YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

1948

SEKMONS,

SECOND SERIES,

EIOHAED WINTEE HAMILTON, LL.D.,D.D.,
MINISTER OF BELGRAVE CHAPEL, LEEDS.

'TilR WHOLB WORLD, IN COMPARISON WITH TUB Cross OF ClIROT, IS ONE it RAND IMPEBTINENCB." Leighton.

LEEDS:
JAMES Y. KNIGHT, 39, BEIGGATE;
LONDON : HAMILTON, ADAMS, & CO. ; JACKSON & WALFOBD.

KBCCCXLVI.

"Profiteer, me sedulo pro modo gratia; et benignitatis qua Deus erga me usus est,
operam dedisse, ut cum in concionibus, turn etiam in scriptis, pure ac caste Verbum ipsius
prajdicarem, et fideliter sacrani ipsius Scripturam interpretarer. Testor etiam ac profiteor,
me in contentionibus et dispiitationibus omnibus, qua1 milii cum hostibus Evangelii habendas
fuerunt, nulbs praestigiis, nullis malis artibus et sophisticis, usum esse; sed candidc ac sin
cere in veritate propugnanda versatum esse. Vcrum, hei mihi! Studium illud meum et
zelus (si hoc nomine dignus est) adeo remissus et languidus fuit, ut innumera mihi ad mu-
nus meum praeclare fungendum defuisse fateor.17 Extract from the Will of Calvin.

ANTHONY P1CKARD, PRINTER, LEEDS

DEDICATION.

TO THE REV. HENRY FORSTER BURDER, D.D.,
tastou of the congregational chuech,
st. Thomas' scuare, hackney,
and professor emeritus of moral philosophy in highbury college.

Dear and Honoured Sib,
Be pleased to accept the Dedication of this Volume.
Of the Revered Tutors, who presided over my Ministerial Edu
cation, You alone survive. Upon Simpson and Hooper, long
since the grave has closed. They are beyond the reach of any
earthly meed. My Veneration and Affection will always cherish
their memory, and embalm their worth.. I cannot, however, but
remember that Your Faculty was that which my state of mind
and pupilage peculiarly needed, nor have I language to convey
my sense of the unwearying patience and masterly clearness with
which you constantly exercised it.
In the Retrospect of those Youthful years and Academic
scenes, I not only feel my obligations to you equally for personal
kindness and official zeal, — as I did not then, alas, appreciate
them ! — but I fear that my desultory habits and wayward dispo
sitions must often have caused you suspense and pain. I present,
therefore, these Sermons to you as a token of contrition not less
than as an offering of thankfulness.

VI DEDICATION.
May your life be greatly prolonged, — your usefulness be
constantly multiplied, — and your heart be increasingly comforted,
amidst the growth of years, by those holy truths which through
life you have so strenuously maintained and so fully exhibited !
Believe me,
In the bonds of devoted Respect and Gratitude,
Yours most faithfully,
RICHARD WINTER HAMILTON.
Leeds, November, 1845.

ADVERTISEMENT.

A former Volume of Sermons having been received with much favour,
especially by the Author's honoured brethren in the Christian Ministry, — he has
been encouraged to prepare a Second. The Publication has been delayed by
causes which he could not control. He had intended a Series of Discourses, of
which the Fifth and Sixth are the commencement, on 1 Tim. iii. 16. He after
wards judged that the space they would occupy would be disproportionate. One
or two expressions may be found in them suggesting the original design. He
may, also, add, that the Tenth was printed some years since in a Scottish
Magazine ; and that the last was only allowed a separate impression on the
avowed reserve of right to include it in this Volume.
The First Volume has for many years been out of print. He is flattered
by knowing that it is in not infrequent request. He hopes shortly to find time
to revise and republish it.

CONTENTS.

Dedication, ...   v
Advertisement, ... ...  vi

SERMON I.
THE REVEALED DEITY.
1 John iv. 16. — God is Love.  ... ... ... 1
SERMON II.
' THE HOLY HABITATION OF HEAVEN.
John xiv. 2. — In my Father's House abe many Mansions. ... 27
SERMON III,
VALID CHRISTIANITY.
1 Cor. iv. 20. — For the Kingdom op God is not in Word, but
in Power  49
SERMON IV.
THE RIGHT OF THE POOR.
Matt. xi. S. — And the Poor have the Gospel preached to
THEM   75
SERMON V.
THE MYSTERY OF THE INCARNATE GOD.
1 Tim. iii. IS, 16. — The Pillar and Ground op the Truth. And
without Controversy great is the Mystery op Godli
ness. ... ...   10G

Vlll CONTENTS.
SERMON VI.
THE INCARNATE GOD VINDICATED.
1 Tim. in. 16. — God was manifest in the Flesh, justified in
the Spirit   *27
SERMON VII.
THE RESEMBLANCE OF MELCHISEDEK TO CHRIST.
Heb. vii. 21. — The Lord sware and will not repent, Thou aht
a Priest for ever after the Order of Melchisedek. ... 152
SERMON VIII.
THE HARMONY OF CHRISTIANITY IN ITS PERSONAL
INFLUENCE.
Ephes. i. 8. — Wherein He hath abounded toward us in all
Wisdom and Prudence  182
SERMON IX.
MORAL INABILITY.
John vi. ib, 65. — No Man can comb to me, except the Father
which hath sent me draw him  Therefore said I unto
you, that no Man can comb unto me, except it were given
unto him of my Father.  203
SERMON X.
JESUS CHRIST THE CAUSE AND CONSUMMATOR
OF ALL THINGS.
Heb. i. 10-12. — And, Thou, Lord, in the Beginning hast laid
the Foundation of the Earth ; and the Heavens are the
Worksop thine Hands: they shall perish; but Thou re-
mainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a Garment;
and as a Vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall
be changed: but Thou art the same, and Thy Years shall
not fail.  230

CONTENTS.

SERMON XI.
THE DOCTRINE AND DAUNTLESSNESS OF APOSTOLIC
PREACHING.
1 Cor. i. 23. — But wb preach Christ crucified  248

SERMON XII.
THE PERVERSION OF APOSTOLIC PREACHING.
Gal. v. 11. — Then is the Offence of the Cross ceased. ... 270
SERMON XIII.
THE CONTRASTED HUMILIATION AND EXALTATION
OF CHRIST.
Eph. iv. 9, 10. — Now that He ascended, what is it but that He
also descended first into the lower parts of the earth ?
He that descended is the same also that ascended up far
above all heavens, that He might pill all things. ... 290
SERMON XIV.
THE IMMEDIATE BLESSEDNESS OF DEPARTED SAINTS.
Heb. xii. 23. — And yb are come to the Spirits op Just Men made
perfect. ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 314
SERMON XV.
THE RESURRECTION OF THE JUST.
Phil. hi. 11. — If by any means I might attain unto the Re
surrection of the Dead. ... ... ... ... ... ... 348
SERMON XVI.
THE LAST JUDGMENT.
Rev. xx. 11 — 13. — And I saw a Great White Throne, and Him
THAT SAT ON IT, FROM WHOSE FACE THE EARTH AND THE
HEAVEN FLED AWAY; AND THERE WAS FOUND NO PLACE FOR
THEM. And I SAW THE DEAD, SMALL AND GREAT, STAND BE
FORE God; and the Books were opened: and another Book

X CONTENTS.
WAS OPENED, WHICH IS THE BoOK OP LlPF. : AND THE DEAD
WERE JUDGED OUT OF THOSE THINGS WHICH WERE WRITTEN IN
THE BOOKS, ACCORDING TO THEIR WORKS. AND THE SEA GAVE
UP THE DEAD WHICH WERE IN IT; AND DEATH AND HELL DE
LIVERED UP THE DEAD WHICH WERE IN THEM; AND THEY WERE
JUDGED EVERY MAN ACCORDING TO THEIR WORKS. ... ... 378
SERMON XVII.
THE FINAL HEAVEN.
2 Pet. hi. 13.' — 'Nevertheless we, according to His promise,
look for New Heavens and a New Earth, wherein dwell
eth Righteousness. ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 397
SERMON XVIII.
THE REVIVAL OF CHRISTIAN PIETY AND EFFORT.
Hosea x. 12. — Sow to yourselves in Righteousness, reap in
Mercy; break up your Fallow Ground: for it is time
to seek the Lord, till He come and rain Righteousness
upon you. ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 427
SERMON XIX.
THE GRANDEUR OF REDEMPTION.
Heb. ii. 10. — For it became Him, for whom are all things,
and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto
glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect
through Sufferings. ... ... ... ... ... ... 455
SERMON XX.
THE CLAIMS OF THE JEWS ON CHRISTIAN COMPASSION.
Luke xxiv. 47. — Beginning at Jerusalem. ... ... ... 486
SERMON XXI.
MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE.
Rom. xv. 23. — But now having no more place in thf.se parts, . 518

CONTENTS. XI
SERMON XXII.
THE MINISTRY OF ANGELS.
Heb. i. 14. — Abe they not all Ministebing Spibits, sent pobth
to ministeb for them who shall be Heirs op Salvation ? . 543
SERMON XXIII.
THE FAITH OF DEVILS.
James ii. 19. — The Devils also believe, and tremble. ... 579
SERMON XXIV.
THE INFLUENCE OF THE PIOUS UPON THE AGE IN WHICH
THEY LIVE.
Acts xiii. 36. — For David, after he had served his own gene
ration BY THE WILL OF GoD, FELL ON SLEEP, AND WAS LAID
UNTO HIS FATHERS, AND SAW CORRUPTION. ... ... ... 606

Notes, ... ...    ... 663

SERMONS

SERMON I.

THE REVEALED DEITY.

1 John iv. 16.
" God is Love."

There is a manner of Divinity in such a saying as this ! It
prepossesses the mind in favour of its supernal origin. Affir
mations of this order belong not to earth. It is not thus that
we speak and think. We boast, indeed, our aphorisms; and the
invention of any important one entitles to the distinction of a
preeminent wisdom. We can digest into them very useful know
ledge : they become principles of judgment and rules of life.
But when we attempt to seize the conception of a God, we can
only succeed, and then most imperfectly, by laborious disser
tation. Our reasonings are long and abstruse. Refinement fol
lows refinement, and explanation oppresses explanation. " The
Lord" always might "answer us out of the whirlwind, Who
is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?"
Nothing, therefore, of this kind can we condense. The sentence,
the word, cannot be found to characterise Him. Our ideas are
feeble, ' and this is seen in their diffuseness. They have no ful
ness, no certitude, in them. We cannot pursue them steadily
nor pronounce them confidently. And therefore "it is not in
man" to explain his ideas in any sort like this. He cannot strike
out the single thought and term of such a delineation. " He

2 THE REVEALED DEITY.
speaketh of the earth." This characterization is more than the
strength and aptness of human understanding : more than the
forms and felicities of human speech. It is the announcement
of the Infinite by himself. " He will not keep silence." " That
ye may know that I am the Lord." It is the style of a godlike
majesty !
And happy is it for us, Dear Christians, if *uch a statement
as this, — the very identification of the Godhead, — fully agrees
with our most fixed sentiments and easily coalesces with our most
intimate feelings. For it is averse from all that man, left to his
mere reason and arguing upon his naked information, ever enter
tained. Did he fall down before an image of pure and perfect
Goodness ? Did he ascribe to the great First Cause an absolute
Amiableness and Benignity ? He knew too little of love him
self, to place in it all excellence and to invest with it all ascen
dancy. It was not to him, so far as he understood it, a thing of
greatness. He gave it no veneration. Ambition and aggran
disement had no kindred with it. None of their ends could
it subserve. It was too gentle, too humble, too self-sacrificing,
for their schemes. Poetry was too proud to sing its modest
deeds, and elegy too scornful to record its quiet virtues. Love
was banished from the world. How could they, whose heart
was enmity against God, — who were living in malice and envy,
hateful and hating one another, — create a thought and arche
type of simple, entire, unmixed Love, — Love essential, Love
perennial, arraying it with all the attributes of a supreme self-
existence, setting it aloft on the throne of universal dominion,
and calling it God ? For we know what are the vain imaginations
of the human mind when it would describe its notion of the
Eternal Power. That notion is invariably one or the other of
these. It may be that of Indifference. The most intelligent
theists of the ancient world and of its classic regions spoke of
the calm and ease in which their deities voluptuously reposed,
never interfering in the agitations of human care and strife. Far
off they dwelt in an atmosphere through which the earthly tem
pest could not sail nor the human conflict reverberate. Theirs
was the rich, the sweet, the golden, dream. They woke not at

THE REVEALED DEITY.

the sound of any alarm. They stooped not at the cry of any
prayer. They took not heed nor offered help at the occurrence
of any crisis. And this is still a common impression concerning
the true God. " God hath forgotten : he hideth his face ; he
will never see it." "Thou wilt not require it." "Who seeth
us? and who knoweth us?" "The Lord hath forsaken the
earth." " The God of Jacob shall not regard it." " The Lord
will not do good, neither will he do evil." Men will justify the
view by appeals to the Divine greatness. He is so great that he
cannot interest himself in our affairs. Of what kind, then, is
this greatness ? It is physically gross. Nothing elevated, pure,
benevolent, can it include. It is the abandonment of the world
to chance or fate. It is carelessness of whatever He has made.
It is the contempt of all that divides right and wrong. It is the
annulment of law and obligation. — Where Indifference is not the
descriptive idea of man concerning the Divine Nature, his is that
of Cruelty. This is not left in abstraction. It forces itself into
palpable shape and expression. Enter the Pagan temple, olden
or extant. How merciless, how vindictive, how greedy of vic
tims, how defiled with blood-stains, are the idols of all ! These
are but the speculations we have formed of the Almighty Being
who has made us. Serapis, Baal, Moloch, Astaroth, Jove, —
Odin, Frega, Thor, — Sheva, Vishnoo, Juggernaut, — are only so
many figures, grim and resentful, hideous and revolting, of opi
nions and feelings which lie deep in our soul. Our mind hates
its own creations, but cannot paint them in any fairer hues. —
These are the two governing associations of the human intellect
when it would " by searching find out God," and when it would
" compare a likeness unto Him." We trifle with Indifference, or
we tremble before Cruelty. These attributions are the offspring
of our hope or fear.
But this Christian sabbath has dawned, and this Christian
sanctuary has opened, inviting us to other reflections and emo
tions: representations of a perfectly different nature meet us in
these ordinances. There is no lightness, but an awe settles
upon our spirit in meditating of Him who is not " far off," who
" thinketh upon us" and " careth for us," " with whom we have

* THE REVEALED DEITY.
to do," "God the judge of all." There is no recoiling horror,
no " spirit of bondage ;" we " draw nigh," " we have confidence
toward God." Why is this ? Because no Indifference can attach
itself to Him "whose we are and whom we serve." He is " with
us," is "for us," is "on our side." From all unconcern and
from all apathy, if we may thus negatively speak of Him, he is
infinitely removed. " He hath set his heart upon us." " The
Lord is among us." He is the hearer of prayer. He comforteth
all that be cast down. " A Father of the fatherless and a judge
of the widows is God in his holy habitation." Why is this?
Because no Cruelty can attach itself to Him "_whom we worship
in spirit and in truth." Tortures are not the rites He asks. He
pours his indignance upon the abominations of the heathen who
made their children to pass through the fire. Surely as He lives,
he has no pleasure in the death of the wicked ; but that the
wicked turn from his way and live. " The Lord is gracious,
and full of compassion ; slow to anger, and of great mercy." In
opposition to these conjectures of an unconscious Negligence and
of a sanguinary Malignity, — God is Love. And do you not feel
the tender distinctiveness of this designation ? It is not an appel
lative, it is not an epithet, it is not a quality. It is not only
His name and his memorial. It is His nature ! It is His being !
It is Himself! When you entered these portals, no altar rose
upon your sight covered with its slain, reeking with its sacrifice !
No form of terror glared upon you from above it ! You were
overcome by softened and exquisitely grateful feelings ; and ex
claimed, " How amiable are Thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts !"
You "behold the beauty of the Lord." Whom seek ye? Whom
do ye adore? On the light of whose countenance do ye hang
and gaze? Love, — boundless, unmingled, Love, — Love filling
its own infinitude, inhabiting its own eternity, — Love exulting
in its own element, enthroned upon its own height, — Love the
only convertible with Deity, for Love is God and God is Love !
" Praise ye the Lord. Sing unto the Lord a new song, and his
praise in the congregation of saints."
And yet it may be that some have heard this blessed enunci
ation to pervert and abuse it. Their forebodings are relieved.

THE REVEALED DEITY. 5
They have construed it into an admission of weakness and indul
gence. Their soul is henceforth wrapt in a false peace. They
cherish the fond fancy that all is suddenly transformed. They
have cast the Eternal King down from his excellency. They
have struck the sceptre from His hand. They have thrust Him
from his throne. They have repealed His law and overthrown
his jurisdiction. They ascribe not righteousness to their Maker.
They think not of Him as a God of truth and without iniquity,
that just and right is He. They forget the faithful Creator.
They cause the Holy One to cease from before them. They
imagine to themselves a Being incapable of resisting evil and
straitened from punishing the evil doer, — bound to long-suffering
and even to connivance, — meaning no retribution when he threat
ens it, — purposing only to break his every revealed purpose, —
practising, though falsely so adjudged, a benevolent deception
upon the universe, — not just, not true, not holy, not hating sin,
since that He is Love. All such impious consequences must be
resolutely disproved.
I. Let us endeavour to fix the sense and trace the
BEARING OF THIS WONDERFUL AVERMENT.
This assurance may the more need to be simplified from its
singular abbreviation. Less thought is not contained because
it is presented in such a curt and concise form. The thought
may be, for that very reason, more difficult of extrication. It is
not so much the self-evident axiom as the long-drawn conclu
sion, and we must consider it upward through proof and pre
miss. It stands rather in the relation of a genus to its species,
and we must trace the difference and variety of the species to
justify and gain the great generic type. It is not that with
which we can begin : it is inference, it is result. It requires
proof, and is but a consequence of foregoing facts and principles.
The man who should take this instance, and reason frpm it to
Christianity, would invert every right position for understanding
both it and that religion : the man would speedily understand
both, who should reason from Christianity to this instance. It
is the summing up, the essence, the perfection, of " the glorious
gospel of the blessed God."

6 THE REVEALED DEITY.
And a further occasion for investigating this noble abstract of
all revealed truth arises from the predicate into which the Divine
character is resolved. In our earlier enquiries^ in our more popular
usages, it allies itself far most readily with exercises of direct
kindness and beneficence. It most naturally suggests to us the
thought of individual good and welfare. We are bound, there
fore, to redeem it from every misapplication. It may be required
of us to show that the ideas of direct kindness and of individual
bearing are not its necessary nor its highest indications.
Now as we take a ray of light, perfect in itself, and decom
pose it into its primitive colours, which primitive colours may
again combine to form the pure white light of the perfect ray, —
so the love, in which all our ideas of proper Deity converge, may
be, for our more complete apprehension, separated and reduced
into what is more distinct, and afterwards gathered up and re
placed in their glorious integrity. In the theology of our present
question we rise from the particular to the general, from the
distinctive to the universal.
Love may be considered to subsist in the Divine nature under
the following modifications.
Goodness. This is the disposition to communicate happiness.
It displays its earliest effect in creating objects for itself. It
calls into sentience all whom it wills to bless. It adapts them
to the means of enjoyment provided for them. Man is made
upright. He is crowned with glory and honour. His senses
bind him to the external scene : his mind is fitted for an inward
life. This goodness is universal, but its riches are chiefly
lavished upon our race. There can be no other cause of existence,
nor fountain of well-being, but God himself. "Who hath first
given unto Him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again ?"
" There is none good but one, that is God." But we cannot
speak of goodness as confined to these ideas. Excellence is pre
sumed : whatever renders Him " fearful- in praises." " Doing
good," and "sinning not," are the same thing. The "good man"
is esteemed for himself, and not only gratefully regarded. A
quality is seen in him of worth, and that leads to all his benefi
cence. His "good works" imply a principle which is morally

THE REVEALED DEITY.

good. Evil is abhorrent to him. " The good Lord" in the
operations of his bounty must, in an equal manner, be contem
plated. " He is good and doeth good." " Evil shall not dwell
with Him." " His loving-kindness is good." His wisdom and
power are beheld ministering to the purposes of his good-will :
that good- will is seen in perfect conjunction with his holiness,
justice, and truth. He does only what " seemeth him good."
In recording that all which He has made is very good, he attests
not only the good of a general happiness, but the good of a
fitness and a desert honourably assimilated to Himself. " He is
holy in all his works," and " all his works praise him."
We must not, therefore, conceive of this goodness, though
it is too often described in such manner, as a necessary effect,
an involuntary excess and overflow, an unconscious spontaneity.
The principle of the goodness is essential : its operation is depen
dent on immediate will. " Whatever the Lord pleased, that did
he in heaven, and in the earth, in the seas, and all deep places."
Let us think of his creative power as of that which might, or
might not, be exercised, and as of the most benevolent design.
" Thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they exist,
and are created." These are the " blessings of goodness."
Complacency. This is the disposition which dwells in the
mind of the Former of all things to delight in whatever he has
done. His works are great, and reflect back upon him, in propor
tion to their kind and purpose, all his different perfections. The
pleasure which He has connected with the device of wisdom and
the sway of power in the breast of his creatures, may, in some
unapproachable sense and degree, be not unknown to him amidst
his blessedness and for its augmentation. The satisfaction which
rises in our spirit upon the accomplishment of any plan or thought
most immeasureably above any enjoyment which that plan or
thought can of itself suggest, may only be according to a law
written on our nature in imitation of a deep original affection
of the Infinite Mind. He taketh pleasure, it may be on these
grounds, in the productions of his skill and energy. They not
only are the transcripts and monuments of His glory, — there was
the ineffable secret of triumph in this exercise of his attributes

8 THE REVEALED DEITY.
and this embodiment of his designs. The earth stands up be
fore Him ! It was in idea ever present to Him, but he has now
caused it to burst forth in reality. He exults over its countless
capacities for pleasure. It is one vast arrangement for happiness.
Chiefly, as the abode of intelligent creatures, does He hail its sub
serviency to their highest good. He made it to be an altar of per
petual sweet incense whose odours might breathe to heaven. He
constituted it for a palace of joy in which He might dwell among
his creatures for ever. The complacency of His mind over it is
seen in his unwearying attention. He has not abandoned it what
ever may have been its estrangement from its proper use. He
would not destroy it. He carries on in it a great remedial and
corrective system. He forgets not its final intention. "Of Him,
and through him, and to him are all things." And as His purpose
of moral government and holy ascendancy is evolved, we learn
that he delights not in brute strength and sordid exploit, — " the
strength of the horse or the legs of a man," — " I am the Lord
which exerciseth loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness,
in the earth ; for in these things I delight, saith the Lord."
This Love not only includes goodness and complacency but,
as it now exists, and is now revealed, it takes the form of " the
kindness and philanthropy of God our Saviour."* This sup
poses certain dispositions of favour towards sinful men. It
is a case, so far as we know, of strict limitation. There has not
been, we may presume, any other. We know that there are
fallen creatures besides ourselves. For their restoration, we are
assured, no means have been, or shall be, provided. Ours is the
astonishing exception. It is necessary that these dispositions of
favour should be defined.
Forbearance. This is not security from punishment, — it still
is imminent and due, — but such delay that, if it be improved,
the punishment may be wholly averted.
Grace. This opposes every idea of claim or worth in them to
whom it is extended, regarding only their total demerit.
Mercy. This contemplates simply moral obnoxiousness and
liability, or guilt, meeting it with acts which may remove it ; as,
* Tit. iii. 4. " Or* Je yi x^vitrrorvt xxi v\ QiXxvllganriK.'" *. T. A.

THE REVEALED DEITY. 9
also, by influences that may subdue the depravity from which
that exposure to punishment, or that guilt, could alone arise.
Compassion. This concerns itself with the misery and ruin
which sin entails ; and furnishes, in the room of these evil conse
quences, peace, and joy, and hope: everlasting consolation and
eternal life.
Now in dwelling upon Divine love in this order of its par
ticular affections and operations, some important doctrines of
Scripture must be maintained.
God is Love, contemplated in Trinity. For the expression
of this love, the fact of that mystery is made known to us. The
Father, the Son, the Spirit, manifest it as distinctly and as uni
tedly as they subsist and as they relate to each other in those
coequal and consubstantial persons. "Behold, what manner of
love the Father hath bestowed upon us" ! " Ye know the grace
of our Lord Jesus Christ." " The love of the Spirit." "He that
sitteth on the throne." "The Lamb in the midst of the throne."
" The seven-fold Spirit before the throne." All we know is this :
Such is the Godhead. The Infinite Essence thus declares itself
as unity never can be otherwise distinguished, and as distinction
can never be otherwise united. And in this awful originality of
being and entity there dwells, there inheres, this perfect love.
God is Love, regarded in Covenant. A purpose is revealed
as reigning in the Uncreated Mind which supposes engagements
and stipulations. The Father seals the Mediator. Jesus is sent.
The Holy Ghost is given. There is inauguration into office.
There is subordination of trust. The Elohim are the sworn
ones. The Head of Christ is God. God is in Christ. He is in
the Father and the Father in him. The Comforter is the Spirit
of Christ. He sends Him from the Father, even the Spirit of
truth, who proceedeth from the Father. By solemn decree and
oath is this covenant confirmed.
God is Love, engaged in special Redeeming Acts. To save
the sinner He has not only to will. An immense arrangement
must be contrived and established to give that will efficiency. The
redemption of the soul is most precious and most difficult. It can
be saved, but merely because with God all things are possible.

10 THE REVEALED DEITY.
He only can save it by means absolutely infinite. There must
be the predestination of the Father's love, his gift of its objects
into the hands of Christ, his laying up of grace in Him for them,
before the world began. It is He who justifies and sanctifies in
supreme authority, though mediately by other agency. To Him
the redeemed church must be presented and the kingdom of the
present dispensation be restored. There must be the incarnation
and sacrifice of the Son, his meritorious intervention and advo
cacy, his reign over all things for the protection of those com
mitted to him, and his coming to judge the quick and the dead.
He is Surety and therefore Priest, Prophet, King. We are
justified by his blood. We are conformed to his image. These
are His " sure mercies." He is our peace, our hope, our life.
There must, also, be the work of the Spirit on all these hearts.
He enlightens, convinces, sanctifies, strengthens, witnesses to our
adoption, fills us with unearthly joy, and becomes the first-fruits
and the earnest of our heaven. Is not all this, this whole sys
tem, its every thought, intention, stage, bearing, issue, — one con
duct and pursuance of love ?
Though we feel that objection may be alleged against the
anticipatory character of these remarks, we justify this character,
inasmuch as they were required to be made in some or other
stage, and little of rhetorical decorum would be gained by a
manner more enigmatical and veiled.
A necessary conception of Divine love is, that it is the love of
God primarily to Himself. Self-love in the creature is not cri
minal, but is the rule of loving his fellow. If the creature be
sinful, then the self-love is sinful. He loves himself better than
others. Having ceased to love God with all his mind and strength,
which proper self-love would always have dictated, in setting up
his will against the Divine law, he is a hater of Him. It is,
therefore, announced as the worst feature of evil, that men should
be lovers of their own selves. But God can alone love perfectly
that which is God. There is no other object deserving of that
love. If He loved the creature better than himself he would
prefer an inferior attraction. He would love them whom he
chargeth with folly more than infinite wisdom, — those who cover

THE REVEALED DEITY. 11
their faces before His glory more than that glory. It would be
not only a derogation. It would be sin. The standard of all
moral greatness would be abased. Another will than the will
which is good and perfect would be consulted. Another end than
the end which is comprised in not living to ourselves would be
introduced. The love which postponed divine excellence and
claim to that which was less worthy, must involve whatever was
less worthy in proportionate injury. What is congenial, what
is lawful, what is susceptible, for God to love fully, justly,
save His own nature ? For if God is love, we enquire, love of
what ? Say, of being. He is the fountain of life. Say, of excel
lence. He is the reason, the glory, the judge, .of all virtue.
It is by His Self-love that all the activities of his far-beaming
and outworking benevolence are informed and ruled.
1. The original law illustrates this truth by presuming that
He is love.
For if. this be " the first and great commandment, Thou shalt
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart," then those qualities
are to be found in Him which should be thus esteemed. We
cannot be compelled to love. Every emotion claims its proper
excitement. The hoary mountain and the sylvan glen, the palm
and the lily, produce their corresponding impressions. We can
only feel awe of greatness, gratitude for favour, confidence in
truth. The appropriate counterparts must exist to awaken the
kindred sentiments of the soul. Since He is love, our thoughts
and passions ought to be reflected on him in love. But His
being embraces this quality in an infinite degree. He is " alto
gether lovely." The correlative affection must consequently be
of the utmost intensity, "all our strength and all our mind."
But as the Object is religiously presented to us, the reciprocated
emotion must be religious. He is to be contemplated in what
He is, as well as in what He has done. Our spirits are drawn
towards Him, — we delight ourselves in God. Our most intimate
yearnings have found their rest and hold. Our heart is fixed.
Love is sublimed to reverence ; is the strength of faith ; gazes
through the eye of hope ; rejoices ; endures ; offers itself up in
adoration ; glows in zeal ; sings with the joyful lips of praise.

12 THE REVEALED DEITY.
The beauty of the Lord is unfolded in this expression; and
our sensibilities are challenged into a corresponding return, the
ardours of religion in the reaction of our moral constitution !
2. All the Divine perfections resolve themselves into love.
We can easily take the distinction of sacred writ between
" the righteous man" and " the good man."* In the former is a
stern integrity : in the latter is a tender benevolence. These are
not uniform and interchangeable. The integrity does not so much
imply the benevolence as the benevolence supposes the integrity.
This difference is marked in the dispositions they produce, respect
or love, — possibly respect without love, though certainly not love
without respect. All these exceptions belong to the limitation of
human excellence. At the best it is finite : according to every
form of it which we have witnessed, it is always imperfect. But
we must apply other rules to our most fitting conception, un
worthy as it necessarily is, of infinite perfection. Now we have
already perceived that the attribute of human goodness is more
comprehensive than that of human righteousness. What, then, is
Love in God ? To diffuse happiness, He must be happy. What
is His holiness but his happiness? What is His justice but the
safeguard of his holiness ? What is His truth but the assurance
of his justice? All these perfections are, then, essential to His
Love : in the want of them He could not be love : love, then,
includes them all. Or the reasoning may be put into another
formula. He who is love is worthy to be loved. But could you
love the being who was not consistent with himself? Could you
love him who was not true, pure, just? Do you not loathe the
thought of such a being ? The more important and elevated his
rank, do you not shrink from his image the more ? Then these
qualities are necessary to complete the idea of love. If God
were not faithful, righteous, holy, He could not be love: for
that cannot be love which must only provoke whatever is con
trary to itself. We, therefore, knowing that God is love because
he is most holy, cry to him, "How excellent is Thy loving-
kindness" ! " How great is His goodness, and how great is his
beauty" ! * Rom. v. 7.

THE REVEALED DEITY. 13
3. If God be love, He cannot introduce, nor act upon, any
opposite principle.
Were sin left to itself, without check and resistance, that
would be encouraged which is most unlike to Divine purity. An
implicit sanction would be argued from the forbearance. What
ever is unlike that purity must conduce to misery. Happiness
must be impossible in walking contrary to the Source and Author
of all happiness. But is it Love to suffer all this evil without
any principle or method of prevention ? Can it be that from
such a Nature no indication of displeasure shall be given ? Now
what shall be the sign ? All the great departments of the mate
rial world are fenced round by that kind of control and preserva
tion which we call law. Those laws cannot be violated without
consequent injury, generally falling upon the breaker of them.
What, then, shall debar moral transgression ? Law can be the
only restraint. But what is law which is not enforced ? What
can enforce law but sanctions ? How can sanctions exist if pun
ishment be not ensured against the disobedient ? Often it is not
by immediate infliction. It is simple consequence. It is natural
tendency. It must be so. Nevertheless, it is agreeable to the
Divine will. That would have it so. It " causeth every man to
find according to his ways." " Their own doings have beset
them about." And in all this distributive justice we discern but
the proof that He is not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness,
that He sets himself against it, that it is the abominable thing
which He hates, because destruction and misery are its inevitable
fruit, its inalienable entail. He is Love in being the adversary
of all that interrupts its exercise and diffusion.
4. The love of God cannot, therefore, be justly disputed if
he leave unremitted the consequences of sin.
Man, being a free agent, being simply accountable as he is
free, can only be kept back from transgression by moral motive,
not by outward force. Law is an appeal to him of what is right,
and its sanctions equally are appeals to his interests, his hopes or
his fears. This is the rule of Divine government. How benevo
lent and wise and suitable ! The praise becomes the more intel
ligible and just when an alternative is beyond all supposition !

14 THE REVEALED DEITY.
A substituted scheme cannot be conceived. Legislation is the
bulwark of earthly communities: how can reasonable creatures
be ruled but by considerations of law ? Is the only Potentate
to be exclusively refused this expedient, and his dominion denied
this sway? Could goodness devise a kinder system? We
follow it out in its operation. Fearful effects, through the wil
fulness of the creature, ensue. These are forewarned. The fore
warning was indispensable to the efficiency of the system. If
it be forewarning, it must be in serious truth. It shall infal
libly take place. The contrary expectation discredits the cha
racter of the Lawgiver as much as the purview and providence
of his code. His love, if obvious in the threatening, deserves to
be admitted as fully by us in the execution. Was He love in
the creation of the angels ? In proving them ? In giving them
a law, and, of consequence, a law with all that was necessary to
enforce it ? But if in retribution of their sin He is no longer
love, it follows that there was not love in creating and governing
them. Surely then, as every principle of consistency would show
that He is not less benevolent now than aforetime, he is still
worthy of love, and fallen angels ought to love him beneath their
everlasting chains. To argue that, whenever penal consequences
arise, they should be directly prevented, is to strike at the system
itself. It would be fairer to deny that there should be govern
ment at all. The justice and the goodness, the wisdom and
the truth, of God are alike assailed. He might not have inter
posed in our favour and in counteraction of the consequences of
our guilt, any more than he did for those earlier rebels. That
abandonment would have been just. To carry out a benevolent
plan must be as benevolent as the plan itself. Any act of
mercy, being extra-judicial, being of a different order from the
case supposed, cannot enter into our present vindication of
Essential Love.
II. Let us now attempt to refute certain objections
WHICH ARE COMMONLY RAISED AGAINST THE THEME OF THE
TEXT. We believe that God has made every creature to be happy in
subordination to his own glory: that what we call being is a

THE REVEALED DEITY. 15
purpose and an adaptation for happiness : that every being, con
tinuing in its original condition, is happy. We allow no excep
tions. We cannot find one imperfectly formed, or denied its
share of bliss. Look through the scale of animated nature.
Tender mercies are over all these works. A slight inspection of
the anatomy and habitudes of the sloth and the bittern will con
vince us that they are as happy on the bough or in the pool, as
the antelope leaping on its hills and the lark saluting the hea
vens with its song. Of these inferior creatures the large enjoy
ment cannot be doubted. They have their wants; but these
yield the greater pleasure in the efforts necessary to provide for
them, and in their constant gratification. They have, also, their
dangers ; but these confer value upon life by environing it with
precautions, making it a thing of precious interest and guarded
trust. Still our discussion is confined to man. And ere we scan
his present position, is there not abundant evidence to show and
convince us that Infinite Goodness has made a large provision
for his felicity ? What are his senses, his faculties, his relation
ships ? What are his sorrows to his delights, his disease to his
health, his bereavement to his affinity, his pain to his ease, his
want to his fulness ? It may, however, better uphold our contro
versy with the ordinary objections against the Love of Deity, — ¦
objections drawn from the present state of things, — to premise
some of those great principles which directed His creative power
and its particular achievements.
1. God was pleased to create man an intelligent and rea
sonable being.
He could have constituted him simply sentient, guided by
blind laws of action and of fruition. He might simply have
bestowed an animal intellect, just adequate to the direction of
animal functions. He has given him " this soul." It is full of
perceptive and reflective capacities. It is immortal. Is this
excess of bounty to be arraigned?
2. God could not endow a creature with such mental gifts,
without including in them a natural liberty.
If man have reason, it is its province to distinguish the nature,
order, and uses of things: the character* of actions and the truth

16 THE REVEALED DEITY.
of propositions. But choice belongs to reason, and its determi
nations will be influenced by the views of what it supposes good.
Freedom is essential to that choice, but motive is as essential to
that freedom. Were man bound under any rigid instinct to
think and prefer always and only in one way, — his liberty being
thus destroyed, — that which we call reason would be simulta
neously destroyed. Man sinned, — in his freedom, — under the
operation of motive, — this is sufficient explanation of the origin
of sin: we sin, — in our freedom, — under the operation of motive,
— this is sufficient account of its perpetuation. God could have
withstood the entrance of moral evil into the universe, if he had
not created ; or if he had not created those who were capable of
committing it. Was He to be forbidden the right of creating
the rational and, therefore, the free ?
3. God must, in the event of such a creation, hold the sub
ject of it responsible for the exercise of his liberty.
Little proof can be required of this statement. It all but
proves itself. For were such creature allowed his uncontrolled
freedom, it would soon be seen that no other creature could be
free. What path of others would not that headlong volition
cross ? What general interests must it not shock ? There would
be a world of immitigable strife and variance : a chaos of con
tending elements. Even now, with all the circumstances of law,
" we have turned every one to his own way." Nor would this
be all. God himself could be no longer free. His rights would
be constantly disputed, and his plans disturbed. He would have
originated powers whose interference he constantly must brook.
He would live among his creatures to be thwarted, without
presidency or redress. This is a moral contradiction and impos
sibility. 4. God must, in rendering the creature accountable, pro
mulgate a law.
We cannot of ourselves anticipate the rule of obedience.
Each may exclaim : "lama stranger upon earth, hide not thy
commandment from me." Should it be said that we do not need
a revelation of it, that we can interpret nature and consciousness
for a precise response to our enquiry, this is merely to say that it

THE REVEALED DEITY. 17
is already revealed. From whatever quarter the information may
be derived, the fact of the necessity is the same. Still we can
only understand how such a law shall be distinct as it is verbally
defined. We require to perceive that the law is a vehicle of
benevolence and a guide to happiness. Until we appreciate it
according to this view, we are " not subject to it, neither indeed
can be." But when we combine such distinctions as these, —
not proper distinctions in themselves though thus commonly
accounted, — when they become in our mind distinctions no
longer, — " Good and upright is the Lord :" " The law is holy
and the commandment holy, and just, and good,"" — then revere
we the authority, we bless the loving-kindness, of our Judge, our
Lawgiver, and our King. We know His "good, perfect, and
acceptable will." We " consent unto the law that it is good."
5. God has so constituted us that we must always feel that
we are free.
. Circumstance, so called, is that which we create ; it is just so
much of opinion and taste as we have been pleased to establish.
Passion, higher or lower, is the desire of the mind or the flesh
which we follow for the sake of gratification. We may know
before that the gratification is foolish and mischievous. Bitter
may be our remorse. But in the moment nothing appears to us
so good. It is the momentary judgment of what is to be pre
ferred, however that judgment be most false. Man acting from
himself, — that is, uncoerced, — obeys his bent and pleasure. It is
no proof to the contrary that the inclination of the man is always
seen in a certain course. Every created being is formed according
to an order and nature. But though the choice vibrates in such
a limit, it is the choice of whatever good or evil that order and
nature can allow. It is that being's unfettered will.
6. God can only treat the individual creature in agreement
with the general welfare.
Infinite Love will be consistent in the promotion of happiness.
It will act not by partial, but by general, arrangements ; not in
contravention of fixed principles, but in accordance with them ;
not by accommodating and lowering great standards, but by
maintaining them. These "commandments are sure. They stand
c

18 THE REVEALED DEITY.
fast for ever and ever, and are done in truth and uprightness."
But were He, whose kingdom ruleth over all, the respecter of
persons,— could He unsay his own word, undo his own work, —
the moral deterioration of his creatures, that is their wretchedness,
must instantly follow. With Him, they must also sink. " For
all people will walk every one in the name of his god." There
would be no primitive, no model, no conservator, of truth and
equity. There would be neither recommendation of right nor fear
of wrong. And can any demand be more visionary than for the
equality of happiness among all rational and accountable crea
tures ? It would almost seem that the demand supposed that
their happiness was some material element finding a uniform
level. Is it not remembered that the happiness of such creatures
depends upon the cast of their characters and the nature of their
dispositions ? Can it be imposed on them ? Can they be made
happy in spite of themselves ? A difference must exist as wide as
the differences of their moral states. But though the individual
may have meted out to him unmixed woe, he bears his own bur
den : and though his example may be fearfully commemorated,
and may be the occasion of good to others, he is in no sense
sacrificed to the cause and sum of universal good.
7- God has intimated to us that our planet-dwelling does
not include all his intelligent family, and that his system to
wards us is very imperfectly developed.
The system of universal being may present many features in
common. And yet from one department we may be utterly dis
qualified to pronounce on all. Each department belongs to a
mighty whole. The stretch and magnificence of the building can
little be estimated from a separate chamber or a detached support.
We need a more independent view. While we listen to the pro
logue we may not prejudge the catastrophe. And is it righteous
to decide on a conduct very few bearings of which can now be
traced ? Should not we suspend our comment until the comple
tion of the chronicle? The final issue may redeem all that now
is perplexing, and the general result explain all that is now ob
scure. There are things of our particular ceconomy which angels
desire to look into. On the winding up of this mysterious history

THE REVEALED DEITY. 19
we may " behold," not only " the goodness and severity of God,"
but also the very manner in which severity is really another form
and agency of goodness.
8. God may not be blamed for the consequences which he
has forewarned, which are wilfully incurred, anfil which he has
given his creatures the fullest liberty, and urged them by the
strongest remonstrance, to avoid.
It is not to be brought as a charge against the Divine care
and government of all things, that disorder and woe prevail.
" Why boastest thou in mischief, O mighty man ? The good
ness of God," in perfect contrast, " endureth continually." He
testifies against our infatuation. " What is this that thou hast
done ?" " O that my people had hearkened unto Me !" " I will
do you no hurt." " Is God unrighteous that taketh vengeance ?"
Annihilate sin and you annihilate suffering. There shall be no
more death. The ground shall not yield another brier, the earth
shall not heave another groan, the man shall not know another
toil, the mother shall not suffer another pang, the babe shall not
shed another tear.
So would we select these broad and satisfactory conclusions ;
and when that which is extreme and ultimate in future retribu
tion is pressed against the love of God, we may rest in them.
There are a thousand ills which we would readily avert. But
are we then more benevolent than God who permits them ? It is
not improbable that our feelings would often suggest an alter
native. " God forbid." " That be far from Thee, Lord." Are
not these weaknesses, prejudices, to be corrected? and, whatever
is their imaginary amiableness, are they not tainted with impure
alloys ? Nothing can be amiable which would determine con
trariwise to the God who is love. Oh what sin is there in every
thought and wish which most secretly sets itself above His bene
volence. ! Angels ! transcendently more pitiful and tender than
ourselyes, Ye are true in your every feeling to Him whose "glory
passes before" you in an infinitely attractive "goodness," — ye can
loyally execute the tasks of punishing all who rebel against Him,
— ye falter not in your halleluia when the smoke of their tor
ment ascendeth up for ever and ever !

20 THE REVEALED DEITY.
III. Let us now exhibit the monuments and demon
strations of this love.
Nor for a moment will we pause until we record that which
surpasses every other : that which is so marvellously strange and
rich that it stands out diverse from all : for which nothing of the
most admirable goodness could prepare us: which is as of another
kind and temperament : which becomes the root and cause of what
ever else is love : like the doing of another Being, like the mani
festation of another Nature, but only because this was the solitary
opportunity without precedent or sequel, only because such an
interposition must be a single and unexpected deed. God hath
given the Son ! The Son hath given himself! Thus may it only
be rehearsed : " God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love
wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath
quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved ;) and
hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus ; that in the ages to come he might show
the exceeding riches of his grace, in his kindness toward us
through Christ Jesus."
We now touch the verge, we can do no more, of the mys
tery of godliness. Wonder rises upon wonder ! Deep calleth
unto deep ! Wonders are in those deeps ! " God so loved the
world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever be-
lieveth in him, should not perish but have everlasting life."
Who can speak this triple emphasis ? " God so loved" ! that he
" loved the world," — " so loved" ! " that he gave his only-begotten
Son," — " so loved" ! " that whosoever believeth should not perish
but have everlasting life." And was it simple gift, like a fiat of
power, like a prodigality of munificence ? " He spared not his
own Son, but delivered him up for us all." What dread sha-
dowings are here ! What broken words ! What do they mean ?
When did ever sinful creature sink hopeless beneath His frown,
but his heart was turned within him, but his repentings were
kindled together, but his voice was heard, « How shall I give
thee up ? How shall I deliver thee ?" No such relenting is now
expressed. There is no withholding that even His own Son should
be spared. " He is delivered by the determinate counsel and fore-

THE REVEALED DEITY. 21
knowledge of God to be crucified and slain." " He is delivered
for our offences." To spare " as a man spareth his own son that
serveth him," is the figure which the Almighty Father has deigned
to employ concerning ourselves. But this is his proper Son : be
gotten, not made : his dear Son : the Son of the Father in truth
and love. " Spared him not"! It is strait and struggle ! The
bosom of the Father in which was the only-begotten Son, seems
to heave as we listen ! The eye of the Lord which is upon them
that fear him, to deliver their soul from death, hides itself from
this scene ! It was in some manner, inexplicable to finite minds,
a cost, a surrender, a submission to a new necessity, a necessity
to be deprecated in itself. The " prayers and supplications with
strong crying and tears" of " the Son learning obedience by the
things which he suffered," moved Him who "was able to save him
from death," and were "heard in that he feared." When he
exclaimed, " Now is my soul troubled," there " came a voice
from heaven." All shows the sympathy with the Sufferer, but
what can be the sympathy of that which is Divine ? Ineffable
mystery ! 1 bow down in the feebleness of my reason. " When I
think to know this, it is too painful for me." But the Love stands
without a doubt confessed. It is as though it never before was
published : " In this was manifested the love of God toward us,
because that God sent his only-begotten Son into the world, that
we might live through him." It is as though it never before
invited attention : " But God commendeth his love toward us, in
that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." It is as
though it never before had existed : " Herein is love, not that we
loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the pro
pitiation for our sins."
Now He, who laid down his life for us, has appeared. Of
old He had rejoiced in the habitable parts of the earth : from
everlasting his delights were with the sons of men. God was ma
nifest in the flesh. And what would have been our anticipation
of Him ? Told that He is the image of the invisible God, we
prepare ourselves to see embodied love. He shall identify and
absorb it. He shall reduce it to intelligence and sense. He shall
bring it near and make it palpable. We shall see him with our

22 THE REVEALED DEITY.
eyes, and our hands shall handle him. Had it been left us to con
jecture what that impersonation of love should be ! There might
have risen up before our mind a sacred, tender, Form, bending
the heavens, outshining the stars, so august as to fill our souls
with admiration, so strange as to smite them with awe. The love
would want definiteness still. We should essay to master our con
ception in vain. But in Immanuel, love shades all the glory and
softens all the magnificence until it is attempered into an unutter
able sweetness, an infinite grace, — yet perfectly human, human in
its habit of indulgence and manner of exercise, human in its cir
cumstances and conditions, human in its signs and features, warm
ing the human heart, suffusing the human countenance, to be
heard in the human sigh, to be marked in the human tear ! Yet
is He the Holy One, and the Just. We know why we may call
Him good. The incarnation represents to us that God is love, —
causing the essential and the spiritual to take shape and act which
may address our humblest sense and move our simplest feeling!
But the love of Christ passeth knowledge. It proves itself in
the mighty deed which was the end and motive of his incarnation.
He came to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. He loved
us and gave himself for us an offering and a sacrifice unto God.
This atoning death is the climax of infinite love. " Hereby per
ceive we love, the love," what love can do, what the love which
we now review has done, " because He laid down his life for ,
us."* It is the crisis, the exhaustion, the triumph, of love; love
to death, love stronger than death. But that love at Calvary not
only culminates in its meridian and burns in its noon, it seems
greater in the qualities of moral excellence than those by which
hitherto it was known. See the penitent, the convert, the wor
shipper, as they bow around the Cross ! It is the Love of God
which is the power that binds them. But how awful is this love
in their esteem ! They trifle not with it. They presume not
upon it. They " give thanks at the remembrance of His holi
ness," they " declare his righteous acts," as well as " glorify him
for his mercy." Draw near and read those interwoven inscrip
tions ! "He delighteth in mercy," " the righteous Lord loveth
* 1 John iii. 16.

THE REVEALED DEITY. 23
righteousness." " God is love," " God is light." Every won
dering exclamation is rising there ! " Who is a strong Lord
like unto Thee?" "Who is like unto Thee, O Lord, glorious
in holiness ?" " Who is a God like unto Thee, that pardoneth
iniquity and passeth by transgression ?"
The Love of God in the gift, the humanity, and the sacrifice,
of Jesus Christ, stands not apart from efficient results. There is
no scheme of good but it avails to uphold and operates to secure.
Contemplate the system of Universal Providence. What very
equal happiness, so far as it depends on external circumstances
apart from moral tastes, is generally distributed ! What an
amazing check is put upon evil, and who can calculate that
"remainder of wrath" which is "restrained!" What gratifica
tions meet us at every turn ! We deny not the admixture of
suffering. We sing not only of mercy but of judgment. But it
might be one ban and condemnation. It might have been one
overflowing scourge. Is the Lord exclusively known by the judg
ment which he executeth ? He is good to all. His sun ariseth
on the evil and the good. He is kind to the unthankful. His
rain descends upon the just and the unjust. In His hand our
breath is, and his are all our ways. He giveth us all things
richly to enjoy. In Him we live and move and have our being.
He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth the needy out
of the dunghill. He is not far from every one of us. He giveth
food to the hungry. The Lord looseth the prisoners. The Lord
preserveth the strangers. He bririgeth up our life from the
grave. He telleth our wanderings. The hairs of our head are
all numbered. " Many such things are with him." This kind
and watchful superintendence of our race is the procedure of the
great Mediatorial principle which the Divine love has introduced
and which it wills to honour. This is the reason why the sen
tence against an evil work is not executed speedily, and in respect
of this is the sinner's respite. A channel is opened in which flow
terrestrial streams of no mean joy. There is a fatherhood which
the prodigal may yet recall and yet invoke. Vestiges of a fairer
state re-appear. The flowers of Eden grow wild among us still.
Destruction is held back. Desolation is stayed. The earth is

24 THE REVEALED DEITY.
not given into the hands of the wicked. Christ is head over all
things, and though to the church, what advantage do "all things"
derive from that headship ! The Father hath given Him power
over all flesh, and though it is to give eternal life to as many
as are given to him, what benefits do " all flesh" acquire from
that investiture !
For it is a part of the doctrine of salvation, that it is offered
for " all acceptation :" that all are commanded to receive it ; that
it is adequate for all. This is the testimony of God to man. It
opens a new probation to him. It leaves him accountable to make
this grace his own. While he is addressed as sinner and rebel,
it is to seek and to save that which is lost. Is all thought with
drawn from him ? Is he not precious and earnestly desired ?
" Is he a vessel wherein is no pleasure ?" Can we exceed the
witness of God ? " Who will have all men to be saved and to
come unto the knowledge of the truth." " Who is the Saviour
of all men, specially of those that believe." " The Lord is not
willing that any should perish, but that all should come to
repentance." Christ is therefore exhibited as " the propitiation
for the sins of the whole world." That sacrifice has an infinite
sufficiency for all. It has a moral aspect on all. It is an uncon
ditional tender to all. If the sinner perish, it is because he rejects
it. To assert that the God who is love is equally pleased with the
perdition and the salvation of the sinner, — that each issue is alike
agreeable to his will, or that his will in either instance is to be
understood in the same sense, — is repugnant to all that he has
revealed of himself. " Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked
should die? and not that he should return from his ways and
live ?" He is slow to wrath. Vengeance is his strange work.
Is his mercy ever thus described as slow, or its exercise as
strange ? We are bound thus to consider the Infinite Jehovah
from his own most solemn adjurations, by the distinctions which
he has himself raised, by the solicitude of heavenly spirits for
the sinner's repentance, by the working of evangelic motives
leading us to make intercessions for all men, by the exultant
strain of prophecy over the vision of a ransomed world. Per
verse is every disputing of this. The angel flies through the

THE REVEALED DEITY. 25
midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto
them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred,
and tongue, and people. He is on his way ! He pursues his
track ! Is his a too dilated benevolence ? Has he stretched too
bold a plume ? Does he wing too far a flight ? Does he make
proclamation in too indiscriminate a manner?
Nevertheless this Love has always secured for itself grateful
recipients and holy subjects. " The Lord knoweth them that are
his." By his loving-kindness He has drawn them. The love
of God is shed abroad in their hearts by the Holy Ghost who is
given unto them. They are a peculiar people. " They shall be
mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in the day when I make up my
jewels." He delights in them. He rests in his love towards
them. He rejoices over them even with joy and singing. All
things are theirs. All things are for their sakes. All things
work together for their good. So stable is this love, that they
may cast all their burdens upon it : so sympathising is this love,
that he who is soothed by it is as one whom his mother com-
forteth: so does this love identify itself with its objects that,
" Thus saith the Lord, he that toucheth them toucheth the apple
of his eye." The mountains may depart and the hills be remo
ved, but His loving-kindness shall not depart. And did the
Christian stand on the loftiest of those mountains and the firmest
of those hills, still might he exclaim while they sunk and crum
bled beneath his feet, "lam persuaded that neither death, nor life,
nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor
things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created
thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is
in Christ Jesus our Lord."
And this love assimilates. We are changed into the same
image. God is not only love, but " love is of God." " He that
dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God and God in him." This is the
immediate reflex influence. " We love Him, because He first
loved us." The love of God seems oftentimes in Scripture to
possess this double meaning : the love of which he is the object
and the source. The same blending is frequently found in our
hearts. It is his love, it is our love, and these inseparably unite.

26 THE REVEALED DEITY.
So the fire of the altar and the fire from heaven could not of old
be distinguished, the same altar sustained the whole burnt-
offering, and the flames arose together in a commingled blaze.
It is, too, in this manner that we learn to be followers of God.
He is good, always good. Let us honour all men. Let us do
good unto all men. Let us eschew evil and do good. Let us love
all, as God loves all, in pity. But His is a special love. He is
only complacent in what resembles himself. He will only have
a desire for the work of his hands. He does good to them that
be good. The love of the brethren is the test of our kindred
with them. " If God so loved us, we ought also to love one ano
ther." " Every one that loveth Him that begat, loveth him also
that is begotten of him." If we would speak of the love of God
as an attribute, we could not say, that He is Love. One attri
bute no more identifies him than another. He leans to none. He
is distinguished by none. But Love is as the Crown out of which
they all, like costly gems, emit their varied though equal lustre :
or as the Firmament where they shine as a glorious and constella
ted host. In this wise, Love becomes the brightest virtue of the
Christian, it is so comprehensive, so impellent, so adorning, the
groundwork and the perfection of all: "Now abideth faith, hope,
love, — but the greatest of these is love."
Oh that this Breviate were but known ! This single word
which explains that awful Self-existence who rideth upon the
heavens by his name, Jah ! It is registered on every tablet of
Creation ! It is echoed from every dispensation of Providence !
It is the motto of Christianity ! " Every man may see it, man
may behold it afar off." Were it but felt by all ! Another mur
mur could not rise. Another heart could not rebel. Variance
would cease in a moment throughout the universe. All things
would be gathered together in one. Believe it, believe it, ye who
hate God, and ye will yield. Herald it, herald it, ye who have
tasted that the Lord is gracious, that all may hear and feel it too.
May this joyful sound be caught up by every wind ! May this
infinite pathos light on every spirit ! May this bond of perfectness
unite God and his creatures for ever !

SERMON II

THE HOLY HABITATION OF HEAVEN.

John xiv. 2.
" In my Father's House are many Mansions."
The style of the Inspired Volume is singularly inartificial. Na
ture, fixed and simple, is the silent and perennial source from
which its images and illustrations are derived. Even these are
selected very cautiously, if not sparingly ; and are used with a
measured chasteness and an unambitious effect. The authority
of Revelation is made to rest upon what it is, and what it dis
closes : manner it regards as most purely subsidiary and compa
ratively unimportant. It is, indeed, a storehouse of all that is
sublime in thought and magnificent in expression : this, notwith
standing, is never its care and study, but something incidental,
unavoidable, — the escape of irrepressible brightness, the overflow
of redundant fulness, — and then, after all, this involuntary excess
and intensity is shaded and subdued.
But in the descriptions which the Bible unfolds of the hea
venly state, it departs from its accustomed rule. Now it no
longer maintains its jealousy of ornament, nor checks its hand.
All from this time is scattered with a rich and lavish profusion.
The gorgeous in art is added to the simplicity of nature: each
scene of elaborate life is copied, and metaphor is amassed upon
metaphor. It exhausts the resources of power and wealth, and
lays the realms of imagination under its subserving control. Yet
is it with unconscious loss and labour that it casts down its spoils,
— the heap of opulence, the weight of glory. It ranges the uni
verse of God and man unwearied, and returns with treasures and
splendours from both. The spirits of the prophets seem no more

28 THE HOLY HABITATION OF HEAVEN.
subject to the prophets. Theirs is an irresistible rapture. Whe
ther in the body or out of the body, they cannot tell.
Sometimes that celestial region is represented as Paradise.
One was lost, but in this it is far more than actually restored.
The forfeiture and the desolation are infinitely retrieved. The
withered flower blows again. The scathed plant revives. The
wasted fountain wells with its ancient gush. The sered arbour is
dressed in its pristine verdure. The air is redolent of fragrance,
the garden mantles with bloom and teems with fertility. That
holiness surpasses innocence. That calm exceeds all that the stain
less conscience felt. Angels are more familiarly known than when
they sung to unfallen man. The Lord God walketh in it with
endearing condescensions, such as could not be exercised of old.
We may freely eat of every tree. We shall be as gods. In the
midst of it towers the mystic stem of an immortal life. We may
put forth our hand and take of that incorruptible fruit and live
for ever. Nothing can blight the scene. No evil can contaminate
it. No tempter can invade it. It fadeth not away. It is no pro
vince of earth. Her rivers do not water it. Her odours do not
refresh it. Her garlands do not embower it. New heavens bend
over it. A new earth lends it grace and beauty. In those hea
vens, in that earth, there is undecaying purity, therein "dwelleth
righteousness," as native to them and their richest glory.
Sometimes it is exhibited as a City. It is holy and royal. It
is no mean city-. It is the Divine residence. It is the city of the
great King. Its architecture seems built up of massive light.
It is not wrought of " things which do appear," like the rudi
ments of earth. It is a continuing city. It is crowded with
the nations of the saved. All high and holy natures have their
citizenship in it. They who shall go no more out are set as
pillars there to illustrate it, columns living and commemorative,
on which its name is imperishably inscribed. Its portals shall
not be shut at all. What sounds float over it ! What irradia
tions dart from it ! It keeps its feasts. It celebrates its annals.
Its walls are jasper, its gates are pearl, its foundations are crys
tal, its streets are gold. Glorious things are spoken of thee O
city of God !

THE HOLY HABITATION OF HEAVEN. 29
At other times it is set forth as a Kingdom. Its epochs, its
chronicles, its monuments, its trophies, its riches, are worthy of
its fame. Crowns and thrones, robes of victory and palms of
triumph, are among its common things. The kings of the earth
do bring their glory and honour. into it: they shall bring the
glory and honour of the nations into it : that is, all kingly pomp
and all national greatness furnish emblems of it, but only to be
lost in its transcendence. A new song wafts its praise. Unlike
the empires of the earth, it is fixed and everlasting. The throne
of God and of the Lamb is in it. Sin and death have there no
place. Every subject there is himself a king. We shall reign
in life. We shall reign for ever and ever.
But if in Heaven shall be found all that endears the human
home, that stronghold of our affections, that refuge from our
cares, can idea reach a nobler complexion, or feeling acquire a
purer tenderness ? If we can aspire to it and, in sacred phrase,
" sore long after" it, as our home, will it not more truly and
bindingly attract than a Paradise with its sweets, a City with
its immunities, a Kingdom with its grandeurs? Who has not
known the heart of a stranger ? Who has not felt it contract,
and shut, and droop ? Who has not known it to expand at
sounds of kindness and amidst scenes of affection ? Who has
not felt the cheering spectacle of familiar faces and the animating
music of familiar voices, — the home which goes with us, — the
home which exists though we forsake every favoured, chosen,
haunt, — kindred, the fellowship of blood, the intercommunion
of mind, the indissolubleness of bond, undying connection, death
less confidence, heaven-pointing love? It is our tent, however
frequently we strike it: it is our "company," whether we "lodge
in it," or whether it be "sent over" while we are "left alone."
The banishment from Eden divided not the guilty pair, nor for
bade their broken hearts to blend their sudden woes. The mo
ther of the crucified Jesus, grief-absorbed beneath that awful
tragedy, has gained half her relief, and recovered all her compo
sure, when the beloved disciple, the foster-son, is seen leading
her to his own home. Blessed is the habitation of the just!
Beautiful are the tabernacles of the righteous ! Patriotism

30 THE HOLY HABITATION OF HEAVEN.
cannot exist without its homestead ! Religion dies without its
altar-hearth ! What survives the ruins of our fall, but this one
shelter ? What is left of all the trees which shaded and delighted
our yet unsinning nature, but the vine by the sides of our house
and the olive-plants round about our table'?
Look, then, Dear Christians, this day to your Father's house.
For therein are the many mansions, the happy resting-places,
the safe retreats, where you shall for ever dwell I
But it is more. For the allusion, not improbably, is to the
Hebrew Temple, which the Saviour had elsewhere denominated
his Father's house. " Make not my Father's house a place of
merchandise." In the Old Testament writings this phrase is of
common recurrence : " My house." That house was " called by
His name." It was foretold by prophecy concerning Messiah,
that he " should be for a glorious throne to his Father's house."
The temple contained numerous apartments for the courses of
the priests and for the preparations of the worshippers. There
were the chambers of the singers, and of the keepers of the
charge of the house, and of the keepers of the charge of the
altar. " There was an enlarging, and a winding about still
upward to the side chambers : for the winding about of the
house went still upward round about the house : therefore the -
breadth of the house was still upward, and so increased from
the lowest chamber to the highest by the midst."* And in our
Father's house are many mansions, the proper stations agreeing
to the capacities and duties of all who are received into it.
Endless is the celestial service, and each from his place beholds
and adores the Majesty in the heavens. Thus the charm of
the domestic precinct and the awfulness of the holy place are
combined. It is a Household Sanctuary ! It is a Temple
Home !
I. Let us, then, endeavour to conceive of heaven as
THE HOUSE OF OUR FATHER, UNITING IN IT ALL THE ASSOCIA
TIONS OF FILIAL HAPPINESS AND REVERENT DEVOTION.
Now the very relationship of family is supposed by the scheme
of our redemption. Sin is alienating. It makes us " strangers
" Ezek. xii. 1.

THE HOLY HABITATION OF HEAVEN. 31
and foreigners." We sink from our rank and from the likeness
of a holy nature into children of disobedience and children of
wrath. "Our iniquities have separated between us and our
God, and our sins have hid his face from us." There is a Me
diator. We are made nigh by the blood of Christ. We are
gathered together in one. We are reconciled to the reconciling
God. We draw near. We have boldness and access with confi
dence. We enter into the holiest. It is of the nature of justifica
tion to bestow favour and acceptance, and to inspire the assurance
of these super-additions to a mere pardon. It is of the essence of
regeneration to awaken love and delight in the contemplation of
the infinite excellence and goodness. Our consequent fellowship
is with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ. And the working
out of this justified condition and this regenerate nature is,
Adoption. It may, indeed, be considered an advancement upon
them : a more defined type and beatification. Still it is most pro
perly their exponent and security. A childlike title and a child
like temper are the results : " Now are we the sons of God." It
is not only legal, federal, and moral, oneness : we " have power
to become" these "sons." "Behold, what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons
of God !" Christ " is not ashamed to call us brethren." " The
Spirit is sent forth into our hearts, crying Abba, Father." This
is " the whole family of heaven and earth." Heaven is, there
fore, an inheritance. We stand in affinity to its bliss. " We are
heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ." " Many sons
are brought unto glory :" here is their discipline and nonage,
yonder is their maturity and consummation. Home is the abode
of children : their rights are acknowledged and their approaches
are greeted under its shade : piety is learnt, the charities are cul
tivated, within its bound. Touching are the thoughts of home :
what is the home of heaven ?
Quiet and Repose are connected with its sound. We are wan
derers on earth. Without are fightings, within are fears. We
are strangers and pilgrims. All are pilgrims hastening, however
reluctantly, to an eternal world. For some are satisfied with this.
They have their portion in this life. Christians are strangers as

32 THE HOLY HABITATION OF HEAVEN.
well as pilgrims, the present is not congenial to them, they are
despised and harassed, while their pilgrimage is still pursued.
Willingly they throw the earth behind them and lay hold of
heaven. For this they endure, they watch, they strive: their
minds are often perplexed and their footsteps weary. " Walking
through this great wilderness," they are subject to cruel trea
chery, to bitter trouble, to vexatious disappointment. Early
this course, it may be, begun. Lingering has been its progress.
They still lean upon their staff. But soon shall they toil no
more. The days of their mourning shall be ended. They shall
come to their Father's house in peace.
Confidence is the sentiment which is most natural to every
thought of this endeared lot. Look at the home-born child. It
clings to the domicile and seems to grow to it. It questions not
its fullest title to appropriate its possession. It goes in and
out. There is no such familiar remembrance, no such beloved
resort. There it was cradled, there its first step tottered,, nor
dreams it that ever it must turn away from that door. When
danger threatens, this is the bulwark : when affliction weeps,
this is the asylum. Wha.t sorrows and what cares fly for suc
cour and relief to this hiding-place ! In its truth and its fidelity,
what an example of worth and what a support of reliance
contrast themselves to the deceptions around ! It is this assured
ness which is the secret of all earthly satisfaction and peace. Yet
is it not always to be cherished, it may not be invariably justi
fied, where we have fixed our most steadfast trust and expended
our most devoted love. Then suspicion coils like a serpent about
each flower of existence; or, like a lurking poison, taints all its
springs. But with what strictest security does all the happiness
of heaven rise on our view ! Nothing maketh a lie. Thieves
do not break through and steal. There is no more death.
With what cheerful certitude may we realise that home, tread
its halls and mansions as native to them, not entering it with
affright nor abiding in it by constraint, not bewildered by its
newness nor dazzled by its glory, — never to be confounded, 
resting from all our enemies, — perfect guilelessness and benevo
lence in all the dwellers of the same celestial abode ! " In return-

THE HOLY HABITATION OF HEAVEN. 33
ing and rest shall ye be saved ; in quietness and confidence shall
be your strength."
Concord is the divine element of the domestic constitution, for
" He is the God that maketh men to be of one mind in a house."
It is the haven defended from the wild surges of the ocean : it is
the covert from the storm. Nevertheless a house may be divided
against itself. There may be strife of opinion, disagreement of
character, envy with its baleful glance, anger with its furious
sally, revenge with its moody dint. There may grow up the
root of bitterness, and there may be cast the stumbling-block
of offence. But the inhabitants of that House towards which we
journey are " made perfect in one." They have one heart. They
see eye to eye. With the voice together do they sing. An infi
nite love binds and harmonises all. If we too much forget to
ask each other while here below, " Have we not all one Father ?"
— the remembrance of that truth will ever be vivid and effica
cious in our " Father's house."
Sympathy is the most powerful attraction and bond of these
" pleasant places." The social range is here compressed, and all
its ties become the stronger and gentler in proportion to its nar
rower limit. The interchange of kind offices and good feelings is
its virtue and its life. The delicate surprise of thoughtful atten
tion and interest, the look, the accent, the token, diffuse a charm
around the household which a more costly expression, if not
ministered with the same air and manner, would fail to impart.
But sympathy has often to exercise other tasks beside those of
joy. It rises into commiseration. We weep with them who
weep. Pain must be soothed. Bereavement must be healed. We
bear the infirmities of the weak. Where, then, can this "brotherly-
kindness" find a scene for its perfect expansion and fruition, but
in our Father's house ? There shall be no more sorrow nor cry
ing, neither shall there be any more pain. There. will be nothing
to endure, nothing to estrange, nothing to forgive. Sentiment
will be reciprocated as by a perfect reflection, recognition will be
intuitive as twin-love, and holy fellowship will vibrate as to a
common sensory and throb as to a common heart. How intermin
gled, united, are all those throngs ! How symphonious are the

34 THE HOLY HABITATION OF HEAVEN.
strains of the "thousands of thousands" while we "hear" them
"saying" the same ascriptions! How simultaneous, even as in
choral measure, is the " walking" of " the nations of the saved" !
All is agreement and response.
Improvement is the law of the house where holy example and
instruction present themselves. This is the true sphere of educa
tion. Counsel flowing in parental tone, beaming from parental
feature, ministered beside parental knee, pourtrayed by parental
model, what may it not accomplish ? The child finds knowledge
meeting it at every point and through every sense. Discipline
like an atmosphere, as inspiring and almost as undetected, invests
its course. An involuntary resemblance to that which is good
and high is superinduced. It is " the nurture and admonition of
the Lord." Heaven is full of light and purity. During our
mortal state, however matured our powers and enlarged our
attainments, we speak as a child, we understand as a child, we
think as a child. It is there that we " shall put away childish
things." In that light we shall see light. Amidst its array we
shall wear the righteousness of the saints. What shall be its
solemn, sweet, companionship ! What shall be its shining pat
terns ! What shall be its glorious disclosures ! O place and
opportunity for the culture of the immortal mind, — for the for
mation of habits, for the growth of principles, for the training
of sensibilities, akin to its destiny !
Content and Happiness, if found on earth, are to be sought
alone in this peaceful enclosure. This lamp would be in every
dwelling, but for evil principle or external adversity. It is sin
which brings down the curse. A home may be a more compact
mass of iniquity : a more condensed nucleus of woe. " Surely
such are the dwellings of the wicked, and this is the place of him
who knoweth not God." There are other ills which invade even
the habitation of the just: poverty and disease, heart-breaking
loss and desolating death. Our fathers ! where are they ? Our
children ! Their beauty consumes in the grave from their dwell
ing. Is there no unholy branch ? David's house is not so with
God. Is there no sudden separation ? " Lazarus is dead." How
our families decay around us ! They are "minished and brought

THE HOLY HABITATION OF HEAVEN. 35
low." The roof-tree falls ! There is a longer home to which
we go ! Yet this is the only spot where content may smile and
happiness rally. The soul dwells at ease. The heart finds rest.
The plague does not come nigh. The voice of joy and of salva
tion resounds. Peace sheds its balm. Love unfolds its wing.
Hope bends its rainbow. What, then, is our Father's house?
Even now we make the Most High our habitation, — He is for a
house of defence to save us, — the Lord God dwells among us, —
He walks in us, — He has been our dwelling-place in all genera
tions, — but ah, nothing of the dearest human love, nothing of
the most ecstatic piety, nothing of the most sainted communion,
can represent what it is to be "at home* with the Lord ?" "For
we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dis
solved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands,
eternal in the heavens."
But it is not only our Father's house in the associations of a
home, it is the consecrated receptacle of His worship. And these
ideas are not incompatible, but of easiest concurrence. For, to
the Christian's perception and taste, what can make Heaven more
delightful, in addition to its illustration as a home, than that this
home shall be devoted, with the family which fills it, to the high
praises of our Father in heaven ? He even now inhabits the
praises of his people. They who dwell in his earthly house are
still praising him. Is this appropriation unworthy of His celes
tial palace? Yet all is softened to the conception of a home.
It is indeed a Temple, august and awful. The ark of the testa
ment is laid up there. The tabernacle of the testimony is opened.
Altar and censer are seen. Angels blow their trumpets. Harpers
harp with their harps. The heavenly things themselves are so
holy that they needed to be purified by the blood of the Great
Sacrifice ere fallen creatures, though sanctified wholly, could
stand in contact with them. It is a manifestation of the Infinite
Presence, until it becomes so full, so clear, so unconfined, that
space with all its mightiest dimensions melts away, that material
proportions are lost, " for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb
are the temple of it." This is beautiful, most beautiful ! The
* 2 Cor. v. 8. " lifixfivitxi ire's *'* H"g"""

36 THE HOLY HABITATION OF HEAVEN.
votary is the child ! The child is the votary ! He is not " afraid
with any amazement." In trepidation he does not " make haste."
Pilgrim never touched more reverently the dreadful shrine : son
never more joyously beheld the paternal eaves or bounded upon
the paternal threshold. With this double intention, of resting
in a home and of ministering in a sanctuary, he exclaims : " I
will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever." The entrance
has been given. Low bows his head, but it is to a Father ! In
that place the divine name is set, but it is the name of a Father !
It is a house for the Lord Almighty, but he will be a Father
unto us, and it is therefore our Father's house ! Faithful to the
adoption of children, he commands, " Bring my sons from far,
and my daughters from the ends of the earth :" and his sons
and daughters gather themselves together to his bidding, they
come to Him! The concourse swells! From the four winds of
heaven they congregate in their fulness ! " Multitudes, multi
tudes" ! They enter in ! And now are closed upon them the
sacred leaves, the domestic doorstead ! The gates of Zion eter
nally fold in the dwellings of Jacob ! The stranger is not in
those gates ! They are the children of the free ! They are the
children of Zion! Yet is it the glorious liberty of the chil
dren of God ! They are priests unto God, and serve him day
and night in his temple ! Yet are they the children of God,
being the children of the resurrection ! It is the Church in the
House !
II. We must remember that in this house of home
AND TEMPLE THERE ARE MANY MANSIONS.
And thus are we taught that the greatest amplitude consists
with the strictest unity, that though the mansions are numerous
the house is one. Stars, wide distant from each other, furnish
not to separated companies their deep recesses, their pavilions of
gold; but "the general assembly" is convened in its entireness
and unrestrained intermixture. It is the same habitation. And
thus, also, we learn that there is no monotony in that blessed
state, no dull level ; that the multitude of the redeemed do not
appear in an indistinguishable, undelineated, semblance : but that
as in the angelic hierarchy there are marshalled ranks,  thrones

THE HOLY HABITATION OF HEAVEN, 37
dominions, principalities, powers, — so on different elevations shall
stand the saints, varied their song and descriptive their duty !
There is order in the harmony of difference, and the distribution
of the mansions completes the identity of the House.
Meditating, then, on this multiform glory, on this untold
gradation of the abodes which are prepared for the " saints in
light," we may propound the following scheme of reflections and
inferences. What do we ascertain of those blessed immortals ?
1. The Immensity of their Number.
Heaven once suffered a vast and instantaneous depopulation.
Spirits to whom it was the birth-place, who had known no infe
rior stage of being, created in purity and crowned with glory, of
mighty power and intelligence, covered themselves with the guilt
and shame of a most unnatural revolt. What a home was theirs!
One element of blessedness filled it ! Festal was their song and
j ubilant was their triumph ! It was their own habitation, — they
left it. It was a chief position, the highest rank,* a principality,
— they did not keep it. They fought but prevailed not, neither
was their place found any more in heaven. They sinned, and
without pause or hope they were cast down into hell. This is
what the Scripture tells us, and it is all we know. The influence
of the catastrophe we cannot determine. We know not the silence
into which those abodes were hushed. We know not what are
the griefs of loyal essences, like those who withstood temptation ;
what was the sense of sorrow and solitude which would affect
them. The nature of the fact being determined, we may justly
suppose that the corresponding emotions would follow. It was
a sad and appalling change. Was it not then truly regarded ?
We may therefore conclude that they were saddened and appalled.
Creatures, long their fellows, until then familiar to the heavenly
places, no more brightened on their eye. Blest voices, made to
utter joy, and which had hitherto swelled their choirs, no longer
fell on their entranced ear. There was a strange vacancy amidst
those groves : untrodden paths and ungathered fruits. There was
" Jude 6. "'AW>iv." First estate, principal in rank, not first or original in order
of time. '¦'A~e%Ki." Eph. vi. 12.

38 THE HOLY HABITATION OF HEAVEN.
a fearful void and desertion : diadems and lyres lay in neglected
heaps. The brows which had worn those diadems were now
scarred by the wrath-blast, the hands which had struck those lyres
were now bound with everlasting chains. Were not the heavens
astonished and horribly afraid and very desolate at this ?
But that Heaven might not always remain thus diminished,
that holy angels might not always lament this decrease of their
number and this defection from their honour, an early intimation
was afforded them that this withdrawment should be replaced by
a large accession, that such accession should be raised from ano
ther order of beings, — beings who had themselves lapsed, and
whom a most stupendous salvation should rescue from all their
guilt and rebelliousness and ruin, — that these should constitute
an incomputable augmentation over the deficiency and loss, —
that the breach should be repaired, that the dearth should be
supplied, and that all the mansions of the heavenly House, for
saken as it was, should be inhabited again.
A Book of life was unfolded, a decree was declared, and the
Eternal Son already saw the nations and the ends of that pur
posed world his inheritance and possession. His delights were
with the sons of men. The kingdom was prepared ! All things
were ready ! A door was opened in heaven ! 
And there was a wonder in heaven. Meek and humble, there
bent before the Divine Majesty, a solitary human spirit. It sung,
but it was a lonely song. It gazed, but its eye rested upon
nothing like itself. Its thoughts and affections circled within
their own undivided consciousness. It could find none who were
naturally like-minded with it. None had ever sinned of its new
associates, none had wept, none had died. It had brought a
new history with it to heaven. It had carried hither mingled
emotions which only it could know. Found it nothing strange,
— nothing incommunicable, — nothing which it was difficult to
learn, — nothing which it could not reciprocate?
But the soul of righteous Abel did not long feel alienation
there. Up from this world another and another sprung. He the
solitary was set in a family. He the lonesome was surrounded
by a throng. And what was the great multitude whom no man

THE HOLY HABITATION OF HEAVEN. 39
could number, which, in a far distant age, the seer of Patmos
recognised in his heavenly rapture, — what were the hundred
and forty and four thousands of the sealed and the redeemed, —
but the pledges and forerunners of a far-reaching constituency
of converted peoples, of converted generations, of a converted
world, — humble figures but as multiplying powers, low state
ments but as prophetic earnests ? Who can scan its present
amount? Who can anticipate its final aggregate?
The question of preponderance, in the number of the saved
over that of the lost, might now be properly argued. But we
content ourselves with a few observations which may place the
subject intelligibly before us. The proportion of infant death,
the certainty of infant salvation, furnish us with most pleasant
grounds on which to rest the argument. What an accession does
the early fading of the little ones give to the glorious company !
Scarcely can we repress the thought of their infant hymn, of
their hosannah in that temple, of the praise which is perfected
and the strength which is ordained out of their young lips !
Scarcely can we fail to see " the lambs feeding after their man
ner" ! — The design of punishment comprehends warning. The
direct acts of vengeance have been dealt to " set forth example."
They have been kindled as beacon flames. Now it does not
consist with such a purpose that the few shall be benefited by
the overthrow of the many. We may presume without irreve
rence, this purpose being revealed, that the good of the majo
rity is sought, and that they who perish form a very inferior
proportion to those who are saved. — There are certain implica
tions concerning these ratios which we cannot overlook. Some
times they are equal. " Five of them were wise and five were
foolish." In other instances there is an encouraging difference.
Two of the servants, among three, are " good and faithful" : the
third alone is " wicked and unprofitable." Still higher is placed
that relative state : " the wedding is furnished with guests," all
duly appareled and royally approved, and only one is without
the qualifying badge. — Christianity, as the reign of grace, asserts
its purpose and pledges its supremacy. " Not as the offence, so
also is the free gift." "Where sin abounded, grace did much

40 THE HOLY HABITATION OF HEAVEN.
more abound." "That in the ages to come, God might show
forth the exceeding riches of his grace." Shall sin predominate
and proclaim more victims than this grace can enumerate sub
jects ? We speak on no original bearing of these questions,
but simply restrict ourselves to them as they come under this
announcement. Were none of our species saved, God were infi
nitely just and good. But He has declared himself. By that
declaration of mercy we gratefully abide. — Models of prayer are
instituted for us. " Let all the people praise Thee." " Thy will
be done on earth as it is in heaven." These anticipations are,
then, assured possibilities : we are taught to seek them with
believing expectation : they may be fulfilled : and the inference
cannot be violent that they shall. — A glorious sequel to our
earth's dark history is foretold. " The kingdoms of this world
are become the kingdoms of our God and of his Christ." There
is commotion in "the many waters, — peoples and multitudes
and nations and tongues." " The people shall be all righteous."
"All shall know Him from the least unto the greatest." "All
these gather themselves." " They fly as a cloud." " They flow
together." — "Many shall come" and there are "many mansions."
As if no area could contain them, their habitation towers up
ward and climbs on high. As if the capacity of one abode to
receive them could not be imagined, their dwellings are widely
spread. O that crowd, that ingathering, of the blest ! The
glorious Church ! The King's Daughter ! The Lamb's Wife !
In her raiment of needlework ! In her clothing of wrought gold !
In her garments redolent of myrrh, aloes, and cassia breathing
out clouds around her procession ! Not forgetting her Father's
house, but entering into it and finding it the same with the
King's palace !
2. The Inequality of their Glory.
Under the constitution of mercy nothing is more clearly and
frequently revealed than the doctrine of rewards. Truth is always
self-harmonious, and consequently these rewards are such that
they agree to mercy, and this mercy is such that it agrees with
rewards. The mercy is not indifferent to conduct, and the con
duct is not independent of mercy. It is mercy which promises

THE HOLY HABITATION OF HEAVEN. 41
the result, — a result generally rising out of the course which it
directs us to pursue. It is not surely the less free that it dictates
our good and secures it. A very faithfulness, even an equity, is
assumed by it in the promise which it loves to give. " For God
is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love."
Where there are rewards, there must be differences. They sup
pose adaptation and adjustment to every form and habit of excel
lence. Do all show the same diligence ? Do all inherit the
promises through the same degree of faith and patience? The
principle and fact of a correspondence between what we are and
what we shall be, is described as hereafter " receiving the things
done in the body." " He which soweth sparingly shall reap also
sparingly ; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also boun
tifully." " He who soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap
life everlasting." " We gather wages to life eternal." " We lay
up a good foundation for the time to come." We " make friends
of the mammon of unrighteousness, that when we fail they may
receive us into everlasting habitations." "So shall an entrance
be ministered unto us abundantly into the everlasting kingdom
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ."
This is the simple doctrine of Christian responsibility and
recompense. " God is the rewarder of them who diligently seek
him." And that all cannot share a uniform glory is evident from
the difference of capacity. To him who hath ten talents, the dou
bled deposit, is the forfeited trust transferred. One star differeth
from another star in glory. This man has been like a continued
sigh and aspiration and panting after holiness. That man, truly
sincere, has pursued a far less devoted course. These could not
enjoy the same portion. The organ, the susceptibility, is not the
same. Nor is there a supposeable alternative, save that all were
forcibly, mechanically, conformed to one standard. There would
be, then, a necessity to lower as well as to raise, to repress as well as
to expand. The first process would be unjust, however the second
might be gracious. Still, they being correlative acts, if either were
unjust, both would be unjust ; if either were gracious, both must
be gracious. This is self-evidently false and absurd. The speed
of a zealous life would give no advantage in the immortal race.

