the haven guide, 0 receive my soul at last.’’ 108 SKKMOXS. And with a smile she shuts her eye on earth, and opens it in heaven. What enables her to die like that? It is the thing of power; it is the cross; it is Jesus crucified. I have little time to discourse upon the other point, and it be far from me to weary you by a lengthened and prosy sermon, but we must glance at the other statement : Christ is, to the called ones, the wisdom of God as well as the power of God. To a believer, the gos- pel is the perfection of wisdom, and if it appear not so to the ungodly, it is because of the perversion of judg- ment consequent on their depravity. An idea has long possessed the public mind, that a religious man can scarcely be a wise man. It has been the custom to talk of Infidels, Atheists, and Deists, as men of deep thought and comprehensive intellect ; and to tremble for the Christian controversialist, as if he must surely fall by the hand of his enemy. But this is purely a mistake ; for the gospel is the sum of wis- dom ; an epitome of knowledge ; a treasure-house of truth ; and a revelation of mysterious secrets. In it we see how justice and mercy may be married ; here we behold inexorable law entirely satisfied, and sove- reign love bearing away the sinner in triumph. Our meditation upon it enlarges the mind ; and as it opens to our soul in successive flashes of glory, we stand astonished at the profound wdsdom manifest in it. Ah, dear friends! if ye seek wisdom, ye shall see it dis- played in all its greatness ; not in the balancing of the clouds, nor the firmness of earth’s foundations; not in the measured march of the armies of the sky, nor in the perpetual motions of the waves of the sea ; not in vegetation with all its fairy forms of beauty, nor in CHRIST CRUCIFIED. 109 the animal with its marvellous tissue of nerve, and vein, and sinew; nor even in man, that last and loftiest work of the Creator. But turn aside and see this great sight! — an incarnate God upon the cross; a sub- stitute atoning for mortal guilt ; a sacrifice satisfying the vengeance of Heaven, and delivering the rebellious sinner. Here is essential wisdom ; enthroned, crowned, glorified. Admire, ye men of earth, if ye be not blind; and ye who glory in your learning bend your heads in reverence, and own that all your skill could not have devised a gospel at once so just to God, so safe to man. Remember, my friends, that while the gospel is in itself wisdom, it also confers wisdom on its students ; she teaches young men wisdom and discretion, and gives understanding to the simple. A man who is a believing admirer and a hearty lover of the truth as it is in Jesus, is in a right place to follow with advantage any other branch of science. I confess I have a shelf in my head for everything now. Whatever I read I know where to put it ; whatever I learn I know where to stow it away. Once when I read books, I put" all my knowledge together in glorious confusion; but ever since I have known Christ, I have put Christ in the centre as my sun, and each science revolves round it like a planet, while minor sciences ai'e satellites to these planets. Christ is to me the wisdom of God. I can learn everything now. The science of Christ crucified is the most excellent of sciences, she is to me the wis- dom of God. O, young man, bmld thy studio on Calvary! there raise thine observatory, and scan by faith the lofty things of nature. Take thee a hermit’s cell in the garden of Gethsemane, and lave thy brow 10 110 SERMONS. with the waters of Siloa. Let the Bible be thy stan- dard classic — thy last appeal in matters of contention. Let its light be thine illumination, and thou shalt be- come more wise than Plato, more truly learned than the seven sages of antiquity. And now, my dear friends, solemnly and earnestly, as in the sight of God, I appeal to you. You are gathered here this morning, I know, from different mo- tives ; some of you have come from curiosity ; others of you are my regular hearers ; some have come from one place and some from another. What have you heard me say this morning ? I have told you of two classes of persons who reject Christ; the religionist, who has a religion of form and nothing else ; and the man of the world, who calls our gospel foolishness. Now, put your hand upon your heart, and ask your- self this morning, ‘‘ Am I one of these ? ” If you are, then walk the earth in all your pride ; then go as you came in : but know that for all this the Lord shall bring thee unto judgment; know thou that thy joys and delights shall vanish like a dream, and, like the baseless fabric of a vision,” be swept away forever. Know thou this, moreover, O man, that one day in the halls of Satan, dov>m in hell, I perhaps may see thee amongst those myriad spirits who revolve forever in a perpetual circle with their hands upon their hearts. If thine hand be transparent, and thy flesh transparent, I shall look through thy hand and flesh, and see thy heart within. And how shall I see it ? Set in a case of fire — in a case of fire ! And there thou shalt revolve for- ever with the worm gnawing within thy heart, which ne’er shall die — a case of fire around thy never-dying, ever-tortured heart Good God! let not these men CHRIST CRUCIFIED. Ill still reject and despise Christ; but let this be the time when they shall be caljed. To the rest of you who are called, I need say noth- ing. The longer you live, the more powerful will you find the gospel to be ; the more deeply Christ-taught you are, the more you live under the constant influence of the Holy Spirit, the more you will know the gospel to be a thing of power, and the more also will you un- derstand it to be a thing of wisdom. May every 1. Les- sing rest upon you ; and may God come up with ^ ' in the evening ! SEEMON VI. THE POWER OF THE HOLY GHOST. ' The power of the Holy Ghost.” — Rom. xv. 13. Power is the special and peculiar prerogative of God, and God alone. Twice have I heard this ; that power belongeth unto God.” God is God ; and power belongeth to him. If he delegates a portion of it to his creatures, yet still it is his power. The sun, al- though he is ^‘like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run his race,” yet has no power to perform his motions except as God directs him. The stars, although they travel in their orbits, and none could stay them, yet have neither might nor force, except that which God daily infuses into them. The tall archangel, near his throne, who out- shines a comet in its blaze, though he is one of those who excel in strength, and hearken to the voice of the commands of God, yet has no might except that which his Maker gives to him. As for Leviathan, who so maketh the sea to boil him a pot, that one would think the deep were hoary ; as for Behemoth, who drinketh up Jordan at a draught, and boasteth that he can snuff ( 112 ) POVVt^R OF THE HOLY GHOST. 113 ap rivers ; as for those majestic creatm’es that are found oh earth, they owe their strength to him who fashioned their bones of steel, and made their sinews of brass. And when we think of man, if he has might or power, it is so small and insignificant, that we can scarcely call it such ; yea, when it is at its greatest — when he sways his sceptre, when he commands hosts, when he rules nations — still the power belongeth unto God ; and it is true, “ Twice have I heard this, that power belongeth unto God.’’ This exclusive prerogative of God, is to be found in each of the three persons of the glorious Trinity. The Father hath power; for by his word were the heavens made, and all the hosts of them ; by his strength all things stand, and tluough him they ful- fil their destiny. The Son hath power; for, like his Father, he is the Creator of all things ; Without him was not anything made that was made,” and ‘‘by him all things consist.” And the Holy Spirit hath power. It is concerning the power of the Holy Ghost that I shall speak this morning ; and may you have a prac- tical exemplification of that attribute in your own hearts, when you shall feel that the iniluence of the Holy Ghost is being poured out upon me, so that I am speak- ing the words of the living God to your souls, and be- stowed upon you when you are feeling the effects of it in your own spirits. We shall look at the power of the Holy Ghost in three ways this morning. First, the outivard and visible displays of it ; second, the inward and spiritual mani- festations of it ; and third, the future and expected works thereof The power of the Spirit will thus, I trust, be made clearly present to your souls. 1. Fust, then, we are to view the power of the Spirit 10 ^ 114 SERMONS. in the outward and visible displays of iL The power of the Spirit has not been dormant ; it has exerted it- self. Much has been done by the Spirit of God ab ready; more than could have been accomplished by any being except the Infinite, Eternal, Almighty Je- hovah, of whom the Holy Spirit is one person. There are four works which are the outward and manifest signs of the power of the Spirit ; creation works ; re- surrection works ; works of attestation, or of witness; and works of grace. Of each of these works 1 shall speak very briefly. 1. First, the Spirit has manifested the omnipotence of his power in creation works; for though not very frequently in Scripture, yet sometimes creation is as- cribed to the Holy Ghost, as well as to the Father and the Son. The creation of the heavens above us, is said to be the work of God’s Spirit. This you will see at once by referring to the sacred Scriptures, Job xxvi. 13th verse, By his Spirit he hath garnished the heavens ; his hand hath formed the crooked serpent.” All the stars of heaven are said to have been placed aloft by the Spirit, and one particular constellation called the crooked serpent,” is specially pointed out as his handi- work. He looseth the bands of Orion ; he bindeth the sweet influences of the Pleiades, and binds Arcturus with his suns. He made aU those stars that shine in heaven. The heavens were garnished by his hands, and he formed the crooked serpent by his might. So, also, in those continued acts of creation which are still performed in the world ; as the bringing forth of man and animals, their birth and generation. These are ascribed also to the Holy Ghost. K you look at the 104th Psalm, at the 29th verse you will read, “ Thou POWER OP THE HOLY GHOST. 