42 THE HOLY HABITATION OF HEAVEN.
The care of the vigilant saint, that no man should take his crown,
would leave that crown no safer, no more fairly adorned nor
brightly set. But all this is impossible. For it is contrary to
the moral character of Deity and repugnant to all the principles
of moral government. It is as impossible because it is a business
of dispositions. These cannot be arbitrarily altered. They are
mere manifestations of the will, and this cannot be coerced. — Yet
if these inequalities exist, some think they must engender envy.
Is it necessarily- thus even in this imperfect state of ours ? There
is a joy, a gratulation, in preeminent worth, in exalted goodness,
which this canker does not corrode. Charity envieth not. Do
we not mark with unrepining delight "them who walk so, having
them for ensamples?" The love of the brethren knows ho rule
but their excellence : but then if all are to be loved because all
are excellent, all can only be loved according to their excellence.
Does not this vary ? So also must the love. And if now there
be this alloy of unholy jealousy, can it be found in heaven?
Nothing is loved but holiness in that blessed place, and the
highest holiness is loved the most. It is an impulse to the uni
versal joy and improvement. Compartment shall open after com
partment of our Father's house, and the most diversified range
of excellence, all the intermediate distinctions of glory and virtue,
shall find their appropriate dwelling and assigned sphere. The
" many mansions" graduate the scale and the measure by which
God becomes to his children their "exceeding great reward."
3. The Diversity of their Character.
Strong peculiarities of mind now obtain among the good.
They are marked by their type or are distributable into their
class. " The common salvation" does not destroy these features.
" The like precious faith" only serves their distinct indication.
Such belong to the constitution of mind. Were that an inferior
thing, it would be universally assimilated : it is its transcendence, in
the will of good or evil, that causes each to stand out from each.
When two human wills exactly accord, then the minds to which
they are attached, or, more properly speaking, which they repre
sent and express, shall precisely coincide. The modifications of
the regenerated soul are not fewer and less notable than those of

THE HOLY HABITATION OF HEAVEN. 43
the soul unrenewed. Some of these resolve themselves into physical
structure, general temperament, and they will probably terminate
with the present state of existence. But others have a deeper-
struck and more vital root. Such germs are given for develop
ment. They are the elements of the great, the commanding, the
tender. They impress themselves upon all acts. They originate
vast histories. They demand their maturity in more native
scenes. They are as the nascent sinew and plumage of the wing
which shall buoy up the soul for ever. And who does not re
joice in this difference of mental powers and habits, this diversity
of gifts and graces, during the earthly exhibition of Christianity ?
The sturdy vigour, the unflinching constancy, the impetuous
bravery, the artless simplicity, the shrinking diffidence? The
Paul, the Apollos, the Cephas ? The man, the babe, in Christ ?
Is it not a pleasing miscellany ? Like the cedar of the moun
tain, the palm of the plain, the olive of the copse ? Like the
treasures of the mine, the precious stones of divers colours ? In
heaven our nature has not perished but is perfected : our being
is only fulfilled. All of it is brought out and glorified. And must
not the spectacle afford a measureless delight ? Are not strength,
loftiness, loveliness, of character, attributes for a high and gene
rous complacency ? May not these dictate the same biasses and
pursuits ? What pleasure will it create always to discern the
new, to trace the contrasted, to expatiate in the boundless !
What pleasure, to mark the feature and lineament of millions
of spirits in its distinctness of sweetness and beauty and force !
What pleasure, to search through these " many mansions," and
to find every form of worth and might, every species of intel
lectual activity and spiritual perfection, — whatever is ideal now,
the visions of which scarcely gleam upon our imagination, — all
endlessly, as actually, variegated, multiplied, and combined!
How consummate the glories of that moral greatness, which shall
be seen ascending through all that House, to "its uppermost
rooms and its chief seats" !
4. The Transition of their Employment.
In attentively regarding the laws of our nature, we may con
clude as to what it will always be, what it can only be. We must,

44 THE HOLY HABITATION OF HEAVEN.
indeed, be cautious in examining how far these are temporary
and circumstantial, how far essential and permanent, laws. But
few of these seem to be more original than that which requires
change of study and occupation. One investigation, uncheckered
and unrelieved, strains the mind. One enjoyment, unvaried and
undiverted, cloys. The glorified spirit may, therefore, not only
find its mansion, but be free of the many mansions. Unfixed in
irrevocable task, unrelated to irremissible province, it may go
forth from scene to scene, from engagement to engagement, as
from fountain to fountain of living water. It may find its cycle
of ever-exciting activities and of ever-fresh delights. Thus may
it renew its youth and recreate its immortality. Now shall it
offer Praise. It makes melody. It pours forth a strain of gra
titude, which our cold hearts and our discordant notes cannot
imitate. It sings the new song, a song of deliverance, the song
of a feast, the song of a solemnity, the song of a triumph. — It
bends in Adoring Contemplation. It sees the King in his beauty.
It gazes and is not afraid. Yet is it beatifically awed. The
trance is upon it, speechless, moveless, — it seeks silence even in
heaven, — it is rapt, overwhelmed, — it is lost in love, — it is de
lighting itself in God, — it is feeling that there is none in heaven
but He, — it is taking Him as its portion for ever ! — It exercises
itself in the Research of wonder and mystery. It plunges into
the depths. Its profoundest faculties are engrossed. It knows
what only it may explore. It cherishes no impatience of every
necessary confine beyond which it may not press. Every enquiry
is followed by some new information of truth. Every employ
ment of the mind braces its health and vigour, enlarges its ken,
and clears its contemplation. — It cultivates Communion with all
other heavenly spirits. What may not angels, who have minis
tered to the heirs of salvation, tell of their knowledge and their
experience ? Will they disdain the converse of those whom they
have so long guided, upholden, protected, and at last wafted to
these mansions ? What saints are there, and we shall recognise
the Moses and the Elias on that Mount ! Abraham shall not
be ignorant of us, nor Israel refuse to acknowledge us. David
shall not strike his harp with abated skill and fervour, nor Daniel

THE HOLY HABITATION OF HEAVEN. 45
be less the man greatly beloved. We shall be the companions of
all. Friendship ! there is thy native seat and only there ! There
mayst thou find thy preference, the disciple whom thou lovest, —
there mayst thou first find thy brother, — but coldness, repulse,
treachery, thou shalt never find ! — And Benevolence demands its
ministrations. To do good is the joy, the instinct, the support,
of goodness. Charity never faileth. We do not at present under
stand how this may be. Guilt and misery now call it forth.
What can our benevolence avail in heaven ? But are we not then
to be still more filled with the love of God, more delineated with
the image of Christ, more embued with love for all saints ? Is all
this to be denied opportunity and expression ? Is the spring to
be shut up and sealed ? Beyond our complacency in the excel
lent of heaven, in whom shall be all our delight, there cannot
but be the interchange of the offices of love. We shall have a
power to bless. Our happiness shall be raised by the capacity of
raising happiness. There will be good works, and not without
necessary uses. There will be things good and profitable unto
men, though men in heaven. Suffice it to say, that it is on
record, " His servants shall serve him." We await the allotment
and the direction of that service. — But in what we foreshadow,
we see the law of change and variety. The vision is around
them, and from every side of their horizon they may survey it.
Each effort brings its repose. " The*y rest not," they do not
cease, and in that ceaselessness of activity is their rest. Their
whole soul is exhilarated by the constancy of their occupation
and its equally constant diversity : every faculty is knitted into
strength, every taste preserved in zest, by the untiring order of
their duties and the unsating succession of their delights. It is
an evolution of "many mansions."
5. The Regularity of their Arrangement.
It has been premised that much of the happiness of the
redeemed in heaven arises from the form of their character, the
kind and degree of their usefulness, upon earth. As the wicked
are filled with their own ways, go to their own place, receive the
recompense which is meet, — so the dispositions and acts of the
new creature enure him to glory, honour, and immortality. He

46 THE HOLY HABITATION OF HEAVEN.
antedates heaven, he is wrought for the self-same thing, he
rejoices with joy that is full of glory. A heaven shall break
from within him, and not only gather around him. The good
works are manifest beforehand. They do follow. All the saved
shall have their name and place within those walls. There are
many mansions for the appropriation. In this "great house,"
every " vessel," all " sanctified and meet for the Master's use,"
has its valuation and its function. And it is, therefore, pleasant
to think of the inhabitants of heaven according to certain classi
fications, and to enrol them in moral genealogies. " The destruc
tion of the transgressors and of the sinners shall be together."
The righteous shall have " rejoicing in himself alone, and not in
another," but still he belongs to a company or tribe. The trans
gressors are compared to tares, bound into bundles; the righteous
shine as the stars, in clusters and constellations. Think of the
holy and the devoted, "but every man in his own order." There
is the mansion of the patriarchs, their thoughts still full of
sacrifice, their visions still glowing with good things to come, still
surrounded by the angels whom they on earth had entertained
unawares. There is the mansion of the prophets, singing still as
in their choir ! There is the mansion of the apostles, pointing
still to the atoning Lamb ! There is the mansion of the mar
tyrs, as new baptised from the flames ! There is the mansion of
faithful ministers, discriminating among the throng those who
are their glory and their crown ! There is the mansion of pious
parents, their solicitudes fulfilled and their prayers answered in
the conversion of their offspring ! There is the mansion of zea
lous teachers, exulting over the little children whom they rescued
from ignorance and vice ! There is the mansion of self-sacrificing
missionaries, as on set thrones, surrounded by their converts
from the heathen! There are the mansions prepared for the
millions upon millions which are still to come to " the church of
the first-born," that they without us, that we without them,
should not be made perfect. " Yet there is room." And if new
circumstances shall arise, impressing new aspects and shapes of
character, mansions shall not be wanting to them, comely, bright,
and capacious, where they may live insphered. " I will place

THE HOLY HABITATION OF HEAVEN. 47
them in their houses, saith the Lord." But there is in these
orders nothing repulsive nor arrogant, nothing humiliated nor
depressed ; there is no wall of partition ; all is intermingled ; all
is one ; one acclaiming host ! one holy community ! one happy
family! All the places round about are a blessing! They are
heavenly places in Christ Jesus !
6. The Series of their Progression.
The tendencies and yearnings of the human mind are towards
an indefinite life and advancement. These keep us restless and
dissatisfied while we are in our sins : these excite us to grow in
grace, to follow on to know the Lord, to lay hold on eternal life,
when we receive the grace of God in truth. If there was a point
in our existence at which we must be hopelessly resisted, beyond
which we could learn nothing further and enjoy nothing more,—
large as the information already attained, vast as the happiness
already found, — that would be the limit of well-being. Of little
consequence would it be whether we then ceased to desire, or
only desired in vain. Our misery, instead of being lessened by
what we had acquired, would be unspeakably aggravated. The
prospect which had drawn out our soul would be suddenly closed
against it. It would be like an ascent to some everlasting hill to
gaze for first and for last our full of the glorious land, not then
to die amidst the rapture, but to be doomed to life beneath the
sudden fall of an endless night. We should feel that our nature
was reversed. It was not allowed its growth. It was stunted
and overborne. Now this is the description of what belongs to
God's presence : " fulness of joy." But that alone would involve
satiety : "At His right hand there are pleasures for evermore.'1''
While in our pilgrimage, the mercies which are new every morn
ing inspire fresh joys and praises. There shall be in heaven ever-
opening wells of delight. Nothing can be stationary in its know
ledge or in its bliss. It is a field for boundless meliorations. It
is a track for onward footsteps. The song is a song of degrees !
The heaven is a heaven of heavens ! From the lowest mansion
the spirit may ascend to a higher and a higher still. There must
be a period when we shall have overtaken all the fire of the present
Paul, all the love of the present John. There must be a period

48 THE HOLY HABITATION OF HEAVEN.
when we shall sing a sweeter strain than now is heard from the
sweetest singer beneath the throne. There must be a period when
our intellect shall have stretched beyond the capacities of the
greatest actual intellect. Perhaps an oeconomy of tuition may
be supposed. " One of the elders" may awaken curiosity to gra
tify it. " There may be given us a reed," that we should judge
the measurements of things for ourselves. "A fellow-servant
and of them which keep the sayings of this book" may show us
the "pure river of water of life," carrying us along "either side,"
until we mark the very source. So they who were "faithful over
a few things are appointed rulers over many things": they "have
authority over ten cities." Here is the symbol of influence, and
it must be benevolently employed. May it not imply mutual
assistance and instruction ? A constant fulfilling of the law of
Christ ? And thus these many mansions shall rise in an inter
minable series. How high may the lowest believer reach ! How
incalculably may the highest transcend themselves ! Nor is there
difficulty. The interval is still between the finite and the infi
nite ! The stretch for these progressions is the duration of eter
nity !
Such, Dear Christians, is your solemn home, your holy habi
tation ! There you shall be at rest. There shall gather around
you the family of the redeemed. Each countenance wears an un
fading smile. The eye knows no tear. There is endless greeting.
The heart swells with transport. There is the full tide of love.
Identity and variety lend their charms. It is our house ! There
are many mansions !
My Father's House ! Where, in distant space, rise thy pin
nacles ? Where sweep thy many mansions ? Where, in the star-
kindled firmament, is thy ethereal dome ? It is in " His holy
heaven" ! When shall mine eyes see thee ? When shall my feet
stand in the midst of thee? When shall thy children all be
brought home? When shall the latest born have passed thy
gate ? When shall the hymn of that great assemblage salute the
ear, and bless the grace, of Him who hath said, " I will be a
Father unto you" ! " O that I had wings, like a dove, then
would I flee away and be at rest" ! Amen.

SERMON III

VALID CHRISTIANITY.

1 Cor. iv. 20.
"For the Kingdom of God is not in Word, but in Power."
No phrase is of more frequent recurrence in the writings of both
Testaments than this, " the kingdom of God." It was originally
the prophetic description of the Christian dispensation : evange
lists, apostles, and the Messiah himself, adopted and employed it.
There is, however, a disadvantage in the translated term. King
dom generally expresses the territory reigned over, rather than
the reign itself. But the idea required is that of the authority
or the rule, not of the realm which it governs. Dominion might
answer, but that when used in the plural it equally suggests the
thought of extended space, and is not indeed necessarily imperial.
Sovereignty might serve, but that it has obtained a specific force
and value in theological nomenclature. Royalty might suffice, but
that it commonly denotes special privilege and prerogative, and
when multiplied, royalties are understood to signify the seigni-
oral rights of peculiar estates and domains. Monarchy is liable
to the same objection, it being of the same mixed sense. It is
well to seize a single expression, rather than that we should be
compelled to compound several terms. Regal sway, domination,
supremacy, are cumbrous, ungraceful, unpointed, combinations :
rule is feeble, reign only a little better, while king-ship, though
not quite faultless, is, perhaps, the happiest substitute of all.
With this criticism we shall now proceed no farther: we only
value it as it conveys a just limitation : nor shall we make any
service of it in altering the given phrase. That is so familiar to
our ear that any other would sound harshly to us. All that is

50 VALID CHRISTIANITY.
necessary is, to disabuse our mind of locality and area when we
"speak of the glory of this kingdom," and when we would "make
known to the sons of men the glorious majesty of this kingdom."
Let our thinking be of a simple principle and administration of
Divine government.
This " kingdom" is special. It is not the kingdom which is
the Lord's as the Governor among the nations. It is not the
kingdom of God in the outward dispensation of the gospel, a
kingdom which is "preached" unto us, " which has "come nigh"
unto us. It is not the kingdom of God, the sphere of celestial
bliss, to which we are " called," and " for which we suffer." It
is spiritual. " It cometh not with observation." It is " within
us." We can only " see" it, — we can only " enter" it, — by being
"born again." It is not ceremonial observance, but "righteous
ness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." Its " mystery" can
alone be appreciated by subjection to it. It is so inestimable in
its rich hopes and lofty dignities, that we must "seek it first,"
— that is, before all things, — in point of time and in ardour of
solicitude !
This kingdom of God, his control of the hidden man of the
heart, is not in " word," — a formal show, an unbinding dictate,
— a mere proclamation and behest, — a splendid spectacle and
pageant, — it is in Power. This is a thing very difficult to define.
To tell us that it is ability, capacity, strength, is vain. It is idle
repetition. They are only other words. You have not advanced
a step towards the explanation. The most decisive mode to treat
it is, to unite it in our own minds with some change which we
cannot but think ourselves have produced, some effect which,
without perplexing ourselves in mere verbal subtilty, we know
that we have wrought. I will to pluck that flower : my hand is
the instrument : it is extended : its fingers lay hold of the flower:
the flower is gathered : I had the power : and this is the result.
I will to think of a certain subject : my attention is given to it :
my meditations embrace it : the thought stands up before me :
I have accomplished my purpose. I will to impress my fellow-
creature's mind : I avail myself of the reasonings suited to such
an aim, or I work upon his excitable feelings by more direct

VALID CHRISTIANITY. 51
appeals. Concerning power little more can be understood. It
will better reveal its true meaning in the facts which the text
will identify, and the illustrations which it will enforce. Chris
tianity will then appear, and approve itself, as a scheme of sin
gular influence, a mysterious potency, an outforce of incessant
action, a spring of water welling up without effort or exhaustion,
a rod of strength and ever-budding life ; and it will be seen, also,
that Christians, informed with the same quickening spirit, burn
with its zeal, move with its courage ; that they act with its habit,
travail with its purpose : " thereunto labouring, agonising with
an energy which energises in them mightily." " The kingdom
of God is not in word, but in power."
Having offered these prefatory remarks, we propose to con
sider True and Vital and Experienced Christianity in its Digni
fied Character and Energetic Ascendancy.
I. In FOLLOWING THE HOLY SCRIPTURE WE MUST SPEAK OF
RELIGION IN ITS HOLD AND OPERATION UPON THE HEART AS
NOTHING LESS THAN THE KINGDOM OF GOD.
And, accordingly, you must lay out of your minds all notion
of wide and wealthy empires, of powerful and accumulated
states ; of diadems, thrones, and sceptres. No ensign is to be
set up around which the warrior could rally. No standard is
to flap its folds which might tempt cupidity and ambition. It is
not victory which any worldly project could apply. It is not
aggrandisement which any sordid folly could convert to its de
sign. Nothing must be left to dazzle the fancy and charm the
sense. You must remove all your ideas to the inner recesses of
the soul. With that spirit, shut out from every thing besides,
must you, henceforth, commune. There does this kingdom fix
its seat. There it issues its mandate. There it expends its ope
ration. That field is withdrawn from mortal notice, and the
treasure, which is now buried in it, gives it not only an incalcu
lable value but converts it into a productive mine of riches ! It
was, ere God planted his kingdom in it, a den of anarchy and
misrule. It belonged to the kingdom of Satan. It was full
of darkness, torn by division, embroiled by confusion, distracted
with strife. Ignorance, even to blindness, decided all. Vile

52 VALID CHRISTIANITY.
affections, like knotted adders, brooded there. The soul was
seen degenerate, "earthly, sensual, and devilish." Conscience
abetted all, but still wielded an iron flail and scorpion scourge.
What a wild uproar! What a ceaseless confusion ! Accusation
and excuse! Hateful and hating! Deceived and being deceived!
A cavern of the winds ! A cage of unclean birds ! A troubled
sea which cannot rest ! Mind without due sobriety, Fancy with
out lovely vision, Freedom without high independence, Feeling
without sweet repose ! Cries of rebellion fill it : " Who is the
Almighty that we should serve him ?" " Cause the Holy One of
Israel to cease from before us !" But in our conversion God's
reign begins. " Yield yourselves to God as those that are alive
from the dead." " Submit yourselves unto God." " Be ye recon
ciled unto God." This surrender is full and unconditional. It is
loyal attachment. It is filial as well as subjectional. It regards
His character: "We joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
by whom we have now received the atonement." It welcomes his
truth : " Ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine
which was delivered you." It appropriates his cause: "If we
live, we live unto the Lord." It claims oneness with his people :
" We are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens
with the saints and of the household of God." It is allied to
disposition : " the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ."
The atonement of the cross, by bringing pardon and peace,
introduces us into this state of mind. It slays our enmity. It
" casts down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth
itself against the knowledge of God, and brings into captivity
every thought to the obedience of Christ." We have found out
our true and perfect law of liberty. Our conscience is purged
from dead works to serve the living God. " The kingdom is
quiet before him." We are "willing in the day of his power."
All is moved by choice and love. We are " translated" into it.
We "receive" it. We are "joyful in our King." The rule is
carried on by our cheerful response to all he requires or avers.
" When He saith, Seek ye my face, our heart saith unto him,
Thy face, Lord, will we seek." In our heart is set a mirror from
which His own glory dart*. There is hung a lyre which His

VALID CHRISTIANITY. 53
own breath stirs into melody. He " works within us to will and
to do." He " draws and we run after him." No violence is
offered to our freedom of agency or to our springs of action.
The cords of a man vibrate in us. The bands of love are our
only strait and chain. We do the will of God from the heart.
He has reconciled us, and we are at peace with him. Though
"sometime alienated and enemies in our mind by wicked works,"
we repent us of our treason and tear down the banner of our
rebellion. Though other lords have had dominion over us we
renounce the claims of all. He has " overturned," and he has
"come whose right it is." He dwelleth in us and we in him.
The peace of God rules in our hearts. Our professed subjec
tion to the gospel of Christ displays but the love of the truth
which is in us. Sin reigned : it has no more dominion. Satan
enthralled: he cometh, but that Wicked now toucheth us not.
The present evil world prevailed : our faith now overcometh the
world. Grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life.
Through the greatness of Thy power have thine enemies submit
ted themselves unto thee !
The kingdom of God supposes the constant operation of au
thority, and of the sense of law. No created nature can be so
raised as to act in thoughtlessness of it. The holiest seraph would
fall the moment he ceased to have respect to its requisitions. To
the most sinless creatures the divine authority is the ever-present
idea. There are some who speak of law as if it only was the con
cernment of the wicked. They having read that " the law is not
made for the righteous man but for the lawless and disobedient,
for the ungodly and for sinners," — take as its meaning that the
righteous man needs not its rule, that his tendency and disposition
toward righteousness supersede the occasion for the rule. But it
is only of the penalty that the passage speaks. The threatening
of the law is not made for the just. For if the rule was not
made for him, what would be his standard of righteousness ?
How could he justify and challenge that character ? How could
he know that the law written in his heart was the proper copy, if
there were no original ? What would be the perfection of heaven,
jf there were no archetype to which it referred ? There can be no

54 VALID CHRISTIANITY.
excellence without such guide and commandment. And though
when we would think of celestial purity, we may love to dwell
on its inward promptings, its native spontaneities, as that which
is morally necessary and essential, — yet we shall forego the high
est conception of it unless we deem it, at every instant of its
exercise, intelligent, voluntary, and directed according to the
mind of Christ, the will of the Deity. The conviction that it is
right and binding will ever sway the spirits of the redeemed.
They will do all as service and obedience. Law is to the eye and
ear of holiness the noblest directory, the sweetest sound. It tells
of high destiny. It is the call to glory and virtue. It points
to, it shines along, it makes bright, a track of indefinite advance
ment. It is the way-mark of an endless career. It rises the
day-star of eternal ages. It is the radiancy of our glory. It is
the melody of our song. What would be the symmetry of the
soul, if there were no pattern to which it was conformed ? What
would be its harmony if there were no concord with which it was
attuned ? It must look beyond itself. It must rise to its source.
Its wing was made for flight. And if even now, with so much
guilt upon us, with so much depravity in us, law loses its fearful
and condemnatory associations and becomes a pleasing and de
lightful term, — " the law of faith," " the law of the Spirit of life
in Christ Jesus making us free from the law of sin and death,"
"proving what is that good and perfect and acceptable will of
the Lord," — how must it warm to ecstasy and swell with triumph
the spirits of just men made perfect, acting as a gratulation on
their course, as an impulse to their purpose, as a prize for their
ambition ! " The highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall
be called the way of holiness, and it shall be for those." In
keeping such commandment is heaven's great reward. That
heaven is a kingdom ! The throne of God and of the Lamb shall
be in it, and his servants shall serve him ! Only they who do his
commandments have right to its tree of life. Therein dwelleth
righteousness. Objective rule and subjective principle constitute
that righteousness in all its forms and movements. Our hearts
shall enlarge with the ways of these commandments. As we do
not here make void the law, so there the law shall be " used

VALID CHRISTIANITY. 55
lawfully," and we shall eternally experience " wherefore it serv-
eth !" How otherwise could it be ? Are we ever to lay down
the yoke of Christ ? When can we cease to be under the law to
Him ? It is now the kingdom of God. He shall order and
establish it with judgment and justice from henceforth even for
ever. We seek a kingly oeconomy in heaven ! The everlasting
kingdom, and an abundant entrance into it ! To reign with him
for ever and ever! To judge the world ! To judge angels!
Kings and priests to God and to his Christ ! To fall down
before the throne, and to cast our crowns before the throne !
" For when yon Heavens have passed away,
We still shall glory to obey."
It is well known with what a graceful fervour human fealty
has often borne itself. How it has rallied about the menaced
throne or followed the fortunes of the royal exile ! It asked but
unbought and unrewarded service. It endured for some beloved
master hopeless reverse and mischance. It has chivalrously
courted danger and poverty. It has sought no prouder insignia
than banishment and captivity. A generous devotion has sus
tained it. The darker the eclipse which greatness suffered, the
steadier was its faith. It has pawned its honour, its life, its all,
upon some perilous adventure. Interests the most sacred it has
set upon a cast. Its crest of allegiance has been without fear and
reproach. It yielded itself up with a full abandonment to its
purpose. And does not this proud submission, which knows no
change, which rises with peril and strengthens with defeat, shame
our coldness, little short of treason, to Jesus our king, and to
his cause which is the kingdom of heaven upon earth ? What is
our tribute ? Where are our efforts and sacrifices for his throne ?
Where is our jealousy of his honour ? Where is our loyalty to
his fame ? Do we stand to his ensign ? Would we die in his
cause ? He is the only Potentate. He is Prince of the kings
of the earth. All souls are his. He claims the things which are
God's. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom. It hastens. It
advances. Knees bow. Strongholds yield. Hearts surrender. He
must reign until all his enemies become his footstool. He shall

56 VALID CHRISTIANITY.
have dominion from sea to sea. His sceptre is a right sceptre !
All nations shall serve him.
Auspicious sera ! Blessed consummation ! The Lamb has
overcome ! The Lord God omnipotent reigneth ! The people are
all righteous ! All know him from the least unto the greatest !
Not a foothold is left the usurper. The captives are free. The
slain live. The Redeemer has taken possession of his rights.
He is publicly inaugurated in royal state and majesty. On his
head are many crowns. His power is over all minds. He owns
no subjects but spirits. Now is come the kingdom of our God
and the power of his Christ. It is done ! The world's heart is
conquered for him, and He draws forth from it the warmest
homage which can fill it. Its affections rise to him a cloud of
inextinguishable incense, a concert of everlasting song ! . . .
Thy Kingdom come !
II. This kingdom is affirmed by the text to rest in
A MIGHTY INFLUENCE, " TO BE IN POWER."
It has a visible framework of doctrines, — a still more visible
apparatus of ordinances. While its proper seat is in the mind,
it has always an external type and reference. It has its central
form. We call it Revelation. It is the Gospel. It is Christi
anity. The Author of nature often suspends on apparently inadequate
causes the most stupendous results. Each calculation we had
formed is baffled, each test which we had applied is set aside.
All is noiseless and simple. The works of man are in contrast.
In them is a bustling ostentation. Each spring and wire of his
apparatus is exposed. But with their utmost modesty the divine
operations are always efficient. Though we only know that God
has been working by the work, that work is the perfect proof.
And still the contrast is maintained to all this quiet independence.
Man, compelled to the employment of complicated means, exhi
bits, whatever their cost and labour, trivial effects. He accom
plishes, after the severest strain and struggle, only little things.
With God is the hiding of power, until it is done, until it stands
fast : with the creature there is parade, effort, vanity, until his
impotence shames him !

VALID CHRISTIANITY. 57
This may be illustrated by the image now before us. Govern
ment is known in every condition of social man. The ultimate
sanction of every government is force. But that force is indicated
by pageantry, by heraldry, by weapon. It proclaims itself by
guards and lictors. Pride, pomp, and circumstance, dazzle from
every side. Yet is it, at a very early stage, a barren spectacle.
It reaches but a little way. Carried to its furthest, it can kill
the body. Bring forth the instruments of torture and death !
Break the body upon the wheel : consume it in the flame ! It
can kill the body. Let the mangled flesh be cast to the lions :
let the ashes of the charred flesh be scattered to the winds. It
can kill the body. How shortened is its arm ! How speedy is
its check ! There is no more that it can do ! Within the still
smaller limit its command is feeble. It cannot decide opinion.
It cannot fetter conscience. If benevolent, few are the blessings
which it can apply. If tyrannic, as few are the ills which it can
inflict. It is a narrow thing. The soul defies it. If the hand
of violence strike at the soul, the soul hides in its consciousness
or escapes in its immortality. — But the kingdom of God is an
embodiment of august ascendancy. It is not indebted to the
adventitious and the external appendage. It is not of this world.
It wants not palaces, courts, armies. It disdains a tinsel glory.
It is great in the greatness, it is strong in the strength, of its
King. It borrows nothing save from him. He has a mighty
arm : strong is his hand and high is his right hand. His king
dom is not superficial, a lie of pretension, a brilliant dream :
archives without authority, titles without truth, symbols without
meaning ! All has being and subsistence here. It lives in the
thoughts and intents of its subjects. It is a dispensation of prin
ciples and motives. It is a walking in light. It is good-will
doing service. It cannot be enfeebled by extension. It is equally
puissant in each and all. Its tables are written on every mind,
its judgment-seat is in every conscience, its throne is in every
heart. The Presence is alike diffused. The Prerogative is uni
versally exercised. Is not this Power ? Power so complete, so
searching, so invariably distributed, that every other idea of
ruling power becomes a mockery, and its proudest device a toy ?

58 VALID CHRISTIANITY.
We need not wonder, therefore, that Christianity made its
early boast of this attribute. A signal power attended its outset.
The Saviour taught as having authority. His favourite disciples
did not taste of death till they had seen the kingdom of God
come with power. Glorious victories were won. Philosophy,
and violence, furnished occasion for its triumphs. It supplied
new moulds for thought and new theatres for action. It was the
visitation of a new life. Another spirit went forth over the earth.
A divine nature was infused into man. Institutions of the
most elaborate skill and most colossal firmness dissolved before
its holy charm. The swords of thirty legions shrunk to their
scabbards before its prowess. It marched on conquering and to
conquer. The world beheld it with amazement. The doctrine
was the strange and the improbable. The instrumentality was
the rude and the imbecile. The ambition was the inconsiderate
and the ill-prepared. Yet with a world against it, it rose su
perior to a world. Little checked it. Nothing withstood it. It
grew up into avast intellectual and moral dominion, diverse from
every other government, having no local confines, brooking no
selfish jealousies, converting the rebel soul and restoring it to God.
It was in Power.
Now we would not for a moment be led away from the most
sincere acknowledgment that the true efficiency of the gospel
depends upon the influence of the Holy Spirit. If it come not
in word only, but in power, it is because it comes in the Holy
Ghost. We speak of Him in all the glories of his Godhead.
We speak of Him and honour him in his ceconomic offices. We
do not immerse his working in any means. We abjure any
notion that he is in the word. He is, — though the God of order,
though faithful to his promise, being the Spirit of promise, being
the Spirit of Christ, — He is external to all, independent of all,
absolute over all. We love no intermediate hypothesis. He is
given to us. He is sent forth into our heart. He is the Agent,
the one and the self-same Spirit, directly communicating with us,
constantly working in us. Truth is His instrument, but it can
not be his subject: the subject of his operation must be the intel
ligent and accountable nature of man. "We are strengthened

VALID CHRISTIANITY. 59
with all might by the Spirit in the inner man." " The Power of
the Holy Ghost" is, therefore, the trust and stay of our minds
when we look at the difficulties which beset the progress of the
gospel. The " work of faith" is " with power." " The gospel
of Christ" is " the power of God unto salvation." The " earthen
vessel" is contemned or broken that there may flash out that
" excellency of power," which it could neither hide nor assist.
We cannot entertain too enlarged and transcendent conceptions
of "the exceeding greatness of the power to usward who believe."
He is the " Spirit of Power !"
But the "power" which is ascribed to the kingdom of God
in the text, though always presupposing, though always depend
ing upon, the Divine Influence, is not the same with it. It
belongs to the theme itself. It grows out of it, and is its legiti
mate due. It is a moral power.
And there is power of the highest created order, wherever
there is mind. Muscular and mechanical agencies' are but means
and auxiliaries : they must be put into motion by something
higher than themselves. A web of nerves, a succession of cylin
ders, cannot be self-motive. A reasoning and a willing impulse
is required. What, therefore, is conceivable as power but mind
in its use of certain helps and instruments ? It is the centre of
each movement, the arbiter of each result. We need not quote
an adage but two centuries old, Knowledge is power, — when we
can find the sentiment far more nobly and anciently expressed in
our Bible: "A wise man is strong; yea, a man of knowledge
increaseth strength."* How mind acts upon mind! What
vibrations bound from a single thought ! What immortality
broods in a simple notice ! It crosses seas. It pervades nations.
It survives ages. The loins of kings are loosed. Whole peoples
are transformed. Not only thoughts, but the seeds of thoughts,
interminable suggestions, are cast into the world of mind. Then
will it be impossible to measure that impetus and confirmation
which Christianity has given already to human intellect, that
new burden of holy ideas with which it lades its memory, that
new career of benevolent activities with which it encites its zeal.
* Prov. xxiv. 5.

60 VALID CHRISTIANITY.
It alone awakens man. Through its precepts he gets under
standing. He is full of an inward life. It reminds him of the
image in which he was made, and which he has lost. It fills him
with shame and confusion that he has sunk so low. It informs
him of the infinite gentleness which can once more make him
great. It assures him that though a banished one, God has devi
sed means whereby he should not be expelled from him. It turns
his thoughts inwardly upon himself. It bids his spirit make dili
gent search. He learns what he is. He discovers how he has
been beguiled. He is now in his right mind. The hidden man
of the heart is upraised. The pulsation of an eternal life swells
through him. He is a regenerate, but only to his first nature.
He is "after God." What a development he experiences of what
he was hitherto unawares ! The eyes of his understanding are
opened ! His heart is " united" which was " divided" ! The
selfishness of his nature is rebuked. The weakness of wayward
irresolution is abashed. An enfeebling sensuality is destroyed.
A true greatness of tastes and aims is elicited. The entire soul
is knitted into strength : strength of principle, strength of deci
sion, strength of character, strength of influence. The religion
of Christ alone brings out the stamina of our mental and moral
constitution, alone affects our judgments and our sensibilities by
the same objects, alone touches us at all points; stirs every inner
most depth, and unbinds each latent energy, of the spirit. The
measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ is appointed for
our study and our standard, we grow up into Him in all things,
we arm ourselves with the same mind, and are strong in the
power of his might. The Power of Christ rests upon us. Our
intimate, essential, being is evoked from its hiding-places: it
puts itself forth in lofty purpose, cheerful sacrifice, and strenu
ous deed. We can do all things through Christ Jesus strength
ening us.
But in contending for a species of moral power as attached to
the kingdom of God itself, as inherent in the gospel of this king
dom, we may be asked, What can be the influence of the dead
letter, the mere word ? Let us meet the enquiry by a general
illustration. The great masters of antiquity have long since

VALID CHRISTIANITY. 61
passed away. They no longer teach in the grove nor thunder
from the bema. Their spirits have been required of them. But
their lore and eloquence have found some record. Their treatises
and their orations have been committed to writing and handed
down to us. It is dead letter, it is mere word. But in them,
by them, do not their minds still range and expatiate ? Do they
not exercise a mighty dominion over nations of which they had
not heard ? Do not our eyes turn back to them, and our ears
drink in their strains ? Are they not, as living among us, to
instruct and inspire us? We might select a particular speci
men of such diffusive or transmissive mind. Paul penned his
arguments and censures. " His letters, said they, are pow
erful." So all that belongs to our religion, even that which is
most external, is in power. There is a mightiness in the Scrip
tures. Its words, they are spirit and they are life. Let us en
quire in what this Power is extant ?
It is a Power of Truth. We are formed to admit the force
and weight of this. None can prefer its opposites, whether it be
error or falsehood. It is no reply that men addict themselves
to deception, if a means to an end, for the end overcomes the
repugnance to the means. Would the means of artifice be chosen
for its own sake ? Nor is it any reply, that insincere men often
prefer deception to ingenuousness, for a new habit has thus been
created, an intellectual obliquity has been induced, the very
judgment of distinctions has been extinguished, — but how ? by
the violence which was done to the original state of the mind.
Nor is it any reply that man is credulous, his credulousness
proving a desire, an eagerness, after truth, however incautious
his pursuit and ill-directed his quest. Dislike of truth may arise
from objection to the kind of truth, but it is not of our nature to
hate truth as truth, or what we believe to be truth. And Chris
tianity takes it for her name. "The Truth," is her sublime
designation. By the manifestation of the truth only does she
seek the conversion of mankind. Now the Gospel founds itself
upon facts. It is but the report and exposition of what was
done, of what occurred, of what has come to pass. This is sub
stantial truth. But it has always appealed to proof: and called

62 VALID CHRISTIANITY.
on its disciples to give a reason of their hope. Its evidence is
clear and appreciable. It comes in much assurance. It justifies
unfeigned faith. There was this stamp upon the statements of
the Christian argument from the first. " With great power gave
the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus."
Their testimony was resistless. But that event witnessed for
itself. We therefore read concerning " the power of His resur
rection." And thus " the word of the truth of the gospel" im
presses its own seal upon our soul. It is truth and no error : it
is truth and no lie. It raises us to its independence. It makes
us free. We can do nothing against the truth but for the truth.
O the health of mind which springs from this conviction ! And
then the firm confidence and persuasion not only of its truth, but
that it is truth which can sanctify and save ! So adapted is it,
that the Spirit of truth exclusively employs it in the new birth of
the soul. Truth, and this kind of truth, constitute the element
of such adaptation. And it is equally operative in the growth
of Christian character and experience; when we receive it "not
as the word of men but, as it is in truth, the word of God,"
then " it worketh effectually in us who believe." There rises up
in us a calm, an assured, a fortified, energy when we can say:
" We know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an
understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are
in him that is true : this is the true God and eternal life."
It is a Power of Authority. Evidence may trace out truth,
or revelation may discover it : but in religion we want, what its
name implies, a binding force and sanction. A series of proposi
tions may commend itself to us simply as agreeable to fact. But
the gospel is of an infinitely higher character. It is the king
dom of God. It is divine obligation. It addresses our hopes
and fears, our desire of happiness and our dread of misery. The
binding force and sanction is precisely this : " He that believeth
shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned." It is
the law of faith. Except we repent we perish. We attend to
these solemn warnings: " See that ye refuse not Him that speak-
eth." " How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation ?"
" What shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of

VALID CHRISTIANITY. 63
God ?" It will be objected by some that there can be no moral
power in such a case : that all is the effect of fear. The answer
to this objection is, that the authority of the gospel as a dispensa
tion alone could impart the desired confidence. It is God's pro
vision, here is our security : It is God's will, here is our warrant :
It is God's command, here is our duty. In this fear of the Lord,
this obedience of faith, there is strong confidence, there is a foun
tain of life. Where there is right and title, there will be bold
ness. God has set forth Christ as a propitiation through faith
in his blood. He has set him forth for my faith ! He has com
manded me, at my soul's peril, to believe ! 1 have no question,
then, whether I may, whether I must. I am encouraged. I am
enjoined. I believe. The good is before me. The requirement
is upon me. I am strong in faith. I trust and am not afraid.
I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed. But take
away this authority, how weakened and prostrate is my faith :
how bowed down and sunken is my spirit ! — And this "power"
of the kingdom of God will manifest itself in our exertions to
promote it. Content yourselves with the idea that Christianity
would be a general blessing to the human family, that its exten
sion is therefore desirable, that philanthropy might well under
take it, — what would be the vigour of our Missionary institutions,
or the power and spirit of our missionaries ? But when we feel
that " the mystery is to be made known to all nations according
to the commandment of the everlasting God," we receive our
commission; we cry, " Necessity is laid upon us, yea woe is unto
us if we preach not the gospel ;" and it is only as the missionary
hearkens to the bidding, " Go," that all of home and country
loosens around him, and he says, " I go." There is power, a
facility of power, a directness of power, a self-respect of power,
a fearlessness of power, — in conscious duty, in simple obedience.
This is the will of God, — it is the word of a King, — this is our
obligation, — we have nothing to care for consequences, we go
not at our own caprices or charges, — but we are " bold in our
God !" Any other principle would swerve : this is unblenching.
It confers not with flesh and blood. It attends to the work before
it, and seeks neither better reason nor better motive than that

64- VALID CHRISTIANITY.
God has appointed it. At once that meek devotedness fills the
weakest intellect with a giant-strength. " His word is in our
heart as a burning fire shut up in our bones, and we are weary
with forbearing, and cannot stay."
It is a Power of Realization. Wherever the word of God
comes, though there is no scale of its success, it is more or less,
sooner or later, surrounded by something like itself. It is not
dormant, inoperative, but quick and powerful. It provokes
attention, circulates enquiry, compels to take a part. It affects
strongly and vividly. It arouses every earnest feeling. It sub
stantiates its own truths and places them in a distinct percepti-
bleness. It tells of the coming of Christ in the flesh, but though
that was only to one land and at one time, it surrounds it with
such interest to all lands and all times, that it may be said indif
ferently and universally : " He came and preached peace to you
who were afar and to them that are nigh." It tells of the death
of Christ, but though this was once for all, and was confined to
a particular region as its scene, yet is there no country and no
age in which it may not be said, though the most remote :
"Before whose eyes Christ hath been evidently set forth cruci
fied among you." It realises God, and we " endure as seeing
Him who is invisible." It realises futurity, and "faith is the"
substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."
In us is found every doctrine and blessing of the gospel in actual
form and rudiment. Ours is a present salvation. We are jus
tified. We are sanctified. We have power to become sons of
God. There is the joy of salvation. We have peace with God,
We do enter into rest. Now are we the sons of God. The work
of grace bears its fruit. Faith groweth exceedingly. Love
aboundeth more and more. Peace passeth all understanding.
Patience hath its perfect work. This is, surely, Power: the
kindling of a Living light over the written word: the inward
interpretation : the witness of the soul closing with it.
It is a Power of Intuition. Though man is grossly self-
ignorant, and is incapable of a strict self-discernment, yet he
knows when his principal moral features are described. He
feels the truth when brought home to him, however it lay

VALID CHRISTIANITY. 65
beyond his faculty of discovering it. And a peculiar interest of
this kind inheres in Christianity. It is the perfect description of
human nature. We see ourselves as in a glass. It turns this
glass every way. Man's history is reflected from its surface,
man's consciousness comes out upon its field. He gazes on a
mysterious image which he recognises as his own. The Scripture
hath not said in vain what evil lusteth in him. The thoughts of
many hearts are revealed. The process is like a divination. The
sinner stands confessed. He is individualised among millions.
All is brought to light. He mourns apart. Thus are the secrets
of his heart made manifest. He wonders at the detection and
exposure : " Whence knowest thou me ?" " Come, see a man
which told me all things that ever I did." The sinner shrinks
beneath the broad eye of omniscience, looking out upon him from
the Scripture. He is condemned already. He sees that his secret
sins are set in the light of God's countenance. Artifice and dissi
mulation no more avail him. He feels the folly of any further
trifling. All the charge is proved. He is bound hand and foot.
The commandment has come. Sin revives. Sin slays him. He
dies. Is not this superhuman ? What other religion thus reads
the volume of our nature, and the no less difficult volume of our
heart ? This is Power.
It is a Power of Relief. With royal liberality Christianity
makes full provision for all the wants of all. It is a rich and
infinite grant of pardon and sanctification. There is no escape
nor exemption which the sinner needs, but it secures. There is
no remorse nor shame which he suffers, but it soothes. It is a
feast of fat things for the hungry. It is a fountain of life to the
thirsty. It is a wardrobe of sumptuous garments for the naked.
But there is in our nature more of want than sin can adequately
express, though it is that which sin has caused and embittered.
It lies in certain achings and cravings of the heart. Man is ima
ginative, and he is surrounded by mystery. He is loving, and
he is surrounded by attraction. He looks beyond himself for
hold and rest. But he is mocked wheresoever he directs his cry.
"Man knoweth not the price thereof; neither is it found in the
land of the living. The depth saith, It is not in me: and the sea
f

66 VALID CHRISTIANITY.
saith, It is not with me. It cannot be valued with the gold of
Ophir, with the precious onyx or the sapphire." What a weari
ness lies upon the human spirit ! How is it pierced with disap
pointment and baffled by failure! What would it be! And this
often seems only its self- uplifting to an original law. The wing
is matted, is broken, but it was made to soar, and as it flutters
we mark the native instinct and the deprived strength. But the
religion of Jesus Christ takes up the wretched creature at his last
gasp of conflict and despair. It seeks him when shunned of all.
It honours him when disdained of all. It pities him when despi
sed of all. It cherishes him when denounced of all. It draws
out a thousand hidden, but hitherto unmeasured, emotions. It
gains his attention. It begets his confidence. He has caught a
sound of sympathy. He looks up. Hope quickens in his eye.
His whole heart is fixed. He finds rest unto his soul. The
gospel awakens and employs and explains all his innermost feel
ings. He would not now part with one, for each is turned to an
account of happiness. Satisfactions enter by the avenue of former
discontents and depressions. There is nothing too vigorous for
the strength of that gospel to confirm. There is nothing too am
bitious for its sublimity to indulge. There is nothing too inde
finite for its wisdom to ascertain. There is nothing too tender for
its compassion to encourage. There is nothing too awful for its
sanctity to deepen. There is nothing too capacious for its great
ness to enlarge. It goes down into that depth, searchless to all
but itself, — the human soul, — and satisfies its wants and fulfils
its yearnings. It treats man with deference, with honour, as an
immortal. It takes away the ignorance of the present and the
vagueness of the future. It bids the immortal rise and claim his
crown. It shows such knowledge of man in his most secret
springs and most unconscious encitements, that man cheerfully
commits himself and all his ways to its control : finds that though
until now he was trifled with, and was made sport of, he at last
is understood, respected, and retrieved ! That which can do
this must be Power !
It is a Power of Exemplification. That which cometh from
above, a kingdom which lias descended from heaven and bears

VALID CHRISTIANITY. 67
with it celestial adjuncts, cannot be wanting in ample and stri
king proof. Sign and wonder will attest it. But there is the
accompaniment of a still more decisive corroboration. The argu
ment is experimental. A change has ever been going on in
countless minds which science, legislation, moral suasion, never
could achieve. We have seen the peace which has followed the
furies of remorse. We have seen contrition take the place of
obduracy and pollution. We have seen the broken heart made
whole, the bleeding spirit healed. We have seen hope as it
smiled, and listened as it sung, and rejoiced as it soared, un
checked by the pains and infirmities of our dull mortality. We
have seen principle, matchless principle, — principle stemming
the rudest shock, victorious over the fiercest hostility, — stronger
than death. Yet such was the pledge and condition of Christi
anity. Such was the " doctrine" of its Founder : " his word was
with power." It rested its truth upon these effects. They are
accomplished. It is therefore confirmed. They are unrivalled.
It is therefore glorified. Its words are established as those of
truth and soberness. No expectation is deceived. No promise is
belied. It is in power, and the power has never failed it.
It is a Power of Absorption. We know what man wants.
He wants a religion. Wearying himself in the greatness of his
way, he needs a guide, a hope, a satisfaction. He asks both for
antidote and good. In vain he looks for this to the hills, or in
himself. He can be interested in nothing short of this. This is
the whole of man, the whole of his dearth, and the whole of his
well-being. Christianity supplies this information. It meets
man the creature, the sinner, the candidate of immortality. It
takes hold of his soul, occupies and engrosses it. It is not the
reserve, the exception : it is primary and paramount. It comes
with a vast impression. Such were the first Christians when
" the people magnified them." What gave their virtues this
loveliness and lustre ? Their " singleness of heart." All moved
in them; and therefore all moved beyond them. "The love of
Christ constrained them." The Christian principle, like a seed
germinant, pervaded and modified the surrounding soil : like the
leaven, it assimilated the mass into which it was thrown : like the

68 VALID CHRISTIANITY.
force of life, it went throbbing through the frame in which it
was seated. This is the secret of strength. Intentness and con
centration alone can carry any true and noble cause to its tri
umph. What crowned primaeval Christianity, under God, with
its most intelligible success? These were the standard senti
ments, and these are the sufficient explanations: "This one thing
I do. For to me to live is Christ. I am ready to die for the
Lord Jesus. Whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God: or
whether we be sober, it is for your cause. We are changed into
the same image. Looking for and hasting unto the coming of
the day of God." — Was not this to lose themselves in their high
calling and glorious enterprise ? Were they not of undivided
heart and unwavering purpose? Did they not exist as in this
abstraction ? Did not this noble enthusiasm of zeal eat them up?
Their one-mindedness gave them a dint which nothing could
oppose. Whatever they did they did heartily to the Lord, they
did it with their might, and hence their power.
It is a Power of Courage. Christianity is the parent and
nurse of the true heroic. It is great and it excites greatness.
It knows not of the dauntless in vulgar strifes and pigmy com
petitions. But it can raise the soul to a nobler pitch, the firm
ness of endurance. Its language is to reiteration, Be strong.
It affects the valueness of no good. It makes still more ten
derly precious whatever belongs to life. It hallows life beyond
all gift save immortality, yea as a portion and the vestibule of
it. Yet it trains us to hardness ; to the sacrifice of life when
higher interests are at stake. And this is achieved by no rude
boisterous contempt of it, but by showing that something is left
to it, and is committed to it, more sacred than itself. — A fair
fame is the choicest inheritance of the elevated soul. It is sen
sitive to it. Religion lends it a very chasteness. And yet must
we, in carrying on the kingdom of God, suffer reproach. The
shame, it is true, answers to nothing within. But it is anguish
to be despised, to be disparaged, to be suspected, whatever is the
answer of our conscience. Still we rejoice that we are counted
worthy to suffer shame for the name of Christ. We take pleasure
in infirmities, reproaches, necessities, in persecutions, in distresses

VALID CHRISTIANITY. 69
for Christ's sake; for when we are weak, then are we strong.
Pusillanimity may be too natural to us, but it belongs not to
our cause. True to it, we faint not. All is firmness, valour, —
it is power.
It is the Power of Support. Afflictions are not held back
from the Christian : some circumstances render those which are
common only more poignant. But none can befall him which
bring not with them a solace. Strong consolation only feebly
expresses his support. He glories in tribulation. He is more
than a conqueror. He always triumphs in Christ Jesus. Death
trembles before him, gives way to his approach, shrinks beneath
his touch, and expires at his feet. We are partakers of the
afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God.
It is the Power of Influence. The gospel clothes its believers
with an incalculable ascendancy. It is impossible to limit their
power of doing good. One act runs out into an endless progres
sion. Like the ocean-wave it ever renews itself, and rolls onward
to the farthest shore. We live for all earthly space, for all fu
ture time, for the two worlds of spirits. What is " the power of
the tongue ?" " A word spoken in due season, how good is it !"
Who can measure the usefulness of a thought ? All the forests
might have sprung from a solitary seed. A man may have thus
given him power over the nations. Who can measure the efficacy
of a prayer? If but a tear, it is imperishably preserved and
individuated among the sumless drops of that bottle into which
it glides : if but a sigh, it finds its way to the golden censer, and
is instantly offered up with its much incense, and ascends with the
smoke of its sweet odour, before God. While we need every day
a deeper humiliation of spirit, we equally need the nobleness of
self-respect. It is not humility, the true poorness in spirit, which
stands idle in the market-place, which buries its talent in the
earth ; the devout disposition feels high honour in its responsi
bility, obeys with promptitude every summons, and magnifies
each office entrusted to it. O were we in the spirit of cheerful
submission to duty, of unquestioning faith on promise ! Did
we stand up to our opportunities ! Had we plied fully our
means ! How would the visions and allegories of prophecy take

70 VALID CHRISTIANITY.
a palpable form, and the new heavens and the new earth canopy
and gird us round, the glorious sunlight of which is their right
eousness. It is the Power of Diffusion. Christianity, though not indif
ferent to its administration, is independent of it. It is light and
beauty and inherent excellence. When there are none to exhibit
it, it is not therefore concealed ; but like a precious stone is
revealed by its own brilliancy. When there are none to prove
it, it is not therefore undefended ; but like a great law of nature
unfolds itself. For any men, or class of men, to describe their
ministry as necessary to give efficiency to the doctrines of the
gospel, is to place themselves between God and man. They
usurp a Mediator's part. They dispense or they withhold. They
bind or loose. They lock or open. In vain the herald-cry of
mercy : " Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely,"
— they stand by the margin of the fountain to permit or inter
dict, nor suffer a drop, but as it is first drawn into their vessels,
to pass the most parched lip. In vain the blessed announce
ment : " Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin
of the world," — they surround the cross, allowing or not allow
ing the sinner's eye to rest upon it, and then only through their
own prism. In vain the most encouraging overture, the most
winning plea : " Him that cometh unto me I will in nowise cast
out," — they make way, or offer obstruction, to the comer, and
assume the right to cast out in any wise they dictate. In vain
the blood of Christ bids the sinner near, — they keep custody of
it. In vain the Holy Ghost saith : " To-day if ye will hear my
voice," — they impiously undertake whether He shall be heard or
not. Such was not the religion of Christ. It was wrapt in no
mystery, preached with no reserve, — it was suspended on no cir
cumstances, restricted to no purveyors. It was free as the winds
of heaven. Like the rain it fell on all. As the sunbeam it flew
direct whatever would intercept it. It claimed enlargement. It
spurned repression. It panted for the onset. It shouted for the
victory. It was in an insatiable power.
There is this deep, vehement, life in the gospel. It wills to
speak, to be felt, to be obeyed. It would be glorified. It is "

VALID CHRISTIANITY. 71
not coldly contemplative and dispassionately placid. We see^
indeed, that it is too often thus misconceived. Its life is crushed
out of it. Even then it still exhibits its genius. It shows what
it ought to be. A likeness of power is retained. Moveless, dead,
— it yet stands forth in a seeming of action. Fixed, rigid, —
there is yet a monumental resemblance. All trace of its vitality
and warmth and activity cannot be obliterated. Its nature strug
gles through. Thus in the noble sculptures of the ancient art,
the figure is caught in the moment of its fullest expression, the
attitude is seized in its most sublime energy ; and though the ma
terial of the form is insensate, — an idea, a feeling, is developed, —
a bearing goes beyond, — the wrestler, the king, the god, might
have been turned into this' stone amid the very drawing of their
breath and very sway of their gesture.
In Christianity there is nothing sluggish and inert, nothing
cold and narrow, but all is glowing, intense, stirring, and expan
sive. It is a lively hope. It is the light of life. It is life unto
life. Its are lively oracles. Its are the words of eternal life.
In it is the life of our spirit. We are born again through it,
We are clean by it. We are sanctified by it. It is the glorious
gospel. There is nothing enervate, compromising, supine in it :
it is strong by a divine hand, and is quickened by a divine sensi
bility. It is made for large effects. What rock can resist this
hammer? Is it not a fire? It is perfect, converting the soul.
Whatever of decay may moulder around it, whatever of death
may sleep at its side, it liveth and abideth for ever. The king
dom of God is in Power !
Nor is any of its power dissipated and lost. It has sunk
into no desuetude, it lies in no abeyance. It decayeth not nor
waxeth old. It cannot be shaken but remains. It is the pre
sent truth. It is in Jesus. Ages have left it in no exhaustion,
stripped it of no authority, shorn it of no strength. It renews
a perpetual youth. It is living water still. Every thing lives
whither this river cometh. It has done nothing which it cannot
do again. From no encounter does its bow turn back, or its
sword return empty. From no battle-field does it come off with
out a yet fairer garland and a greener wreath. It has long since

72 VALID CHRISTIANITY.
mated all, vanquished all, and the " world cannot withstand its
ancient conqueror."
This is the true Christianity, coming into contact with the
soul of men, not as a soul-less speculation, but full of point and
warning and pity, awakening the soul into an attention and
interest most becoming its rank and destiny, if the message
which now reaches it be true. Witnessed and enlightened by the
Holy Ghost, the Gospel appears what it never seemed before.
There might have been a cold conception of it. The living
reality was not understood. It was nature's wintry scene, the
frost-bound landscape, each leaf rigid, each drop congealed.
The vernal breath has penetrated that death-like shroud, and
now the branches wave in their verdure, the flowers expand in
their fragrance, the streams murmur in their music : all is the
freedom of motion, the fulness of instinct, the holiday of joy.
How evidently wrong and inconsistent does this view of
Christianity prove them to be whose notion and practice of it
carry them no further than its external observances and forms !
A ritualism contents them. In it they find their satisfaction and
expiation. They revolve in a circle of minute and superficial
ceremonies. It is the bodily exercise which profiteth little.
They serve not God with their spirit in the gospel of his Son.
"The people draw near to Him with their mouths, and with their
lips do honour him, but have removed their heart far from him."
" They have a form of godliness, but deny the power thereof."
Let these learn that the experience of the gospel is transcendently
more than name and symbol: let them marvel no longer that they
must be born again ! Truth must be in the inward parts !
They who are conscious of religious declension are loudly
rebuked if this be the true Christianity! They did run well.
What carefulness it wrought in them ! A spirit of slumber has
fallen upon them. The things which remain are ready to die.
They have left their first love. Where is the blessedness ye
spake of? Return, ye backsliding children. Be filled with the
Spirit. Seek the fervency of your earliest vows. Renew the
beginning of your confidence. It was life from the dead. Your
soul cannot be restored until your first cherished emotions shall

VALID CHRISTIANITY. ^3
be renewed: until the kingdom of God shall sway you with its
authority, and bind you with its force. You must be once more
the subject of aroused interest, of stimulated action ; loving the
Lord your God with all your mind and heart and strength ;
awakened to the designs of the gospel towards you and others ;
" apprehending that for which you are also apprehended of
Christ Jesus."
The unconverted should be afraid. To stand in any approxi
mation to this kingdom and to fail of its blessings, supposes the
most heinous guilt and most tremendous exclusion. It is a
perilous thing to trifle with it. It is charged with a power, it is
endued with a readiness, to revenge all disobedience. It is not
indifferent. It endures not neutrality. It brooks not coldness.
The King has sent forth a glorious bidding ,to the royal feast :
" As many as ye find, bid to the marriage." But He must be
wroth with them who make light of the overture or scorn of the
banquet. Bow the knee. Kiss the sceptre. Accept the clemency.
Receive the robe. Fill the chamber. Crowd the board. Eat
and drink at His table in His kingdom. O may ye feel the
power in which this kingdom marches on ; it a power to subdue
all things, — a power to raise the dead !
What a contrast is this Kingdom with its mysterious might
to Infidelity! That is cold, jejune, lifeless. It is a thing of
negations. It has a torpedo touch. It is a death. It sweeps
along like a blast of ice. It inspires nothing of lofty sentiment,
it urges to nothing of generous movement. It petrifies all into
rigour, selfishness, and hate. The gospel breathes only life,
impels only benevolence, speaks only goodwill to men. It is
the power of a universal blessing.
And we may thank God with every grateful acknowledgment,
and congratulate ourselves with every cheerful auspice, that all
Christians are beginning to see Christianity in this power of its
truth and life. One greater than Elias is among us restoring all
things. He sitteth as a refiner. The external form no longer
satisfies, but men dive in its inmost spirit. Missions instru-
mentally have given health to its heart and caused it to beat
with its earliest pulsations. They have laid open the essence

74 VALID CHRISTIANITY.
and the hidden life. They have given back to the world the
glow of the ancient faith. They have urged mighty movements
in return. The power which is disimprisoned demands our own
advance. It was, it is, the momentum, of far-spread operations.
It still asks, it still necessitates, ample room and verge. The
tree must not be bent down upon its root. The river must not
be repelled upon its source. This power is fed by diffusion.
Our life is in this zeal. Be ours the inwrought fervent prayer.
Be ours the unutterable groan. Activity is our strength. And
in the experience of the virtue of our principles, in the over
flow of our joys, in the liberality of our sacrifices for the ex
tension of the gospel, — our highest department of labour, our
noblest reward of service, — may we receive a " second" benefit,"
a renewed baptism of this holy, benign, and tender Power, —
power which breathes in every doctrine, moves in every duty,
expands in every principle, of the Christian system, — power
which distinguishes it from every human scheme, " teaching as
one having authority," — power averse from all indifference and
abhorrent from all insensibility, — power, dread, tender, — power
all-pervading and all-assimilating, — power piercing as the light
ning and distilling as the dew, — like the living Soul to the Body
which it vivifies and directs, — like the Shechinah to the Temple,
suffusing the vail with its light and thrilling the altar with its
vibration !

SERMON IV,

THE RIGHT OF THE POOR.

Matt. xi. 5.
"And the Poor have the Gospel preached to them."
It is the master-piece of political science to bend every scheme
of the enemy into the means of establishing the safety, confirm
ing the institutions, and augmenting the resources, of the nation
which he attacks : to direct the storm which he has awakened in
such a manner that, while its fury shall fall upon him, it shall
serve to root and consolidate the strength which he would over
throw. So to frustrate hostile intentions as to extract from them
the instruments of defence and the occasions of glory, entitles the
statesman to the highest praise.
It is the distinguishing art of military tactics to profit instan
taneously by the mistakes of the opposite force, to throw it into
confusion, to bring it under its own artillery, to break its line
by its own ranks. The greatest victories ever won sprung from
such stratagem, from sudden suggestions formed on sudden dis
asters; — a weakness in the centre or in the extremes, an error in
the position, has been seized in a moment, the meditated plan of
the conflict has been cast aside, more able dispositions have been
superseded, for the foe was self-destroyed.
It is a triumph of logic and not an ignoble one, — since its
merit is rather to convict error than to determine truth, — when
we can press an opponent on the ground of his own concessions,
and can snatch the argument from his ill-disciplined grasp. Our
cause thus requires no vindication : it is signalised by the failure
of every attempt against it.

76 THE RIGHT OF THE POOR.
The sneer has long been turned against Christianity that it is
the religion of the poor. This is supposed to be its brand of
shame. But it is no recent detection of this characteristic, if it be
adduced to discredit it in our age. In a remote antiquity it was
for this very peculiarity derided and denounced. And however
early the charge, the self-avowal was earlier still. The text is the
confession of our religion. It bespeaks the fact. It anticipates
any challenge on this account. It betrays no distrust, on this
showing, of its excellence : it sees, in this anticipation, no com
promise of its operation. It hides it not, it subdues it not, it
excuses it not. It boasts of it. It glories in it. It wears the
inscription as a frontlet on its most open, fearless, brow : it loves
that this distinction should beam from it as the most effulgent
mark of its divinity.
It would seem that, from the relentless treatment and severe
imprisonment of John the Baptist, some of his disciples began
not only to suspect his claims, but those of Jesus to whom he
had borne testimony. To satisfy their doubts and resolve their
embarrassments, he sent them at once to Him. Surely he needed,
he sought, no assurance to confirm his own belief. He who had
beheld the palpable descent of the Holy Ghost by the banks of
Jordan, who had heard the voice which came from heaven, who
had witnessed that awful inauguration of the " Beloved Son,"
could not have been visited by the most passing doubt. This is
the answer, formally addressed to His precursor, but substan
tively intended for those who had conveyed the question. It is
an appeal to what they have seen. It was the argument of his
transcendent credentials. " Saw ye the seared eye-ball rolling
in its socket ? endeavouring to express a meaning and catch a
sunbeam, but in vain ? Mark now that once disfeatured counte
nance, the illumination of fair beauty and mental power playing
there, — the mind's purest thought, the heart's warmest feeling,
gleaming, dissolving, in that new- kindled orb! Saw ye the
cripple, heaving himself from his dreary pallet, crawling forth
to breathe the refreshing air, and to beg by the way-side ? help
less, wan, with down-cast countenance, and, when spurned by the
passenger, shrinking into himself? Mark now that ruddy cheek,

THE RIGHT OF THE POOR. 77
that uplifted form, that bounding step ! Saw ye the wretched
leper that writhed in loathsomeness and anguish, flinging him
self across my path to arrest my course and force my pity ? each
lineament distorted, each member wrung, his breath infection,
his look horror, his voice despair, — what man bent on the lazar
one notice of pity or spake to him one cheering word ? Mark that
renovated figure, the frightful crust has fallen from him, the
living death has fled, the human visage reappears, and his flesh
has come again like that of a little child ! Saw ye him who was
shut out from every sound of pathos, encouragement, and hope ?
who never heard a mother's blessing or a sister's lay ? for whom
bird never chirped, nor brook murmured, nor woodland sighed,
nor soft asolian pulsings of the summer eve awoke ? That ear is
now unstopped. First it heard my voice. Through all its
chambers those accents gently swelled. Now it drinks in each
household word, each friendly tone, each natural harmony, each
temple strain ! Saw ye the newly-rescued from the grave ? him
on whom a strange solemnity still rests, while the present is as
future and the future is as present, mingled with serious con
trasts, in his memory ? him whom I tore as the prey from the
mighty ? him from about whom the cerements suddenly unwound
themselves, when corruption had begun its havoc and the worm
called for him ? him whom* I gave back from the grave to all the
charms of earth, the pleasures of friendship, the instincts of life ?
Ye see him following me, as in a train of captives delivered from
the dread power which only I can loose. But this in itself were
small. These are physical ills. My miracles have triumphed
over them. But there is a proof more legible, more convincing,
more demonstrative, than all these achievements, even when com
bined. My message is to the most destitute. My business is
with the most miserable. I am anointed to preach the gospel
to the poor. Already is the work commenced. The common
people hear me gladly. The poor have the gospel preached
to them." This is a familiar and oft-repeated announcement. We may
wonder at the stress laid upon it. Though we may not think
scorn of it, may not see in it any stigma, it will possibly fail to

78 THE RIGHT OF THE POOR.
impress us as an excellence. We perhaps have felt astonished
that it is made so prominent. We do not, it may be supposed,
perceive the conclusiveness of such a suffrage for Christianity. Is
the splendour of all signs and wonders, of powers which control
the invisible, spiritual, world, — to fade before, not a particular
dispensation of truth, but before the aspect of that dispensation
towards a particular class of mankind ? To understand this
aright, — we must transport ourselves to the age in which this
averment was spoken and to the circumstances of human society
in which it was first heard. Then it sounded forth a stupendous
novelty. There was no precedent for it. It fell in with no pre
possession. It was a solitary principle and fact. He who " spake
as never man spake," stood alone in asserting it.
I. Let us state the sentiment of the text.
We understand it to intend literally the poor : the poor in
condition and not the poor in spirit. These constitute the chief
mass of society, the great bulk of mankind. Wherever civiliza
tion and high refinement exist, there is seen this unequal distri
bution of rich and indigent. It is easily explained that the poor
cannot cease out of the land, and that they must form the excess
of any such population. For power, should it be even universal
in its source, must be deposited in a very small executive. That
governing portion of the community will be selected for its wealth,
or find in their exalted position the means of its augmentation.
There seems a very law by which secular possessions impropriate
and combine in fewer and yet fewer hands. Though pauperism
be no necessary consequence of civil arrangement, unless as the
accident of orphanage and decrepitude, still we cannot conceive
of that state of things in which some shall not be discovered
most needy and depressed. Improvidence and vice are sufficient
causes of penury. But the requirements of property create the
industrious poor. As the " king is served by the field," these
will always outnumber the affluent who employ them. Sumptu
ary codes only disguise what they suppose, the disparity of means.
The equality of earthly substance is an empty dream. An agra
rian division would not secure it. Were each inheritance inalien
able, other methods of coercion and compromise, transfer and

the right of the poor. 79
exchange, would be found. The level would be speedily broken
up. When the human mind has ceased to present distinctive
modifications, and has yielded to an utter monotony, then, acqui
sition having the same aim and contentment the same measure,
the dwellers upon earth may rear their houses after one pattern,
and walk in one course of life. It would require a miracle to
secure the effect, — a Manna from heaven, that none might have
any thing " over," and that none might have any "lack."
Poverty, then, indicates that large proportion of our species
which is engaged in humble avocations and which commonly
presses hard upon the limits of subsistence. Its state involves
no crime, no disgrace. It is a natural subsidence, an hereditary
lot. Though its temptations are great and its restrictions pain
ful, it generally embraces the greatest number of the pious and
the good, and is illustrated by the noblest order of excellence
and virtue. The text implies not only the intention that the
gospel shall be preached to the poor, but that they have always,
when so preached, been its truest subjects and brightest ex
amples. We understand the gospel to be that blessed scheme of
mercy which, — proceeding on the assumed basis that man has
totally apostatised from God and holiness, and that he is conse
quently exposed to the penalties of a broken law, and disqualified
for any good, — reveals Messiah's obedience unto the death of the
cross, his infinitely meritorious and efficacious sacrifice, as the
ground of the sinner's pardon and acceptance, — a sacrifice thus
accounted because of his essential Divinity and his Covenant
appointment : that blessed scheme which alike secures the agency
of the Lord the Spirit, to convince, to regenerate, to sanctify, to
sustain. " And whatsoever things it saith, they may be included
under these things."
— The Gospel is not preached to the poor in order to mix
itself with the question of civil distinctions. There are those who
seem to think it has none other design. They only commend it
as a principle and rule of subordination. It is no beauty and
comeliness in their eye that it really elevates the children of
want. They esteem it so far merely as it may be made to break

80 the right of the poor.
their spirit and perpetuate their serfdom. They fear the habit
of enquiry and the power of thought. They speak of their
depressed fellow-creatures as born for labour, doomed to sub
serviency, the fated instruments of their convenience and ease.
They compare them to the feet of clay on which the social
colossus stands. Now assuredly the gospel has no sympathy
with these cruel views. It binds no chain upon humble life. It
brands the poor to no endless degradation. This is a condition
which it finds. Such condition grows out of causes with which
it has nothing to do. It comes to heal, to allay, to soothe.
Wherever it appears, it gives understanding to the simple and
refines the manners of the rude. It excites to thought, and
favours investigation into the reason of things. It does, indeed,
give the highest sanction to government as necessary to all
society. It declares it to be of God, that is, — it is most agreeable
to his will. But it is as much a message to the ruler as to the
subject. It prescribes their correlative positions and duties,
regulates between power and weakness, magistrature and sub
mission. It inspires law with justice, and attempers authority
with moderation. It is pre-eminently the guardian of those who
are commonly trampled under foot and trodden to the dust : the
helper of the helpless, the defence of the defenceless. " For the
oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I
arise, saith the Lord : I will set him in safety from him that
puffeth at him."
— It is not that the gospel regards social distinctions as
chiefly important. They have a use which is not to be lightly
valued. They bind the community by mutual interests and reci
procal obligations. But when it meditates man, it is in a more
solemn aspect. It surveys his race in a wide generalization.
" Hear, this, all ye people : give ear, all ye inhabitants of the
world, both low and high : rich and poor together." The vari
eties of civil condition disappear before its sublime impartiality.
" Surely men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree
are a lie." It merges all into the accountable and immortal
being. That being is a sinner. Each needs the same salvation.
The same light of mercy and hope must visit the cottage and the

THE RIGHT OF THE POOR. 81
court, and it is to the same Cross that the peasant and the prince
must bow.
— It is not that the gospel takes the same view of these respec
tive classifications which we are accustomed to entertain. It does
not speak of opulence in the flattering manner, or of necessity
in that deprecatory style, which are general among ourselves. It
describes the favour of the one as small, and the disadvantages
of the other as inconsiderable. With riches it couples " deceit-
fulness," " uncertainty," " cares," and " many hurtful lusts."
With poverty it identifies meekness and humility and content
ment and quiet : the equality established by the Maker of all : the
preference of Him who had not where to lay his head. " How
hardly," is its warning, " shall a rich man enter into the king
dom of God" ! " Blessed," — this is its solace, " be ye poor, for
.yours is the kingdom of God" !
— It is not that the gospel is merely adapted to the humble
spheres and employments of life. The honour is not small, and
the power cannot be feeble, that cheers and irradiates the abodes
which famine often threatens and which pride disdains. The
hovel has received its glad tidings, and has proved that " godli
ness with contentment is great gain." Its tendency is assuredly
to raise the social state of the poor. But it does far more. It
conquers sullenness, it dissuades despair. Still it is the religion
for universal man. There is nothing in it which limits its opera
tion to a single order of society. It stems the pride of wealth,
curbs the lust of ambition, exposes the snare of greatness,
sobers the delirium of power: it teaches the noble to walk in
safety on his dizzy height, instructs the senator, counsels the
statesman, and sits with kings upon their thrones. Nothing is
beyond its reach. Its amiableness turns it mainly to those whom
men despise : its sway lies equally upon the towers of the mighty
and the palaces of the proud.
— It is not that the gospel is unworthy the attention of the
most educated minds. The measure of knowledge which the poor
can obtain, the habit of thinking which they can acquire, must be
subject to painful restrictions. Science and literature can be little
cultivated by "man going forth unto his work, and to his labour

82 THE RIGHT OF THE POOR.
until the evening." But is the contracted and uninformed mind
favourable to the reception of Christianity ? Is there wisdom in
the philosopher and literate which may look down upon it? The
most soaring intellect, the most noble genius, may here expatiate
with delight. Taste may find in it its purest sensibility, know
ledge its largest field, imagination its richest banquet. It knows
no war with learning. It offers no insult to improvement. It
lives in light, it trusts in truth, it consists in conviction. Doc
trines which infinite wisdom reflects upon the soul of man, — the
wisdom of God, — need not fear to stand at the tribunal of the
strictest scrutiny, nor to abide the ordeal of the amplest eru
dition. And yet we are prepared to expect from "the seat of the
scornful" the inuendo that the gospel is preached to the poor ! be
cause it is only compatible with their understanding and levelled
to their prepossession. We repudiate the charge. That which
is the fairest illumination from the Father of lights, that into
which the angels desire to look, that which is the glorious gospel
of the blessed God, can receive no honour from men. And it
may still be remembered, though we do not make boast of it, that
the wisest and greatest of our race have paid their homage to it.
They were not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. They did not
detect the cheat. They did not loathe the meanness. They
spoke of no prostration but that of reverence before it. They
felt its grandeur and their soul rose with it. To them it pro
posed no sacrifice save the labour to explore it. Instead of re
quiring them to stoop, they gazed upward on its awful elevation.
Knowledge and letters owe to it every obligation. It alone has
maintained the activity of the human mind, and preserved its
most precious fruits. All the lights which cheer our earth it
alone has screened from extinction. What imagination may not
here find its flight ? What talent its scope ? What research its
repayment ? " Is it because there is not a God in Israel that
thou sendest to the God of Ekron ?" But if men, " spoiled
through philosophy and vain deceit," will refuse to share the
gospel with the poor, if they insist on a revelation exclusive and
flattering, if their pride be revolted at any thing in common
with the vulgar whom they despise, — then can we only, like our

THE RIGHT OF THE POOR. 83
Lord and Saviour, rejoice in spirit and say, " We thank thee,
O Father, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and
prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes*: even so, for so it
seemed good in thy sight."
The fact is then undenied. " What shall one answer the mes
senger of the nation ? That the Lord hath founded Zion, and
the poor of his people shall trust in it." " Ye see your calling,
that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not
many noble, are called." "Hath not God chosen the poor of this
world rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he hath
promised to them that love him ?" Since it is not true that the
preaching of the gospel is confined to the poor, the meaning of
the text must be, that it does not, like other systems, exclude
them, and that it possesses a peculiar adaptation, and evinces as
peculiar a condescension, for their state. It is preached to all,
but these find peculiar favour in its comprehension, and peculiar
redress in its pity.
The announcement is, then, not only declarative but predic
tive. It is something which shall continue to be, — not only that
which was true of the Saviour's personal ministry, but that which
shall be the distinctive glory of the gospel until the end come.
It is prophetic, also, not only of this continued proclamation^
but of its perpetual influence over the minds of this large sec
tion of the human family. " The humble shall hear thereof and
be glad." And so has it come to pass. The majority of the Christian
fellowship has often consisted of a "poor and an afflicted people."
It has been " the congregation of the poor." Instead of exciting
regret, this fact has been most propitious. The church,, which
does not obtain from this source its main accessions, fails of its
most attractive influence and edifying strength. These are the
most " lively stones" of the " spiritual house." These simple
communities are known by a charm of simplicity and a force of
usefulness which richer assemblies too rarely display. " Their
deep poverty aboundeth to the riches of their liberality." The
pastor, who is not favoured with this form of ministerial suc
cess, may fear that in some manner or other he has " offended

84 THE RIGHT OF THE POOR.
these little ones," that he has treated those whom the gospel pre
fers in honour with slight and disrespect. How the prophet
describes, as the constant attendants on his instructions, "the
poor of the flock that waited upon me !" It was Christianity
which first distinctly recognised our humbled fellow-creatures as
a class. They were before overlooked and disowned. When it
saw the multitude, it had compassion upon them. All its most
vital manifestations have denoted the same spirit. The apostles
were the friends of the poor, and by experience shared their woes.
They lifted up the mass of every nation which they visited, and
sought them out for whom no others cared. Whenever the gospel
has awaked from lethargy and emerged from corruption, — when
it has looked forth as it did in its morning covered with the dew
of its youth, and has breathed as it did in the freshness of its
prime, — it has renewed this distinction. It has won its ancient
trophies in its ancient field. It has gone from cabin to cabin,
raised the drooping head and sunken heart, spoke words of
kindness to them to whom the sound was new, and biddings
of hope to them to whom such a futurity was strange. That
great event which hurled from his baleful tyranny the Man of
sin in this and other realms, was, whatever may have been its
other phases and workings, the rescue of the poor from their
religious oppressions and the recovery of their religious rights.
The popular mind, the popular conscience, was then disen
thralled. The grand immunities of the many were vindicated.
The gospel was preached to the poor : it was the cause and the
effect of this great deliverance ! Those later Revivals of religion,
which our eyes have seen, have exhibited this original feature and
elicited this original power. The tillers of the soil, the prisoners
of the mine, the mariners of the coast, the craftsman, the hind, —
were the earliest confessors of the awakening visitation. They
were "compelled to come in :" " the poor and the maimed and the
halt and the blind :" " from the highways and hedges." They
caught the holy flame. They were the first depositaries of an
influence which presently rose to the highest summits of society
and penetrated all its frame ! Christian Missions have borne the
same stamp of this earliest property of the gospel. They have

THE RIGHT OF THE POOR. 85
dived into the abysses of the most degraded humanity. They
have generously preferred its rudest and most vicious forms.
They have "gone after" the sheep which have most widely and
deviously strayed. In Africa they have not sought the Numi-
dian in his warlike gear or the Angolan in his jewelled carcanet:
not the lovely village or gold-domed city : but the predatory
Caffre and the brutal Hottentot : the kraal and the burrow. In
Asia they have not emulated the castes of blood and rank : they
have not aspired to the thrones of imperial magnificence and
gorgeousness : but the Pariah and the Soudra : the hut of the
swamp and the cavern of the hill. Show us our nature's most
unhappy varieties, its most degraded specimens, its most dis
astrous circumstances ; and you but delight the ambition of the
gospel by furnishing proofs of its power, and theatres for its
benevolence !
II. The reasons for this fact now must be assigned.
It would be most unrighteous to fix on the poor the charge
of ignorance and rudeness as the invariable accompaniments of
their state. Ignorance as opposed to systematic education, rude
ness as opposed to conventional manner, may indeed be truly
affirmed of them : it is their hard necessity. These advantages
are denied to their means and their station. But knowledge may
exist without education and refinement without address. Mind
sometimes shoots up with a spontaneous luxuriance, and elegance
often wears none other than a native robe. Still it is not scorn, —
it is commiseration which grieves to be convinced that poverty is
commonly associated with ignorance and rudeness. This must be
expected. Least of all is it the fault of those who suffer it in these
its natural consequences. So, though wealth is not the necessary
voucher of education and refinement, it is their most easy pre^
sumption and most common test. Speaking, then, of things in
their general bearing, we must regard poverty in its circumstan
ces, not of moral inferiority, but of incidental depression. One
more exception may be made : wealth may be meek, poverty may
be haughty : wealth may be contented, poverty may be covetous ;
but this is not probable tendency nor ordinary association. Why
is the Gospel, then, especially preached to the poor ?

86 the right of the POOR.
1. To demonstrate the Divine Independence.
We are dazzled with external distinctions. Man looketh on
the outward appearances. Birth, hereditary honour, fortune,
strongly impress us. However envious we may be of them who
are foremost in the race of life, — of them on whom these guer
dons are accumulated,— our nature has always been obsequious
in their admission. It is not our purpose to decry them as they
may affect the order of a community, or as they may excite the
progress of man. But they must be little to the eye of Him
who looketh upon the heart. Careth he for the painted toy, the
passing pageant ? What is man ? The atom, lording it over his
kindred dust ! The clay, striving with his fellow potsherd !
The Lord on high disdains this pride of life. " The Lord of
hosts hath purposed to stain the pride of all glory, and to bring
into contempt all the honourable of the earth." " He bringeth
the princes to nothing ; he maketh the judges of the earth as
vanity." It is becoming His terrible majesty to treat the pre
tension of every creature, whose heart is lifted up in him, with
this displeasure : to pour contempt on human ambition and
aggrandisement : to know the proud afar off. Could he have
respect to their schemes, or sympathy with their vanities ?
Equally does it agree with the majesty of His benevolence to
rescue from oppression those who are set at nought by the claim
ants of power ; to "rise for judgment to save the meek of the
earth ;" to " deliver the needy when he crieth, the poor also, and
him that hath no helper ;" to " prepare of his goodness for the
poor." He not infrequently manifests his independence in his
contrast of measures towards the earthly " small and great."
" He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted
them of low degree : He hath filled the hungry with good things ;
and the rich he hath sent empty away." And thus, also, He com
monly selects for his instruments, in his operations among men,
those who are little known to fame, little marked for greatness.
He does not raise up the unqualified, but it is he who gives
them unexpected qualifications. They are the last whom we
should have pronounced the proper agents. But God is beheld
working by them, and sometimes even in spite of them. He

the right of the poor. 87
chooseth " the foolish things of the world to confound the wise ;
and the weak things of the world to confound the things which
are mighty ; and base things of the world, and things which are
despised, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought
things which are : that no flesh should glory in his presence.'1''
2. To explain the apparent Inequalities of Providence.
That in the Divine government of our earth and race there
are numerous occasions of difficulty and grounds of suspense,
have been felt by all who have marked its administration. Our
survey of it is sectional, not complete. We, in order to " con
sider wisely of its doings," must include the future as well as the
present, the spiritual as well as the sensible. We behold but
one buttress of the building : we contemplate but the revolution
of the wheel that sets thousands, which are invisible, in motion.
This may well make us pause. There is a mighty countercheck,
behind all that we can observe, to our actual judgments and im
pressions. And beneath the light of eternity, dim as is the beam
which is thrown across the present evil world, the relations of
social life become suddenly transposed. Riches corrupt, honours
fade, "joy is withered away from the sons of men." Why, we
have asked, are such large portions of the human household
denied its banquet to gather but its crumbs? Why are they
called to endure such nameless inflictions and rigours ? We see
an infinitely beneficent reparation. Theirs are durable riches !
Theirs are unperishing honours ! Theirs are unsating delights !
The wonder now is changed. A higher sovereignty interposes.
We are tempted to ask, Why the poor should be thus preferred
in all real and substantial good ? Why they should be thus
distinguished above " the children of this world ?" Why the
great and wealthy should have so mean a fragment dealt them ?
Why they should be abandoned to good things in their life-time
with the reversion of beggary for ever ? But while the govern
ment of God is vindicated, the old perplexity is but reversed.
No longer are we envious of the foolish when we see the pros
perity of the wicked. "These are the ungodly who prosper in the
world : they increase in riches." We "see their end." "Surely
Thou didst set them in slippery places: thou castedst them down

88 the right of the poor.
into destruction." Poverty is, then, the real favourite of heaven.
It is the disguise of royalty on the way to its throne. It is the
assay of the gold, only momentarily hiding the purity which it
elicits. It is the emersion of the sun from the eclipse. " For the
needy shall not always be forgotten : the expectation of the poor
shall not perish for ever."
3. To establish the Necessity of a Divine Revelation.
Many a system of superstitious and philosophised religion
existed at that period. One had succeeded to another. Long
time had been afforded for the probation of each and all. Every
circumstance had been favourable to their success. The failure
had been notable. The rich were unconvinced. The poor were
unblessed. To this, the inconceivably larger, constituency of every
commonwealth religion wore no benign smile, it brought no real
benefit. It was another burden added to their oppressions, a new
rivet in their chains. But there could be no more signal condem
nation of a religion, no more certain disproof of its celestial origin,
than its partiality and leaning towards select objects and depart
ments of social life in contempt of the many. These were cut off
from its sympathy. They were sheep having no shepherd. They
perished for ever without any regarding it. No man cared for
their soul. If religion was, then, the concern and weal of uni
versal man, these systems did not contain it. There now arose
another. It divulged its peculiarity as a message to the poor.
This, surely, if that were a true profession, was a most desirable
purpose. It was to do all that which preceding systems had
notoriously come short of doing. It was to begin at the point of
their defeat. It was to take up the precise matter of their aban
donment and despair. But in this peculiarity it placed the inte
rest and the stress of its revelation. It told of infinite benevolence
as its source and motive. It courted not the learned and the
puissant : it flattered not the crowd. But it did speak to all, and,
therefore, mainly to the poor. Who had suggested this philan
thropy ? From what bosom flowed this sublime disinterestedness ?
It was "the word which God sent, preaching peace by Jesus
Christ." It was adapted to the wants of man at large. It took
hold on the principles of his nature and the laws of his being.

the right of the poor. 89
The Desire of all nations had come, and was hailed among them,
while the solitary sage dreamed that a distant teacher might arise
to clear away the mists which still hung round the light of truth.
The song of the Christian assembly, with its strain of a lively
hope and its burden of a glorious immortality, came wafting
through the groves of Academe or the retreats of Tusculum, where
the wisest and the best of the heathen only guessed that there
might be another world. Their perplexity and their incompetency
were made manifest : their authority had ceased for ever !
4. To exhibit the true Importance of Man.
In this turn and bearing of the Christian religion, man is
divested of all that is accidental and adventitious. You see the
poor, — the mere and naked man. Nothing is left him which
raises him above his fellows. Of all he is most apparently abject.
There is nothing to magnify him. Yet in the stature of his soul
who is greater or who is less ? Here he is beheld in his very
essence, in his proper self. Clothe him with regal ensigns, and
he is not aggrandised : cover him with the weeds of squalid
poverty, and he is not reduced. And it seemed worthy of the
gospel to lay open the proportions of human greatness with an
entire disregard of circumstance, and in all the simplicities of
genuine manhood. Down deep in that spirit are not deposited,
but are generated, as in their native mine, riches true, durable,
irredeemable. Nothing henceforth is seen worthy of notice in
any individual, which is not worthy of it in every individual, of
the species. " Ye are of more value," said our Saviour, " than
many sparrows :" thus teaching us how reason, accountability,
and immortal destiny transcend the animal existence. But there
is not a man unpossessed of these distinctions. "Let the brother
of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted." And whenever we
are tempted to slight the unrecorded million, let us remember
that a nobler worth, that a more tremendous responsibility, can
not be attributed to them than is involved in this declaration,
" to the poor is the gospel preached." They are interwoven with
the witness-mark of Christianity. For this can be reasoned upon
no exclusive advantage and recommendation, but only for the
soul's sake, simply in regard of an immortal capability ! " This

90 the right of the poor.
is the whole of man." " The faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the
Lord of glory, has no respect of persons," — the " gold ring," the
" goodly apparel," the " gay clothing," — it honours and pecu
liarly addresses " the poor man in vile raiment," throwing it only
aside for the moment to reveal his spirit clad in the bright robes
of an unearthly glory !
5. To relieve the heaviest Severity of present Trouble.
The gospel is " the tender mercy of our God." It is like
Him that he should direct it where is found the most pressing
strait and woe. Life knows its common calamities. From these
no condition is exempt. But they admit of many aggravations.
None can be conceived more embittering than want. It is the
drop which makes the cup already full to overflow. It is the
ninth wave of the already foaming sea. And if this religion can
heal and medicate this direst ill, can soothe its suffering and cheer
its gloom, it prefers the strongest title to our admiration. We see
it following human wretchedness into its last and dreariest recesses,
softening its pallet and sweetening its pittance, hushing its heav
ing sob and drying its gushing tear, quieting the sense of wrong
and relieving the sullenness of desertion, taking up those whom
father and mother have forsaken, causing the widow's heart to
sing for joy, filling the narrow chamber where life breathes its
last with angels, bearing the Lazarus into Jesus' bosom. It consi
dered the poor. As it is the design of God to discover His cha
racter in the gospel, — to declare his righteousness, to show the
exceeding riches of his grace, — so in its application to the poor He
manifests his abhorrence of all misery, his desire of assuaging it,
his determination to overcome it, — beginning at its fellest form and
its most exasperating conflict ; with that order of men who have
never escaped even the letter of the earliest curse ! He turns it
even into good. He makes it the means of holy and paternal dis
cipline. He sanctifies it to the devotion, and blesses it to the resig
nation, of those who suffer it, until they can describe themselves
" as having nothing, and yet possessing all things."
6. To unfold the true Genius of the Christian Faith.
While the gospel is full of "testimonies which are wonderful"
tasking the highest powers of the highest creatures, — its belief

the right of the poor. 91
rests on other grounds, and is demanded by other considerations.
Were it some laborious deduction, the poor would be precluded
very generally from adopting it. It is a saying credible as the
witness of God. The child becomes wise unto salvation. The
way-faring cannot err therein. " The vision is written, and made
plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it." It is to be
believed as the record which God has given of his Son. While
it deserves and compensates the deepest research, simple guileless
belief of the truth is all that is required. Obedience is the best
auxiliary. " If any man will do His will, he shall know of the
doctrine, whether it be of God." An experimental conviction
follows, and the truth is confirmed by its inward effects. Every
thing is simplified to the humblest capacity, there is a mighty con
descension to men of low estate, faith is made to stand not in the
wisdom of men but in the power of God, and he who is " small
and despised," may consistently and intelligently be "ready to
give an answer to every man that asketh him the reason of the
the hope that is in him." Learning could little aid him here. It
might confirm to him the authenticity of the testimony, it might
explain for him the meaning of the text, — advantages not to be
cheaply held, — but it would only leave him the same warrant of
personal belief which he now possesses, that the gospel is the
truth of God ! The learned and the ignorant are placed precisely
on the same level.
7. To intimate the Spirituality of Christian Blessings and
Rewards. They to whom the gospel was thus committed as well as
preached still remained the poor. That burden was not taken
from them. The statement is not affected by the influence of this
religion upon the habits of order, moderation, and industry.
This was an arrest upon the degeneracy which commonly belongs
to poverty, but not more than any other system of practical virtue
would prove. Christianity offered no temporal lure. It wrought
no sudden enchantment. It changed nothing but the dispositions
of the mind. For professing it, tens of thousands who had " this
world's good," were stripped of their all. They were included
in the most ruinous confiscations. They were strangers scattered

92 the right of the poor.
abroad. They were torn from their homes : they were plundered
of their inheritances. But so they understood the gospel. "They
took joyfully the spoiling of their goods." They found in the
cause of their sacrifice an indemnity of peace which passed all
understanding, they imagined no recovery of their losses but felt
in inward joy a hundred-fold reparation ; the only treasure they
anticipated was in heaven, their only reversion in eternity. Whe
ther men were poor when it first addressed them, or became
poor as soon as they received it, spiritual only was the blessing it
brought, and spiritual alone was the equivalent it afforded.
8. To place distinctly before us the Value of Predispositions
in the Reception of Christianity.
Although no guilt and depravity disqualify the sinner for the
grace of the gospel, yet Scripture asserts and experience proves,
as it is a system of probation as well as of grace, that the ori
ginal form of character has much to do with its belief. The
Spirit of faith acts upon that form of character. We have thus
a right to speak of the hopeful in their state of mind, and of the
probable in their likelihood of conversion. There are those who
are not far from the kingdom of God. " Verily I say unto you,
that the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God
before you." To say that the frivolous and the thoughtful, the
ingenuous and the double-minded, the truthful and the insincere,
the humble and the proud, are equally encouraging and discou
raging characteristics in regard to the salvation of their subjects,
is to contravene all those moral distinctions which a system of
religion from heaven must most sensitively appreciate and most
firmly defend. The question is not of sovereign mercy, what it
has done, what it can do ! It is the rule of our judgments. Is
there a favourable condition of the human mind for the welcome
of the gospel? One more so than another? Religious education
has no utility if there be not. " Teaching men in all wisdom"
promotes no saving end, if every opinion and feeling, however
contrary to each other, equally subserve it. Why is the gospel
preached to the poor ? It is a recognition of this principle. The
rich man's idol may be the poor man's dream. The mighty may
be meek, the obscure may be imperious. There is a chamber of

THE RIGHT OF THE POOR. 93
imagery in every human spirit along which the shadows of the
remotest life and the most foreign scene may disport themselves.
But we speak of men according to their large divisions, and
according to the tempers which are common to those divisions.
Now we generally find that they " that have riches" are they
" that trust in riches." It is a natural tendency of man as he is,
to make a boast of all his advantages, — the wise man to glory in
his wisdom, the mighty man to glory in his might, the rich man
to glory in his riches. All this is very uncongenial to the gentle
ness and meekness of Christ. Among the poor we expect to
discover the bruised in spirit, the broken in heart, unsophisti
cated mind, inartificial manner, susceptibility of kindness, willing
ness to learn, gratitude for all the confidence which may be
reposed in them, each notice valued as a gift and each counsel
regarded as a trust. Does not all this meet the gospel in its ex-
quisiteness of mercy, urge the soul to close with it, and encircle
it with the weary and heavy laden as those who have first caught
its voice and obeyed its entreaty ?
9. To bind the Institutions of the Gospel with the Perpe
tuity of an inevitable human Condition.
" The poor ye have always with you." We hold it a vision
ary hope that they can ever cease. Times of refreshing shall
come over our world. The people shall be all righteous. All
shall know the Lord, from the least to the greatest. But will
not society then subsist? Must not the land be tilled? The
manufacture plied ? The ocean navigated ? Labour cannot stop.
Capital cannot be equalised. There cannot be a uniformity of
station or of influence. Cheerfully we let go the thought of pau
perism as incapable of a struggle against the beneficence of Chris
tianity. Cheerfully we displace from our anticipations many of
the present hardships of the most decent poverty. But still
we foresee the necessary continuance of that comparative state.
Now the poor have the gospel preached to them. That gospel
must then be coeval with poverty. " How shall they hear with
out a preacher?" That ordinance then, with all others connected
with it, is to be administered to the end of the world. There
shall be the churches of the saints. There shall be pastors and

94 THE RIGHT OF THE POOR.
teachers. There shall be the preaching of the everlasting gospel.
" And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity, and the
water of affliction, yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a
corner any more, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers." Jesus
thus pledges the duration of his gospel not on some shifting change
of the social fabric ; but He who said in the moment of his ascen
sion, " Lo I am with alway, even unto the end of the world," —
takes the peculiarity of his religion and identifies it with the social
fabric in its most certain elements and most invariable forms.
This does not shut the gates of the future upon many high im
provements of man. In this very matter we are taught to expect
great adj ustments and alleviations. Unhoarded wealth will be far
more widely diffused, and its comforts far more generally shared.
" And her merchandise and her hire shall be holiness to the Lord :
it shall not be treasured nor laid up ; for her merchandise shall
be for them that dwell before the Lord, to eat sufficiently, and
for durable clothing."
III. The demonstration of the truth of Christianity,
ARISING OUT OF THIS FACT, REMAINS TO BE ESTABLISHED.
Our Lord appeals for the truth of his mission and message
to this fact : He winds up a series of the most decisive and glori
ous miracles, by this fact which is not miraculous but which he
regards as paramount and climacteric to all. This appeal is more
convincing than any which can bring miracles before us. The
ground of it is more wonderful than all the miracles which have
been performed since the foundation of the world. Our interest
in it now is only as a matter of evidence. How does it establish
the truth of the gospel ?
1 . It was the Accomplishment of Prophecy.
" The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord hath
appointed me to preach good tidings to the meek." Thus fore
showed Isaiah : this is the narrative of Luke : "As his custom was
he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day and stood up for
to read. And there was delivered to him the book of the prophet
Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place
where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because
he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor." The

THE RIGHT OF THE POOR. 95
original Hebrew word,* rendered meek, — but by the Septuagint
translators, rendered poor, and so interpreted by our Lord, —
intends as its principal idea, the afflicted, just as the Greek cor-
relateT does, the trembling, — but poverty and affliction are fre
quently associated in Scripture, and the one is put for the other.
So meekness may express the state of poverty because it is so
generally uncomplaining. This idea of poverty is not only lite
rally just, but is in other instances connected with the predicted
advent of the Messiah. " He shall judge the poor of the people,
he shall save the children of the needy." " He shall spare the
poor and needy, and shall save the souls of the needy." " With
righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for
the meek of the earth." " In that day  the meek shall increase
their joy in the Lord, and the poor among men shall rejoice in
the Holy One of Israel."
The argument requires one concession which none can refuse :
that these were prophecies, or in other words, that they possessed
a long anterior existence.
The purpose of these early predictions was two-fold, — to
maintain the belief that the Christ should come, and to provide
rules for the proper examination of the claims which might be
advanced by any to be that Christ. And this particular pro
phecy, that He should preach the gospel to the poor, supplies
very singular proof that the Nazarene did not challenge for him
self an undeserved claim. There is a circumstantial distinctness
in it. It is not broad and general outline to which almost any
character or conduct might answer. It defines a specific under
taking. It allots a given work. It is, therefore, contrasted with
the Pagan oracles. These were intentionally ambiguous. Their
construction was artful, intricate, vague ; like senigmas, they
rested on an accent or a point. The mutterings of the Delphic
steep, the incoherent verses of the Latian crone, directed to any
thing or nothing. They admitted of the most diverse glosses.
But scripture prophecy demands the strictest canons of criticism
to be applied to it, the literal and the exegetical wherever it may
be obtained, the rule of scope and analogy when the private
* wag, + *U»xts-

96 THE RIGHT OF THE POOR.
interpretation cannot be understood ; and it commonly inserts
among necessary mystery some clause of plain reading and prac
tical application like this, placing the power in every hand to set
aside the whole unless this specialty be fulfilled. It thunders its
loudest curse against all who handle the word of God deceitfully :
against all who add to, and all who take away from, the words
of its awful integrity.
Moreover, this kind of prophecy not only puts itself to the
proof by its insertion of such a plain and practical clause, but
that clause confirms the divinity of its inspiration. For it could
not have originated in the presentiments of the people among
whom these hallowed scrolls were extant. That people expected
and sought a dispensation of external grandeur and pomp. Every
simplicity of the gospel offended them. This statement of its
purpose, and the consistency of its conduct with it, towards the
poor, provoked the darkest enmity of its foes. Who was the im
postor that would, in such a spirit of the age, in such a temper
of the nation, commit himself to this wild doctrine and generous
adventure? None other than the very obstacle to their belief,
and the actual gravamen of their accusation against it ? From
the oaks of Dodona the response might breathe which should be
true, — from the shades of philosophy Plato might discourse con
jectures and apostrophes which should be realised, — from their
hoar rocks Taliessin and his bards might harp a note which should
be echoed, from remote events. But these were anticipations
founded upon certain commencements and auguries, the issue of
which no fervid fancy was needed to foretell. Besides, they flat
tered the pride of patriotism, and always struck in with current
opinions and associations. But this Prophecy, — that the gospel
should be preached to the poor, — opposed universal hope, and
angered none more than the poor themselves.
Nor is another difference between such predictions, and the
heathen soothsayings, less striking than the preceding : they could
not, like the others, fulfil themselves. If it had been declared
that the warrior should win the victory, that one state should
seize the government of another, that the youth should rise to
general fame, here were incentives for heroic action and the

THE RIGHT OF THE POOR. 97
pledges of glorious success. The die was cast, but it was a loaded
cube. Such prophecies would never stand in want of competi
tors in fulfilling them. There was every lure and every motive.
Now this is a very different announcement. To preach the gospel
to the poor ! Was this the beckoning of ambition ? Must it
not carry him who pretended to be the object of the prophecy
through every scene of mortification ? The deceiver can only be
swayed by wicked aims. What was his inducement ? What was
his reward ? Such self-fulfilling prediction might have been left
unsought and unmatched for ever ! ,
Behold, then, the Son of Mary ! He sets himself forth as
the Aspirant to certain descriptions which professed to be fore-
shadowings of a certain prophetic personage. He alleges and
appropriates those prophecies only which are so particular, that
imposture could not escape from their most literal test, — so
undesired, that imposture could use them to no popular or fash
ionable end,— so unsecular, that imposture could find no motive
to draw them upon itself. But there He stands ! He knows
the responsibility of what he does ! He shall be despised and
rejected of men ! He shall be crucified ! He still persists ! He
points to himself whatsoever the prophets have foretold. He is
the Centre in which all ancient witness determines. He is the
Figure on which the beams of universal vision fall. " Truly this
was the Son of God !"
2. It distinguished it from all other Systems of Philosophy
and Religion.
Take your stand in the world of men before Christianity
appeared in it. Selfishness was its predominant passion, and the
many were the objects of contempt. Every epithet was heaped
upon them which a cruel levity could devise. The "vulgar"
were "infidel," "malignant," "phrenzied," "ignoble," "pro
fane." Nothing was taught, nothing was attempted, of general
use and adaptation. Philosophy partitioned itself in sects : reli
gion hid itself in mysteries. Only the privileged members of
society could obtain enrolment in the one or initiation into the
other. They spurned the crowd. Slavery was not some distant
state of things: it was the common institution. The number
H

98 THE RIGHT OF THE POOR.
of its victims often quintupled those who held them in oppres
sion. And even if education had been open to the multitude,
what would it have availed? Search the ancient schools, and
was there a doctrine for the poor? Some of the speculations
were beautiful, partaking of the lovely and the fair, on which
their authors loved to dwell. Ingenious theories of virtue were
proposed, wrapping themselves in some of the light and truth of
that immortal essence. But what restraint did they impose on
the headlong course of passion? How were the barbarous, —
who scarcely knew to rear the hut, to chase the prey, to urge
the skiff, — to appreciate refinements which required the whole
mind of the best taught, the whole life of the most aged, to
understand ? Man in general could not take any interest in them
as opinions or as motives. If the judgment had been capable of
dealing with these distinctions, what power could they exert over
the affections? What consolation poured they into the aching
and lacerated heart? Did they bring pardon to those who felt
the arrows of guilt ? To the conflict of inward depravity did
they ensure a victory? To wretchedness, to sinking grief, to
wasting dejection, did they offer cordial or balm ? To the long
ings of the human breast did they unfold the assurance of an
immortality? It was unsatisfactory, unbinding, inefficient, hope
less, all. This is Gentile scorn. Turn now to Judaism itself.
The real system, which this name too frequently concealed, spoke
of every man as a " brother." It looked beyond itself. " Love
ye therefore the stranger." Neither the Edomite nor the Egyp
tian did it suffer to be abhorred. But even this religion, with its
law of tenure, its division of property, its sacredness of family,
was very soon abused. Divine denunciation again and again was
hurled against those who continued to invade these vested rights
of the poor. At last this disregard of the multitude broke out
into the most blasphemous insolence. " Are ye," cried the angry
Pharisees to the officers who had not laid hands on Jesus, " Are
ye also deceived ? Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees
believed on him ? But this people who knoweth not the law are
cursed." Yet were they " confident that they were the guides of
the blind ! the lights of them which were in darkness ! instructors

THE RIGHT OF THE POOR. 99
of the foolish ! teachers of babes !" And it must be remembered
that unperverted Judaism was the religion of a particular people.
It was their custody of the way of salvation until it should be
made known to the world. It was held in by many restrictions.
What was necessary to defend was compelled to circumscribe. —
And we have heard of other systems. Their vaunting has been,
— the brotherhood of mankind, the citizenship of the world !
All men were to be equal ! They taught their lessons strangely.
They denied the great First Cause, the Fatherhood of a Deity.
They blotted out the day of rest. They gloried that there was
no life to come. And thus they truly linked the species in its
fortuitous rise or in its endless succession : thus, huddling gene
ration after generation into the grave of death and the abyss of
annihilation, they effectually proved their favourite principle, the
equality of all. They spoke no comfort to the poor. They jeered
what they called their superstitions, mocked their weaknesses,
extinguished their hopes. How different is the gospel of Jesus
Christ! What tenderness pervades its every expression ! The
bruised reed it does not break and the smoking flax it will not
quench. It asks each mourner, Why weepest thou ? each sup
pliant, What wouldest thou that I should do unto thee? each
sufferer, Wilt thou be made whole ? The children of the poor
and needy look up as they see the countenance which now hangs
over them, and hear the voice which now speaks to them. They
thought not until now that aught cared for them. Their eye
was unused to the sign of pity, their ear strange to the accent
of friendly interest and concern. The haggard feature unbends.
The cold distrust softens. The shrunken heart dilates. And
while of human religions it may be universally denounced, " Ye
have despised the poor," — Christianity is seen the staff of their
rights and the sanctuary of their sorrows.
And surely this is no unworthy voucher of the truth of the
gospel ! The conception not only transcends the noblest, most
philosophic, most statesmanly, thought of man, — but all his
moral sympathies. Yet did this Claimant, ostensibly a mean
and uneducated Hebrew, seize the idea, sublimely original and
perilously experimental, and carry it out in a scheme of instruc-

100 THE RIGHT OF THE POOR.
tions and commiserations which he pledged should only be con
summated by the catastrophe of the universe.
3. It took a Survey of Human Nature profound as it was
new. It is recorded of Jesus Christ, with an emphasis worthy of
Him who searcheth the heart, that "he knew what was in man."
This piercing insight was evident in all he said and did. The
most refined benevolence of the politician and the sage never rose
above the national man. It taught contempt and hatred of all
beside. Whom did the Greek account barbarian ? All who were
not of his narrow shores. How did the Roman regard all the
species beyond his haughty name? To spare the submitting, but
to beat down and to destroy all those who withstood its unjust
aggressions.* The gospel goes forth to the deliverance of man.
He is the only object in its grasp of mercy. Its apostles declared
that God commanded all men every where to repent. Its founder
had commanded them to preach it to every creature. It bore an
impress of universality, such as might be expected from Him
" who hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on
all the face of the earth." Let him be tbe man of the city or the
man of the forest or the man of the wild, and it gave him all its
consideration. That he was man was all it asked. No matter
what his nation, dialect, abode, — whether scorching on the Line
or shivering at the Poles, the same was he to it, the same was it
to him. — The utmost that the kindness of the ancient science of
human nature suggested, never rose beyond the graduated man.
Him it flattered and extolled. It crouched at the feet of power
and of wealth. It engaged itself to them to bind down the throng.
It joined them in reviling it. The gospel here displays its disin
terestedness. Rejecting none, it has, so to speak, the keenest eye,
the quickest ear, for the notices of privation and distress. It
contemplates these as its special calls and primary labours. Its
discovery is, "God so loved the world," — and it is too full of
this greatness to speak of man in any other aspects than those in
which God thus loved him. If Christianity be but an earthly sys
tem, how did it come to pass that it suddenly saw into the nature
* " Pareere subjectis et debellare superbos." — JEnevl, B. vi.

THE RIGHT OF THE POOH. 101
of man as it never before was understood, that it acted towards it
with an impartiality such as never before was exercised, that it
invested it with a majesty such as never before was allowed ? Is
not this an analogy with that first grant of Divinity which gave
the earth to the children of men ? is it not like Him who hath
made great lights for it ? who hath stretched out the sky for its
curtain ? whose care tends, and whose bounty nourishes, all ?
4. It reflects most amiably on the Character of the Christian
Founder. This conclusion, already casually intimated, requires in this
department of evidence a more searching estimate. There was
demanded of Him who should make this philanthropic purpose
his own, who should rest his all upon it, that he be most humble,
most upright, most compassionate. Motives are generally assu
med when their acts, or when acts of which they are capable, are.
exhibited. Why should we not then infer his aims from his pro
ceedings ? He preached the Gospel to the poor. Should it be
thought that the desire of power might look to the multitude for
the sake of their brute force and their easy impression, we have
only to refer to his strong condemnation of all violence, and his
fixed distance from all ambition. They would have made him
a king, and would have taken him by force ; but that " force"
showed his perfect alienation from the design of them who would
have attempted it, and at the same time that amazing influence
which he refused to wield. Such a multitude, and such a direc
tion of their passions, would have proved no small means of
worldly aggrandisement. — His uprightness no less establishes
itself. Here is none of the sycophancy which bows to courts,
none of the policy which meddles with intrigues, none of the
unworthy pliancy which takes the shape of outward associations
and events. To preach the gospel to the poor was not the path
which an obsequious self-interest loves to tread. — What, then, is
the compassion indicated by this course ! He would devote him
self to them who " could not repay" him. He fed the multi
tude, to teach and convince them. He lived among them, to
share their wants. He sounded all the depths of their misery.
For them He had no words of sharp rebuke. His invective was

102 THE RIGHT OF THE POOR.
reserved for those who had taken from the poor the key of know
ledge. " He delivered the poor from him that was too strong for
him, yea the poor and the needy from him that spoiled him."
He came with glad tidings of special interest and aptitude for
the victims of supercilious scorn and hard neglect. He preached
the gospel to them. — A character is thus made known to us the
most perfectly generous and noble, a glory full of grace and
truth. Is not this character in strictest harmony with this reli
gion, and is not the harmony between them a resistless proof of
the reality of the one and the truth of the other ? Could such a
character be pourtrayed by a false religion ? Could such" a reli
gion be associated with a fictitious character?
5. Its Divine Efficiency is proved to be complete.
That which deals in bold and boastful pretensions, if un
founded, will soon be disproved. But the gospel proposed no
common task. It was that of meliorating the soul, while it neg
lected not the outward condition, of the poor. It is in this condi
tion of social life that we must expect to find the grossest errors
of ignorance and the most frequent excesses of crime. Number
will not wholly account for this: it is the effect of a constant
pressure of need, a constant fretting of privation. To them does
not extend the conventional morality of other classes. It cannot
astonish us that there are found among them the outlaw, the des
perate, the reckless. To speak of their vices, considering their
general quietude and resignation, their industry and forbearance,
may seem invidious. To proclaim their vices, considering the
heartless wantonings and infidel darings of the rich and great,
must seem unjust. But truth ought not to be disguised. What
has checked those vices, so natural to their state, so common to
their circumstances ? What has planted among them the virtues
which command the admiration of all who read their short and
simple annals ? virtues which surprise us like choice and gentle
flowers in the fissure of a rock ? We know that the Gospel has
done it. The poor have been transformed by it. They have
chosen it as their heritage. They have taken it up as their cause.
Their sorrows as well as temptations have yielded to its power.
Their mourning has been turned into joy. It has lifted the latch

THE RIGHT OF THE POOR. 103
of the cabin, and brought with it such a train of blessings, that
though famine sat there leaning over the wasted offal of its store
and the dying ember of its hearth, it has turned it into a house
of rejoicing and into the gate of heaven. Here is a record of
moral triumph of which Christianity may fitly boast. It is the
power of God unto salvation in an experiment the most complete,
upon a scale the most ample ! »
6. The Truth of Christianity borrows new Evidence from
its Operation on the Poor, when we remember the Nature of
the Principles which it has inculcated.
Had it exaggerated the claims of this class, had it urged
those who belonged to it to protest and arm against all others,
had it spoken of their condition as in itself more meritorious than
that of wealth, had it taught moderation and contentment by
arguing that poverty was an atonement for sin, had it for a mo
ment given countenance to the error most current among our
needy brethren that present suffering claims and deserves a reward
and compensation in an after life, — then its course would indeed
have proved easy and its success secure. But such comments
were most 'foreign to its spirit. It did not directly touch the
civil state of the poor. Its appeal was greater. It taught them
to respect themselves as immortal. It assured them of the doc
trines and the facts of pardon, of acceptance, of regeneration.
It made no allowance for their sin. It intimated no alleviation
of their retribution. All its power over evil, all its relief of sor
row, was strictly spiritual. , Not a worldly motive or inducement
ever was adduced. Yet in Christian principles was there that
strength and weight which could bend the most stubborn forms
of habit, and tame the most terrible forces of feeling. It rectified
those convulsive movements which society so commonly dreads.
It ventilated the earthquake and saved its shock. It subdued
the volcano and prevented its eruption. It stilled the tumult of
the people, ^.nd this it effected by no superstitious spell, by
no interdict on popular thought and enquiry, by no degradation
of the industrious orders, but by enlightened views and holy
perceptions which raised man not less as man, than they were
adapted to raise man into Christian !

104 THE RIGHT OF THE POOR.
7- In this Progress of the Gospel we must seek an adequate
Cause. We speak not now of the persecutions which Christianity
was early called to endure. It. found a foe in every man, a war
fare in every nation, a tyrant on every throne. The fact is too
notable to require proof. It is as notable that Christianity suc
cessfully withstood, and gloriously survived, it. Its triumphs
are monumental. By what armies were they won ? What en
gines of power were set in motion for its help ? What schools
of philosophy lent it experience and fame ? " To the poor was
the gospel preached." First proclaimed to shepherds, and then
declared by fishermen, it run an unstayed career. It leaned on
no human resource nor aid. But there must have been a higher
power in concurrence with it. This was the hand of the Lord !
He gave testimony ! He worked with it ! And this is demon
stration. A religion so opposed, so victorious, — with nothing in
its nature to gratify the ambition, the sensuality, the indolence,
of our nature, — with nothing in its circumstances to favour, to
facilitate, to defend, its own power in the world, — cannot be
the counsel or work of man. Its success finds but one cause to
explain it : It was of God ! And that it was preached to the
poor, seals the divinity of this attestation.
And now, in conclusion, — while we congratulate the poor, —
it is almost impossible to exclude from our bosoms a deep pity
for those with whom it is rarely associated and by whom its over
ture would be disdainfully repelled. Upon affluence itself the
Scripture pours no contempt. " Every man to whom God hath
given riches and wealth, and hath given him power to eat thereof,
and to take his portion, and to rejoice in his labour ; this is the
gift of God." Yet is there humiliation even in these splendid
donatives. We cannot but speak, too often, of the miserable
great. They seem to be decked out for the sacrifice. " He that
loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver ; nor he that loveth
abundance with increase." " In all points as he came, so shall
he go." " His glory shall not descend after him." Yet their
salvation is possible. Let them make friends of the mammon of
unrighteousness. Let them lay up a good foundation for the

THE RIGHT OF tHE POOR. 105
time to come. Let them come as the naked sinner to the Savi
our. Let them seek the fruit of the Spirit, love, gentleness,
goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Be ye clothed with hu
mility. And your riches shall be the tests of your conversion,
and the means of your usefulness, and the precursors of your
reward !
Behold, ye poor, one simple reason of that social distribution
of which haply you have complained. You have but gathered
the scattered fruits which fall from the plentiful horn of the pos
sessors of the earth. You seem created to serve them. Here is
mystery. It may be that here is wrong. " Behold we count
them happy that endure." You are placed aright for one great
facility ! For you is secured one surpassing provision ! He that
mocketh you reproacheth his Maker ! That Maker has lavished
upon you an inheritance the value of which mines of gold and
rocks of diamond cannot express ! With a propriety, to others
far more contingent and remote, you may boast that the gospel is
yours. Prove it well in all its hope, its peace, its consolation.
And these things shall He say, who is the First and the Last,
even to the poorest of his disciples, " I know thy tribulation and
povery, but thou art rich!"

SERMON V,

THE MYSTERY OF THE INCARNATE GOD.

1 Tim. iii. 15, 16.
— "The Pillar and Ground of the Truth. And without Contro
versy great is the Mystery of Godliness."
— And in reciting this sublime paragraph we perhaps rehearse
the very clauses of the earliest Christian Creed, simple but full in
its avowals, sententiously brief and exquisitely compact, a good
confession of evangelic history and truth maintained amidst per
secution and apostacy, a form of sound words which infants
were taught to lisp, the bold protestation of martyrs from the
cross and stake. Or, remembering the parallelisms and measured
periods of its construction, it may have been an early Christian
Hymn, one of those which the first believers were wont to raise to
Christ as God ; a canticle which gladdened their hearts, soothed
their troubles, and raised their hopes ; a strain which they sung
in their prisons and celebrated on their scaffolds, when they would
not accept deliverance by the denial of their Lord. It is still as
fitted to be our Testimony, being a summary and epitome of "the
faith which has been given in entireness to the saints." It shall
still be our Song, — in this house of our pilgrimage, — our song in
this night of faith and patience, — a new song, — we will sing it
with joyful lips, we will sing it aloud upon our dying beds,—
Let all things that have breath thus praise the Lord !
And if the criticism which we now propose be just, how
strongly does inspiration attest the transcendent importance of
these facts. We believe that the words, — "the pillar and ground
of the truth,"— refer, not to the " church of the living God,"
but to " the great mystery of godliness." Did these expressions

THE MYSTERY OF THE INCARNATE GOD. 107
belong to the former sentence, they would weaken and depress
the image. The " church" has already been denominated " the
house of God:" the addition of these metaphors, the column and
the foundation, is tardy, if they be not presupposed by the state-
liness of the habitation, and injurious, if still they should be
needed by it. Such noble supports cannot be wanting to this
august fabric. — The conjunction, "¦And without controversy," is
copulative and not illative. As it stands in the present colloca
tion, it ill agrees with that abruptness which is required for the
verse if quite independent, and for the sentiments if utterly un-
forewarned. Where is the connection which this part of speech
always intends ? But coupling the two portions, it retains its
proper use. For this will be the reading : " The pillar and ground
of the truth, and beyond contradiction great, is the mystery of
godliness." — But the literary argument is not more complete
than the theological. In what just or substantive sense is the
church the pillar and ground of the truth ? This gloss has been
the root of all ecclesiastical error. It has fostered each rapine
upon the rights of enquiry and the prerogatives of conscience.
It has converted the school into the tribunal, the footstool into
the throne. What substratum is left the church when it is made
to upbear the truth ? Should not these change places ? " The
proud helpers" would speedily " stoop under" the burden. It is
for us to receive the strength and purity of these holy verities :
they ask us not to become their props. Even Chrysostom says :
' " The church is not the pillar and ground of the truth, but the
truth is the pillar and ground of the church." And the inaptitude
of the church for such an office is the more apparent, when we
inform ourselves touching the nature and condition of the par
ticular church in question. It was that in Ephesus. The charge
is from Paul to Timothy that he " might know how to behave
himself" in it, and that he might "abide" in it. What imparted
to it a renown, what has preserved of it a chronicle, which would
warrant this exalted praise ? Where is it now ? Has it not
" fallen" ? Is not its " candlestick" displaced ? Or, should it
be contended that the church is here put for that which is
universal, we are prepared to deny that it ever possesses that

108 THE MYSTERY OF THE INCARNATE GOD.
meaning through the whole compass of Scripture. There is the
universal church of heaven and of earth, but there is no such
phrase employed of the people of God in their present state.
If we employ it not of the church of both worlds, there is no
alternative but to speak of distinct churches. A general, an
cecumenic, church, — a capitular, corporate, church, — parental,
docent, decretive, — is an empty dream. Nothing between these
uses can we find. Where should we seek for this pillar and
ground of the truth, its living oracles and its infallible dictates ?
Exegesis, the analogy of faith, syntax, and no little authority,
determine us, then, in this change of punctuation and of con
sequent version. And magnificent is the figure, and the thought,
and the composition, in this altered form !
There is, however, another question which pertains to a more
recondite province of criticism. We would not attempt to enter
it, did not a flippant and sciolist infidelity broach its common
places of objection with so much confidence and reiteration.
Certain copies contain not the word, God : but the relative
pronouns, some the masculine and some the neuter. We should
therefore be bound, were these copies of the greatest value and
number, to read, Who or Which was manifest in the flesh.*
We must, then, enquire for the antecedent. Who was manifest ?
And there is but one reply, there is no nearer person, " The
Living God" : and in the- sentiment would be nothing violent,
for this very church has been affirmed by the same writer to be
" the church of God which he hath purchased with his own
blood."f If we ask, What? The construction is, The Mystery.
But this does not yield an intelligible idea. The entire predicate
is of personal acts and qualities. What is now the force of
external evidence ? This only must decide. For the first, there
are three high but not unequalled examples : for the second,
" "Of. ' O. Being in uncials, the O C (C being the form of the ancient Sigma)
stands thus to the eye in the MSS. Over them sometimes is drawn a horizontal
stroke, as O C. This is the mark for abbreviation. The English reader will see
at once how near the Theta and the Omicron resemble each other, 0. O: and
how small a mark constitutes the difference between the lections, Sia;, contracted,
e: and 02.
f Acts xx. 28.

THE MYSTERY OF THE INCARNATE GOD. 109
there is only proof still greatly inferior : for the received text a
hundred and seventy-one originals of all countries furnish their
confirmation, all the ancient writers on theology in this language
invariably follow it, and four of the most ancient and independent
tranlations give it their support. Collation and rescension afford
a most perfect defence in favour of the mystery of godliness,
God was manifest in the flesh, — a fact in the absence of which
the mystery altogether disappears.
It speaks every thing for the grave and explicit witness of
these verses in favour of the true gospel, that they have been made
the subject of this pertinacious cavil and unworthy suspicion.
" Another gospel" cannot live a moment by their side. Their
integrity is therefore to be assailed, however blindly and unrea-
soningly. It is a pillar to be prostrated, a foundation that must
be destroyed. All feel that the passage is, if we read it right,
perfectly decisive. Yet the utmost which the violation of every
critical canon, which the licence of every conjectural emenda
tion, has been able to accomplish, fixes a clear and irrefragable
demonstration that Christ is God, and that His Divinity stamps
its awful impress on all the stages of his mysterious Incarnation.
This is the primordial and characteristic assumption of Christi
anity, its ruling thought, its plan, its soul. The doctrine is
placed for ever beyond the reach of " controversy," though it
may look down from its majesty upon the guile of artifices and
the rudeness of attacks continually directed against it.
The Paragraph, of which the text is a part, declares to us
the Strict Nature and Fundamental Purpose of the Christian
System, and then, drawing it out into its respective components,
illustrates it by the bearing and influence of all.
THE CHRISTIAN SYSTEM IS A GREAT AND HOLY MYSTERY,
PRESENTING AN IMPORTANT FUNCTION FOR THE MAINTENANCE
OF DIVINE TRUTH.
Mystery may only be a secret, and comprise nothing difficult
in itself. When broken, the secret may be the plainest thing.
The calling of the Gentiles was such a concealment. But there
was a revelation of this mystery after it had been kept secret
since the world began. When the nations were received to the

110 THE MYSTERY OF THE INCARNATE GOD.
faith and fellowship of the gospel, that which had been hidden
"was now made manifest." Yet there might be still a perpetuated
mystery: the meaning of the fact was simple when divulged, but
the wisdom and the grace of the arrangement were inscrutably
profound. For a mystery, though enunciated, may be left unex
plained in its reasons and unshorn of its glories. In its dimensions
and in its depths it may remain immeasurable. "I speak a great
mystery." "I show you a mystery." These are not the less neces
sarily obscure because they are " spoken" and because they have
been " shown." The indefinableness shrouds them. The moun
tain by its heaven-ward height is lost to our vision. The orb is
darkened on our sense by its blaze. And in whatever involves
the divine nature we must be prepared for the infinite. " The
mystery of God, and of the Father and of Christ." Redemption
displays all the same wondrous perfection. It is "the wisdom of
God in a mystery." It is " the power of God." It was " hid in
God." It was His conception. It was His will. It lay enshri
ned in his searchless bosom. It cannot be understood. " Great,
and most confessedly, is the mystery of Godliness, God was ma
nifest in the flesh."
But there are many who deride this view, who speak of
mystery as incompatible with the purport of a Revelation. Now
this objection surely goes too far and urges too much. For it
would then be inconsistent for any religion to pretend a divine
authority. Religion must, in addressing us, though its informa
tion be most scant, tell us of Deity, insisting on spiritual relations
and eternal issues. The poorest pretext of any religion must
be a theism. "Who can by searching find out God?" So vainly
empty is the adage, Where mystery begins, religion ends ! Nor
less light is the remark, that ere a proposition be believed all its
terms must be appreciated. There is something in every term
of knowledge which defies this rigid perception. That which
our senses can only recognise, — the substance which we call
matter, — is but a hidden ground-work of certain manifestations,
and these manifestations, and not itself, can merely be observed.
Not only, were this statement just, would our circle of belief be
most diminutive ; the centre would be denied us from which to

THE MYSTERY OF THE INCARNATE GOD. Ill
describe the most narrow segment. Self would be the oenigma of
aenigmas in a universe of aenigmas. The earliest postulate of all
discernment, of all reasoning, must sternly be refused. Others
diversify the objection by taking for granted that Revelation can
only be an appeal to our reason, and that it will therefore contain
no mystery : nothing but what is intelligible to reason. We
cheerfully subscribe that reason must judge its evidence, that
reason must ascertain its scope. The mystery is no object of our
faith apart from the testimony which avouches it, and from the
fact in which it consists. Concerning the mystery we may believe
now, that it is certified, that it is most important and valuable,
that it has a glorious signification, that it agrees with a boundless
state of things. Surely it is a fitting exercise of reason, to presume
that any portion of a revelation which is purposely veiled or
hopelessly unintelligible, is nevertheless worthy of its author, and
harmonised to its design ; and that it partakes of these qualities
•only the more in that it is too stupendous for explanation.
The proper notion for us to form of a Revelation is, that its
essentials shall entirely exceed our powers of discovery. Parti
cular moral truths, when stated to us, though hitherto unper-
ceived, may awaken an inward sense in their behalf. We can
define, we must approve, them. They did not necessarily lie
beyond the field of our enquiry, nor do they surpass our capacity.
But when God reveals any thing to us, in the rightful meaning
of that phrase, he does not merely help us to learn that which
now is : but he makes known to us that which was not before :
his good pleasure, his purpose : that which has no existence but
in his mind and will. Shall we not, then, be prepared to expect
in such revelation things too high for us? That which is now
not to be known, in our eternal instruction and advancement may
not always be unknown. Other principles may be placed at
an interminable distance because of their character. The deep
things of Gpd, the unsearchable riches of Christ, the sevenfold
illuminations of the Spirit, are due to this word of grace. They
give demonstration of it. It would want its highest proof, if it
were not as much above our reason as our reason is below the
Infinite Mind.

112 THE MYSTERY OF THE INCARNATE GOD.
The light of reason has become so common a phrase, that it
may seem hazardous to call its correctness in question. But it
is unmeaning. Reason can boast no light. It is only a capacity
to judge upon any subject presented to it. It finds a general
analogy of its function in the bodily eye. That does not
impart the elemental light but receives it, together with the
impression of those images which it unveils. It is nothing more
than an organ to be exercised upon things without. Reason is
no more the source of knowledge than corporeal vision is that of
day. A moral sun and a spiritual world are as much needed by
the one as the physical sun and material world are for the other.
Why should we then hold high and proud discourse concerning
the discoveries of reason? None has it ever made. It has defined
what was exhibited, it has learnt what was taught ; but this was
all. This is its province, and it cannot exceed it. It might be
demanded of us, Has not reason discovered the secrets of the
astronomic sky? It has traced out nothing but what existed,
and has but spelt the refulgent syllables written there. It might
be further urged, Has not reason discovered those great dyna
mics which the luxury of man calls to his aid ? It has brought
together, it has applied, powers which it discerned in their scat
tered or their slumbering state. Reason invents, originates,
creates, nothing. And confessedly incompetent to discover any
thing mechanical, shall it arrogate to itself a power to find out a
religion? Should, therefore, a religion, adequately certified to
have come from God be proposed to reason, — it could not act a
part more worthy of its dignity, more faithful to its nature, more
consonant with its design, than to acquiesce in it at once and
close with all its informations.*
Nor can reason be shown to be more consistent in seeking out
the lowest meaning which the language or the method of certain
mysteries can bear. With grief we mark it, that a criticism
called rationalistic is gaining fast in our schools and writings.
It is seen in the avoidance of all that is great, transcendental,
supernatural, infinite. It would reduce and naturalize all. Its
* " Nescire velle, quae Magister optimus
Docere non vult, erudita inscitia est." — Scaliger.

THE MYSTERY OF THE INCARNATE GOD. 113
consent to every truth is cold, narrow, and reluctant. Any
solution, the most pitiful and the most earthly, it prefers to the
generous and soaring faith which asks no more than whether it
be revealed. It deals with the highest subjects of that revelation
as calculations which should be the most cautiously revised. It
would weigh the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance !
Oh let it not be afraid of its own credulity ! Let it not suspect
its too staid soberness ! It need not add rule to rule, and mul
tiply caution upon caution, lest a too warm confidence carry it
away ! It wants mTcheek ! Its habit is sufficiently wary ! Its
danger is harmlessly remote ! We avow another canon, another
taste. We think that in every examination of Christianity the
highest meaning is the most natural, the most divine method is
the most reasonable, the most ultimate solution is the most pro
bable. We do not revolt at that sentence which Augustine is
reported to have uttered : " I believe it because it is impossi
ble!"* There appears to us nothing so credible, nothing so
likely to be true, in a revelation from God, as its exhibition of
some fact which would be impossible to all save to Him with
whom all things are possible !
We might not improperly call ,»to the recollection of the
adversaries of mystery, as a characteristic and presumption of
revelation, that there is nothing unreasonable in it, but much
in its denial. It is not unreasonable to reconcile ourselves to
a world full of physical intricacies and of moral problems: it
would be absurd to contend against them. It is a mystery that
there is a God : it is an absurdity that there is no God. It
is a mystery that this creation had a beginning : it is an absur
dity that it never did begin. It is a mystery that God was
manifest in the flesh: it is an absurdity that the arrangements,
the promises, the types, the predictions, the aspirations, of four
* I have searched for this saying, however, in vain, among the Father's heavy
tomes. The following beautiful lines of a Pagan poet, Pindar, more happily con
vey the same idea : — " Efcai £e Savfiasat,
&soiv rsXestzflav,
Of5s>» Tols <puiv{]r/.t lfl.fjt.tv cctfifov.'' Pyth : Ode 10.
I

114 THE MYSTERY OF THE INCARNATE GOD.
thousand years terminated in the feeble consummation of a mere
human child's birth and a mere mortal man's death !
The language is borrowed from a Pagan institution. In
temples of the most solemn architecture, by perspectives of
wondrous vista and quaint recess, by pageants of the most
gorgeous machinery and the most dramatic illusion, the ancient
mythology was taught to those who desired to be versed in its
deeper lore. We debate not whether by these spectacles that
idolatry was the more imposingly confirmed or the more readily
detected. The effect may have depended upon the order of the
mind addressed. The discipline was severe. The ordeal was
terrific. Every hideous phantasma glared upon the votary. He
was left alone amidst .the deepest gloom. He then emerged into
a light the most beautifully rich and softened, and amidst a
harmony the most rapturously welcoming and triumphant. He
entered a favoured class. He was numbered among the perfect.
He received high and fervid congratulations. What he had
been taught we cannot accurately determine. There was legend,
incantation, and many a mystic rite. There was the representa
tion of retributive punishment and of elysian bliss. There was
the story of the gods, though it may have been variously told.
There was the awful adjuration to secrecy. All seem to have
left those precincts with the deep impression that the Rule of
the Mysteries was most important to the interests of government,
to the refinements of religion, though mainly to the prejudices of
the vulgar faith.
Christianity availed itself of this usage to select a term de
scriptive of its sublimity. It was calculated to arrest attention.
It was a challenge, that in nothing which could dignify reli
gion was it deficient. The Heathen world put forth its array
of some veiled doctrine : it demanded for it a superstitious vene
ration : it surrounded it with a magic pomp : it adumbrated it
by typic pageant: it urged monarch, statesman, philosopher,
to seek admission to its shrine : it peremptorily insisted on this
acquaintance with its meaning as the qualification for official
rank and as the pledge of personal worth. We need not say how
vain was the pretence. There is no injustice in charging upon

THE MYSTERY OF THE INCARNATE GOD. 115
it juggle and collusion. Its bondage made the earth to groan.
It held back the natural progress of mankind. It preserved no
precious remains of knowledge. It was the instrument of mani
fold tyranny. The lights of science and of truth it but served to
quench. Still that name every where was known. It awakened
emotions of suspense and dread. Another Mystery was therefore
proclaimed. Having thus enounced itself, the Religion of Jesus
instantly raised its contrasts to all that had passed under that
deluding name.
1. The ancient mysteries were only affectations of the wonder-
fulness ascribed to them. They surrounded themselves with a
purposed reserve. They included nothing which might not rea
dily be apprehended. If there was difficulty, they contrived it.
If the knot was inextricable, they had entangled it. If the course
of revelation was slow, they made it slow. If the curtain was
laboriously raised, they had hung it heavily that so it might be
raised. All was intended to excite curiosity, to produce impres
sion, to strike the aspirant with artistic effects. It was the sce
nery of a theatre. It was the sorcery of a cell. They who presided
over them loved darkness rather than light. There does not
appear to have been any exposition of the laws of nature, any
laying open of the foundations of morality, any disabusement of
the errors of mythology. It was a " cunning craft and sleight"
to deceive. It was ignoble trick and base imposture. It con
tained not, it familiarised not, the great in principle, or the
great in fact. It was an inflated exaggeration. Unlike this
wilful perplexity, this ample drapery to cover nothing, the Mys
tery of godliness was really transcendent. It muffled itself in no
fold, it was abhorrent from all disguise. It spoke in no swelling
words of vanity. It encircled itself with no seeming of doubt
and amazement. The more it was investigated, the more tremen
dous the wonder proved. To all research of thought or of imagi
nation it grew, it aggrandized, it fell back into its own greatness.
The more simply it was presented, the more majestic swelled out
all its proportions. It was not lifted, it was its own height, —
it could not be extended, it was its own compass. The cloud
which was upon it was of its own glory.

116 THE MYSTERY OF THE INCARNATE OOD.
2. The effect which initiation in the ancient mysteries wrought
upon the mind of the candidate was generally that of disappoint
ment and aversion. The man of intelligence, though he came to
them a believer, could not go forth from them with any assu
rance. It was, as far as he could understand it, a cheat : and
as far as he could approve it, a blinding policy which the mul
titude required. All was unsettled to him : only of his pre
possessions, — often soothing, always poetic, — was he undeceived.
His poor satisfaction was that he was no more the dupe. He
saw that long time he had worn chains which he had never felt
as chains : but it was not liberty which he now enjoyed. Indig
nation at the banded impostors was his first feeling. Contempt
of the mummeries, however splendid, practised upon him would
quickly follow. By a strange law of our fallen nature he might
defend the wicked process to others : without shame, he might
draw others into it. Yet he must have entertained an unmixed
disgust. The exposure could not but have awakened it. Those
whom he had formerly revered he must henceforth despise.
They had spoken " lies in hypocrisy." Their " deceit was false
hood." If any particle of the truth was in their possession, they
had " held it in unrighteousness." But they who have " know
ledge in the mystery of Christ," rise in every sentiment of grati
tude and satisfaction with every step of that knowledge. Nothing
has failed of their expectation. Nothing has sunk in their esteem.
All is unspeakably surpassed. Their highest confidence is justi
fied, and they " know whom they have believed." Their fairest
rectitude of motive is vindicated, and they " hold the mystery of
the faith in a pure conscience." Their "faith groweth exceed
ingly." " Now they are full." Their meditation is sweet, and
is as a ladder set up on the earth and the top of it reacheth
to heaven. Their song has now begun, but it has a burden for
eternity. It is a mystery, — vast, ineffable, interminable, incom
prehensible, deific. It is marvellous in our eyes ! We cry it
aloud, we publish it abroad, — and as the exclamation travels on,
all worlds, all natures, reflect it, and Marvellous ! becomes the
labouring utterance of the universe. Only this is said. This
only may be confessed. This only can be understood.

THE MYSTERY OF THE INCARNATE GOD. 117
3. Much delay attended the probation of those who sought
enrolment among the enlightened in the ancient mysteries. Their
trials were protracted. Their claims were not infrequently dis
puted. Frivolous excuses were raised. Private jealousies were
allowed. When even the course had began, it was not certain
that it might not be suspended. Obstacles could still be thrown
in the way. Before the profession was attained, there was every
harassing and tedious ceremonial. Lustration followed lustra
tion, each power of endurance was tasked to the utmost, subter
ranean chambers reverberated to each other, there was a prison-
house and escape from its horrors was not sure, panic congealed
the stoutest frame, all extremes of sensation were combined, and
the whole service was fenced round with every caution against
eager impatience or inquisitive haste. But the Mystery of God
liness knows no such suspicious restrictions. " Learn of me," is
the language of its Founder. A docile temper is the exclusive
condition. We haste and delay not. All is revealed which it
is good or practicable for us to learn. " Unto us it is given to
know the mystery of the kingdom of God." " If our gospel be
hid, it is hid to them that are lost." Still, in order to understand
this mystery, there is no requirement to forego our soundest,
quickest, judgment. " In understanding be men." But much
of anterior notion and opinion must be renounced. These are
" the thoughts" which " the Lord knoweth to be vain." All
preconception should be confined to this, to expect something as
much higher than all we could propound, as heaven is higher
than earth and as God is greater than man. All else that we
have anticipated is to be disowned. If we would be wise, we
must become as the fool that we may be wise. The Spirit of
Christ is covenanted to teach us these things. If they be hidden
from us, it is because of our pride and self-sufficiency. " The
natural man receiveth them not." " If any man be ignorant, let
him be ignorant." The initiate is not withheld for a moment
from those who properly seek it. " Why tarriest thou ?" " If
thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest."
4. The most awful vows of secrecy were exacted of those
who received the supposed purgation of these mysteries. A

118 THE MYSTERY OF THE INCARNATE GOD.
universal execration fell on the betrayer. None would have
consorted with him, venturing in the same house or ship. The
most private haunts were not safe for the whispered disclosure,
or the bantering mimicry. The eye of the hierophant was every
where. His arm was sufficiently strong and far-reaching to
crush every foe. Infamy and death forged the chain of silence.
In opposition to this injunction, the Mystery of godliness asks
the widest and most unrestrained publication. Its first disci
ples felt an irresistible impulse, received a direct commission, to
declare it throughout the world. Their language explains the
strength of the principle within them. " We cannot but speak
the things which we have seen and heard." "We having the
same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and
therefore have I spoken ; we also believe, and therefore speak."
" To make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery."
They " used great plainness of speech." Their commission was
the most undisguised. "What I tell you in darkness, that speak
ye in light ; and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye on
the house-tops." Thus they acted. " Thanks be to God, which
always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the
savour of his knowledge by us in every place." Christianity
can know nothing of a slow and reluctant development. It tole
rates no reserve in its manner of teaching. Its first expounders
disclaimed all artifices in stating it. They designedly opposed
themselves to the officers of the mysteries : " We have renounced
the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor
handling the word of God deceitfully ; but by manifestation of
the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in
the sight of God."
5. The whole arrangement of this singular discipline was
invidious. It looked unfavourably on the great mass of our
race. Selfish in its aims, destitute of any noble philanthropy,
it intended the perpetual thraldom of the multitude in igno
rance and degradation. It was the most cruel and potent aux
iliary of priestly device and political despotism. It favoured
and flattered the wealthy, the powerful, the learned : to them
it freely opened its doors. It had " their persons in admiration

THE MYSTERY OF THE INCARNATE GOD. 119
because of advantage." The poor, the unlettered, the many,
the common people, it disdainfully repelled. Whatever light
was emitted, it flickered merely on a few pinnacles of society :
none was poured into its interior, none searched its foundation.
An idea of profanity was systematically associated with the
crowd. In contradistinction to this haughty insolence, this vile
contempt, with which the Mystagogues spurned and branded
the species, Christianity surveys our nature in its broadest fea
tures, its truest intimacies, its grandest generalities. If it be
marked by a partiality, it is toward the poor. It says : " How
hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of
God !" It says : " Let the brother of low degree rejoice in
that he is exalted !" Among its brightest evidences, crowning
all its miracles, is this attestation : " To the poor is the gospel
preached." Its mercies are unto all. As no rank of life is
disputed, so no national distinction is recognised. The portals
of this Temple stand wide dispread : it invites all, yet most
importunately the despised and heavy-laden, to enter in : and
there they shall be taught " the excellency of the knowledge of
Christ Jesus their Lord."
We may suppose that the inspired writer of the text, in sty
ling the Mystery of God indubitably great, bore in mind the
common separation of the less and the greater ceremonies through
which the respective postulants were called to pass. These were
deemed alone worthy of the epithet, and alone capable of justi
fying it. The distinction of the Heathen idolatries into a higher
and a lower degree was annihilated by the pitiful meanness of
both. If that distinction could be taken, the greater would
only be the more elaborate falsehood. But here was greatness,
perfect, unparalleled, divine. It was great enough to glorify
Deity, the source and centre of all glory, — great enough to vin
dicate the solemn pauses and anxious intervals and rising won
ders of earth's natal week, — great enough to emblazon all divine
government and to explain all divine providence, — so great, that
time might have seen none other event and history have recorded
none other tale, — great, as if thought could have fixed none
other attention, and sensibility have vibrated to none other chord.

120 THE MYSTERY OF THE INCARNATE GOD.
The heart of this mystery, its perfect esoteric, is theme for eter
nal study and celebration.
Now the Greater Mysteries of the Pagan world pretended
to solve religious difficulty. They premised that a great portion
of the popular credulity might be simplified. They construed
facts into allegories. They stripped the fable of its accessories,
and exposed the moral which was couched in it. They reduced
generally received notions into the fewest elements, and yet they
made nothing explicit, and left nothing sure. They shipwrecked
hope, and abandoned it to toss on a sea of troubles. But the
Mystery of godliness was a grand interpretation. It was a key
to cyphers. It was the substance of shadows. It was the fulfil
ment of visions. It gave light and meaning to " the dark say
ings of old." All by it was made intelligible of promise, type,
prophecy, enactment, ritual, dispensation. " The law was given
by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ."
Those Greater Mysteries boasted of a predominant doctrine.
We do not with certainty know what that was. Whether the
unity of the Divine Nature, or the immortality of the soul, has
been questioned. We think that we may conclude, with perfect
confidence, that it was neither the one nor the other. Atheism
and Materiality were far more probably their lessons. " The
stock was a doctrine of vanities." Now the Mystery of godliness
has its cardinal truth. It is the Incarnate Word. All connected
with this manifestation is like itself. It is sin-offering and pro
pitiatory sacrifice. We, receive the atonement. A form of doc
trine is declared to us. It is the glorious gospel of Christ.
With these first principles of the doctrine of Christ all that was
hitherto revealed is connected ; we are built on the foundation of
the apostles and prophets ; Jesus Christ himself being the chief
corner-stone. Those Greater Mysteries commanded a powerful influence.
The chambers of imagery would not be soon forgotten, even if
its import was explained. Terror sometimes prevailed, or it
yielded to joy and repose. Some felt an immitigable dread,
others a calm relief. They who were undeceived the most, car
ried with them an unfading impression of their emancipation.

THE MYSTERY OF THE INCARNATE GOD. 121
Others, whose fancy oppressed their judgment, felt convinced of
an impulse higher than their nature, — they were filled with the
inspirations of the temple, — they were possessed of the god. —
The Mystery of godliness is power. Christ dwells in the heart
by faith. All the springs of our being are moved. His love
constraineth us. It is as though the work of redemption rose
into a hallowed structure of magnificent proportions, and we
were left in it to gaze, to measure, to adore ; our inward spirit
catching its illapse, and dilating to its grandeur. " That ye
may be able to comprehend with all saints what is "the breadth,
and length, and depth, and height : and to know the love of
Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be fillett with
all the fulness of God."
Those Greater Mysteries claimed to impart an inward life.
The spirit was supposed to emerge from a mystic death, to
acquire new powers, and to occupy new relations. The regimen
of its noviciate was called its birth. The man who had passed
through these exercises was publicly hailed as endued with an
existence higher than intellectual. He was of a privileged class.
He might blend with the highest natures of the universe. And
thus the Mystery of godliness is the exponent and means of a true
and everlasting life. Christ liveth in us. He is our life. This
new birth is to holiness. It is regeneration, a making of us again:
it is renewing, a making of us afresh. The old model is not only
consulted, but features, unknown before, are superadded. " If
any man be in Christ, he is a new creature."
With a marked description is this Mystery announced : it is
the Mystery of godliness. The word is not very aptly transla
ted. Piety or religion would better render it. It may sometimes
be put for Christianity. This is not improbably its present scope :
The mystery of the Gospel, the primary, the distinctive, mystery
of the Gospel ! Christianity deserves the title. It is holiness, it
is devotion. Such abstracts fitly describe it. Or it may denote
this quality as produced by Christianity. This Mystery is cha
racterised by its attributes of purity and pious excellence. TheyN
belong to it. It has a tendency to inspire them. They are its
ever-present glories and its invariable emanations.

122 THE MYSTERY OF THE INCARNATE GOD.
But here rebuke is dealt. Those arcana to which the Mystery
of holiness is opposed, were the scandal of the ages through which
they survived. They were " works of darkness." Their estab
lishments consisted of shows and impersonations, and required
a throng of attendants to act them. The minds of these persons
must have been corrupted by the occupation. The revelations
made were of the grossest kind. The seats of the principal rites
might, from inducements of policy, be preserved from the more
unblushing profligacy: their lessons did not restrain it. In their
more distant dependencies, it knew no bounds. They were the
nurseries of " vile affections" and " abominable idolatries." " It
is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them
in secret." The Mysteries were necessarily ungodly. The Pantheon they
disclosed was real or fallacious. If these deities existed and
governed the world, they were the prototypes and panders of all
its crimes. If they were no more than ideas, those ideas, the
most revolting, were approved and consecrated. The worshippers
could but be transformed into their resemblance. The " mind
and the conscience" of all associated with them must be " defi
led." At this distance their history suggests all defilement, and
we " will not take up their names into our lips." But ours is the
Mystery of godliness. God is manifest in the flesh. We in Him
see the Father also. It is the beauty of holiness in its subsistence
and its action. Christ is in us. What contrition is awakened
in us, what humility, what gratitude ! What purity should we
emulate, walking in the light, that we may have fellowship with
him ! What devotion should we pay ! What service should we
render ! " We behold his glory." " We see Jesus." We " con
sider Christ Jesus." " What manner of persons ought we to be
in all holy conversation and godliness!"
The Religion of the gospel being thus defined to us, we learn
moreover that its greatness is unquestionable. Controversy
it has always excited : what has provoked disputes so fierce and
numerous ? But it is incontrovertible. Still the sentiment is as
we have proposed it : it concerns the quality of its greatness.
We must not soften the fact. We must not endeavour to bring

THE MYSTERY OF THE INCARNATE GOD. 123
it into the plane of our analogies. We cannot conceive it in our
hearts. It is altogether above our reason and independent of it.
No exercise of intellect could have brought us nearer to it. Its
infinite superiority to the highest effort of our mind, to an endless
stretch of our thought, we do not for an instant controvert. It
is its glory. It is its efficiency. Thankfully we allow it. Exult-
ingly we proclaim it. " Publish ye, praise ye."
Nor do we admit that our boast in the greatness of this Mys
tery is unintelligent. We have no excuse to offer as though any
slight of our understanding had been proposed by this revelation.
Our understanding is most fully exercised. Its appropriate
capacity is honoured. Its true province is prescribed. Is it not
bound to respect the Divine authority asking its attention, the
Divine wisdom urging its assent, the Divine faithfulness requi
ring its confidence, the Divine interposition deserving its love?
It is no prostration of the human mind, but its native tendency,
its true office, its flight God-ward !
And thus are we prepared, by inspired language, for every
suggestion and sneer. Questions may be mooted, difficulties
may be raised, How can these things be ? The Mystery may be
called inconceivable, its greatness being set against its truth.
What is every objection to it, come from whom it may, but a
repetition of the unmeaning charge, that it is so great ? We
have no reply. We seek no rejoinder. We admit it. We boast
it. The case supposes it. The fact involves it. " Without con
tradiction it is great .'"
But the Proposition of the Text is not exhausted. It asserts
a particular use which the mystery of godliness subserves
in relation to the truth.
The Truth, the definite article making it specific, is Chris
tianity : but as it may be convertible with Godliness as to the
system which it designates, so it represents a peculiar view of
it : the first speaks of its holiness, — this of its certainty, vera
city, and force.
The reference is to the buildings in which the mysteries were
unfolded. In fanes of commanding eminence, on some precipi
tous pass, — of purest marble, — over the sea-washed promontory,

124 THE MYSTERY OF THE INCARNATE GOD.
— standing against the deep azure of the sky, — girded by colon
nade, — threaded by corridor, — swept by terrace, — filled with
apparatus to impress the mind, — diversified with proscenium for
the dramatic illustration of mystic record, — with massive foun
dations sustaining all, — the Heathen Mysteries were rehearsed.
This seems to have occurred to the mind of the inspired writer :
the Mystery of Godliness is the pillar and ground of the Truth.
A noble temple impresses itself upon him, and there is propor-
tionateness and strength. They were illusion, this is real : they
were fiction, this is truth.
The Pillar of an edifice is its most prominent object, and first
catches the eye. It is most beautiful, and adorns the pile into
which it is built. It is the image of stability. It is the test of
symmetry. It binds together base and dome. And it is the
Mystery of godliness which gives to Christianity its perfection
of beauty, its principle of durableness, its character of harmony,
and its range of combination.
The Ground is the foundation, that on which the building
rests. Its utility is unseen, but is ever}' moment proved. Em
bellishment and grace are as nothing without it. The pillar
which supports so much, needs it as greatly as the highest orna
ment and owes all its solidity to its hidden strength. And it is
the Mystery of Godliness which bears up the superstructure of
Christianity : it is the impregnable support on which all its com
pactness, bearing, and weight depend. " Other foundation can
no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ."
This must be further explained. The Religion of Messiah
professes to be The Truth. " To this end was I born, and for
this cause came I into the world, that I should witness unto the
truth." The gospel is, therefore, " the truth as it is in Jesus."
His promise to his disciples was : " When He, the Spirit of
truth shall come, he will guide you into all the truth."* This
is " the truth which is in us, and shall abide in us for ever."
Why is Christianity so,entitled ? Because it is strictest con
formity to the Divine will and purpose. Because it is an
announcement of so many facts. Because it is an appeal to an
* John xvi. 13 ; " us ^rxsav rn» xXtihia,]/ ."

THE MYSTERY OF THE INCARNATE GOD. 125
absolute state of things. Because it bears with it all the validity
of authority, and all the demonstration of proof. Because it
gives to the mind of its believer an assurance which nothing can
shake. Can more belong to Truth ?
How is the Mystery of the Incarnation the pillar and ground
of the Gospel ? Its importance to the whole scheme of redeem
ing mercy is thus declared, and that importance is easily vindi
cated. So clearly was it perceived by the apostles, that this is
their fixed rule of decision : " Every spirit that confesseth that
Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God : and every spirit that
confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of
God." What other hold have the doctrines of salvation ? There
is no atonement, no acceptance for the guilty, no regeneration for
the depraved, if this shall be denied. Christian morality hangs
upon it too. Therefore is this " the doctrine which is according
to godliness," that which is presumed by it, intermixed with it,
indispensable to it. You make " another gospel which is not
another," when this vital doctrine is compromised or expunged.
" It is the pillar and ground of the truth." Bow it, and the
building rends : prostrate it, and the building falls. " Who
hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before
whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified
among you ?"
And thus we "speak the mystery of the gospel." We may
have " knowledge in the mystery of Christ." New revelations
may be made to us hereafter, new capacities may be imparted,
and much, that is now beyond our understanding, eternity may
unfold. We feel no impatience that we are now in the shadow
of a mystery, which may turn to us, at however distant a period,
a more illuminated side. Be this as it may, we as " the stew
ards of the mysteries of God," now preach them to cheer, to
humble, to save. Let their testimony be believed. And when
they most confound and overmatch our minds, let us rejoice in
the cause of this amazement. They are depths of riches. They
are truths which stand related to modes of the Divine existence
with which our being is henceforth involved. They are past
finding out. We delight to know that Redemption is so costly,

126 THE MYSTERY OF THE INCARNATE GOD.
so transcendent, so unfathomable, that it must be a Mystery
for ever !
Behold the majestic Pillar which supports the Temple of
Christian Truth. It will stand when the pillars of the firmament
shall have long since tottered to their fall. The tide of times has
beat at its base, the rage of nations has foamed high around its
elevation : here artifice has attempted to undermine, and there
violence has sought to shatter, it : but it still swells upward,
unmarred, unshaken, covered with trophies of victory and shields
of triumph, — an architecture unhewn by art or man's device, its
capital high as heaven, and its plinth durable as eternity.
Behold, likewise, the Ground of this Temple of Christian
Truth, deep laid, equal to the dimension and pressure of the
building. Cities shall sink in their ruins, the everlasting moun
tains shall be scattered, the foundations of the world shall rend,
but this, as an imperishable adamant, shall sustain every pro
portion and every bearing of the Pillar which has its seat in it,
every prop and bulwark on which the entire Temple rests. " The
foundation of God standeth sure."
Behold, then, this Temple of Christian Truth itself, as well
as its towering column and its firm foundation. So far we have
only gone round about it. Let us now enter it. It opens into
many chambers, it is adorned with many scenes. These, one
after another, will be disclosed. They will rise upon us, pass
before us, in their own succession and series. Thus shall we
learn of what our religion consists, and upon what our faith is
established. The rain may descend, and the floods may come,
and the winds may blow, — the Temple beneath which we seek
initiation into this greatest Mystery is founded on a rock.

SEKMON VI.

THE INCARNATE GOD VINDICATED.

1 Tim. iii. 16.
" God was manifest in the Flesh, justified in the Spirit."
" I wish," observes one of the profoundest philosophers that this
country has produced,* " I could say that there were no mys
teries in Scripture. I acknowledge there are to me, and I fear
always will be. But when I want the evidence of things, there
is yet ground enough for me to believe, because God has said it."
In this statement there is much to condemn as well as to admire.
Why should man wish that there were no mysteries in religion ?
Could there be a religion without the premises of a necessary
self-existent and eternal Cause ? Could there be a redemption
of our wicked race without the motive of an inconceivable pity ?
When such mysteries are revealed, they are revealed as mysteries,
intended to be so regarded and allowed. It is not an obscurity
which they assume, a concealment which they desire to promote :
it is an excess of light, it is an unsusceptibility of solution.
To the Infinite Intelligence, and within the Divine Consciousness,
mystery is unknown : and therefore those perfect ideas must, to
our minds, be- overpowering. What God sees clearly, we must
see confusedly. — But in the language of the philosopher there is
much to applaud. He has defined the exact warrant of faith.
Could Christianity find analogy, it would not be that analogy,
— could it be shown probable, it would not be that probability,
— could it be proved reasonable, it would not be that reason
ableness, — on account of which it ought to be believed. Belief
of this kind would render no respect to the " faithful Creator."
* Locke.

128 THE incarnate god vindicated.
It would be independent of his character. His testimony, other
wise than it was proved by indifferent witnesses, would pass for
nothing. We should believe Him no more readily than we must
the unworthiest of his creatures. Whom do we not credit when
his allegations are sufficiently attested ? The ground of belief in
God is his simple saying as the God of truth. If a religion came
from Him which was obvious and palpable at once, faith would
have little scope, and yield him little glory. It would make it
appear that He was like ourselves. The condition of assent
would be that every part could be immediately and perfectly
understood. But this is to forget the highest evidence of a
Revelation, its sublime originality, its disclosure of what could
never otherwise be known ! We look for the awful marks of the
Understanding which is infinite.
We are not then surprised or revolted by the earliest notice
which Christianity affords us of its profound mysteries. We
have but to think of the necessary conditions of a Divine reve
lation to creatures such as we are, to perceive that the absence of
mysteries would be to stamp an unreasonableness upon it. It
must resemble its Author. It must involve the relations of man
to his Creator. Its worth must be measured by its communica
tion of absolutely new ideas and facts. Christianity, therefore,
avouches itself to be the Great Mystery of Godliness.
We need not to urge any further the figure which is em
ployed. It has been amply explained. The Christian System
is likened to a Temple, beautiful and massive. It has pillar and
foundation. Whatever a pillar is to an edifice, whatever a foun
dation is to a pillar, such is the Mystery of Godliness to the Dis
pensation of evangelic truth and grace.
This Temple invites us in. It is a holy place. It strikes
with awe. August and ineffable are its wonders. We may
behold what we cannot explore. The profoundest of all is pro
claimed the first. The spectacle of a descending Deity rises
upon us. We follow Him through the scene of his incarna
tion. The mystery continues insuperable, but all inconsistency
imputed to it, all prejudgment cherished against it, is trium
phantly refuted and disproved.

THE INCARNATE GOD VINDICATED. 129
I. The fact of a divine incarnation in the person of
JESUS CHRIST.
The Proposition is complex, and we will, in the first instance,
reduce it to its parts.
1. The Manhood of Messiah.
This is not often placed in modern controversy. But it is
a most important article of the testimony given for our faith.
Deity is uncreate and unchangeable : this is an effect of forma
tion, having a beginning, and that which is supposed at a given
time to be assumed. We mark a distinct act of Divine power in
its production. "He was made a little lower than the angels for
the suffering of death." "That holy thing" " was conceived of
the Holy Ghost." This is the fact which is naturally the most
interesting and significant : it is becoming, as thus strangely new
and transforming, that it should be made most prominent : it is
more imperative in this stage of the announcement to aver that the
God became man, than that the man was also God. The Jews,
therefore, first stumbled at His humanity. " Whom makest
thou thyself ?" " For a good work we stone thee not, but for
blasphemy ; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself
God." They looked for another manifestation than of God in the
flesh. They asked a dreader sign. True, He did the works of
his Father, the demonstrative tokens of equality. But they
would have seen Israel's Holy One in his ancient manner of
descent, when there was under his feet, as it were, a paved work
of sapphires, and as it were the body of heaven in its splendour.
They would that the trumpet might sound long and loud, that
from some hoary summit there might be promulgated a fiery
law, that the voice of words, the thunder-accents heard of old,
might be renewed. They would that the Lord of hosts should
have taken possession of the Holiest place in a cloud of glory,
enthroning himself between the mysterious cherubim, and speak
ing from off the mercy-seat. These were the symbols by which
He erst was known. But had they not deprecated them ? Had
they not " entreated that the word should not be spoken to them
any more," when accompanied with those portents ? And this
" manifestation in the flesh" was an answer to their prayer.
K

130 THE INCARNATE GOD VINDICATED.
Mild and gentle was the form. Meek and lowly was the vehicle.
Yet, be it remembered, the challenge of Divinity was not sus
pended, and in the very terms of this consecrated yore. For the
first revelation to Moses, which he was to report to the people,
was: "I am hath sent me unto you." When Jesus was asked
of his enemies, " Who art thou ?" he answered : " Even that I
said unto you from the beginning." That " beginning" was to
the shepherd-prophet beneath the precipices of Horeb. From a
glory enveloping the bush the voice resounded. It was the angel
of the Lord who spoke. It was still the Lord. It was God. It
was, then, a messenger ; but of co-ordinate majesty. Who was
He ? Jesus claims to be that appearance, that authority, that
Lord and God. He repeats, in immediate connection with such
claim, the awful appropriation of this Style. And inasmuch as
the I am had combined with himself another representation, I
am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of
Jacob, — He who came in the flesh thus stretches back his being:
" Before Abraham was I am."*
The earliest Antichrist directed its assault against this fact.
It " denied that Christ was come in the flesh." Phantasma was
supposed to have covered and beguiled all his acts and sufferings.
The higher nature was allowed. But it was held incredible that
his blood was really shed, and that he really died. Certain
impressions, utterly fallacious, it was contended, were made
upon the senses of beholders : He, it was argued, only seemed
to be crucified. A power preserved him from the agony and
strife and shame which had. outward semblance : and his actual
form was unsubstantial as his deeds and woes. The incarnation
was considered as a cloud upon which appearances were reflected
* No idiom will account for the frequent recurrence of this avowal, always
without the pronoun, though our translators have generally added it. There is no
necessity for one to be understood. In the quoted passage, they did not attempt
it. It ought not to be supplied when He thrice proclaims himself in Gethsemane
with such terrific effect. It is further vindicated. " I am the first and the last."
"The Living being." The periphrasis of «} OI xal S „ xxl S t^x^ivcs" is the
perfect Greek translation for the Jehovah, mir. The tsx«f^"s exceeds the simple
idea of being. It seems to imply the infinite activity of the Divine Nature. It
may answer to vnsiin. — Micah v. 2.

THE INCARNATE GOD VINDICATED. 131
and images were drawn, which had all the effect of exciting
attention, birt which commanded no influence of living and per
sonal events.
The argument, since this doctrine of the Shadow is not now
seriously asserted, has fallen into disuse. None deny, so far as
we have heard, that it was " His own body on the tree." We
have principally to differ with the Psilanthropist who maintains
that Christ was no more than man. Yet, in this matter, we may
not be quite free from the ancient error. Are we satisfied with
every statement of our Lord's humanity ? Do we glory in its
plain and frequent avowal ? Do we embrace the avowal without
regret, without limitation, without exception ? Do we as greatly
value the proofs that "He grew in wisdom," that he "learned
obedience by the things which he suffered," that he " marvelled,"
that he " begun to be amazed," as the glimpses of a higher
being ? Do we receive with perfect conviction, and share with
perfect gratulation, passages which speak of Jesus " a man
approved of God," which declare that the judgment is com
mitted to " that man whom He has ordained," which nakedly set
forth that the one Mediator between God and man is " the man
Christ Jesus ?" We have marked a disposition to slur over these
texts : a state of mind that evidently wished to extenuate them,
and that would not have mourned their suppression. And the
same error is repeated whenever our impressions of the Saviour's
sufferings are attempered by the recollections of an impassive
nature. We are bound to conceive of them in their utmost seve
rity, without abatement and relief. They were all that ordinary
humanity can undergo. Every peculiarity of His human condi
tion was but an increase and excitement of his griefs and pains.
If, therefore, we are tempted to wish an abridgment of the
testimonies to His manhood in its most certain truth, and in its
most perfect comprehension of all that manhood, as we know it,
involves, because we fear its incompatibleness with something
which we otherwise maintain, — if we more lightly survey His
privations, his conflicts, his tortures, his regard to life and his
aversion to death, because of any relative considerations, — we
need to be schooled again in this first principle of the doctrine

132 THE INCARNATE GOD VINDICATED.
of Christ, that he is properly, strictly, absolutely, man, in what
ever is peculiar and essential to man.
For here lies all the change, even at this supposition of the
case. If He be a Divine Person, he is incapable, in that per
son, of any change. But he may enter a new relationship. He
may impose on himself a singular responsibility. He became the
Son of man. That was a fact of a certain date and arrangement.
It had to be originated. Then in this, — is the peculiarity of
Christianity. Here commences the mystery of the gospel. It
is no new thing, no marvellous thing, that the higher nature
exists : but this is the tremendous property of our faith, that
the higher nature has bound itself, as no comparison can serve
in any wise to illustrate, to that which is infinitely inferior, to
that which, being a creature, must for ever continue finite. Chris
tianity does not rest on the Divinity of its founder, but on his
humanity as conjoined to Divinity.
The other part of the Proposition is, therefore, now to be
affirmed : —
2. That Messiah always possessed the Divine Nature while
he has assumed our own.
Though there may be none who argue from his Godhead
against the reality of his manhood, however it is to be feared that
too many extenuate it, it is most common to argue from his man
hood against his Godhead. That He is Divine we are not now
formally called to prove. You can bear witness that in this
pulpit it has been no neglected theme, nor reluctant topic. It
may be safely committed to scriptural teaching. It is demon
strated as far as plain avowal can go, or as necessary deduction
can carry it, or as general implication can express it. — Is not
avowal plain ? " He was God," He is " the mighty God," He
is " the great God," He is " God over all," He is " the true
God." He is Lord God Jehovah, the Lord of Hosts, the Lord
of glory, the Lord God of Israel. — Is not deduction resistless ?
He is the Almighty. He searcheth the reins and hearts. He is
the everlasting Father, or Father of the everlasting age, that is,
in the import of the idiom, the Eternal. He is the Fellow, or
Compeer, of the Avenger, whose sword awakes against him as

THE INCARNATE GOD VINDICATED. 133
the shepherd and the man. He is the thrice Holy. He filleth
all in all. He is the First and the Last. He spake by the pro
phets. — Is not implication inevitable ? Not in the language of
the prophets does he speak, " Thus saith the Lord," but in his
own announcement of rightful majesty, "Verily I say unto you."
There is the awful reference of the Deity when speaking of himself
as of another : The Son of man is come. The Son of man goeth.
That ye may know that the Son of man hath power to forgive
sins, — having suspended the power to do so on the bodily cure, — I
say unto thee, Arise. " The gospel," certifies Paul, " is not after
man : for I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it,
but by revelation of Jesus Christ." " For who hath known the
mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him ? But we have the
mind of Christ." " Know ye not that your bodies are the mem
bers of Christ ? For ye are bought with a price : therefore glorify
God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's."
This two-fold distinction and conjunction are to be kept in
view by us if we would "learn Christ:" and if we are asked
for the simple idea which should be embraced, while every other,
forsooth, must be made the subject of derision, — we ask in turn,
What is that unity which these objectors boast ? Where is that
singleness of conception for which they plead ? Is it not the law
of the human mind, and the necessity of its present state, that
our ideas should be crowded and intermixed, that they should
exist and operate in concrete ? And does it follow that there is
mental infirmity in these compounded ideas ? Are they not in
this quality the same with the things which they reflect ? Is not
the universe full of combinations ? Is not the generalising power
of the understanding its sublimest exercise ? Is Deity to be
known by us save in this cumulative way ? How unworthy and
cold is the abstracting and analytic process ! How energetic
and glowing is the associating and comprehensive ! Nor can it
be denied that it is, at least, as easy to disentangle the complex
ideas of two natures* as to detach from each other the ideas of
qualities inhering in one.
But there are not wanting those who condemn this as a
hypothesis put together in order to meet certain difficulties.