115 liidest thy face, they are troubled ; thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust. Thou sendest forth thy Spirit, they are created ; and thou re- newest the face of the earth.” So that the creation of every man is the work of the Spirit ; and the creation of all life, and all flesh-existence in this world, is as much to be ascribed to the power of the Spirit, as the first garnishing of the heavens, or the fashioning of the crooked serpent. But if you look in the first chapter of Genesis, you will there see more particularly set forth that peculiar operation of power upon the universe which was put forth by the Holy Spirit ; you will then discover what was his special work. In the 2d verse of the first chapter of Genesis, we read, “ And the earth was without form, and void ; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” We know not how re- mote the period of the creation of this globe may be — certainly many millions of years before the time of Adam. Our planet has passed through various stages of existence, and different kinds of creatures have lived on its surface, all of which have been fashioned by God. But before that era came, wherein man should be its principal tenant and monarch, the Creator gave up the world to confusion. He allowed the inward fires to burst up from beneath, and melt all the solid matter, so that all kinds of substances were commingled in one vast mass of disorder. The only name you could give to the world then, was, that it was a chaotic mass of matter ; what it should be, you could not guess or define. It was entirely “without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.” The Spirit came, and stretching his broad wings, bade the 116 SERMONS. darlmess disperse, and as he moved over it, all the dif- ferent portions of matter came into their places, and it was no longer ‘‘without form, and void but became round, like its sister planets, and moved, singing the high praises of God — not discordantly, as it had done before, but as one great note in the vast scale of crea- tion. Milton very beautifully describes this work of the Spirit, in thus bringing order out of confusion, when the K ag of Glory, in his powerful Word and Spirit, car<:i^ o create new worlds : * On heavenly ground they stood ; and from the shore They view’d the vast immeasurable abyss Outrageous as a sea, dark, wasteful, wild. Up from the bottom turn’d by furious winds And surging waves, as mountains, to assault Heaven’s height, and with the centre mix the pole. “ Silence, ye troubled waves, and thou deep, peace, Said then the Omnific Word; your discord end. Then on the watery calm His brooding wings the Spirit of God outspread And vital virtue infused, and vital warmth Throughout the fluid mass.” This you see, then, is the power of the Spirit. Could we have seen that earth all in confusion, we should have said, “Who can make a world out of this?” The answer would have been, “The power of the Spirit can do it. By the simple spreading of his dove-like wings, he can make all the things come together. Upon that there shall be order where there was nought but confusion.” Nor is this all the power of the Spirit. We have seen some of his works in creation. But there was one particular instance of creation in which the Holy Spirit was more especially concerned; viz., POWER OF THE HOLY GHOST. 117 the formation of the body of our Lord Jesus Christ. Though our Lord Jesus Christ was born of a woman, and made in the likeness of sinful flesh, yet, the power that begat him was entirely in God the Holy Spirit — as the Scriptures express it, “ The Holy One of Israel shall overshadow thee.” He was begotten, as the Apos- tles’ Creed says, begotten of the Holy Ghost. “ That holy thing which is born of thee shall be called the Son of the Highest.” The corporeal frame of the Lord Jesus Christ was a master-piece of the Holy Spirit. I suppose his body to have excelled all others in beauty; to have been like that of the first man, the very pat- tern of what the body is to be in heaven, when it shall shine forth in all its glory. That fabric, in all its beauty and perfection, was modelled by the Spirit. “ In his book were all the members written, when as yet there were none of them.” He fashioned and formed him ; and here again we have another instance of the crea- tive energy of the Spirit. 2. A second manifestation of the Holy Spirit’s power is to be found in the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. If ye have ever studied this subject, ye have perhaps been rather perplexed to find that some- times the resurrection of Christ is ascribed to himself. By his own power and godhead he could not be held by the bond of death, but as he willingly gave up his life he had power to take it again. In another portion of Scripture, you find it ascribed to God the Father : He raised him up from the dead : ” “ Him hath God the Father exalted.” And many other passages of similar import. But, again, it is said in Scripture that Jesus Christ was raised by the Holy Spirit. Now, all these things were true. He was raised by the Father 118 SERMONS. because the Father said, Loose the prisoner — let him go. Justice is satisfied. My law requires no more satisfaction — vengeance has had its due — let him go.” Here he gave an official message which delivered Jesus from the grave. He was raised by his own majesty and power, because he had a right to come out ; and he felt he had, and therefore ‘‘ burst the bonds of death : he could be no longer holden of them.” But he was raised by the Spirit as to that energy which his mortal frame received, by the which it rose again from the grave after having lain there for three days and nights. K you want proofs of this you must open your Bibles again, 1 Peter, iii. 18. “ For Christ also hath once suf- fered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he mighi bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but quickened by the Spirit.” And a further proof you may find in Romans, viii. 11. (I love sometimes to be textual, for I believe the great fault of Christians is thal they do not search the Scriptures enough, and I wil- make them search them when they are here if they do not do so anywhere else.) ‘‘ But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.” The resurrection of Christ, then, was effected by the agency of the Spirit ! and here we have a noble illus- tration of his omnipotence. Could you have stepped, as angels did, into the grave of Jesus, and seen his sleeping body, you would have found it cold as any other corpse. Lift up the hand ; it falls by the side. Look at the eye ; it is glazed. And there is a death- thrust which must have annihilated life. See his hands: the blood distills not from them. They are POWER OF THE HOLY GHOST. 119 ■•old and motionless* Can that body live ? Can it start up ? Yes ; and be an illustration of the might of the Spirit. For when the power of the Spirit came on him, as it was when it fell upon the dry bones of the valkw, he arose in the majesty of his divinity, and, bright and shining, astonished the watchmen so that i hey fled away ; yea, he arose no more to die, but to live forever. King of kings and Prince of the kings of the earth.” 3. The third of the works of the Holy Spirit, which have so wonderfully demonstrated his power, are attes- tation ivorks. I mean by this, works of witnessing. When Jesus Christ went into the stream of baptism in the river Jordan, the Holy Spirit descended upon ^ him like a dove, and proclaimed him God’s beloved son. That was what I style an attestation work. And when afterwards Jesus Christ raised the dead, when he healed the leper, when he spoke to diseases and they fled apace, when demons rushed in thousands from those who were possessed of them, it was done by the power of the Spirit. The Spirit dwelt in Jesus without measure, and by that power all those mir- acles were worked. These were attestation works. And when Jesus Christ was gone, you will remem- ber that master attestation of the Spirit, when he came like a rushing mighty wind upon the assem- bled apostles, and cloven tongues sat upon them ; and you will remember how he attested their ministry, by giving them to speak with tongues as he gave them utterance ; and how, also, miraculous deeds were wrought by them, how they taught, how Peter raised Dorcas, how he breathed life into Enticus, how great deeds were wrought by the apostles as well as then 120 SERMONS. Mastei — so that ‘‘mighty signs and wonders were done by the Holy Ghost, and many believed thereby.’^ Who will doubt the power of the Holy Spirit aftei that? Ah! those Socinians who deny the existence of the Holy Ghost and his absolute personality, what will they do when we get them on creation, resurrec- tion, and attestation? They must rush in the very teeth of Scripture. But mark! it is a stone upon which if any man fall he shall be bruised ; but if it fall upon him, as it will do if he resists it, it shall grind him to powder. The Holy Spirit has power omnipo- tent, even the power of God. 4. Once more, if we want another outward and visible sign of the power of the Spirit, we may look at the works of grace. Behold a city where a soothsayer hath the power — who has given out himself to be some great one — a Philip enters it and preaches the Word of God; straightway a Simon Magus loses his power and himself seeks for the power of the Spirit to be given to him, fancying it might be purchased with money. See, in modern times, a country where the inhabitants live in miserable wigwams, feeding on reptiles and the meanest creatures ; observe them bow- ing down before their idols and worshipping their false gods, and so plunged in superstition, so degraded and debased, that it became a question whether they had souls or not; behold a Moffat go with the Word of God in his hand, hear him preach as the Spirit gives him utterance, and accompanies that Word with power. They cast aside their idols — they hate and abhor their former lusts; they buUd houses, wherein they dwell; they become clothed, and in their right mind. They break the bow, and cut the spear in sunder ; the iinciv- POWER OF THE HOLY GHOST. 