134 THE INCARNATE GOD VINDICATED.
They describe it as a key which was invented to give them a
plausible interpretation. Now were this a well-grounded charge,
we do not see how we should incur any blameworthiness. Here
is truth which we are required to find. There are confessed diffi
culties in every conclusion. Are we to overlook these difficulties,
and to compromise them ? We want the reconciling principle.
What does a sound philosophy urge ? To take the largest view,
a view which may reconcile difficulties without evading them, a
view so full and systematic that they may disappear before its
consistency. It is the inductive reasoning on which we thus pro
ceed. Apparent contrarieties exist in the material world. We
allow both classes of phasnomena, and then address ourselves
to their harmony. In this awful question, we rest upon the
facts of a divine and of a human nature predicated concerning
Jesus Christ. We discover that the characteristics of each are
ascribed to him. We must believe that as there is "one Lord
Jesus Christ," these respective characteristics, while they cannot
be confounded, do unite in him. We attempt no theory : we
yield to the simple exigence of the case. If two things can be
equally proved, it should be no ground of temptation to dispute
either, because we cannot amalgamate both.
In this manner we conduct the study of other supposed con
tradictions in Scripture. There are prophecies of a suffering and
of a conquering Messiah : he is to be slain and to be crowned, to
be rejected and to be acclaimed. There are different aspects pre
sented of Justification : it is asserted to be without works : it is
as strongly asserted to be by them. The determinate counsel
and fore-knowledge of God find their fulfilment by events in
which man takes a part of the freest agency. We may, or we
may not, seize the connecting link of representations like these :
in neither instance are they made the more or the less true, how
ever pleasant in itself would be that illustrating judgment.
No antecedent disproof can be raised against this union of
natures in the person of Christ. Is it impossible ? There are
things impossible. There are arithmetical, geometric, impossibi
lities. It is impossible to recall time and to undo fact. But you
are taken by the present enquiry out of the regions of necessary

THE INCARNATE GOD VINDICATED. 135
truths. It is a supposition of divine will and creative power.
Nothing, save our experience, is contravened. You might say,
arguing upon what you have known or might have anticipated,
that it was impossible that " the Eternal, the Immortal, the
Invisible," should ever have spoken, ever have appeared, to man,
— should have selected temporary vehicles for these purposes,
"walking in a tent," "dwelling in a cloud." He has clothed
himself with ensigns of power and majesty. This Incarnation
is without parallel, beyond expectation ; it is " in the end of
the world ;" it is " once ;" its glory requires, and consists in, its
uniqueness ; incontrovertibly its mysteriousness is great. May
there not be a moral fitness in the act ? Is it not a medium of
the most benevolent expression and interposition ? If intended
to open a communication and access between God and man, can
any be so intimate and approximating ? It is a Divine Conde
scension beyond mortal thought : the more probably true that
our imagination could not have visioned it !
But it is the inspired word which alone must decide it. We
have found all the perfections of Deity ascribed to Jesus Christ :
we have found all the finiteness of the creature, and that creature
man, borne by him. Such statements corroborate the different
parts of the Complex Proposition, " God was manifest in the
flesh." We do not repeat them. We are now in search of state
ments which will support the Proposition as a whole.
" The Word was God : the Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us." " Of the fathers concerning the flesh, Christ came,
who is God blessed for ever." " Who, being in the form of God,
thought it no robbery to be equal with God, but was made in
the likeness of man." " For in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the
Godhead corporeally." The humanity is in all these passages
treated as unnecessary to Him who assumes it, not belonging to
His nature ; while our amazement is summoned that he should be
seen in so unlikely a form, and in so humiliated a condition.
But this conjunction being revealed, we might reasonably
expect a uniform tenour of language : now, according to occa
sion, dwelling upon the original dignity : then, as suggestion may
arise, bringing forth more fully the subordinate rank : but always

136 THE INCARNATE GOD VINDICATED.
consistent in applying them to one Person, the only Mediator.
This must now be tried.
1. Titles of Divinity and Manhood are given to Him.
He is the Son of God, and the Son of man. The Virgin
hath conceived: her child is Immanuel, God with us. — "He was
in the bosom of the Father :" the Magi " saw the young child
with Mary his mother." — He is David's Root and Offspring, he
is David's Son and Lord. — " Say unto the cities of Judah, Be
hold your God :" " Then said Pilate unto them, Behold the
man." — He is the God of Abraham : he is Abraham's seed. —
" God sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh." — " God
sent forth His Son, made of a woman." — " When He cometh into
the world, he saith, a body hast thou prepared me." — He "liveth
and was dead :" he is " the Almighty." — He is " the man Christ
Jesus :" he is " God our Saviour." — Great stress is laid upon this
humanity as opposed to some other law or principle. " Accord
ing to the flesh." " Who in the days of his flesh." " Forasmuch
as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also himself
likewise took part of the same."
2. Attributes of Infinity and Limitation are ascribed to Him.
" No man hath ascended up to heaven, but He that came
down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven."
"He went in and out among us." — He is " a Man of sorrows :"
he is "Jehovah of hosts." He is "acquainted with grief:" he
is "God over all blessed for ever." — He is Advocate: he is
Judge. — " Of that day and of that hour knoweth not the Son :"
"Now are we sure that Thou knowest all things." — "Of my
ownself I can do nothing :" " My Father worketh hitherto and
I work." — " My doctrine is not mine :" " I am the way, the
truth, and the life." — " The first man is of the earth, earthy :
the second man is the Lord from heaven."
3. Representations of Self-sufficience and Dependence are
assigned to Him.
" Whose goings forth were of old, from everlasting :" "Unto
you is born this day a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord." — " I
have power to lay down my life, and I have power to take it
again :" " The Father hath given the Son to have life in him-

THE INCARNATE GOD VINDICATED. 137
self." — " Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it
up :" " He is by the right hand of God exalted." — " I and my
Father are one:" "My Father is greater than I." — "I sanctify
myself:" "Him hath God the Father sealed." — "I am the good
Shepherd :" " Why callest thou me good ?" — " Without Him
was not any thing made that was made :" He worships ! " By
Him all things consist :" He depends ! " All judgment is com
mitted to Him :" He obeys ! He feeds thousands by self-willing
power : He hungers ! His is " Divine Power :" He yields ! His
is "Majesty:" He intercedes!" He rescues from the grave : He
weeps ! He pardons sin : He supplicates ! He receives homage :
He gives thanks ! " He quickeneth whom He will :" He bows
the head and dies !
Yet is there always Self-vindication in his humblest acts.
Does He as in very limitation ask, " How many loaves have ye ?"
He by infinite power multiplies them. Does he ask, " Who
touched me?" He by a word heals the wound. Does he ask,
" Where have ye laid him ?" He by simple fiat raises the dead.
We never lose sight of Right and Power amidst the most abject
restrictions : they are near, they are at hand, they are ready, —
though in their quiescence and rest.
This great mystery of godliness, God the Son taking our
nature, is entitled a manifestation. We are not unaccustomed
to regard the Incarnate State of the Son as a mere condescension,
— a hiding of his power, a shrouding of his glory. But though
it is all this, it was his chosen method of revealing Deity. He
was the Brightness of the Father's glory : its essential emanation.
He was, also, mediatorially the image of the invisible God. He
declared Him, and was substituted for Him. He "spake that
which he had seen with his Father." He identifies himself with
his Father in co-ordinate rank and nature : " If ye had known
me, ye should have known my Father also : and from hence
forth ye know him, and have seen him." " He that hath seen
me hath seen the Father." Christ, then, is embodied Divinity.
We must conceive of It from Him. He becomes its type and
index. The truth, the purity, the benevolence, of that infinite
essence he exactly represents. It were foolish as profane to seek,

138 THE INCARNATE GOD VINDICATED.
to attempt, higher demonstrations. The light of the knowledge
of the glory of God is in the face of Jesus Christ. To know
the only true God is to know Jesus Christ, whom he hath sent.
As we cannot understand God who is a Spirit, God is manifest
in the flesh. It is the sensible copy, the transparent mirror, by
which He will be known. We need not ascend into heaven. We
need not delude ourselves as if we could define primordial and
abstract truths. We need not let our imaginations essay to soar
to more intense and ultimate perfections. The God with whom
we have to do, — Creator, Redeemer, Judge, — is to fill that space
in our judgments, and to command that share of our feelings,
which the character of our Lord Jesus Christ so justly claims.
We have no right to think of divine holiness, equity, goodness,
as of any other kind than as they are made known to us by " the
mind which was in Christ Jesus."
A manifestation* is a making clear of that which is difficult
and obscure. It is of frequent occurrence when the later Scrip
tures speak of Christ. " The Life was manifested, and we have
seen it : and show unto you that eternal Life which was with the
Father, and was manifested unto us." Now there were works
which He was to do, as well as revelations to unfold. " The
body of his flesh" was furnished for great peculiar ends. In this
He was manifested, made palpable to us : and by its doings and
sufferings all those ends were made palpable. He was " verily
foreordained a lamb without blemish and without spot, before
the foundation of the world." But for moral effect, as well as
for those ends, He must be known. Therefore " He was manifest
in these last times for us." " Ye know that He was manifested
to take away our sins ; and in him is no sin." This was the
principal design. Every other is comprehended in it. " For this
purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy
the works of the devil."
Nor let us suppose that this Manifestation was always unper-
ceived and unappreciated. He was actually recognised. " In
the beginning of miracles He manifested forth his glory ; and
his disciples believed on him." How often did His awe fall
May eg $aa/.

THE INCARNATE GOD VINDICATED. 139
upon them ! How often did rays of divinity burn around Him !
" We," they report, " beheld His glory, the glory as of the only-
begotten of the Father." It was beneath this dread impression
that Peter exclaimed, beholding his power and command, " De
part from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord." Late in his
avowal, Thomas invoked Him, " My Lord and my God."
Demons confessed Him and fled. Amidst the miracles of His
crucifixion, hardihood repented and sought an entrance into His
kingdom ; and stern violence, which had done death on Him,
yielded to his claims. Whatever may have been the doubt and
the vacillation of His followers, they had concluded, in spite of
all their prejudices and their fears : " We believe, and are sure
that Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." One signal
manifestation was there even of a sensible kind. Upon a high
mountain, in the presence of celestial delegates and earthly wit
nesses, His essential glory so streamed forth that he stood envi
roned in sun-like splendour, traces of which lingered upon him
after the vision had past, and he had returned to the plain : for
" straightway all the people, when they beheld him, were greatly
amazed, and, running to him, saluted him."*
Such, then, is this mystery ! Human nature, — not the nature
of angels, — is taken by Him, as the nature of those whom he came
to save, as that which had become a dying nature and in which
he would uncompulsorily die, as that nature the sensibilities of
which he would henceforth adopt as his own. It is the organ
of a glorious discovery, and the instrument of an infinite expia
tion. " Both He that sanctifieth, and they who are sanctified,
are all of one : for which cause he is not ashamed to call them
brethren." Surely shame like this no mere man could know in
so accounting his fellows : it is significant indeed, when we recall
the Messiah's divine disparity, his voluntary abasement, and how
he associated himself with them who were infinitely inferior, by
the adoption of their nature, and the undertaking of their cause.
It need not to be proclaimed as extraordinary, that creature deigns
to fraternise with creature : it is worthy of all astonishment and
gratitude that God should be manifest in the flesh, in order that
* Mark ix. 15.

140 THE INCARNATE GOD VINDICATED.
he may call us brethren. Well might He, in his original inde
pendence, have been ashamed of the relationship : but he is man
for the very purpose that he may so consider man !
But the agency of our Lord in his incarnate mission often
confounds us. That Deity should, by some inscrutable process,
attach itself to human personality, — that it should create that
being with the immediate design of taking it into eternal union,
— that Jehovah should resolve to express his character, and exer
cise his government, and declare his will, through such a medium,
— is a supposition which could not have occurred to man. It
must have been -doubted, had it most incidently risen in conjec
ture, had its probability grown out of any calculation, had it,
as the last suggestion, presented itself to our despair. It would
have been too bold to be contemplated, too dread to be desired,
too remote from the field of all our imaginations and compari
sons to be conceived. Whatever may be the design of this now
revealed fact, it is plain that it is an ultimate resource. No
measure can be higher, greater, more glorious, than this. Until
it was determined, nothing of Divine skill, and power, and love,
had reached its uttermost. They were not tried. You could not
have called the works of God, though all were made in wisdom,
and all were wrought by power, — the firmament with its worlds,
the universe with its firmaments, — the wisdom of God, and the
power of God. He fainted not, neither was weary, though he
acted still. His treasures of knowledge shone in all their store,
though he dispensed them still. His love kept full its fountain,
notwithstanding its countless streams. He still reserved infinity,
eternity, absoluteness, all his perfections, to himself. He did
not lavish them. With him all doing, however wonderful, — all
donative, however munificent, — was of facility and fulness and
redundance. But the Incarnation ! The uttermost was reached.
No fact could follow in any competition with it. There could be
no costlier gift, no grander display, no vaster effort. It was the
concentration. " Having yet One Son, his well-beloved," He
sent him, gave him ! " It pleased the Lord to bruise him !"
Now not only is this contrary to the prepossessions of men,
but being informed of it they do not reconcile themselves to its

THE INCARNATE GOD VINDICATED. 141
manner any more than to its truth. They ask, Where is the
God ? Blinding themselves to occasional sun-bursts of his ma
jesty, they dwell upon his common appearance of humiliation and
grief. How seldom do they hear the Voice of God, but accents
of distress, fainting, and despair ! How seldom do they behold
the Eye of God, but lids closed in slumber and wet with tears !
How seldom do they recognise the Arm of God, but hands bound
with cords and nailed to the cross ! Shall the Incarnate be
scourged, derided, smitten, — a robber preferred to him, — -sinking
beneath the engine of his death, — crucified between malefactors,
— spurned of earth, — forsaken of heaven ? Where is the Port
and Bearing of the Lord Most High ?
An exculpatory process is supposed by the Text. " He was
justified in the Spirit."
II. This fact of a divine incarnation in the person
OF CHRIST IS THE SUBJECT OF A SOLEMN VINDICATION.
Flesh and Spirit are opposed to each other as terms. The
Spirit is not made to stand for the human soul, for that is inclu
ded in the word flesh ; signifying all the constituents of humanity.
Nor does the Spirit intend the Third Person of the Trinity, for
there is antithesis, and the contrast must be found in the same
person respecting whom it is affirmed. God was manifest in the
flesh, in his flesh : was j ustified in the Spirit, in his Spirit. The
prepositions are the same, and the sentences are in parallelism.
We think that "the Spirit" must, therefore, be what "the
Flesh" is not. The Flesh denotes the whole manhood of Christ :
the Spirit can, then, only express what is not his manhood, that
is, His Divinity. Both are descriptive of His one person, rela
ted but unmixed.
Other passages of inspiration support this view. " Concern
ing His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed
of David according to the flesh ; and declared to be the Son of
God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resur
rection from the dead."* Is it not an explicit setting of things
most extreme against each other ? What representation of his
Divinity can there be so just as holiness, — and especially when
* Rom. i. 3, 4.

142 THE INCARNATE GOD VINDICATED.
we remember how the seraphim raised to him the acclaim of
Holy, holy, holy ? " How much more shall the blood of Christ,
who through the Eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to
God  ?"* Is not this the designed opposition of these mighty
differences ? The rightful power of his sacrifice and the cause of
all its dignity and efficacy ? What more appropriate description
can there be of His divinity than by its eternity? Does it not
mark its necessary independence ? " Christ hath once suffered for
sins, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:
by which also he went and preached unto the spirits- in prison;
which sometime were disobedient."-)- This seems decisive. He
revived and rose from the death of his humanity by the energy of
the Divine nature : that nature which had always existed, which
had warned and punished the antediluvian generation, the spirits
of which generation, for the rejection of His preaching, were
shut up in the prison of an endless retribution. How, then, we
proceed to enquire, is the Assurance of our Lord's Divinity, its
perfect evidence, the justification of all his acts and underta
kings during his manifestation in flesh among us ?
1. A Manner of very original Dignity and pre-eminent Au
thority was assumed by Jesus Christ.
Prophets of the highest order had preceded and foretold him.
A messenger had gone before His face, than whom among them
that are born of women there had not risen a greater. They
were carried away in the spirit : the word of the Lord came unto
them. Their cry was : Hear ye the word of the Lord. But
this Teacher spake in a tone altogether new. " The people
were astonished at His doctrine : for he taught them as one
having authority." "But I say unto you." "It is written in
your law that the testimony of two men is true. I am one that
bear witness of myself, and the Father that sent me beareth wit
ness of me." " As long as 1 am in the world, I am the light of
the world." "Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well;
for so I am." " He that receiveth whomsoever I send, receiveth
me." " Heaven and earth shall pass away ; but my words shall
not pass away." — Those ancient seers directed men, penitent and
* Heb. ix. 14. f 1 Pet. iii. 18—20.

THE INCARNATE GOD VINDICATED. 143
seeking, not to themselves but to God. This Prophet calls them
to himself for comfort and relief. " If any man thirst, let him
come unto me and drink." " Come unto me all ye that labour
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." " Him that
cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out." — They disclaimed
all personal homage. He enforces the exercises of mind which
are most religiously sacred. "Believe also in me." " If a man
love me, my Father will love him, and we will come unto him
and make our abode with him." " If any man will serve me, let
him follow me." " That all men should honour the Son even as
they honour the Father." — They turned away attention from
themselves. He riveted it upon his person. " Whom do men
say that I am ?" " Dost thou believe on the Son of God ?"
"What think ye of Christ ?" "What and if ye shall see the Son
of man ascend up where he was before?" — They postpone their
own glory. He is intent upon his. " Father glorify thy Son."
" Father I will that those whom thou hast given me be with me
where I am, that they may behold my glory." — They speak of
themselves with every disparagement. His appeals are most
lofty. "The Son of man is Lord of the sabbath." "One standeth
here who is greater than the temple." " I am the resurrection
and the life." — They aspire to nothing but simple human acts,
nor exceed their burden and vision. He can say, " Thy sins are
forgiven thee." " To-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise." —
They prophesied of him. To him gave all the prophets witness.
The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. But it was
" the Spirit of Christ which was in them, testifying beforehand
the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow." — All
this is inexplicable if he be one of the prophets, if he even be
only their chief. Does a vein of assertions like these comport
with him who is meek and lowly in mind, who did not strive
nor cause his voice to be heard in the street, who would not bear
witness of himself, were he only man ? On such a supposition,
Is his language cautiously weighed ? Is his conduct unequivocal ?
Must no false impression be transferred to auditor and reader ? —
But how is He "justified in the Spirit !" By the demonstration
of his Deity ! How lucid becomes the dark saying ! How valid

144 THE INCARNATE GOD VINDICATED.
the dubious pretension ! How reasonable the startling claim !
Our wonder henceforth is, that His bearing could be so gentle
and mild, that his glory could be so restrained and softened, that
so little claim should have been advanced, that so little deference
should have been challenged ! So, on the other hand, we shud
der at innumerable expressions and aspirations, on any hypothesis
that they were those of the highest man or of the most exalted
creature !
2. Jesus Christ was punished with Death under the Accu
sation of Blasphemy.
The law of Moses contained a precept which was doubtless
in the minds of his accusers when they sought to slay him, but
which could not bear any but a very forced construction if ap
plied to him. " He that blasphemeth the name of the Lord, he
shall surely be put to death." This was the actual statute which
they most probably cited when they said : " We have a law, and
by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of
God." They did not deny that there was a Son of God, — their
own Scriptures prepared them to admit it, — but they would not
believe that the present claimant was he. Now here was the legal
issue. Was it proved, or could it be refuted ? He had declared
himself to his disciples, and to some of the subjects of his mira
culous deliverance. He had not precipitated the announcement :
indeed he had long forbade its report. It was sometimes wrung
from forms of speech which, though they might bear, could not
compel, such meaning. Did He call God his Father ? " There
fore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he said that
God was his Father, making himself equal with God." This
was, however violent the interpretation, the arraignment from
which he must defend himself, or which he must justify. Solemn
is the Inquest, both National and Procuratorial, Ecclesiastical
and Civil. The Oath is exacted of him by the high priest : " I
adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou be
the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast
said." "Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed? And
Jesus said, I am." Pilate, who had marvelled greatly at the
mien and language of the prisoner, on hearing that he avowed

THE INCARNATE GOD VINDICATED. 145
himself the Son of God, " was the more afraid." He is doomed
to crucifixion upon this charge. The infuriate rabble reviled
Him in his agonies : " He trusted in God ; let him deliver him
now, if he will have him : for he said, I am the Son of God."
The pretext of his death was this boasted coequality. He con
fessed it. It is reduced to this awful proof. The accompanying
miracles of his death so impressed the Centurion that the Suf
ferer was that which he now died to prove himself to be, that he
exclaimed, Truly this was the Son of God. His resurrection
was his public inauguration : " God glorified his Son Jesus." A
public assertion was made of his Sonship : " Thou art my Son :
this day have I begotten thee," or avowed thy generation. " But
unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever."
What but this essential Deity could bear out the assumption of
his life and death ? We see how he was understood in making
that claim, how he sanctioned that understanding, how he per
sisted in it, how he avouched it amidst the grave and judicial
forms which were to put all to the final proof. Had he, — hard
as is the thought, — not been God, where, where, could be the
vindication of even his integrity ? Where would be the injus
tice of his fate ?
3. Imposture was laid to the Charge of Jesus Christ.
The expectation of the Messiah was general. He was de
scribed in ancient prophecy. The time in which he should
appear, the attributes by which he should be distinguished, the
works in which he should be engaged, are all set forth. No
common tributes are poured out at his feet. No scanty honours
are wreathed around his head. Though He of Nazareth did not
publish his appropriation of this office with needless notoriety,
yet his claim to it was always unambiguous. " I that speak
unto thee am he." He received approvingly this suffrage. Thus
Nathaniel honours him : " Thou art the Son of God, thou art
the King of Israel." Thus Peter declares him : " Thou art the
Christ, the Son of the living God !" In the first instance it is
accepted as an act of faith : " Believest thou ?" In the second it
is followed by more than commendation : " Blessed art thou, for
flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father

146 THE INCARNATE GOD VINDICATED.
which is in heaven !" " Devils came out from many, crying out
and saying, Thou art Christ, the Son of God, for they knew that
he was Christ." His entrance into Jerusalem with humble tri
umph, his good confession before the Governor, both by symbolic
action and oral protest, bound him to the awful trust. And
what was comprehended in Messiahship ? Even his contempo
raries, though their eyes were blinded and their ears were heavy,
connected with it a mysterious origin : " When Christ cometh,
we know not whence he is." They attributed to it a large revela
tion : "When Christ cometh he will teach us all things." Peruse
the testimonies which were of old. He must be the Woman's
seed. All type must converge in him. All prophecy must coin
cide with him. He must be Messiah the Prince. He must be
Jehovah our righteousness. He must be Ruler in Israel. He
must be the Desire of all nations. He must be the Lord who
shall suddenly come to his temple. How could we clear the man
of sacrilege who should arrogate such large pretensions, such
glorious titles, such Divinity, to himself? Allow that Jesus was
God, and his " right it is." He takes easy possession of all.
There is no exaggeration. He is preferred before those whom
in order he " comes after," because, in eternal existence, he was
"before them." He was "justified in the Spirit."
4. Jesus Christ undertook Mediatorial Suretyship and Re
presentation. He was in this capacity a servant of the Father : he stood in
the stead of sinners. Divine claim was actually infinite : human
demerit was relatively so. He was held in the arrest of justice:
he was obnoxious for sin. He undertook for us. He was to find
the ransom. Now of Him we learn that he saw no corrup
tion, that it was not possible that he should be holden of death.
The efficacy of his atonement ensures his vindication. " He was
brought again from the dead by the blood of the everlasting cove
nant." " He was raised by the glory of the Father," that is,
because of the honour redounding to the Father by the sacrifice
of the cross. But how could this merit be in the creature, finite,
dependent ? Where in the creature are these astonishing pow
ers? What could authorise or enable him to interpose ? Could he

THE INCARNATE GOD VINDICATED. 147
remove one moral stain ? But holding the Deity of the victim all
is assured. How immaculate his obedience ! How availing his
sacrifice ! What infinite considerations stamp the meritoriousness
of both ! " The church of God, which he hath purchased with
his own blood !" " The blood of Jesus Christ, the Son, cleanseth
us from all sin !" " He hath for ever perfected all them who obey
him !" His Divinity absolves, and he is justified in it !
5. Jesus Christ bore the Imputation, and was subjected to
the Stigma, of Human Guilt.
Though his Mission was to do his Father's will, though in its
conduct the Father loved him because he laid down his life, yet
was his apparent state, though really the most glorious, in the
sight of all intelligent creatures the most dishonoured. He was
made sin. He became a curse. The Lord laid upon him the ini
quities of us all. He was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Hell raged against him. Deep groans of anguish proclaimed his
mental conflict. In his death he cried with a loud voice, " My
God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me ?" From what
causes might such abasements be suspected to arise ? Why this
load of obloquy and storm of wrath ? Were they personal liabil
ities and merited disgusts ? But if all be substitutionary, could
a creature have entered such a breach ? Must he not be con
sumed at once ? How could he be expurgated of such a vica
rious account ? Allow the Deity of Christ, and what shadow
can rest upon him ? Peremptory was his right so to act. Infal
lible was his pledge so to succeed. Suspicions of him were not
even momentary obscurations of the light in which there is no
darkness at all ! He was the Holy One and the Just. He was
Christ Jesus the righteous. He has put away sin. He has
brought in everlasting righteousness. Who but He could have
taken such a part ? But he is acquitted ! He shall be for ever
honoured! Worthy is the Lamb that was slain!. He is justified,
but only in the Spirit, his essential Deity !
6. The Methods which the Saviour pursued for the Accom
plishment of his Ends seemed unlikely and ineffective.
Transcendent was the task confided to Him. It involved the
support of the divine honour, the overthrow of evil, a consistent

148 THE INCARNATE GOD VINDICATED.
ground of mercy, a denouncement of sin to the pardoned sinner.
It was to build up the waste places of the creation. It was to
set God right with the universe. In the prosecution of this
glorious design we observe no march of power, no sway of
authority, no train of state. The manger and the cross are the
extreme points of a series corresponding to them. His friends
wondered, grieved, and fled. His enemies goaded him forward.
Satan rejoiced. How offensively and foolishly imbecile seemed the
means! But He made them avail! They were really wise, fitting,
mighty, and He selected them and wielded them ! How does
Omnipotence vibrate through them all ! He travels in the great
ness of his strength along this mysterious path ! He gathers
victory of weakness, honour of reproach, glory of shame ! The
methods, which appear so strange, in His hands become great
and suitable and triumphant. He is justified in their use
through his Godhead. To the creature the means would be as
unserviceable as the ends were insupposeable.
7- Certain Promises were made by the Son of God to his
People, which must always have tested his Power to fulfil them.
There is a strain in them most bold. They grasp unknown
interests, and ages, and worlds. They convey an impression of
rights and properties the most extraordinary. They are rested
upon his own execution of them. They breathe no air of earth:
they speak no power of man. "Where two or three are gathered
together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." " Lo
I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." " I will
come again unto you, and take you to myself." " I give unto
my sheep eternal life ; and they shall never perish, neither shall
any man pluck them out of my hand." " Because I live, ye shall
live also." " I will send the Holy Spirit unto you." " If ye
shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it." " I come quickly ;
and my reward is with me." How can such engagements consist
with finite presence and mortal power ? How vain must be these
boasts if he be but man ! Take the converse. " God was mani
fest in the flesh." What too large, too glorious, was there for
him to promise ? to perform ? He is justified,- however boundless
the pledge, in the fact of his Deity

THE INCARNATE GOD VINDICATED. 149
8. The Dispositions and Exercises of Mind which the
Redeemer inculcated on his Disciples in respect of himself, may
create a strange Suspense.
They are religious affections, and the same as we owe to the
Supreme. We must " come after him :" " confess him :" " leave
all for him :" " lay down our life for his sake." We are required
to trust in him, to learn of him, to love him, to serve him. When
we read the language concerning him, we note its lofty fervour.
" The love of Christ, which passeth knowledge." " The un
searchable riches of Christi" " Grace be with all who love the
Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity." " If any man love not the
Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha." Are
these the deserts of the creature ? Are they not arrogant de
mands ? They are justified by that in which He only can be
justified, — the essential Spirit of Godhead. "The Lord, he is
the God ! The Lord, he is the God !"
And thus, Dear Christians, we see that it is no light thing,
no barren speculation, for which we contend. It is not even a
doctrine invaluable in itself. Its relative importance to the
Christian system is of the most serious kind. It is the life, the
strength, the glory, of the whole. The credibility of the gospel
is suspended upon it. Nothing is so naked, so unmeaning, as
the Cross without the Divinity of Jesus, — nothing is so mighty
in interest, so magnificent in glory, as the Cross with it.
But let us be satisfied with the Mystery of godliness. It is a
mystery, ungratuitous, necessary, essential : it is only what it
cannot but be. To the Deity is it known, but it is large as
omniscience and omnipotence. It lies not in the circle of Infinite
Thought and Will as a smaller thing ; as that which is readily
contained in it becomes immeasureably less, — it fills it ! But
there is an attempt among men to detect mystery where it does
not exist, to make that mysterious which cannot be so trans
formed. Instead of allowing their minds to be engrossed with
that beyond which angels do not suffer a thought to stray, they
busy themselves with the recondite symbolism of edifices and the
typic import of rites. They quarrel with the obvious and the
direct : with statement and declaration. Their minds crave mys-

150 THE INCARNATE GOD VINDICATED.
tery ! They1 demand scope for it ! Their higher wanderings of
sentiment must not be checked ! It is for them to say whither
they soar and what they discover. We might in charity rate
their visions higher, did they not trammel themselves with trifles
small and mean. But when we are informed that posture, gar
ment, painting, are instruments of these rapt dreams — that there
is a charm in a colour, that there is a religion in a certain style
of architecture, that there is a sanctity in a particular quarter of
the sky, — when such poor rhapsody as this is what they vaunt,
we see at once the distinction between mystery and mysticism,
between what God discloses of simple grandeur and man affects
of empty pomp. All this reserve, this device, this shadowing,
this allegory, this aenigma, belongs to " the mystery of iniquity:"
it is its appropriate apparatus, its characteristic medium, its dark
ness visible, its tyranny garbed. It is the excuse for the lack of
thought ; it is the soothing of mind into blind submission ; it is
the gilding of the chain whose iron eats into the soul. The
Mystery of the gospel lifts up the mind to its fullest capacity :
the mystery of darkness forbids all intellectual exercise, and puts
a very merit into its suspension. At the proposition of the first,
our understanding springs up and swells : at the show of the
second, it sinks into impotence and drivelling. The one is asso
ciated with a sound mind : the other with an imbecile superstition.
Oh how abject is the pretence that the human mind wants mys
tery, — how hypocritical to invent the very toys to feed it, — when
the great Mystery is disfigured by their littleness and obscured
by their doting !
In the matter of the only Mystery worthy of the" name, the
Mystery of godliness, we are not taken by surprise. Every other
sinks as into nothing before its presence. It is foretold us that
it is a great mystery. The announcement coincides with the cha
racter of Him who is its subject. He is the Wonderful. No one
knoweth who the Son is but the Father. Every step of such a
Being must be in darkness. Let him cover himself with light as
with a garment, — only is he the more difficult of vision. But
has the alternative been considered by those who taunt us with
our excessive credulity ? A man deified and worshipped ! A

THE INCARNATE GOD VINDICATED. 151
man the universal judge ! Invested with all power in heaven
and in earth ! Sharing the throne of the Father ! Attracting the
praise of angelic hosts and of redeemed throngs ! Is this simple
and happy? Is this the perfect abhorrence of the difficult and the
absolute dread-of the obscure ? Our part is taken. Our choice is
fixed. Be it, that we are enslaved to the superstition of confessors
and martyrs, apostles and prophets, — be it, that we are strangers
to the charms and prospects of a free-thinking philosophy, — be
it, that we halt behind the spirit and illuminations of the age, —
be it, that we are fools for Christ's sake ! The mystery which
others treat with scorn, we survey with adoration. Instead of
being ashamed of it, we glory in it. The shallows of others may
please them ; the depths, the depths, without soundings and with
out shores, for us ! Such mysteries might be expected from the
purpose of an eternity, they might be expected from the combina
tion and sympathy of the divine attributes, they might be expected
from the common subordination of all earthly events and ages,
they might be expected from the astonishment of the highest
intelligences of the universe, they might be expected from the
complacency and delight of the Deity, his boast and exultation !
We do not attach more wondrousness to the theme than the
Scriptures constantly labour to do. We cannot attach to it the
interest with which heaven always regards it. What we under
stand by the Mystery is infinitely less than what the Mystery
means. But it shall open for ever ! We feel it true to our
nature to follow on to know the Lord. Its best aspirations kindle
at the hope. Its wings seem to stretch themselves, as with a
strong instinct, for the rapture. Finite, we are made to fly
towards the infinite. Our immortality dictates it. And since the
reasonableness of all our future being must depend upon a suf
ficient study and employment, here we find a scale for its eternal
expatiations ! Thou Mystery of godliness, be to us a theme
for endless thought and song ! Thou God manifested in thy
manhood, Thou Man justified in thy Godhead, we will give
thanks unto thee for ever!

SERMON VII.

THE RESEMBLANCE OF MELCHISEDEK
TO CHRIST.

Heb. vii. 21.

" The Lord sware and will not repent, Thou art a Priest for
ever after the Order of Melohisedek."
There is something very solemn in the thought that a man shall
be lifted above his generation, moulded distinct from all his con
temporaries, and thus stand out, not in respect of his own inte
rest, but with a reference to some personage of a remote futurity,
— a pledge that he shall arise, a portraiture of his character and
a specimen of his history. These instances are but few, and only
appear in relation to Him who was to come, and to the purposes
of his mission. Prophet does not announce and foreshadow pro
phet. Christ only is thus predicted and prefigured. And this
must always be remembered that, in examining the narrative of
them who thus were appointed to signify Him beforehand, we
are bound to connect all these indications primarily with the per
sons themselves. They run their course of living and responsible
acts. They may be quite unconscious that they are harbingers
of that expected one. They may never have passed in imagi
nation beyond their individual and relative obligations. And
equally must it be remembered that, in the direction given to
their character and history, no possible violence is done to their
liberty. The Spirit of a sound mind only developes the native
germ and element by consistent motive and under intelligent
influence. But we behold them in their proper stations and at
their distant intervals, the mute yet the not less expressive, the
dim yet the not less certain, types which anticipate and represent

THE RESEMBLANCE OF MELCHISEDEK TO CHRIST. 153
the Son of God. Their faces are ever turned to Him. We recog
nise his progress from their peculiar bias and attitude, as from
flowers we can dial the course of the sun. From their place and
manifestation we learn his approach, as from the position of the
stars during the night we can compute the morrow's dawn. So
regarding them, how interesting is the narrative of all their cir
cumstances and deeds ! We follow them, with renewed pleasure
and with labouring suspense, from scene to scene. However
minute the transaction, it is full of meaning. These ancients are
invested with a mysteriousness that not only awakens our curi
osity but commands our awe. But how dull becomes the tale,
how trivial the biography, when this application is denied ! It
is an obtrusion of littleness on our attention. The humble cit
izen is arrayed in royal attire. The domestic hearth is kindled
into a public beacon. Nothing, however, can be inconsiderable,
nothing indifferent, nothing too incidental, nothing too personal,
when all is but the index to a Saviour, for whom are all things,
— when all is but the uplifted signal of an Event unparalleled in
the annals of time and the revolutions of eternity. Hence our
sympathy with men who otherwise would be very inferior figures
of the historic stage : who could never have attained, for any
other reason, to niche or pedestal in the temple of fame. But
when we ask them each, — " Art thou He that should come ?"
they all enjoin and all assist us to look for another. Their testi
mony is unanimous, " I am not the Christ. He it is, who coming
after me is preferred before me." They cast not their own
shadow. They live not to themselves.
It is very important, in all these examinations, to hold fast
as a first principle that the correspondence which is supposed
is not of the' Messiah to any earlier personages, but of them to
Him. He is the Prototype. Theirs only is the conformity.
Like the morning-planet that announces- and catches the first
light df the sun, these herald and reflect Him to whom they are
so mysteriously bound. And we might suppose that there was
something almost arbitrary in the appointment of these represen
tatives of the Messiah. As in the selection of his apostles, " He
called unto him whomsoever he would." But wisdom, fitness,

154 THE RESEMBLANCE OF
and moral arrangement, shine most distinctly in their mission.
The correspondence is always easy, natural, and fixed. New
images are presented of the Original: reiterated preludes of
warning and announcement resound along the line of march, and
proclaim the hastening approach of the Deliverer !
Type is not so frequently an intelligent, moral, accommo
dation and coincidence, as artificial parallelism of rite and usage.
It is not so often of persons as of things. But the scope may be
complex : there may be the bold relief of the man along with the
mystic purport of the institution. Both combine in the Text.
Priesthood is shown to attach to the Saviour and to be intended
to describe his mediatorial undertaking : that priesthood is fur
ther specified as following the pattern of a particular priest. This
is the method of our Discourse.
I. We SEE IN THE OFFICE OF PRIESTHOOD AN IDEA AND A
PRINCIPLE WHICH EXCLUSIVELY BEAR UPON THE INCARNATE
MANIFESTATION AND REDEEMING WORK OF JESUS CHRIST.
From the beginning the function of offering sacrifice was
known and practised. The individual might act it for himself.
It soon became vicarious. It grew into a service and a dignity.
It widely, if not universally, obtained. Where it is now unknown,
a Deity is not acknowledged, and both ideas have evidently
been lost, and must have declined together. It is still most com
monly recognised. The conception of its meaning and design is
easily received. It pervades every form of language and every
association of thought. The characteristics of this ministration
can only just be enumerated; though the enumeration, we must
bear in mind, has exclusive respect to the revealed and heaven-
ordained priesthood.
It was religious. All adoration and piety were founded upon
it. They only acquired rule and acceptance in it. They were
mere sentiments and performances of will-worship without its
sanctity and sanction.
It was representative. He who was invested with it was
"ordained for men in things pertaining to God." But this was
not all : he was rather appointed between heaven and the people,
than between the people and heaven.

MELCHISEDEK TO CHRIST. 155
It was divinely conferred. " No man taketh this honour
unto himself; but he that is called of God." It was regulated
by the strictest provisions. Tribe and family were the security
for the directness of its succession and the authority of its
discharge. It was imparted by solemn induction. The candidate must
pass through many ceremonials the most solemn and impressive.
He must repair to the laver and to the altar : he must be com-
purgated by sacrifice and anointed by chrism. His unworthiness
and his accountability were enforced on his mind by these hum
bling and consecrating preparations.
It resolved itself into invariable duties.
1. To offer sacrifice. " Every high priest is ordained to offer
gifts and sacrifices." " Gifts" were oblations of a votive and
eucharistic kind : " sacrifices" were the inflictions of death upon a
victim with confession of sin and hope of expiation. The flowers
which grew just on the border of Eden might suffice for the one :
the firstlings of the earliest folded flock were demanded for the
other. Cain could present his wreaths and clusters with an
unbroken heart and unbelieving boast: Abel, in the "fuller
sacrifice" of the palpitating and bleeding lamb, proved his con
sciousness of guilt and that he looked beyond himself for an
atonement. But this rite is most singular.
— It cannot have originated in any human reasoning. As
a substitution, how could that which is incapable of sin be
accepted in room of the sinner ? As a compensation, how could
animal suffering, apart from all the proper effects of evil on a
moral nature, be allowed to counterweigh the just penalty of the
law ? As an attraction, how could a Divine complacency be
imagined in a waste of life given to be enjoyed, and, though
always intended to be perishable, unforfeited by sin ? What is
there in the operations of Nature to favour the idea ? What is
there in the analogies which ever raise themselves between our
intellectual convictions and material impressions ? What is there
in our ordinary conceptions and judgments ? It is something
strange, to our first view unlikely, and which is to be forced upon
us. Say, that all nations agree in it, — that does not establish its

156 THE RESEMBLANCE OF
spontaneous suggestion. Every nation records it as a prescribed
and revealed means of propitiation. It existed beyond the
memory of any people. Grant that it is a discovery of Infinite
Wisdom, and all is plain and consistent. It was made known in
its original purity of meaning and exercise. Truth was forsaken,
but its form was not altogether lost in the dispersion of man.
The light of tradition was refracted most perversely, but it was
not entirely quenched.
— It cannot be justified but upon some indemnifying prin
ciple. We immediately allow the right of the Creator over all
that he has made. " For every beast of the forest is mine, and
the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all the fowls of the
mountains: and the wild beasts of the field are mine." But this
very claim prepares us for his ulterior demand : " Will I eat the
flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats ?" His tender mercies
are over all his works. Towards the meanest creature, even the
most short-lived, he deals in considerate and lavish benignity:
" Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of
them is forgotten before God ?" " Doth God take care for
oxen?" "And should I not spare Nineveh, that great city,
wherein are more than six-score thousand persons that cannot
discern between their right hand and their left hand? and also
much cattle ?" It cannot be the caprice of power. But if some
high principle of His government be meditated, if an infinite
amount of spiritual happiness be thus secured, if the salvation of
man, for whose benefit all these inferior tribes were produced, be
manifestly involved, then, what is the expense of their life and
blood, — falling as this expense most assuredly does under the
condition of original being,* — in comparison of ends which can
* It is to be regretted that many, in reading this passage, " Wherefore as by one
man sin entered into the world, and death by sin," — though it is limited by the
following sentence, " so death passed upon all men," — have thus thought to explain
the death of the inferior animals. They argue that these die because of our sin.
It is a supposition to make the mocker strong. For we find organic remains of
unknown creatures, whose existence must have been long anterior to the present
condition and use of our planet. Is it not an absurdity to hold the immortality, or,
which is the same thing, the deathlessness, of the insect and the worm ? The
revolution is not in them but in ourselves. They die as they would always die.

MELCHISEDEK TO CHRIST. 157-
only heed them as the merest accessories or the humblest illus
trations ?
— It cannot be maintained for its possession of any inherent
virtue. Sin presents a most serious evil. No language can
express its enormity. Its just, its condign, desert, no thought
can conceive. There is no bolt of " tribulation, wrath, and
anguish," but it necessarily draws down upon itself. To mark
the abhorrence in which He holds it, God makes its "plagues
wonderful." But if the sacrificial institute had been designed to
terminate on itself, had it been of itself a complete system, no
contrivance could have been more calculated to extenuate our
views of sin. If it could " make the comers thereunto perfect,"
if after the offering there was " no more conscience of sin," if
this was an atonement absolutely sufficient, the heinousness of all
offence against the Divine law could only be an exaggerated re
presentation. It is a most unfounded assertion that moral offence
was never contemplated by ancient sacrifice. If man " did not
well," " the sin offering couched at the door."* The idolatry at
the base of Sinai was so included : " Moses said unto the people,
Ye have sinned a great sin : and now I will go up unto the Lord ;
peradventure I shall make an atonement for your sin." Dif
ferent social crimes are mentioned as possibly committed by a
man, — " if he lie unto his neighbour, or take a thing away by
violence, or swear falsely." Is he debarred ? " He shall bring
his trespass-offering unto the Lord : and the priest shall make an
atonement for him before the Lord : and it shall be forgiven him
for any thing of all he hath done in trespassing therein ."¦(- But
could such offerings be truly received commutatively and piacu-
larly for sin ? We know that they could only " sanctify to the
purifying of the flesh." " It is not possible that the blood of
bulls and of goats should take away sins."
It is their law : " the beasts that perish." We are now, by the demerits and con
sequences of sin, "like" them. If there had been no death, how could the menace
have been understood ? " Thou shalt surely die :" the example was general and
notorious. In short, the animals do not die because man sinned, but because man
sinned he must die even as the animals. This is not the place to show how much
more is included in his death.
* Gen. iv. 7. f Lev. vi. 1—7-

158 THE RESEMBLANCE OF
— It cannot be vindicated but as the prospective memorial of
some great explanatory and absorbing fact. The terms are mul
tiplied. Satisfaction, Expiation, Redemption, Ransom, Propi
tiation, and Atonement, are found in the ancient Sacrificature,
either implied or affirmed ; and every description is repeated of
the oblations, — the trespass, the sin, the burnt, the whole burnt,
the peace, offerings. Now we find counterparts of these terms in
that latter part of Scripture which is history, in contradistinction
to allusion, shadow, and prophecy. In one portion of the New
Testament, the Epistle from which the text is selected, — which
might not improperly be called the book of the Christian Levi
ticus, — the points of resemblance are formally argued and the
correlative systems minutely compared. Similar phraseology is
adopted, the purport of it is rigidly examined, and what was
but figure is now retained as the strict exponent of truth and
fact. The ritual which had lasted four thousand years is demon
strated to have no self-existence and sufficiency : its sacrificial
and sacerdotal appointments are made to determine in Christ.
There never was an actual sacrifice but His : there never was a
proper priest but He. A uniform style of reasoning occurs in
the other sacred writings. The death of the cross, "the de
cease accomplished at Jerusalem," is the only interpretation and
warrant of all the costly and fearful apparatus of the ancient
law. The Hebrew Pontiff was the living witness of that dispen
sation. He expressed its genius and embodied its character.
All his duties and badges were distinctive. The temple was his
home. The altar was his charge. The ephod was his authority.
He was separate from all that was common and unclean. His
life was a holy devotement. And when the annual day of
atonement broke, that sabbath of sabbaths, then the expiations of
the year seemed condensed, every image which could convey the
thought of forgiveness was elaborated, and Israel was taught the
doctrine of that " Blood which cleanseth us from all sin." The
manner in which the offered blood was at different times applied
is most worthy of notice : now it was sprinkled on the Mercy-
Seat, and then upon the People.

MELCHISEDEK TO CHRIST. 159
The Messiah is the antitype. " He has come a high priest
of good things to come." His temple was his own Body. His
altar was his own Divinity. His ephod was his own Authority.
Yet in abasement and oeconomic subordination, " He glorified
not himself to be made a high priest." The blood of his sacrifice
realises the two-fold use of the emblem : it is the blood of sprink
ling, — toward the Divine Throne for its honour and vindication,
for its exercises of justice and mercy, — toward the penitent sinner
for his relief and hope, for his obedience of faith and love.
2. To present Intercession. The priests, the ministers of the
Lord, might weep between the porch and the altar : but our
attention is turned to an advocacy more efficacious and direct.
The high priest went alone into the Holiest once every year.
There he stood with the vessel of the victim's blood in the one
hand and with the censer of frankincense in the other. He
bowed in breathless adoration. No form of words did he repeat.
Silent, significant, actions were his only prayer. The breastplate
was " on his heart," and its gems burnt beneath the glory-cloud.
Yet to the waiting multitude assurance was given of his dread
employment. " His sound was heard." The sweet chime of
the bells which hung from his skirt testified his every movement.
He was arrayed and appointed to entreat for all the tribes. He
was empowered by sacrifice. This gave him his right of access
and his weight of plea.
" We have such a High Priest who is set on the right hand
of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens." His sacrifice is
single and complete. It cannot be repeated. But it is conti
nually presented. " He now appeareth in the presence of God
for us." He need not beseech. Utterance is not required. He
hath entered into the heavenly places not without blood. The
heavenly things themselves have been purified by that blood.
He is a Lamb as it had been slain, newly immolated, yet living
with all the wounds of recent slaughter, " standing in the midst
of the throne." And surely it is strange that this perpetual
intercession should be accounted by any as derogatory from the
efficacy of his death. Honour is thus accorded to it as the
constant basis of mercy. It is a ceaseless remembrance and cele-

160 THE RESEMBLANCE OF
bration of the cross. It is the triumph of the atonement in the
acknowledgment of its claims and the diffusion of its virtues.
When this " Blood speaketh," — importunity and vehemence can
not describe its voice, — suggestion and argument cannot explain
its appeal, — it is intercession and not demand, advocateship and
not challenge, — but then it is only as a deference to the eternal
principles and rights of holiness and justice, as the confession
that such a gracious arrangement need not have been allowed,
and as the orderly succession of claims founded on an infinite
desert. It is the sign and the force of His " unchangeable
priesthood." Beautiful is the invitation of the Father to the
Son : "Ask of me !" Unfailing are the assurances of Jesus to
his people : " Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name,
he will give it you." "Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name,
that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son."
The Sacred Writings, so far from supporting the idea that the
intercession of Christ bears unfavourably upon the honour of his
death, reason in exactly the contrary way: "Wherefore He is
able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him,
seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for us."
3. To pronounce Benediction. " The Lord separated the
tribe of Levi to bless in his name."* " Aaron lifted up his hand
toward the people, and blessed them."-f- The language is pre
served. \ It seems the outline of Christian formula. But it was
not to be given until the sacrifice had bled and until the incense
was kindled. The more painful and anxious ministrations were
first to be accomplished. During their performance he was clo
thed in his most common garb. Only in that linen tunic was he
admitted within the veil. It was a day of mourning. All re
minded of sin and called to contrition. But the atonement being
made, the intercession being accepted, he came forth from his
dread retirement, and prepared to appear before the people in all
the sumptuous habiliments of his office : the robe of embroidery,
the binding of woven work, the hem of blue and purple and
scarlet, " the curious girdle" of gold and fine twined linen, the
golden plate of the mitre, the holy crown glittering above all.
* Deut. x. 8. f Lev. ix. 22. + Numb. vi. 23, &c.

MELCHISEDEK TO CHRIST. 161
Then, standing at the gate of the temple, he poured forth this
benison of deep meaning and presage upon the bending crowd,
who were praying without and awaiting his return.
Our Lord, clothed in the days of his flesh with poverty and
humiliation, seen in the form of a servant and the fashion of a
man, having laid aside the ensigns of his glory, — has now gone
into heaven. His array on earth was for abasement, for sacrifice.
" Many were astonished at him." He is now within the veil, and
the heaven has closed upon him as the curtain hid the most holy
place. His intercession there is the cause and source of all spiri
tual blessings. We saw him pass from the altar of the cross, his
vesture dipped in blood, to the penetralia of the celestial temple
with its throne and its ark and its glory. Even then he lifted up
his hands and blessed us : and while he blessed us he was parted
from us. He " has for us entered" that mysterious chamber,
" into heaven itself." The perfect benediction remains, then, to
be vouchsafed. " To them who look for him shall He appear
the second time without a sin-offering unto salvation." He shall
come in his glory. He shall be girded with the richest garments
of his excellent ministry. He shall cover himself with all his
honours and surround himself with all his angels. But it shall
be a priestly act. It is his return in like manner as we have seen
him go into heaven. When shall the tapestry of this vaulted
sky dispart and reveal the Crowned Priest ?
Perfect analogies we cannot expect in relations like these.
The Law was the " shadow," but not the " perfect image." In
the priesthood of our Saviour there must be peculiarities which
cannot be reflected nor transferred.
It is real. The title is not allusively conferred upon Him
because it is common and known. Whatever is common and
known in the title is only derived from his office. He is not
thus distinguished because men have been styled in this manner :
they were so styled in reference and honour to him.
It is founded on His actual death. The ancient priests slew
the clean beasts and birds for the offering. They saw in the
infliction the death they might have died, but for the atonement
which their services adumbrated. But he " laid down his life."
¦M

162 THE RESEMBLANCE OF
" He gave himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God." He
was at the same time victim and priest. He was "made perfect,"
or consecrated to his work, " by sufferings."
It is strictly meritorious. There could be no congruity be
tween the hecatomb and the effacement of human guilt. But in
the death of Christ is a moral strength and right which the
Scripture most emphatically describes. God is therefore said to
" bring him again from the dead, through the blood of the ever
lasting covenant." Justice is justified, and the detention of the
grave is incompatible with the true claims of the captive. His
blood or death insists upon their admission. "Who was delivered
for our offences, and was raised again for our justification." The
preposition* is in these parallelisms the same : we may rather
translate it, " by means of," " on account of," " for sake of,"
than " for." He was " surrendered" on account of our offences,
having made himself obnoxious to their penal consequences : he
was released on account of our absolvement of any further penal
consequences. So long as there was penalty due, he was held: so
soon as that penalty was exhausted, he was discharged. So long
as our sins were upon him, he was still " delivered :" wheii we
were justified, nothing being "against us and contrary to us," he
was exonerated. Our justification becomes his acquittance as our
offences became his liability. What a mighty proof is found in
these inspired quotations of the perfection of His priesthood !
It is most tender in its design. The typical priest was re
quired to "have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that
were out of the way ; for that he himself also was compassed
with infirmity." "And by reason hereof he ought, as for the
people, so also for himself to offer for sins." " The law maketh
men high priests which have infirmity." These passages make
us acquainted, at a glance, with the grace and kindness of the
priestly institute. This was no small reason for Christ to take
the office. But it was not on the stated grounds that He could
have compassion and could easily condescend. He needeth not
to offer for himself. His purity is his first qualification : " For
such a high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled,

MELCHISEDEK TO CHRIST. 163
separate from sinners." But, then, from all the conflicts which
established that purity there arises a transcendent sympathy :.
" For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with
the feeling of our infirmities ; but was in all points tempted like
as we are, yet without sin."
It is associated with all other necessary offices.. His sure
tyship of the new covenant involves these relations. He is priest,
prophet, and king. Melchisedek was a priest and a king, but
not a prophet : Samuel was a prophet and a priest, but not a
king: David was a king and a prophet, but not a priest. All
these high trusts and duties unite in him who is the Prophet
raised up unto us, the High Priest of our profession, and the
King set upon the holy hill of Zion.
The Priesthood of our Lord Jesus is affirmed to be eternal.
It may be mooted, When did it begin ? And in many con
ceivable views we may think of it as that which eternally was.
He was the Lamb verily foreordained before the foundation of
the world. He was saluted as priest amidst the ancient dispen
sations. Abel, Aaron, Zadok, Eliakim, Joshua, in their shadowy
lineage, betokened his actual power. When He descended to
earth he came to minister and to give his life a ransom for many.
He offered up himself. But priesthood is " honour." He there
fore did not assume it with all its dignities in the days of humili
ation. He rather was the victim. He made himself of no repu
tation. " He glorified not himself to be made a high priest."
Heaven is the proper sphere of its more magnificent functions.
" If He were on earth, he should not be a priest." There is the
Holiest ! He is "the Minister" of that " Sanctuary," that " true
tabernacle, which the Lord pitched and not man !" There is " the
blood of sprinkling !" He hath "obtained eternal redemption for
us !" There is the golden altar of much incense ! The golden
censer is in His hand ! The smoke ascendeth up before God ! It
is a never-ceasing cloud ! He is a priest for ever ! His holy gar
ments are for glory and beauty ! He is cinctured by the golden
girdle ! The crowns for a memorial are set upon His head !
The Eternal perpetuity of His priesthood which the Text
affirms, must as a fact embrace certain consequences which may

164 THE RESEMBLANCE OF
be readily defined. It is not the exaggeration or poetry of truth,
but a simple statement of it. What does it involve ?
1. The influence of the Atonement and Intercession of Jesus
Christ is supposed in the one idea of Mediation. Merit and
moral power are its effects. To this we owe all that justifies and
cleanses the soul. We must ascribe to the same source the
blessing of eternal life. Such an Office can never cease to operate.
Let us think of heaven and of the redeemed there. They are
not as though they had never sinned. They are not in a state
which speaks to them of innocence. Their heaven is full of sign
and sound declaring to them absolved guilt and conquered de
pravity. They are the nations of the saved. They move as in
the atmosphere of sacrifice and incense. They sing : " Thou
hast redeemed us to God by thy blood." Bright as is the glory,
"the Lamb is the light thereof." Through eternity the Death
of the Saviour must be the ground of all title to happiness and
of all qualification for it. The exercises of his priesthood shall
be modified, but its mediatory character and infinite desert can
never change : forth from it shall be effused an efficacy to be
felt by every ransomed spirit at each step of its infinite pro
gression and in each moment of its immortal being. " He is a
High Priest oi good things to come" blessings which shall evolve
through an endless future.
2. The union of the Divine and Human natures in the person
of Immanuel, as necessary to his priesthood, cannot, if that
priesthood be eternal, admit of termination. His substitution
can know no basis but in his assumption of our nature. To
become incarnate was necessary to establish the right principle :
" He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one."
And thus only the sacrificial act could be secured: "He was
made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death"
His body, once mysteriously prepared for him, he has borne with
him to his throne. It is the glorious model according to which
his risen followers shall be conformed. An excellence, a beauty,
a ravishing sweetness, consists in the vision of such a person,
concerning which we can only so far pronounce, that it is the joy
and wonder of heaven, that it constitutes heaven, that it is Deity

MELCHISEDEK TO CHRIST. 165
best honoured and illustrated, that it is seen of angels, that it
awakens the unpausing halleluiahs of the saints.
3. Whatever be the honours and rewards of His priesthood
they shall be eternal. " His obedience unto death, even the
death of the cross," is the basis and pledge of all that distinc
tive glory which consists in the general idea of his exaltation.
" He shall be exalted, and extolled, and be very high." He is
" a priest upon his throne." His robe of light shall not decay.
His tiara shall not dim. We may look deeper into this truth.
There shall be a manifestation of principles, arising out of his
incarnate and mediatorial work, which can only gather strength
and clearness through all duration. He will be glorified in their
exhibition and influence. There has also been brought by Him
to his heavenly kingdom a countless multitude of redeemed sin
ners of our race. These were once enemies : all of them were
alienated from the favour and the service of God. By His priest
hood he has reconciled them to both. They have access to the
divine presence and sympathy with the divine will. They stand
forth before Him. He shall see his seed. They have become
a holy, votive, nation : a royal priesthood, priests of God and of
Christ. They offer themselves a living sacrifice. They offer
to God the sacrifice of praise continually. Every effect of his
Priestly intervention is realised in them whose reflected priest
hood evinces a perfect restoration of their nature from all the
impiety and banishment of their fall. " They shall be as though
He had not cast them off."
II. We PROCEED TO CONSIDER THAT PARTICULAR RULE OR
ARRANGEMENT IN WHICH THE HIGH-PRIESTHOOD OS CHRIST IS
CONSTITUTED AND DECLARED.
It is necessary to collect, if we would form a proper and con
sistent judgment, whatever is recorded of Melchisedek ; from his
first appearance in sacred history, until he is made in far later
inspired Scripture the subject of allusion and illustration.
The first notice of him we find in the book of Genesis.*
Chedorlaomer was a mighty potentate, holding many kings in
subjection and tribute in the year of the world, 2091. Among
" Chap. xiv. 18.

166 THE RESEMBLANCE OF
these vassals were the five kings of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah,
Zeboim, and Bela or Zoar. These threw off his yoke. The po
tentate, allying to himself other powers, proceeded to inflict his
summary vengeance upon their disaffection. As he approached,
they gave him battle. Their military position was bad, and they
were put to rout. Lot fell into the hands of the foe. Abra
ham, hearing that his brother was a captive, armed his retainers,
reconquered the too confident spoiler, returning with the trophies
and amidst the greetings of a deliverer. The story now begins.
"And the king of Sodom went out to meet him. And Melchi
sedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine : and he was
the priest of the most high God. And the king of Sodom said
unto Abraham." Here we must remark, that no difference at
all is imagined between these kings as actual, reigning, princes.
They are the well-known kings of equally well-known places.
They fall under the self-same sensible cognizance and historic
notation. They are spoken of in the same way. One produces
no more surprise than the other, however unequal the interest
we feel in them. They alike are men. — Moreover, Melchisedek
not only reigned as did the neighbour-kings, but was the founder
of a dynasty. Kings were traced in descent from him or in
succession to him. In the book of Joshua we read of " Adoni-
zedec, king of Jerusalem."* Adon is often as kingly as Malec,
and frequently more illustrious. There is no mention of the
priesthood, but the royal line is preserved. The original style
is retained, though the monarchy was sunk into idolatry. It
perished at Makkedah, but it had continued nearly five hun
dred years.
The name seems lost for ages, when in one of the songs of
Zion-f- it is renewed. That the hallowed ode relates to the Mes
siah is proved by the challenge of the Messiah himself.} And
this is the strain of salutation : " The Lord hath sworn, and will
not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Mel
chisedek." All that we now observe is, that such an avowal of
this typic model is unexpected and abrupt: but that it was
• Chap. x. 1, &c. f psa. cx.
J Matt. xxii. 43, passim.

MELCHISEDEK TO CHRIST. 167
most comely, it having been affirmed, to insert it among com
positions which were of daily perusal in the House, and were
consecrated by the solemn minstrelsy of the Temple.
Upon this quotation the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews
comments in a manner quite unprecedented among inspired wri
ters, educing an elaborate argument and a minute comparison.
A high and reverent importance is obviously felt by him in all
that pertains to the subject. It is to him a theme of surpassing
interest and magnificent conception.
There are but two interpretations which it is necessary for us
to examine.* The first respects Melchisedek as Christ himself.
Authorities neither mean nor few are found upon the side of this
hypothesis. It is to be tried in the same manner as if these au
thorities were more protective, or as if there were none.
On the supposition that this was Christ himself, the manifes
tation must fall within those visions, sudden and brief, in which
he sometimes appeared to the fathers. We doubt not that he
thus showed himself to our great ancestor in Paradise, to him on
other occasions whom the royal priest welcomed and blest, to
Jacob, to Moses, and to Joshua. These were mystical, spectral ;
like the flashing and expiring meteor, they come and go. They
have no subsistence in them. They are phantasmata in the un-
earthliness of their character and in the rapidity of their flight.
Let us, then, enquire whether the appearance of Melchisedek can
be brought under such a description of vision. Salem was a
place, a city, a kingdom. Its people must have been acquainted
with their chief. He was king of it. He was as much king of it

" To show how speculation has gone wild upon this matter, a passage may be
transcribed from Tertullian. " Alter post hunc, Theodotus haereticus erupit, qui
et esse introduxit alteram sectam, et ipsum hominem Christum tantummodo dicit
ex Spiritu Sancto, et Virgine Maria conceptum pariter et natum ; sed hunc inferi-
orem esse, quam Melchisedek, eo quod dictum sit de Christo : Tu es sacerdos in
aeternum secundum ordinem Melchisedek. Nam ilium Melchisedek praecipue gra-
tiee celestem esse virtutem ; eo quod agat Christus pro hominibus, deprecator et
advocatus ipsorum factus, Melchisedek facere pro celestibus angelis atque virtuti-
bus; nam esse ilium usque adeo Christo meliorem, ut apator sit, ametor sit, agene-
alogetus sit, cujus neque initium, neque finis comprehensus sit, aut comprehendi
possit." — Adver : Om : H&ret : Libellus.

168 THE RESEMBLANCE OF
as were the kings of border-states among whom he is introduced.
He lived and ruled in the seat of his government, and must have
been known by all the acts of its administration. His priesthood,
as a peculiarity in his person, would make him more notorious.
Now had he burst upon the father of the faithful at once, — a
visioned being, unrelated to history, unknown to man, — he might
have only revealed himself as Christ had often done: he might
have been that Christ. But he was the historic, the recognised,
head of a local monarchy, with its subjects and its dominions.
Did Christ then incarnate himself in one who resided on earth,
who fulfilled the course of a mortal person and the term of a
human life ? Did Christ thus reign in a civil capacity, and slay
the sacrifice? Did he take place among the pageant-potentates
of man ? Did he accept spoils? He could not possess himself of
this prince's body and soul to supersede him : if Christ were in
him, there was none other Melchisedek. But the king of Salem
was not the unsubstantial appearance: in every sense he is a man,
going in and out before his fellows, a public functionary, seen
daily at altar and on throne. A royal dynasty springs from him.
If he be identical with Him who was to come, then there will be
a necessity upon us to believe that Christ was now incarnate ages
before the fulness of times when he was " made of a woman,"
that he reigned secularly and offered literally, that he governed
just like any other ruler and ministered just as any other priest,
then existing in the world ! You cannot escape from this con
clusion into any unreal manner and modification of appearance:
all is individually delineated, chronicled, acted out, sustained,
in that being, whoever he may prove. If it be the Lord Jesus
Christ, " He is made flesh and dwells among us."
Nor does the temper with which this manifestation is regard
ed by Abraham support the idea of its supernatural structure.
When such visions have broken upon the holy and the good,
they have stricken them with wondering awe. They have en
forced on their spectators adoring homage. " Draw not nigh
hither !" " Moses hid his face ; for he was afraid to look upon
God." When " the Captain of the Lord's host" appeared to the
son of Nun, the leader of Israel " fell on his face to the earth,

MELCHISEDEK TO CHRIST. 169
and did worship." " Loose thy shoe from off thy foot ; for the
place whereon thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so." When
the Superior Power of any vision was not discriminated until it
was dispelled, deep concern took hold of them who thus had
igriorantly borne themselves. " Surely the Lord is in this place ;
and I knew it not." "And Jacob called the name of the place
Peniel : for I have seen God face to face." " Manoah said unto
his wife, We shall surely die, because we have seen God." It is
not in this wise that " the friend of God" is impressed. Not a
word marks his recognition of the Divine Personage. He pays
no obeisance. He is overwhelmed with no amazement. Not a
word of reverent allusion falls from him in any future period.
He offers no worship. Yet the Saviour has declared: "Your
father Abraham desired* to see my day : and he saw it and was
glad." This must be the manifestation, if by the name and in
the form of Melchisedek He did visibly make known himself.
Yet not a trace of proof agrees to that opinion. When saw
Abraham the day of Christ ? " He offered up Isaac, his only
begotten son :" " from the dead he received him in an allegorical
representation.''-^ The whole was a typical device. There was
the man -victim, bound, laid upon the altar, the fuel heaped
around him, — the sacrificing knife was uplifted, the sacred fire
glowed in readiness to consume the offering and the pile. The
immolation is arrested : reviviscence is figured as well as death.
It was a course of significant action, preintimating the death and
the resurrection of the Saviour. It was "his day," the period
of his mission being put for the mission itself. In that mount
the Lord was seen, or this shadowy transaction was ocularly wit
nessed. Abraham "saw it." This is clearly distinguished as
the event. Had the apparition of Melchisedek been "God mani
fest in the flesh," that had been, beyond all dispute, " the day"
reflected forward on the eager patriarch, which he saw and which
gladdened him.
* John viii. 56. Though AyxXXixu is employed and not i/iaga, yet, as the con
junction <»« follows, vehement desire, rather than exultation, must be understood :
the more so, as, otherwise, there is repetition, — "rejoiced," "was glad."
f " E» s-«{«giiX»i."

170 THE RESEMBLANCE OF
But the pen of inspired annotation leaves many a statement,
which is incompatible with the identity of this monarch-priest
with our Divine Lord.
If the Redeemer's priesthood follow " the order" of Melchi
sedek, the general inference and the natural impression will be
that the "order" is of another; for awful asseveration does not
seem required to confirm that he is constituted after his own.
It is not a small difficulty which they who favour such a no
tion must be required to overcome, that Melchisedek is said to be
" made like unto the Son of God." Resemblance may exist be
tween different parties, but ordinary modes of speech are foreign
to the averment that any one is " made like unto" himself. We
may act in character, be self-consistent, preserve an even tenour,
but a process of assimilation supposes a model from without, and
independent of us, to which we are conformed.
To convince us that here are the individual distinctions which
the "order" and the "likeness" would lead us to suppose, we
are informed : " After the similitude of Melchisedek there ariseth
another priest." We know, of course, from the contextual rea
soning, that he is not the antecedent, — this different priest is not
of Levi but of Judah. Yet is He, " of whom these things are
spoken," plainly declared as " arising," as personally distinct from
all beside, not Melchisedek returned, but only according to his
ancient rule, without any national or tribual connection with him.
We feel no disposition to reduce " the greatness of this man."
But we need not in any justice to his character invest him with
vague and indefinite mystery. " Of whom," writes the apostle,
we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered," or explained.
But those " many things" he, nevertheless, proceeds to " say :"
those " hard" things he immediately prepares to "explain." When
we recollect that they involve the whole doctrine of the Messiah's
priesthood, when we recollect the prejudices of the believing He
brews, we may well understand his embarrassment. There is no
warrant for the supposition that he reserves a single point.* He
* The statement, " Of whom we have many things to say," &c, is in the 5th
Chap, of Hebrews: he "says" and "explains" all those things in the 7th. There
is no intimation that he keeps back any thing he might otherwise have adduced.

MELCHISEDEK TO CHRIST. 171
fully discusses all. Nothing is withdrawn. He must show them
the inferiority of their priesthood even to another human order.
He must convince them of " the weakness and unprofitableness"
of their oeconomy. Now in what view of the history dwells any
doubtful, strange, peculiarity ? And why does the argument open
slowly and cautiously ? " Seeing ye are dull of hearing," or
apprehension. The wondrousness is not in the person : the diffi
culty is subjective. There is slowness of heart to believe. They
are children when they ought to be men.
We dispute not that some other difficulties may be shaped
against our belief that this is a Type, only a type : but all these
will be included in the scheme of interpretation which the follow
ing arrangement will dictate.
1. It seems probable, though we would lay upon it no undue
stress, that the fragmentary history of Melchisedek was not des
titute of design. A sort of ambiguity belongs to it, not inherent
in it as a whole, but because it is so singularly told. The curtain
rises, there passes before us the suddenly appareled actor, but
ere we can discern his intent, it drops. The stranger crosses our
path, but as we would enquire his anxious errand, he disappears.
The star shoots along the firmament, and all again is dark. Ad
vantage seems taken of this sudden emergence, this undeveloped
character, to give greater depth of resemblance to that Prototype
whom it respects. " Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my
name ?" " No one knoweth who the Son is." " As the Father
knoweth me, even so know I the Father." " He hath a name
written, that no one knoweth, but he himself."
2. " The order" of this priesthood was doubtless primaeval.
There is no disproof from chronology that Melchisedek might be
Shem, " the father of all the children of Eber." He lived five
hundred years after the flood. We know that in him is the direct
genealogy of Christ. But this is unimportant to our argument.
It was assimilated to patriarchal service. It was that religion.
Long before the Levitican ritual was given, the same " pattern"
prevailed. The saints, anterior to the age of Noah, distinguished
between the clean and unclean animals : " All things were purged
by blood." When the world was restored, sacrifice instantly

172 THE RESEMBLANCE OF
rose with sweet savour to heaven, the sedge yet cleaving to the
ark and the newly-interpreted rainbow spanning auspiciously the
firmament. The wine offering, the anointing oil, the sabbath,
the complement of the tabernacle, the ark of the testimony, the
cherubic emblems, all were known among the earlier postdiluvian
saints. These were ancient anticipations of Judaism : they were
not primarily "of Moses but of the fathers." In consistency
with this original institute, doubtless was the ministry of Salem
dispensed. This was the religion of the world. It was universal.
Any particular restriction of it, any allocation, was, conse
quently, inferior. It was to draw it into partial arrangements
and narrower bounds. It was to divert it from its wider channel.
Such was the ceconomy of which Abraham was the head. It
arose not as any higher order : it was demanded by a necessity.
The defection of mankind absolutely required a strong and na
tional fence around that pure worship which still survived but
was momentarily threatened. This expedient was not a good in
itself. It was a " shutting up," though to " the faith which should
be afterwards revealed." He who represented it, therefore, con
fessed the inferiority. He made a submission to the priestly-
king who represented the only true, and, but for the encroach
ments of idolatry, the universally sanctioned religion. He brought
him tribute. He bent for his blessing. It was a representative
submission. " Levi payed tithes in Abraham." " And without
all contradiction the less is blessed of the better." Yet is it the
magnificent and full-gloried dissolution of patriarchism. It con
sents, as with reluctant conviction and as with an unimpaired
fidelity, to the new " order." For its abdication, it puts on robe
and diadem. Melchisedek seems its ambassador, and blesses its
more constrained successor. But our great High Priest shall not
follow the more unworthy type. " The law was added." It
could not, however, destroy the pre-existing model. The idea of
that ministry was not lost. That which " was four hundred and
thirty years after cannot disannul it." The Aaronic rule was
defective, a temporary relief, a mere substitute : Christ shall not
be " called of God a high priest" in subjection to it. The Mel-
chisedaican class was unchanging, germinant, comprehensive,

MELCHISEDEK TO CHRIST. 173
initial : it is according to its perfect idea of pontificate that Christ
shall be installed.
3. The resemblance is much promoted when we observe in
Type and Counterpart the union of the regal and sacerdotal dig
nities. This had, we suppose, not infrequently subsisted when
men, in the periods of ancient longevity, became the founders of
families, — they were the rulers and priests of their descendants.
The life of man being abridged and his numbers being multiplied,
this procedure would cease. Families grew into nations, and the
rod of the patriarch was exchanged for the sceptre of the king.
At this given time and after, there seem to have been certain
seats of a priesthood not dissimilar to that of Canaan. We read
of On and of Midian, and of their priests. Men of wealth and
power possessed the right of sacrificing for their household though
they held no public rank. Abraham builds his altar, and offers
his victim, at every halting-place of his wanderings : Job, though
not the hierophant of Uz, offered burnt-offerings for his children
according to the number of them all. But monarchy and priest
hood seemed incongruous appointments. By the division of the
Israelites into tribes, they were formally separated. The instance
of Moses is not an exception. He was the legate of heaven, " a
god." All functions were found in him. He was the vicegerent
of Jehovah. He was " among His priests." " He was king in
Jeshurun." Yet he was rather the priest to consecrate others,
than to administer, save occasionally, himself. His kingship
consisted in no absolute rule : in him was the living executive of
an unseen power. We, therefore, feel the novelty which attaches
to the heraldry of Melchisedek. He comes forth in mixed array.
He is adorned with insignia of a double glory. The gold of
Havilah which is good and the topaz of Ethiopia, may have
flashed from his fillet and his breastplate. The deluge-surge may
have torn up from their depths the costly and mystic ornaments
which now he wears. He is hierarch. Censer and sceptre are in
his hand : Crown and mitre are on his head. He passes from
temple to palace, from palace to temple: from throne to altar,
from altar to throne. His personal name and puissant style are
significant. He is king of righteousness and king of peace. His

174 THE RESEMBLANCE OF
capital, notwithstanding a thousand revolutions, still endures. He
was not " the mighty hunter before the Lord," the bloody tyrant,
the desolating scourge : his reign was that of blameless justice and
of benignant concord. The king is not lost in the priest. It is
a sanctified alliance. Now our Lord is a priest for ever after this
order. Had He claimed the descent of Judah, he might have
been king. Had He sprung from the tribe of Levi, he might have
given attendance at the altar. But in either case He could not
have combined the twor But He follows the more primitive
example. He asserts the twofold right. Amidst the indignities
of his arraignment and crucifixion, — his own priestly acts ! — the
mockery of royal state was upon him, and he declares the nature
of his kingdom and adj ures that he is a king. He was then offer
ing up himself. But his kingdom is founded on his priesthood
and gives royal authority to its efficacy. " The counsel of peace
is between them both." " He is a Prince and a Saviour." " He
is both Lord and Christ." " He is Head over all things to the
church, and the Saviour of the body." He is " King of righte
ousness." " The sceptre of his kingdom is a right sceptre." He
is " King of peace." " His name shall be called the Prince of
peace." " He is our peace." " He hath made peace by the blood
of his cross." So when He appeared in Patmos the robe he wore
was equally indicative of royalty and priesthood : the two-edged
sword might show the one, and the golden girdle the other : now
is he seen as priest among the seven burning candlesticks, — then
as sovereign, having the keys of death and of hell !
4. The priesthood of Salem knew no separating demarcation.
It regarded man with perfect impartiality. It was in uncircum-
cision. It had a local precinct. So likewise had the other simi
lar ministries. But patriarchal service was of a world-wide cha
racter. Not then was there a nation cast off. Not then was
there a nation chosen. We would by no means insinuate that
Judaism was repulsive and forbidding. Our convictions are that
it was the only method to preserve the true faith, that it was not
only the safe asylum of that faith but the open asylum for every
believer, that it was circumscribed for guardianship and not for
exclusion. Still it was a covenant of peculiarity. It was of a

MELCHISEDEK TO CHRIST. 175
people. It was provincial and national. It was a bulwark of
political usages and institutions. If it was not its tendency, its
practical effect was a rejection of all others. The day of atone
ment was only solemnised for the congregation. No service of
priesthood bore a general aspect. That could not be, conse
quently, the specimen of the Redeemer's " order." In him the
Gentiles were to trust. Of his death the last prophetic afflatus of
the Jewish priesthood, speaking by its blind and malignant
organ, declared : " that Jesus should die not for that nation only,
but that also he should gather together in one the children of
God that were scattered abroad." The high altar of Calvary is
covered with " the propitiation for the sins of the whole world."
The breastplate of our High Priest is inscribed with all peoples.
There is henceforth no middle wall of partition. Rival distinc
tions of speech, climate, and complexion, are abolished. Nor is
this anomalous. It is but a reverting to principles older than
Judaism. " Abraham is ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledges
us not." Christ disowns the restriction. He emulates a freer
and a more gracious model, a purer and a more inceptive form :
" he is after the order of Melchisedek."
5. This order of priesthood involves an entireness and self-
independence. It is pronounced by the Historian that " he was
the priest of the Most High God." The inspired commentator
dilates upon this ministry in words confessedly remarkable:
" Without father, without mother, without descent, having nei
ther beginning of days, nor end of life : he abideth a priest con
tinually," or uninterruptedly. We may premise from language
so strong as this, that his office was immediately conferred, and
that it could not possibly be alienated. Though the patriarchal
religion, it was not of patriarchal extraction or entail. If he were
Shem, his birth in a former world, his long ministration in the
new, might give a colour of no extraordinary license to the repu
diation of ancestry and succession, his priesthood having begun
so far back and in such a mysterious past, and claiming many
ages of the newly-reckoned epoch for its duration. It was not
intended to survive him. Among such a people it is most won
derful that, even with his prerogatives and his excellencies, he

176 THE RESEMBLANCE OF
could maintain it. With him it could only lapse ! If Melchi
sedek were a Canaanite, we may still more readily understand
why he is described as without parentage and genealogy ; why,
in words elsewhere used, his " descent was not counted ;" the
idea being, all through the argument, not of course that he was
without "descent," but without recorded, and sacredly comme
morated, "descent." For the wickedness of this people was
exceeding great. It had long been growing to its height. Reli
gion seemed utterly lost among them. He had been consecrated
at once by God. The general impiety existed probably long
before his birth. No holy eldership might there be from which
he could spring. No holy successor amidst the universal defec
tion could he leave. He stands the first, the last, of a parti
cular ministry, — warning the people ere their judgment fall, and
hailing in a new line the creation of a priesthood which, in after
ages, should revert to this self-same land, not then as now a wit
ness against its present guilty inhabitants, but the boast of its
new settlers, who should be a nation of priests. Were the lan
guage designed only to convey his holy absorption in his office,
we might quote the not altogether discordant description of Levi:
" Who said unto his father and to his mother, I have not seen
them ; neither did he acknowledge his brethren, nor knew his own
children." But the more certain and natural interpretation seems
to be, the perfect insulation of his priesthood. It was underived
and untransmitted. Now two things were required of every
Jewish priest : his pedigree and his age. The first insisted on the
purity of their paternal and maternal lines. Their age also must
be, agreeably to the original law,* afterwards extended, from thirty
to fifty years old. If the priest could not prove the exact and
untainted honour of his blood by both parents, according to the
registers which were most sacredly preserved, he was driven from
the office. Not a day was suffered to him before or after this term
and prime of twenty years. Only then, and no longer, could he
serve. He might not anticipate, he might not exceed, that pre
scribed interval between settled manhood and approaching age.
There was always candidateship and always superannuation. To
* Numb. iv. 3, viii. 25.

MELCHISEDEK TO CHRIST. 177
an Israelite, thinking upon the priesthood, the phrase, " without
father, without mother," would present a most intelligible idea.
He would see that there was want of the hereditary title. To
him also, the phrase, "having neither beginning df days nor end
of life," would offer no difficulty. He would see that the accus
tomed period of priestly service was disregarded. Let this canon
now be applied. Melchisedek held a priesthood at once from
God. It depended upon no ancestral proof. It sought not for its
validity in any line. He was " without father, without mother,"
or sacerdotal predecessors. He is " without descent," literally
without genealogy.* He founds nothing upon that which was
so indispensable for the humblest servant of the Jewish priesthood.
He was unfettered by the law which afterwards ordained the
limitation. Such " beginning of days and end of life" were not
enjoined upon him. We think that the reasoning demands of us
to believe, that the absence of register and of all notice concerning
the limitation of service is not treated as accidental, much less is
caught at equivocally, — but that it is simply an avowal of the
fact, and in a mode of speech distinctly to be understood by them
who are addressed. + The priesthood, then, of the king of Salem
is not of descent. It descended not to him. It descended not
from him to others. In language not more bold, it is added,
" He abideth a priest continually ;"j he retired not from office,
by any law respecting his age as must the later priests have done.
He was bound by no regulation when to commence, or when to
terminate, his service. However early it began, it was conducted
through his entire life. His priesthood was a happy specimen of
uninterrupted consecration. Any other was a thing of delay,
and then of cessation, — it might be long before the close of exis
tence ! " Of him it is witnessed that he liveth :" there is no other
witness of him but as living, one active and unceasing priest
hood : though really mortal, there is no " witness" of his death.
AyzvtxXo'ynlos .
T Dr. Adam Clarke quotes from the Syriac and Arabic versions: "Whose father
and mother are not inscribed in the genealogies." " He had neither father nor mo
ther ; the genealogy not being reckoned."
$ It is said of the sons of Aaron : " Their anointing shall surely be an ever-
lasting priesthood throughout their generations." - ' " -
N

17^ THE RESEMBLANCE OF
But it was necessary to prove that, in the abrogation of the Jew
ish oeconomy, the priesthood was also changed. This showed
that " perfection was not by the Levitical priesthood." " There
is made of necessity a change also of the law." — Let us now
"consider Christ Jesus." There is no priesthood, in an abso
lute sense, but his. The Law made only representatives of him.
These could not put away sin. All the virtues they might mi
nister flowed from him alone. His priesthood depended not on
theirs. He is not designated in reference to them, but they are
so called in honour of him. The type determines not the anti
type, but the antitype the type. A precedent of transmissive
priesthood could not properly describe that with which he is
invested : the order of Melchisedek, — ¦" without father, without
mother, without genealogy," — is therefore selected to express its
integrity. A pattern of temporary priesthood could not ade
quately shadow that which he executes : the order of Melchisedek,
is therefore adopted — " without beginning of days and end of
life," — to denote its permanence. Christ Jesus was set up of old,
from everlasting. He is consecrated for evermore. " He is not
made after the law of a carnal commandment," — a law having
respect to the infirmity and mortality of its functionaries, — " but
after the power of an endless life."
6. The oath which confirms the Saviour's " order" is calcu
lated to give it the deepest impression. When Joseph promised
the dying Jacob to fulfil his instructions concerning the burial of
his remains, — " I will do as thou hast said," — the saint, knowing
how he had deceived his father in like circumstances of age and
feebleness to his own, exclaimed : " Swear unto me." The son
took the oath, and when craving permission of Pharaoh to under
take the necessary journey, he enforces his plea by it : " My
father made me swear." He, too, exacted an oath of his brethren
when he gave commandment concerning his bones. This has
always been regarded a most awful test of truth. " Men verily
swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is an end of
all strife." The distinction may not be founded in the nature of
things : it is enough that it is a general practice. Therefore the
God of truth puts himself under such engagement : " Wherein

MELCHISEDEK TO CHRIST. 179
God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise
the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath." He
sware an oath to Abraham respecting the promised Seed. But
this adjuration is very peculiar. It is made to his Son as priest.
It is the purpose of an everlasting covenant. He thus brings
himself into immediate concert with that priesthood and proclaims
his fullest complacency in it. But while He honours it, and
attests it, and authenticates it, his oath has special bearing on its
" order." Other " priests were made without an oath." It does
not seem that Melchisedek was inaugurated by such a form.
Now this oath was published during the life of David. " It was
since the law." It called away attention from the Levitical ordi
nances. It must have convinced all who listened to it, that these
were less perfect than that which had forerun them, though it had
for ever ceased. The institute had passed away, but not its fixed
idea. It was enshrined in the oath of the Eternal. " The Lord
hath sworn and will not repent." How much of interest must be
contained in this order of priesthood ! How should it awaken
our study ! The Lord doth not lift up his hand to heaven, and
swear by himself, but for that which is great and dread and glo
rious ! He will not afford this sanction to any dispensation and
its priesthood, which is temporary, national, interstitial, — but
seizing the purest conception of atonement which earth could
afford, — the least diverted, admixed, corrupted, by any taint
of earth, — the truest idea, the simplest abstract, the surest pledge,
of priesthood, — as when God pitched the awful tent at the east
of Eden and wrought for the guilty, naked, fugitives, garments
from their sacrifices, — honouring all this in the person and voca
tion of his servant Melchisedek, — " the Lord said unto my Lord,
-r-the Lord sware and will not repent, — Thou art a priest for
ever after the order of Melchisedek !"
7- Nor is another descriptive feature of this early priesthood
to be depreciated. That strangeness which surrounds it, simply
arises from the broken and incomplete character of the narra
tive. It is not in any sense even the biographic sketch. It is
but a segment, a single action, without reference, to the extremes
of human being. Nothing is guessed. That bare and abrupt

180 THE RESEMBLANCE OF
account is made the basis of every reasoning. All we have to
do with him is contained in that account. There consists all his
typic importance. Not a single extraneous point is pressed. And
this is not without its lesson. The everlasting Priesthood of our
Lord Jesus Christ is wholly a revelation. Any idea that illus
trates it, in cypher and image, is wisdom from above. It is a
conception that lies out of every field of human knowledge and
enquiry. We can understand nothing in relation to it but as
God shall declare it. Upon this most stinted view of Melchi
sedek, the only view that can be obtained, a view entirely depen
dent upon the discovery of Scripture, must we establish every
analogy that can be known between him and the Son of God:
upon the far more extended, yet necessarily imperfect, informa
tions and testimonies of Divine Truth we place our unquestioning
faith in the Person and Sacrifice of the Son of God, — supplying
no want of clearness by our conjectures, relieving no refusal to
our curiosity by our conceits.
8. The symbols which this royal priest brought forth in
meeting Abraham are not to be overlooked. It would be an
unworthy interpretation of the bread and the wine, to reduce
them to the purpose of food and refreshment. They were the
signs of oblation. The bread was for a perpetual offering in the
ancient temple, and the wine was a libation poured continually
upon the ancient altar. They were the images of images, or
double figures. The detention of real animal matter in the Holy
Place would have been inconsistent and inconvenient : these less
perishable substances represented them. It was the " bread of
God offered." It was " the cup of salvation." And so Melchi
sedek brought them forth, the vouchers and emblems of more
sanguinary rites. And when we hear that Christ is after this
"order," is it vain imagination to think of Him "who took bread
and brake it, who took the cup and gave it ?" Was it but
incident that bread and wine were before him ? Were they not
Paschal relics ? Is their appropriation arbitrary ? Is it not
conformable to sacrificial law? Did not these aliments always
signify the flesh and blood of sacrifice ? And in our Christian
Feast, that feast on sacrifice, we behold them dedicate to one

MELCHISEDEK TO CHRIST. 181
commemoration, — Christ's offered, though sinless humanity ! Ne
ver let us keep it in the banqueting house of his church without
re-echoing " the word of the oath," — " Thou art a priest for ever
after the order of Melchisedek."
O let us take refuge in this Priesthood ! Let us embrace its
altar ! May we bend in 'faith and penitence over its oblation,
laying our hand upon it ! Let us draw near to its incense until
redolent of it ! By it may we present the sacrifice of praise con
tinually ! Let us present our bodies, our whole selves, a living
sacrifice, holy, acceptable, unto God, which is our reasonable
service !
How marvellous is the harmony of Divine Dispensation ! In
what a contexture do all ceconomies of holy verity stand! "The
king of Salem" salutes the founder of Israel who was now a
sojourner in a strange land. Not far distant are its towers and
walls. There shall be the seat of a new power and the metro
polis of a new people. It shall be the city of the Great King.
Even then "in Salem was his tabernacle," and Melchisedek was
"the priest of the most high God." At last, — having stood for
ages the high place of sacrifice, — it becomes "the city where our
Lord was crucified." Through its streets the Lamb is led to the
slaughter. " That He might- sanctify the people with his own
blood, he has suffered without the gate." Let every altar fall !
Let every ephod rend ! Let every priest retire ! Generations
of them who did " not minister to themselves but to us," glide
away ! The white-robed processions disappear ! The house of
Aaron and the house of Levi are no more seen ! Moses stands
not before the Lord ! Melchisedek, the most perfect of priestly
types, is lost behind the cloud of his offering and the vail of his
sanctuary,— leaving but a name, and prefiguring but an order,
— nobler than all the rest, — yet without virtue or merit in them
selves,— absorbed of right in Him who, " because he continueth
ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood !" " a Son over his own
House" ! " The servant abideth not in the House for ever : but
the Son abideth ever" !

SERMON VIII.

THE HARMONY OF CHRISTIANITY IN ITS
PERSONAL INFLUENCE.

Ephes. i. 8.

'Wherein He hath abounded toward us in all Wisdom
and Prudence.''
Take the smallest, most insignificant, most unnoticed, object
in nature, — the particle of sand, the blade of grass, the drop of
water, — the worm, the insect, — whatever hides in the crevice of
the rock or wheels imperceptible in the eddy of the air, — add to
these whatever is most vast and stupendous, the mountain, the
ocean, the glorious handy-work of the firmament, moons, planets,
suns, vibrating in boundless space through their range of sweep
and with their precision of revolution, inlaid as in a texture, mar
shalled as a host : — all, when presented to our eye and explained
to our reason, — all, when they are not raised to our powers but
when our powers are raised to them, — exhibit such traces of
design, such accuracies of contrivance, such wonders of adaptation,
such master-pieces and models of perfection, so evidently intended
for use and so efficient to the full scope of that intention : — that
the man, who can attribute all this immense magazine of fixed
consequences to accident, must believe that chance is more intel
ligent than order, confusion more binding than system, anarchy
more protective than law. So long as the human mind continues
what it is, constituted to reach its conclusions by certain rules
and to establish them upon certain grounds, this supposition is a
too sublime abstraction for it to conceive or a too idiot babble for
it to endure. Our first thinkings agree with the first dictates of

THE HARMONY OF CHRISTIANITY, ETC. 183
religion : " O Lord ! how manifold are thy works : in wisdom
hast thou made them all."
There is a difficulty, which we all feel, in raising upon the
frame of these remarks a higher conception. What can be
greater than the material works of God? What can be more
profound or more lofty than creation's depths and heights ?
After the most searching surveys of its ever-spreading realms,
world reared above world, constellation fading before yet brighter
constellation, ascending from one heaven to a higher still, what
can there remain of comparison but the little and the mean ? To
turn from all this magnificence, must it not be to sink? Can
aught but melancholy contrast await us? Can we but feel the
mortifying descent? And yet if we will let the Bible school
us, we must instantly admit that the volume of earth and sea
and sky is so inferior to its holy page, its sublime discovery,
its spiritual excellence, that the infant's primer makes a nearer
approach to the dissertations of our keenest philosophers, to the
records of our most comprehensive historians, to the songs of our
most impassioned bards, than the one can do to the other. " He
hath magnified His Word above all his name." Here we read
the mystery and the good pleasure of His will. Here is the
imprint of his thoughts and purposes. Here he directly reveals
himself. He comes into contact, communication, negociation,
with us. He built the universe to prove that he is. He takes
a language from it to declare to us his determinations. It is but
a subservient apparatus to the scheme of redemption. Not only
are the moral perfections of the Deity signalised in the death of
Christ, but he is the brightest example of the natural, — the
power of God and the wisdom of God. And no more can his
physical works divide attention with the salvation of the gospel,
than the scaffolding can steal a thought from the temple ; or the
platform can detain a moment's interest while the train of nobles
and warriors is passing over it, with the kingly heir, for his
coronation. The Text speaks of an Abounding, a lavish munificence. It
is of the exceeding riches of God's grace. With these he is thus
infinitely profuse. But there is nothing of an ill-considered

184 THE HARMONY OF CHRISTIANITY
waste. Wisdom and Prudence are seen in the supply of ade
quate means, in providing for probable difficulties, in guarding
against probable abuses. Glorious are the gifts : but their right
application is jealously secured.
The design of this Discourse is to confute the charge against
the Gospel that it acts with contrary and discordant tendencies.
It is alleged that its effects, when received into our mind, are not
consistent and proportionate but strive with each other and draw,
it different ways. We would endeavour to exhibit that, though
there is a variety in these impressions and emotions, there is no
incongruity : that they are self-corrective and self-adjusting: that
they are adapted, however different, to put and preserve the
sinner in that state of mind which is best becoming a creature
so fallen and so redeemed.
And here we may derive an analogy from the external uni
verse. In nothing is its arrangement more obvious than in the
system of checks which pervade all its departments. It is a pecu
liarity of its laws. By attraction and repulsion, by yielding and
resistance, by a diversity of antagonist powers, by a succession:
of inverse movements, a reaction is constantly excited and a har
monious result obtained. Such are the complex mechanics of
nature. By contrary impulses the planets travel their orbits.
By one law exclusive they must stagnate : by another, if unmo
dified, they would be driven from their path. Both are necessary
to give the activity, and maintain the order, of their revolutions.
If there were only tendency to the centre, all things would con
solidate into a motionless, immoveable, mass : if the impetus were
always from the centre, all things would be volatile, scattered,
strewn through space : nothing kept in its place nor detained for
its use. And this equilibrium depends upon forces which appa
rently present no phsenomena in common. Still is the balance
completed with so much exactness that a music, beyond the fable
and too perfect for our dull ear, may be generated in endless
chords: its adjustment is so nice and perfect that the addition of
a single atom might disturb it even to disjoint and shatter the
whole. This Wisdom and Prudence are manifested, —

IN ITS PERSONAL INFLUENCE. 185
By SHOWING WITH EQUAL DISTINCTNESS THE DIVINE JUSTICE
AND MERCY.
These are not rival attributes, nor can they have needed
reconciliation. Justice does not arrest the hand of mercy : Mercy
does not restrain the hand of justice. Neither is the more
prompt or slow: neither is the more earnest or jealous. An
infinite placability is anterior to the exercises of both. God is
not merciful because Christ has died, but Christ has died because
God is merciful. Is justice the first care of His government?
Mercy is earlier in its purpose than any government. In Re
demption they are mutually administrative : " To declare His
righteousness in the remission of sin." They act with no parti
ality, they come into no collision. Justice is such'a form of good,
that it exclaims : " Fury is not in me." Mercy is such an advo
cate of rectitude, that it declares : " Surely Thou wilt slay the
wicked, O God." Justice knows no enmity which mercy can calm,
no frown which mercy can unbend : Mercy knows no weakness
which justice can help, no connivance which justice can forbid.
Mercy rather than justice superintends the Sacrifice of the Cross,
charges itself with the awful preparations, heaps the fuel, binds
the victim, grasps the knife, deals the stroke, pours the libation,
kindles the fire, consumes the offering, — while Justice but assents,
and smiles, and " makes the comers thereunto perfect." They
speak with a united voice, they command with a united authority,
they shine with a united glory. Neither excels. The one does
not overbear the other. Their common splendour is like the neu
tral tint, the effulgent colourlessness, of the undecomposed ray.
The impression on the believing sinner's mind must corre
spond. It might be that in another proportion of these attributes
our mental balance would have been endangered. Had justice
been more stern, we should have been overawed : had mercy been
less holy, we might have been daringly elate. We are saved, but
at what a price! We rejoice with tremblng. Reverence chastens
trust, and trust endears reverence. We fear the Lord and his
goodness. We ascribe forgiveness unto Him that he may be
feared. And yet this fear does not. banish confidence. " In the
fear of the Lord is strong confidence and his children shall have

186 THE HARMONY OF CHRISTIANITY
a place of refuge." It is veneration without dismay : it is reliance
without pretension.
This Wisdom and Prudence promote the state of mind we
describe, —
By EXHIBITING THE INCARNATE SON OF GOD AS ALIKE THE
OBJECT OF LOVE AND ADORATION.
That Christ should be made flesh was necessary to his be
coming an atonement : scarcely less that he might be the way by
which we understand and approach the Divinity. He was thus
made like unto us. He was born of a woman. He dwelt among
us. He had a human heart. He was beheld in a surpassing
amiableness. Gracious words proceeded out of his mouth. Be
hold how he loved us ! He mingled his tears with ours. He
bore our weaknesses. He was meek and lowly in mind. And
this conception of his character, his affectionate image, is most
preciously retained and embodied in sacred writ. In reading
those holy records which unfold his life, we catch this conception,
this image, as though we had actually followed him to where he
dwelt, had hung upon his discourse, had sat at meat with him,
had leaned upon his bosom. He still receiveth sinners. He is
among us as one that serveth. He visiteth our home. He
walketh with us by the way. We see him at the death-bed of
our daughter, at the funeral of our son, at the grave of our
brother, and his love never fails. We are assured of his entire
sympathy. He is touched with the feeling of our infirmities.
By unimaginable bonds he unites himself to us. "We are mem
bers of his body, of his flesh and of his bones." He calls us
friends. He is not ashamed to call us brethren. He must be
loved. But all these kindlier sentiments need to be chastened
and hallowed. "What manner of man is this!" "We behold
his glory." He is Christ Jesus the righteous. He is the Holy
one, and that Just. It is He whom the seraphim adore. Let
us not encroach on his glorious majesty, nor speak lightly of him.
It may not always become us to press the allowance of his con
descension ; rigidly to enforce what his humility might suggest;
to reciprocate in strict correlative every kindred name he gives
us. We may hardly call him Brother, however he is the first-

IN ITS PERSONAL INFLUENCE. 187
born among many brethren. We dare not call him Spouse of
our soul, though he be the Bridegroom of the church. Our hearts
are shocked by the appeal to the friends of Jesus, however hence
forth he may call us friends. He is the Lord God whom we
sanctify in our heart and make our fear and dread. There is a
style too common in speaking of him, profanely soft, familiar,
undignified, which we cannot too resolutely shun. — The influ
ence of Art. is here to be deprecated. It perpetuates the ideas
which are only to be valued as they conduct us to the measure of
the stature of the fulness of Christ. " The Mother of our Lord"
is fixed in the expression of her earliest maternity, and He sleeps
in her bosom still the new-born babe. The sensuous of beauty
is pourtrayed to the loss of the moral loveliness. Natural
fondness is warmed in us rather than holy sentiment and lofty
emotion. Our sensibilities are stolen, our instincts are excited,
but adoration is suspended and reverence is checked. It is not
Contemplation which dreams ! It is not Faith which gazes !
It is not Repentance which weeps ! Behold your God. Let us
give unto him the glory due unto his name. Let us stand in awe
and sin not. Let us imitate the disciple who, when he might
have reached forth his hand to the Crucified One and have thrust
it into his side, forbore, touched him not, falling before his feet
at once, answering and saying unto him, My Lord and my God !
Let us follow the example of the celestials, the living creatures
and the elders, with their harps and their censers, bowing to
their faces before the Lamb ! Let us vie with all the angels in
worshipping him !
Blessed admixture of emotions! It is tenderness, it is gra
titude, it is complacency, without a lowering thought : it is hu
miliation, it is subjection, it is homage, without a disconcerting
fear !
The Gospel, in its Wisdom and Prudence, produces this moral
adjustment of our principles and feelings, —
By INSISTING MOST UNIFORMLY ON DIVINE GRACE AND HU
MAN RESPONSIBILITY.
In its treatment of man the doctrine it preaches is most
abasing to him, but only because it represents the true facts of

188 THE HARMONY OF CHRISTIANITY
his case. It does not lay_him low, but shows how low he lies.
It can hear nothing of our merit. It dispels the darkness in
which such a dream alone could fill the mind. We no more
appeal to justice. We no more demand, " Give me the portion
of goods that falleth to me." We compare not ourselves among
ourselves. Sins which formerly seemed little rise up into fearful
magnitude. The heart which flattered us and which we palliated
in return, is felt by us now to be desperately wicked. The God
whom we had reduced in our ideas to a weak indulgence and
even connivance, is declared by Himself to us as the jealous
guardian of his own name and law. We are helpless as guilty.
What things were gain are loss. Mercy now is our only cry.
As we read that "surely shall one say, In the Lord have I right
eousness and strength," each of us determines to be that one.
Grace leaves us nothing but itself. It crowns itself. But while
it regards us in this our guilt and powerlessness, it addresses us
as moral agents. Not an original relationship is disturbed. We
are dealt with according to one rule. The law must be fulfilled
in us. We are not the less accountable creatures. In blessing
Him who maketh us to differ from another, we must not forget.
that he is no respecter of persons. Even we are called, persuaded,
commanded, to the reception of these sure mercies. A new pro
bation is established, a further responsibility is impressed. The
gospel is made known unto all nations for the obedience of faith.
God now commandeth all men every where to repent. In no
way is any standard of obedience reduced. No principle of obli
gation is relaxed. And instead of grace interfering with the
grounds of subjection on which man has always stood, must
always stand, — it augments to far more solemn issue all his ori
ginal amenableness.
This is a most important result. Man is brought to see that
there is nothing but he must receive. And then his helplessness
is set forth to him as a matter of blame and guilt, for which he
is liable and for which there is no excuse. How correct is the
poise which such constituents of principle must establish in his
mind !
This state of mind is secured, —

in its personal influence. 189
By the proposal of the freest terms of acceptance,
and the enforcement of the most universal practice of
obedience. The reign of grace, though its very name supposes that it
acts in consistency with moral government, necessarily must be
brought to the simplest idea of gift and its acceptance. It is
" the gift by grace." The manner of obtaining it does not lessen
its spontaneousness, but rather illustrates it. Do we seek it by
prayer ? He regards the prayer of the destitute. He delivers
the needy when he crieth and him that hath no helper. Do we
believe ? " It is of faith that it might be by grace." Do we
buy ? " It is without money and without price." Do we thirst ?
Do we will to drink ? We " take the water of life freely." Is there
any reason for this grace in ourselves ? We had not to pay and
therefore our Lord frankly forgave us. " By grace are ye saved."
We adjudge not our case truly until we renounce all thoughts of
personal excellence: until we abjure the merit of our natural
instincts and social virtues : until we see that, being evil, we have
given good things to our children : that our ploughing has been
sin. But having been justified freely by his grace, through faith
without the works of the law, are we discharged from obedience ?
God now accepteth our works. They are accepted through the
atonement. There is in us a new motive, a new life. It is not
more a faithful saying, and more worthy of all acceptation, that
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, — than it is a
faithful saying, and to be constantly affirmed, that they who be
lieve in God should be careful to maintain good works. Now
commences toil, watch, warfare. There is time to redeem. There
is neglect to overtake. A new plan of existence opens upon us.
For us to live is Christ. Works, labour, and patience, constitute
it. Continuance in well-doing is the only proof that we are in
salvation. We show our faith by our works.
The doctrines of grace are thus demonstrated to be those of
godliness : and they who view them in their coherence, will mani
fest in their example how united is their hold and how reciprocal
is their efficiency. They will know how to be passive, and how
to be zealous : when to quiet, and when to arouse, themselves.

190 THE HARMONY OF CHRISTIANITY
Their dependence will not torpefy their activity nor their activity
elate their dependence.
This medium, so true to the Wisdom and Prudence of the
Christian system, is maintained, —
By inspiring the most elevated joy in connection with
the deepest self-abhorrence.
If there be" a sentiment of mind most notable in the first Chris
tians it was their happiness. It transfused itself through all their
tempers and their engagements. They found it where it was
least likely to be found. They counted it all joy to fall into
divers afflictions. They rejoiced in tribulation. They took plea
sure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions,
for Christ's sake. Look into their inmost breast. There was joy
in the Holy Ghost. They were glad with exceeding joy. Their
joy was full. They rejoiced with joy unspeakable. Now all
this is attainable by us. The fruit of the Spirit is joy. There
is the joy of faith. Do we not sit with Christ in heavenly places ?
Have we not come to the heavenly Jerusalem ? These are gratu-
lations and hopes which fall little short of ecstacy. But lest we
should be exalted above measure, there is ever present to us our
fallen nature, our long unconversion, our indwelling corruption,
our strange perverseness, our slow proficiency ; our ungrateful,
deceitful, unbelieving heart. God has forgiven, but we cannot
forgive ourselves. We will go softly all our years in the bitter
ness of our soul. We remember our ways and are ashamed.
We are confounded and will not open our mouth when He is
pacified toward us. It is not fear. It is not abject sorrow. It
is the struggle of alternate disposition s^ The heart, which breaks
with grief, overflows with delight. " As sorrowful yet alway
rejoicing." Neither in the joy nor in the sadness do we lose our
selves. Both are intelligent and subdued. The one cannot soar
without a recollection which stays its flight: the other cannot
droop without a hope to cheer its depression. The two combined
terminate in a settled calm and a perfect peace. The rapture
may have passed away, but so has the disconsolateness. It is as if
the rainbow arched around the Eternal throne, — that meteor of
expiring tempest and breaking sunshine, — had now contracted

IN ITS PERSONAL INFLUENCE. 191
itself around our soul, filling it with all the mournful and the
bright associations of fear and hope, while it illuminates us with
its beauty and enfolds us in its embrace.
That mean of feeling, which is equidistant from extremes, is
preserved, —
By DISPLAYING THE DIFFERENT CONDUCT PURSUED BY THE
DEITY TOWARDS SIN AND THE SINNER.
With that necessity which is our best conception, however
it be unworthy, of infinite perfection, the God of holiness has
ever opposed himself to moral evil in its divers forms. It is the
abominable thing which he hates. It is what he would not have
exist. He resents and counterworks it. He cannot overlook it,
nor pass it by. No sin was ever forgotten, or is unmarked for
punishment. The death of Christ, in its respect of an atonement,
is the act of divine exculpation : it is designed to clear God from
every misconstruction to which his long-suffering might be abused,
to certify the exclusive basis on which his exercise of pardon can
be rested, and to express, in circumstances and by means which
could never be combined again, his eternal displeasure against all
unrighteousness. By that authority and wisdom which belong to
him, he has contrived and ordained a way by which sin, in its
consequences of guilt, may be detached from the evil doer, — a
method of abstraction and separation, — leaving the sinner, when
he believes, free from those consequences, but not at all as a crea
ture who has not sinned. Having sin, he is defiled by his sin.
Though pardoned, he sees that there is a horrible perpetuity in
the act. He thinks of an entail which defies calculation. His
Lord and Saviour has died for him. He dwells upon the pangs,
the indignities, the horrors, of the cross. He blesses the substi
tution. He looks on Him whom he has pierced. That Sufferer
bears his sins and carries his sorrows. What tribulation and
wrath and anguish are heaped upon that holy head ! He dies for
sin ! He dies for sinners ! What a mystery is contained in the
double bearings of that deed ! To condemn sin in the flesh, and
to deliver them who sinned it ! To make sin exceeding sinful,
and to rescue them who were sinners before the Lord exceedingly !
To act the foe of sin and the friend of sinners ! Oh the divine

192 THE HARMONY OF CHRISTIANITY
effect of these contemplations on the soul ! " Blessed," it cries,
"is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity." I
might have been reserved unto judgment to be punished. It was
the meet recompense. Mine iniquity is taken from me. Far as
the east is from the west He hath removed my trangressions. I
can the better understand its enormity now that I behold it
transferred to yonder bloody tree. Strange that He spared not
his own Son ! But he was made sin ! Justice bound him to the
death ! My sin is there. My guilt is upon him. Hateful, my
sin, dost thou appear as thou wast never seen before ! Thou art
placed thus high, thou art made thus prominent, to scare my eye,
to break my heart. Die there, thou that art my bitterness and
shame. I hate thee with a perfect hatred ! Let me die to thee !
Blessed cross ! I would know the fellowship of thy sufferings,
being made conformable unto thy death !
Can the saved sinner, — after such a spectacle, — with the dread
remembrance how his sin was taken from him, and dealt with
according to its full measure of demerit and liability, — sin that
grace may abound, or turn grace into lasciviousness ! His judg
ments and his sympathies are converted against it, and the con
trast between the treatment of the sin and the sinner must secure
a new barrier between the sinner and the sin !
This congruity of conflicting sentiments is upheld, —
By COMBINING THE GENUINE HUMILITY OF THE GOSPEL WITH
OUR DIGNITY AS CREATURES AND OUR CONSCIENTIOUSNESS AS
SAINTS. The holiest beings, in the view of their essential dependence
and obligation, are filled with the most lowly sensibility. They
cast down their crowns. They veil their faces. They see that
the Infinite must be infinitely distant from them. They see that
Necessary Excellence can bear no comparison with that which is
derived and imitative. But no sin prostrates their brow. No
confusion clouds their face. They are true to their high estate.
They have not left their first habitation. They cannot repent.
Nor do they depreciate their sphere and rank of existence. They
decry not their thrones and their dominions. Their deepest
humility answers to strictest truth. They confess only what they

in its personal influence. 193
are, and adore their Creator. But the humility of the Christian
is of another complexion. He knows himself the guilty and the
depraved creature. He is vile. He cannot look up. He repents
in dust and in ashes. He cannot forget what he has been. Still
imperfect, he bewails what he is. For ever there will be on his
spirit the memory of past guilt and woe. His new song is a
song of deliverance. But his sinfulness is not to be avenged
upon the inferiority of his nature. That is worthy of high
honour. There is nothing why man should not respect himself.
The gospel teaches him this lofty mood. Sin is his only degra
dation. His capabilities are now laid open. The powers of his
mind are braced to healthy action. His immortality yearns
within him. He awakes to his destiny. He is renewed after the
image of Him who created him. He cannot adequately perceive
the deforming influence of sin, without placing before him the
greatness it has ruined. The voluntary humility, the reptile
abjectness, to which many stoop, is at utter variance with taste,
with fact, with Christianity. Nor in our averments of Christian
motive need we, ought we, to addict ourselves to this gratuitous
disparagement. If we please God, if our conscience sends back
its answer void of offence toward God and man, if we have our
conversation honest, there must be falsehood in the contrary
charge. Jealous, as it becomes us, of our motives, — knowing
that, when we have done all, we are unprofitable servants, — still
humility requires no sacrifice of truth. A heart right with God
has a title to be seen and heard and felt in the clear countenance,
the steadfast eye, the unembarrassed tone, of a manly indepen
dence. We may have even whereof to glory, but not before God.
There must be praise where there is virtue. But without the
consciousness of self-respect neither can exist.
These remarks may be salutary in two ways : they may tend
to correct the prejudice of many persons who look upon the hu
mility of the gospel as a grovelling debasement of mind: they
may encite the true Christian, clothed as he is with humility, to
a fearless magnanimity, to the port and bearing of him whom
integrity and uprightness preserve.
This mellowed habit of mind is supported, —

194 THE HARMONY OF CHRISTIANITY
By CAUSING ALL SUPERNATURAL INFLUENCE TO OPERATE
THROUGH OUR RATIONAL POWERS AND BY INTELLIGENT MEANS.
The principle of life is subtle and unscanned. But, after its
kind, it is always developed in the same succession of fixed, clas
sified, manifestations. The intellectual, the highest, life, follows
the same law. It is known by its respective conditions. It is
always and in every place, without forgetting the degrees of its
expansion, the same. Having found one such creature, you
have a general knowledge of all. But it is a very primary doc
trine of revelation, that the work of a sinner's salvation involves
the necessity that he be enlightened and purified by a power from
on high. Now it might be asked, How is this influence to be
ascertained ? How far does it coincide with our mental constitu
tion ? By what fruits shall it be determined ? Does not the opi
nion throw open the flood-gate of fanaticism ? The answer is,
" Now we have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit
which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely
given to us of God." This is the simple design, and this Spirit
can alone be recognised by such perception of these revealed
things. " God hath not given us the spirit of fear ; but of power,
and of love, and of a sound mind." These are the true marks,
and the existence of this Spirit can alone be assured by such
effects. " God worketh within us to will and to do." He inclines
our nature agreeably to its own rule of motives. No violence is
done : there is choice and action. Even in extraordinary illapses,
" the spirit of the prophets was subject to the prophets :" there
was no over-mastering impulse. Whenever the Spirit now moves
in us, there is the understanding also. This wonderful, this un
speakable, gift of the Holy Ghost is imparted to us, to carry out
our proper nature, to lead us forward in our original direction,
to make our reason more rational, our judgment more judicious,
our volition more voluntary; to allow to each power its right
and to each feeling its freedom. The written word is at once
the standard by which each influence must be tried, and is the
instrument by which a divine influence alone can operate.
It is seen, then, that the highest inspiration cannot destroy
any faculty of the mind, being but its highest exercise ; and that

IN ITS PERSONAL INFLUENCE. 195
there is no denaturalising tendency, since the mind's appropriate
qualities are the only subjects and mediums of this divine impres
sion. It enlarges our heart. It is the spirit of quick understand
ing. It is the law of the Spirit of life. All is pre-eminently a
plastic power working on the fixed and regular substance of the
soul, and exhibiting none other substance, however it be refined
of alloy and wrought into a workmanship of beauty.
The Wisdom and Prudence of the Gospel discover them
selves, in this respect, —
By RESTING OUR EVIDENCE OF SAFETY AND SPIRITUAL WEL
FARE UPON PERSONAL VIRTUES.
We must often ask ourselves whether we be in the Lord ?
We see no reason to deny the direct testimony of the Comforter
to our acceptance. As he has brought home to us the conviction
of our sins, why may he not assure us consciously of our forgive
ness ? Does he not witness to our adoption and with our spirit ?
Is not this to receive the word with joy of the Holy Ghost ?
But still the inferential argument is indispensable. The spirit
must attest something. That which he confirms must be already
true. We cannot be called to' believe that as true of ourselves
which is not true at the moment of belief. No faith can make
the falsehood, veracity ; or the nonentity, fact. If the Holy Spirit
testifies to our adoption, we are adopted. " Because ye are sons
God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying
Abba, Father." No direct witness can avail in the absence of
holiness : the inferential argument simply respects such holiness.
Then must we look, on both suppositions, to character and con
duct. We may be compelled to say concerning the boaster of
this assured acceptance, " How dwelleth the love of God in him ?"
"What doth it profit, though a man say that he hath faith and
have not works ? Can faith save him ?" Take it any way, this
must be the criterion. Only as we add to our faith virtue through
every couplet of successive, and rising, graces, only so shall an
entrance be ministered unto us abundantly into the everlasting
kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The last judg
ment sets up the same evidence. " They were judged every man
according to their works."

196 THE HARMONY OF CHRISTIANITY
Such is the wholesome symmetry of practical piety: no proof
of acceptance, no assurance of hope, no "yea," — though we
had not doubted that " the Spirit said it," — is of any validity
without it.
Moreover to save the mind from those violent alternations to
which it tends, the religion of Christ asserts its Wisdom and
Prudence, —
By supplying the absence of enslaving fear with sa
lutary CAUTION.
We know that there is a fear which hath torment, a spirit of
bondage. There is a timidity of consequences. This is cast out.
Who is he that condemneth ? Who can be against us ? We
trust and are not afraid. We can think of the future, and our
faith protects us from dismay and depression. Our enemy doth
not triumph over us. Though a host should encamp against us,
in this will we be confident. We feel that there is a boast which
we may make in God. "He is able to keep us from falling. He
will keep us from every evil work and preserve us unto his hea
venly kingdom. He keepeth the feet of his saints. Christ is
surety for us. He will bring forth judgment unto victory. Who
shall separate us from the love of Christ ? He will confirm us
unto the end. The Spirit sealeth us unto the day of redemption.
Our confidence of final salvation is cheerful and unfaltering. We
are persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor princi
palities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor
height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to sepa
rate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
All this assurance respects the covenanted purpose and declared
faithfulness of God. But is there nothing to abate this confi
dence of boasting ? Every thing that looks at the fickleness of
ourselves! — "Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest
he fall." " Be not high-minded, but fear." " I keep under
my body, and bring it into subjection ; lest that by any means,
when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway."
" Pass the time of your sojourning here in fear." In this respect
we cannot be too diffident. Our use of means cannot be too assi-
d uous. If we are invincible, who maketh us more than conquerors ?

IN ITS PERSONAL INFLUENCE. 197
Was it ever known that soldiers, who were called invincible, stood
the less firmly and fought the less bravely, because their ban
ners bore that emblazoned style ? Did the ancient warriors con
tend the less manfully because they went into the battle with
their brows filleted by victorious wreaths ? The more wary was
their movement, the more sensitive was their honour, the more
impetuous their attack, — their burst as the billow, their resis
tance as the rock.
THE ACTUAL EXISTENCE OF OUR DEPRAVED NATURE, AND
THE WORK OF SANCTIFICATION IN US PRESSING FORWARD TO ITS
MATURITY, TEND TO THAT REGULATED TEMPERAMENT OF MIND
WHICH WE URGE.
Sin will be, so long as we live, a capable thing in us: it is
natural, and therefore easy and ready. It is bound up with our
strongest propensions. It has a deep-seated hold in our corpo
real, sentient, nature. It acts in all manner of concupiscence.
It dwells in us. But there is a new and stronger power. We
call it religion or grace. Sin exists and struggles : but this pre
dominates and reigns. Paul describes the conflict. " The flesh
lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and
these are contrary the one to the other : so that ye cannot do the
things that ye would." He lays open his own breast. " I find
then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me."
He contrasts his former and his present state. " I was alive
without the law once." " I see another law in my members war
ring against the law of my mind. O wretched man that I am."
The tenses mark the different times. Yet he "delights in the
law of God after the inward man." Hence the contest. There
are two rival principles. Yet they are not equal. That of cor
ruption is doubtless a voluntary power, not blind nor unintelli
gent. But that of grace is the transcendent, and determines the
superior will. Of the former the Christian may make disclaimer :
it is not his cherished purpose, his true bent, and, though guilty
and accountable on account of it, he may still exclaim : " It is
no more I that do it." His sincere, his highest, egoism cannot
be in it. He seeks not exculpation. He simply declares that he
cannot reach his aim, that he "cannot do the things which he

198 THE HARMONY OF CHRISTIANITY
would," that the renewed nature is checked and vexed by the
fallen nature, that the Christian's Self would soar away far from
all these adjuncts and provocatives of sin. Behold, then, the
position of this contest. The believer is sanctified, wholly as to
diffusion, but not as to degree : sin abides in him. And in pro
portion as his sanctification proceeds, his sin is often rendered
more obvious and active. He is perplexed in this discovery. It
seems the delay, and not the advancement, of his holiness. He
appears less renewed than he was before. Thus, notwithstand
ing, his true sanctity is promoted. It is the province of light to
reveal any thing rather than itself. The depravity is not really
increased. To have penetrated it is the sure method of victory
over it. And now we observe that state of mind which sweetly
blends extremes. How humble is the Christian kept by all the
hostilities which ever beset and threaten him ! How anxious is
his suspense ! How sleepless must be his vigilance ! He is
always in the presence of his enemies ! It is domestic treason
against which he guards ! Still does he trace a spiritual volition
breaking through every resistance, acquiring strength, dispersing
opposition, pledging triumph ! He cannot boast: he must not
despond. You hear him in his lament : " The evil which I would
not, that I do" ! You hear him in his anthem : " I thank God
through Jesus Christ our Lord" ! The " depth" and the " height"
of these emotions preserve him steady in his course, and help him
in " his patience to possess his soul" !
And certain views of personal conduct are so coupled,
IN THE GOSPEL, WITH THE NOBLEST VIEWS OF GRACE, THAT ANY
IMPROPER WARPING OF OUR MINDS IS COUNTERACTED.
The works of believers are rewardable. God accepteth them
and is pleased with them. He is glorified in themselves. Pro
mise of a return or recompense is made to their acts, partly
growing out of the quality of those acts, but chiefly as actual
additions of happiness. He is not unrighteous to forget the work
of faith and the labour of love. He covenants with us. We,
knowing his word and trusting his assurance, may always have
respect unto this recompense of reward. But do we boast ? Is
it not a constitution of grace which alone could render our deeds

IN ITS PERSONAL INFLUENCE. 199
praiseworthy and remunerable? which can speak to us, Well
done ? Is it not a new, independent, and most merciful, consi
deration and treatment of our moral agency ? It is the work of
God by which we exclusively can work the works of God.
And there are errors which gain entrance and power among
us by the forms of truth under which they pass. Popular apho
risms are heard, the more mischievous in that they are not wholly
false. Should it be affirmed that, " there is nothing good in us,"
— it is true of our fallen nature, " that is, in our flesh," — but
Regeneration produces "a good thing which we must keep."
Should it be alleged that, " all which is good in us consists iii
Divine influence," — it is true, inasmuch as it is the source of all
which determines "the new creature," — but true religion takes
the shape of personal principles and habits, and enters the system
of the voluntary, responsible, soul. Should it be asserted that,
" there is no meritoriousness in actions," — it is true that those of
the sinful creature cannot contain it, he is dead in sins and his
entire life is tainted with the moral disqualification ; and though
the recovered sinner should obey perfectly, nothing can be of
desert in that obedience : but actions cannot be indifferent, they
are displacent or attractive, good or evil. There is that " which
is acceptable before God." Should it be broached that, " we
must seek for all comfort beyond or without ourselves," — it is
true that nothing strictly original in us can justifiably or intelli
gently yield us any solace in our relationship to God, — but the
evidence of his operation on our hearts is most consolatory, and
this must be sought in our own consciousness of what we are
and of what we have proved. Should it be recorded that, " we
must come to Christ at our last hour as at our first awakening
we fled to him," — it is true that we have no more individual
right of access to him at one time than another : but ought we
not to approach with deeper contrition and stronger faith ? ought
we not to draw nearer in the spirit of adoption ? ought we not
the more closely to resemble him whom we have so repeatedly
implored ? ought our pleadings to have acquired no more scrip
tural clearness, no more confidence, no more child-like trust?
Are we only sinners as we were then ? Are we not children ?¦

200 THE HARMONY OF CHRISTIANITY
Are we not the redeemed? Surely there is much difference
between the sinner's first concern and outcry, and the saint's last
victory and song! And yet, the growth in grace which this
shall exhibit, will in nothing be so wonderful as in the humility
made perfect !
While the distinctive blessings and honours of the
christian might tend to elate him, he is affected by
the most opposite motives.
Scripture does most vividly describe, and most urgently note,
the changes wrought by a Divine Sovereignty on the subjects of
its grace. They are made to differ. They know their election
of God. They have been called out of darkness into marvellous
light. They have been chosen from the beginning to salvation.
They can appropriate that series of wonders : " Whom he did
foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image
of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called : and
whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified,
them he also glorified." May not this induce dispositions con
temptuous toward others ? May it not indite a censorious style
of language? May it not inspire an overweening self-impor
tance? The people of God! The sons "of God! Kings and
priests unto God ! This can only awaken the more ardent grati
tude and more profound humility. The cause of choice is not in
themselves. If intimation is ever given of the cause, it is the
greater sinfulness of the object. It is some design to illustrate
the freeness and power of grace in restoring the most wretched
outcast. And who is this restored one, that he should glory in
himself? He is the undeserving subject of all. He is a brand
plucked out of the fire. He is the chief of sinners. This is his
utmost praise and claim : " Howbeit I obtained mercy." He
owes, he must still owe, he must owe for ever ! He has paid
nothing, he can pay nothing, he can pay nothing to eternity!
He is bowed down by the weight of obligations and the load of
benefits; when he contrasts himself with those less favoured it is
only to feel that he is no better than they, though so differently
treated, regarded, and blessed. The ascription of salvation must

IN ITS PERSONAL INFLUENCE. 201
be perpetually upon his lip : thanksgiving must be the voice of
his endless melody.
God abounds in this Wisdom and Prudence towards us, and
thus " unites our hearts," —
By most strongly abstracting us from the things of
EARTH, AND YET GIVING US THE DEEPEST INTEREST IN ITS RE
LATIONS AND ENGAGEMENTS.
The world is placed before us as a vanity, an immense evil,
a ruthless foe. The pride of life is put to scorn. But life itself
is a solemn gift and trust. Household and species prefer their
claim upon us. We are debtors to all. We must do good unto
all. We must love and honour all men. Whatever concerns
the history and condition and destiny of our fellow -creatures is
our nearest interest. Our present existence is the only oppor
tunity for seeking their salvation. Death is not only a change
most serious in itself, it is serious as the termination of that
opportunity : " I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants
of the world." We yield to no indifference. We discriminate.
We mark the points of littleness : we seize the points of gran
deur. We lose our life : we gain it : we keep it. Even now our
heaven begins, not only in its earnest but in its rudiment : there
now worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of
glory. Such is the explanation, and such the harmony, which we
would suggest of certain apparent discordances. We have refer
red to the system of checks in the natural universe as an analogy.
And that analogy may help us still. For really attraction is the
only law. Every repulsion being only a reference to another
centre, it is plain that it is but another attraction. Now all
differing centres are arranged in subserviency to that which is
innermost of all. The natural universe is, then, one harmonious
whole, and every momentary antagonism but conduces to the
perfection of its harmony. There is some mighty pivot, some
glorious axle, on which the whole revolves. So all the truths of
salvation are not only parts of one system, but their effects upon
the believing mind are common and interchangeable ; and the Au
thor of that salvation, looking upon these truths and these effects

202 THE HARMONY OF CHRISTIANITY, ETC.
sweetly linked together, beholds in them " the things which are
equal." There is spontaneous corrective and self-adjustment, all
is in its level, and on the glory of the entire scheme there is this
defence. The proportion of faith is that to which we should direct our
aim. There are no discrepancies in Scripture. No confusion
should distort our principles. The truths of revelation, though
sometimes they seem to stand apart, are all bound together, like
mountain-heights swelling from the same base and commingled
in the same heaven. Nor should we suffer a chaos of half-appre
hended truths in our minds. As one of the chief pleasures of
science consists in the perception of affinities and agreements,
associating the detached and combining the remote, — so, Christian
knowledge, next to its power in saving the soul, yields no purer
joy than the comprehensive study of all revealed facts and princi
ples, displaying their order, defining their province, and com
manding their use. They are all coincident, cognate :they throw
on each a mutual light and they stand to each in a reciprocal
subserviency. They are the different members of the same body :
they are the varying proportions of the same building. Nothing
is without its function : nothing without its place. There is no
extraneous, no irreconcileable, no confusing, element in Christi
anity. It is of one: it is one. And if we be Christians, our
experience will be the counterpart of it. As it works out from
apparent shocks and collisions its perfect unity, so shall our expe
rience be wrought in the same way. " In obeying from our heart
its form," whatever of its influences may seem to interfere with
each other, they all will be found to " establish our heart :" as
the opposing currents often swell the tide, and more proudly
waft the noble bark it carries ; as the counter-balancing forces of
the firmament bear the star onward in its unquivering poise and
undeviating revolution !

SERMON IX,

MORAL INABILITY.

John vi. 44, 65.

"No Man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me
draw him  Therefore said I unto you, that no Man can come
unto me, except it were given unto him op my Father."
Next to the origin of moral evil, — the rise and outbreak of
sin in the universe, — there is no fact so inscrutable as the condi
tion in which human beings are born into this world. However
we define ideas, however we explain terms, however we embrace
theories, our entrance on this life, the initiative of our existence,
is imperfect and disadvantageous. Such a statement falls very far
short of the fearful fact. It is a most flattering view of our case.
But we begin with this sparing representation. We can readily
conceive a better lot than ours. Let us emerge into a sphere in
which virtue predominates, or where rather it is only known.
Let our infant forms be enfolded in undefiled hands. Let no
tendency move in us but toward rectitude and happiness. Such
an ordination does not await us. The consequences of sin threaten
our earliest life. But this is not the darkest feature of the
dilemma. It might be something incidental, or inevitable, in a
general system of governing mankind. The evil has struck
deeper. Sin itself inheres in our nature. We are shapen in
iniquity. We are altogether born in sins. It is not an arrear
of punishment. It is not an inheritance of retribution. These
entails may operate. Yet they denote not that of which we speak.
It is a depravity connatural and innate. It is spontaneous incli
nation to transgress. There is no exception. It is a universal
law. Other descent may vary. A different habit of body and

204 MORAL inability.
state of life may be transmitted. Some receive the seeds of
health, others of disease. Some come forth to abundance, others
to destitution. Some accede to a name of honour, others to a
name of scorn. In these differences there is no little moral diffi
culty. But here is a process of degeneracy, — not more, not less,
— depending upon no accident, subject to no anomaly, capable
of no remission. This is true of all who have ever existed : it
may be pronounced of all who shall ever live : " The children
not being yet born, neither having done any good or evil."
We are quite aware that much is advanced against these
opinions. It is denied that there is any federal connection be
tween Adam and his posterity. It is denied that there can be
any imputation of his failure to his descendants. A whole array
of disclaimers and protestations is set up against thesupposition.
An appeal is made to every attribute of justice, to every ground
of reason. Our reply is simple: these enquiries respect not the
present matter. Is a sinful nature or disposition common to us
all ? We leave questions of guilt, responsibility, penal infliction :
we postpone considerations, how far we can be involved in ano
ther's act. We speak of no covenant of works. We rest on no
experimental treatment of our nature. Does every man find in
himself a sinful bias ?
This we call a great and fearful difficulty. We do not wish
to evade or slight it. We believe it to be a prominent, funda
mental, Bible truth. We cannot fail to mark its reiterated and
assured announcement in that inspired page. It is taken for
granted when it is not affirmed. Scripture is based upon its
assumption. Revelation has no meaning, proposes no design, if
it be not the fact.
Nor are we now purposing to defend such doctrine. If men
will reply that there is no source of depravity in the heart, that
it is only external infection, that whatever of moral corruption we
descry is the fruit of pernicious example, — our maintenance is
this : that the hypothesis does not account for the perpetuity of
sin in the world if it be but incident to any individual or gene
ration of men, — and that it does not offer any explanation why
every individual and every generation should be seen proceeding

MORAL INABILITY. 205
in the same character and addicted to the same courses. " They
have all gone out of the way: they are together become unpro
fitable: there is none that doeth good, no not one." "All we
like sheep have gone astray : we have turned every one to his
own way." "All flesh has corrupted his way upon the earth."
" This their way is their folly : yet their posterity approve their
sayings." Shut the Bible. Do you clear the difficulty ? You have still
to deal with facts. They are the same whether it be received or
discarded. They press upon us the same as if it were unknown.
Infancy and youth exhibit no less aversion to piety and duty.
There is no amended heart. There is no abated irreligion. The
fountain of evil still overflows, and still feeds the desolating
torrent. It is not that we wish to shrink from what is esteemed an invi
dious and polemical nomenclature. We shall not now quarrel with
them who, speak of the whole race having sinned in its parent.
We shall not deny the application of the language, which speaks
of all as " children of wrath," to those who are actually children,
and who " have not sinned after the similitude of Adam's trans
gression." We shall not refuse the interpretation which is most
literal of such texts as these : " For that all have sinned :"
" Through the offence of one the many are dead :" " By the offence
of one judgment came upon all to condemnation :" " By one man's
disobedience the many were made sinners." Our statement, which
is more limited, is all that we now impress : man naturally, that
is, according to his present nature, inclines invariably to the sin
ful in character and action. We may affirm the fact in scriptural
language : " Every imagination of the thoughts of the heart are
only evil continually."
Now in the case of a Pestilence, committing its waste and
havoc around us, we might not be wholly incurious as to the
causes out of which it sprung. We might speculate upon the
strange and portentous epidemic. Yet while it raged, and while
our duty called us from lazaretto to lazaretto, from pallet to
pallet, we should not, we could not, think of aught but of its
form and cure. Any theory we must defer to future investiga-

206 MORAL INABILITY.
tion. Our language must be, The Plague is at its height, it
widens its malignant fury, it mows down its countless victims !
Let us warn, let us save ! Let us go forth with all the means
of remedy, with all the powers of healing ! If futurity can bring
us leisure for after-thought, we will bethink us to study how the
Calamity arose.
The predicament of man is very parallel. As the prognosis
of bodily disease is variously described, so is moral disease as
variously reported. But both diseases may fester on while it is
the question of controversy. We speak of the spiritual virus.
It has penetrated the system. We have not time to discuss, we
may not possess premisses to decide, the manner of its introduc
tion. There it is ! " From within, out of the heart of man,
proceed the evil things which defile a man."
Mark, then, the position of every human creature. He enters
the world with this propension. No matter how it has descended,
whence it has befallen, by what circumstance it operates, — with
this intentness every man is found. He is seen a transgressor
from the womb, at every time, and in every place. Not one has
of himself, through any inclination simply his own, risen above
this level. No mechanical law of general and outward nature
has ever been fulfilled more certainly and constantly.
Three affirmations may be specified for the purpose of ex
pounding the true state of man ; this evil tendency — now only
considered as a fact, — being allowed.
— Man is a voluntary agent. Material subsistence is uncon
scious ; it would be foolish to speak of it as free. That portion
of intellect which belongs to the inferior animals, which we may
call instinct to distinguish its restriction, but which we cannot
hope by so loose a term in any wise to explain, shows its want of
liberty. There is no advancement, no variation, no originality,
in them. They never abandon the past. They never improve
on experience. The habitude of one is that of all. They inno
vate neither upon food nor habitation. But man's nature is hardly
a chain round about him. You cannot, except as to ultimate
conditions, know in what course man shall be discovered. You
cannot divine his counsels and ends. He has a thousand points

MORAL INABILITY. 207
of election. We cannot compute his range. Here is his manifold
volition. He laughs at the caviller who questions his power of
choice. He is conscious of it. He does what he pleases. He
turns whithersoever he will. He is proud of it. It is his boast.
He often resolves to demonstrate it against better reason. It is
his proper independence, from which he will not be diverted,
and of which he will not be robbed.
— Man is a responsible agent. It cannot be left to him how
he shall use his freedom, without certain laws being appointed
for his guidance and without proper enforcement of those laws.
The remark is unmeaning, that he might be committed to parti
cular consequences in order to regulate or check his conduct,
But such consequences, if not laws in themselves, presuppose
and indicate them : in the strictest sense they are the sanctions of
those laws. The recompense that is meet stands out on every
side. Man is not with impunity thrown upon his course. Good
and evil, life and death, are set before him to choose. It is no
vain thing which is at stake. Whether this rule be carried on
by a more distinct revelation, or by those recognised consequen
ces, the principle is the same : every man must give an account
of himself to God, and every man is now in a state of account-
ableness. — Man, being voluntary and responsible, is inexcusable in
the business of his invariably sinful inclination. He freely, deter-
minately, pursues it. It is exactly according to what he prefers.
This might be shown by an easy illustration. A criminal is
arraigned. The breach of the law is proved against him. He
does not deny the charge. In his defence, when he pleads for the
arrest or mitigation of punishment, let him frankly avow it.
Let him draw from the offence the very reason why he should be
discharged. Let him protest that he ought to be forgiven, be
cause it was his will to perpetrate the crime. Let him reiterate
that he always hated the law which he has transgressed. Let
him assure his judge that it was always his bent to do what he
has done. Let him call the tribunal to witness that he never
knew nor cherished any other disposition than that which has led
him to this course of guilt. And,-r-could we suppose such a line

208 MORAL INABILITY.
of defence,— what would be its effect ? That the will, that the
exclusive will, to violate the statute, was an excuse ? No, but
that it showed the prepense character, that it constituted the
unspeakable aggravation, of the deed. Pity would be lost in ex
ecration. Out of his own mouth would he be condemned. But
this is precisely the actuating principle of every sinner. " He
chooses his own ways and delights in his own abominations." His
sin is his desire. Is this an apology ? He only blinds himself
and his reason when he says that he desires another will, that his
will opposes what he seeks. He can only decide according to
the stronger motive, or according to the preference,— that which
he thinks best for him at the time. He cannot be sorry for his
will. He cannot be conscious that his will thwarts him. He is
in the flesh. He walks after the flesh. He minds earthly things.
What a testimony does the sinner heap up against himself who
reasons in his heart that his punishment must be unjust inasmuch
as every purpose of that heart flowed in one sinful direction !
We may inherit much to which we are disinclined: we may
inherit much of which we may be tempted to complain : but to
repine that we inherit our will, our choice, our preference, what
we would, is insanely foolish and passing strange !
And there is another objection which, for a moment, we would
consider. Every reasonable creature, such as man or angel, must
be by nature defectible. He has received a law, and that pre
sumes a possible departure from it. He is endowed with a power
of choice, and this implies the susceptibility of refusal. Could
God constitute such a creature necessarily obedient ? a creature
who could never fall ? To say nothing of an independence im
plied in this question and which rests only upon a finite nature,
where is his liberty ? It may be asked, Is not God able to make
him stand ? Assuredly : but then this is aid extrinsic to his
nature, that which his creation and his probation did not con
template ; it is a favour or grace. This may be given. Angels
have received it. Trial may have past, and the reward be in
such security. But both classes of these agents were put to the
test : in the one instance it was general, and some stood and some
failed; in the other it was representative, and all were seminally,

MORAL INABILITY. 209
if not federally, involved in the result. On the part of Adam's
posterity this was " not willingly," so far as that they were not
consulted. It was a Divine constitution. But it is willingly,
since every one of that posterity by wilful sin incessantly supports
and justifies the first transgression.
Extended as are these observations, we trust that they will
not be found useless and irrelevant to those discussions which the
Text demands. It speaks of an inability to perform that which
is still duty, and which is still necessary to salvation. We find
that there is a very ordinary mode, in Sacred Writ, of descri
bing a particular condition of the sinner's mind. Our Lord thus
fully accords to it and sanctions it by his authority. The fallen
creature, man, " cannot come to Him," unless there be a Divine
succour. This is the subject of which we treat. It is placed
before us in an announcement or proposition, which, at the
same time that it requires our belief, appeals as fully to our
understanding. It is little more than a fact of individual con
sciousness ; and only the pride of sin hides it from us !
Let us consider,
I. The terms in which this truth is made known to
us.
No man. In the strongest manner all exception to the state
ment is debarred. " Adam begat a son in his own image, after
his likeness." " Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean ?
not one." Let the man be however privileged and trained, let
the composition of his humanity be however sweet and lovely,
let his manners be however graceful and his tempers however
amiable, he shares in the ruin of moral strength which was the
earliest effect of our fall. Our first parents fled. They returned
not to their Maker. They sought not his grace. They " could
not" come. Of all their descendants not an individual has yielded
of himself. " That which is born of the flesh is flesh." They
who do yield and return are " born not of blood, nor of the will
of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."
To " come" denotes religious exercise. " O Thou that hear-
est prayer, to thee shall all flesh come," that is, shall pray. " He
that cometh to me shall never hunger ; and he that believeth on
p

210 MORAL INABILITY.
me shall never thirst ;" coming and believing are, then, convert
ible words. Christ is the exclusive Saviour : " even to Him shall
men come." It is only as we come to him that we can have " the
fellowship of Christ Jesus." This secures all the blessings of his
mediation. But it is added that " no man can come." This not being a
bodily act but that which is spiritual, the incapacity must be
equally spiritual. It cannot be original defect, nor is it defect
of the present mental system. The human mind is the same in
substance, the same in that which constitutes it, that it ever was.
What can be the incapacity of the mind, being the same, to do in
one state what it has done in another state ? It must be simply a
restraint or unfitness produced by particular views and disposi
tions. Any illustration must be impertinent which is derived
from muscular or mechanical resistance. The inability must be
moral. The man is held back by contrary motives and inclina
tions. The soul under their influence cannot come : for it cannot
will against itself. The idea of incapacity or inability is most
just; it is spoken of intellectual essence: and what can be more
certain than that mind cannot proceed in a way opposed to all
its volitions ?
But it may be " drawn." The indisposition, which is its only
impotency, may be removed, and replaced by disposition which
will be its only strength. To " draw" mind, is to induce it. This
can only be done by appeals and persuasions of a mental order.
" I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love," with
whatever motives are most congenial and most interesting. "And
I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me,"
by the attractions of the cross. No new faculty is now supplied,
any more than its extinction could be formerly supposed. But
man is turned to God ! Such a direction is given to him that he
is a new creature, and partakes of a divine nature. Violence is
not done to him. His regeneration is a rational and moral pro
cess. " God worketh in us to will and to do :" his grace deter
mines it, but it is our will and our doing. When He draws,
we run after him. We run the way of His commandments,
when he has enlarged our hearts.

MORAL INABILITY. /. 211

If there be this interposed power to "draw^ws, it is "given."
Faith is, therefore, said to be " of the operation of God." He
" fulfils the work of faith with power." It is given to us on the
behalf of Christ to believe on his name." We " believe through
grace." " It is the gift of God." The Father is exhibited as
thus " drawing" them who come to Christ, and as " giving" spi
ritual power that they may come. He is the God of sovereignty.
"Blessed art thou," said Jesus to his believing disciple: "for
flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father
who is in heaven."
All these terms suppose the moral liberty of man. Of his
spiritual freedom, which can only be recovered to him by the
Redemption which is in Christ Jesus, we do not at present speak.
He acts from choice. Without motive he could not be in a con
dition of liberty: instead of fettering his liberty, it is essential to
its idea and exercise. Man, if he " come not to Christ," is free ; he
" cannot come," because all his freedom is abused not to come :
if he " come," because he is " drawn" and because it is given him,"
he is free, his " heart is set" upon it, his whole soul is turned to
it, all his freedom is determined in this direction.
We may now examine, ~" ^r
II. The evidence on which the statement rests.
When we remember Who it is that speaks, that he " search-
eth the reins and hearts," that he " speaketh the words of God,"
we must adjudge the testimony to be conclusive. We must
"tremble at His word."
But the total doctrine of Divine Revelation proceeds on this
impracticability. Is man described in his destitution of all
means to uplift himself arid restore him to the sphere whence he
has fallen ? " When we were yet without strength, Christ died
for the ungodly." "O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself: but
in me is thy help." Is man described in his deprivation of all
desire to be restored ? "You hath He quickened who were dead
in trespasses and sins." This is insensibility to the good, but
it is not inaction: "Ye walked according to the course of this
world." It is not listlessness : " Fulfilling the desires of the flesh
and of the mind."

212 MORAL INABILITY.
Let us endeavour to place the facts involved in this Proposi
tion, before us.
Man is in a state of spiritual estrangement.* God knoweth
him afar off. " He is angry with the wicked every day." " Your
iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your
sins have hid his face from you." We have, in this state, no
" access." Look rather into the mind of man than into his rela
tionship, now disrupted and hostile, with the Deitj'. " God is
not in all his thoughts." " There is none that seeketh after God."
" Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the
life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the
blindness of their heart." Can a creature, thus " without God in
the world," of his own free will turn, not only from his habit,
but from his nature, from himself? May he resist every motive
which he can appreciate, and follow every motive which he must
abhor? The epithets of a physical kind are frequently used.
We are represented as blind and dead. We know that these can
only be applied as the things themselves differ. The eyes of our
understanding are not quenched, but sealed, in night. Spiritual
death consists with the life of sense and mind. The analogy can
only be traced in the points which are common. But this suffices
to dash the hope of man that he can unseal the eyes of his under
standing, or make alive his own soul. " Not that we are suffi
cient of ourselves, to think any thing as of ourselves."
Men do not come to Christ of their own self-prompted accord.
There is not a motive, intelligent and merciful, but is proposed
to us. " Come now and let us reason together, saith the Lord."
There is rebuke, remonstrance, entreaty. " The Lord hath spo
ken." He sends his messengers and employs his instruments.
"As though God did beseech you by us." "We persuade men."
We "warn every man and teach every man." There is no
* It is very desirable that the terms moral and spiritual should not be inter
changed. Moral always respects a government and an accountability. Moral evil
is that which is done against law and from a responsible motive in the agent. To
know when it may be used, we have only to ask, Has it any connection with law
or responsibility ? Spiritual, applies to our higher nature, and to whatever affects
it : spiritual blindness, , enslavement, &c. We may speak of moral inability : it is
that inability for which we are accountable, — but it is of a spiritual nature.

MORAL INABILITY. 213"
method of instruction, no art of urgency, but is plied. "What
could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done
in it ?" " Who hath believed our report ?" We see a common
and invariable course. Men do not believe and repent. The
multitude does evil. They love death more than life. They are
the world. They abide in death. " They walk in a way that is
not good, after their own thoughts." The Christian minister
knows that, so far as they are concerned, this can only be the
result. He knows the adaptation of his means and the responsi
bility of his hearers, but from moral suasion he knows success
cannot arise. In his duty he preaches : and he has well-grounded
hope. He shall not beat the air. But did he prophesy to the
dry bones only, he would fold his hands in despair. His encou
ragement is not in the pliancy, the seriousness, the attention, of
men. He can find nothing to cheer him in their most favourable
state. The wicked forsakes not his way, nor the unrighteous
man his thoughts. He sees not the hopeful, and favourable, state
of mind. If there be a people "made ready," it is "a people
prepared of the Lord."
But they who come to Christ agree in their account of the
moving cause. They tell of their " former conversation" and of
their "former lusts in their ignorance." They speak of their
insensibility. They declare that they sought not to God of
themselves. Often ask they : " Who maketh thee to differ from
another ?" Their general opinions, even as affecting the origin of
the religious principle, may seriously differ : but to the practical
solution they spontaneously consent. The reference — " Howbeit
I obtained mercy," is caught by one and all. It opens all hearts:
It chords all tongues. Consistent or not consistent with given
theory, this is the universal ascription. There is no dispute.
One strong feeling precludes all possible variance. This is the
point of rest, the centre of repose. If there be a song on earth
like that of heaven, it is this symphony of praise. So in Scrip
ture we often find the declaration of this truth. " I am sought
of them that asked not for me : I am found of them that sought
me not : I said, Behold me, behold me, unto a nation that was
not called by my name." " So then it is not of him that willeth,

214 MORAL INABILITY.
nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy." And
when a semblance has been introduced of creatural power, when
any turn of language has been employed which might suggest it,
it is immediately checked. " But now, after that ye have known
God, or rather are known of God" " I laboured, yet not I,
but the grace of God which was with me." " I live, yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me." " By grace are ye saved through
faith; and that not of yourselves." "We love Him, because
he first loved us."
And every other supposeable cause must be inefficient. For
if a mixed operation be assigned, it must be divine influence and
native effort which are engaged in it. It is a conjoint power.
Now if this be supernatural influence exclusively acting on our
nature, the controversy is surrendered, for we ask no more. If
it be, however, intended that the grace only assists our own exer
tion, we must enquire at once, how that exertion was prompted ?
Is it of human tendency ? If not, the statement that " no man
can come" is not invalidated. If it be contested that our natural
will controls the grace, then musjt it be greater than it, then must
it be independent of it. Then, too, must our will be the hinge
of our salvation. Then, also, may we glory in it as explaining
the sole reason why we repent and believe.
Strange are the opinions which are widely held in regard to
the Human Will. When we speak of it as a faculty, a distinct
power, of the mind, we obscure and perplex the proper idea we
should form of it. The mind is one. It takes certain conditions.
It knows what it loves. That is the object which it chooses.
Some things may not affect it any way. Then it is seen without
desire or dislike towards them. If any thing does affect what it
feels to be its happiness, then it is moved. It is beheld in a par
ticular state in respect of it. It wills, or it does not will. There
is a proposition of truth, — it approves or does not approve it.
There is a course of action, — it prefers or does not prefer it.
This is simple fact. Every mind is conscious of it. A judg
ment is a volition, but so likewise is a passion. The only dis
tinction is not in the nature of the choice, but in the objects
embraced by it.

MORAL INABILITY. 215
If these simplifications be allowed, how can the human will
be more or less than the turn and course of depraved affections ?
" For there is no man that sinneth not." Why should it be re
served from the general charge of our vileness ? By what show
of reason can it be maintained that it has escaped the general
defilement ? It is not a column towering above the ruin, but itself
a portion of that ruin. It is not an untainted part, but the limb
most restless with disease. It is an utter inconsistency to speak
of will apart from choice, and of choice apart from disposition.
You love, what you love you select, and the will is but the mani
festation of the strongest motive at the particular time and in the
particular decision. Nothing can be more absurd than to speak
of man exercising his will irrespectively of what he esteems and
desires as his good.
Common or universal grace will not, then, account for the
religious difference between men. If all have equal spiritual
power given to them, that is supposed to make a proper use of it
which is itself but the instrument of the utmost depravity. If the
grace be unequal, then the more may be adequate, and the less,
defective : but this leaves the position of the argument unchanged.
And surely He who claims the entire glory must be the Author
of the undivided work.
We advance another stage in these enquiries by establishing,
III. The PRINCIPLE ON WHICH THIS STATEMENT PROCEEDS.
Dispositions and their corresponding conduct may be predicted,
as well as what we call events. We can define the orbit of the
planet and the ellipse of a comet : it is mathematical calculation.
We can augur certain consequences of human freedom : this is
moral science. Will not every one, with an equal motive, act in
the same way ?
Prophecy is the announcement beforehand of what shall be.
It generally regards issues in which men have the largest share.
" And who," saith God, " as I, shall call, and shall declare it,
and set it in order for me ? and the things that are coming, and
shall come, let them show unto them." How many volitions go
to constitute such events, — events which are certain, but brought
about by motives which are free !

216 MORAL INABILITY.
But we find on a closer examination of Scripture that there is
not only an abundance of general predictions, peremptorily deci
ding what shall be the determinations of national and individual
will, — but of direct prophetic averments concerning the futurition
of guilt and disobedience. Of him who is free the whole sequel
is ascertained. Now this could not be ascertained, unless, the mind
being known, the development of that mind is as certainly
known. It is the freedom of disposition, but that disposition in
its " inward part is very wickedness."
" And I am sure," — this was the declaration of Jehovah to
Moses, " that the king of the Egyptians will not let you go.".
" And Pharoah's heart was hardened, neither did he hearken
unto them," " as the Lord had said ;" and yet did he act of his
ownself, for he did " not set his heart to this." " Jesus knew from
the beginning who should betray him," and yet Judas " sought
opportunity to betray him." The Lord appeared to Paul when
entranced in the temple, and commanded him : " Make haste, and
get thee quickly out of Jerusalem : for they will not receive thy
testimony concerning me :" and yet they were strictly accountable,
for it was " to fill up their sins alway."
In this manner it is again and again avouched to us how cer
tain men will act, what will be their proceedings and provocations.
This view differs from the former in that it does not fall under
distinct prophecy. It is the knowledge of propensions which, if
uncounteracted, will operate. It is the divine record and analysis
of our nature : it is written by the authority of Him who " knew
what was in man." " Ye will revolt more and more." " They
proceed from evil to evil." " For the vile person will speak vil-
lany, and his heart will work iniquity, to practise hypocrisy, and
to utter error against the Lord." " Let favour be showed to the
wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness : in the land of up
rightness will he deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty
of the Lord." " Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and
worse." " For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither
cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved."
Now it may be objected, that this prophetic divination, and
that even this prognosticating forecast, of what human conduct will

MORAL INABILITY. 217
be, precludes the possibility of its liberty. But is it not impera
tive, or God might be surprised ? Does not His government
demand an order of remedies and checks ? Still passing by such
questions, we will appeal to facts. God rules the world by a
settled plan. Man decides from uncontrolled motive. We learn
the former by Divine testimony : we know the latter by our con
sciousness. We never did any thing but freely. Fear may have
been the motive, fear of evil if we did not act in that manner.
But fear of evil is, in some sense, hope of good. Whatever form
it took, it was motive. Obedience to motive, be that motive what
it may, is freedom. Let us illustrate these positions by sacred
history. The Egyptians were the instruments of God in punish
ing Israel : they indulged but their feelings of cruelty and rapa-
cityin thus oppressing his people : " and the nation to whom they
shall be in bondage will I judge, said God." The Assyrian was
" the rod of His anger," and " the staff in their hand was his
indignation :" but Sennacherib " meaned not so, neither did his
heart think so :" his motives were altogether different and his own :
" Wherefore it shall come to pass, that when the Lord hath per
formed his whole work, I will punish the fruit of the stout heart
of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks." " From
that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples how that
he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders
and chief priests and scribes, and be killed." All this was neces
sary : not absolutely, but relatively, to a divine plan. " He
was delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God." He must die a particular death. Now there must be
agents to inflict it as well as to decree it, to demand it, and to
betray him to it. All were found, they were ready, they were
eager, — " with wicked hands," hands fully responsible, because
completely voluntary, "they crucified and slew him." It was a
deliberated, complotted, wilful, earnest, deed. They had their
way and pleasure. Still they knew not what they did. Herod,
Pilate, Caiaphas, Judas, Centurion, Soldier, took their chosen
part. Each followed his desire. Why ? " Lord, thou art God !
To do whatsoever Thy hand and thy counsel determined before
to be done."

218 MORAL INABILITY.
This is the principle of the Text : " No man can come unto
Me." It is reasoning upon what man is. It is forewarning of
what man will do. It is the purview of omniscience concerning
him. It shackles not his springs of conduct. It leaves him none
otherwise than he was before. It is simple truth. It partakes of
a more tender character. It pronounces not the sentence to drive
him to despair. It were a gratuitous memorial of his helpless
ness were there not hope for him. It is the first intimation of
mercy. O blessed light which reveals this tendency to evil only
as our guilt and woe ! Which searches the inward parts of that
old man which is corrupt ! Which causes us to feel that deeper
and deeper defection is as a sure word of prophecy ! Then only
have we learnt the true estimate of our nature. " Wherefore we
abhor ourselves." The last plea has fled ! The last confidence
is broken ! The vessel is wholly marred ! Now it is that we
understand that plainest truth, hitherto hidden from us: "A
corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit." Now it is that we
deprecate as most tremendous the judicial abandonment of the
sinner, which would "let him alone," or which would "give us
up to our own heart's lust." Now it is that we desire to be
" drawn," and pray that it may be " given unto us." " A man
can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven."
But all these observations repect a state of mind which is
peculiar. They exhibit it as unable to do what it is both its
duty and interest to do. It is stated to be a want of power, and
not of will. And this is the main enquiry. " No man can
come." Such is the declaration of our Lord.
Let us consider,
IV. The MORAL INCAPACITY WHICH IS THUS INVOLVED.
We all understand what is physical incapacity. I cannot
climb to the stars. I cannot untwist the Alp from its root nor
rock the Apennine on its base. My mechanical power, bodily
considered, must be very limited. This is quite distinct from
intellectual power. That we perceive, in regard to what remains
to be known, is also very contracted. The vocabulary before us
determines this power to consist in disposition. And though we
rather anticipate our subsequent allegements, the following defi-

MORAL INABILITY. 219
nition may explain the distinction on which physical and moral
inability rests. That is physical inability in which we could
not if we would: that is moral inability in which we would not
if we could. The one respects what natural capacity is incompe
tent to accomplish : the other respects what moral disposition is
disinclined to perform.
In the addresses of Jesus Christ to men, when he dwelt
among us, we recognise a manner of speaking very nearly uni
form while he lays open some vice in them. They are represented
as unable, it is asserted that they " cannot," because of that vice.
The impotency is of depraved passion. " How can ye believe,
that seek honour of men, and seek not the honour which cometh
from God only?" "How can ye, being evil, speak good things?"
"Why do ye not understand my speech ? Even because ye
cannot hear my word?" It is obvious that if this depraved
passion had ceased, that if this sinful opposition had ceased, the
incapacity, which was the consequence, would have ceased also.
It exists only in such a connection ; that is, only so long as that
particular evil impediment exists.
But Scripture often resorts to such a style when this kind of
moral indisposition is not the subject. It may be found in its
history. "When the brethren of Joseph saw that their father
loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and could
not speak peaceably unto him." Their hatred alone constituted
this inability: was there any other constraint? — It obtains in the
simplest parable. The man who is awakened at midnight by the
application of his friend, " from within answers, I cannot rise
and give thee," yet importunity prevails. There was no inability,
but a dislike of the disturbance. — Solemnly is it denounced : " It
cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem." There was
no restriction, except the persecuting fury of its inhabitants. —
Jehovah, to prove his love, demands : " Can a woman forget her
sucking child? Yea, she may forget." Maternal love alone
renders it impossible. — Christ, in vindicating his disciples, en
quires of the objectors to their conduct : " Can the children of
the bride-chamber fast while the bridegroom is with them? as
long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast."

220 MORAL INABILITY.
It is not necessity in either case, but only the rule of feeling.
— Even in lighter appeals, though most seriously applied, it is
asked: "Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her
attire ?" Their interest in them alone prevents them.
The Deity employs the same standard of language concerning
himself. Though we speak of his necessary excellence, we mean
not excellence independent of will. Being essential and immuta
ble, we are not able to think of it more highly than that it must
exist in him. The contrary cannot be conceived. It is an ina
lienable and indefectible perfection. We, indeed, but follow His
own declaration. The absoluteness of his purity makes it impos
sible that he should act otherwise than he does. His indepen
dence is his holiness. " God that cannot lie." " He cannot deny
himself." " Thou canst not look on iniquity." " My mind could
not be toward this people." " With him is no variableness or
shadow of turning." " Thou art the same !"
And it may not be improper to add that this manner of speak
ing is adopted by us in our most common phrase. Nothing is
more frequent than the assertion of men, in respect of certain
conduct, that they could not, or that they only could, pursue it.
We indignantly declare, that we are incapable of such an act, or
that we feel it impossible not to perform such a purpose. We
mean that our honour and probity forbid. We are held back by
certain principles. But those principles are of our own approval
and choice. Our tongue is as naturally free for falsehood, our
hand for theft, our heart for malice, as those of other men. We
might, we could, commit all these sins. But while our princi
ples are in force, we cannot. We cannot, however, simply be
cause we will not. So we transfer this language. We apply it
to others. We speak as if we confidently foresaw what different
persons must do. We speak thus upon their acknowledged prin
ciples. We are assured how the miser and the philanthropist
will act. We say that the one cannot part with his pelf; and
that the other cannot withhold his aid. The strength of habit
enters into these calculations. " Can the Ethiopian change his
skin, or the leopard his spots ? then may ye also do good, that
are accustomed to do evil." Still we revert mainly to the differ-

MORAL INABILITY. 221
ent dispositions, the renewed or the unrenewed nature, of men.
"A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth
that which is good ; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of
his heart bringeth forth that which is evil."
This cast of language, then, is no inadvertence. It is inten
tional. The design of it is to convince us that this is the tenour of
our depravity. It is the invariable volition of man. Mistaken in
the matter of his happiness and well-being, he acts upon the mis
leading motive. The direction is infallibly foreseen. This is the
only necessity. Because he is free, he can only pursue one course.
" So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God." " The
carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law
of God, neither indeed can be." " The natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God : for they are foolishness unto
him : neither can he know them, because they are spiritually dis
cerned." " Never able to come to the knowledge of the truth."
Still it is objected, that no voluntary issue can be neces
sary. We want not the term. We care not for it. We utterly
renounce it in any rigid, binding, inexorable, fatalistic, sense.
Philosophic necessity is not this. Let it, however, be condemned.
Discard it at once. But we can express a more just, and quite
as full an idea, by other terms. Man is sure thus to err. There
is certainty that he will sin. No man " can come," — because no
man will : no man will come, and therefore no man can.
Nevertheless, it may be asked, Is man now possessed of his
perfect liberty ? If it be certain that he will only act in one way,
is that to be free ? If such certainty be incompatible with liberty,
then the redeemed in heaven, kept from falling, are not free:
then angels, those sinless essences, are not free : then God, who
cannot be tempted, is not free.
But we admit that man is not free as a holy creature is. His
liberty, is prostituted. His judgment is warped. His passions
tyrannise. He is fallen. All which his nature dictates as motive
corresponds to his fallen state. But in the free quality of his
actions he was never less coerced. What he does seemeth good
to him. He has done whatsoever he listed. He follows the
devices of his own heart. Being " abominable and filthy he

222 MORAL INABILITY.
drinketh iniquity like water." "His heart gathereth iniquity
to itself." " They draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin
as it were with a cart-rope."
Is he a slave ? So does the word of God describe him. How
can he then be free ? Free he is not in opposition to slavery, but
this is a change in the use of the term. Voluntary freedom is
his, though not spiritual. The liberty of a holy creature is to be
obliged by divine law. " He walks at liberty when he seeks
these precepts." The sinful creature is in bondage. " His own
iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden
with the cords of his sins." But he is readily and intently the
slave. He " serves divers lusts and pleasures."
Is he a captive? So does the word of God describe him. He
is under "the power of Satan." He is in "the snare of the Devil,
taken captive by him at his will." How can he, then, be free ?
Again we protest against the different employment of the term.
He is not free from his Enemy, but he is still voluntarily free.
He has sold himself for nought. The captivity is chosen by him:
he is content with it : he desires not that it should be turned.
Is he a creature whose will is overpowered? So does the word
of God describe the regenerate man. " When I would do good,
evil is present with me." " To will is present with me, but how
to perform that which is good I find not." But this is not the
description of man in general, but of a class. They who are born
of God have a paramount aim to serve him. Nevertheless sinful
inclinations and capabilities are still in them. Whatever they do,
they at the time do from the will, from a motive, — yet is it not
their greatest and generally predominant desire. It interferes
with it : it contradicts it. Two different orders of disposition are
found in their mind. Are there, then, two wills ? Not at any
one moment. But in successive moments the will of the mind may
vary. It is swayed by different motives. But this can only.be true
of a Christian, the new creature. He is spiritually minded. The
motions of sin, however, are not extinguished in him. The spirit
is willing when the flesh is weak. He feels the promptings of two
dispositions : The flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit
against the flesh. So far his inability is accountable. He " can-

MORAL INABILITY. 223
not do the things which he would." He confesses it : he seeks
its forgiveness and subjugation. On the other hand, the sinner
knows but one desire of sin. With him is no contest. That
which the Christian " would," he would not. Unrenewed men
make none other choice. They have "only done evil before God
from their youth : they have only provoked him to anger." Nor
is it any movement of good in the unregenerate that they are said
to " loathe themselves for their iniquities." This is but the dis
gust of sated passion and the apprehension of impending judg
ment. " I will seek it yet again."
We see in the foregoing statements the only incapacity of
sinful man. Joshua said unto the people, " Ye cannot serve the
Lord." Jesus, his prototype, said : " No man can come unto
me." The human mind is not mutilated : it is deprived of no
power which it could ever boast. Its voluntary liberty is as un
hampered as it was at its creation. Its regard to happiness is
the motive which is natural to it, and without which it could not
exercise volition. Its only proper inability is to act otherwise
than according to its inclinations : in other words, it is only un
able to act otherwise than a free agent. Therefore, He not only
declared, " No man can come," — but to those very parties he
explained the reason : " Ye will not come unto me that ye may
have life." This is attested by the consciousness of all. When
we read the language spoken of old, — "They came, every one
whose heart stirred him up, and every one whom his spirit made
willing,"* — we read our interior selves. Why do we not serve
the Lord ? Our heart is not prepared nor engaged. We " set"
it not. If there was compulsion, there could not be sin. If
there was defect of intellectual power, there could not be sin.
But what is the truth ? " The hearts of the sons of men are set
in them to do evil." " Israel would none of me." " We desire
not the knowledge of Thy ways." " Men love darkness rather
than light, because their deeds are evil." Is the mental power
deficient? God asks nothing more than what the sinner now
devotes to Satan and to sin. Serve Him as you served the other
lords who have had dominion over you, and this is all he de-
* Exod. xxxv- 21.