121 ilized became civilized ; the savage becomes polite ; he who knew nothing begins to read the Scriptures: thus out of the mouths of Hottentots God attests the power of his mighty Spirit. Take a household in this city — and we could guide you to many such — the father is a drunkard; he has been the most desperate of characters ; see him in his madness, and you might just as well meet an unchained tiger as meet such a man. He seems as if he could rend a man to pieces who should offend him. Mark his wife. She, too, has a spirit in her, and when he treats her ill she can resist him ; many broils have been seen in that house, and often has the neighborhood been disturbed by the noise created there. As for the poor little children — see them in their rags and nakedness, poor untaught things. Untaught, did I say? They are taught and well taught in the devil’s school, and are growing up to be the heirs of damnation. But some one whom God has blessed by his Spirit is guided to the house. He may be but an humble city missionary, perhaps, but he speaks to such a one : Oh ! says he, come and listen to the voice of God. Whether it is by his own agency, or a minister’s preaching, the Word, which is quick and powerful, cuts to the sinner’s heart. The tears run down his cheeks — such as had never been seen before. He shakes and quivers. The strong man bows down — the mighty man ti*embles — and those knees that never shook begin to knock together. That heart which never quailed before now begins to shake before the power of the Spirit. He sits down on an humble bench by the penitent ; he lets his knees bend, wliilst his lips utter a child’s prayer; but, whilst a child’s prayer, a prayer of a child of God. He becomes a 122 SERMONS. changed character. Mark the reformation in his house ! That wife of his becomes the decent matron. Those children are the credit of the house, and in due time they grow up like olive branches round his table, adorn- ing his house like polished stones. Pass by the house — no noise or broils, but songs of Zion. See him — no drunken revelry ; he has drained his last cup, and, now foreswearing it, he comes to God and is his servant. Now, you will not hear at midnight the bacchanalian shout ; but should there be a noise, it will be the sound of the solemn hymn of praise to God. And, now, is there not such a thing as the power of the Spirit? Yes ! and these must have witnessed it, and seen it. 1 know a village, once perhaps the most profane in Eng- land — a village inundated by drunkenness and de- bauchery of the worst kind, where it was impossible almost for an honest traveller to stop in the public house without being annoyed by blasphemy ; a place noted for incendiaries and robbers. One man, the ringleader of ah, listened to the voice of God. That man’s heart was broken. The whole gang came to hear the gospel preached, and they sat and seemed to reverence the preacher as if he were a God, and not a man. These men became changed and reformed; and every one who knows the place affirms that such a change had never been wrought but by the power of the Holy Ghost. Let the gospel be preached and the Spirit poured out, and you will see that it has such power to change the conscience, to ameliorate the conduct, to raise the debased, to chastise and to curb the wicked- ness of the race, that you must glory in it. I say, there is nought like the power of the Spirit. Only let POvvER OF THE HOLY GHOST. 123 that come, and, indeed, everything can be accom- plished. 11. Now for the second point, the inward and spirit- ual poieer of the Holy Sjjirit. What I have already spoken of may be seen; what I am about to speak of must be felt, and no man will apprehend what I say with truth unless he has felt it. The other, even the Infidel must confess ; the other, the greatest blasphemer cannot deny, if he speaks the truth ; but this is what the one will laugh at as enthusiasm, and what the other will say is but the invention of our fevered fancies. However, we have a more sure word of testimony than all that they may say. We have a witness within. We know it is the truth, and we are not afraid to speak of the inward spiritual power of the Holy Ghost. Let us notice two or three things wherein the inward and spiritual power of the Holy Ghost is very greatly to be seen and extolled. First, in that the Holy Ghost has a power over merHs hearts. Now, men’s hearts are very hard to affect. If you want to get at them for any worldly object, you can do it. A cheating world can win man’s heart ; a little gold can win man’s heart ; a trump of fame and a little clamor of applause can win man’s heart. But there is not a minister breathing that can win man’s heart himself. He can win his ears and make them listen; he can win his eyes, and fix those eyes upon him ; he can win the attention, but the heart is very slippery. Yes ! the heart is a fish that troubles all gos- pel fishermen to hold. You may sometimes pull it almost aU out of the water ; but, slimy as an eel, it slip- peth between your fingers, and you have not captured it after all. Many a man has fancied that he has caught 124 SERMONS. the hear+, but has been disappointed. It would take a strong hunter to overtake the hart on the mountains. It is too fleet for human foot to approach. The Spirit alone has power over man’s heart. Do you ever try your power on a heart? If any man thinks that a min- ister can convert the soul, I wish he would try. Let him go and be a Sabbath-school teacher. He shall take his class, he shall have the best books that can be ob- tained, he shall have the best rules, he shall draw his lines of circumvallation about his spiritual Sebastopol, he shall take the best boy in Ms class, and if he is not tired in a week I shall be very much mistaken. Let him spend four or five Sabbaths in trying ; but he will say, ‘‘the young fellow is incorrigible.” Let Mm try another. And he will have to try another, and another, and another, before he will manage to convert one. He will soon find “it is not by might nor power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord.” Can a minister convert ? Can he touch the heart? David said, “ Your hearts are as fat as grease.” Aye, that is quite true ; and we cannot get through so much grease at all. Our sword cannot get at the heart, it is encased in so much fatness; it is harder than a nether millstone. Many a good old Jerusalem blade has been blunted against the hard heart. Many a piece of the true steel that God has put into the hands of his servants has had the edge turned by being set up against the sinner’s heart. We cannot reach the soul, but the Holy Spirit can. “ My beloved can put in his hand by the hole in the door, and my bowels will move for sin.” He can give a sense of blood-bought pardon that shall dissolve a heart of stone He can POWER OF THE HOLY GHOST. 125 “ Speak with that voice which wakes the dead, And bids the sinner rise ; And makes the guilty conscience dread The death that never dies.” He can make Sinai’s thunders audible ; yea, and he can make the sweet whisperings of Calvary enter into the soul. He has power over the heart of man. And here is a glorious proof of the omnipotence of the Spirit that he has rule over the heart. But if there is one thing more stubborn than the heart, it is the will. “ My lord Will-be-will,” as Bun- yan calls him in his Holy War,^’ is a fellow who will not easily be bent. The will, especially in some men, is a very stubborn thing ; and in all men, if the will is once stirred up to opposition, there is nothing can be done with them. Free-icill somebody believes in. Free-will many dream of. Free-wlQ ! wherever is that to be found ? Once there was Free-will in Paradise, and a terrible mess Free-will made there; for it spoiled all Paradise and turned Adam out of the garden. Free- will was once in heaven ; but it turned the glorious archangel out, and a third part of the stars of heaven fell into the abyss. I want nothing to do with Free- will, but I will try to see whether I have got a Free-will within. And I find I have. Very free will to evil, but very poor will to that which is good. Free-will enough when I sin, but when I would do good, evil is present with me, and how to do that which I would I find not. Yet some boast of Free-will. I wonder whether those who believe in it have any more power over persons’ wills than 1 have? I know 1 have not any. I find the old proverb very true, One man can bring a horse to the water, but a hundred cannot make him drink.” I !!♦ 126 SERMONS. find that I can bring you all to the water, and a great many more than can get into this chapel; but I cannot make you drink ; and I don’t think a hundred ministers could make j'ou drink. I have read old Rowland HiU, and Whitfield, and several others, to see what they did; but I cannot discover a plan of turning your wills. I cannot coax you, and you will not yield by any manner of means. I do not think any man has power over his fellow-creature’s will, but the Spirit of God has. I will make them willing in the day of my power.” He maketh the unwilling sinner so willing that he is impet- uous after the gospel ; he who was obstinate now hur- ries to the cross. He who laughed at Jesus now hangs on his mercy ; and he who would not believe is now made by the Holy Spirit to do it, not only willingly, but eagerly; he is happy, is glad to do it, rejoices in the sound of Jesus’ name, and delights to run in the way of God’s commandments. The Holy Spirit has power over the will. And yet there is one thing more which I think is rather worse than the will. You will guess what I mean. The will is somewhat worse than the heart to bend, but there is one thing that excels the will in its naughti- ness, and that is the imagination, I hope that my will is managed by Divine Grace. But I am afraid my imagination is not at times. Those who have a fair share of imagination know what a difficult thing it is to control. You cannot restrain it. It will break the reins. You will never be able to manage it. The im- agination will sometimes fiy up to God with such a power that eagles’ wings cannot match it. It some- times has such might that it can almost see the King in his beauty, and the land which is very far off. With POWER OF THE HOLY GHOST. 127 regard to myself, my imagination will sometimes take me over the gates of iron, across that infinite unknown, to the very gates of pearl, and discovers the blessed glorified. But, if it is potent one way, it is another : for my imagination has taken me down to the vilest ken- nels and sewers of earth. It has given me thoughts so dreadful, that, while I could not avoid them, yet I was thoroughly horrified at them. These thoughts will come ; and when I feel in the holiest frame, the most devoted to God, and the most earnest in prayer, it often happens that that is the very time when the plague breaks out the worst But I rejoice and think of one thing, that I can cry out when this imagination comes upon me. I know it is said in the Book of Leviticus, when an act of evil was committed, if the maiden cried out against it, then her life was to be spared. So it is with the Christian. If he cries out, there is hope. Can you chain your imagination ? No ; but the power of the Holy Ghost can. Ah, it shall do it ! and it does do it at last, it does it even on earth. III. But the last thing was, the future and desired effects; for, after all, though the Holy Spirit has done so much, he cannot say, “ It is finished.” Jesus Christ could exclaim concerning his own labor, ‘‘ It is fin- ished.” But the Holy Spirit cannot say that. He has more to do yet: and until the consummation of all things, when the Son himself becomes subject to the Father, it shall not be said by the Holy Spirit, It is finished.” What, then, has the Holy Spirit to do ? First, he has to perfect us in holiness. There are two kinds of perfection which a Christian needs: one is the perfection of justification in the person of Jesus ; and the other is, the perfection of sanctification worked in 128 SERMONS. him by the Holy Spirit At present cormption still rests even in the breasts of the regenerate. At present the heart is partially impure. At present there are still lusts and evil imaginations. But, oh! my soul re- joices to know that the day is coming when God shall finish the work which he has begun ; and he shall pre- sent my soul, not only perfect in Christ, but perfect in the Spirit, without spot or blemish, or any such thing. And is it true that this poor depraved heart is to become as holy as that of God ? And is it true that this poor spirit, which often cries, “ O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this sin and death!’’ shall get rid of sin and death? — I shall have no evil things to vex my ears, and no unholy thoughts to disturb my peace. Oh happy hour! may it be hastened ! Just before I die sanctification will be fin- ished ; but not till that moment shall I ever claim per- fection in myself. But at that moment when I depart, my spii'it shall have its last baptism in the Holy Spirit’s fire. It shall be put in the crucible for its last trying in the furnace ; and then, free from all dross, and fine, like a wedge of pure gold, it shall be presented at the feet of God without the least degree of dross or mixture. O glorious hour! O blessed moment! Methinks I long to die if there were no heaven, if I might but have that last purification, and come up from Jordan’s stream most white from the washing. Oh! to be washed white, clean, pure, perfect ! Not an angel more pure than I shall be — yea, not God himself more holy! And I shall be able to say, in a double sense, ‘‘ Great God, I am clean — through Jesus’ blood 1 am clean, through the Spirit’s work 1 am clean too ! ” Must POWER OF THE HOLV GHOST. 129 you not extol the power of the Holy Ghost in thus making us fit to stand before our Father in heaven? Another great work of the Holy Spirit, which is not accomplished is, the bringing on of the latter-day glory. In a few more years — I know not when, I know not how — the Holy Spirit will be poured out in a far dif- ferent style from the present. There are diversities ot operations; and during the last few years it has been the case that the diversified operations have consisted in very little pouring out of the Spirit. iVlinisters have gone on in dull routine, continually preaching — preach- ing — preaching, and little good has been done. I do hope that perhaps a fresh era has dawned upon us, and that there is a better pouring out of the Spirit even now. For the hour is coming, and it may be even now is, when the Holy Ghost shall be poured out again in such a wonderful manner, that many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased — the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the surface of the great deep ; when his kingdom shall come, and his will shall be done on earth even as it is in heaven. We are not going to be dragging on for- ever like Pharoah, with the wheels off his chariot. My heart exults, and my eyes flash with the thought that very lilvely I shall live to see the out-pouring of the Spirit ; when “the sons and the daughters of God again shall prophesy, and the young men shall see visions, and the old men shall dream dreams.” Perhaps there shall be no miraculous gifts — for they will not be re- quired ; but yet there shall be such a miraculous amount of holiness, such an extraordinary fervor of prayer, such areal communion with God, and so much vital religion, and such a spread of the doctrines of the cross, that 130 SERMONS. every one will see that verily the Spirit is poured out like water, and the rains are descending from above. For that let us pray; let us continually labor for it, and seek it of God. One more work of the Spirit, which will especially manifest his power — the general resurrection. We have reason to believe from Scripture, that the resurrec- tion of the dead, whilst it will be effected by the voice of God and of his Word, (the Son,) shall also be brought about by the Spirit. That same power which raised Jesus Christ from the dead, shall also quicken your mortal bodies. The power of the resurrection is, per- haps, one of the finest proofs of the works of the Spirit. Ah! my friends, if this earth could but have its mantle torn away for a little while, if the green sod could be cut from it, and we could look about six feet deep into its bowels, what a world it would seem ! What should we see? Bones, carcasses, rottenness, worms, corruption. And you would say. Can these dry bones live? Can they start up? Yes! “in a moment! in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, the dead shall be raised.” He speaks ; they are alive! See them scattered! bone comes to his bone ! See them naked; flesh comes upon them ! See them still lifeless ; “ Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain!” When the wind of the Holy Spirit comes, they live ; and they stand upon their feet an exceeding great army. I have thus attempted to speak of the power of the Spirit, and I trust I have shown it to you. We must now have a moment or two for practical inference. The Spirit is very powerful, Christian! What do you infer POWER OF THE HOLY GHOST. 131 from that fact ? Why, that you never need distrust the power of God to carry you to heaven. O how that sweet verse was laid to my soul yesterday ! “ His tried Almighty arm Is raised for your defence ; Where is the power can reach you there ? Or what can pluck you thence ? The power of the Holy Spirit is your bulwark, and all his omnipotence defends you. Can your enemies over- come omnipotence ? then they can conquer you. Can they wrestle with Deity, and hurl him to the ground ? then they might conquer you. For the power of the Spirit is our power; the power of the Spirit is our might. Once again, Christians, if this is the power of the Spirit, why should you doubt anything ? There is your son. There is that wife of yours, for whom you have supplicated so frequently ; do not doubt the Spirit’s power. “ Though he tarry, wait for him.” There is thy husband, O holy woman ! and thou hast wrestled for his soul. And though he is ever so hardened and desperate a wretch, and treats thee ill, there is power in the Spirit. And, O ye who have come from barren churches, with scarcely a leaf upon the tree, do not doubt the power of the Spirit to raise you up. For it shall be a ‘‘ pasture for flocks, a den of wild asses,” open but deserted, until the Spirit is poured out from on high. And then the parched ground shall be made a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water ; and in the habitations of dragons, where each lay shall be grass with reeds and rushes. And, O ye members of Park- 132 SERJMONS. street! ye who remember what your God has done for you especially, never distrust the power of the Spirit. Ye have seen the wilderness blossom like Carmel, ye have seen the desert blossom like the rose ; trust him for the future. Then go out and labor with this conviction, that the power of the Holy Ghost is able to do any- thing. Go to your Sunday-school ; go to your tract distribution ; go to your missionary enterprise ; go to your preaching in your rooms, with the conviction that the power of the Spirit is our great help. And now, lastly, to you sinners. What is there to be said to you about this power of the Spirit ? Why, to me, there is some hope for some of you. I cannot save you ; I cannot get at you. I make you cry some- times — you wipe your eyes, and it is all over. But I know my Master can. That is my consolation. Chief of sinners, there is hope for thee ! This power can save you as well as anybody else. It is able to break your heart, though it is an iron one ; to make your eyes run with tears, though they have been like rocks before. His power is able this morning, if he will, to change your heart, to turn the current of all your ideas ; to make you at once a child of God, to justify you in Christ. There is power enough in the Holy Spirit. Ye are not straightened in Kim, but in your own bowels. He is able to bring sinners to Jesus ; he is able to make you willing in the day of his power. Are you willing this morning ? Has he gone so far as to make you desire his name ; to make you wish for Jesus ? Then, O sinner ! whilst he draws you, say, “ Draw me, I am wretched without thee.’’ Follow him, foDow him ; and, while he leads, tread you in his footsteps, and rejoice POWER OF THE HOLY GHOST. 133 that he has begun a good work in you, for there is an evidence that he will continue it even unto the end- And, O desponding one! put thy trust in the power of the Spirit. Rest on the blood of Jesus, and thy soul is safe, not only now, but throughout eternity. God bless you, my hearers. Amen. SEEM ON VI L THE C II U lie II OF CHRIST. “ And I will make them and the places round about my hill a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in his season ; there shall be showers of blessing.” — £z£Kibl xxxiv. 26 . The chapter (Ezek. xxxiv.) that I read at the com- mencement of the service is a prophetical one ; and, I take it, it has relation, not to the condition of the Jews during the captivity and their subsequent happiness when they should return to their land, but to a state into which they should fall after they had been restored to their country under Nehemiah and Ezra, and in which state they still continue to the present day. The prophet tells us that the shepherds then, instead of feeding the flock, fed themselves ; they trod the grass, instead of allowing the sheep to eat it, and they fouled the waters with their feet. That is an exact descrip- tion of the state of Judea after tke captivity ; for then there arose the Scribes and Pharisees, who took the key of knowledge, and would not enter themselves nor allow others to enter ; who laid heavy burdens on men’s shoulders, and would not touch them with one of their fingers ; who made religion to consist entirely ( 134 ) THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. 