224 MORAL INABILITY.
mands. You can believe, for you have believed falsehood : be
lieve in God. You can love, for you have loved idols : love God.
You can love God with all your heart and all your soul, for so
you have loved his creature: love God supremely. You can
repent, for you are sorry for every bitter fruit of sin : repent
towards God. Here is no deficiency of mental power. If
your dispositions were right, it would be far easier for you to
believe in Him, to repent towards him, to love him, than any
other object. He will only call us to account for whatever he
has entrusted to us. "To every man according to his several
ability." He will not " take up that he laid not down, nor
reap that he did not sow." " For if there be first a willing
mind, it is accepted according to what a man hath, and not
according to that a man hath not."
The confusion is, then, in the minds of men, not in the proper
truth of things. Mind only cannot when it will not. But then
mind only takes its proper range. In that range will is our only
law. The distinction may be overlooked. In vulgar speech we
hear men speak of the difference in the loosest way. They say a
thing is morally impossible, which is only physically : that a
thing is physically impossible, which is only morally. To do a
miracle, to a mere mortal, is physically impossible : to belie the
truth, to a holy being, is morally impossible. To see with a
blind eye is a physical impossibility: to reject a prejudice, to
him who loves the error, is a moral impossibility. A few con
cluding statements will perhaps make the subject clear. Oh that
they may leave it with full impression upon you ! May we be
" manifest in your consciences" !
1. Man ought to be simply considered as a creature of blame.
We cannot too tenderly compassionate him. But we are in dan
ger of speaking of him as the subject of misfortune. There is
nothing of itself faulty in the epithet, when we address or apos
trophise him as " poor sinner :" yet by it he seems to be betrayed
into something of self-palliation. It has often suggested to him
an inevitable calamity. He is flattered, or, at least, soothed, as
the victim of a resistless catastrophe. It is to him an infliction
which he cannot help. He sees that he is more pitied for his

MORAL INABILITY. 225
wretchedness than impeached for his guilt. He is soothed. All
such impression must be counteracted. It perils the soul. The
sinner must be undeceived. This is not a hapless state. " This
is his wickedness, because it is bitter, because it reacheth unto
his heart."2. Instead of reducing the arduousness of the sinner's salva
tion, the view we urge renders it most serious and extreme. It
is lightly said, Then nothing is wanted to secure it but our will.
This was not always true. Redemption by the crucified Son of
God was needed. But this has been achieved. The scheme of
evangelic teaching was necessary. But this has been supplied.
The Holy Ghost must work all in us. But He is given to all
them who ask him. Now nothing more is wanted to the sin
ner's salvation than the will to be thus saved. Nothing stands
between him and his salvation but the misdirection of his will.
But you have in this view, stated the most tremendous difficulty.
This is the great mountain : This is the great gulf. What hin-
derance is insuperable as this ? Not willing, not desiring, to be
saved ! Throwing around the soul one circle of resistance and
repulsion! Determining its whole course so that it may not
be converted and healed ! Seeking death ! Rushing on destruc
tion ! There is no obstacle like this ! It is the impossibility.
" Why will ye die ?"
3. The nature of Regeneration is thus unfolded to us. No
new powers of a mental kind are included in it. We confuse
ourselves when we call it a principle, or any thing which supposes
an addition to the soul. It is that simple soul now delighting
itself upon the word of the truth of the gospel. It believes it.
It has the love of its truth. The old things which pass away
from it are not any of its former faculties and affections, but
their sinful objects : the all things which become new are not an
intellectual increment, but the same essence in a new pursuit.
" Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power." Such is '
the promise. " For it is God which worketh in you both to will
and to do." Such is the fulfilment. The Holy Spirit, in the
conversion of the sinner's will, secures his salvation. Only could
he be saved in concurrence with his will. This is all that can

226 MORAL INABILITY.
be meant by a new heart and a right spirit. What can we desire
for the unrenewed race of man more than this ? " O that there
were such a heart in them !"
4. We learn what is the highest liberty of man. He must be
the subject of motive, or he could not be free. When he chooses
good because he desires it, his freedom is beheld in its purest
form and noblest attitude. Religion sets this good before him,
and the Divine influence inspires this desire. Never were men
more free than the apostles when they said : " We cannot but
speak the things which we have seen and heard." The exceeding
greatness of Power which can alone renew the soul is thus vindi
cated. Why is it required ? To turn the Will. What revolu
tion can be compared to this effect ? What Power inferior to this
could sway its mysterious springs ? It is not blinded, it is not
forced. It is an intelligent process to which it yields. Is it dealt
with contrary to its laws and habits ? There is a most exact con
formity to them. It is one operation of motive. It is one zest of
good. This is liberty. Is it the less, because the Father of spirits
has wrought that operation and kindled that zest ? Is He alone
forbidden to suggest inducement and persuasive? May He, of
all, not have access to the spirit which he has made ? These,
then, have "come." They are not dragged. They have exercised
a personal act and volition. But it would not have been volun
tary agency without a motive. That motive, the essential of free
dom, is supposed. It is " given to them." They are " drawn."
5. The overtures of the gospel are thus shown to be most
reasonable. Man is a creature of perfect mental conformation
for all that he is bound to do. He is not required to remember
without memory nor to judge without judgment. These over
tures respect nothing but what is most easy in itself; some course
of thought or action which, in another relation, is hourly taking
place. The apostles call upon men to put it into practice.
" Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ." " Pray if the thought of
thy heart may be forgiven thee." " Be converted." " God com-
inandeth all men every where to repent." They never inform
them that they cannot. That is a supplement of more modern
teaching. They spoke, " as of sincerity, as of God." How con-

MORAL INABILITY. 227
sistent ! How rational ! Disinclination exclusively unfitted men
to obey. Could this be excuse ? Could the kingdom of heaven
be arrested in its march because of this disaffection ? — Besides,
these overtures are Divine means to an end : " Look, ye blind,
that ye may see."
6. The proper ground, on which the necessity of Divine influ
ence can only be rested, is placed before us. It is not necessary
to complete and justify moral government. That is a system of
rule always adapted to the condition of its subjects. It is un
changed from the beginning. We are changed, but in no such
manner as can absolve us from its authority. But had we ceased
to be intelligent, we must have ceased to be now accountable.
God's ways are equal. His commandments are not grievous.
They were given for life. They are ordained for good. We
possess sufficient understanding to comply with them : the under
standing is the same to which they were originally addressed.
But it is turned aside from them : and they work wrath. Is the
Deity bound to furnish us with the will to keep his law, or to
perform any of those evangelic duties which are but modifications
of his law ? That Influence must be an extra-judicial favour :
its bestowment in any respect of moral government would be to
weaken and dishonour it. But it is necessary to salvation. No
sinner would seek that salvation by a single step, but as this
induced him. That salvation is by grace : this is its appropriate
adjunct and causal power.
7- This is a most humbling fact. It leaves nothing to the
sinner of boast and pretension. All must be done for him in
redeeming him ; all must be done for him in applying that
redemption. He is as helpless as he is im meritorious. O sin
ner, to what art thou fallen ! Thou hast not even the desire
that it were not thus with thee ! Thou possessest not the secret
will to be restored ! Thou couldst not sink lower than this !
Thou couldst not be more utterly wicked ! And yet does sinful
man even now speak proud things. He complains of this. He
is made nought ! Nothing is reserved by which he may dis
tinguish himself! His last surviving hold of pride and self-
sufficiciency, the determining power of his will in spite of his

228 MORAL INABILITY.
affections, — strange jargon of absurdity as well as audacious
babble of sin!— is taken from him! "I am nothing: I can do
nothing." What guilt is on the lips which speak this querulous
strain ! Yet, were it really felt and sincerely deplored, it would
be the strain of hope. So convinced, so penetrated, so abashed,
so overwhelmed, under the sense of this most guilty and wicked
nothingness, — you shall be complete in Christ, you shall be filled
with the Spirit !
8. Any injury that may have befallen our mental capacity
lies within our accountability. It is spiritually blind. It is
darkness. The light that is in us is darkness. But this is sin.
The deceitfulness of sin has made our hearts deceitful above all
things. Our understanding errs and wilders in falsehood and
infatuation. But its default is not of power but of direction.
Its weakness is now seen, because it cannot reason with strength
upon folly and depravity. When it is exercised upon truth and
righteousness, it resumes its strength. If our understanding be
darkened, if our hearts be hardened, these effects are produced
by a moral cause. We are disinclined. Is this our acquittal ?
Then the greater the wickedness, the readier the excuse.
9. Nor is there any mitigation to be found in the transmis
sion of the evil from father to descendant. The difficulty we
have not slurred. But, then, what is the evil ? Is it some
thing which we disclaim, abhor, renounce ? Assuredly, were it
so, it would be most unjust. For any impediment to good it
offered we could not be held liable. If, however, the evil is
what we love, is. what we will, of what consequence is its origin ?
It is our chosen course. " We have loved idols ; and after them
we will go." It is strange to complain of a necessity in our own
allowed motives and our own unshackled volitions. Prove that
you must sin, whatever be your contrary will, and you are irre
sponsible and guiltless : if it is only that you will sin and will to
sin, God charges you with nothing more and will punish you
for nothing less !
But it is time that these statements and reasonings should
end. Men feel themselves wrong, they know that they dissem
ble, when they ask them. Their consciousness glares upon them

MORAL INABILITY. 229
the truth. They are betrayed by their own stiff-necked and
stout-hearted protests. They speak out of the fro ward mouth and
with perverse lips. They would sophisticate. They understand
the matter after all. Their objections, however subtle, belie their
own hearts. Their studied shifts and cavils are " a vanity tossed
to and fro of them that seek death." They deny that there can
be difference between the ability which is natural and moral. But
they shall be at last convinced. The distinction shall be fear
fully explained. We have hitherto spoken of that which is
moral : men believe not, repent not, pray not, only because they
will not. They enjoy every privilege, every opportunity, every
means. God calls, but they refuse. He stretches out his hands,
and no man regards. It is all in vain. They make the word of
God of none effect. " They are like the deaf adder that stoppeth
her ear ; which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charm
ing never so wisely." " They reject the counsel of God against
themselves." "They put it away from them." "They wrong
their own souls." The appeal is to their nature in its highest and
most active principles. " Yea, and why even of yourselves judge
ye not what is right ?" Why is not the gospel embraced ? " They
made light of it." Man's wilful indifference, man's wicked indis
position, rising into hatred and contempt of it, assign the only
cause. All is defeated by his aversion. " Wherefore is there a
price in the hand of a fool to get wisdom, seeing that he hath no
heart to it ?" But another inability shall soon be proclaimed !
It shall not consist in the want of will. The will is strong and
perfect. It rests in a necessity the most unyielding and irrever
sible. It is restriction, physical, inflexible, eternal. It never
opposed your salvation until now. Hitherto you alone withstood
that salvation. It has at last raised its invincible front. The
bars of iron, the bars of the earth, the bars of the sea, the bars
of the pit, have all been loosened, but this never can. While
what you might have done shall be seen, now is seen what you
can never do. " Many shall seek to enter in, and shall not be
able .'" From hell is no escape. " They cannot pass that would
come from thence !"

SERMON X.

JESUS CHRIST THE CAUSE AND THE CONSUM-
MATOR OF ALL THINGS.

Heb. i. 10—12.

"And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the Foundation of
the Earth ; and the Heavens are the Works op thine Hands :
THEY SHALL PERISH ; BUT ThOU REMAINEST \ AND THEY ALL SHALL
WAX OLD AS DOTH A GARMENT; AND AS A VESTURE SHALT THOU FOLD
THEM UP, AND THEY SHALL BE CHANGED : BUT ThOU ART THE SAME,
and Thy Years shall not pail."
This quotation is connected with some preceding ones, — this
the initial copulative declares : it is, indeed, the last of five pas
sages taken from the Old Testament scriptures, and all similarly
applied. The apostrophe winds up a series of inspired texts,
closely linked together by repeated and unfailing references to
a fixed aim, a common object. "And again," sounds at every
interval, and prevents any break. It is the intimation of a trea
sured fulness which could yield stores of proof and of point a
hundred-fold more than those which are now adduced. And none
will doubt that it was originally an invocation to the Supreme.*
Few will, however, doubt that it has in the present instance a
peculiar use. It must exactly follow the scope of the other reci
tals. ' They — who will deny or can controvert ? — indicate " the
Son," our Lord Jesus Christ. This being employed for the same
purpose, necessarily falls into the same direction and train of
argument. It is spoken of, it is addressed to, the identical
Person whom all the rest intend. Indeed, on any other suppo
sition, we might ask, — wholly waiving the force of the illative
conjunction, — why such an appeal to the Deity should, amidst
* Psa. cii. 25—27.

JESUS CHRIST THE CAUSE, ETC. 231
this specific reasoning, be entertained and urged ? Sometimes a
doxology swells abruptly from the heart of a sacred writer when
he recounts a deliverance wrought in a very signal manner, and
at a crisis very unexpected. But this kind of sudden rapture
always guards itself. It is a fine parenthesis, which helps rather
than delays or entangles the course of illustration and remark.
This, however, is not assimilated to such an order of outbursts
and acclaims. It is argumentative gradation and reinforcement.
Each previously quoted verse might, with equal plausibility, be
alleged to constitute an ecstacy of gratitude and worship to the
" God of our praise."
Since the glosses of the Racovian schoolmen upon this sacred
expression of the truest homage toward the Messiah, it has been
generally abandoned as hopelessly impracticable by their succes
sors. They know not how to deal with it. It is set immoveably
here. Their criticism, their powers of conjectural emendation,
cannot reach the difficulty nor avail their hope. The foundations
cannot be destroyed. How they understand it, their contrivances
to narrow it, their ingenuities in garbling it, we leave to them
selves. Let them ask their conscience or their reason, whether
this can be done in the spirit of genuine candour or sound inter
pretation. We can accept it only in one way. We seek none
other. The majesty of the Redeemer is no unwelcome theme.
Its sweet savour comes wafting over us as a gale which has rifled
the fragrance of Paradise. Yet the beauty, the grandeur, the
desirableness, of the doctrine which reveals his Deity, are not its
grounds of authority nor its titles to belief. These must stand
in independence. And what supports of truth are so strong, so
complete, so impregnable, as the testimonies of the Holy Ghost,
—of Him who "searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of
God," — of him who is " the Spirit of Christ," — of him who spake
by the prophets, — of him who anointed the apostles,— of him
who inspired both Testaments, — of him who taketh of the things
of Christ and showeth them to-us ? The Holy Ghost witnesseth,
— if words have meaning, if statements have purpose, if argu
ments have issue, — to the eternity, to the immutableness, to the
original creative causation, to the final dissolving prerogative, of

232 JESUS CHRIST THE CAUSE
that mysterious Visitant, who, after living on our earth thirty and
three years, was in all that is passive to suffering and susceptible
of death, nailed to a cross and buried in a grave !
To the Jews is this argument, based on the appropriation of
" the lively oracles which belonged to them," propounded. Not
the glories of the Christ offendedthem, but that they should.be
claimed for a Christ crucified. But the author, — beyond question
Paul himself, — did not spare nor soothe their prejudices. He
places the awful theme before them, — the theme which is indif
ferent to no man, which every man who thinks upon it warmly
loves or vehemently contradicts. He plants this ensign in the
very front. Did they know "the voices of their prophets?"
Then must they admit that Jesus of Nazareth was, in a sense
which annihilates competition, the Son of God, — whom all angels
were bound to worship, — whose throne, as the throne, and being
the throne, of Divinity, was for ever and ever, — to sum up all,
that he was the maker and ultimate disposer of the universe.
And this not only determines the sanction of this writer in thus
applying the ancient predictions, but implies that to the persons,
for whose conviction they are accumulated and impressed, nothing
would seem violently wrested nor fancifully constrained.
Among ourselves the question may arise, Was this appeal to
the Deity, in the first instance, irrespective of personal distinc
tion, or presented to the Second Person ? Our reading would
favour the former view, — were it only found in its original connec
tion that view would be inevitable. But when an Apostle, speak
ing beneath an afflatus certainly not inferior to that of the Psalmist,
gives it this turn, stamps upon it this image and superscription,
i — without that effort and explanation which a possibility of ano
ther sense and purport might not only demand but spontaneously
suggest, — -then, is it not demonstrated that the Holy Spirit is of
one mind, and, in both his organs, is consistent with Himself?
We rise now above any hypothesis of accommodation or of secon
dary meaning : all is inceptive and transcendental. Can language
be more lofty and magnificent ? Can its ministration be more
definite and direct? Can its efficiency to establish the supremacy
of our Saviour be more stringent and peremptory?

AND THE CONSUMMATOR -OF ALL THINGS. 233
Let us, Dear Christians, meditate on this stupendous fact.
Far be it from us to excuse or to refine it, as though we were
ashamed that it should enter into our creed. Take heed that
ye be not spoiled of it. Maintain it in all its absolute, literal,
definitive, avowal. In nothing soften, attenuate, reconcile, it.
Attempt to simplify it by no speculation, to naturalise it by no
analogy. Reduce no feature of its awe. Adore it in its most
fathomless mystery. Glorify it in its infinite extreme. If it
confound us by its greatness, if it compel the intellect to shrink
into itself and to turn giddy within us by its excessive wonder, —
it is fraught with sweet consolation, it wears a pleasant aspect,
it touches every sensibility of the renewed heart, — to you who
believe how unutterably is it precious ! You " say that Jesus is
the Lord by the Holy Ghost !"
It will become us to dwell upon three things in the discus
sion of the Text.
I. THE SUBSTANCE OF THE ASCRIPTION.
We are transported to a distant period, ere time had, in its
strictest sense, begun, or the mechanism of its notations had re
ceived shape or being. The revolutions of this firmament had
not commenced, nor was there a sign for seasons. Nothing is
necessary but God. All else is but an effect of his pleasure and
power. It is, or it is not, according to his will. Creation is
only a contingent state of things. But He, of whom we speak,
is indispensably primary and anterior, because he is the former
of all things. " Without him was not any thing made that was
made." " The beginning," then, is extraneous to whatever has
occurred, or can occur, in this vast physical constitution : it
marks a purview in whose plan all was digested, and a might by
whose unfolding energies all was reared. How well does this
agree with the pretensions of Jesus, who is the first and the last !
His " goings forth were of old, from everlasting !" When he
saw good he began to work. It was his own time. No existence
can be independent of him. " By him were all things created
that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible,
whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers :
and he is before all things, and by him all things consist." He

234 JESUS CHRIST THE CAUSE
composed matter, he gave life, he communicated spirit. Some of
the stages in this formative process may be traced.
He " laid the foundations of the earth :" a figure which sig
nifies its stability. That stability rests on certain laws which he
has ordained. Atom coheres to atom, both yield to a common
centre. Some nucleus, or pole, there is which binds together all.
Hung upon nothing, it requires not bar nor base. Massed into
compactness by its attractive, sustained in its velocity by its re
pellent, forces, — what precision is so nice, what certitude is so
exact ? Balanced in air, wheeling through space, unrelaxingly
firm, buoyantly light, heaving on its own axis, yet floating
through the azure as a winged thing, — what an adjustment, what
a magazine, what a glory, is our earth ! Well may its " founda
tions" be commemorated, for, " abideth it not," in comparison
with all beside, "for ever?" What is so immoveable, though
restless with movement ? Nor is this all ; far larger notices must
be indulged. This planet is but as a portal and a platform
whence we may look out and gaze our full on a theatre of un
imaginable limits, of insufferable splendours. "Who hath meted
out heaven with a span ? Lift up your eyes on high, and behold
who hath created these things, that bringeth out their hosts by
number : not one faileth." " The heavens are the works of his
hands." He garnished them with all their exquisite furniture,
drew their orbits, studded their stars. His " fingers" wove that
splendid web. And " when we consider his heavens," with what
admiration are we overwhelmed ! Magnitudes, distances, sys
tems, parallelisms, still rise upon us. When we think that we
all but touch the flaming bounds, new projectiles seem just ac
quiring a fresh-born impulse, and start forth in their untrodden
paths; yet seems there uniform relationship, and somewhere is
doubtless a pivot for the equipoise of the mighty whole ! Unlike
the pageant-show, where closer inspection dissipates every illu
sory impression, these " works" of the Saviour's " hands" only
brighten, expand, and multiply, the higher that you ascend, the
farther that you traverse, the more that you explore ! And what
an indefinableness do these conceptions impart to the incarnation
of our blessed Lord ! Did he " lay the foundations of the earth ?"

AND THE CONSUMMATOR OF ALL THINGS. 235
" He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the
world knew him not." Are " the heavens the works of his hands ?"
How often were they his only curtain and tent to dwell in !
But this ascription not only predicates his creative greatness,
and how he produced the entire universe, — it proclaims that all
these effects are now at his disposal and under Ms control. Ob
serve his independence of them. They are not built for eter
nity. They shall " perish." Utter destruction may not be meant,
but perhaps only the idea subsequently announced, " they shall
be changed." Yet they shall pass away, whatever their modifica
tion : " there shall be found no place for them." He " remains."
They were only his ordinances. They have run their course.
They have performed their function. They helped not him.
They were created by him and for him. His power and faci
lity of action are not impaired by their abrogation. He willed
their existence, and he has withdrawn them. Their perdition
and change shake not his throne nor obscure his glory. There,
on his peerless seat, he sits unmoved ; in all the fulness of the
Godhead he remains, as though creation had never sprung up
at his fiat nor had fled away from before his face ! Still He is
the I am !
Mark His identity among them. They are the subjects of
incessant revolution and variation. There is a constant disturbance
in the natural system, things take new forms and circumstances ;
and though principles are unaltered, the dispositions under them
are often the most strange and unexpected. The very elements
around us " wax old as doth a garment." We discern not in
them the symptoms of decay and dissolution ; but it is probable
that these attach to their antiquity. They are wearing out.
They are ready to vanish away. The robe, though still sump
tuous, may present indications of waste and injury concealed
from our eye. Of what creature can it be affirmed, amidst this
universal vicissitude, that he is " the same ?" What creature,
however noble and sinless, may boast such a property as this ?
Not only of men " is there none abiding ;" even the holy progres
sion of angels forbids one stationary degree. Only can Deity
say : " I change not." But this is true of Immanuel, God with

236 JESUS CHRIST THE CAUSE
us. He is infinite perfection, forbidding augmentation and de
cline. He "filleth all in all." " His years" are his immortality;
and, unlike " the days of our years," they do not " fail." He
gives to us " eternal life ;" he is therefore possessed of it. " This
is the true God, and eternal life,"—" the life," essential and ex-
haustless, " the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever !"
Trace His power over them. Nothing, once dependent and
derived, can exist in defiance of his will. And what is there, or
can there be, which this category does not include? We may
change the forms of many a substance, but it becomes permanent
in those newer forms ; nor can we disintegrate them again — they
scorn our further power. But the Saviour, who claims " all
power in heaven and earth," gives to the universe its only possible
duration. It exists only in his pleasure, — it is pliant to him as
"a vesture;" and when it has done his bidding, he need not
strive with the works of his hands, nor contend against them, but
has only to " fold the vesture up !" What an infinite ease, what
a simple readiness, does this language suppose ! This earth with
its mountain-ridges and deep places, those heavens with their
gorgeous arch and endless illumination, are no more to Him than
a mantle which he has for a little space of time been pleased to
dispread, and which he can as unlabouringly bind again within
its girdle, and lay aside ! And this is not the possibility of his
omnipotence alone. He shall " perform this." " The day of the
Lord will come as a thief in the night : in the which the heavens
shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt
with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein
shall be burnt up."
Thus is the Lord Jesus exhibited to us! He "lays the
foundations of the earth," — " the heavens are the works of his
hands" — amidst their change and portended ruin he "remains,"
he is " the same," — with him awaits the dissolution of all things.
He must be greater than those operations which he commands,
" inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honour
than the house." He must be apprised of the final causes of
those operations which proceed from his unaided skill, and the
more so, as, otherwise, he might close the great consummation

AND THE CONSUMMATOR OF ALL THINGS. 237
with their imperfect fulfilment. Who, then, is this ? " God
over all."
Now what are ascriptions like this, but methods of praise ?
"Ascribe ye greatness to God." Nothing is more common in
the sacred records than to make them the vehicles for honouring
him, by reporting and magnifying his agency. Why do we
triumph in the works of his hands? Why do we publish his
mighty acts ? Why are they sought out of all them who have
pleasure therein ? Why do we roam through every department
of nature, examine its interminable series of adaptations, the
bird's bright plumage and caroling song, the insect's gauzy
pinion and life-long dance, the wild flower's vermilion flush and
modest grace, the very sea-weed's air-vessel by which it leaves
the caverns of the deep, as though it should have its hour of
joy, career along the wave, and catch a hue from the sunbeam ?
Do we not go at once to the " Parent of good," and cry, " These
are thy glorious works ?" " O Lord, how manifold are thy
works ! in wisdom hast thou made them all." " Thy tender
mercies are over all thy works." " All thy works praise thee, O
Lord, and thy saints bless thee !"
Than such ascription nothing can be more sublime. It
gathers a tribute from every age of time, from every realm of
creation, and lays it at Messiah's feet. To him it devotes the
universe as one altar. To him it lifts the voice of all as in one
song. It stretches from the beginning to the end of all things.
And well does it coincide with the nature of Him who had a
glory with the Father " before the world was." " He is the
Alpha and the Omega, the Almighty."
It is proper that we now ascertain
II. The value of the argument.
The averment, conveyed in a solemn form of worship, is, that
the Lord Jesus is the efficient and producing cause of whatever
subsists, elemental or compounded, supernal or terrestrial, to the
very substratum and nexus of all that impresses our sense —
"that by Him are all things, and we by him."
We must, at this point of the projected proof, look into our
mind. There we behold a law, or a certainty of mental condition,

238 JESUS CHRIST THE CAUSE
which conducts us back from any result to a causative power.
At the hazard of being derided for admitting the idea of power
into this connection, we contend that a simple order and conse
cution of time does not express this law, or necessary state, of
mind. We do believe that the mind invariably presumes and pro
ceeds on a transitiveness in such cause upon such effect : that they
are not only necessary to each other in arrangement, but as the
medium and recipient. It is of little importance, save for the
sake of truth, how we surmise concerning these matters in ordi
nary life: but we may soon find that the scepticism, which first
mooted the inefficiency of cause, knows how to avail itself in every
religious argument of our blind and witless acquiescence. But
there is something more that we may learn from the common
manifestations of mental inference. We pass beyond a mere notion
of general power. We inspect a vast machine. Here is every
dynamic efficient. Spring vibrates to spring, cylinder rolls on
cylinder, wheel revolves in wheel. The most complex and oppo
site actions are combined. We are not satisfied in the discovery
of the first moving force. Whatever it may be, it is unintelligent;
We conclude, therefore, that the suggestion of the apparatus was
not by one or any of the material agents employed. What do we
pronounce in respect of all that mechanical construction and
equipment ? That it emanated from that which is not there, —
that it is the fruit of thought, — that it is the out-birth from some
hidden, and, it may be, unknown intellect.
But it will be objected, — May there not be a something
without necessitating a cause? a something which antedates a
cause ? a something without which a cause could not exist ? Is
not that unoriginated something to be found in infinite space?
In reply, we are perfectly willing to allow all that imagination
can require for its conception of this idea, that is, — the limit of
space when you press upon it may be always made to recede.
The limit is in space or it is not. If not, what but space can lie
beyond? But it may not have occurred to the objector that,
but for existence occupying portions of that space, giving him
all his means of understanding void and complement, dimension
and interval, space would answer to no idea of the human mind*

AND THE CONSUMMATOR OF ALL THINGS. 239
and no idea of the human mind would quadrate to space. Even
now our purest mastery of it is but of that which cannot be con
trariwise supposed : and did no creation occupy it, had no actual
measurement presented it to us, we should never have been able
to guess the vacuum, "the great inane." So far it resembles
immortality. We dream of immortality, because we know what
is counted time. We dream of infinity, because we know what
is defined location. And the processes of thought concerning
them are just the same. We do not understand immortality;
but when we have computed the largest amount of duration,
we fancy something more in futurity still. We do not under
stand infinity; but when we have swept the largest boundary
of space, we fancy something more remote in immensity still.
Yet as to any independence of eternity and infinity upon Deity,
we feel no embarrassment. He is from everlasting. He inha-
biteth eternity. Does he not fill heaven and earth? But
for the King eternal, immortal, invisible, space and eternity
would be no truths, because answering to no facts. But thus
sciolists and scoffers talk in our days ! A more specious resis
tance is offered to the argument of our Text in favour of Christ's
divinity, — How, it is asked, can an infinite power be deduced
from a finite effect ? Whatever the range of creation, it must be
confined in strict limitations. To this we reply :
1. Every effect of divine power must be inferior to that
power, — that is, must be finite. It can create no rival being.
It can produce nothing to be compared with its independence.
It must work at an infinite distance from itself. If, then, the
demonstration of a Deity from his works were to rest upon the
equality of those works to his excellence and greatness, that fact
must remain for ever in disproof. But " the invisible things of
him from the creation of the world have been clearly seen, being
understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power
and Godhead." The argument, if invalid, is so for a Creator
at all. It falsifies what was always hitherto judged sufficient :
" Now he who built all things is God."
2. Upon the creative claim God has always been pleased to
found his challenge of supremacy and exaction of worship. We

240 JESUS CHRIST THE CAUSE
are taunted, How know we that he could not distinguish a crea
ture and qualify him as his minister in this service ? From what
can it be shown that a mediation of such a rank might not have
been employed? To us, in answer, we will say, it has always
seemed rash to deny that such interposition might have occurred.
Whatever its superficial difficulties, it might have consisted with
the possibility of the case. It becomes not us to adjudge what the
Holy One, whom none can limit, may transfer and depute. We
think that we thus take a safer ground, and retreat to it from a
very dubious, or, at least, a very assailable, one. Upon the pal
pable fact that God is the Creator, does he place his right to our
adoration and obedience. We are bound, by his own rules, only
to proper affections and duties toward him so far as it can be
proved that he gave us our being. " Hast thou not known ?
hast thou not heard? that the everlasting God, the Lord, the
Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary ?
There is no searching of his understanding." Then, whoever is
the Creator, he is the Supreme. " Know ye that the Lord, he
is God. It is he who hath made us, and not we ourselves ; we
are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter into his gates
with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise ; be thankful
unto him and bless his name." Then, whoever is the Creator,
he is the exclusive object of worship. " Fear God and give
glory to him, and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and
the sea, and the fountains of waters." Then, whoever is the Cre
ator, he is the terminating centre of all exaltation and subjection.
" Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, and honour, and
power : for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure
they exist, and were created." Then, whoever is the Creator,
he acted upon his Sovereign will. " Commit the keeping of your
souls to him in well-doing as unto a faithful Creator." Then,
whoever is the Creator, he is the great disposing power of our
precious and never-dying spirits. Then, whoever is Jesus Christ,
because he has laid the foundations of the earth and since the hea
vens are works of his hands, he is Supreme, is entitled to worship,
is authorised to require our service, is gloriously independent,
and will pronounce the sentence of our endless destiny !

AND THE CONSUMMATOR OF ALL THINGS. 241
3. The works of creation are designed to be monumental of
their immediate Author. When we investigate them, they speak
a splendid panegyric to his fame. " The heavens declare the
glory of God, the firmament showeth his handy-work." They
are the signals of his might, and skill, and love. The stars
are sent round the universe as his heralds and torch-bearers, ma
king proclamation and flashing evidence how glorious he is who
launched and lighted them. His is the strength of the hills,
and the beauty of the woods, and the freshness of the rivers,
and the voice of the seas, and the lustre of the stars. All shadow
his greatness, all type his care. " How excellent is his name in
all the earth !" The universal framework stands for him, his
witness and his court ! His right it is ! To him doth it apper
tain ! So does the volume of nature, not only by associative
charm but by express design, testify of Christ ! What flower
shall not recall the rose of Sharon ? what planet not reveal the
Bright and Morning Star ? What wisdom and power, which
have their emblems here, shall not lead us to see these attributes
more awfully and more tenderly displayed in the atoning cross ?
What a softening interest passes over the face of this fair earth
and those resplendent heavens, when they contain his image and
rehearse his praise, — when they furnish one ceaseless memorial
of him, — when they address the Sufferer of Calvary, as if they
had suddenly become instinct and vocal with an irrepressible
gratitude, — " Thou, Lord, didst in the beginning lay the foun
dations of the earth, and the heavens are the works of thy
hands." We proceed to
III. The enforcement of the conclusion.
The truth of the theme being once allowed, its influence will
be instantaneous. Not for a moment can it remain an indifferent
sentiment. Like a powerful magnet, it will not only draw all
around it, but impregnate all within its stream. It will resem
ble the kindling of a sun amidst orbs which had hitherto rolled
in night. It is the life and riches of Christianity. It renders
all its statements consistent, and alone can redeem them from
extravagance. Let it be believed, and all the doctrines of the
gospel follow in a necessary order, as very corollaries. In nothing

242 JESUS CHRIST THE CAUSE
can exaggeration be practised, whether we speak of the Saviour's
"love which passeth knowledge," or of the soul whose loss a
world could not countervail, or of " the exceeding sinfulness of
sin." It gives "wisdom" to the "mystery." It is as exponent,
justification, and safeguard, to the whole.
1. It is supposed by the incarnation, — but what illustrations
does that marvel derive from the descriptions of the Text ! The
suspense of generations, the travail of ages, had not been too
strong. Hieroglyphic and prophecy had soared to no excess.
" The Word became flesh and dwelt among us." " God was
manifest in the flesh." The style of his humanity, that he is
the Son of man, becomes henceforth paramount. This is only
strange. " He is come in the flesh !" " He is found in fashion
as a man !" Man as no other man can be ! Man in a way that
leaves him transcendently greater and more ! Man by an act of
the most astonishing condescension and self-diminution ! Man
solely for a purpose of the purest grace ! " One man, Jesus
Christ !" When we think of him as God, then is all our won
der ; angels feel their only wonder when they think of him as
man. In the first, there is no change: in the second is an
ineffable, inconceivable, transformation. The one is necessary
nature, whatever was, whatever must be : the other is displace
ment, depression, humiliation, the assumption of mortality, the
embrace of death! "Behold the man!" "He laid the foun
dations of the earth" where he hath not a place to lay his head.
" The heavens are the works of his hands," though they beat
on him with their tempests, and chill him with their dews;
though their stars hold watch over him when his soul is sorrow
ful unto death. He formed the instruments of all the suffering
he endured. He caused the thorns to grow which were knotted
round his brow, — he prepared the worm that spun the flaunting
attire which mocked his person, — he sent down into the ground
the fibres of the tree which gave the wood that was fashioned
for his cross, — he veined the mine whose ore was converted
into nail and spear-head to transfix his flesh, — he withdrew the
restraints from our fallen nature, and let loose all its enmities
on himself !

AND THE CONSUMMATOR OF ALL THINGS. 243
2. The character of that expiation, which is the first quality
and intention of his death, will be greatly determined by a
representation such as this. The merit of an atoning act will
altogether depend on the disposition and worthiness of the party
who presents it. The disposition should include every sentiment
of respect for him to whom the atonement is offered, every just
appreciation of his claim and of the wrong which has been done
to him, every readiness to repair it to the full. It must accom
pany and inform the whole transaction. Nor can the mediation
of every party be allowed. High attributes of worthiness must
inhere in him who takes up the quarrel, and offers the vindication
of it. Who shall interpose between God and man, between the
dishonoured law and the offender? That Surety must have a
perfect knowledge of the tremendous dilemma. And did not He,
who "laid the foundations of the earth," understand the moral
order which he then established, the holy law which he gave, the
system of good which he instituted? Who could be equally
cognizant of its excellence ? Who could be equally intent upon
its restoration ? Who, like its Creator, could know the require
ments it involved for taking away the sin of this world ? And
if it be demanded, What right had the crucified One to interpose ?
The text is the prompt and ample response. If " the heavens
are the works of his hands," then may he " bow them and come
down." It is to purge his creation that he descends. It is to
subdue the anarchy which is destroying it that he enters into a
capacity for suffering and death. None but the Maker can bring
back the alienated creature. None but God can satisfy God.
And this is the divine method of magnifying the law. He will
accept no aid from the proud-doers. His arm shall bring sal
vation. He will tread the wine-press alone. Let not unbelief
insinuate or exclaim, How improbable ! How can it be ! Who
stretched abroad the heavens ? Who laid the foundations of the
earth? "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my
ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your
thoughts." 3. He who has done all this achievement of power and good
ness in creating the universe, designed our redemption to be the

244 JESUS CHRIST THE CAUSE
great object and glory of it. The reason why the Son of God is
repeatedly and preeminently signalised in his Personality as the
Creator, must be found in this remark. Being in reference to
the mediatorial scheme, it was a mediatorial act. He was the
" Lamb verily foreordained before the foundation of the world."
Hence being wrought in office subordinate to the Father, we
need not be surprised at occasional intimations of a subserviency
even here. With his immense comprehension of all things, he
looked down from heaven on the children of men. Among them
a purpose was to be accomplished which alone could explain all
else that he had accomplished. Taking place in " this building,"
it was to affect all known intelligences and to reach their farthest
abodes. " Glory to God was in the highest." " Into these
things the angels desire to look." The spirits of darkness and
evil stood the affrighted spectators of the scene. It is no episode
in the drama of the universe, no appendage to its history, — it is
the key to its intricacy and the moral of its evolution. It is no
passing event, it belongs to all duration, — it is no matter of con
fined interest, it is written for all worlds. We know not how
the intelligence has spread, — we know not that which other beings
have understood and felt of it ; but we cannot repress the thought,
that the remotest dwelling-place of the feeblest star, twinkling in
the remotest depth of space, has caught the story and rings with
approving anthems of wonder, joy, and praise. Shall a sphere,
in those "heavens which are the works of his hands," refuse its
music to the Saviour, or withhold to swell the triumph of his
salvation over the earth whose "foundations he has laid?" Again,
— and far sweeter, and more majestic than that natal peal which
floated above our new created world, — let the morning stars sing
together, and the sons of God shout for joy !
4. This Creator-Saviour must have the direction of all mun
dane affairs. He knoweth the way that we take. He telleth our
wanderings. He seeth of what we have need. He is touched
with the feeling of our infirmities. He is able to succour us
when we are tempted. Death is a part of his blessed adminis
tration. By it he comes again to each departing soul of his
people. Neither in life nor death can we stray out of his do-

AND THE CONSUMMATOR OF ALL THINGS. 245
minion or beyond his care. To the verge of that earth whose
foundations he has laid, — to the bend of those heavens which are
the works of his, hands, — how safe are his disciples ! This is
your triple security, ye who put your trust in this great God
your Saviour ! All things are for your sakes ! All things work
together for your good ! All things are yours ! The mountains
shall depart ! The heavens shall shrivel like a burning scroll !
You shall never be moved ! In the same manner he commands
all the great events of time. They do not disappoint him. They
present no deviousness to his eye, no difficulty to his progress.
He doth " march through the land !" He shall " inherit all
nations !" " He shall not fail nor be discouraged until he hath
set judgment in the earth !" " The pleasure of the Lord shall
prosper in his hands !" And when his cause is won, and his
church is perfected, then shall his hand lay aside this earth and
these heavens, as easily as a tissue which is folded up, unfit for
future defence and ornament !
5. An immutability most tender and amiable is opposed by
this subject to all our fluctuating circumstances. Who has never
found occasion of complaint against human fickleness ? Who
has never known a mortifying coldness where his heart had lav
ished all its store of love ? Who has never experienced sudden
and unaccountable estrangement ? O, then, to take these words
with us, and looking up to him who loves unto the end, what a
relief our wrung soul finds as it cries, '" Thou art the same !"
Bereavement is one of the heaviest portions of our lot. We
cannot have travelled far in this uncertain life without many a
blank in our affections, many a disseverment of our ties. This
saddens and embitters every period of our existence ; " lover and
friend are put far from us." But it throws a deeper shade over
the periods which are more mature. Then our bosom seeks not
new fellowships, but more acutely than ever laments the old.
What a havoc has been dealt around ! What sepulchres lie
along our path ! O, then, to speak this assurance, and in it to
feel that nothing is lost while this is left, " Thou remainest .'"
Age brings with it decay and infirmity, misgiving and irresolute-
ness, slight and inattention, physical depressions and mournful

246

JESUS CHRIST THE CAUSE

reviews. Sense has failed in its varied gratifications, and the
heart is smitten with a desolateness. O, then, to turn from all
beside, to clasp our feeble hands, to raise our dimming eyes,
and with our tremulous accents to exclaim, " Thy years shall
not fail .'" How sweet are these supports ! What a Saviour
is ours ! How he invites our confidence ! " If it were not so,
I would have told you." How he strengthens our courage !
"Because I live, ye shall live also." Heaven and earth shall
pass away, — He will bid them pass ! but his word shall not pass
away. "Ask now a sign in the height or in the depth." That
height, that depth, are transient, fleeting, perishable things, in
comparison with his immutability!
6. All the works of Christ do not look to a termination. The
earth and the heavens are but inferior things. They are uncon
scious and unintelligent of any principle which they promote.
They are but a scaffolding for a spiritual erection. They perish
in the using. They will be speedily superseded. But those
great truths and claims which have long been contested on this
stage shall not sink with it. All these things that our senses
perceive shall be dissolved. They are reserved unto fire. But
whatever of divine righteousness and grace they have subserved
shall emerge from their wreck and triumph above their ruin.
These have an eternal vitality in them, they are glorious essences,
indestructible spiritualities, they are " things which cannot be
shaken, but must remain." " Lift up your eyes to the heavens,
and look upon the earth beneath, for the heavens shall vanish
away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old as a garment, and
they that dwell therein shall die in like manner ; but my salva
tion shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abo
lished." 7- Let not a change of habitation trouble us. Our Maker
and Saviour will not leave us without appropriate dwelling. Our
first resting-place of existence has been on this planet. It is a
lovely habitation, and it may boast in the canopying sky a still
more lovely roof. Nothing can so well befit our present stage of
being. Merely for the sake of change we "would not be un
clothed." There are around us numberless means of enjoyment !

AND THE CONSUMMATOR OF ALL THINGS. 247
We are filled with as numberless capacities of enjoyment ! What
gifts are there scattered for us to gather ! What tastes are there
implanted for us to refine ! Fair is the spectacle of Nature !
Cliffs and mountains, lakes and groves, of this nether world, we
are not weary of beholding you ! Sun, moon, and constellations,
sorrow is turned into joy and age into youth while ye fill our gaze !
But we feel that even ye are too gross for the spirit made perfect,
— that when our vile body is fashioned like unto Christ's glorious
body, we shall need lovelier scenes and brighter luminaries than
any ye afford ! Farewell ! We await with calm expectation, we
hail with desire, your departure and your change ! We feel that
ye have been as a vesture for us, we have thanked him who hath
so clothed us, but now be ye folded up ! "We shall be clothed
upon with our house which is from heaven !" A sun is there
which shall no more go down ! Stars are there which shall shine
for ever and ever ! " We, according to his promise, look for new
heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness."
Lastly, We cannot fail to admire the system of Divine reve
lation. " Known unto God are all his works from the beginning
of the world." If the glories of the Creator are merged in those
of the Saviour, — if he has magnified his word above all his name,
he that is our God is the God of salvation. It is a development
of one plan, it is the going forth of "one Lord Jesus Christ."
All transpires as was determined at the first. The heavens and
the earth complete a destined course. All stand up in perfect
symmetry and synthesis. It is a glorious structure, — holy as
a temple, polished as a palace. He intended by the spreading
abroad of this firmament and the rolling forth of this globe that
which he shall have realised when he takes them as a vesture and
folds them up. He saw the end from the beginning. In the travail
of his soul he is satisfied. And sitting upon the throne, and
thence discerning the last end of creation and the perfect con
summation of redemption, he shall declare, " It is done !"

SERMON XI

THE DOCTRINE AND D AUNTLESSNESS OF
APOSTOLIC PREACHING.*

1 Cor. i. 23.
"But we preach Christ crucified."
From these words certain facts may be elicited and certain prin
ciples may be deduced. The process need not be worked out
with any difficult effort: the facts and the principles are suggested
to us, and laid open before us. The following points may be
affirmed. 1. That whatever was characteristic in Apostolic preaching,
whatever gave it originality, was connected with the death of
Christ. They did not incessantly repeat that He had died.
Their range was large. Their aspiration was lofty. How diver
sified their illustration ! How redoubled their argument ! How
exploring their research ! But their theme, their vocation, their
mission, was distinct from that of all other great teachers and
moralists, — They were witnesses of the death of Christ, they were
promulgators of the death of Christ, they were expounders of the
death of Christ, — they raised the whole scheme and system of
their announcements, instructions, appeals, — the blessings which
* This Sermon was preached at the Anniversary, (July 4, 1844,) of Cheshunt
College, founded by the late Right Honourable , Countess of Huntingdon. An
urgent request was made to the Author, that it might be printed : he declined to
publish it separately, but promised to give it its present form. It is impossible for
him to refer to the occasion of its delivery, and not to glow with gratitude at the
most fraternal welcome and kindness he then received from the Tutors of the
College: the Rev. John Harris, D.D., the Rev. Philip Smith, A.M., and the Rev.
Joseph Sortain, A.B. Greatly may their noble labours be succeeded ! Long may
their useful lives be spared !

THE DOCTRINE AND DAUNTLESSNESS, ETC. 249
they published, the hopes which they declared, — upon the death
of Christ. Far as they travelled, whatever the nations they
visited, this was their paramount testimony and exhibition. No
thing could divert their purpose or modify their theme. We
are not required to suppose that they were indifferent to the
charms of nature and the attractions of art. They would not
have wandered through Tempe without delight nor have stood in
Athens without admiration. But they could afford only the
passing glance. While they averted not their face from the scene
of beauty and the marvel of taste, they did not stedfastly set it
upon them. They "determined to know nothing among men
save Jesus Christ and him crucified." This, in their esteem, was
the truth of truth, — the model truth, the centrical truth, the
foundation truth. Some statements they may have withheld, but
this was never withheld : some sentiments they may have cursorily
touched, but this was never cursorily touched: some positions
they may have reserved, but this was never reserved. They pre
sented it with such vividness, that it was not only seen by the
peoples, most distant from the actual theatre of the event, as in
the power of description and the force of representation, — as pic
tured to them in spectacle and action, — those peoples, who had
not heard of Calvary until now, beheld the awful wonder of Mes
siah's death as localised in their countries, as perpetrated to
their senses, — " before their eyes Jesus Christ was evidently set
forth, crucified among them."
2. We may readily infer from these words, that they only
are good ministers of Jesus Christ, true successors of the Apostles
so far as they left any part of their office incomplete, who adhere
to the same unalterable resolve. They adopt that class and kind
of preaching which obtained in the beginning of the gospel.
They feel deep horror of innovation and defection. The primi
tive rule and sanction suffice for them. They find in it no dearth,
no restriction, with all its exclusivenessj Girded with this truth,
clothed with this salvation, they are wrapped in the only mantle
which they covet. They affect not noisy and obtrusive reitera
tions. They have no favourite, systematic, words. But they
preach Christ crucified : they signalise him, in this peculiarity

250 THE DOCTRINE AND DAUNTLESSNESS
of his death, the capital figure of their entire averments to the
world, — fixing every eye on him, drawing every ear to him, —
him, the source of all spiritual good, — him, the basis of all spi
ritual hope, — him, the authority of all spiritual law, — him, the
life of all spiritual motive, — him, the savour of all spiritual de
light. Apostles have ceased, but not their doctrine, — their voice
still is heard, — their part is still supported, — We preach Christ
Crucified. 3. A deduction from these words yet remains. This must be
the invariable subject of the Christian Ministry, whatever may be
the direction of the public mind and the spirit of the passing age.
When the Apostles made this avowal, it was most adverse to the
general taste. It was in extremest dissonance with the fashions
of thinking and feeling then entertained. The philosophy of
other lands was arrogant and scornful : the fanaticism of their
own was fierce and doting. The prejudices of both could find
some support. The Jew had been taught reverence for his holy
antiquity of race, sacrifice, and prediction. He had reckoned up
the long calendar of judges and kings: of priests and prophets.
He wanted portents as they shone forth of old. He " desired a
sign." His sympathy was rather with them who " subdued
kingdoms, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of
fire, escaped the edge of the sword, waxed valiant in fight." He
might even extend some share of that sympathy to them who had
endured persecution for the sake of Israel's people and God, —
them who " were stoned, who were sawn asunder, who were slain
with the sword." But all his associations were revolted at the
religion of one who " had hanged on a tree !" The Gentile made
all good to depend upon certain abstract speculations, reasoning
upon them through certain categories, and these were his boast.
He lived in his intellectual romance. He bore away in his vision
above the multitude which he hated and oppressed. " The Greek
sought after wisdom." How could he couple his idea of it with
a death of ignominy, and that among a people whom he reputed
barbarian ! But see the rigid practice of these first Christian
preachers. No doubt they felt the embarrassment. They were
always in conflict with the current dispositions and usages of

OF APOSTOLIC PREACHING. 251
their generation. They could not have fallen upon more evil
times, they could not have encountered more unpropitious cir
cumstances. They were met by the flood-tide. Every influence,
every accident, crossed them. Did they attempt compliance with
the universal prejudice ? Did they offer to accommodate the
mortifying matter of their message ? The thought is not breathed.
" But," notwithstanding this contempt and disdain of what we
preach, — "we preach Christ Crucified." They seem to say:
We know nothing of any particular epoch more than of another.
We know nothing of any particular condition and turn of popular
opinion and enquiry. We care not for these mutations. They
have always been as diversified as they are fickle. Sect will rise
after sect. Theory will follow upon theory. But though all
change, we cannot change. We are under an inviolable vow.
We are committed to an irrevocable proclamation. We are shut
up to this faith. It is a faith for all times whatever the revolu
tions which they unfold. We foresee the perversities with which
they who follow after us must contend ; how men will not endure
sound doctrine ; how they will turn aside unto vain janglings.
But let our successors be unmoved. Each period will plead
its manners and predilections. It will ask for such an adapta
tion of Christianity to it, as the present now demands. Let
not the heralds of the Cross yield to the clamour. All concession
is to be refused. The Church to the last shall only bear to
hear, the Ministry to the last shall only glory to preach, Christ
Crucified !
Now we cannot suppose that, though there was implicit obe
dience in this conduct of the apostles, their course was unintel
ligent. It was not a blind, unreasoning, pertinacity. They
understood the grounds on which they proceeded. They preached
this event because assured of its surpassing interest, its true
glory. Unless the divine honour had been involved in its issue,
they knew that they should never have been appointed to make
it their report. Unless the salvation of man had been its intent,
they knew that they should never have been commissioned to
reveal it as good news and glad tidings. Necessity was laid upon
them : but it was of that moral order which left them without

252 THE DOCTRINE AND DAUNTLESSNESS
alternative : they could not but speak the things which they had
seen and heard.
Let us now, then, endeavour to
I. Ascertain what they preached.
The occurrence that a man, known by the proper name of
Jesus, had died, is not strange, nor can be important, detached
from all beside. A decease at Jerusalem could not be singular,
as the tombs in the valley of Jehoshaphat would show. Cruci
fixion was no uncommon form of death, as Golgotha, the place of
skulls, could prove.
We may here premise that the death and crucifixion of Christ
are constantly taken out of the range of mere mortal events.
Men inflicted it, they were conscious of their motive, they were
accountable for their deed. The traitor had " the greater sin."
The murderers executed their purpose " with wicked hands."
But an infinite Power was at work. They knew not what they
did. "For had they known it, they would not have crucified
the Lord of glory." An infinite Wisdom prevailed : " He was
delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God."
Put the human agents aside. Behold in it God alone. Wisely
consider of his doing. " It pleased the Lord to bruise him : He
hath put him to grief."
We pause not to declare His eternal Sonship and essential
Divinity. It were superfluous to tell of his " Divine Power,"
his "Majesty," his "own glory," all his attributes and claims
which do away every construction of " robbery in making himself
equal with God."
We pause not to declare His taintless purity as the God-Man.
The seraphim long since acclaimed Him as the thrice holy Jeho
vah, the King, the Lord of hosts. " These things said Esaias
when he saw his glory, and spake of him." In his humanity we
see that Holy One and Just. Deity was well pleased in him.
Who convinced him of sin ? Mysterious is, consequently, the
Position of Christ as Crucified. " Remember, I pray thee, who
ever perished, being innocent, or where were the righteous cut
off?"* " God loved Him before the foundation of the world."
" Job iv. 7-

OF APOSTOLIC PREACHING. 253
"The only begotten Son was in the bosom of the Father." "God
spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all." Why
should the Man, Christ Jesus, be crucified ? He was " holy
harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners." It is a fearful ano
maly : considered of itself, it is an egregious injustice, it is a
casting down of the throne of holiness. He who had said, " This
is my beloved Son," forsakes Him ! " Jesus of Nazareth, a man
approved of God," is "numbered with the transgressors !"
But that position was most holy. He entered it, saying,
" Lo, I come to do thy will, O God." Divine complacency never
rose so high as when he stood in that position. " My Elect, in
whom my soul delighteth." " Therefore," the Redeemer ex
claimed, " My Father loveth me, because I lay down my life."
If, while he thus continued in this position, there seemed to shoot
out flashes of wrath against him, — if the emblems of punitive
righteousness stood up before him, — the Cup, the Sword, the
Darkness, — the difficulty can only be relatively explained.
So was he predicted. He was to be cut off : to pour out his
soul unto death : the assembly of the wicked was to enclose him :
they should pierce his hands and his feet.
So was he prominently manifested after that he had died.
No extenuation was sought. The history of the transaction was
minutely precise. The preaching of it was laboriously full.
As Martyrdom, it is not justified by rejoicing, by fearlessness,
by triumph : by the dint of that mood, by that greatest human
victory. As Example, it is not vindicated by comparison, by appli
cability, by appropriateness : the claim and the ground of his
death are for ever distinct and peculiar. They admit not of
imitation. As Evidence, it is not borne out, it cannot stand forth, but
would rather appear the disgrace and disaster of his cause than
its confirmation. So in another place of this Epistle, Paul " declares the gos
pel."* He recapitulates what he had "delivered first of all," —
in chief, — as its rudiments. It is not his argument for the truth
* 1 Cor. xv. l.

254 THE DOCTRINE AND DAUNTLESSNESS
of the gospel, but his definition of it, — "how that Christ died
for our sins." If this be not its purport, where is " the declara
tion," where is it defined ?
What was that mysterious Position in which he stands ? It
was substitutionary. He died for sin. Then in some sense sin
was imputed to him, and charged upon him. He voluntarily
submitted to its liabilities. He died, the just for the unjust.
He stood in accidental connection with sin, but in necessary
estrangement from it. " He was made sin for us, who knew no
sin." "And ye know that he was manifested to take away our
sins; and in him is no sin." To "redeem us from the curse
of the law, he became a curse for us." " The Lord hath laid on
him the iniquity of us all." " His soul was made an offering for
sin." " He was delivered for our offences."
All these views tend to stamp on this crucified death the
character of a sacrifice. It was an offering for sin. It was an
offering unto God. We read much of such sacrificial action in
the Old Testament. In the New Testament we mark its appli
cation. Prophecy occupies a middle place between the type and
the accomplishment. It detaches the meaning of the type from
itself, and carries it forward to some great Personage or Event
in whom, in which, it may be absorbed. Then inspired record
comes to our aid, and we identify the Christ who was to be cru
cified. A perfect analogy is traced between the emblematic rites
and this oblation. Priests are seen ministering, the victims
bleed, the altars smoke. But this is only allusive. In him are
these ideas only to be found. There never was proper Priest,
victim, altar, but himself. He is not called after them : they are
made conformable to him. So we discover in his death an
Atonement, an expiation, a satisfaction, a propitiation, a recon
ciliation, a ransom, a redemption ! It can cleanse, purge, purify,
and sanctify too !
The Doctrine of the Cross is God's method of pardoning sin,
and of restoring the sinner. It is no reluctant yielding, no pur
chased unwillingness, but the spontaneousness, the good pleasure,
of an infinite placability. It implies no change in the Divine
mind, but it is the simple evolution of its counsel and love. It

OF APOSTOLIC PREACHING. 255
can suppose no appeasement of such anger and wrath as our frail
spirits know. God was in Christ. Who can turn him ? Fury
is not in him. — But sin had entered our world, disturbing our
relations, marring our duties; and by "breaking the law we dis
honoured God." It must be condemned. It must be put away.
It was a foul infraction, a leprous taint. However man may be
treated, this must be resented. However man may be par
doned, the Divine character must be cleared of all indifference
toward sin and of all connivance at it. The supremacy of law must
be upholden. The end of creation must be secured. The atone
ment by Christ crucified meets each exigence and removes each
difficulty. God is exalted, and declares his rectitude in the remis
sion of sin. Christ is the end of the law, and hath magnified it
and made it honourable. The purposes of the universe are main
tained, and it " became Him, for whom are all things, and by
whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make
the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings." The
scheme is consistent and efficacious : it provides for every wrong
and every woe : for every divine honour and every human inte
rest : for the redress of heaven and the salvation of earth. The
perfections of God, like an ample sphere of light, environ the
cross. Justice there exacts its claims, Holiness displays its beau
ties, Truth maintains its terms, Mercy "overflows and passes
over." That cross, with all the light which is full of glory,
beams only the more gently toward sinful man. It is his guide
and defence and stay. " The preaching of it is to them who
perish foolishness, but to them that are saved, it is the power of
God." To preach Christ crucified is, then, to show unto men
the way of salvation.
But Atonement does not include the whole of salvation,
neither does it exhaust the Apostolic theme. We know that
there is rife the doctrine which converts Christ crucified rather
into our crucifixion than his. It is the idea of this doctrine that
the cross is not so much the means of atonement, as the motive
and pattern of our mortification ; that in preaching it, we preach
humility and self-denial. But in flinging from us this vile dis
tortion of the truth, let us not hurry to the opposite extreme.

256 THE DOCTRINE AND DAUNTLESSNESS
We preach Christ crucified as not only the foundation, exclu
sive and unmixed, of the sinner's pardon and justification, but as
the pledge and principle of his spiritual regeneration. Before
that Jesus had " made peace by the blood of his cross," he in
affecting anticipation of his death had enjoined on every disciple,
" let him take up his cross and follow me." Sin, self, and earth,
feel that the purport of this crucifixion of the Son of God is most
holy. When it is understood and received, these three things
yield before it. They are pictured as dying upon the cross: they
are evils which it was intended to destroy. We are brought into
sympathy with it. We know the fellowship of these sufferings,
we are made conformable unto this death. We denounce these
evils for crucifixion. We cry out, Crucify them, crucify them !
Is it sin ? Crucify it, crucify it ! " Knowing this, that our old
man is crucified with Christ, that the body of sin might be de
stroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin." Is it self?
Crucify it, crucify it ! "I am crucified with Christ." " They
that are Christ's, have crucified the flesh with the affections and
lusts." Is it earth f Crucify it, crucify it ! " By which the
world is crucified unto me and I unto the world." Christ cruci
fied is thus in us, our soul learns some of the travail of his soul,
we die unto sin, we arm ourselves with the same mind, the mys
terious stigmata imprint themselves upon our inner man, we are
a living sacrifice, we are dead with Christ ! O the power of the
Cross to draw us to it, and to assimilate us to itself.
It is plain, then, that the phrase, " Christ crucified," is not,
according to the dream of some, general, as though it was put to
denote the mission of Christ at large. No where is it said that
his doctrine saves, that his miracle saves, that his example saves,
that the living action saves. The uniform tenour of Scripture
is, that his potency and virtue to save from guilt and from depra
vity are in his death. Our faith is in his blood, we are washed
from our sins in his own blood, we are by our earliest vow bap
tised into his death, we show forth in the mystic banquet his death
till he come ! There is in this style an undeviating precision,
an unbending use. In imitation of it, in honour of it, we preach
Christ crucified.

OF APOSTOLIC PREACHING. 257
Such was the course of the Apostles. They stood true to
their errand. They turned not to the right hand nor to the left.
They now declare their irrevocable resolve.
We proceed, then, to show that this was not easy, nor appa
rently expedient : that it supposed perpetual conflict : —
II. Their invariable and perpetual inculcation of
THIS DOCTRINE IS MARKED AS DIFFICULT AND AS CONSTANTLY
OPPOSED. " But we preach 'Christ crucified." They seem to say : It
is a branded tale. It is an obnoxious message. No state of
the world could be so discouraging to our attempt. Where can
we find favour ? Is it among the bowers of the East ? or among
its courts and kings ? Is it in the metropolis of the world, with
its insolence of state and its sternness of power ? with its spoils
of conquered nations? with its pantheon of gods? Is it in the
regions of classic lore and elegance? Athens with its rock of
crowded temple and sculpture ? its portico, lycaeum, and grove ?
Is it in the marts of commercial luxury? Corinth, Alexandreia,
with their rich barks and freights ? Is it in the seats of super
stition? Memphis with its sepulchral idolatries, and Ephesus
with its gorgeous piles? Is it in the noblest seas, their islands
and their shores ? The iEgean with its cyclades, the Bosporus
with its continents ? We are despised of all, down-trodden of
all. We obtain not hearing, we find not foot-hold. One scowl
defies us. One shout of scorn pursues us. We find no prepos
session, in civilised or uncivilised, on which to graft pur doc
trine. Thinking of ourselves, if it rested with ourselves, it were
a hopeless cause. We are condemned at once. Do we declaim ?
" What will this babbler say ?" Do we reason ? " Thou art
beside thyself: much learning doth make thee mad." " We are
made as the filth of the earth, and are the oftscouring of all
things unto this day." We know how this might be prevented :
how we might acquire power and fame. A little bending on our
part, concession to opinion, accommodation to taste, — a trifling
intermixture of " the Jew's religion," — an inconsiderable infusion
of the Gentile's philosophy, — is all that is wanted to propitiate
mankind. " No, not for an hour !" We will not blench a jot !
s

258 THE DOCTRINE AND DAUNTLESSNESS
"But," — in spite of all dislike and resistance — "we preach Christ
crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling-block, and unto the Greeks,
foolishness ; but unto them which are called, both Jews and
Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God."
Our present circumstances are not entirely unlike those of the
Apostles. The state of the public mind is often pleaded against
the fixedness of Christianity. The case is thus proposed. No
one form of instruction can meet that which is so restless and
variable. Society is ever passing through changes and climac
terics. Man is seen in constant transitions. Great impulses and
movements are at work wherever there is a civilization and a lite
rature. Besides, the mind of nations is most diversified. Pass a
frontier, — the people are unlike all you have left behind you. A
new class of intellectual phaenomena addresses you. Every thing
seems to enter a new form and combination. There is the Asiatic
mind, the American mind, and, if we may not add the European
mind, it is only because that great geographical division com
prehends so many families of mind. The objection still proceeds.
You must now deal with all these mental varieties, in their
constant flux and caprice as well as in their original elements.
Where can you find a universal religion ? Can you pretend that
it is to be found in Christianity ? Christianity, according to your
own showing, is what it was the first hour of its declaration. It
is one and the same. You insert its glory in this unbending claim.
How can it, consequently, adjust itself to the every posture of
human intellect ? How can it keep pace with the every progres
sion of human society? The rock may divide the waves when
they overtake it ; but, immoveable itself, what is its power when
those waves are beating in the farther sea ?
Now in these allegations there is much that is true, but far
more that is false.
It is true, that Christianity is rigidly, gloriously, complete.
Addition to it would invalidate it. The curse is upon the
attempt. Nothing more can be put into it but as it consists in
Scripture or in the mind of God. We see in this incapability of
emendation the plainest sign and surest proof of its excellence :
it is final because it cannot be improved. But it does not follow

OF APOSTOLIC PREACHING. 259
that there is not such a strength and fulness in it as that it shall
move in advance of all the triumphs of mind, that it shall well
up and send forth influences new to all but itself, that it shall
show on every unexpected trial of it yet hidden powers, that it
shall have been conceived in the spirit which is prophetic of the
deepest future, that it shall illustrate its fastest principles in the
freest applications. Of new mathematical axioms and of new
mechanical powers we should be very sceptical, — just as we are
jealous of new discoveries in Christianity, — but while these are
changeless and immultiplicable, — who can restrict their use and
service, the theatres which they shall signalise and the achieve
ments which they shall secure ? The laws of triangles, conic sec
tions, circles, cannot be altered : it is their perfection. The laws
of the lever, the inclined plane, of expansive gases, cannot be
increased : it is their efficiency. But do we limit their several
determinations ? The triangle is the same in its laws, wherever
drawn or however conceived : but do we lose sight of these when
by it we measure the surface of some mighty realm ? The lever
is the same in its principles, however modeled and wherever seen :
but do we forget these when the rudder guides amidst the billows
and gulfs some majestic bark ?
And this is the distinction of the Gospel. It foreknows the
whole history of man. Let his varieties, let his fluctuations, be
what they may, it has provided for them. It can be surprised
into no ignorance. It can be betrayed into no failure. No
emergence can perplex it. No shock can move it. It is the
same in every age, yet might it have been revealed simply for
that age. It is the one inheritance of all generations, yet might
it have been bequeathed for each. It has eternal identity and
universal adaptation !
It may be, indeed, questioned whether man is thus different
in his various periods. With all his liberty and all his progress,
he cannot expatiate but within certain bounds. He has a nature,
though peculiar, like other existences; and he cannot pass beyond
it. He travels as frequently in a cycle as on the foreward. He
may be now seen, not as seen the last, but as he was seen in some
earlier stage of his history. Like the revolutions of his planet,

260 THE DOCTRINE AND DAUNTLESSNESS
his movements often but restore him to some ancient position.
Prepared for his wants and yearnings, Christianity liveth and
abideth for ever ! It regards not man in his classes or in his
nations, but in himself. This gives to it its high qualification.
It penetrates man to his intimacies and depths, — every man : it
is nothing to it, therefore, that some arbitrary views of man occa
sionally present themselves. They are all reducible to his primary
elements of character. Like the fitful starts of the elemental
system, they fall under its proper laws. Man is never so intel
lectually and morally eccentric as to falsify the estimate, and to
defeat the efficacy, of the Gospel !
We may not conceal it from ourselves that many do, in our
times, lay to the charge of "preaching Christ crucified," a certain
obsoleteness and failure. They quote existing opinion and taste.
They tell us that the exigences of the age are not met by it.
They plead for a style of instruction and appeal more consonant
to what man is now.
In the description of this Age the objectors are by no means
agreed. Be its type what it may, we only see in it the stronger
reason for the declaration of the Christian doctrine. We may
take up objection after objection, and find one answer for all.
This, we are informed, is a mechanical and calculating age.
Science stoops from its high complacency, its lofty vision, — plods
in manufacture and artisanship; confines that ken, which was wont
to expatiate among the stars, to narrow measurements and sordid
gains ; tortures that spirit of discovery, which found out worlds,
for ratios of weight and speed in the humblest instruments. Sim
ple, coarse, utilitarianism is all its study and concern. If this be
true, surely there is needed something to call back man to thought
and meditation. He is in want of a monitor and a remembrancer
that he is not merely animal and earthly, that this life is but the
beginning of days to him, that the secular advantages which can
now be attained are poor and may be too dearly bought, that his
immortality should be his proper care and business, that he must
soon cease to have any part in things which he now proves to be
uncertain and fleeting, — things which not only are doomed to
perish, but which even perish in the using. Oh, it is the Cross

OF APOSTOLIC PREACHING. 261
which alone can shame this low cupidity, throw contempt over
these competitions for wealth, beggar this passing scene, convince
man of the true good and glory, urge him to lay hold on eternal
life. The spiritual influence of the Atonement mocks at the
bustle, stir, and warfare of such poor struggles and such base
passions, — deals a double death, and that of its own crucifixion,
upon the worldling and the world, — teaches us to count all things
as loss, as dung, in comparison with it, — puts forth all its power
to destroy our selfishness, — by first enlarging the heart, enlarges
all beside, — and ever points to the Cross, its own means and mo
nument, as the way-mark to guide and draw us from this mean
earth to heaven.
But others differently draw the present time. They deem
that these cold, repulsive, features have passed away from the
social system, if ever they were imprinted upon it. According to
their reading of the age, it is eagerly mental. Man stands in his
proudest bent. All his high cravings are clamorously awake.
He looks more within. He cherishes the inner life and power.
He yearns for happiness which he knows not to define. He wants
something that can kindle admiration, inspire confidence, and
win love. And there are potent spirits, magicians of the soul,
sleeplessly at work to lay open, as well as to rouse up, this
interior conflict. With all their spells they cannot lay what they
have raised, nor rule what they have evoked. They can make
us miserable, without being able to explain the cause or to apply
the relief. Now this dearth, this void, this panting, of the soul
does Christianity elicit. It makes us sorry that it may make US
glad. It causes us to feel that we " have spent money for that
which is not bread, and our labour for that which satisfieth not."
It then provides that we shall " eat that which is good and that
our soul shall delight itself in fatness." And this it accomplishes,
— first, by putting man's suspense as to* his safety at rest, and
secondly, by putting man's desire as to his self-transcendence
into action. Oh, it is the Cross which at the same time humbles
and exalts ! Would you see man great ? man in his earnestness ?
man in his power ? more spirit than flesh ? more immortal than
terrestrial ? This can only be realised by certain processes. You

262 THE DOCTRINE AND DAUNTLESSNESS
must restore him to what he was. He can only be magnified in
his own proper nature. That is now lost and wrecked. It is the
Cross which secures his regeneration, and he puts on " the man,"
which is only " new" in reference to his fall, but is truly that
man which is original and first. — You must give him mental
quiet. He is disturbed in all noble qualities when his spirit is
agonised by fears. Calm is the source and sign of strength. It
is the Cross which reconciles and pacifies the troubled conscience.
When our faith beholds it, we revive, we rejoice, we have bold
ness, we assure our hearts, our hearts condemn us not. — You
must supply to him enlarged views and sentiments. His soul
only knows outgrowth when thus it is abundantly stored. In
these things is the life of the spirit. It is the Cross which, with
matchless power, unfolds the mind. When it excites our thoughts
towards God in his moral perfections, when it inspires in us such
jealousy of his honour that we would not be saved by its com
promise, when it empowers us to give thanks at the remembrance
of his holiness, — these thoughts are so unearthly, there is such
elevation, such power, in them, — that they dilate the soul to its
deepest capacity and invest it with its highest dignity. — You
must teach him self-conquest and self-government. This is the
secret of inward might. Where these dwell not, there is but the
slave. It is the Cross which demands of us this subjection of our
pride, our arrogance, our sensuality. It enthrones in us a sanc
tified will. It bids us forth to a perpetual victory over our
sinful inclinations. — You must exhibit before him models of
renown and excellence. His mind thus acquires rich ideas and
perceptions, towering imaginations and aims. It is the Cross
which exclusively shows us God in his awful amiableness, as the »
example whom we are to follow, to be perfect as he is perfect, to
be holy for he is holy. As Christ was, in human virtues, so must
we be in the world. We are compassed about with a great cloud
of witnesses. — You must affect him with all congenial motives.
Satisfy his capacity and desire for happiness. Draw out his
reason and his sensibility. Take hold of the master-springs of
action. Until he be ruled by intelligent and moral principle, he
is no better, he is only more wretched, than the brute. It is the

OF APOSTOLIC PREACHING. 263
Cross, with an oeconomy of motives all its own, which so stimu
lates, so amazes, so melts, so constrains, so pierces, so binds, the
human soul, that each exercise, in the variety and agreement of its
inward promptings, finds the sweetest facility and the purest free
dom. — You must fill him with a sincere philanthropy. Man is
little when he regards but himself, his order, his caste. His
nature has not broken forth until he has embraced his kind. The
fountain is sealed which was made to flow. Whence ever origi
nated such a love of all men ? It is the Cross which alone teaches
it and inspires it. It is one benevolence. It communicates its
benevolence to its disciples. And He who bled there speaks thus,
to his Father, — we hear and would obey: "As Thou, Father,
hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the
world." — You must arouse him with incentives drawn from a
future life. What can throw this world into the shade, and bring
out the solemnities of the world to come ? It is the Cross which
sounds immortality through the soul, and lets in upon it the
visions of an imperishable glory.
And we are incessantly reminded of that spirit of opposition,
of "much contention," in which we are compelled to preach
Christ crucified. We must persevere against protest and dis
claimer : warning and sneer. " But," — we care not for the out
cry, we are not diverted from our purpose. We have only to
enumerate some of those maxims, which are heard among us, to
prove how firmly our vow ought to be maintained.
It is contended that the doctrine of the atonement requires,
of all Christian principles, to be taught in the most veiled and
guarded manner. It is to be intimated and shadowed, and not
fully declared. It must be shrouded in reserve. Let it be con
veyed in broken utterances and aenigmatic terms. Keep back
the integral discovery. Restrain the perfect light. " But we
preach Christ crucified."
It is urged that the atonement is only properly brought before
the notice of men by figurative representation. Let there be
scenic device. Crowd a dramatic show. Awaken imagination.
Rivet sense. Work upon the mind by outward impressions of
sign and art. " But we preach Christ crucified."

264 THE DOCTRINE AND DAUNTLESSNESS
It is argued that particular applications, of material sub
stances, can alone impart the virtues of the atonement. These
must be the mysterious channels by which they are communicated
to the human spirit. Their validity depends upon certain human
acts. As benediction is spoken or withheld, as hand is out
stretched or retracted, is the efficacy or the impotency of these
ministrations. They are employed as very charms. Without
any exercise of the understanding, they affect the spiritual state
and life. " But we preach Christ crucified."
It is pleaded that the renovation of mankind depends upon
another view of Christ. He shall convert the nations by a dif
ferent manifestation. It is in vain to hope for the promised and
the predicted result until there shall be that epiphany and second
coming. It ought now to be made most prominent in all Chris
tian worship and doctrine. It is the exclusive means of stirring
the slumbering church and of testifying against the unbelieving
world. "But we preach Christ crucified."
It is declared that the first business that ought to engage us,
if we seek the good and melioration of the species, is to raise the
masses from their ignorance and abasement : to elevate them edu
cationally, to advance them politically. Let us form them for
moral habits, let us train them to social virtues. Be this your
first attempt. They have not now the capacity of religion. All
ulterior attempts are at present wasted upon them. The spear
of truth rebounds. " But we preach Christ crucified."
It is premised that some great evil exists in the community,
some vice which eats into its vitals. It brutifies the mind. It
corrupts all the domestic affections. It spreads like a blight over
all the public morals. Useless must be each endeavour to propa
gate the best opinions until this plague be stayed. First root it
out, and then you may commence other efforts. Lift man to
self-respect, and then address him with your principles. "But
we preach Christ crucified."
It is set forth that a Community, a Corporate Power, a Capi
tular Executive, subsists on earth, with the keys of pardon and
absolution; that we ought not to look to the Saviour of this
Body, but to this Body as the Saviour ; that this is the ark of

OF APOSTOLIC PREACHING. 265
salvation ; that this is the reservoir of all spiritual aids and bless
ings ; that it possesses independent authority and jurisdiction ;
that it should be proclaimed for refuge ; that in it is only safety.
" But we preach Christ crucified."
It is maintained that, though the blessings of Christianity
stand in some connection with the death of its Founder, the me
dium of connection is by no means clear; that substitution cannot
be supposed ; that sacrifice can be by no means intended ; that
most fanatical are they who lay any stress upon vicarious, piacular,
qualities as the essentials of this death, which is only a general
and figurative phrase. " But we preach Christ crucified."
It is averred that the death of Christ is but an imperfect
event in itself; that it is not self-determined; that it is a mere
preliminary; that as he must rise, so must he die, but that he
need only die in order that he might rise ; that his death has no
place nor part separate from that which follows ; that it is only
a stage to something else. " But we preach Christ crucified."
It is insinuated that the ordinance of preaching is too exten
sively favoured, that it is disproportionately indulged. We are
told of the house of prayer, that devotional acts should be the
chief occupation of the public and social hours of the sabbath,
that the value of human exhortation is very trivial, that it is
but the impression of the mortal's opinion, that little obligation
and feeble sanction can attach to it. "But we preach Christ
crucified." It is denounced against all who may thus determine, if they
follow not a particular system, that they have trespassed upon
an awful right, as though their hands touched sacrilegiously the
ark, as though they offered strange fire. They are required to
show the genealogy of their priesthood. Infinite forbearance is
urged, though not pleaded, to account for their impunity, — that
fire comes not forth to consume them, that the earth does not
open and swallow them up. We derive no such right, we seek
no such title, from this source of a fabulous antiquity : we are
restrained by no such fear. " But we preach Christ crucified."
And let it not be supposed that in this adherence we regard
the doctrine which we preach otherwise than adapted and conse-

266 THE DOCTRINE AND DAUNTLESSNESS
crated for its end. We would not hope to work a charm or to
bind a spell. We " affirm these things constantly" because we
feel their saving efficacy. We resist every opposition to them,
every succedaneum for them, every dilution of them, because of
their verified excellence and tried power. We, therefore, will
not give way to those who would corrupt them. Our times have
their signs and their lessons. These teach and warn us against
the slightest departures from the faith. In degrees supposed the
unimportant, they enjoin us to be unyielding. The strength of
Christianity is in its perfect, unaltered, self: in its incapability of
change. We preach it to all. Wonders follow. To the wise
and the unwise, when they believe, it is alike availing. The dis
tant tribes of idolatry have heard it, and have thrown their idols
away. God thus honours his truth and his messengers. "He
hath showed his people the power of his works, that he may give
them the heritage of the heathen." Where has the preaching of
the Cross been utterly foiled ? Where has no glad and holy effect
ensued ? In every age, among every people, it has " drawn all
men," men of all conditions, though not in their universal num
bers, unto Him who died upon it. It is because it can do imme
diately those very things, until the accomplishment of which
these parties desire that it may be withheld and its inculcation
may be suspended, that we hold thus strenuously to it. It is
because it provides the antidote to those very things, those spe
cious evils, which are set up in opposition to it or in independence
of it, that we thus contend earnestly for it. We know no other
lever to raise society but this. We know no other security for
the stability of science and the permanency of learning but this.
We know no other guide for the progression of the human mind
but this. We know no other incentive to a widely diffusing
civilization but this. We would, therefore, engrave it on the
ages. We would bind it to all mortal future, issue, destiny.
This it is which blesses man in both lives, saves him for both
worlds, gives him heavenly places here and invests him with the
possession of that whole heaven hereafter. It is, then, be it under
stood, with reasoning purpose, with advised conviction, with deli
berated avowal, that we preach Christ crucified !

OF APOSTOLIC PREACHING. 267
And deeply does it grieve us when we hear the insinuation
that there is no power in our ministry, that the modern pulpit
is an engine of feeble influence, that there is generally felt a need
for something else. We cannot for an instant disestablish preach
ing from its divine authority. We cannot, upon any supposition,
desire for it another theme. Here is fitness and here is force.
The office is clear. The theme is divinely great. The want of
power can only be charged upon ourselves. And what interest,
intentness, intensity, should kindle within us ! If we believe,
how should we speak ! Ours should be tongues of fire ! Ours
should be words of flame ! The subject of our ministry should
take such entire possession of us, that zeal and faith and love
should be theiaintest terms to describe the wrought temperament
of our soul. Preaching Christ crucified, in his atonement and its
bearing, — what power infused itself into those great men who
hurled from his high place the Son of Perdition. They grasped
none other might than this. It made them strong. It gave them
victory. They only plied the secret of far earlier triumphs. It
was this which exposed the dreams, silenced the oracles, over
turned the altars, of Pagan Greece and Rome with all their gods.
Almost within our times, this word of the Cross fanned the sleep
ing embers of piety, and smote formalism and error with such a
blow that they seemed to die. But the deadly wound, alas, is not
healed. These foes revive. The combat must be renewed. We
are summoned to the field. We must give them battle. There
is no sword like this. Instead of distrusting it, we must only put
greater confidence in it. We must wield it more resolutely. We
must strike with it more skilfully. It must not rest. And if we
thus preach, and if all our soul be in our preaching, men shall
again say, What a word is this ! Again shall it come in power !
Simple statement, deep feeling, earnest appeal, are all that is
required of us : the Holy Ghost will bless his own truth and suc
ceed his own instrumentality.
And standing where I do, can I forget the origin of this
College, or fail to commemorate the honours of its Foundress ?
How she left all for Christ? How her coronet was laid down
before the Cross ? How her high-born state was as nothing in her

268 THE DOCTRINE AND DAUNTLESSNESS
eyes? How she expended her wealth and last jewellery that the
truth of the gospel might be preached ? How true she stood to
the doctrines of grace ? How her energies were devoted to the
increase of the Christian ministry? How she bound together all
who loved the Saviour, and welcomed them on common grounds?
How her venerable age glowed with all the fire of her earlier
ardours ! How academic learning and training occupied her at
tention to the last ! Here, in these fair domains, we behold the
monument of her catholic piety and steadfast evangelism. And
you carry out intentions which were broken short. You raise a
more elaborate system of instruction. You know that a holy
ministry cannot be too learned. You gather on this spot, as your
professors, no common men. They need yield to none. Your
Faculties are wisely and amply arranged. Your restrictions upon
your alumni shackle them to sound doctrine, but to nought be
side. Your Institution is daily rising in public esteem. Every
auspice gleams around it. Its halls of divinity, literature, and
philosophy gather fame. Our Churches, and none more than
those of Congregationalism, are your debtors. We bless you out
of the house of the Lord !
To You, my beloved Brethren, the Students of this Founda
tion, suffer me now to offer the assurances of heartfelt esteem and
good will. Your privileges are of no common order. There is
every means and every motive for high intellectual cultivation.
Never can you, after your term of residence here has expired,
enjoy the opportunities of storing knowledge which you now
command. It is still more important for you to remember, that
you are forming habits now which after life is not likely to
forego. The indolent student and the diligent minister, the
diligent student and the indolent minister, are seldom found in
the same person. But my counsels must not be miscellaneous :
take one for my charge. Preach Christ crucified ! Turn not
aside from this under the temptation of meeting some question
of the day, or some bearing of the public mind. There is
much mystic verbiage which some esteem to be of transcendental
depth. There is muqh pantheism which some regard as original
and sublime. Your versatility will often be urged to follow

OF APOSTOLIC PREACHING. 269
after these conceits. You will be told of their amazing influence.
They really are nothing. They are the bubbles of the hour.
They cannot boast even a novelty. I conjure you care little for
them. Yours is not a discretionary theme. It is unchanging.
Keep to it. Abide by it. It is one, but it is an infinite one !
It is the word of Christ, divinely great and true ! Its rigidness
can never hamper your thought. Its reiteration can never weary
your enquiry. At no point can it restrict you. It is a large
place. It is a boundless range. It is a mine of wealth. It is a
firmament of power. Whither would ye go from it ? It is the
unwinding of all great principles ! It is the expansion of all
glorious thoughts ! It is the capacity of all blessed emotions !
O Calvary, we turn to thee ! Our nature, — a wreck, a chaos,
only canst Thou adjust ! We have an aching void which only
thou canst fill ! We have pantings and longings which only
thou canst satisfy ! Be thou the strength and charm of our
inward life ! Be thou the earnestness of our deepest interest !
Be thou our inspiration, impulsion, divinity, and all ! Our tears
never relieved us, until thou taughtest us to weep ! Our smiles
only mocked us, until thou badest us rejoice ! We knew no
way of peace, until we found our way to thee ! Hope was ban
ished from us, until its dove flew downward from thee upon
our heart ! All was dormant until thou didst stir, all was dull
until thou didst excite, us ! Our eyes are still lifted to thee
as to the hill from which cometh all our help ! Our feet shall
stand upon thee, O, high mountain, — and thou shalt make
them beautiful while we publish the glad tidings of " Christ
crucified !"

SERMON XII.

THE PERVERSION OF APOSTOLIC
PREACHING.

Gal. v. 11.
"Then is the "Offence of the Cross ceased."
It is a tremendous threatening which God has denounced against
the untoward, against those who obstinately oppose and contu
maciously resist him : " If ye walk contrary unto me, I will walk
contrary unto you." The issue of such a collision is instantaneous
as it is inevitable. "Who would set the briers and thorns against
Him in battle ? He would go through them, He would burn
them together." "Who hath hardened himself against Him and
prospered?" "Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker!"
And yet the sinner has his counter-plots to the divine purpose,
his antagonist movements against the divine agency, furls out his
banner of defiance, and would erect his own rebel throne. Vain
worm ! How easy a prey, how ready a victim, is he to the power
he braves, the justice he provokes ! He rushes on the bosses of
these bucklers but to recoil and perish !
But God oftentimes thwarts and conquers the sinner in bene
volence. With the most merciful intentions, he pursues toward
him a course of the most unyarying checks and counteractions.
He prevents him with goodness. He hides pride from him, but
only because pride goeth before destruction. The haughtiness of
man He brings low, but simply because grace can only be given
to the humble. He hedges up the way, but entirely because
he can thus only show the straitened wanderer the path of life.
The devices in a man's heart are many, and, let them have their
way, that man is undone: but the counsel of the Lord that shall

THE PERVERSION OF APOSTOLIC PREACHING. 271
stand, and it is this counsel, firmly intent upon its grace, which
alone can secure salvation. Therefore the language is not more
sublime than tender: " He will have mercy: He will abundantly
pardon : for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are
his ways higher than your ways, and his thoughts than your
thoughts." Only can we be happy as our natural judgments
are reversed,'our natural resolves broken, — only safe but as we
make an entire retractation of all we thought and hoped, while
we " follow after," and " come into," God's righteousness. Our
reasonings, our imaginations, are cast down : God alone must
be exalted. These remarks will find their illustration in the connection
and history of the Text.
The Apostle had preached throughout the region of Galatia,
as he was wont in all places, the doctrine of the Christ crucified.
The doctrine was professedly received. They who embraced it
were formed into churches. Those churches were constituted in
that belief. Neither individual, nor community, disregarded or
denied it. It was warmly admired as well as allowed. But it
was not truly understood. Its simplicity and sufficience were not
properly appreciated. They added to it. They considered the
addition as even needful for salvation. It was not to supersede
it, but to enforce it. And this appendage was a divine institute,
of venerable antiquity, of holy import, of mystic reference to the
very truth of justification by faith in Christ's mediatorial merit.
It was the seal of the righteousness by faith to Abraham, — it was
of the fathers. Circumcision had not been so much annulled as
left to a self-abrogation. Paul had himself practised it. Even
now, to prevent odium and to avoid offence, he would not have,
perhaps, utterly condemned it. But in the present instance it
was made essential and fundamental to the gospel. It was at
tached as a condition, it was contributed as a virtue, to the Cross.
Without it, that Cross was denounced to be inadequate to its
glorious service. Circumcision was exclusively to render it potent
for its majestic design. This external rite was enjoined and boasted
that it might complete the Cross, thus implying that it was defec
tive, — that it might recommend it, thus presuming that it was

272 THE PERVERSION OF APOSTOLIC PREACHING.
unattractive, — that it might extenuate it, thus supposing that it
was indefensible. But God accepts not the apologies of his sinful
creatures for his conduct and his truth. He brooks not their
counsel and aid. He will owe nothing to them. He will explain
himself. His revelation claims to be received, not asks to be vin
dicated : He calls for scholars, not judges ; subjects, not patrons ;
— those who will bend at his feet and not usurp his tribunal.
He invites not favour, but mere docility and submission.
Now there are two Attempts or Resolves in constant operation
as to the Cross. One is man's, to accommodate it to human liking
and taste : the second is God's, to raise human liking and taste to
it. These most opposite purposes we proceed to consider.
I. The aim of man.
" Then is the offence of the Cross ceased." And in such case,
there must be its depreciation. It is brought down from its
proper excellency. When such is the predicament, that which
no more 'excites the native enmity of the human heart must be
shorn of its strength and disarrayed of its glory. Now it is ob
vious that this neutralization of its odium is put as a most unde
sirable effect. It is a surrender, a compromise, which must be
deprecated, which is only to be abhorred. It is a reduction to
absurdity. How must the Cross be altered, contradicted, abused,
when it elicits the approval, and lulls the opposition, of those
who can have nothing in common with its real purport, all whose
principles and objects it condemns ! Who does not see an utter
estrangement from its scope and meaning, a palpable counter
working of its influence and use, in any pretext of resemblance
to it that earthly affections, that sinful biasses, can choose and
love ? This new and unexpected worship proves that some rival
has been substituted, that a counterfeited power has been inter
posed, and that sacrilege has been done upon that which no man
ever valued without having first despised. — It is an appeal to
shame. Then, then, is the offence ceased. What must be its
desecration ! What a cowardly abandonment is this of all its
characteristic and peculiarity ! When the foe can hail the ensign
which is lifted against him, can cheerfully adopt its legend for
his motto, can follow it for his augury whithersoever it streams,

THE PERVERSION OF APOSTOLIC PREACHING. 273
foul wrong must it have suffered, by a false-hearted treason must
it have been betrayed ! That can only have become weak which
is no more feared by the weak, and wicked which is no longer
shunned by the wicked. It is vilely cast away as though it
had not been anointed with oil.
But the case, which is the subject of this sharp protest and
indignant interdict, is the precise effect that man esteems most
desirable, and that he most eagerly labours to accomplish. He
accounts it a praiseworthy endeavour. He affects grief that there
should exist any cause of offence, any point of annoyance, any
ground of complaint, to the human mind, — that any objection
should rise to its judgment, that any jar should be offered to its
sensibility, — and employs himself to clothe the Cross with a per
fect embroidery of fascination, and to obtain for it a universal
acclaim of applause. He conceives that there are features which
should be softened and circumstances which may be explained.
He suggests that truth need not be too rigorously applied nor
first principles be too literally asserted. He would not " suffer
persecution for the Cross of Christ." He argues for palliatives
and extenuations. He contends that some debasing matters and
considerations ought to be concealed, that the precaution is de
manded by deference to advanced opinion, that the reserve is due
to the progress of manners and of times. The attempt varies in
its means, now to give it philosophic cast, then to throw it into
historic shadow ; now to superadd, and then to diminish : but
the motive is one, to accommodate it, to bring it down to the
level of unsanctified attachment and associations, to bend it into
an apology for all our natural principles, to transform it into an
image made like unto ourselves, — in a word, to make the Cross
what it is not, and what, unless it be deprived of all its intent
and distinctiveness, it never can be ! — A few preliminary enqui
ries must be instituted.
— What is to be understood by the Cross ? Not the wood.
How should we be the better did we possess the very tree on
which the Saviour hung and died? Could it make us wise?
Could it cause us to live for ever ? Cast into bitter waters, would
it infuse into them health and sweetness ? Shall we fall down to

274 THE PERVERSION OF APOSTOLIC PREACHING.
the stock of a tree? A not unholy, a not unreasonable, curi
osity might regard the relic, could it be verified, with emotions
far different from those which the dreadest monument of anti
quity might create. A thousand touching associations would
hover around it. Like Calvary, on which it stood, we could not
approach it or gaze on it without a tender awe. But soon as
we ascribed one religious influence to it, paid one act of adora
tion to it, placed any portion of our confidence in it, we might
as well carry its slivers as amulets and carve its beams into idols.
The true Cross consists in a fact, the crucifixion of the Son of
God : in a doctrine, salvation by atonement : in an influence and
moral power, a hatred to sin, a weanedness from the world, a
penitential devotedness to the Saviour. The Cross is preached
when the sinner is taught how he may be justified, and how he
must be born again. " The preaching of the Cross is to us who
are saved the power of God." There is a divine virtue in it.
But the rood itself might be lawfully broken into pieces and con
sumed, because unto these days men burn incense unto it. As
the brazen serpent which Moses made when abused to idolatry
was called Nehushtan, mere brass, so might we call the Cross,
Gnetz, Xulon, no better than simple wood.
— In what lies its scandalising property, its offence ? It was
early declared that Christ should be a sign spoken against, and
that in connection with his death, when the sword should pierce
through her soul who held the holy child. This obnoxious sign
was therefore the spectacle of a crucified Messiah. It was not
capricious but inevitable, not heedlessly or wilfully unfolded, but
the necessary and only the necessary event. In Christianity there
is nothing wantonly harsh and rude. Its language is, Giving
none offence : Woe unto him by whom the offence cometh. But
it was a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence, even to them
that stumbled at the word, being disobedient. Now the follow
ing may be named as the principal exceptions taken to it by those
who rejected it.
It was an improbable medium of revelation. For man can
talk loudly how God should manifest himself and his purposes
toward us. He is fond of anticipating the Father of lights,

THE PERVERSION OF APOSTOLIC PREACHING. 275
would teach him the path of judgment and show to him the way
of understanding. Is it morally probable that all his dispensa
tions should revolve upon the Cross for their pivot ? Shall the
Cross be the oracle by which He, who uttereth his voice in the
thunders, will speak his deepest counsels to our race? "Who
hath heard such a thing ?"
It was a stigma on this religion which set it in disadvanta
geous contrast with every other. In the classic mythology death
was not unknown. It was sometimes the reason of renown and the
title to celebration. The hero rose to an empyrean throne or was
changed into a heavenly constellation. Mysterious mournings as
for the dead echoed through the Pagan temple, and then the songs
of apotheosis swelled above them. But it was unheard of that
the vilest of all deaths should give its absolute character to a
religion, and that this religion of the cross should triumph over
all. Yet this was avowed. It was to every nation an execrated
form of punishment. "Cursed," said the Jewish law, "is every
one who hangeth on a tree." The Roman code knew no inflic
tion so ignoble as this. With what indignation does Cicero
charge Labienus with setting up a cross in the Campus Martius,
and that he delighted to pass the sentence, " Nail him to the
accursed tree!" "words which," cries the orator, "are not only
buried in the shadows of antiquity but cannot reappear amidst
the splendour of our liberty."* And this was to be the exponent
of the gospel. Must not this offend ?
It was a violent disappointment of a general hope. There
was a desire of all nations. Each nation, refined or barbarous,
— each age, lettered or rude, — each country, near or distant,
indulged its expectation. Sage and bard encouraged it. Poetry
embalmed the tradition. Philosophy impressed its soberness
upon the vision and gave it consistency. And was all that the
earliest lay rehearsed, all that the highest wisdom enounced,
only to be wrought out in the shameful Cross ? For this had
Plato idealised and Virgil sung ?
* "Caput obnubito, arbori infelici suspendito; quae verba, Quirites, jam pri-
dem in hac republica non solum tenebris vetustatis, verum etiam luce libertatis
oppressa sunt." — Pro Rabirio.

276 THE PERVERSION OF APOSTOLIC PREACHING.
It was a humiliating test. Ambition, selfishness, insincerity,
licentiousness, ferocity, pride, felt that it was encircled with an
atmosphere in which they were instantly interrupted and con
demned. The Cross would lift them up and devote them to its
death. They shrunk before its rebuke as odious crimes. None
could bear it who did not renounce every form of worldly lust.
It was not an empty device or accidental symbol : it was the index
of a thorough conversion and of a holy morality. Who of that
generation, who that is unchristianised of any generation, — war
rior, philosopher, poet, soothsayer, schoolman, priest, — could
accept it with these conditions and not understand the cost ?
— In what manner did the first preachers of the Cross exhibit
it? So ingenuous, so unvarnished, was that manner, that it
always prejudiced them ; " to the Jews a stumbling-block and to
the Greeks foolishness." They preached it not only in its inte
grity of truths, but without gloss and concealment. They refined
not on it. Certain that the first statement would disgust, they
knew well that every new statement, instead of allaying that
disgust, would but exasperate it. But they declared this whole
counsel of God, suppressing no circumstance, resisting no con
clusion ; leaving it, with all its infamy to shock, with all its mys
tery to amaze, with all its intensity to overwhelm !
But man is desirous of doing this away as a wrongful and
unnecessary impression. He would make the offence of the Cross
to cease. 1. By fixing it upon some extrinsic authority.
We cannot hide it from us that the more frightful adjuncts
of the Cross, which once startled the sense of the world, do not
now very readily suggest themselves. The gibbet-association does
not violently recur. It is lost in newer and more attractive rela
tions. The Cross awakens a stirring interest. Its loathsomeness
is redeemed. It is the loveliest configuration of the starry hea
vens, it is the gnomon of chronology, it is the land-mark of
empire, it is the crest of chieftainship, it is the signal of battle,
temples are constructed of its form, it glitters from the summit of
architecture, it droops over the bosom of beauty. But why ?
because Constantine preferred it to the Eagle, because conquest

THE PERVERSION OF APOSTOLIC PREACHING. 277
has been achieved beneath its banner, because kings have worn
it on their diadems, because it is the creature of legislation and
state. Thus regarded, it will no more offend than any other
national escocheon, than any other heraldic ornaments of power
and fame. " They set up their ensigns for signs."
2. By torturing it into coalition with foreign principles.
Human nature always remains the same in its great bearings.
Being formed for religion, since it lost the true one it has sought
out many inventions. Some religion it will have. This is inva
riably both the development and the organ of its depravity. Pa
ganism is but the outworking of the heart. Antichrist is only
another representation. And this will- worship is almost uniform.
What were the ancient rites? their lustrations, postures, vest
ments, altars, thuribles ? The same have found their supposed
excuse and aliment in the Cross. Self-righteousness there fastens
its hold : formalism thence extracts its rigour : superstition thi
ther turns its trance. Heathenism is merely revived in it: another
idolatry is subserved. Little difference will men detect in these
respective modifications : none which they will resent !
3. By transforming the character of its religious instructions.
The religion of the Cross is a religion of credence, claiming
a simple belief of its testimony as true and all-important, as a
faithful saying and divine message ; — it is a religion of spiritu
ality, favouring but few observances and those most undazzling,
searching the interior of man, requiring all to be done with the
spirit and the understanding ; — it is a religion of holiness, desig
nating nothing as worthy of the name which the grace of regene
ration does not inform and beautify; — it is a religion oi jealousy,
suffering no impure mixture, no worldly alliance; — it is a reli
gion of self-renouncement, demanding of the sinner the dereliction
of all his vain hopes and false pretensions. The cross might have
been expected to bear out, to sustain, these views of Christianity:
the pillar on which these principles were engraven, the safeguard
beneath which they must be secure. But when the cross degene
rated into the crucifix, all the truth kindred to it suffered an
immediate corruption. Sense usurped the province of faith.
Materialism superseded spirituality. Ceremonial was substituted

278 THE PERVERSION OF APOSTOLIC PREACHING.
for holiness. Parade was courted to the tawdry disfigurement of
a severe simplicity. A meritorious commutation was established
for human crime, a tribunal of satisfaction, a receipt of custom.
What was begun in the spirit is to be made perfect in the flesh.
4. By applying it to inappropriate uses.
The enormities of human guilt are sufficiently revolting, but
many of its darkest deeds have been perpetrated under the abused
sanction of the Cross. When the third part of the world flew to
arms, when nations poured themselves out of their territories like
seas driven by earthquakes from their shores; when dragon bloods
thirstiness laid waste the fairest lands and slaughtered mercilessly
the most unoffending races; when hordes of marauders, as the
swarm of locusts lighting on the living pasture or as the flight of
vultures swooping on the battle-carnage rushed forth for devas
tation and pillage, sacking the tomb, rifling the dead, — they im
printed on tunic, they embossed on mail, as their warrant and
their excitement, the red-Cross ! When Persecution has laid its
impious grasp on conscience, has forged its instruments of cruelty,
has wielded its sword and brand, and has passed as an eclipse be
tween man and God, what justification has it pleaded, under what
hieroglyphic have its familiars crept, by what patronage have its
sophistries been defended ? The meekness and gentleness of
Christ have been severed from his cross, and that cross, dyed but
by his own blood, has been made to clamour for drink-offerings
of guiltless blood ! When the human mind was to be cramped
and compressed into the most prone and abject bondage, when
the tyrant would not endure an enquiry nor the bigot a doubt,
when it sunk beneath the sultry air of a prison and bounded no
more in freedom's mountain breeze ; the cross of Him, who is the
Light of life and whose gospel is liberty, was so perverted that it
became the argument by which all thought was to be crushed
and the soul was to be abandoned to each slavish dream and fana
tic doting. And in our day, how is this Cross warped to every
unnatural purpose ! Many are reconciled to its meanness, because
they deem that it gives them an advantage in the denial of the
Redeemer's supreme divinity. Many commend it even for the
pardon which it brings, because they confound this with a release

THE PERVERSION OF APOSTOLIC PREACHING. 279
from the obligations of personal holiness. Why should we hate
that which ministers to our passions, bends to our prejudices,
conforms to our wills ! Having moulded the cross according to
our ideas and desires, is it any marvel that the variance between
its first, its true, conception and ourselves should cease ?
5. By excluding its proper connections.
It is not to be viewed as naked and detached, it is a centre to
which all that is great and serious spreads out as circumference.
While it is alone and single in its incomparableness, it is full of
relations and consequences. It declares the righteousness of God.
It is the basis of mercy to sinners. It is intended to sanctify as
well as to expiate. It is the purchase-price of the church. It is
the condemnation of sin. It gives a mysterious support to elect
angels. It is the trophy of victory over fiends. It impresses a
character upon the employments of heaven. It inspires the songs
of eternity. Separate it from any or from all these moral rela
tions, it will not offend : bound up with all, the natural man
receiveth it not, neither can he know it !
Nor is a sentimental approval that which may suffice. The
mind may have little quarrel with many of our statements. It
may be the less revolted that it scarcely enters into the distinc
tions. It gives not heed. Yet the Cross in some way moves it.
But it is by its accompaniments, and not by itself. The essential
truth, the simple event, does not affect. But let the exquisitely
sculptured effigies be raised, amidst winding processions, waving
censers, tender litanies, pealing chants, stoled ministers, awful
aisles, — an impression is excited. What then ? There is no mor
tified sin, no humbled pride, no crucifixion to the world. The
pageant passes, the harmony expires, the sensation dies away.
Let no man be deceived. The Cross is a compass of truths and
results. All must be reckoned into it and all must be embraced.
It is not the sign on which we rest ; the signification is that for
which we earnestly contend and exclusively care.
The supposition is, then, easy that the cross might be so
altered to flatter and gratify the human mind, so modified to
coincide with its opinions and desires, that its offence should
cease: countless facts are on record or in sight to prove that this

280 THE PERVERSION OF APOSTOLIC PREACHING.
is not a merely supposeable case, but that it may be embodied
and systematised on the largest scale. That is the Aim of man,
an aim most criminal, mischievous, and fatal.
We have considered such Attempt of man. In contrast to it,
we will now mark, —
II. The PROCEDURE OF GOD.
We have seen that the cross, the true type and pledge of
Christianity, may be placed in such factitious lights and may be
contemplated through such false mediums, may be so distorted
from its real excellence, and so polished of its real reproach, may
be so illustrated and decked, that, instead of offending, it shall be
taken into favour. Greatness shall smile upon it. Power shall
beg its alliance. Learning shall attest its worth. Nations shall
swell its cry ! Empires shall raise its signal ! It shall grow
into a thing of fame and awe. It shall seal the manifestoes of
statesmen. It shall consecrate the codes of jurisconsults. It
shall sparkle from the crowns of kings. It shall incorporate itself
with the studies and the arts of mankind. Let it be the theme of
poetry. Canto after canto shall recount its wonders and rehearse
its deeds. The minstrel shall not sing without sympathy nor the
epic rise without interest. All the chords of grief and indigna
tion shall vibrate in response. Let it be the subject oi painting.
There are the frowning heavens and the rending rocks. There
is agony, there is death. We mark the ashy hue of the flesh, the
crimson blood trickling from his wounds, while there are grouped
the bereaved mother, the beloved disciple, the converted centu
rion, coloured with the truth of Rubens and drawn with the
grace of the Caracci. Let it be the burden of music. It shall
infuse into its composition all deep, rich, melting harmonies
which float around us as voices from the inmost spirit, as the
sweet concords in which hearts commune. Terror might arouse
and pity might subdue. The scene might live in some descrip
tive passage, and the last sigh of the Sufferer echo on in the
cadence of some dying fall. Let it be the standard of war.' In
the enterprise which took its very name, its vermilion glowed on
the shield of each warrior, fluttered in the pennon of each host,
the soldier fabricated his sword-hilt into its form, and the palmer

THE PERVERSION OF APOSTOLIC PREACHING. 281
thus ornamented the top of his staff. Let it be the idol of super
stition. It surmounts a shrine. Torches gleam around. Spirals
of incense ascend to it. It is the object of invocation. Crowds
lie prostrate before it. As it is raised to be adored, or carried in
the procession of its triumph, how reverent is the head and knee,
how ready is the attendant train, how solemn, fraught, affecting
is the emotion ! But in this Christianity not only is not seen :
it is abused : it is contradicted. All this may be the picturesque
of sentiment, the religion of taste. It has nothing to do with a
fellowship of Christ's sufferings, it is no conformableness to his
death. In respect of any evangelic influence, of any end con
templated by it, it is lighter than vanity. " The cross of Christ
"is made of none effect."
But we may advance higher than even this and still fall short
of the legitimate Cross. In Christ shall be confessed the noblest
qualities. His death shall be admired as a spectacle of the moral
sublime. A purer mood of intellect shall be stirred than any
hitherto supposed. The best springs of our nature shall be
touched. He shall be honoured, the teacher, the moralist, the
patriot. His death shall be hallowed, though only in rhetoric, a
sacrifice to virtue, to philanthropy, to truth. Yet this is no just
reading of Christianity, it is only a fiction, a tale that is told.
It evades the actual import of it. It offers nothing of its actual
efficacy. It is a god which cannot save. God's way is therefore
to frustrate all these miserable perversions, — to set them all aside,
— to honour the Cross as he knows and unfolds it, — to bring the
sinner unto direct contact with it, — to suffer him to interpose
nothing, — to add nothing of his own, — to subtract nothing how
ever offensive to him, — that he may be brought under its original
power and receive its complete impression.
The method is conducted after this sort.
1. It is necessary, if we would receive the proper influence of
the Cross, that we be prepared to hail it as a Distinct Revela
tion. There are those who intimate, if they do not avow, the idea
that the religion of the gospel but elicits certain seeds of know
ledge previously sown in the constitution of nature and in the

282 THE PERVERSION OF APOSTOLIC PREACHING.
depth of the human spirit. It is there that they place its original
and archetype. It was buried, perhaps to be raised, perhaps of
itself to rise. They seem to hold that Christianity only a little
anticipated that which we must have soon learnt independently of
it. It is not authoritative, independent, supernal, dispensation:
it is the evolution of truths which lie within ourselves. They
represent it as already existing in outlines which were drawn of
old : we are taught by it simply to trace them out. It always
was : it is now defined. It ever was written in the volume of the
moral world ; it is now recapitulated more summarily and pro
claimed more distinctly. Men saw it afar off: it is now brought
nigh. It was detached : it is now reduced to system. — Now this
is infidel artifice. It is to do away with all that is special and
binding in Scripture discovery. It is to make it train-bearer and
epilogue to antecedent, self-revealing, fact. It is but a ceremo
nial convenience. It is the subservient echo of what might be
already known. We deny not that there are truths with which
the Christian revelation does not interfere, truths which may be
learnt independently of it. Such are the physics of the universe,
and it does not pretend to teach them. It would be to stoop.
It would be to forget itself. It would be superfluous, for it only
wants the language of mortals according to their apprehension of
things. It would be unsatisfactory, for if it did not disclose
every secret which science is now left to explain, if it snatched
not away every folding of the veil which now covers our world,
it would be open to the objection of the scoffer still. It would
be detrimental in an inconceivable degree to the interests of man,
extinguishing the possibility of mental effort and arresting the
course of mental progression. The same limitation applies to even
morals. The strength of Christianity is not expended upon
them. It rather assumes their order and obligation. And this
is necessary. For as Revelation proceeds upon the existence of a
Deity and could never prove it, — save as the addition of another
work to those which have already demonstrated it, — so something
at least of law must be understood, something of relationship to
that Deity, to give any scope, to furnish any ground, for such
revelation. It may be said that when it is now borne to any

THE PERVERSION OF APOSTOLIC PREACHING. 283
heathen people, this state of things cannot be presupposed. Are
they conscious of this law and this relationship ? It would be of
no argumentative force if they be not, for sin and idolatry may
have combined to destroy its sense. But, in truth, not only the
very scheme of the Revelation does take it for granted, but the
missionary must appeal to it. He must, if he would make good his
message draw it out. He must extort confession of it. Science,
and the original ethics of our nature, do not, therefore, fall within
the distinct province of what a Revelation intends. Its strict pur
pose, its proper idea, is to%iake known that which is not known,
and which could not be otherwise known. Accordingly, this is
the asserted character of the gospel. It is not the wisdom of this
world, nor of the princes of this world. It is not some conclusion
that the wise, the prudent, the disputer of this world, have
reached. It is no gathering up of certain prepossessions and ana
logies. It is no happy venture in the large field of discovery and
experiment. It is no method and condensation of far scattered,
though strictly related, truths. It is the immediate ray from
heaven. It is a great declarative act. The heart of man may be
inventive, versatile, may range from heaven to earth and from
earth to heaven, may reflect every vision, may dart every imagi-.
nation, but these things could never have entered into it. They
are things of God : his own deep things. They belong to His
understanding which is infinite. They are things which none
can know but the Spirit of God. They are in his dread Self-
knowledge only. God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit.
Man could make no approach to these informations. The yoid
was that which the Divine Intelligence could alone fill. The
silence was that which the Divine Word alone could break. And
until we receive the testimony of the gospel upon this exclusive,
dogmatic, authority, — as revealed and because revealed in this
manner, — we set not our seal to it that God is true. Believing
it for any other reason, our faith is in the wisdom of men and not
in the power of God. Men of genius and of research may feel
this to be humbling. They may be unable to conceal this aver
sion. They may contemptuously ask, Are we blind also ? They
may refuse childlike, unquestioning, acquiescence. They have

284 THE PERVERSION OF APOSTOLIC PREACHING.
not " submitted themselves" to this manner of salvation. They
will only depend upon some discovery which they have struck
out, upon some hypothesis which they have framed. They must
kindle the torch. They must seize the disclosure. Ah, how
different the feeling of the Christian ! He sees in the gospel the
day-spring from on high which has visited him. He is convinced
that all the lights of knowledge, that all the ages of time, would
never have conducted him to this result. He owes it altogether
to the infinite mercy. It is the pure shining forth of the Divine
purpose. Full of the irradiation he exclaims : " I determine to
know nothing among men, save Jesus Christ and him crucified."
And this brings into every humiliation, — to grovelling, — to dust,
— all the sufficiency of our nature, the pride of its reason, the
boast of its independence, the attempt of its salvation. It is
indebted for the very thought to the God of all grace. Not a
mind but His, throughout the universe, had conceived it. There
it rested until he manifested it. Still more must it trace to Him
contrivance, means, and execution. His is the counsel, and his
is the might. And who but the Christian knows the delight of
being thus taught of the Lord ! God shines into his heart to
give him the light of the knowledge of his glory in the face of
Jesus Christ. God reveals his Son in him. Not more directly
did the elemental light proceed from Him who called it out of
darkness than did the making known to man of redemption by
the blood of the Cross.
2. When we rightly appreciate the Cross, when it has its full
effect upon us, we recognise it as the instrument of redemption.
This was the mode of death indicated by prophecy, and fore
told by Christ himself. Even type was only strictly fulfilled in
it. None other death could have engrossed in it all inspired
allusions and references from the fall of man. We behold every
political machine securing the result. The Jews shall not put him
to death, because crucifixion was not their manner of inflicting it.
Their fury is directed by a power they little suspect. They say,
" It is not lawful for us to put any man to death." Did they mean
that their law did not authorise it ? That cannot be. Did they
intend that the edict of their conquerors forbade it ? Why had

THE PERVERSION OF APOSTOLIC PREACHING. 285
they then attempted to stone the Messiah ? But they are blinded
by their rage, — yet moved by invisible impulse, — and they resign
the victim, whose death they seek to compass, in order that a
stigma of death may be branded upon him. " That the saying of
Jesus might be fulfilled, which he spake, signifying what death
he should die." Many reasons justified and required it. Yet in
it is no particular virtue : It could not render the death efficacious.
The cross is but a circumstance in itself. The death of such a
Person, however suffered, must contain the same merit. That
blood, if shed and however shed, must avail for a perfect atone
ment. The Cross stands for that death, — gives an incidental and
most wondrous character to that death, — and so far as the bodily
death is intended, is, as the engine of dealing it, its memorial and
sign. But it is an idle, unworthy, superstition that this mode
of death wrought the stupendous end. It is only an accessory.
We must look farther into the mystery. " He his own Self bore
our sins in his own body on the tree." It is that Awful Identity,
that Mysterious Action, which expiates, and not the rood. " He
by Himself purged our sins." Unless we " receive the atone
ment," the death is vain. It is useless sacrifice. It is called by
every name which can mislead and disappoint. But when we so
apprehend it, its purport is clear, its history consistent ; its price
is justified and its preparation explained. This is not an expe
dient among many expedients, a safe remedy among remedies
equally safe. It stands apart. It shines alone. This is the one
righteousness to justify the ungodly. This is the one propitiation
to soothe the distracted conscience. This is the one vent and
vehicle for mercy. And he who is not offended in it, being
raised to its standard, rejoices that in this means is exclusive
salvation, that he is shut up to it, because he sees in the fact
the proof of its surpassing glory ; and not the less that even his
guilt and weakness can suggest no occasion for any way of deli
verance more gracious and more potential than the Cross.
3. When our mind approves this method of salvation, it finds
in it the principle of sanctification.
A new element of thought, a new complexion of motive, enter
the soul when the Holy Spirit shows to it " the things of Christ,"

286 THE PERVERSION OF APOSTOLIC PREACHING.
We are amazed at the " former conversation :" at our ignorance
and our foolishness. We are new creatures. We reverse all our
aims and desires. We are called unto holiness. What shall
work it in us ? Gratitude for the Saviour's love, common cause
with his mission, sympathy with his design. "We are planted
in the likeness of his death." It is an ever-present recollection.
"We are crucified with Christ." We die to sin by that lingering
and painful death. He died for us, and our end must be that
for which he died. It was to redeem us from all iniquity. He
superintends his own purpose in us. " He dwells in our heart by
faith." " We purify ourselves even as He is pure." Since these
are the proper qualities and bearings of the Cross, it is plain
that they must be acknowledged and embraced on our part in
order that it may be availing. If you change every ingredient
of the medicine, of what importance is it that you retain its
name ? You may call it the refuge still, but what shelter have
you left when you have reduced it to a ruin ? Therefore, if God
scoff" at the vauntings of our reason and the conceits of our merit,
it is in mercy: it is not to mock, but to dissuade us from the
fatuity of our attempt. He can make no peace, he can hold no
parley, on our own ground : all our claims must be withdrawn,
our pretensions quashed, while we, who might have laid wholly
at the disposal of justice, feel that we now lie wholly at the dis
posal of mercy. He humbles us to exalts us, — humbles nothing
but our miserable pride, that he may " beautify the meek with
salvation." He thus raises us to all the blessings and dignities
of the Cross. We henceforth live beneath its holy atmosphere,
its cloudless light, and its assimilating influence.
Mark the Process. We had hitherto abided in death. We
had continued indifferent to the most mighty interests. Christ
was preached, but he was dead in vain. He profited us nothing.
We thrilled not with wonder nor grief nor joy. But now we are
quickened with Him. He liveth in us. Our eyes are opened. It
is like another sense. Our ideas are new. Each emotion is strange.
We are disabused. Where have we been ? What have we been
doing? What long delusion has overpowered us? What has
sealed our inward reflection? This loveliness was always near.

THE PERVERSION OF APOSTOLIC PREACHING. 287
This power was always present. These glorious thoughts were
always ready to pass into the mind. If the gospel was hid, it
was only hid because we were lost. But this wisdom is now
justified of her children. Oh the " sweet wonders" of the Cross !
What power and love and holiness and truth and skilfulness does
it unfold ! All sinks by its side, all fades in its presence ! It is
the only greatness, the only strength, the only excellence ! Pe
rish all that withstands it ! Vanish all that dims it ! Let it
stand forth, and name none other conception or type of concep
tion, none other regard or bond of regard, none other marvel or
possibility of marvel ! Pillar, on which all moral victories are
inscribed ! Monument, to which heaven turns to learn that God
is merciful, and even hell that God is just !
Mark the Necessity. Until we be brought nigh to it, until
we take hold of it, the doctrine of the Crucified Saviour is an
unintelligible and uninteresting thing. " He is of none effect to
us." It is alienated from holy use. We see it only at a distance,
and it scarcely moves the most transient feeling. Until it comes
into contact with our mind, it can command no proper influence.
It is not a blind agent, operating perforce. It works in no occult
manner. It addresses the understanding. It convinces and per
suades. It excites the moral dispositions. It puts forth its mas
tery upon all the sensibilities of the heart. It wins. It brings
into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. We are
called to his fellowship. He is our Lord Jesus Christ, — our life,
our hope, our peace ! It is our gospel ! We are Christ's !
And this oneness with Him who endured the cross and with all
the purposes of his death, secures the ascendancy of every spiri
tual principle and the perfection of every Christian virtue.
Mark the Effect. There is a suddenly, though a most intel
ligently, developed charm. It is the infinite of attraction. All
concentrates on it. It absorbs the tenderness and the majesty of
the universe. It is full of glory. It combines whatever can
make great or constitute greatness. It is the simplest of all
simple things, — the deepest of all deep things. Is it occasion of
astonishment that, when perceived, our mind should become trans
formed by its power, and our existence rapt in its vision ?

288 THE PERVERSION OF APOSTOLIC PREACHING.
"Behold, all things are become new." Scandal once ap
peared to us as the badge of the Cross. We saw an opprobrium
in it which nothing coidd redeem. We cannot deceive ourselves
in this matter. It is no palliation that as symbol, either patri
otic or ecclesiastical, it did not offend. We speak of it as a
system of truths and a centre of influences. We speak of the
unsophisticated, the undespoiled, the uncorrupted, Cross. Like
the inverted magnet, it revolted and repelled. But our heart
has now yielded to it; is drawn, is held; coheres, coalesces; is
itself impregnated by the sacred effluence. And now, in the only
manner safe, beneficial, honourable, — in the only manner which
secures to it all its efficacy and all its grandeur, — the offence
of the cross has ceased !
— Let us see to it that the Cross, in all its points of opposi
tion to human pride, sensuality, ambition, selfishness, malevolence,
shall offend. This opposition must always exist, and it must as
certainly operate unless there be some attempt at accommodation.
If you turn it into a worldly object or instrument, the world will
love its own. But it is our duty to uplift it as the naked spe
cimen of what was. Turn it every way against the natural
principles of man : his self-righteousness, his self-dependence, his
self-applause. Let not its powers sleep. It is the antagonist,
necessary and natural, of sin. It must not distantly rise or faintly
gleam on sqme imaginary Calvary, but move through the avenues
of society, plant itself amidst the collisions of passion, and send
forth its appeals among the children of this world. It is a thing
of interposition, of rebuke, of action, of life.
— Let us see to it that whatever be its offence, it shall merely
be its own. For there may be charges which can bear no semblance
of righteous application. If, while we would vindicate it, we con
tradict its absolute nature and intent, — if we crucify the Son of
God afresh and put him to an open shame, — if we tread underfoot
the Son of God, and count the blood of the covenant with which
He was inaugurated a common thing, — then a new stumbling-
block is heaped in the way of men, a new source of repugnance
arises, with which the Cross cannot be commixed. It does offend,
it would offend, all the evils of the world. This condemnation

THE PERVERSION OF APOSTOLIC PREACHING. 289
it provokes and boasts. But if inconsistency mark its defenders,
if the corruptions which are in the world cleave to those who
are its declared followers, it answers not for these. It is not im
plicated in the scandals by which the enemies of God are made to
blaspheme. He who died upon it shall answer, — when of these
stabs so foully, falsely, dealt, it shall be asked, "What are these
wounds in Thy hands ?" — " Those with which I was wounded
in the house of my friends."
— Let us see to it that we honour the Cross in the very pro
portion of the offence which is awakened by its reproof and coun
teraction of human prejudice and wickedness. How heavenly is
this its unveiled character ! How divine the glories which shine
around it ! It is a perpetual witness of God, like the sun in
the firmament. It condemns sin. It is the spring of charity. It
is the shield of justice. It is the cause of all happiness in the
world. It is the Yea and Amen of truth. It can only bless as
it is maintained in its salient and sublime offensiveness !
— Let us see to it that we confide in the Cross, on this account
alone, as the instrument of turning men to God. Obliterate its
offence, and it may partially lull, it may heal slightly, but it will
not save. It must be for the fall, ere it can be for the" rising, of
any. It must probe to cure. It must subvert to establish. It
must eradicate to implant. It must kill to make alive. This
is the means. It calls for self-renunciation throughout all the
strongholds, all the deep-seated retreats, in which the accursed
principle of selfishness has entrenched itself. It proclaims eter
nal war against it. It pursues it to destruction. It will not spare.
But thus it saves the man, in that course which only consists
with his salvation and which only can terminate in it, even by
saving him from himself! Now we command the secret how he
may be saved ! Now we command the means of saving him !
His disgust at it is an auspice of hope ! Its irritation of him
is a token for good ! " God forbid that we should glory, save
in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ!"

SERMON XIII

THE CONTRASTED HUMILIATION AND
EXALTATION OF CHRIST.

Eph. iv. 9, 10.
"Now that he ascended, what is it but that he descended first
into the lower parts of the earth ? He that descended is
the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that
he might fill all things."
The mighty Angel has winged his way from heaven, — earthquake
has dislodged the ponderous stone which closed the entrance of
the Sepulchre, — the hardy centinels, trained to watch and warfare,
rush from their guard and flee in consternation, — the veteran
legionaries will confess any breach of discipline, will endure any
imputation of cowardice, will suffer any ban of infamy, will
brave any form of punishment, to escape these, mingled terrors, —
the seal, which it was death to touch, is shivered, — and He, who
was dead, is alive again for evermore, emerges serenely, rises
triumphantly, with power as meek, with influence as resistless,
with presence as diffusive, as the looking forth of that Dawn
which He now prevented, which He has perpetually signalised,
and which has been commemorated by his disciples since, — in
unbroken succession, in unwearying faith, — nearly a hundred
thousand times !
The most ordinary sense of right, found often in the rudest
breast, induces us, on even common occasions, to rejoice in the
vindication of innocence and the success of virtue. We have
witnessed their reproaches, marked their struggles, sympathised
with their tears. Hence is it that we so much delight in the
descriptions which represent the difficulties, the indignities, the

THE CONTRASTED HUMILIATION, ETC. 291
repulses, which true worth too oft endures, — the clouds which
obscure, the persecutions which harass, it, — but which wind up
all with a climax and catastrophe of poetic justice. The triumph,
though slow, is ultimately complete. Excellence is cleared.
Goodness is crowned. Opposition is defeated. Hostility is
crushed. And now there glows to the eye, there breaks on the ear, of
the Christian, the reality of these lofty sentiments, the celebration
of thes^ righteous acts. He, whom men despised and the nation
abhorred, — who came out of Galilee, who was branded Samaritan,
who was called Beelzebub, — who was hurried away to the death
of the felon and the outcast, — who was nailed to the cross, an
engine combining the agony of the rack and the infamy of the
gibbet, — who died amidst the scoffs of the soldiery and the exe
crations of the multitude, — his visage marred by violence and
defiled by rheum, — as though time had grudged him every mo
ment and earth had spurned his shadow so long as it rested on
it, — on whom contumely heaped its foulest and torture wreaked
its worst, — Jesus has vanquished all that calumny could forge
or malice could inflict. He has not only escaped from that
which man could do unto him ; his foot is now on the neck of
his spiritual foes. He has paused, lest there should be any
demand of justice which he had not answered: he has lingered,
lest there should be another adversary whom he had not over
come. He has gazed around in vain. None such were to be
found. No demand whispered : no adversary durst renew the
contest. The Cross could strike no keener pang, — He had en
dured it. Shame could wring out no darker ignominy, — He
had despised it. And now His glories gather around him ! The
chariot of his ascension waits ! The clouds are the dust of his
feet ! He flies on the wings of the wind ! The heavens receive
him ! He is crowned with the diadem, he is installed on the
throne, of the universe ! — How wonderful is this transformation !
He no more is rejected and set at nought: the principalities and
powers in the heavenly places bend to him and worship him. He
no more sinks down in weakness and death-like sorrow : he holds
up the pillars of heaven. He no more is despised of man and

292 THE CONTRASTED HUMILIATION
numbered with the transgressors : he walks on high among the
seraphim and the saints. Those hands, once pierced, now grasp
the rod of his strength. Those lips, once quivering, now smile
with the favour which is life ! Those feet, once transfixed, now
tread the firmament of the burning sapphire and the terrible
crystal. That brow, once bound with thorns, now is circled
with splendours which make pale before it stars and suns. — The
wrongs of Immanuel are redressed ! As many were astonished
at him, as he was reviled and buffeted, as he was maligned and
traduced, so has his reproach been rolled away. Full and glo
rious is his reward. Who arraigns him now? Where are his
enemies now ? He is reinstated in all his primaeval greatness,
with accessions which the finite mind cannot appreciate. It is
his deliverance from every charge. It is his challenge of every
honour. Hark to his defence ! Hark to his acclaim ! " Worthy
is the Lamb that was slain," — whatever be the contradictions of
sinners, whatever be the blasphemies of fiends, — " Worthy is
the Lamb, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength,
and honour, and glory, and blessing !"
And who does not rejoice ? Who will not leave, for a little
season, even the consecrated scenes of His suffering and death,
to " see Jesus crowned with honour and glory ?" Bethlehem for
" where He was before ?" Gethsemane for Paradise ? The brook
Kedron for the River of life? The city where our Lord was
crucified for the new Jerusalem ? Mount Calvary for mount
Sion ? Oh it is sweet for us to mingle our voice of praise with
the concert of the skies ! The Church feels a tender interest,
beyond any power of utterance, in this blessed inauguration.
Dear to her is this sublimest pomp. For her He was discrowned,
and laid aside the ensigns of his state. For her He poured out
his soul unto death. And shall she not exult to behold her Hea
venly Bridegroom taking possession of his kingdom ? Shall she
not tell aloud the renown and right of her Almighty Guardian
and Head?
Nothing is more important than that we should keep in
memory and meditation the different and contrasted facts of Mes
siah's condescension and exaltation. Though none can affix the

AND EXALTATION OF CHRIST. 293
deep-most degree of the one, or the highest point of the other,
still we must traverse all that we can of that mysterious scale.
We must not only think of Him as slain on the tree, but as
supreme over all things. We must not only come and see the
place where he lay, but follow him to the abode of his essential
life and eternity. He descended that he might ascend. He was
immured in the lower parts of the earth that he might soar far
above all heavens. His history combines all extremes : his " suf
ferings" are the titles to " the glory which has followed." Each
is necessary : both are inseparable. Weakness becomes the source
of might : abasement the reason of elevation.
I. THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE SAVIOUR'S DEPRESSION FROM
HIS ORIGINAL STATE.
It is the settled style of Scripture, in speaking of Deity, to
represent Him by ideas of physical altitude: The Majesty on
high. The Highest. The most High. The Lord on high. The
High and Lofty One. He is higher than the highest. By reason
of His highness we cannot endure. High is his right hand. — It
thus expresses His abode : The high and holy place. Who
dwelleth on high. Glory to God in the highest. He sitteth
upon a throne high and lifted up. Is not God in the height of
heaven ? and behold the height of the stars, how high they are.
Upon this, comparison is advanced : It is high as heaven, what
canst thou do ? For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so
are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your
thoughts. — By this, dignity is shadowed forth: Heaven is my
throne, earth is my footstool. From heaven did the Lord behold
the earth. — Nor is this only the strain of poetic diction. Even
in narration, the most simple, does it occur : " The Lord went
up from Abraham."
The Lord Jesus Christ is indicated in the same manner : He
is the Son of the Highest. " Ye are from beneath, / am from
above: ye are of this world, I am not of this world." "And no
man hath ascended up into heaven, but he who came down from
heaven, even the Son of man who is in heaven." " He that
cometh from above is above all : he that is of the earth is earthly
and speaketh of the earth : he that cometh from heaven is above

294 THE CONTRASTED HUMILIATION
all." " The first man is of the earth, earthy : the second man is
the Lord from heaven."
This planet is denoted in Scripture as " the earth beneath."
Our Lord must " descend" to it. And this he did, — not with
magnificence and majesty, as when " humbling himself to behold
the things which are in heaven" ! as when " bowing the hea
vens, and coming down, while darkness is under his feet" ! — not
with vehicles of power and amidst signals of fear ! — but silently,
meekly, disarrayed of his glories, emptied of his honours, " made
lower than the angels," " a worm and no man, a reproach of men
and despised of the people."
Now whatever may be the physical truth of these allusions, —
elevation and descent, (and we cannot regard them as employed
in simple conformity to our prejudiced or false conceptions of
things) they principally intend what we mean by the same class
of terms in our speech. We say that a person stoops, that he
bends, that he sinks. Moral correspondences to these actions are
understood. They are condescensions. Immanuel is the name of
our Saviour when born into our world, and dwelling in it : God
with us. A local residence is thus described. And we are
further informed of the degree which marks his " coming down"
from heaven, of the manner in which he "came into the world;"
he " descended into the lower parts of the earth." The language
is wonderfully emphatic. It must be full of meaning. What
lowliness is this ! Similar terms are employed in other portions
of the Inspired Volume: by collating them with those of the
Text we shall most satisfactorily determine its sense.
1. The Incarnation of Christ may be thus expressed.
" My substance," said David, " was not hid from thee, when
I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts
of the earth." We walk among mysteries in the announcements
which are respectively made to us concerning this " new thing in
the earth." The Maid of Nazareth is saluted by the angel. She
is overshadowed by the Holy Ghost. " The virgin has con
ceived." " The woman has covered the man." For the moment
we must reverently think of Him who, "forasmuch as the chil
dren are partakers of flesh and blood, also himself likewise took

AND EXALTATION OF CHRIST. 295
part of the same ;" waking to life and sensation by ordinary gra
dations and laws; the immature infant; the unborn babe; not
"abhorring the Virgin's womb." "Unto us the Child is born."
He hangs upon his mother's breast. We must follow him through
his earlier years. " He increases in wisdom and stature." He is
"brought up." "Behold the man." He did not break like a
vision upon us, and as a vision disappear. His was the sojourn
and organization of a life. He fulfilled a course. He numbered
his generation. " He was made flesh and dwelt among us." He
felt all the fluctuations and vicissitudes of the human lot and
history. He advanced from nativity to death. His bosom swelled
with the air by which ours heaves : he received the support of
the ground on which our footstep treads : he eat of our bread and
drunk of our water: he entered our abodes and conversed with
our fellows: he articulated our speech and was surrounded by
our scenery : our sun warmed him and our evening refreshed
him : when worn by travel, he rested from weariness : rocked by
the waves, he fell asleep : he yearned towards a parent, he wept
for a friend : he was grieved in heart, he rejoiced in spirit : he
mingled in the festive bridal, he visited the house of mourn
ing: in all our afflictions he was afflicted, by all our sorrows
he was moved : the cup of death made him recoil : that which is
coming upon us all, he prayed to be averted. To what did
he not submit? By what was he not buffeted? What insult
did not disfigure his brow ? What shade did not cloud his coun
tenance ? What deep waters did not go over his soul ? His-
was humanity in its severest pressures and humblest forms. It
is common, therefore, to dwell upon these outward deprivations
and restrictions. We think of the stable and the manger, of the
carpenter's son, of the mean offering with which he was pre
sented in the temple, of his homeless wanderings, of his tomb-
less remains. But there is little stress laid on any such poverty.
He became poor, but that was in opposition to being supremely
and divinely rich. He took upon him the form of a servant, but
that was to his Father in his mediation. It is treated as no
aggravation that his was not earthly pomp, and luxury, and ease.
The Incarnation is all. We can see no difference between the

296 THE CONTRASTED HUMILIATION
hovel and the palace, between the lowest and the highest sphere
of social existence, if He must be manifest in the flesh. Nothing
can deepen this. Nothing can make it more. Had he come
forth as Melchisedek, had he been seen on David's throne, there
would have been no mitigation. He would have been man, born
of a woman! He would have been man, made under the law!
He would have been man, for the suffering of death ! He would
have been man, in all things made like unto his brethren ! He
would have been man, tempted as we are ! He would have been
man, touched with the feeling of our infirmities ! He would have
been proper man ! What accessories can affect this dilemma ?
What can diminish the burden of this abasement ? What relief
could secular titles and crowns have brought ? We can under
stand no difference between manhood, as he assumed it, in its
best estate and its meanest, the embroidered robe and the swad
dling bands, the gorgeous couch and the crib, the costly cates
and the coarsest fare. " God sent forth his own Son in the like
ness of sinful flesh !" No outward prosperity, no outward
adversity, can reach this hidden thing, this stupendous thing,
this unspeakable thing. His sublime, dread, perfect, conscious
ness of the fact must have lifted him far above the influence of
accidental good, and equally must have bowed him far beneath
the influence of accidental ill.
2. This form of language may denote the Death of Christ.
It is the ordinary phrase of the Old Testament : " They shall
go into the lower parts of the earth." " Thou hast laid me in
the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps." The " body prepared
for Him" was not liable to death. It could not " be dead because
of sin." If it die, it must be self-deposition. "Will he kill
himself?" said his countrymen. He revealed the awful preroga
tive which swayed it. " I lay down my life. No one taketh it
from me ; I lay it down of myself." But it was prepared for
death, and constituted capable of it. This is further humiliation.
It is going down deeper still. He is in flesh. Can wondrous-
ness rise on this ? It is mortal flesh ! It is for the suffering of
death ! And does it not seem strange for those lips to shut
in death, which spake as never man spake? Those hands to

AND EXALTATION OF CHRIST. 297
droop in death, before whose outstretched gesture diseases fled
and tempests calmed? Those knees to stiffen in death, which
had borne him when He went about doing good ? Those eyes
to dim in death, where Heaven smiled and Godhead shone?
Does it not seem strange that His soul should be commended
hence, who had often bound death to his bidding and sum
moned from the grave its prey ! He is brought low to the dust
of death ! The erect figure is prostrated ! The instinctive
life is arrested ! The tongue cleaves to the roof of his mouth !
Each limb is rigid ! Each sense is closed ! The breath no more
heaves and warms the bosom ! The heart is cold and still ! That
mysterious frame, — related to. the Infinite and the Divine,
— temple of all greatness, shrine of all sanctity, — that " Holy
Thing," — sleeps in death. Wanness is on His cheek ! Shrunken
is His form ! The eye-beam is extinguished ! The mind's
reflection, which lights the countenance, has passed away ! He
is cut off out of the land of the living ! His life is taken from
the earth !
3. This Style may be intended to intimate that Burial to
which He yielded.
" Lest I become like them that go down into the pit." " So,
must the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth." His flesh
must rest in hope. Look into that sepulchre. Contemplate the
gear, the swathings, the cerements ! The shrouded form ! The
darkened recess ! The loneliness and the silence ! The hurried
rites of sepulture have ceased. No mourners hover near. The
evening of the Preparation-day descends. The Sabbath dawns
and wears away. Then falls another night. The pale lustre
of the moon sleeps on the tomb and beseems it well. What a
possession of a burying-place is this ! Christ hath died, — is
dead ! But, amidst those shades, do no unearthly aspects gleam ?
Amidst that stillness, is there no whisper of voices, no rustling
of plumes? Do not angel-wings bend them into a canopy over
the body of that flesh laid low by death ? Do not the noblest
watchers and holy ones of heaven keep their vigil here? O
Grave ! thou hast received in these exanimate relics, not thy spoil,
but thy Conqueror ! He will be thy destruction ! Thy barriers

298 THE CONTRASTED HUMILIATION
are burst, — thy gloomy gates are set open for ever ! Be astonished,
O heavens ! Your dews congeal upon his grave ! Wonder, 0
earth ! The clods of thy valleys are upon him ! Thy bars are
round about him ! He has made his grave with the wicked, and
with the rich in his death ! One general law could not apply.
He saw no corruption. No reason was there why He should:
every reason there was why he should not. That hallowed flesh,
though it must die, why should it wither? It was not of the
earth : it was not of descent : it was the spotless offspring of
Divine Power. But this is interment. He is put away into
darkness. He is held of death in its gloomy chambers. He is
as a victim and a prey. It is a prison-keep.
4. The Separation of the Redeemer's Body and Spirit may
be described in these words.
The description is not uncommon of departed spirits that
they are " things under the earth," in contrast with " things in
heaven," — angels, the proper celestial inhabitants, — and with
" things on earth," men, in their proper mundane state. Jesus
claims mediatorially this homage of all angels, of all human
spirits, of all the dwellers upon earth. "At His name every
knee shall bow." If this denote voluntary service, then " things
under the earth" point out only the spirits of the just. This
question, the parallel passage in the Apocalypse does not deter
mine: "And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth,
and under the earth, and such as are in, the sea, and all that
are in them, heard I saying : Blessing, and honour, and glory,
and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne and unto
the Lamb for ever and ever." For this sublime acclamation may
only be considered as raised by the lower creation in a personified
sense, as when trees are said to rejoice and floods to clap their
hands. Yet are we inclined to think that, in both quotations, the
spirits of deceased men must be understood. The conjecture, that
our antipodes are intended,- can scarcely be justified; for the
thought is poor in itself, and seems to anticipate, contrary to the
usage of Scripture, a state of knowledge which did not then exist.
In agreement, then, with the general phraseology of that date, a
happy state may be supposed. The Inferi included the gods, as

AND EXALTATION OF CHRIST. 299
well as the immortals, of the heathen elysium. The place, as
nether to the surface of the earth, did not disturb their conception
and assurance of its bliss. Yet can we be never satisfied that
Scripture, in employing common ideas and common expressions,
conforms itself to that which is not truth. We, therefore, confi
dently infer that spirits, departing in faith and peace, did enter
such a region. And thither Christ descended in his human spirit
when he died. He went into Hades. Now this is described as
the state of disembodied spirits generally. The term declares
nothing of their character, beyond their invisibility. The Saxon
word, helle, conveyed no more than concealment. But of Hades
there are two most dreadly opposite conditions : the abodes of
the pure and the habitations of the wicked. Both are there,
beneath its awful veil ! The same remark holds good of the
Hebrew word, Sheol. And there is a use of each of these terms
which is not only inclusive, but preferential. Hades, standing
alone, as well as Sheol, not only may comprehend the distinc
tions of reward and punishment, but may be put for only the
first ; — that is, its sense may be only good. In the Old Testa
ment, Sheol may be seen, sometimes, opposed to punishment.
" Hell is naked before him ; and Destruction hath no covering."
" Hell and Destruction are before the Lord." Our Lord speaks,
in the same manner, of Hades. He distinguishes between Pa
radise and Gehenna. He has warned us of the "great gulf
between." His soul is now to be considered by us as arrived at^
this glorious, but hidden and subterranean, sphere. It is Para
dise. But was it the Heaven where now He dwells, the Incarnate
God ? Did his soul thus anticipate the honour of his ascension ?
Was it in the heaven to which he subsequently rose ? We mark
in this departure of his soul the simple requirement of death. It
could not be retained. It descended into the lower parts of the
earth. This is the reverse of resurrection and heaven-ward flight.
It was humiliation. It was the carrying out of his mortality.
He would not have died without this result. Wherever was the
disembodied essence of thought and will, it was under the mortal
law. He might be "free among the dead," but he was dead.
He was in Paradise, and there welcomed the forgiven malefactor.

300 THE CONTRASTED HUMILIATION
Both were dead alike. Their spirits, and only their spirits, met,
; — though we forget not the awful relationship of His. How
solemn is this interval between commending his soul to the
Father, and his coming forth from his grave ! It was a condi
tion of sweet repose. It was blessed refreshment and rest. It
was sublime satisfaction. It was a part of the joy set before him.
But it could be no state of inaction. What announcements did
He bear with him to the fathers of a former world, to patriarchs,
to prophets, to kings, to righteous men ! What greetings did
they raise to Him who appeared among them the herald of his
own accomplished work ! With what songs did they utter his
praise ! With what raptures did they celebrate his love ! And
still he learned by the things which he now suffered. Endurance
was not past. Death was not terminated. He learnt the fellow-
feeling with the saints absent from the body. He learnt what
was the imperfection of an intermediate state. He learnt what it
is for a spirit to wait for the resurrection. Thus he still entered
into all the sensibilities of his people, whatever the world in
which he found them ; he was still touched with the feeling of
their infirmities, even to those which they carry beyond the grave.
He " descended," as we believe his people no more descend.
Those " lower parts of the world" have yielded their inhabitants
to a brighter region. He has gone to prepare it for them. They
are with Himself, not in their former dwelling, but partakers of
that " glory" into which he was " received up." That initial hea
ven of spirits that had departed ere He ascended, is abandoned
as a place: it is lifted, as a state, to that consummated heaven
of which it is written, " the Lamb is the light thereof."
These are the gradations of His descent. These are the
"lower parts of the earth" to which he declined. This is his
coming forth from the Father ! This is his coming down from
heaven ! This is his coming into the world ! His measureless
surrender of claims ! His inconceivable renunciation of honours!
Stooping to inferior and still inferior levels of ignominy !
Plunging to deeper and still deeper abysses of shame !
But there must be an end of sufferings and abasements like
these. They are unnatural. They belong not to any fixed con-

AND EXALTATION OF CHRIST. 301
dition of things. They contradict experience. They shock every
standard of our ideas. Their continuance would derange all the
relations of the universe. He died once. He dieth no more.
Death hath no more dominion over him. It was not possible
that he should be holden of death. We are, therefore, invited
to behold a far different scene. " Let us be glad and rejoice,
and give honour to him." Now comes indemnity, reparation,
triumph ! His right hand is lifted up. He hath the power of
an endless life. The Lord shall reign for ever and ever !
II. The glory of his subsequent exaltation.
" He ascended," — a fact so clear, that his descent was sug
gested by it. "Now that he ascended," — an affirmation which
would be unmeaning, but that he " descended first into the lower
parts of the earth."
We have beheld his body laid in the Tomb : we have followed
the passage of his soul into the heaven of spirits, that heaven
which received all sainted spirits until that " he ascended," that
heaven in which his spirit appeared, — but surely not that heaven
to which "he ascended on high," with his "glorious body," and
to which he now draws all the souls of his people. His corpse
thus earthed, his spirit thus separated, — we must endeavour to
conceive of the moment, in which all the power of death and all
the dominion of the grave were suddenly suspended. In inspired
language, " He revived !" That bosom once more rose and fell,
the heart warmed and throbbed, the vital pulse leaped high, the
soul returned, the ear listened, the eye saw, perception and me
mory made certain all around, "he lived unto God," — calmly
he divested himself of the badges of mortality, and arose in a
manner so wonderful and divine, that, while each evangelist
attests the fact, not one ventures a description !
His exaltation consists not simply in his resumption of pri
maeval glory. He took upon him our nature, not as Adam was
at the first invested with it. A glory and honour may have
played, like a nimbus, around our father's brow. His was an un
dying body. He was perfect in his faculties and intuitions at
once. He trode on an earth where all was innoxious. The sun
did not smite by day nor the moon by night. All ministered

302 the contrasted humiliation
to him. No infirmity depressed him. One smile cheered, one
song saluted, him. He was the centre of his world. But when
the Redeemer was " made flesh," his incarnation was not thus
magnified. It was "the likeness of sinful flesh." It was in the
order of common arrangements. He was born. He learnt wis
dom. He grew in stature. He felt want. He suffered pain. He
died. He was made "like unto his brethren." "He was in
the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew
him not." He held the winds in his fist, though they often
raved pitilessly around him. He replenished each river-source,
though often denied the refreshing draught. He rolled on the
orb of day, though often scorched by its fiercest beams. He
clothed the lily of the field, though his seamless garment was all
that fell to the soldiers' lot. He bore up heaven and earth,
though he sunk beneath his cross. He, the Prince of life, bowed
his head and died. He, the Lord of glory, hid not his face from
reproach and spitting.
Now because His manhood was the occasion of degradation
and the subject of infliction, He will be rewarded in it. It shall
for ever constitute a portion of his person. It shall be the me
dium of his brightest manifestations. It shall be the subject of
his most glorious honours. It shall be the title and basis of all
his mediatorial offices. A new class of distinctions is necessitated,
because he was " born of a woman," because he has " come in the
flesh," because he is " found in fashion as a man !" In what can
this Act claim such transcendence of reward ?
1 . It is in itself an absolute Expression of Love.
To descend to all this humiliation and suffering could not
have been required for any purpose, could not be agreeable to
any other end, save an achievement of mercy. Justice and wrath
can sweep along in their fiery track without this sojourn in our
earth and with our race. They need not have stooped. They
were not required to bend from their flight. A manifestation in
the flesh was not wanted to condemn the world. If He came
forth to punish its inhabitants, it was not for him to wear the
robe of that nature which he would rebuke with his anger. All
means of vengeance were at his control. Heaven would have

AND EXALTATION OF CHRIST. 303
emptied its vials and shot its flames. Man would have perished
at a glance of divine indignation. This could not be the design
of the Incarnation. It was superfluous, uncongenial, for any
like design. It proclaims the opposite motive. It is unreason
able but as a means of recovering grace.
2. It justifies an Expectation of Surpassing Benefits.
Whatever was the quality of the Act, it must answer to the
act itself. Nothing little can it involve. Thought and imagina
tion could be guilty of no extravagance in hasting from such pre
miss to its conclusion, from such cause to its effect. If this be
an errand of mercy, how great must be that mercy ! It shall be
built up for ever. Its blessings correspond : " the sure mercies."
Its inducements reciprocate: "By the mercies of God present
yourselves a living sacrifice." At its announcement the world
was moved. The torpid nations rose into hope and hailed their
Desire ; angels filled the vault of heaven with new cries of joy and
admiration ; fiends recoiled from the torment", the time of which
seemed thus hastened ; they who looked for the consolation of
Israel and for redemption in Jerusalem, felt that now they had
lived long enough to repay and fulfil their lives : and the last pro
phecy of the ancient law died away on their dying lips, " A light
to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of the people Israel !"
3. The Act regulates and secures its own Efficiency.
The Messiah did not send his word to save us. From on
high He did not direct the scheme of salvation. He " descended
Jto the lower parts of the earth." This showed his infinite intent-
ness. It was "seeking," in order "to save, that which was
lost." He reduced himself to our low estate. He pierced to
the core of our misery. He sounded to the depth of our woe.
He wound about his heart all our sympathies. He placed him
self in every condition. He accustomed himself to every trial.
His head was a fountain for every tear. He eat with sinners.
He encouraged the penitent. He soothed the mourner. He com
forted the bereft. There is nothing of human want but must be
comprised in the range of that humiliation, which is great as
the difference between heaven and earth, vast as the disparity
of God and man !

304 THE CONTRASTED HUMILIATION
4. This Act is to be regarded as of Incomparable Worth
and Excellence.
The mission of Christ contemplated the highest principles
which can direct the Divine conduct. He came to vindicate that
Character which to conceive aright is the happiness of all crea
tures, — to uphold and avenge that Law which cannot be infringed
without an utter loss of good and overthrow of order, — to atone
for Sin whose slight and impunity would have been the allow
ance of infinite mischiefs and evils, — to bring in an everlasting
Righteousness adequate to the justification of the most guilty,
and of the most multiplied, objects who needed it, — leaving it for
ever proved, that no rule nor sanction of God's moral government
can be violated without a necessary and meet resentment ! How
holy is the Redemption which is in Him who " descended into
the lower parts of the earth !" " Wherefore, when he cometh
into the world, He saith, I delight to do thy will, O my God :
yea, thy law is within my heart." " He finished transgression
and made an end of sin." All piety was in this submission. It
breathed the perfect reverence for eternal rectitude and truth.
Obedience, save in him, never attained such purity, benevolence
such disinterestedness, devotion such ardour, zeal such constancy,
holiness such beauty. Never were so combined, and never could
so unite, the jealousy of the Infinite Honour and the commise
ration of human woe. " It was an Offering and a Sacrifice to
God for a sweet smelling savour."
"Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given
him a name above every name." " He hath set him at his
own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality,
and power, and might, and dominion, and hath put all things
under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to
the church."
As His Humiliation supposes a change in space, even to dif
ferent regions in it, and thus illustrates metaphorically his moral
descent and depression, — so, his Exaltation takes the same form
and scale, he returns on high, he goes up with a shout and the
sound of a trumpet, he goes into heaven, " he ascends far above
all heavens that he may fill all things," all this local transition

AND EXALTATION OF CHRIST. 305
shadowing forth his moral greatness and his supernally glorious
reward. Even immediately after His resurrection, the Manhood of
Christ seems singularly transformed and heightened. It is ethe
real and spiritualised : less tributary to physical conditions, less
chained to material laws. Largely, as far as its finite restrictions
admit, does it partake of the Divine satisfactions of the Media
torial reward. It is anointed with the oil of joy. Never let us
forget that God-Man, who is in the midst of the throne !
His Ascension was a radiant triumph. Scarcely is it more
described than his resurrection. We catch but a few notes of
the resounding acclaim, we mark but a few fleeces of the glory-
cloud, we recognise but a few attendants of the angel-train.
With that laconic force which characterises Holy Writ, it is
simply recorded : "Who is gone into heaven." The Text unfolds
two peculiarities of that "departure out of this world unto his
Father." He surmounts all Height.
The modern astronomy lays open to us scenes of amazement.
The eye of man, from the beginning, was raised to the hosts of
heaven; Their orders little understood, their influences strangely
imagined, they were always spectacles of attraction and too often
snares of idolatry. Of old were only seen the star and planet
which lie nearer to our earth. The spangled concave, as it appears
to our naked sense, was merely scanned. Scientific mechanism
brings invaluable assistance to the spirit of discovery. We now
observe layers and chambers of stellar light. Rents and open
ings in the studded floor of the firmament disclose other and
superior glimpses. New suns light up to our notice. New sys
tems revolve to our view. Whithersoever our lens can traverse,
there is no check, no solitude, no gloom. Still may we rise.
We have not touched the flaming bounds. More constellations
shine from above us than we have left below. Our powers
weary. Our helps fail. But nothing else arrests our pursuit.
We see the elements of unknown celestial phenomena already
forming, and fast maturing, to take their centre or to run their
course. Clusters, in inconceivable distance, unfold themselves,

306 THE CONTRASTED HUMILIATION
like tinted vapours or insect swarms. Fancy, when sight and
instrument can search no more, itself is stayed. The platform
of worlds still stretches on. Upward the series is sustained.
The emptiness of space is never reached. Void is no where
found. The spheres still intersect in safety and quire in har
mony. Expanse evolves expanse. Heaven opens after heaven.
The whole is as a ladder which, for aught we know, may rear
itself to Jehovah's glorious seat and " holy heaven." But baf
fled as we are in this labyrinth and this culmination of cre
ated marvels, — He, who descended, has ascended far above them
all. Speak of the third heaven. Tell of the seventh. He
has soared above "all heavens!" Firmaments he has spurned
behind. Systems he has thrown beneath. Stars could not mea
sure his steps. Suns could not constitute his waymarks. He
has attained a peerless region, of which we cannot conceive,
" heaven itself," " the heavenly things themselves," where is his
dwelling-place, his Presence, his Vision, his Throne ! It is local
exaltation ! It is in the highest ! Scripture assures us, with
its majestic conciseness, that " He is made higher than the
heavens!" And can we wonder? He is the Former of those
millions of earths and luminaries, above which he climbed.
" By him were all things created, visible and invisible." He
had " meted out heaven with the span." " He bringeth out this
host by number : he calleth them all by names by the greatness
of his might, for that he is strong in power ; not one faileth."
"By his spirit he garnished those heavens." His are "the
balancings of the "clouds." "He binds the sweet influences
of Pleiades and strengthens the bands of Orion." He " bringeth
forth Mazzaroth in his season, and guides Arcturus with his
sons." His path to heaven was reascension, and lay through his
own dominions, even the works of his own hand !
He penetrates all Existence.
" There is one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things
and we in him." As the Humanity of our Saviour gave limi
tation to certain acts of his Mediation, so his Godhead gives
infinity to its other acts. " He," therefore, "filleth all in all".
Omnipresence is his essential attribute. Its exercise and its right

AND EXALTATION OF CHRIST. 307
cannot depend upon his ascension. But as Mediator he arose.
He was in this character " received up into heaven, and sat on
the right hand of God." It is his Mediatorial influence of which
we speak. " He has all power in heaven and in earth." " He
has power over all flesh." This he could not wield but as pos
sessed of divine dignity. He " fills all things." He is in
heaven ! " To be with Christ," to be " with him where he is to
behold his glory," is the most blessed distinction of that state.
He is in hell ! The " torment of fire and brimstone is in the
presence of the Lamb." He is on earth ! "Where two or three
are met together in my name, there am I in the midst of them."
He is with all his church : " Which is his fulness." He is
with each believer : " Christ in you the hope of glory." He is
accessible to the vilest sinner : " Thou hast ascended on high,
thou hast received gifts for men ; yea for the rebellious also,
that the Lord God might dwell among them." He replenishes
and fills immensity : he " inhabiteth eternity." What are the
worlds which he does not govern? Where are the regions which
he does not control ? Let nature's deepest retreats, let creation's
farthest secrets, confess that he is near at hand : that his grasp
is the safeguard of every angel and worm, the orbit of every
sun and mote !
Oh may our conceptions swell to this theme ! " He is head
over all things to the church." Every other constitution is
merged in his reign. There is not a wheel of the universe but
rolls- in sympathy with his purpose. All events move beneath his
will. Crown after crown is added to the diadem of his brow.
His name is above every name. All things shall be subdued
unto him. His enemies shall become his footstool. He is Lord
of all. " He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high."
" In all things he shall have the preeminence."
But the design and spirit of the Redeemer's "descent into
the lower parts of the earth" and of his " ascension above all
heavens," are uniform. They are impelled by one motive. He
is of one mind. He is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.
He swerves not from his eternal purpose through changes the
most extreme and tremendous. This we must not overlook.

308 THE CONTRASTED HUMILIATION
III. The RECIPROCAL INFLUENCE of THESE RESPECTIVE
FACTS. " The Same" was He, who bowed himself to these indignities,
and who seized these rewards. And this identity is of the greatest
value. — The signs of death were plain. He thirsted, his head
drooped, he was pierced to the heart, there flowed from the
wound a stream of blood and water, he gave up the ghost. He
was buried by friends. He was guarded by enemies. He arose.
" He showed himself alive after his passion by many infallible
proofs." By the most timid he was confessed. By the most
incredulous he was recognised. His bodily form could not be
mistaken. He bore the scars of his cruel inflictions. He had
but to speak, " Mary," and she knew her Lord. Moral traits
were as indicative. " He appeared unto Simon." " He was seen
of Cephas, then of the twelve." How does this incident of nar
rative contain a stroke of pathos which places beyond all doubt
that " He is risen indeed," — and with that face which turned
and looked upon Peter, — and with that heart which had prayed
for him, and cherished him notwithstanding his falsehoods, his
denials, and his oaths ! And surely it is much to understand,
much to be certified, that He who was manifest in flesh, — taking
our very nature, seen in the relationships of our life, — full of
tenderness and compassion, — the comforter of mourners and the
friend of sinners, — is none other than the Supreme over all things,
guiding and administering all his prerogatives and powers to the
very end for which he was incarnated and crucified ! This is
what the Text affirms. " Now He that descended is the same
also that ascended !"
It is always interesting, beautiful, when the chaste forms of
earlier feeling, the young yearnings of the heart, renew them
selves. A generous fountain of our inward nature then bursts
forth. We live in a better past. We become unsophisticated,
once more, in our views and sensibilities. We recover ourselves
from the illusions of passion. The fresh, sweet, earnest, simpli
cities live again. " Is this thy voice, my son David ? And Saul
wept." "Joseph could not refrain himself before all them that
stood by him."

AND EXALTATION OF CHRIST. 309
Were ever such Extremes as those which we now survey ?
No contrasts, however violent, can approach unto them. Yet
when men have been the subjects of transition from poverty to
wealth, from obscurity to fame, rarely has no moral change en
sued. They have been carried away by pride, by ingratitude,
by scorn. Intimates have been slighted and benefactors forgotten.
Who, but in a profound calculation of human nature, could have
supposed the vile transformation ?
Feeling how difficult, how abhorrent, is every allusion of such
a kind to Him of whom our " heart" would only " indite a good
matter," — still, thinking on this Glorification of the Son of Man,
his investiture with all honours, his accession to all rewards, it
is too natural for our selfish hearts to fear some estrangement
of his love from us, some repression of his ardour in our cause.
Can He think upon us ? Can he care for us ? What is our
planet to that eye which expatiates through infinitude? What
is the interest of our species to that mind which comprehends
every system of beings ? The suspense is obviated. The fear is
answered. He has borne our nature with him. The names of
his people are on the breast-plate of our merciful High Priest.
He has entered heaven for none other object than that for which
he entered earth. His heart cannot grow cold. Nothing can
alienate its affection. "Unto him who hath loved us, .and
washed us from our sins in his own blood, to him be glory and
dominion for ever and ever!" On Tabor, amidst anticipated
glory, he would speak only of his decease ! In Patmos, amidst
consummated glory, he wrould speak only of having died !
Now meditate any Work oi Christ. There is one which ab
sorbs every other. To this he steadfastly set his face. His heart
glowed with vehement desires for its accomplishment. Would
Peter dissuade his death ? How stern the rebuke ! " Get thee
behind me, Satan." Is Judas plotting that death with all the
treachery of his dark and malignant soul? How serene the
sufferance ! " That thou doest, do quickly." To redeem his
church, to offer sacrifice for sin, to secure an endless meritorious
right and power, constituted the emphasis of that work. It beho
ved him to suffer. He must die. Then must it, to that degree,

310 THE CONTRASTED HUMILIATION
and with equal force, engage all his present attention and zeal, —
for " He that descended is the same also that ascended !"
Meditate any Sympathy of Christ. " In the days of his
flesh" he manifested every form of compassion. What affliction
did he not soothe ? What wound did he not heal ? The cry
of sorrow pierced his ear. The figure of misery arrested his
eye. He passed from pallet to bier, from bier to grave. The
tale of grief saw him not doubt. From importunity he turned
not away. The abjectness of contrition he did not spurn. The
bruised reed he did not break, and the smoking flax he did not
quench. Those fibres which vibrated in his bosom here, still
clasp his heart. His soul is yet wrung with that commiseration.
He hears all prayer, redresses all wrong, pities all calamity,
pardons all sin, — for "He that descended is the same also that
ascended !"
Meditate any Promise of Christ. "Where two or three are
met together in my name, there am I in the midst of you."
" For he hath said, I will never leave thee, I will never forsake
thee." " 1 go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and
prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to
myself; that where I am there ye may be also." He has passed
into heaven to make these averments good. He is in heaven,
that he may be on earth with his people. He is in heaven, that
he may be the unfailing strength of those whom all have forsa
ken but himself. He is in heaven, that he may secure for his
disciples its blessed receptacles, and thence return to welcome
them to their prepared seats above. For " He that descended is
the same also that ascended !"
Meditate any Office of Christ. He is Prophet : he sitteth at
the right of God, that he may shed forth the Spirit to teach us
all things. He is Priest : he sitteth at the right hand of God,
that he may ever make intercession for us. He is King: he
sitteth at the right hand of God, that he may rule our hearts.
He is Surety : he sitteth at the right hand of God, that while
he lives we may live also. He is Representative: he sitteth
at the right hand of God, appearing in the presence of God for
us. He is Forerunner : he sitteth at the right hand of God,

AND EXALTATION OF CHRIST. 311
and our "hope entereth within the veil, whither he hath for
us entered." " For he that descended is the same also that
ascended !"
Meditate any Command of Christ. Select, if you please, that
one which has peculiar claim. He wills that his disciples do
spread his trtith. He not only urged this duty ere he died, not
only after he had risen, but even in the act of his ascension.
" Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every crea
ture," — had scarcely passed his lips when the awful transformation
wrought in him, and he clave the air and mounted to heaven.
Long as his countenance was seen, this was the expression !
Long as his voice was heard, this was the echo ! It was his last
command. Scarcely had he ceased, — and he had sat down on his
throne, as a King, to enforce it still. He yet pleads the same
cause and impresses the same responsibility. Eighteen hundred
years are to him but as a day which is past. What was his plea
sure and his authority, so expounded and so declared, can
undergo no change. The world has he left for us to evangelise.
" For he that descended is the same also that ascended !"
And, therefore, may we see the causes why we should rejoice
in the exaltation of Christ. Not only do we hail him in his rein
statement in original dignities, but in the augmentation of his
glories. Deity was never so beheld before. There is a combina
tion and a form of the divine perfections entirely new. And what
is our delight to witness the reparation of all his wrongs ! No
more is he a sign to be spoken against ! Where is the Traitor
to kiss him ? Where is the Governor to condemn him ? Where
is the Spearman to pierce him ? Let Him be crowned with honour
and glory ! Let the living creatures and the elders fall down
before him ! Let all the angels worship him ! Let the redeemed
adore him in canticles of grateful joy ! " Lift up your heads, O
ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King
of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory ? The Lord
strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your
heads, 0 ye gates ; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors ; and
the King of glory shall come in Who is this King of glory ?
The Lord of hosts, he is the King of Glory !"

312

THE CONTRASTED HUMILIATION

The effort of our mind, in these contemplations, must be
rather directed to the Manhood, than to the Divinity, of Christ.
It is not absorbed in its awful fellowship. It is distinct and
integral, while it is ineffably but one with that to which it is
conjoined. True it is that it is written : "Wherefore henceforth
know we no man after the flesh : yea, though we have known
Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more."
But this is simply the disclaimer of nationalism. Men had rested
every thing upon the distinction of Jew and Gentile. The Chris
tian Jew boasted that Christ was one of that people, a son of
Abraham, of the seed of David. He mingled a patriotic feeling
with his faith. He regarded all nations as inferior to his own.
But the gospel justified no such partial and exclusive interests.
It would know no man after the flesh, — no matter what his descent,
it knew him only as the sinner. It would not know Christ after
the flesh, — no matter what his genealogy, it knew him only as the
Saviour. But as come in the flesh, and as exalted in the flesh,
Christ is ever to be known. " He that descended is the same
also that ascended."
And yet how often do we distrust this identity ! How often
we deplore the departure of the Redeemer from us ! Like the
children of the Bride-chamber we, in these days, mourn. We
repine that He is not here. We forget that it is expedient that .
he should go away. Heaven alone provides scope for his under
takings and channel for his influences. There must he abide
until the restitution of all things. But nothing of his sympathy
or his grace do we forego !
We are tempted to suppose that, were the Messiah now a
sojourner upon our globe, he could bend more easily to our
circumstances and more tenderly enter into them. We could let
down the paralytic in his presence. We could bear our young
child to him. We could draw him into the death-chamber of our
little daughter. We could supplicate him for our servant lying
sick. Earthly proximity seems to secure success. " Lord, if
thou hadst been here, my brother had not died." Ah, " slow of
heart to believe !" Has he forgotten to be gracious ? Does he
refuse to hear ? Has he forsaken the earth ? Nothing will he

AND EXALTATION OF CHRIST. 313
now forbear to do which he would not forbear, if still he " dwelt
among us."
We are tempted to suppose that, did* the Saviour yet tread
this earth, the contrite sinner would find more ready access and
receive more immediate pity. Then, burdened with our guilt and
'misery, how easy would it be when the cry was made, Jesus
of Nazareth is passing by, — to press through the multitude, to
throw ourselves in his path, to touch the hem of his garment,
to wash his feet with our tears, to hold fast those feet until that
he had pronounced us forgiven. But when He spake, during
his terrestrial visitation, of men coming to him, did he mean their
bodily approach ? Was it not their spirit's contact in faith, and
penitence, and prayer ? Is that now debarred ? " Wherefore he
is able to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by him,
seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them."
And He shall come again ! He shall appear once more in
that glorified Humanity, in that manifested Godhead ! A second
time he " descends !" How unlike his first advent ! Then, he had
no form nor comeliness for men to desire. His was no kingly
,state. He made himself of no reputation. He bent his way to
" the lower parts of the earth." It was a mysterious eclipse.
-'He hid himself. He sought not glory. But now, shall He
burst forth in uncreated splendours ! Every eye shall see him !
• He shall judge the world ! " He shall be glorified in his saints
"and admired of all them that believe !" The vision may tarry,
, — our faith may be tried, — ages may intervene, — r"This Same
Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come
in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven !"

SERMON XIV

THE IMMEDIATE BLESSEDNESS OF DEPARTED
SAINTS.

Heb. xii. 23.
"And ye are come to the spirits of just men made perfect."
What an announcement ! What a gratulation ! For the man
ner in which this passage is introduced sufficiently shows that
it is designed to impart encouragement and solace, to awaken
spiritual-mindedness and hope. The spectral dead are not invo
ked, the state of disembodied souls is not unfolded, to startle
and alarm, but to relieve and soothe. It is a spectacle presented
in contrast to another insupportably terrific. From Sinai, — its
stern array, its horrible tempest, its fiery law, its thunder-
trump, its voice of words, — from " that mount Sinai," beneath
whose frowning precipice, at whose rocking base, we exceedingly
tremble and quake, — we are invited to approach mount Sion,
the heavenly Jerusalem, with its holy, happy, concourse, — its
innumerable company of angels, its general assembly and church
of the firstborn, — its ever-accumulating throng of spirits made
perfect. Such contemplation, though solemn and almost dread,
must be intended to yield our ruffled minds repose, to still each
impatient feeling, to heal the lacerations and breaches of the heart.
Lost in this contemplation, time dwindles to a point, earth atte
nuates to a shadow, the tears of grief brighten into those of
rapture, heaven bursts in upon us and fills up the whole field
of our vision !
And yet in these words there is something which seems to
mock us, something which may excite onr consternation, some
thing which may depress our zeal.