135 .11 sacrifices and ceremonies, and imposed such a bur- den on the people, that they cried out, ‘‘ What a weari- ness it is ! ” That same evil has continued with the poor Jews to the present day ; and should you read the nonsense of the Talmud and the Gemara, and see the burdens they laid upon them, you would say, “ Verily, they have idle shepherds ; ’’ they give the sheep no food ; they ti'ouble them with fanciful superstitions and silly views, and instead of telling them that the Messiah is already come, they delude them with the idea that there is a Messiah yet to come, who shall restore Judea, and raise it to its glory. The Lord pronounces a curse upon these Pharisees and Rabbis, these who “ thrust with side and with shoulder,” those evil shepherds who will not suffer the sheep to lie down, neither will feed them with good pasture. But, after having described this state, he prophecies better times for the poor Jew The day is coming when the careless shepherds shall be as nought ; when the power of the Rabbis shall cease, when the traditions of the Mishna and the Talmud shall be cast aside. The hour is approaching, when the tribes shall go up to their own country; when Judea, so long a howling wilderness, shall once more blossom like the rose ; when, if the temple itself be not restored, yet on Zion’s hill shall be raised some Christian building, where the chants of solemn praise shall be heard, as erst of old the Psalms of David were sung in the tabernacle. Not long shall it be, ere they shall come — shall come from distant lands, where’er they rest or roam ; and she who has been the offscour- ing of all things, whose name has been a proverb and a byword, shall become the glory of all lands. De- jected Zion shall raise her head, shaking herself from 136 SERMONS. dust, and darkness, and the dead. Then shall the Lord feed his people, and make them and the places round about his hill a blessing. I think we do not attach suf- ficient importance to the restoration of the Jews. We do not think enough of it. But certainly, if there is anything promised in the Bible it is this. I imagine that you cannot read the Bible without seeing clearly that there is to be an actual restoration of the children of Israel. Thither they shall go up ; they shall come with weeping unto Zion, and with supplications unto Jerusalem.” May that happy day soon come! For when the Jews are restored, then the fulness of the Gentiles shall be gathered in; and as soon as they return, then Jesus will come upon Mount Zion to reign with his ancients gloriously, and the halcyon days of the Millennium shall then dawn ; we shall then know every man to be a brother and a friend ; Christ shall rule, with universal sway. This, then, is the meaning of the text ; that God would make Jerusalem and the places round about his hill a blessing. I shall not, however, use it so this morning, but I shall use it in a more confined sense — or, perhaps, in a more enlarged sense — as it applies to the church of Jesus Christ, and to this particular church with which you and I stand connected. “ I will make them and the places round about my hiU a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in his sea- son ; there shall be showers of blessing.” There are two things here spoken of. First, ChrisVs church is to be a blessing ; secondly, Christ’s church is to be blessed. These two things you will find in the different sentences of the text. L First, Christ’s church is to be a blessing. “ I will THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. 137 make tliem and the places round about my hill a bless- ing.’^ The object of God, in choosing a people before all worlds, was not only to save that people, but through them to confer essential benefits upon the whole human race. When he chose Abraham, he did not elect him simply to be God’s friend, and the recip- ient of peculiar privileges; but he chose him to make him, as it were, the conservator of truth. He was to be the ark in which the truth should be hidden. He was to be the keeper of the covenant in behalf of the whole world; and when God chooses any men by his sovereign-electing grace, and makes them Christ’s, he does it not only for their own sake, that they may be saved, but for the world’s sake. For, know ye not that “ ye are the light of the world ? ” — “A city set upon a hill, which cannot be hid ? ” ‘‘ Ye are the salt of the earth ; ” and when God makes you salt, it is not only that ye may have salt in yourselves, but that like salt ye may preserve the whole mass. If he makes you leaven, it is that, like the little leaven, you may leaven the whole lump. Salvation is not a selfish thing; God does not give it for us to keep to ourselves, but that we may thereby be made the means of blessing to others; and the great day shall declare that there is not a man living on the surface of the earth but has received a blessing in someway or other through God’s gift of the gospel. The very keeping of the wicked in life, and granting of the reprieve, was purchased with the death of Jesus; and through his sufferings and death, the temporal blessings which both we and they enjoy are bestowed on us. The gospel was sent that it might first bless those that embrace it, and then expand, so as to make them a blessing to the whole human race. 138 SERMONS. In thus spealdng of the church as a blessing, we shall notice three things. First, here is divinity — “ a will make them a blessing ; ’’ secondly, here is person- ality of religion — I will make them a blessing;” and thirdly, here is the development of religion — “ and the places round about my hill.” 1. First, with regard to this blessing which God will cause his church to be, here is divinity. It is God the everlasting Jehovah speaking : he says, I will make them a blessing.” None of us can bless others unless God has first blessed us. We need divine workman- ship. “ I will make them a blessing by helping them, and by constraining them.” God makes his people a blessing by helping them. What can we do without God’s help ? I stand and preach to thousands, or it may be hundreds; what have I done, unless a greater than man has been in the pulpit with me ? I work in the Sabbaih-schools ; what can I do, unless the Master is there, teaching the children with me? We want God’s aid in every position ; and once give us that assistance, and there is no telling with how little labor we may become a blessing. Ah ! a few words some- times will be more of a blessing than a whole sermon. You take some little prattler on your knee ; and some few words that you say to him he remembers, and makes use of in after years. I knew a gray-headed old man, who was in the habit of doing this. He once took a boy to a certain tree, and said, “Now, John, you kneel down at that tree, and I will kneel down with you.” He knelt down and prayed, and asked God to convert him and save his soul. “ Now,” said he, “ perhaps you will come to this tree again ; and if you are not converted, you will remember that I THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. 139 asked under this tree that God would save your soul.” That young man went away, and forgot the old man’s prayer ; but it chanced as God would have it that he walked down that field again, and saw a tree. It seemed as if the old man’s name was cut in the bark. He recollected what he prayed for, and that the prayer was not fulfilled; but he dare not pass the tree without kneeling down to pray himself; and there was his spir- itual birthplace. The simplest observation of the Christian shall be made a blessing, if God help him. ‘‘ His leaf also shall not wither” — the simplest word he speaks ^hall be treasured up; ‘‘and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.” But there is constraint here. “ I will make them a blessing.” I will give them to be a blessing ; I will constrain them to be a blessing. I can say myself, that 1 never did anything which was a blessing to my fellow creatures, without feeling compelled to do it. I thought of going to a Sabbath school to teach. On a certain day, some one called — asked me — begged me — prayed me to take his class. I could not refuse to go ; and there I was held, hand and foot, by the superintendent, and was compelled to go on. I was asked to address the children ; I thought I could not, but no one else was there to do it, so I stood up and stumbled out a few words. And I recollect the first occasion on which I attempted to preach to the people — I am sure I had no wish to do it — but there was no one else in the place, and the congregation must go away without a single word of warning or address. How could I suf- fer it ? I felt forced to address them. And so it has been wiih whatever I have laid my hand to. 1 have always felt a kind of impulse which I could not resist; 140 SERMONS. but, moreover, felt placed by Providence in such a posi- tion, that I had no wish to avoid the duty, and if I had desired it, could not have helped myself. And so it is with God’s people. If they will go through their lives, wherever they have been made a blessing, they will find that God seems to have thrust them into the vine- yard. Such-and-such a man was once rich. What good was he in the world ? He did but loll in his car- riage ; he did but little good, and was of little service to his fellow-creatures. Says God, “ I will make him a blessing : ” so he strips away his riches, and brings him into low circumstances. He is then brought into association with the poor, and his superior education and intellect make him a blessing to them. God makes him a blessing. Another man was naturally very timid ; he would not pray at the prayer meeting, he would hardly like to join the church : soon he gets into a position in which he cannot help himself. “ I will make him a blessing.” And as sure as ever you are a servant of God, he will make you a blessing. He will have none of his gold in the lump ; he will hammer it out, and make it a blessing. 1 verily believe there are some in my congregation, to whom God has given power to preach his name : they do not know it, per- haps, but God will make it known by-and-by. I would have every man look and see, whether God is making him do a certain thing; and when once he feels the im- pulse, let him by no means ever check it. I am some- what of a believer in the doctrine of the Quakers, as to the impulses of the Spirit, and I fear lest I should check one of them. If a thought crosses my mind. Go to such a person’s house,” I always like to do it, because I do not know but what it may be from the THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. 141 Spirit. I understand this verse to mean something like that. “ I will make them a blessing.” 1 will force them to do good. If I cannot make a sweet scent come from them in any other way, I will pound them in the mortar of affliction. If they have seed, and the seed cannot be scattered in any other way, I will send a rough wind to blow the downy seed everywhere.” “ I will make them a blessing.” If you have never been made a blessing to any one, depend upon it you are not a child of God ; for Jehovah says, “ I will make them a blessing.” 2. But notice, next, the personality of the blessing. “ I will make them a blessing.” ‘‘ I will make each member of the church a blessing.” Many people come up to the house of prayer, where the church assembles: and you say, “ Well, what are you doing at such-and- such a place where you attend?” Well, we are doing so-and-so.” How do you spell we?” “ It is a plain monosyllable,” say you. Yes, but do you put I in “ we ? ” “ No.” There are a great many people who could easily spell “we” without an I in it; for though they say, “ We have been doing so-and-so,” they do not say, “ How much have I done ? Did I do anything in it? Yes; this chapel has been enlarged; what did I subscribe? Twopence! ” Of course it is done. Those who paid the money have done it. “ We preach the gospel.” Do we, indeed ? “ Yes, we sit in our pew and listen a little, and do not pray for a blessing. We have got such a large Sunday school.” Did you ever teach in it? “We have got a very good working society.” Did you ever go to work in it ? That is not the way to spell “we.” It is, “I will make them a blessing.” When Jerusalem was built every man began nearest 112 SERMONS. his own house. That is where you must begin to build or do something. Do not let us tell a lie about it. If we do not have some share in the building, if we neither handle the trowel nor the spear, let us not talk about our church ; for the text says, “ I will make them a bless- ing,” every one of them. “But, sir, what can I do? I am nothing but a father at home ; I am so full of business, I can only see my children a little.” But in your business, do you ever have any servants? “No; I am a servant my- self.” You have fellow-servants ? “ No ; I work alone.” Do you work alone, then, and live alone, like a monk in a cell ? I don’t believe that. But you have fellow- servants at work ; cannot you say a word to their con- science? “I don’t like to intrude religion into busi- ness.” Quite right, too; so say I; when I am at business, let it be business ; when you are at religion, let it be religion. But do you never have an oppor- tunity ? Why, you cannot go into an omnibus, or a railway carriage, but what you can say something for Jesus Christ. I have found it so, and I don’t believe I am different from other people. Cannot do anything ? Cannot you put a tract in your hat, and drop it where you go? Cannot you speak a word to a child? Where does this man come from, that cannot do any- thing ? There is a spider on the wall ; but he taketh hold on kings’ palaces, and spinneth his web to rid the world of noxious flies. There is a nettle in the corner of the churchyard ; but the physician tells me it has its virtues. There is a tiny star in the sky ; but that is noted in the chart, and the mariner looks at it. There is an insect under water ; but it builds a rock. God made all these things for something ; but here is a man THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. 143 that God made, and gave him nothing at all to do! I do not believe it. God never makes useless things ; he has no superfluous workmanship. I care not what you are ; you have somewhat to do. And oh ! may God show you what it is, and then make you do it, by the wondrous compulsion of his providence and his grace. 3. But we have to notice, in the third place, the de^ velopment of gospel blessing, “I will make them a olessing;” but it does not end there. ‘‘ And the places round about my hill.’’ Religion is an expansive thing. When it begins in the heart, at first it is like a tiny grain of mustard seed ; but it gradually increases, and becomes a great tree, so that the birds of the air lodge in the branches thereof. A man cannot be religious to himself. “ No man liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself.” You have heard a score of times, that if you do but drop a pebble in a brook it causes a small ring at first, then another outside of that, and then another, and then another, till the influence of the peb- ble is perceptible over the entire bosom of the water. So it is when God makes his people a blessing. “ I will make a minister a blessing to one or two ; I will then make him a blessing to a hundred ; 1 will then make him a blessing to thousands; and then I will make those thousands a blessing. I will make each one individually a blessing, and when I have done that, I will make all the places round about a blessing. ‘‘ I will make them a blessing.” I hope we shall never be satisfied, as members of Park-street, until we are a blessing, not only to ourselves, but to all the places round about our hill. What are the places round about our hill ? I think they are, first, our agencies ; sec- 144 SERMONS. ondly, our neigliborhood; thirdly, the churches adjacent to us. First, there are our agencies. There is our Sabbath- school : how near that is to our hill ? I speak a great deal about this, because I want it to be brought into notice. I intend to preach a practical sermon this morning, to move some of you to come and teach in the Sabbath-school ; for there we require some suitable men, to “ come up to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty.” Therefore I men- tion the Sabbath-school as a place very near to the hill ; it ought to be just at the very foot of it ; yea, it ought to be so near the hill that very many may pass from it to the church. Then there is our Visiting and Christian Instruction Society, which we have for the vis- iting of this neighborhood. I trust that has been made a blessing. God has sent among us a man who labors zeal- ously and earnestly in visiting the sick. I have, as the superintendent of my beloved brother, the missionary, a regular account of his labors ; his report has most highly gratified me, and I am able to bear testimony to the fact, that he is very efficiently laboring around us. I want that society to have all your sympathy and strength. I consider him as a Joshua, with whom you are to go forth by hundreds to those who live in the neighbor- hood. Do you know what dark places there are? Walk down a street a little to the right. See the shops open on a Sunday. Some, thank God, that used to open them, now come and worship with us. We shall have more yet ; for “ the earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof,” and why should not we have it ? My brethren, as you visit the sick, or distribute tracts from door to door, make this your prayer — that this society. THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. 145 being one of the places round about our hill, may be made a blessing ! Let me not forget any agency con- nected with this church. There are several more which are places round about our hill ; and the Lord has just put it into my heart to fashion other societies, which shall be made a blessing to this hill, and in a little while you shall hear thereof. We have several brethren in this congregation to whom God has given a mouth of utterance ; these are about to form themselves into a society for proclaiming the Word of God. Where God has so blessed his church, and made us to be so noted and named amongst the people, why should we not keep on ? We have been brought up to a great pitch of fervency and love; now is the time for doing something. While the iron is hot, why not strike and fashion it ? I believe we have the materials, not only for making a church here that shall be the glory of the Baptist Churches in London, but for making churches everywhere throughout the metropolis ; and we have more schemes on hand, which, matured by sober judg- ment, and backed by prudence, shall yet make this metropolis more honored than it has been by the sound of the pure gospel and the proclamation of the pure Word of God. May God make all our agencies — the places round about our hill — a blessing. But next, there is the neighborhood. 1 am paralyzed sometimes, when I think that we are of so little service to the neighborhood, though this is a green oasis in the midst of a great spiritual desert. Just at the back of us we could find you hundreds of Roman Catholics, and men of the very worst character ; and it is sad to think that we cannot make this place a blessing to them. It is made a great blessing to you, my hearers, 13 146 SEIiMONS. but you do not come from this district ; you come from anywhere and nowhere, some of you, I suppose. Peo- ple say, ‘‘ There is something doing in that chapel; look at the crowd ; but we cannot get in ! ” This one thing I ask — never come here to gratify your curiosity. You that are members of other congregations, just consider it your duty to stay at home. There are many stray sheep about. I would rather have them than you. Keep your own place. I do not want to rob other ministers. Do not come here from charity. We are much obliged to you for your kindly intentions ; but we would rather have your room than your com- pany, if ye are members of other churches. We want sinners to come — sinners of every sort; but do not let us have that sort of men whose ears are everlastingly itching for some new preacher ; who are saying, I want something else, I want something else.” Oh ! do, I beseech you, for God’s sake, be of some good ; and if you are running about from one place to another, you can never expect to be. Do ye know what is said of rolling stones ? Ah ! ye have heard of that. They ‘‘ gather no moss.” Now, don’t be rolling stones, but keep at home. God, however, so help us, as to make us a blessing to the neighborhood ! I long to see some^ thing done lor the people around. We must open our arms to them : we must go out into the open air to them ; we must and will preach God’s gospel to them. Let, then, the people around listen to the word of the gospel ; and may it be said, “ That place is the cathe- dral of Southwark ! ” So it is now. Out of it goes a blessing; God is pouring out a blessing upon it. What else do we mean by the places round about our hill? We mean, the churches adjacent. I cannot Liio uliURCH OF CHRIST. 147 but rejoice in the prosperity of many churches around us ; but as our beloved brother, Mr. Sherman, said, last Thursday morning, ‘‘ It is not invidious to say, that there are very few churches that are in a prosperous state, and that, taking the churches at large, they are in a deplorable condition. It is only here and there,” said he, “that God is pouring out his Spirit; but most of the churches are lying, like barges at Blackfriar’s Bridge when the tide is down — right in the mud ; and all the king’s horses and all the king’s men cannot pull them off, till the tide comes and sets them afloat.” Who can teU, then, what good may be done by this church? If there is a light in this candlestick, let others come and light their candles by it. If there is a flame here, let the flame spread, until aU the neighbor- ing churches shall be lit up with the glory. Then, indeed, shall we be made the rejoicing of the earth ; for there is never a revival in one spot, but it shall affect others. Who shall tell, then, where it shall end ? “ Fly abroad, thou mighty gospel ; Win and conquer, never cease.” And it never will cease, when God once makes the places round about his hill a blessing. II. The second point is, that God’s people are not only to be a blessing, but they are to be blessed. For read the second part of the verse. “ And I will cause the shower to come down in his season ; there shall be showers of blessing.” It is somewhat singular, as a prognostication of the showers of blessings we hope to receive here, that God sent us showers on the first day of opening. If I were a believer in omens, 1 148 SERMONS. should pray, that as it rained the first day, so may it rain every day since. When it stops may the chapel be shut up ; for we only want it open so long as show- ers of grace continue to descend. First, here is sovereign mercy. Listen to these words : “ I will give them the shower in its season.” Is it not sovereign, divine mercy ; for who can say, ‘‘ I will give them showers,” except God? Can the false prophet who walks amongst the benighted Hottentots ? He says he is a rain-maker, and can give them showers; but can he do it ? Is there an imperial monarch, or the most learned man on earth, who can say, “ I will give them the showers in their season?” No ; there is only one fist wherein all the clouds are held ; there is only one hand in which all the channels of the mighty ocean above the firmament are contained; there is only one voice that can speak to the clouds, and bid them beget the rain. ‘‘ Out of whose womb came the ice ? and the hoary frost of heaven, who hath gendered it ?” Who sendeth down the rain upon the earth ? who scattereth the showers upon the green herb ? Do not I, the Lord?” Who else could do it? Is not rain in God’s power ? and who could send it, except him ? We know that Catholics pretend that they can get grace without getting it from God directly ; for they believe that God puts all his grace into the pope, and then that runs down into smaller pipes, called cardinals and bishops, through which it runs into the priests ; and, by turning the tap with a shilling, you can get as much grace as you like. But it is not so with God’s grace. He says, “ I will give them showers.” Grace is the gift of God, and is not to be created by man. Notice, next, it is needed grace. I will give them THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. 149 showers.’’ What would the ground do without show- ers ? You may break the clods, you may sow your seeds ; but what can you do without the rain ? Ah ! you may prepare your barn, and sharpen your sickles ; but your sickles will be rusted before you have any wheat, unless there are showers. They are needed. So is the divine blessing. “ In vain Apollos sow the seed. And Paul may plant in vain ; In vain you come here, in vain you labor, in vain you give your money : “ Till God the plenteous shower bestows, And sends salvation down.” Then, next, it is plenteous grace, I will send them showers.” It does not say, I will send them drops,” but “ I will send them showers.” “ It seldom rains but it pours.” So it is with grace. If God gives a blessing, he usually gives it in such a measure that there is not room enough to receive it. Where are we going to hold God’s blessing that we have obtained already ? I told the people on Thursday that God had promised us, that if we brought the tithes into the storehouse, he would send us such a blessing that we would not have room to hold it. We have tried it, and the promise has been fulfilled, as it always will be as long as we rely upon it. Plenteous grace! Ah! we shall want plenteous grace, my friends ; plenteous grace to keep us humble, plenteous grace to make us prayerful, plente- ous grace to make us holy, plenteous grace to make us zealous, plenteous grace to make us truthful, plenteous grace to preserve us through this life, and at last to 150 SERMONS. land us in heaven. We cannot do without showers of grace. How many are there here that have been dry in a shower of grace ? Why, there is a shower of grace here ; but how is it that it does not fall on some of the people ? It is because they put up the umbrella of their prejudice ; and though they sit here, even as God’s people sit, even when it rains, they have such a prejudice against God’s Word, they do not want to hear it, they do not want to love it, and it runs off again. Nevertheless, the showers are there ; and we will thank God for them where they do fall. Again, it is seasonable grace. “ I will give them the shower in its season.” There is nothing like sea- sonable grace. There are fruits, you know, that are best in their season, and they are not good at any other time ; and there are graces that are good in their sea- son, but we do not always require them. A person vexes and irritates me ; I want grace just at that mo- ment to be patient: I have not got it, and I get angry; ten minutes after I am ever so patient ; but 1 have not had grace in its season. The promise is, “ I will give them the shower in its season.” Ah! poor waiting soul, what is thy season this morning ? Is it the sea- son of drought ? Then that is the season for showers. Is it a season of great heaviness and black clouds ? Then that is the season for showers. What is your season this morning, business man ? Lost money all the week, have you? Now is the season to ask for showers. It is night-time ; now the dew falls. The dew does not fall in the day — it falls in the night ; the night of affliction, trial, and trouble. There stands the promise ; only go and plead it. I will give them the shower in its season.” THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. 151 We have one thought more, and then we have done. Here is a varied blessing. ‘‘ I will give thee showers of blessing.’’ The word is in the plural. All kinds of blessings God will send. The rain is all of one kind when it comes ; but grace is not all of one kind, or it does not produce the same effect. When God sends rain upon the church, he “ sends showers of blessing.” There are some ministers who think, that if there is a shower on their church, God will send a shower of work. Yes, but if he does, he will send a shower of comfort. Others think that God will send a shower of gospel truth. Yes, but if he sends that, he will send a shower of gospel holiness. For all God’s blessings go together. They are like the sweet sister graces that danced hand in hand. God sends showers of blessings. If he gives comforting grace, he will also give convert- ing grace ; if he makes the trumpet blow for the bank- rupt sinner, he will also make it sound a shout of joy for the sinner that is pardoned and forgiven. He will send ‘‘ showers of blessing.” Now, then, there is a promise in that Bible. We have tried to explain and enlarge upon it. What shall we do with it ? “ In that book there hidden lies A pearl of price unknown.”^ Well, we have examined this rich promise; we as a church are looking at it; we are saying, “ Is that om^s?” I think most of the members will say, “ It is ; for God has poured out upon us showers of blessing in their season.” Well, then, if the promise is ours the pre- cept is ours, as much as the promise. Ought we not to ask God to continue to make us a blessing? Some ^52 SERMONS. say I did so-and-so when I was a young man; but sup- posing you are fifty, you are not an old man now. Is there not something you can do ? It is aU very well to talk about what you have done; but what are you doing now ? I know what it is with some of you 3 you shined brightly once, but your candle has not been snuffed lately, and so it does not shine so well. May God take away some of the worldly cares, and snuff the candles a little ! You know there were snuffers and snuffer-trays provided in the temple for aU the can- dles, but no extinguishers ; and if there should be a poor candle here this morning, with a terrific snuff, that has not given a light for a long while, you will have no extinguisher from me, but I hope you will always have a snuffing. I thought the first time when I came to the lamps this morning it would be to snuff them. That has been the intention of my sermon — to snuff you a little — to set you to work for Jesus Christ. O Zion, shake thyself from the dust ! O Christian, raise thyself from thy slumbers! Warrior, put on thy armor! Soldier, grasp thy sword! The captain sounds the alarm of war. O sluggard! why sleepest thou? O heir of heaven, has not Jesus done so much for thee, that thou shouldst live to him ? O beloved brethren, purchased with redeeming mercies, girt about with loving-kindness and with tenderness, “ Now for a shout of sacred joy,” and after that, to the battle! The little seed has grown to this : who knoweth what it shall be ? Only let us together strive, without variance. Let us labor for Jesus. Never did men have so fair an opportunity, for the last hundred years. ‘‘ There is a time that, taken THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. 153 at the flood, leads on to fortune.” Shall you take it at the flood ? Over the bar, at the harbor’s mouth ! O ship of heaven, let thy sails be out ; led not thy can- vas be furled ; and the wind will blow us across the seas of difficulty that lie before us. O ! that the latter day might have its dawning even in this despised habi- tation ! O my God ! from this place cause the first wave to spring, which shall move another, and then another, till the last great wave shall sweep over the sands of time, and dash against the rocks of eternity, echoing as it falls, “Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelu- jah! the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth!” SERMON VIII. THE ETERNAL NAME. “ His name shall endure forerer.” — Psjllm Ixxii. 17- No one here requires to be told that this is the name of Jesus Christ, which ‘‘ shall endure forever.’’ Men have said of many of their works, “ they shall endure forever;” but how much have they been disappointed! In the age succeeding the flood, they made the brick, they gathered the slime, and when they had piled old Babel’s tower, they said, ‘‘ This shall last forever.” But God confounded their language; they finished it not. By his lightnings he destroyed it, and left it a monument of their folly. Old Pharoah and the Egyp- tian monarchs heaped up their pyramids, and they said, “ They shall stand forever,” and so indeed they do stand; but the time is approaching when age shall devour even these. So with all the proudest works of man, whether they have been his temples or his monarchies, he has written “everlasting” on them; but God has ordained their end, and they have passed away. The most stable things have been evanescent as shadows and the bub- bles of an hour, speedily destroyed at God’s bidding. Where is Nineveh, and where is Babylon ? Where the (154) THB ETERNAL NAME* 155 cities of Persia ? Where are the high places of Edom ? W here are Moab, and the princes of Ammon ? Where are the temples or the heroes of Greece ? Where the millions that passed from the gates of Thebes ? Where are the hosts of Xerxes, or where the vast armies of the Roman emperors ? Have they not passed away ? And though in their pride they said, “ This monarchy is an everlasting one ; this queen of the seven hills shall be called the eternal city,” its pride is dimmed ; and she who sat alone, and said, I shall be no widow, but a queen forever,” she hath fallen, hath fallen, and in a little while she shall sink like a millstone in the flood, her name being a curse and a byword, and her site the habitation of dragons and of owls. Man calls his works eternal — God calls them fleeting ; man conceives that they are built of rock — God says, ‘‘ Nay, sand, or worse than that — they are air.” Man says he erects them for eternity — God blows but for a moment, and where are they ? Like baseless fabrics of a vision, they are passed and gone forever. It is pleasant, then, to find that there is one thing which is to last forever. Concerning that one thing we hope to speak to-night, if God will enable me to preach, and you to hear. His name shall endure forever.” First, the religion sanctified by his name shall endure forever ; secondly, the honor of his name shall endure forever ; and thirdly, the savings comforting poiver of his name shall endure forever. I. First, the religion of the name of Jesus is to endure forever. When imposters forged their delusions, they had hopes that peradventure they might in some distant age carry the world before them ; and if they saw a few followers gather around their standard, who offered in- 156 SERMONS. cense at their shrine, then they smiled, and said, religion shall outshine the stars and last through eter- nity.” But how mistaken have they been ! How many false systems have started up and passed away ! Why, some of us have seen, even in our short lifetime, sects that rose lilce Jonah’s gourd, in a single night, and passed away as swiftly. We, too, have beheld prophets rise, who have had their hour — yea, they have had then- day, as dogs all have ; but, like the dogs, their day has passed away, and the imposter, where is he? And the arch-deceiver, where is he ? Gone and ceased. Specially might I say this of the various systems of Infidelity. Within a hundred and fifty years, how has the boasted power of reason changed ! It has piled up one thing, and then another day it has laughed at its own handiwork, demolished its own castle, and con- structed another, and the next day a third. It has a thousand dresses. Once it came forth like a fool with its beUs, heralded by Voltaire; then it came out a braggard bully, like Tom Paine ; then it changed its course, and assumed another shape, till, forsooth, we have it in the base, bestial seculiarism of the present day, which looks for nought but the earth, keeps its nose upon the ground, and like the beast, thinks this world is enough ; or looks for another through seeldng this. Why, before one hair on this head shall be gray, the last secularist shall have passed away ; before many of us are fifty years of age, a new Infidelity shall come, and to those who say, “ Where will saints be ? ” we can turn round and say, Where are you ? ” And they will answer, We have altered our names.” They will have altered their name, assumed a fresh shape, put on a new form of evil, but still their nature will be THE ETERNAL NAMB. 157 the same ; opposing Christ, and endeavoring to blas- pheme his truths. On all their systems of rehgion, or non-religion — for that is a system too — it may be written, ‘‘Evanescent; fading as the flower, fleeting as the meteor, frail and unreal as a vapor.” But of Christ’s religion, it shall be said, “ His name shall en- dure forever.” Let me now say a few things — not to prove it, for that I do not wish to do — but to give you some hints whereby, possibly, I may one day provo it to other people, that Jesus Christ’s religion must inev- itably endm*e forever. And first, we ask those who think it shall pass away, v)hen was there a time when it did not exist? We ask them whether they can point their finger to a period when the religion of Jesus was an unheard-of thing ? “ Yes,” they will reply, “ before the days of Christ and his apostles.” But we answer, “ Nay, Bethlehem was not the birthplace of the gospel ; though Jesus was born therej there was a gospel long before the birth of Jesus, and a preached one too ; although not preached ill all its simplicity and plainness, as we hear it now. Tliere was a gospel in the wilderness of Sinai, although it might be confused with the smoke of the incense, and only to be seen through slaughtered victims; yet, there was a gospel there.” Yea, more, we take them back to the fair trees of Eden, where the fruits per- petually ripened, and summer always rested, and amid these groves we tell them there was a gospel, and we let them hear the voice of God, as he spoke to recreant man, and said, “ The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent’s head.” And having taken them thus far back, we ask, “ Where were false religions born ? Where was their cradle ? ” They point us to Mecca, 14 158 8EKMONS. or they turn iheir fingers to Rome, or they speak of Confucius, or the dogmas of Budha. But we say, you only go back to a distant obscurity; we take you to the primeval age ; we direct you to the days of purity ; we take you back to the time when Adam first trod the earth ; and then we ask you whether it is not likely that, as the first-born, it will not also be the last to die? and as it was born so early, and still exists, whilst a thousand ephemera have become extinct, whether it does not look most possible, that when all others shall have perished, like the bubble upon the wave, this only shall swim, like a good ship upon the ocean, and still shall bear its myriad souls, not to the land of shades, but across the river of death to the plains of heaven? We ask next, supposing Christ’s gospel to become extinct, what religion is to supplant it ? We inquire of the wise man, who says Christianity is soon to die, ‘‘ Pray, sir, what religion are we to have in its stead? Are we to have the delusions of the heathen, who bow before their gods, and worship images of wood and stone? Will ye have the orgies of Bacchus, or the ob- scenities of Venus? Would ye see your daughters once more bowing down before Thammuz, or perform- ing obscene rites as of old ? ” Nay, ye would not endure such things ; ye would say, “ It must not be tolerated by civilized men.” Then what would ye have? Would ye have Romanism and its supersti- tions ? Ye will say, No, God help us, never.” They may do what they please with Britain ; but she is too wise to take old Popery back again, while Smith- field lasts, and there is one of the signs of martyrs there; aye, while there breathes a man who marks him- self a freeman, and swears by the constitution of Old THE ETERNAL NAME. 159 England, we cannot take Popery back again. She may be rampant with her superstitions and her priest- craft; but with one consent my hearers reply, ‘‘We will not have Popery.” Then what will ye choose? Shall it be Mahometanism? Will ye choose that, with all its fables, its wickedness and libidinousness ? I will not tell you of it. Nor will I mention the ac- cursed imposture of the West that has lately arisen. We will not allow Polygamy, while there are men to be found who love the social circle, and cannot see it invaded. We would not wish, when God hath given to man one wife, that he should drag in twenty, as the companions of that one. We cannot prefer Mormon- ism ; we will not, and we shall not. Then what shall we have in the place of Christianity ? “ Infidelity,” you cry, do you, sirs? And would you have that? Then what would be the consequence? What do many of them promote ? Communist views, and the real disruption of all society as at present established. Would you desire Reigns of Terror here, as they had in France ? Do you wish to see all society shattered, and men wandering like monster icebergs on the sea, dashing against each other, and being at last utterly destroyed ? God save us from Infidelity ! What can you have, then ? Nought. There is nothing to sup- plant Christianity. What religion shall overcome it? There is not one to be compared with it. If we tread the globe round, and search from Britain to Japan, there shall be no religion found, so just to God, so safe to man. We ask the enemy once more, suppose a religion were to be found which would be preferable to the one we love, by what means would you crush ows ? How 160 SKUMON8. would you get rid of the religion of Jesus? and iiow would you extinguish his name? Surely, sirs, ye would never think of the old practice of persecution, would you? Would ye once more try the elFicacy of stakes and fires, to burn out the name of Jesus ? Would ye give us the boots and instruments of tor- ture ? Try it, sirs, and ye shall not quench Christianity. Each martyr, dipping his finger in his blood, would WTite its honors on the heavens as he died ; and the very flame that mounted up to heaven would emblazon the skies with the name of Jesus. Persecution has been tried. Turn to the Alps ; let the valleys of Piedmont speak; Jet Switzerland testify; let France, with its St. Bartholomew; let England, with all its massacres, speak. And if ye have not crushed it yet, shall ye hope to do it ? Shall ye ? Nay, a thousand are to be found, and ten thousand if it w^ere necessary, who are willing to march to the stake to-morrow: and when they are burned, if ye could take up their hearts, ye would oee engraven upon each of them the name of Jesus. His name shall endure forever ; ” for how can ye destroy our love to it ? Ah, but,” ye say, “ we would try gen- tler means than that.” Well, what would ye attempt ? Would ye invent a better religion ? We bid you do it, and let us hear it ; we have not yet so much as believed you capable of such a discovery. What then ? Would ye wake up one that should deceive us and lead us astray? We bid you do it; for it is not possible to deceive the elect. Ye may deceive the multitude, but God’s elect shall not be led astray. They have tried us. Have they not given us Popery ? Have they not assailed us with Puseyism ? Are they not tempting us with Armin- ianism by the wholesale? And do we therefore THE ETERNAL NAME. 161 God’s truth? No: we have taken this for our motto, and by it we will stand. ‘‘ The Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible,” is still the ’’eligion of Protestants ; and the selfsame truth which moved the lips of Chrysostom the old doctrine that ••avished the heart of Augustine, the old faith which