THE IMMEDIATE BLESSEDNESS, ETC. 315
— " Ye are come to the spirits of just men made perfect." Is
not this to mock us? Know we not otherwise? Is it not the
actual contradiction and reverse of all we know and feel ? It is
they who have gone. We have them no more with us. They
are not. We see them not, we hold them not, they enter not
our threshold nor cross our path, — they accompany not our walk
nor sit at our board. " Lover and friend are put far from us,
and our acquaintance into darkness." What approximation can
we make towards them ? What access can we command ? The
link, between ourselves and those whom we loved, is broken.
Wide is the interval between us. Their land is far off from this.
They could not retain their spirit. We could not stay their
flight. Does it not seem to trifle with us, when we are "bereaved
indeed," to tell us that we are come to them from whom we are
so hopelessly and irreparably torn ?
— " Ye are come to the spirits oi just men made perfect."
Our natural apprehensiveness is thus excited by the appeal. Crea
tures of flesh and blood, nothing seems so strongly to fasten upon
our instinctive fear as Spiritual contact and communication. We
recoil from such phantom-visitation : we chill and shudder at its
mere description. We have the appalling recital. " In thoughts
from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men,
fear came upon me and trembling, which made all my bones to
shake. Then a spirit passed before my face ; and the hair of my
flesh stood up:, it stood still, but I could not discern the form
thereof: an image was before mine eyes, there was silence, and
I heard a voice."* As we read this harrowing description, our
blood freezes, and we hear the beatings of our heart. There is
vivid truth in it. It is a startling reality. When the disciples
from their tempest-driven ship saw Jesus walking on the waves
of the sea, " they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit, and they
cried out for fear." When, after his resurrection, he suddenly
appeared among them as they were gathered together with closed
door, " they were terrified and affrighted and supposed that they
had seen a spirit." Who would wish to behold the dearest friend
whom he had ever loved, returning a spirit from the region
* Job iv. 13—16.

316 THE IMMEDIATE BLESSEDNESS
of spirits, with their manner and mien and mystery ? What
nerve could encounter the interview ? What fondest heart could
endure the shadowy embrace? And do we not shrink when we
are bidden to approach this ghostly band ?
"Ye are come to the spirits of just men made perfect" Our
ardour is depressed. Our sympathy is checked. Our imitation
is debarred. It is too common to feel pleasure in the limitation
of excellence, in the detection of infirmity, among others, because
it reduces them to a closer level with ourselves. Yet we can do
honour to high examples. They awaken kindred enthusiasm.
They fire us with emulation. Only they must not be set on an
inaccessible height. Then our ambition is quelled, our effort is
disconcerted. But if these spirits be exhibited to us as our pat
terns, they seem to possess nothing in common with our present
lot. They are withdrawn from all our weaknesses and tempta
tions. They have quitted the fight. They have ceased the pil
grimage. How shall we follow the perfect? Little fellowship
can we claim with their refined essences, their unalloyed purity
and bliss : they subsist beyond the range of our ideas and sus
ceptibilities. But the purpose of the Holy Ghost in these words must
stand : that purpose can only be tender, consolatory, assuring.
And is it not most kind and cheering to inform and certify us,
that they, who are thus departed, are not lost? That, rescued
from the burden of this flesh and delivered from the hazard of
this world, they expatiate in the freedom of a nature ethereal and
incorruptible? That every sorrow and every defilement have
passed away from them, though they felt the pain and struggle of
both in their earthly condition ? And is it not animating and tri
umphant for us to perceive, in their release, the pledge and model
of our exaltation, when those to whom we are still united, notwith
standing our apparent severance, shall welcome us and "receive
us for ever," — when our spirits shall throw off their oppressions,
and shall attain to yonder state of immaterial being ?
Come then, Dear Christians, to these spirits, — endeavour to
conceive of them, to catch their fervours, to reciprocate their
joys, to respond their strains !

OF DEPARTED SAINTS. 317
I. "Who are they? whence came they ?" They are not the
natives of heaven. They have no proper birthright in it. They
belong to a very different sphere. They are men. They have
been prepared, while on the "earth which was given to them," for
their present abode. They have been brought hither by an act
utterly independent of their original constitution. It is a state
altogether strange and new.
A man may be considered just, when he discharges all the
obligations which are equitably laid upon him, obligations grow
ing out of his individual and relative existence. If the man
render that homage which God as Creator deserves, and yield
that obedience which God as King prescribes, that man is just
with God. If the man act, in every connection with his fellows,
with an impartial regard to their rights and interests, there is no
iniquity in his hands in respect of them. In what he does, he
shall live. He cannot come into condemnation. But there is
only a supposeable argument in this. It is entirely unsustained.
There is not, in the present nature of man, an approach to this
standard. Every tendency of disposition is untoward. "There
is none that seeketh . after God." "There is none righteous;
no, not one." "There is. not a just man on the earth, that doeth
good and sinneth not." They have "done iniquity as they
could." Such a fallen creature cannot retrieve himself. If he find
acceptance, it must be by another's righteousness : if he be made
holy, it must be by another's influence. Nothing can originate
with himself. From without, from above, must come his help.
Guilt cannot achieve justification: pollution cannot work out
sanctification. And of all this blessed throng there is not one, but was the
sinner, lost, ruined, perishing, like ourselves. Think of the
most sinful, — " Such were they !" And, thus thinking, we
strengthen our hearts as to our own salvation, — "We believe
that through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be
saved even as they !"
Nor can the method vary. " Neither is there salvation in
any other : for there is none other name under heaven given

318 THE IMMEDIATE BLESSEDNESS
among men, whereby we must be saved." " Ye must be born
again." These are the essential requisites. They constitute the
just. Only the just can be in a condition of safety and favour,
only the just can be endued with a nature of sanctity and love.
"The just by faith shall live," — or this believer is justified.
"O let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end, but esta
blish thou the just," — their "justice" is opposed to " wicked
ness." This is the two- fold characteristic. Man can only he just
as he partakes of both. A relative, and an inherent, righteous
ness alone gives the warrant of that title and the secret of that
transformation. Still the more prominent use of this epithet is, to express
principle and disposition. " The way of the just is uprightness:
Thou most Upright dost weigh the path of the just." "The
ways of the Lord are right : the just shall walk therein." There
fore, when the term is attached by Scripture to the most excellent
of our race, it is accompanied by some other virtue which marks
its specific manifestation. A new graft is set on the common
stem, drawing forth from the common life the peculiar nature.
Noah was a just man and perfect, — his clear integrity is the
illustration. John the Baptist was just and holy, — his taintless
and severe sanctity is the proof. Simeon was a just man and
devout, — a rapt piety is the development. Joseph of Arimathea
was a good man and just, — benevolence is the note. Cornelius
was just and one that feared God, — strict obedience is the fruit.
"Whatsoever things are just" must be combined with "whatso
ever things are lovely."
They who are treated as just through the imputation of the
merits of Jesus Christ the Righteous, and who are made just by
the Spirit of the " Holy One and Just," will aspire to all cognate
virtues. Because there is "no more condemnation, they walk
not after the flesh but after the Spirit." They will emulate that
which is congenial. They will do> justice and love mercy. They
will walk honestly. They will be without rebuke. They will
give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name. They will love
their neighbour as themselves. Their ways are equal. " He
that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as He is righteous."

OF DEPARTED SAINTS. 319
Theirs is the true sense of right. They ask no lower question,
they allow no meaner standard. A conventional morality they
abjure. They ascribe righteousness to their Maker. They copy
it as it is reflected in his will. It is their only rule. They are
upright in heart. They walk uprightly.
Theirs is the constant care of duty. Instead of evading,
compromising, modifying, it, that which binds them to the will
of God their Saviour is their conscious liberty and confessed
delight. They seek to know it. They do it from the heart.
They are the undefiled in the way.
Theirs is the firm habit oi fidelity. They are the representa
tives of those for whom they should act, and the almoners for
those from whom they must not withhold. Talents are deposited
with them which they must improve. Mighty are their trusts.
They occupy. As stewards they are found faithful.
How is holiness, the true rectitude, now beheld, enjoyed,
realised by those saints ! How it shines out before them ! How
it is reflected from them ! " Judgment shall return to righte
ousness : and all the upright in heart shall follow it."
It is a solemn thought, and deeply ought we to be affected
by it, that the " perfection" of which this passage speaks is alone
the portion of the "just." It is equally solemn, and ought not
only to affect but to stimulate us, that only can we acquire on
earth the acceptance and regeneration which complete this state
and character. It is on this side of eternity that the act of justi
fication and the work of sanctification must be realised. Hope
not to find them beyond. That awful boundary past, — "He
that is unjust, let him be unjust still !"
II. These "just men" are not any longer in our present
sphere, or kind, of existence. We are summoned to meditate
them in a new condition. The image of the earth is effaced.
They are no more seen in a compound nature. They are
"spirits." All beside is left in the grave. Nothing material
cleaves to them. But it is the higher essence, — the intellection,
— the consciousness, — the self, — which this disembodiment must
suppose. What is their relationship to space, how these spirits
can without organisms interchange sentiments and affections, we

320 THE IMMEDIATE BLESSEDNESS
cannot resolve. All of subsisting life, all of actual perception,
all of capacity to feel, all of power to act, is confined to the soul.
Its body is removed from any possible influence. If that frame
have some identifying mark, some rallying particle, some nucleus,
anatomy has not detected it. It is as if cast away. It goes back
into certain original elements. We have exclusively to dwell
upon the spiritualism of the just.
We are prepared to find in the destinies of different orders of
spirit the widest distinctions. Spirit is in the reptile, and spirit
is in the man. The first variety is a guide to certain effects.
It cannot receive religious ideas, it cannot entertain conscientious
impressions, it makes no progress from age to age. Yet it is
mind : it remembers, it wills. Animal life could not act in the
absence of mind. Who can think it immortal? The second is
a guide, but far more variable in its phsenomena. Its results
cannot be predicted. It constantly enlarges itself. As found
in the species, it is ever in progress. It cannot, without the
most unnatural effort, dismiss the evidences of a First Cause
and the consciousness of moral accountability. Who can think
it any thing but immortal? "Who knoweth the spirit of man
that goeth upward ? and the spirit of the beast that goeth down
ward to the earth ?" Such are the plain distinctions, whatever
they mean. The human spirit separates from the body, departs,
ascends, "we fly away:" the animal spirit, inseparable from
organised life, sinks with the carcase into the ground. The dis
solution of the man consists in this disintegration : " Then shall
the dust return to the earth as it was : and the spirit shall ascend
to God who gave it."
The doctrine of homogeneousness, — of one, unmixed, nature,
— finds no favour in Holy Writ. Whatever a few speculative
writers would say on the side of idealism, — if the nature of man
be in every thing identical, or, more properly speaking, if his
composition be uniform and indivisible, he is simply a material
being. Materialism cannot, on the admission of the premisses,
be refused. Then life and intelligence are not additions to a
frame prepared for them, but the results of its organization.
They do not govern the bodily machine, but are the effects of its

OF DEPARTED SAINTS. 321
mechanism. The Scripture decides it very differently. It speaks
of man's formation, when 'into the insensate mass the breath of
the Almighty inspired the living soul and understanding. It pro
claims that there is a spirit in man. It honours the Creator as
the God of the spirits of all men, as the Father of spirits. Does
it flatter the outward frame as the generating cause of all mental
operations? Its thought is ever of the inner man. It tells us that
the spirit of man is the candle of the Lord. It supposes that the
man may be " in the body or out of the body." And whence is
this debasing doctrine of our unitive nature proved? Was it
preached at the Bush of Midian ? " I am the God of Abraham,
of Isaac, and of Jacob. God is not the God of the dead but of
the living, for all live to him." Was it published from the Cross ?
"Verily I say unto thee, To-day shalt thou be with me in Para
dise." Did it cheer the protomartyr ? " Lord Jesus, receive my
spirit." Did it animate the Apostle of the Gentiles ? " Having
a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better." Did
it resound in the voice from heaven which the Beloved Disciple
heard in Patmos ? " Blessed are the dead which die in the
Lord from henceforth." Parable testifies the same truth. The
rich man is buried and lifts up his eyes in hell. The beggar dies,
and angels carry him to his reward. Vision unfolds the same fact,
and we behold the redeemed, with their palms and their crowns,
now standing before the throne.
As little does Materialism find support in our observation of
those conditions to which it commonly appeals. The bodily
structure is for the present the instrument and habitation of the
soul. There is a mysterious sympathy between them. It is not
denied that both may feel the alternate influence. The mind
may weary the body, the body may obscure the mind. The
soul may " o'er inform its tenement," its tenement may dim and
hamper the soul. But there is one event, of frequent recurrence,
which cannot be overlooked, conveying an argument which cannot
be withstood. The Christian lies upon his death-bed. His cor
poreal part is shattered, emaciated, wrung. The entire frame
has sunk in all its springs and is wrecked in all its powers. His
mind, however, is unimpaired in its vigour and unshaken in its

322 THE IMMEDIATE BLESSEDNESS
faith. It never so rose, it never so triumphed, until now. It
flashes forth, not as an expiring taper but as a precious gem
from which the last incrustation is almost cleared away. It is in
the crisis of its history. It is its eve of highest attainment and
richest hope. It is the laying hold of its true fruitions. It is
not so much death as its opening life. It is the date of its im
mortality. And can it be that the spirit, thus touched into
unearthly beauty, wrought into divine mood, suddenly perishes ?
That it sobs away with the breath of its dying song ? That it
congeals with the chill of its fainting heart ? Is this greatness
the precursor of nothing ? Is this outbeaming but the token of
sudden night ? Were this to be supposed, the soul would be
adorned only as a victim for the sacrifice, — or resemble a spoil
which was enriched, a trophy which was glorified, only to fall
into the victorious hand of the King of terrors and to signalise
his conquest !
It is not our vain attempt to prove, but simply to unfold, the
doctrine of Scripture upon this withdrawment of the soul at death.
It is a pure question of Revelation. With only one bearing of
the question have we to do, — its reference to the saint.
Now all we know of death is this : that it has power over the
body. It destroys its sensation and causes it to decay. We
know, indeed, that it has power over the spirit. But we possess
not more than presumptive evidence of its effect. Does it extin
guish, or does it only detach ? Divine discovery relieves our
suspense. The soul goes forth. It partakes not of the ruin
of the body, but emerges from it. There is a receptacle fitted
to receive it. There is a place of refuge. It can exist and act
separately. But such existence and action are necessarily modi
fied. It is vital and active, but in new conditions. The body
is not any longer its vehicle or its mirror. It is diverted and
absorbed in itself. It is unhurt by death. Nothing of its own,
proper, nature is changed. It awaits the resurrection of the
body, but the interval is that of spiritual delight. And while
the direct testimony is strong, the incidental may be selected as
that which is more commonly overlooked and which is not the
less conclusive.

OF DEPARTED SAINTS. 323
And thus do we find that Paul resigns himself without fear
of this contingence, — he knew that his soul, whithersoever trans
ported, must be safe. " Nevertheless I am not ashamed : for I
know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able
to keep that which I have committed unto him against that
day." He abandons it with unfaltering confidence to the Savi
our, as a deposit in his charge, a pawn which he securely guards.
" That day" is distant, but " against" its glory in the resurrection
of the dead, the soul shall be found already prepared in its holi
ness and joy.
It is a general truth, though particularly applied, " He that
is dead is freed from sin."* Is this spoken of the torpidity of
the body ? Is it not the exemption of the soul ?
The holy defiance, "Who shall separate us from the love of
Christ?" The triumphant boast, — in the sight of all the evils which
threaten life, — " I am persuaded that neither death, nor things to
come, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is
in Christ Jesus our Lord," — seem to lose not only their force but
their meaning, if there survive no intelligent object of this love.
Peril and sword, death and things to come, have separated, by sus
pending all exercise, all consciousness, all reaction, of that love.
Heaven is, therefore, set forth as a present state, upon which
our mind should rest. " While we look at the things which are
not seen." "We have a building of God." " Now he that hath
wrought us for the self-same thing is God." " The saints are in
light." "To give you an inheritance among all them which are
sanctified." " For now they desire a better country, that is, an
heayenly ; wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God,
for he hath prepared for them a city."
" Christ is Lord both of the dead and living." " If we die,
we die unto the Lord."-f- Such dominion is not of our mouldering
remains. Such surrender is not to the behest that we must die.
We see in it the sovereignty over departed spirits, spirits which
have commended themselves to his eternal service.
" For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so
them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him." These
* Rom. vi. 7- + Rom. xiv. 8, 9.

324 THE IMMEDIATE BLESSEDNESS
having, therefore, in their spiritual part been always, since their
death, in the divine presence, the beatific vision, — their souls
having through that interval been with God, — He will bring
them with him, in his train : he will come with all these saints, to
meet and inherit their long vacated forms.
On any other showing, we see not how " he that believeth"
on Jesus " hath everlasting life," how our " life is hid with Christ
in God," how there is " given to us everlasting consolation," how
"eternal life abideth in us," how our "repentance is unto life,"
how we "believe to life everlasting," how we can "lay hold on
eternal life," how we can " labour for the meat which endureth
unto everlasting life," how he that " hateth his life in this world
shall keep it unto life eternal." Nor are those statements intel
ligible which assure us that Christ has "abolished death," that
"whosoever liveth, and believeth in him, shall never die," that he
is " passed from death unto life," that " he shall not see death,"
that " he shall not taste death," that he who shall " eat of the
bread which cometh down from heaven shall not die." If the
holy life of the soul be perpetuated in the deathlessness of that
soul, then is there this unbroken blessing, this uninterrupted
life: if merely the body temporarily dissolves and the soul tri
umphs uninjured, then the bitterness of death is past, and, its
power of evil being so abated, it may be considered as all but
annulled. But bear these sayings in your mind, — then think
of the long night of death shrouding soul as well as flesh, — the
unreflection, the insensibility, the decomposition, which mighty
ages prolong and seal, — and then pronounce whether such say
ings admit of sober construction or fall within unprevaricating
truth ?
The promises and exhortations which are directed to Chris
tians, suppose the immediateness of their reward. " That we
must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God."
These imagined not the dreary, lingering, delay. Nor did they
prove it. " These are they which came out of great tribula
tion, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the
blood of the Lamb." " That ye be not slothful, but followers
of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises."

OF DEPARTED SAINTS. 325
The " hope set before us" is not remote and intangible, but
" the anchor of the soul, sure and steadfast, which entereth into
that within the veil." " Knowing in yourselves that ye have
in heaven a better and an enduring substance." " For ye have
need of patience, that after ye have done the will of God ye
might receive the promise." " Blessed is the man that endureth
temptation ; for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown
of life which the Lord hath promised to them that love him."
" That when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habi
tations." The Offices of Christ secure this instantaneous joy to his
people. He is their head, — they must live. He has the power
of an endless life in his capacity of Priest, — he ministers for
living votaries. He is the Life, — because he lives, we shall live
also. He is the Pattern of our death, — we cannot be planted in
the likeness of his death if our soul go not into spiritual separa
tion. He is the Forerunner, — it must be now of the perfected
soul as it shall be of the recovered body. "Whom having not
seen, ye love ; in whom, though now ye see him not, ye rejoice
with joy unspeakable and full of glory : receiving the end of
your faith, even the salvation of your souls."
And still these implicit authorities multiply upon us. " For,
for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead
(that is, during the life of those who now are dead) that though
they might be condemned according to human opinion as to the
flesh, they might live according to God," by his favour and sup
port, " in the spirit."* " Wherefore the rather give diligence to
make your calling and election sure ; for if ye do these things ye
shall never fall, for so shall an entrance be ministered to you
abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ." " Now unto Him that is able to keep you from
falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his
glory with exceeding joy." " I will give him the morning star."
" I will not blot out his name out of the book of life." " Be.
thou faithful unto the death, and I will give thee a crown of
life." " I am He that liveth, and was dead ; and behold I am
* 1 Pet. iv. 6.

326

THE IMMEDIATE BLESSEDNESS

alive for evermore, Amen, and have the keys of Hades and of
death." Is not the evidence of these passages strong, in the quiet
assurance which they suppose, that there is no interval nor break
between the promise and the fulfilment ?
We can hold no sympathy with the quibble, that if we con
tinue under the influence of death until the resur.rection, it being
an unconscious interval, it can be no loss. Men might, in the
same manner, reconcile themselves to annihilation. It is abridg
ment, real and serious, of the highest enjoyment. It is the aban
donment of a true immortality ; for it is lost, however ultimately
renewed. It impairs, of necessity, the motive which arises from
undelayed retribution. It lowers every conception of the soul,
when it is represented as capable of this suspension of its powers.
It virtually dislocates our being, destroys its continuity, and
places us in sections of existence which must be felt as little rela
ted to each other. It is a pause which slackens hope and fear.
It is a debasement of our being.
But it need not be feared. The characters, with which the
believer is arrayed, forbid it. Not thus shall they whom Christ
has made kings and priests unto God, — not thus shall the joint-
heirs with Jesus Christ, — not thus shall the members of his body,
of his flesh and of his bones, — not thus shall they who can never
perish, — not thus shall they whom none can pluck from the
Shepherd's hands, — be banished from the light of life, or be
expelled from the irradiation of divinity, in the cold, dark, silent,
tomb. " Father, I will that they, whom thou hast given me, be
with me where I am ; that they may behold my glory !"
The sundering of the body and the soul, in the death of the
Christian, is not a good in itself. It is a consequence of sin. It
is a new arrangement. It involves serious detriment and depri
vation. It is an unnatural position for both. But it was always
possible, considering the independent qualities of the spiritual
part. It is an integer, though united to another order of exist
ence. The Mercy of God our Saviour has converted this change
into a present law. It is not, however, to be perpetual. All
things are to be restored. The arrangement only subsists tem
porarily, incidentally, and for intermediate designs.

OF DEPARTED SAINTS. 327
Still is it an arrangement of the greatest comparative good.
The corporeity of the human system, in its present circum
stances, is the occasion of frequent sin and the subject of frequent
affliction. Often does it oppress the soul. Its appetites tend to
an evil excess. Its instincts clamour for a tyrannic ascendancy.
Release from it, while it thus inclines to the sensual and worldly,
while it thus provokes temptation as well as suffers it, while it is
thus consumed by disease and agony, is surely what is devoutly
to be wished. It is a disenthralment, as we are now placed. It
is not desirable for ends like these alone. It is a preliminary in a
great transition. It must be passed, or the final stage cannot be
attained. We must be disembodied that we may rise again.
How may this state of spiritualism be conceived ?
It is described as subsisting in intimate union with the Sa
viour. It is to "depart and to be with Christ." It is to "be
absent from the body and to be present with the Lord." They
who have entered on its state are "the dead in Christ;" for
though their souls are in him, still those souls would not be
separate but for death. Their souls are under its influence as
much as their bodies, although the effects of that influence are
not the same. He "receives" them. This is the great distinc
tiveness of their present condition. Their inward nature, drawn
forth from the outward, is in a relationship, in an access, to the
Blessed Redeemer far different from any enjoyment of his pre
sence, or communion with his person, known on earth.
In addition to this immediate presence of the Redeemer-God,
that light in which they see light, the light of the Lamb, — the
spirits of just men are " made perfect." This is a discovery of
their state which greatly explains itself. The spirit is matured
in its powers and consummated in its joys. According to its
capacities it is complete. All its true aims are unfolded. It is
wrought out into its fullest development. The body did assist it
on earth : the raised body shall far more assist it in heaven. But
so far as its simple nature is- concerned, it is advanced and mag
nified. Self-contradictory is, therefore, every opinion which
describes the departed soul as dreaming its thoughts, — which
represents those thoughts as vague and undefined. It is a con-

328

THE IMMEDIATE BLESSEDNESS

dition of pure spiritualism. Certain facts suggest themselves as
the necessary accompaniments of such a condition.
The Consciousness must be very distinct. Amidst the dis
traction of worldly care, it is too common and too easy to lose
the remembrance of that solemn individualization in which each
spirit is condensed. We are often reluctant to feel what we
truly are. But the influence of religion induces us to "commune
with our own heart," and impels our " spirit to make diligent
search." We recollect ourselves. It is not without stern effort
that we can succeed. But the " spirit made perfect" can know
no dissipating nor forgetful mood. It loses not itself. The Self
revolves upon its own centre, ever substantiating what it really is,
ever enjoying its proper exercises of understanding and emotion.
This " hidden man" lives in his own light. Nothing is attached
to the spirit which can divert this concentrated impression.
The Inward Life must be very strong. The Christian's
introverted mind, self-contemplative, not only expatiates through
itself, its reflections and motives, — it contains a habit of thought
and feeling, arising from its regeneration, which constitutes it
diverse from all others and from its former self. This is a life
now commenced. " I live ; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me :
and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of
the Son of God." It is the oeconomy of peculiar tastes and prin
ciples. " By these things men live, and in all these things is the
life of our spirit." This is the eternal life of the soul, which is
quite distinct from its immortality. It is now often impeded,
shaken, and brought low. It is ready to die. But the " spirit
made perfect" is vigorous in it. Nothing can suspend, mar,
weaken, it. The whole soul, all that is within it, is absorbed in
that deep and holy sense.
The Intellectual Faculty must be very clear. Many barriers
resisted, many burthens oppressed, many clouds obscured, the
exercise of the mental powers while they were found in an earthly
and embodied state. The soul is enfeebled by darkened organs,
and depressed by diseased structures. Itself may be the subject
of malady and infirmity. Here is, likewise, much to interrupt
its studies and its exercises. But the "spirit made perfect" must

OF DEPARTED SAINTS. 329
be freed from all these impediments. Nothing can restrict its
freedom or impair its judgment or exhaust its activity. The
eye of its understanding never wearies nor shuts. It finds every
object kindred to itself. Nor are we to divide the soul from its
proper affections. It feels the love of the truth. It delights
itself in infinite excellence. It ranges among the eternal ideas,
the archetypes, of the divine beauty. It still " follows on to know
the Lord," it still " follows hard after God."
The Meditative Abstraction must be very intent. The world
is now a noisy intruder on our quiet and retirement. Even
when we can find the cell whence its violence is excluded, its
love and snare and fable may pursue us still. Nor is this fixed
musing always at command. We cannot at will withdraw our
selves into the hiding-places of the spirit, nor obey the visions
which stream around us there. The world is in our heart. Evil
is present with us. Our thoughts wander. Our passions rebel.
But the " spirit made perfect" possesses control the most undis
puted over all its operations. The outward scene and sense can
no more distract it. It is rapt into the deep things of God. It
turns not aside. Its heaven of contemplation no tempest can
shake and no cloud can dim. What themes does it find for
itself! How is it smitten by their loveliness and overwhelmed
by their grandeur !
The Adoring Gratitude must be very earnest. It bears with
it the principal effects of salvation. It is pardoned, received,
sanctified, adopted. When we read, — "Whom He called, them
he also justified ; and whom he justified, them he also glorified,"
— the series of blessings cannot suppose that the last is delayed
until the resurrection. They are consecutive and admit not of
disjunction. " The Lord will give grace and gkny." It is there
"glorified." It knows that its salvation is of the Lord. To
feel that it is " made perfect," is to appreciate a deliverance the
most stupendous. The Christian upon earth is often amazed at
"what the Lord hath done for his soul." He cannot conceal the
wondrous tale. But here every result is partial and immature.
There all is known and understood. There nothing can arise to
hide the full glory from the spirit. " The salvation of the soul"

330 THE IMMEDIATE BLESSEDNESS
is already achieved, — the far greater achievement ; the reversion
shall not be long withheld. The spirit has now a harp, it has
now a crown, — with these it warbles thanksgiving, and renders
homage, even now, before the throne !
Its Awaiting Aspiration must be very glad. The disem
bodied saint ascertains the future stage to which it constantly
approaches, which is the last of all, and which is only wanted to
complete his entire being. He understands its nature. He is
assured of its certainty. Doubt and impatience cannot have
place in such a spirit. What is the charm of this sweet hope !
What must be the ecstacy of this blessed anticipation ! Weari
ness and suspense belong to mortals ; but " spirits made perfect"
sigh not their desires, nor "groan within themselves, — waiting
for the adoption, even the redemption of the body." Calmly
and intently they see it, though from afar : and possess in their
own " perfection," the handsel and earnest of the glorious resur
rection of their flesh and of their reunion with it !
It is obvious, then, that there is, as to our spiritual existence
in heaven, whatever is refined, full, intense. It is spirit in its
perfection. But it endures a certain restriction. It is at present
denied that organism which would connect it with that which is
external. We are not permitted to suppose that it has sympathy
with that which subsists beyond itself. Its life is not of fellow
ship, activity, and consummation. Yet it is not, therefore, self-
concentrated. It retains and cherishes all its powers and affections,
all its remembrances and hopes. It is lost to nothing. But with
the outward it holds no communication. That cannot impress it.
There is no common ground on which mind and externalism can
meet. There is no medium of such perception. And still is
there possible limit to this obvious truth. For spirits may enjoy
intercourse with each other according to certain laws which we
do not comprehend.
They, however, who see that the " perfect spirit" cannot, in
virtue of that perfection, be interested in that which is without,
suppose that it is clothed with a temporary, material, vehicle,
giving it all the inlets of sensation. This is theory. It is addi
tion to the simple account that "the spirits of just men are made

OF DEPARTED SAINTS. 331
perfect." But let us look at the hypothesis. If the spirit assume
such form, that form is a new creation. It is as real an existence,
and it is at least as complete an organization, as the present
body. But if the body has been long worn by us, this has
been worn by millions in heaven far longer. If the body be
endeared to us because of its long companionship, this would
be much more endeared. How can we part with this confi
guration, which never gave us pain nor brought us evil, to
resume that body which entailed upon us both? What would
be the fate of such a sensible frame ? Must it die ? Must it be
annihilated ? Difficulties crowd upon us, — we feel that such a
course can never be. The Resurrection is always described as
an immense acquisition. But were this hypothesis true, it would
be nothing more, — though a greater act of redemption, — than
the spirit had enjoyed with its new envelopment and perceptive-
ness through all the interval until the dead were raised.
Oh, the transition, the passage, of > the spirit, escaped from
earth, released from mortality, to this glo, tous state ! It is freed
from sin. It is delivered from s>' ering. It flies upward to its
proper sphere. Spirit ! — whic? nast long walked in darkness,
brooded in sorrow, pined in wt .triness, — spirit ! which wast long
tossed with tempest, harassed by hostility, vexed with care, —
spirit ! which didst long groan within thyself, — spirit ! long
bound to sense and chained to infirmity, — spirit ! long lacerated
and bruised with inward wounds, — spirit ! the shadow of whose
guilt hitherto lay upon thee though forgiven, the effort of whose
depravity until now struggled in thee though subdued, — Chris
tian soul depart ! Go forth to rest and home ! It is prepared for
thee ! It is not darkness, thou shalt see a great light ! It is
not void, thou shalt prove a rich fruition ! It is not solitude,
it is thronged with kindred minds ! It is not vision, it is vivified
with glorious realities ! Thou shalt not be found destitute nor
naked ! There is a crown of life for thee, though it is not
studded with all its gems ! There is a robe made white for thee,
though it is not covered with all its ornaments ! There is a
harp of sweet sound attuned for thee, though it is not strung with
all its wires! Let not fears be in thy way ! Trust to Him

332 THE IMMEDIATE BLESSEDNESS
who calleth for thee ! He bids thee come ! It is the path of
life ! Thou art treading the way everlasting ! Thou art safe !
Thy journey is sped ! Well done, enter thou into the joy of
thy Lord !
And oh, the immediateness of this joy ! There is not a com
putable point of time. It is not a sand-fall. It is scarcely the
twinkling of an eye. There lies my friend. He hastens to
depart. Death is upon him. The change has well-nigh come.
How little intervenes between his present humiliations and his
awaiting glories ! I tremble to - think what in an instant he
must be ! How unlike all he was ! How extreme to all he
is! I bend over thee, and mark thy wasted, pallid, frame, — I
look up, and there is ascending above me an angel's form ! 1
stoop to thee, and just can catch thy feeble, gasping, whisper, —
I listen, and there floats around me a seraph's song ! I take thy
hand, tremulous and cold, — it is waving to me from yonder
skies ! I wipe thy brow, damp and furrowed, — it is enwreathed
with the garland of victory ! I slake thy lip, bloodless and
parched, — it is drinking the living fountains, the overflowing
springs, of heaven !
III. These separated spirits are represented to us as in a
state of exalted advancement, depending upon their disembodi
ment. This doctrine of immediate happiness was not entirely con
cealed from the ancient saints. Their language occasionally
leads us to think that they had some conception of it. Yet
every passage of Scripture, which has been cited, may not be
found strictly to apply. " Thou wilt not leave my soul in the
invisible world,"* said David, but it was when "in spirit" he
spoke of his distant Son. " And afterward Thou wilt receive
me to glory," cried Asaph, but the word does not compel the
strictly consecutive idea. -J- The truth seems more clear in the
following expressions. " God will redeem my soul from the
power of the grave : for he shall receive me." j " He shall
enter into peace : they shall rest in their beds, each one walking
* Psa. xvi. 10. f Psa. lxxiii. 24. inx.
± Psa. xlix. 15.

OF DEPARTED SAINTS. 333
in his uprightness."* In both these passages there is an intima
tion of a higher nature, that which is " redeemed," and which
can be " received :" that which is detached from what " rests in
its bed," and which can be actively " upright" still. Yet as a
solacing support it was scarcely discovered even by "prophets
and righteous men :" feebly was it enjoyed. The grave to them
was dark. Jesus had not lain in it. They shrunk from death
as from a suspension of their powers and joys. Bereavement
smote them as an irremediable woe. " Lest I be like those that
go down into the pit." " The dead praise not the Lord, neither
any that go down into silence." " Spare me a little longer,
before I go hence and be no more." " They that go down into
the pit cannot hope for thy truth."
And had they known the receptacle of departed spirits, it
ought not to have inspired the delightful hopes we cherish. It
was doubtless a sphere of spiritual bliss. It was Abraham's
bosom. It was " under the earth." The divine presence was inti
mately vouchsafed. The higher advantages of the Christian oeco
nomy were gladly awaited. It was a heaven : but it was not the
proper heaven. It was not the dwelling of the Deity. Enoch
and Elijah were not in it. They were taken to God. Christ was
not then incarnate nor offered up : consequently he was not there.
We think that we but follow the light of Scripture, confessedly
feeble as to this intimation, in maintaining that these spirits,
held until then in a nether and unequal heaven, ascended with
Christ to heaven proper and exalted, to the heaven which he
now inhabits, though not necessarily the final heaven. It is
fitted for materialism, because the persons of the Antediluvian
saint and the Tishbite prophet have their abode in it: most of
all, because the glorified humanity of Jesus distinguishes and
identifies it. It is, at least, all that spirits need. Who would
now speak of it as Abraham's bosom ? It is not the same in
region or in state, as that to which the souls of the ancient
righteous were borne. It is surely reasonable to think that,
while all is advanced by Christianity on earth, there is cor
responding, advancement in all which it so entirely affects beyond
* Isa. lvii. 2.

334 THE IMMEDIATE BLESSEDNESS
these earthly bounds. If there be more bliss here, the bliss
of other worlds must be augmented. What, then, is the testi
mony of Scripture ? " Now is Christ risen from the dead,
and become the first-fruits of them that slept." It is an action
upon the past ; it is a benefit to the former dead ; they owe to his
resurrection a most important change. — " Thou hast ascended
on high : thou hast led captivity captive." It is untrue in fact,
and incorrect in figure, that such language of triumph intends
the dragging of enemies as at his chariot wheels. How can we
interpret captivity into the power of making captive? It is a
subjective thing. It may be asked, in reply, How can we take
captive such passive captivity ? We offer the following historic
illustrations. When Chedorlaomer despoiled the cities of the
plain, Lot was " taken captive." Abraham " armed his trained
servants," pursued and smote the enemy, and " brought back all
the goods, and also brought again his brother Lot." Here was re
capture. Captivity was led captive, or the "captivity was turned
again." Held of the foe, the captives seem assailed, but it is in
kindness and for rescue. Though they appear to suffer a second
captivity, it is at the hands of their deliverers and friends. It is
not their discomfiture, but their enfranchisement. — When Ziklag
was burned and sacked by the Amalekites, they " took the
women captive and carried them away." Ahinoam and Abigail
were among them. David, at the bidding of the Ephod, pur
sued the robbers, " recovered all that they had taken away and
rescued his two wives." This was recapture. They who were
torn away from home and liege, are snatched from their abduc
tors, and the " captivity" is "led captive." It is a new seizure,
but it is from the grasp of the foe. — When, in the ode of Debo
rah, she sings : " Arise, Barak, and lead thy captivity captive,"
the appeal supposes that he had broken the chains of his people,
whom " the Lord had sold into the hand of Jabin, king of
Canaan." Let these illustrations be now applied. Departed souls
were in a captivity. Death had disunited them from the body.
Though their captivity was made happy, it was estrangement.
They were not on earth. They were not in heaven. Though
their circumstances were overruled for their blessedness, the cir-

OF DEPARTED SAINTS. 335
cumstances themselves did not tend to it. They were children of a
captivity, or a throng of spirits over which death yet exercised a
disadvantageous and fearful influence.* Christ was the Conqueror.
" He spoiled principalities and powers." Of Him it was declared
that he should " swallow up death in victory." He ascends !
He is " received up into glory !" There are not only the angels
and the chariots in their thousands of thousands, — there is ano
ther train ! All holy spirits follow Him who had appeared a
spirit to them in their place of keeping. They now forsake that
place for " things above." They are " led" by their Deliverer
as a once captive -band, (though made glad in spite of such
bondage by Him who only suffered their detention with a view
to their ultimate release) and this procession, albeit "a capti
vity," is not one of prisoners, but of the enlarged and disen
thralled. They rejoice in the triumph. They partake of the
victory. It is their jubilee. They are the liberated, the ran
somed, and the redeemed. " As He spoke by the mouth of his
holy prophets, which have been since the world began : that we
should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that
hate us." — And, therefore, it is said in the text : " Ye are come
to the spirits of just men made perfect." But this is asserted as
a privilege unknown before. It arises from the new covenant
in contradistinction from the old. It is explained : " God having
provided some better things for us," (than for those who died
before the rising of Christ) " that they without us" (without
living until our time and under our dispensation) "should not
be made perfect." But they are now made perfect, in common
with us. This " perfection" is bestowed upon all past, as well
as for all future, time, and " ye are come to the spirits of just
men made perfect !"
It is thus that we shall experience the very changes which
the Lord of the dead and of the living bore : He died, his spirit
went from him, it sojourned in the abode where the purest spirits
called from earth alone could dwell, he rose bodily, his whole
manhood was completed in that event, he ascended, and when he
had thus " overcome the sharpness of death, he opened the king-
* The " Limbus patrum'' seems not an inapt representation.

336 THE IMMEDIATE BLESSEDNESS
dom of heaven for all believers."* " Every one that is perfect
shall be as his Master."
Perfection is either an absolute, or a relative, term. In God
it inheres most necessarily. In that sense He is alone. In the
creature it can only subsist dependently and finitely. God may
be magnified, but it is only by being more and more revealed.
The goodness of the creature is derived and limited. It admits
of perpetual increase. His progression is essential to his happi
ness. Were his perfection fixed, — had he attained a point be
yond which he could advance no further, know nothing clearer,
and enjoy nothing better, he would be the most wretched of
beings. The measure of his actual acquirements would embitter
the conviction that he had reached the last. Immortality could
only be the bane and burden of a being to whom all develop
ment was denied, and to whom all improvement was impossible.
What would such an arrest upon our faculties be even now ?
Who can conceive its misery ? What would it be, if we were
thus restricted, ever thrown back upon ourselves, with no new
experience, with no expanding prospect, through eternal ages?
What thought could conceive, what word could tell, that hor
rible weariness?
The perfection of the human spirit in heaven, being always
progressive, must be intelligent. l It is not a something super
induced upon it, but its own voluntary evolution. It is still the
creature of reason and motive. Its perfection may, then, be
considered in certain features and indications.
1. The spirits of just men will be made perfect in holiness.
Much of their present sanctification consists in the discovery of
the evil which is in them, in the humility which this produces,
in the devotion which seeks constant deliverance from infirmity
and sin. It has been the uniform acknowledgment of the most
holy men, how frequently they transgressed, how the corrupt prin
ciple contended in them, how distant they felt themselves from the
standard which still they sought. Job " abhors himself." Isaiah
bewails, "lama man of unclean lips." Daniel bows in " shame
and confusion of face." Peter recoils from the sudden impression
* Quoted from that noble Hymn, The "Te Deum."

OF DEPARTED SAINTS 337
of a contact to the infinite Purity : " Depart from me, for I am
an evil man, O Lord." Paul, in his self-survey, is filled with
loathing emotions and deprecatory cries : " O wretched man that
I am ! who shall deliver me from the body of this death !"
Sin dwelt in them, though it did not reign, and though it had
no dominion. They desired heaven for this perfection. The
" church, which Christ has loved," shall there be " holy and
without blemish." " Every man" shall be " presented perfect in
Christ Jesus." " They stand without fault before the throne of
God." Oh what a transformation is this ! Here the path of the
just was as the shining light, there it is the perfect day ! Here
was the infancy and immaturity, there is the perfect man ! To
be known as holy where all is holy ! To be acknowledged as
faultless where all is faultless ! Not only to be unblamed, but
" unblameable:" not only unreproved, but " unreproveable ! "
To be " without spot ! " To be the soul made taintless, perfect
in its entire development of capacity for endless purity !
2. Such spirits are raised to the perfection of wisdom. The
reason of the darkness which is in us, may be traced to our seeing
truth in broken parts and through false mediums. No complete
system is presented, and even were it, such system could not be
fully contemplated. Our state of mind is the principal cause.
We misconceive. We think in prejudice. In vain the fairest star
shines in the firmament, if the lens, which brings it near, be
flawed. The distortion of the instrument lends itself to the disk
of that orb and is painted on its reflection. " Now we know in
part, and prophesy in part." But when all is consistent and
sequent in the revelations afforded to us, when our minds expand
in strictest accordance to the themes and facts thus revealed,
then, at every given instant, we shall be perfected in knowledge.
The matter of it will be perfectly formed, the perception of it
will be perfectly distinct. Nothing will be so unknown as to
constitute a pain or a mistake. Nothing will be so regarded as
to be a confusion or a perplexity. "When that which is perfect
has come, then that which is in part shall be done away."
3. These souls of the departed are perfectly secure. Angels
were not, at their first creation, placed beyond the possibility of

338 THE IMMEDIATE BLESSEDNESS
danger. They might be tempted : many of them fell. They
kept not their high estate. Our original parents, made upright,
soon yielded to the device of Satan, and were " in the transgres
sion." They were driven forth from their bowers of purity and
delight. Just men, through the recovering grace of God, are
now found on earth. Yet how are they periled ! What inward
tendencies do they deplore ! What worldly allurements must
they withstand! "A just man falleth seven times." But in
heaven there is no need of watch against hostility, or of resistance
against sin. The warfare is accomplished. They have passed
from probation. They have overcome. "There shall in no wise
enter in- it any thing that defiletb, neither whatsoever worketh
abomination, or maketh a lie." They are sanctified in a manner,
and to a degree, which renders them incapable of declension and
relapse. All of that work is, doubtless, intelligent and voluntary.
But it is distinguished from its present mode. Now it is evolved
only from within, to that which is uncongenial without : then it
shall be reacted from all that is corresponding without, upon the
principle, the kingdom of heaven, the seed of God, within. They
cannot sin ; not held back from it by any coercion, but by a
similar necessity and law as that which governs the Divine
Nature. It cannot be tempted : evil cannot dwell with it. That
is the essential property of Deity : something of the same, as
far as it can be, he communicates to the spirits of just men made
perfect. He is surely able to make them stand. He can keep
them from falling. They shall " go no more out."
4. A fulness of beatitude must be contained in their perfec
tion. The holiness, wisdom, and stability, which we have seen
attached to these spirits of the just, which we have seen inhering
in their very essence, must prepare us to expect the boundless
ness of their joy. They can know no want : yet are they full
of holy desires, ever waking only to be satisfied, ever longing
only to be fulfilled. The vessel at each moment overflows : but
at every moment it also is enlarged. There are pleasures for
evermore. The source of all is in the Infinite Plenitude. The
river of life proceedeth out of the throne of God and of the
Lamb. They have already, in their justification and sanctifi-

OF DEPARTED SAINTS.- 339
cation, received the "abundance of life." Its capacities and its
desires are resistless. It now expands in its proper development.
It is " life eternal." What can these spirits lack ? " The Lord
shall be thy everlasting light, and thy God thy glory."
Methinks the soul has just breathed itself away. It lingers
for the instant to survey the frame which it deserts. ' Farewell,
thou tenement of clay ! Wondrously wast thou contrived for
all the earthly uses to which I was ordained. Sin clave to me,
and thou didst too eagerly lodge, and, in return, didst too readily
provoke it. I felt thy weaknesses and pains. I was oppressed by
thy heaviness and waste. Often didst thou constrain me to evil
and mock me with vanity. I escape from thee for an interval of
spiritual perfection. Sink down into thy tomb. It is thy resting-
place. Thou shalt there moulder on, awaiting thy glorious
change. Hope shall keep its lamp within thy sepulchre. Thou
art sleeping in Jesus. Thou art redeemed. Thou art not cast
out in hate and shame. Thou dost lie in glory, in thine own
house. Triumphantly shall I hail thee, as now with deepest
tenderness I forsake thee. Companion from the first, how imper
fect would be my present joy, but that I know our union is only1
suspended, and that we shall embrace again. My ecstatic consci
ousness tells me that I am perfect. Speedily thou shalt be perfect
too. How shalt thou wake up thy glory in the Resurrection-song,
and how shall thy now soaring spirit return to thee, informing all
thy organs, dictating all thy activities, — thyself the flexile, ethe
real, spiritual, body, — adapting thyself to the priest and the king
who shall claim thee, even as the white ephod and the regal robe!'
— Methinks that spirit is in heaven. ' It must be true ! It can
be only real ! Imagination can paint no such dream ! Phantasy
can evoke no such vision ! It is fulfilled ! It has come to pass !
Moment of joy which I often feared never could be mine !
Scene of bliss which I often thought it would never be my rap
ture to attain ! It is the country of the angels ! It is the land
where the King is seen in his beauty ! I doubt no more ! He
is here ! He stands forth from yonder sphere of light ! It is
the Crucified ! These are His praises which resound on every
side ! I will sing them too ! Let me press among those throngs !

340 THE IMMEDIATE BLESSEDNESS
Let me mingle with those harpers ! It is heaven ! Heaven
round about me ! Heaven springing up within me ! I would
see Jesus ! That one glance repays all my toils and pains ! It
is my Saviour ! I will not let thee go ! Thou hast made me
full of joy with thy countenance !'
IV. There are relations which unite the just on earth, and
the spirits of the just in heaven, notwithstanding the disparity of
their respective conditions.
Certain affinities may be discovered between mind and mind
in this world, which are not restricted to personal intercourse,
which operate as in defiance of the laws of space. And the
announcement of the Text is but the enlargement of such mental
affinities. It is not said that we shall come to the spirits of just
men made perfect, but that we are. This can be no romance nor
poetry, — as when we speak of our departed friends, — that we con
verse with their ashes, that we commune with their shades, that
we reciprocate with their emotions. Nothing conscious can pass
between us. Interchange is closed. Our mutual sensibilities,
we may suppose, are not diminished, but they find no point of
' contact nor medium of expression. But there is a relation clearly
proved, — it is substantive, true, real.
1. There is unity. The Scripture seems anxious, in descri
bing the people of God, to do away with any territorial idea.
They are not to be surveyed or regarded otherwise than in their
spiritual state. They are represented in many views which have
no respect to place. Be they in heaven, or be they on earth,
they are to be contemplated collectively, and as a whole. This is
the Church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood
which Christ hath loved, and for which he has given Himself,
for which He is head over all things, by which is to be made
known unto the principalities and powers in the heavenly places
the manifold wisdom of God, in which there is glory to God by
Christ Jesus, throughout all ages, world without end. There is
the one community, identical in every change, amoncr every
nation, at every aera. It is ever-existing. There may be few
added to it, but it cannot suffer loss. It is unbroken whereso
ever its members may be found. Worlds may intersect them, but

OF DEPARTED SAINTS. 341
the integrity of their association is not impaired. This character
belongs to the Church as it is revealed to us. It may be seen in
the rudest germ, in the violent transition, in the calmest rest, in
the most fiery ordeal, and last of all, as " the glorious Church,
having neither spot nor wrinkle, or any such thing." But it is
still the furtherance and accomplishment of one design. It
is bringing many sons unto glory. It is the redemption of
the great multitude whom no man can number, of all nations,
and kindreds, and peoples, and tongues. To impress upon our
mind this unity of the Church, it is shadowed by various figures,
all of which have respect to its indivisibility. It is a city, a
corporate community, but all, who are enrolled in it, partake of
common immunities, and are " fellow-citizens with the saints." —
It is a household. It is a household of faith and of God. They
of this household are all they who are the children of God by faith
in Christ Jesus. " Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth
is named." Its distribution in these different abodes affects not
its identity. It shall find even in heaven many mansions. — It is
a Body. " For as the body is one, and hath many members, and
all the members of that one body, being many, are one body : so
also is Christ." This, then, is no fiction nor ideal. It is based
on our union with Christ. We are all one in Him. We are
joined to the Lord, and are one spirit. It is, therefore, declared
to have been the design of God in redemption, to bind, in com
munion and identification, all his people, however scattered
abroad on earth, or however raised to the glories of a higher
existence. " That in the dispensation of the fulness of times,
He might gather together in one, all things in Christ, both which
are in heaven, and which are on earth, even in Him." " And
having made peace through the blood of His cross, by Him to
reconcile," or to unite, " all things unto Himself ; by Him, I
say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven."
These are the links which separation cannot weaken, and which
death cannot dissolve. " We are come to the spirits of just men
made perfect."
2. There is resemblance. Heaven is doubtless a place. But
we must rather conceive of it as a state of mind. The heaven of

342

THE IMMEDIATE BLESSEDNESS

perfect spirits must be chiefly this. This state of mind, — far
transcending all present attainment of knowledge, sanctity, and
joy, — consists not in estrangement and extreme. It is not alien
from what is now experienced. There is no principle, no com
panionship, no employment, no rapture, of that region, but has
in the Christian on earth its foretaste and counterpart. He "hath
the Father and the Son." " The Spirit dwelleth in Him." " He
hath eternal life." He is a " partaker of the glory that shall be
revealed." " He who hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is
God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit."
" We have the first-fruits of the Spirit." " We rejoice with joy
unspeakable and full of glory." " We sit with Christ in the
heavenly places." These are the elements of that heavenly per
fection, the buddings and initials which are vouchsafed to
them who are " made meet for the inheritance of the saints in
light." And let us suppose the heavenly-minded Christian to be
suddenly transported thither. What to him would be strictly
new ? What idea could any of those spirits entertain which he
had not more feebly conceived ? What strain could they cele
brate which he had not more faintly sung ? The heaven which
he enters and enjoys is but the expansion of principles and emo
tions he long has known. He has been changed already into the
image of the Divine glory, " from glory to glory !" He wanted
but this consummation. The heaven was, ever since his regene
ration, fast growing up within him, and it is now fulfilled.
Therefore, as if analogous language shall be employed, these are
the perfect on earth. They attain, not to the degree of celestial
perfection, but it is of the same kind and order. " Be perfect."
" As many as are perfect." " Mark the perfect man, his end is
peace." " Our love is made perfect." " The perfect heart."
Surely this answers in its general character, though not in its
measure, to that clear vision, to that uncorrupted righteousness,
which distinguish the purely spiritual state. The last of dying
triumph, and the first of empyrean rapture, may thus easily and
naturally blend : and in the yearnings of a kindred mind, we now
come to the spirits of just men made perfect. Do we not know
it ? Have we not found it ? Are now our affections set on

OF DEPARTED SAINTS. 343
things above ? Does not the holy city come down from God out
of heaven ? Is not our conversation in heaven ? Do we not often
leave the earth ? Hold we not fellowship with departed spirits ?
Is the communion of saints debarred ? Oh, we are one, in pur
pose, in joy, in desire, in adoration ! This like-mindedness
overcomes all interruptions, pervades the most opposite condi
tions, assimilates the farthest extremes, and binds in sympathy
earth and heaven ! They vibrate upon one centre ! They
resound wjth one Alleluia ! They live in one light ! We find
the point of junction, how and where they touch ! We learn the
true congress of embodied and disembodied spirits, how and
where they meet !
3. There is endearment. A holy affinity unites us to the
spirits of just men made perfect. They are the Church of the
first-born : they are our elder brethren. Our desire is to them.
The inheritance shall be divided between us. The love of the
brotherhood is the badge of all Christian profession. By this we
are known as the disciples of Christ, in that we love one another
We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we
love the brethren. This is the true unity of the followers of the„
Saviour : they love each other in their common image, their like
precious faith, their heavenly calling. The more distinguished
in holiness, we love the more. We mark them that walk so.
They who are of note, they whose praise in the gospel is in all
the churches, receive of us double honour. How does this prin
ciple of sacred affection, then, heighten, when it is directed to
those perfected spirits ! The ancient saints are there ! We love
them in their biography. Yet scarcely is there one who failed
not even in his own exemplary virtue. Our sainted friends are
there ! We loved them without dissimulation. Yet we only
knew them amidst weakness and ignorance. Now is no more
such failure. Now is no more such infirmity. Our love rises
proportionately to them. When we seem to descry among
the nations of the saved, those whom we have cherished, — when
these stand forth from them, father, mother, brother, sister, the
partners and children of our desolate households, — we feel a
moral complacency in them, that destroys not tenderness, but

344 THE IMMEDIATE BLESSEDNESS
which refines and sanctifies it, — that awakens awe, but which also
softens and endears it. The love which once held us is strength
ened, but it is woven of more solemn ties than before. We hail
that cloud of witnesses. We go up and salute the church trium
phant. We exercise not, however, an unreciprocated love. We
know that we did possess it. We forget not our parting with
them, — how their eye glazed as it rested fondly on us, how their
trembling breath whispered still their undying attachment, how
their hand grew cold and nerveless in our grasp. Have
affections, which death could not chill, turned suddenly indif
ferent and unheeding ? Are they weaned from us ? Are we
forgotten ? Is all sympathy withdrawn ? Hearts grow not
selfish in heaven. It is the world of love. Friendships are
treasured there. The saints, dwelling in it, are alive to all the
interests of the church on earth. They take their part in the
importunities for its avengement, and in the acclamations of its
triumph. They look forward to " the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ with all His saints," and to " our gathering together to
Him." Spirits made perfect can abandon no love which it was
ever their right to form, their duty to maintain, their benefit to
exercise : their perfection is the pledge that each holy attachment
is raised to that perfection.
4. There, is appropriation. We already have obtained a
portion in heaven. " Joint-heirs with Christ Jesus," he has
claimed it for us. He is our Forerunner. " He has for us
entered." He "now appears in the presence of God for us."
We " come to the spirits of just men made perfect," for they
inhabit our country, they dwell in our home. They have
preceded us, but "things to come are ours," and their title is
no surer than our own.
This is the test of our profession. Heaven is a scene of
hallowed perfection. This is to be our reward. The righteous
ness of the saints completes their bliss. Is this the heaven after
which we aspire ? Do we feel that it is our choice ? Is it our
chief joy ? Is it all our delight ? Do the conception and the
taste of this holiness form the primary and paramount element in
all our representations and musings of heaven ? Our case must

OF DEPARTED SAINTS. 345
be determined by this rule of judgment. " Marvel not," — it is
truly obvious, it is necessary inference,—" Ye must be born
again." Ye who love sin and go on in your trespasses, — whose
inward thought is very wickedness, how could you live in a holy
world ? What would you find of congenial delight in heaven ?
No sympathy could bind you to its joys and inhabitants : no
sympathy could bind these to you. O sinner ! Whom all the
holy must shun ! To whom the question must incessantly be
borne, — How earnest thou in hither ? Those raptures thou couldst
not share ! Those songs thou couldst not repeat ! In all that
bliss thou couldst only find disgust. In all that harmony thou
couldst only find dissonance. Strange to all, all would be strange
to thee ! And thou must wander a solitary wretch along those
streets of gold and hills of light, though surrounded by the vast
multitudes of the redeemed ! Ye must be born again !
This ought to be an incentive to our diligence. Is it for us
to boast alliance with the spirits of just men made perfect? Are
we come to them ? Let us not shame them. Let us be followers
of them. Let us manifest our oneness with them. Let us lift
up the brow around which the light of immortality shall play.
Let us stretch out our hands to heaven. Let us set our face
thitherward. An impress must be upon us which nothing can
conceal. Plainly must we show that we are hastening our way.
What high models are these to study ! What communications
are these which we have one with another !
This will be the solace of our bereavements. Our friends
disappear. But God hath prepared for them a glorious abode.
They are not lost to us. We come to them. We once more
join them. Would we recall them to sin and conflict and suffer
ing ? Would we drag them from their thrones ? We will the
rather rejoice in their exemption and loosening from temp
tation and pain. We will go to them, though they shall not
returri^to us. There is an identity between all the redeemed
which place and time cannot destroy. In their death they are
not divided.
Ours is a world of death. All dies in it. It is full of graves
and sepulchres, of mortal struggles and wrecks, of bitter partings

346

THE IMMEDIATE BLESSEDNESS

and disseverments, of last looks and accents, of death-bed sobbing
counsels and stifled farewells, as though it were one vast dying
chamber, one vast burying-place ! Families are rent. That
which appeared a sure house quickly passes away. Lo, the fair
contrast ! In yonder world is the mighty throng of spirits per
fect ! What of worth and excellence does it not include ? Who
of the truly great and noble is not there ? Haste to greet them !
Go to them now. Cultivate their familiarity. Bind up your
best delights with them. Learn their purity. Antedate their
bliss. Reflect their glory. Modulate your voice to their
anthem. Throw your spirit into theirs, until their spirits inspire
yours. Commune with them. Bring yourselves as within their
sight and hearing. Claim their kindred. Call them brethren.
Make them companions. Salute them with your love in Christ
Jesus. And as ye are now in spiritual j uxta-position to them, so
approach them, likewise, in holy resemblance and congenial ser
vice, until ye mingle with their multitude and fall into their
embrace. This is the issue which our Divine Lord contemplated when
he prayed, interceding for all his disciples until the end of time,
while Gethsemane lay at his feet, and Calvary rose upon his
prospect : " That they may be made perfect in one." The
prayer has been answered, it is still answered, it shall be an
swered, until all its desire is fulfilled. They who are in heaven
are made perfect. They who are on earth are come to them who
are made perfect. All shall be made perfect, but, ere that can
be, all now are one !
When the children of Israel entered Canaan, so great were
their mustering numbers, that while column after column covered
the shore of that promised land, thousands filled the channel of
Jordan, and thousands more had not reached its brink. There
were those who had attained their highest hope, those who trem
bled in the passage between the arrested billows of that river,
and those who toiled still amidst the desert thorns and sands,
not catching a view of that deliverance which was now begun.
Yet was all assured. The most distant step was marching to
victory and rest. Each tribe was in its place. The whole people

OF DEPARTED SAINTS. 347
was in progress. It was a uniform movement. It was an un
broken train. First and last, only sooner or later, were speeding
to their country of inheritance. Shout was prolonged by shout
from those who were foremost and from those who were behind.
It was one great armament impelled by a common spirit, throb
bing with a common life. The triumph of every one momentarily
advanced. " All passed clean over." So, Dear Christians, on
ward hasten the pilgrim saints of the Most High. Innumerable
are the throngs which have found their way to heaven. An
entrance has been ministered to them. At this hour many feel
the pains of death. Jordan is driven back. What companies
still crowd this desert-world, and shall increasingly crowd it, but
all journeying to the same goodly place ! " Now is their salva
tion nearer than when they believed." The glorified, the dying,
the living, — they are marshalled into one procession, and consti
tute but one host. There is no interval nor interruption in their
array. In mighty series they urge their course or find their
rest. The gate of heaven is never shut. They who enter in,
encourage those who follow them. The succession never fails.
They come ! They come ! From the four corners of earth,
from the fours winds of heaven ! The celestial conquerors bend
from their thrones to meet them ! And they who are still in
this wilderness, with death between them and heaven, are not cut
off from that congregated infinite, — " Ye are come to the spirits
of just men made perfect !"

SERMON XV.

THE RESURRECTION OF THE JUST.

Phil. iii. 11.

" If BY ANY MEANS I MIGHT ATTAIN UNTO THE RESURRECTION
OF THE DEAD."
No man could be more thoroughly convinced, more satisfacto-.
rily persuaded, more consciously assured, than was the Writer of
these words, that the Christian is advanced to an exalted sphere
of existence and to as exalted a condition of happiness, without
delay or pause, at death. No sacred writer is so perspicuous in
this statement, so weighty in this argument, so full and urgent
in the illustration of this fact. To him the idea of death sug
gests no interruption of being. He sees in the event of mortal
dissolution only that which is transitive, expanding, and climac
teric. The conception of life is raised in his mind to something
more strict, intense, and perfect. " The body is dead because of
sin ; but the spirit is life because of righteousness." It is acces
sion. The high purposes, meditated in its creation, are more
maturely developed. The seed has germinated, the flower blows,
the fruit is ripened. The precious principle is disencumbered of
much hinderance and is concentrated into much power. " Mor
tality is swallowed up of life." It is liberation. " There is
lifting up." The life of the spirit is wrought out. The soul is
more like itself. Paul will not endure the momentary suspicion
that aught is lost or suspended, — "to die is gain." "It is a
faithful saying : for if we be dead with Him, we shall also live
with him."
And he was wonderfully qualified, mightily warranted, to
pronounce on themes like these. He had been caught up to the

THE RESURRECTION OF THE JUST. 349
third heaven. He had gazed upon the immortals inhabiting
those realms. He had mingled with " the souls under the altar."
He had received dread proof that they who " have fallen asleep
in Christ" have not " perished." He had expatiated among the
scenes which surround them. He had dived into the depths
which absorb them. He had listened to their accents. He had
walked on high with spirits once in the flesh. We know not that
there were any, whom he was suffered to discriminate among
those crowds : if there were any whom he recognised, we know
not who they were. He had heard the parting prayer of
one: "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." Was not that gentle,
lovely, spirit made known to the converted persecutor whom it
had already forgiven, and whose conversion was an answer to
its prayer ? Having beheld those glorious visions, he was forced
back to earth. The glories of Paradise could not be uttered
in other language than its own. He found it impossible
to repeat those secrets. They were " unspeakable words."
He was not so much forbidden to declare the revelations of his
rapture, as that he found nothing common, between them and
mortals, by which he could have been understood. But in no
hesitating manner does he affirm that such region of blessed
ness exists. With no faltering jealousy does he reason con
cerning it. He calls it by its name. He assigns its supernal
position. In this Epistle* he describes himself alternating
between immediate reward and prolonged usefulness : " I am
in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be
with Christ ; which is far better : Nevertheless to abide in the
flesh is more needful for you." We cannot construe this lan
guage into any meaning, if he were not convinced that he should
be with Christ directly upon his death. If that felicity was
delayed until the resurrection of the body, he would have incur
red no abridgment of it however his life and labour might be
perpetuated on earth. The suspense of his mind was whether he
should be sooner, or later, with Christ : whether for the sake of
others he should submit to the delay. In an avowal like this, we
read his perfect confidence that death would bring him at once to
* Chap. i. 23, 24.

350 THE RESURRECTION OF THE JUST.
the presence of his Lord. — In another Epistle* he describes the
same fact with equal precision : " We are confident and willing
rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the
Lord." The separation of the soul from the body is marked as a
desirable event, because its " absence" is compensated most tran
scendently by its " presence" in another state. It is evident that
the points of time for the two consequences, in all common
understanding, must be the same. An exact synchronism is
supposed. Why otherwise should the first be borne, and the
second be preferred? — It was doubtless he who thus addressed
the Hebrew Christians : " Ye are come to the spirits of just men
made perfect." " That ye be not slothful, but followers of them
who through faith and patience inherit the promises."-!- Every
thing, — not to pursue the argument any farther, — in his writings
and in his actions demonstrates, that this assurance fully possessed
his mind, that it operated as a law upon his whole being and
conduct; and that his faith, always clear and strong, peculiarly
discerned, embraced, and clung to, this truth. We behold him,
so to speak, invariably treading on the verge, the awful confines,
of that spiritual abode, and all that is material, between him and
it, seems but as the transparent curtain or the fleecy cloud. We
witness his perfect conviction, like an intuition, that his spirit,
in a moment, at a bound, would spring up, when death released
him, to be partaker of the inheritance of the saints in light.
Those blessed groups, those sumless multitudes, live to his eye.
He suffers and toils and dies daily as in their animating pre
sence, stretching out his hands to them and mingling his songs
with theirs J
Yet knowing all this, — dwelling in the ecstacy of such a
vision, — the heavenly Apostle sets his heart upon that which is
ulterior and which could only be remote. He knew that the day
of Christ was not at hand, and warned others against the strange
conjecture. To his prophetic view not less than Thirty Ages
stood up defined, illuminated, big with mighty events and issues,
all which must intervene ere that consummation. During the
whole interval, until "the time of the end," he would "be with
¦ 2 Cor. v. 8. f Heb. xii. 23, vi. 12.

THE RESURRECTION OF THE JUST. 351
Christ," basking in the light of the Godhead, mingled with the
unfallen essences and the redeemed saints who are round about the
throne. His body, which had so oft encumbered him with its
weakness and infirmity, a body of sin, a body of death, a body
which always made it possible that he should be a castaway,
would have ceased to oppress his aspiration and endanger his
safety. His piercing intelligence and ardent love would have
found congenial companionship and scene. His warfare would be
accomplished. He would have finished his course. What accla
mations would have welcomed him ! What a rest had remained
for him ! What a reward must he have found ! But not slighting
this, he postpones it. It does not satisfy him. It cannot engage
the last effort, the utmost solicitude, of his soul. With a sublime
impatience he outruns it. He pants with an ambition which this
does not exhaust. He is fired with a zeal which this does not
appease. Then, when the dead shall rise up at the sound of the
trumpet, — then, when the sleeping dust of the holy shall be
reconstructed and resuscitated, — then, when the body is given
back to the spirit and the spirit to the body, — then only has he
seized his aim, then only realised his triumph !
The language which he employs in the context is agonistic.
" This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind,
and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press
toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in
Christ Jesus :" or, as the latter part of the quotation might be
more correctly translated, " I press along the course unto the
prize of God's calling by Christ Jesus from on high." It is His
voice out of heaven to his people in their graves. It is His
Resurrection-Summons. It is " the trump of God." This is
the goal and guerdon. So the Patriarch exclaimed: "Thou
shalt call, and I will answer thee: thou wilt have a desire to the
work of thy hands."* Give the Apostle heaven itself without
this, — robe and crown and mansion, — and he " counts not that
he has apprehended" the full prize "for which he was appre
hended of Christ Jesus ;" he feels himself far from his absolute
inauguration of glory and gladness; "he has not already attained,
* Job xiv. 15.

352 the resurrection of the just.
neither is he already perfect." He will set none other bounds,
he will brook none other limits, to his career than those which
the Great Master has appointed, nor accept any inferior meed
and diadem than that which He has proposed.
The Deduction is irresistible. What must be that sequel
which can so fix, impress, and overwhelm, such a mind, — so
stored with truth, so visited with illapse, so far-darting with
revelations, — that, while an instantaneous heaven lies before it, —
the spirit's rest and home ! — it is carried over it, is transported
beyond it, — as if it could not stay nor stoop its flight, — to* more
ample enjoyments, to more glowing splendours, to more illustri
ous dignities, — though that present heaven is so irradiated with
beauty that we might imagine there could be no more matured
loveliness, though it is so glorious that heart cannot conceive
how it should be lost in a glory which excelleth !
The Subject is most interesting. It has its proper place in
the Christian theology. This place has, we think, been depre
ciated and dislodged. The neglect and removal have thrown
other truths out of their proportion. Wild errors have risen
up among us. Their antidote only can be found in consistent
Christianity. The rank which it gives to the resurrection of the
believer cannot be low and indifferent, provided that this lan
guage express its spirit and fulfil its purpose : " If by any means
I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead."
I. What is that entire satisfaction and climax for
which the text teaches us to long and labour ?
The doctrine of the Resurrection is proper to Scripture. The
immortality of the soul was not unknown as an idea and a hope
by the wiser and better Pagans. Even this was to them a broken,
troubled, dream. But that the body should be restored, its
structure reorganised, its identity preserved, was an imagining
too bold for human thought in its most philosophical exercise.
Poetry never fabled it among its sweetest inventions. The light
which is set and clear in our firmament never glanced most fit
fully, never gleamed most dimly, upon the heathen mind. The
Epicurean and Stoick at Athens accounted the opinion not less
strange than it would have seemed to any barbarous tribe.

THE RESURRECTION OF THE JUST. 353
But it is not only a doctrine peculiar to Scripture, it is reite
rated by it. It is not the distinct discovery of Christianity. It
is found in both Testaments. It is, however, by the latter
more conspicuously made known. " Our Saviour Jesus Christ
hath brought life and incorruption to light by the gospel :" that
is, hath revealed to us both the life of the soul and the impe-
rishableness of the body.
And it is the uniform statement, or supposition, of Scripture,
that the resurrection of all shall be simultaneous. " And the
many that sleep in the dust shall awake, some to everlasting life,
and some to shame and everlasting contempt." " The hour is
coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his
voice, and shall come forth ; they that have done good, unto the
resurrection of life ; and they that have done evil, unto the resur
rection of damnation." " But this I confess, that after the way
which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, And
have hope toward God, that there shall be a resurrection of the
dead, both of the just and unjust." It is but one event. " I
know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day."
"And this is the will of Him that sent me, that every one that
seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life :
and I will raise him up at the last day." The one event is
instantaneous, — " in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye."
Judgment, therefore, is always represented as immediately
succeeding this universal resurrection. "When the Son of man
shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then
shall he sit upon the throne of his glory : And before him shall
be gathered all nations." Everlasting results ensue. "And I
saw the dead, small and great, stand before God ; and the books
were opened : And the sea gave up the dead which were in it ;
and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them :
and they were judged every man according to his works."
Yet it is not unnatural, that sometimes the common event of
the resurrection should be specially regarded and personally
applied. In the language of Paul to the Corinthians, it is argued
in the case of believers from their union with Christ, — he there
fore restricts himself to them, and mentions not the wicked who
A A

354 THE RESURRECTION OF THE JUST.
shall rise for reasons which are totally different. He knows that
when he himself shall be raised, thousands may rise at his side who
would that they might never have arisen, — a recall to them of hor
ror and despair, — and yet he seeks that by any means he may attain
unto the resurrection of the dead. Our Lord proclaims this pecu
liarity of resurrection : "But they which shall be counted worthy
to obtain the resurrection of the dead." Think of the opposite
destiny of the righteous and wicked in that day, and you will see
why that which is hailed by some is deprecated by others. It
may be replied that this very writer has affirmed, that " the dead
in Christ shall rise first."* First, in priority, of whom ? Of those
who have never died, — who " are* alive and remain unto the
coming of the Lord," — who shall not " sleep" but only " be
changed." These shall not " prevent," or go to heaven before,
the risen saints. — And in the Apocalypse we read : " Blessed and
holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection." But that
resurrection is not of bodies : it is that of " the souls of them who
were beheaded for the witness of Jesus." Such a resurrection
must be as mystical as is the necessary interpretation of the other
symbols in this book. The idea is of a spiritual conflict. He
who sat on the white horse hath overcome by the sharp sword
which goeth out of his mouth. That this is not literal warfare,
may be proved by the very image employed. It is His word.
Error is overcome by truth. But the possibility of the recur
rence of evil is not destroyed. Then suspended errors may revive.
Ancient evils may be resuscitated. " The remnant," " the rest of
the dead," are not seen for the " thousand years." Through this
period the holy and the faithful live and reign. It is a long
term of spiritual piety and of uncorrupted truth. The best
annals of the church on earth are restored. Its martyrs and ex
amples, in their devotedness, live again. This is the " first resur
rection," having nothing to do with the renovation of the flesh,
but formally opposed to it, divided from it by this millenium,
and only another figure for that state of religion which the mille
nium popularly describes, — but no more sensible than was the
prophet's vision of the dry bones, or the apostle's delineation of
» 1 Thess. iv. 16.

THE RESURRECTION OF THE JUST. 355
those whom, having been dead in sins, God hath quickened and
raised together with Christ. So the Saviour said " Elias is come
already :" it was not he but John who " came in his power and
spirit." The mind of the holiest and best of the departed, shall
be given back to our world. " Man lieth down, and riseth not:
till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised
out of their sleep."
We conclude that the'writer of the Text desired but a share
in the general resurrection, attended as that event would be, to
him and all the people of God, with consequences of surpassing
happiness and glory. " Hidden in the grave," he should then
emerge as a conqueror and a king. It must be to him special as
his character and reward. The act of rising again may be most
fearful : it shall be followed with wide-spread consternation : " all
kindreds of the earth shall wail." The wicked shall cry to the
mountains and the rocks, Fall on us and hide us ! It is, however,
common only in the act, — the Great Division of man is then, for
the first time, made known. The Resurrection is the harvest of
both wheat and tares, but that the Husbandman may bind them
in their respective sheaves and bundles ! It is the gathering of
both sheep and goats, but that the Shepherd may separate them
one from another ! To the unrighteous, it is a " leading forth
with the workers of iniquity :" the righteous " look up, and lift
up their heads : for their redemption draweth nigh."
Yet, searching into the experience of present Christians, we
do not find that this hope is very distinctly characterised to
them : they are not apparently imbued and inspired by it : they
fall very much below the joy which the earliest saints looked for
and found in its anticipations. Many of these suffer bodily
debility and pain. All of them detect in their material nature
the provocative of temptation and the fuel of sin. " For we that
are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened." The mind is
depressed and agitated. The outward senses are inlets to per
petual strifes and cares. The inferior part of our constitution,
which we call the body, is therefore to be often endured as a
heavy calamity: it is always to be "kept under and brought
into subjection." Nor can we scarcely be amazed that they, who

356 THE RESURRECTION OF THE JUST.
have suffered for dreary years " the thorn in the flesh," " the law
in the members," " the motions of sins," should see little occasion
of gladness in the promise which secures the renewing of that
ingredient in which all these things inhered. Wasting by dis
ease, will the Christian easily delight in any view of that which
has brought him so low and wearied him so long? Buffeted by
conflict, will he readily desire that the cause of defilement and
vexation may be again knitted to his being? It is not to be
denied, that there are thousands, who seem well contented that
their soul shall be saved and glorified, that the spiritual portion
of their creation should be happy according to its largest capacity,
yet all but reckless of that which may befall the body, scarcely
regretting if that companionship should never be restored. Amidst
sharp pangs of ailment and sinking tremours of mortality, —
fightings without and fears within, — the comforter of the mourn
ers is coldly heard and listlessly regarded who shall speak with
fullest stress on a resurrection of the dead. Encouragement is
indeed awakened, hope begins to smile, when they are assured
how different shall be the risen body, how passionlessly ethereal
and pure, — but all the solace, instead of yielding self-evident
delight, must be reasoned and excepted, and even then it too ordi
narily appears to be doubtingly estimated and slowly received.
This is a state of mind to be alike deplored and reprehended.
It is the slight of a matchless good. It is the pause of unworthy
complacency in a most immature destiny. It too nearly ap
proaches that ignoble temper which induced men of old to "put
the word of God from them and to judge themselves unworthy
of eternal life." If we be Christians, nothing will satisfy us, in
our prayers and in our hopes, short of the resurrection of the
dead !
When the Christian dies, his soul leaves his body. It is
a decease or departure. It is an exodus. That withdrawment
is proper death. The union of the two was held by animal
life. That has ceased. The body consequently decays. The
soul is now divided from its frame, and is separate. It lives,
but we know not how it lives. It acts, but we know not
how it acts. It is not in a condition such as the Maker

THE RESURRECTION OF THE JUST. 357
originally intended. It is not the person of the man. It is not
the integer man. It is the dividual. The human being is incom
plete. It can only feel, in respect of itself, correspondently.
There are deprivation and failure, and it must be conscious of
them. It is under a certain influence of death. Though " God
is not the God of the dead but of the living, for all live unto
him," — yet are they called the dead, for it is thus " showed that
the dead are raised." " They are the dead in Christ." It is a
part of death that their spirits are alone in heaven. So our Lord
was humbled. When He died, his spirit was that day in Para
dise. The law and power of death were upon him in that disem
bodiment. He had descended into the deep. He was brought
up again from the dead. It was release, but it was not triumph.
The third day, which witnessed his resurrection, was the day of
exaltation. All between that and his ascension was voluntary
delay. They are but one event. The Surety of his followers was
just affected as they are still. His spirit dwelt apart, ere his body
and spirit were welcomed to heaven. It was by this two- fold
stage that He entered into his glory. It is by this two-fold stage
that they must be glorified together with him. He went forth
into eternity, first of all, in the nakedness of his spirit, and then
he rose from the dead : they go forth so despoiled and denatu
ralised, until the investiture of their resurrection.
There is one passage of Scripture which seems so clearly to
speak of the immediate happiness of the soul which has aban
doned the present scene, that we cannot but point it out, and the
more that it is so commonly misunderstood. It declares the resi
dence which it has found, and supposes a congeniality between
the occupant and the dwelling. " We know that if our earthly
house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of
God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For
in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our
house which is from heaven : If so be that being clothed we
shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle
do groan, being burdened : not for that we would be unclothed,
but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life."*
* 2 Cor. v. 1—4.

358 THE RESURRECTION OF THE JUST.
This "earthly house" is not our present body, for then the "build
ing of God" must be that body when raised. How can that be
"our house from heaven?" But here we are tenants of a frail
earthly system: if it were "dissolved," as it is destined to dis
solve, our celestial palace is secure. Even now we leave, that is
in our spirits, the earthly for the heavenly house. The departing
spirit is not "destitute," whatever be the change. It is not
"unhoused,"* but acquires by its transition from earth a "per
manent abode." It is subsequently to this figure, — which has no
reference to the body, but only to the present earth, — -that a new
comparison is drawn, that of the body as a tenement and of
the soul as its guest. And who does not see, that the argument
requires that the House be now existing, that the weary spirit
now seeks to enter into it, that access is open, that it finds
in those many mansions the repose and joy it wants? "We
have a building."
" Them who sleep in Jesus shall God bring with him." The
covenant relation between Him and them, death cannot annul.
They "die in the Lord." The immediate transition of the be
liever's soul to heaven gives consistency to his resurrection. That
is but of the body. It is not a new creation of his manhood. The
higher life was never interrupted. "Who died for us, that,
whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him."
The physical system which was interrupted is repaired. Instead,
therefore, of opposing these truths to each other, we mark their
mutual dependence and perfect harmony.
As it " is not incredible that God should raise the dead," so
we must believe that a proper identity is involved in the act. It
is the self-same body that shall rise. The small cavilings of wit
and sophistry we care not to refute. We surely need not be
informed of the corporeal changes and exhaustions. We will
* There can be no doubt that the primitive verb Aura, signifies to "enter in :"
prepositions, such as etn, ti, and ex, lend it their varying meaning. To " clothe" is
only an analogic sense : the inhabitant of a house may, figuratively, be said to
be clothed with it. But the translation ought in this instance to have been the
literal. It is now confusing and inelegant. " Not that we would go forth from
the house of earth, save that we may go into that house of God which is eternal
in the heavens."

THE RESURRECTION OF THE JUST. 359
not deny that there is no particle, solid or fluid, which subsisted
years ago. We will concede far more than we are bound to
concede. What then ? Does any man deny the continuity of
processes which made that body one ? Was it not his blood,
whenever it might be spilt ? Was it not his nerve, whenever it
might be agonised ? It is his own flesh which he nourisheth and
cherisheth. And this event is its restitution, not only for every
moral purpose, but in every degree of meaning which can obtain
among the common ideas of mankind. If we "err," — in subtle
speculation and impious unbelief, — it is that we " do not know
the Scriptures nor the power of God."
But we are called to contemplate a resurrection " unto ever
lasting life." It shall not be of the flesh and blood which we
now behold, and which cannot inherit the kingdom of God. It
is the expansion of some seminal principle in them. There is
sowed the animal body. It is described as a growth. The seed
but unfolds itself, according to its own outworking, into every
graceful texture and hue, into every delicious sweetness and fra
grance. Even of matter, sentient or inorganic, there are various
kinds and forms. There are bodies terrestrial and celestial : tel
lurian and astral, bright in reflected or embodied light. From
the " animal," shall emerge the " spiritual," body. We are
asked, What is a " spiritual body ?" We cannot tell. We are
asked, Is it not a contradiction in terms ? We answer, no. Do
we not somewhat understand what is intended by " the carnal
mind ?" That is equally self-contradictory. It is a mind which
has become so gross by sensuality, so corrupt by sin, that it
seems to have sunk down into an inferior rank of existence. That
man is "the brutish person." In the same manner, may we not
suppose that the spiritual body is the vehicle and volumen
which has become so refined, and so adapted to the spirit, that
it seems to have risen to a nobler elevation of being than that
which is duly its own ?
Our Lord said : " Destroy this body and temple, and I will
raise it again in three days." His body was the same : but was it
not the subject of many glorious transformations? Still we, by
no means, would defend any confusion of the phsenomena of mind

360 THE RESURRECTION OF THE JUST.
and matter. We hold that their attributes, by which only they
may be distinguished, cannot be interchanged. We protest
against the possibility of a single manifestation being common to
them. The resurrection is an evolution of matter. This order
of subsistence may be, however, inconceivably purified and en
riched. We even now see the proof. Light is matter, or the
vibration of molecular particles which are. Music is but the
impulsion of invisible atmospheric waves. The aroma of herbs
and flowers is but the divisibility of inappreciable atoms which
they diffuse. Material bodies are already in heaven. Enoch
was translated in undying complement, and it was, while walk
ing in all the duties of external as well as hidden obedience, that
God took him. Elijah mounted the chariot of fire, and he was
rapt from earth as he " went on and talked," sense and limb
borne hence as well as soul. These men " saw not death." It
may be that they, who rose when their graves opened amidst the
prodigies of the Crucifixion, followed the ascending Saviour into
his glorious kingdom. He is there in the entireness of our
nature ! When He was seen after his installation on his throne,
he was yet the Son of man, in all the proportions of humanity,
its perfect frame, — the head, the eyes, the right hand, the feet,
the countenance, — though the head was covered with the brightest
refulgence, though the eyes were as a flame of fire, though the
right hand was filled with stars, though the feet were as fine
brass glowing in the furnace, though the countenance was as the
sun shining in its strength ! And He is the pattern as well as
the author of this transformation: "Who shall change our hu
miliated body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious
body, according to the working whereby he is able even to
subdue all things unto himself."
This we believe to be the scripture account of the doctrine of
the Resurrection. We indulge no fancy, we pursue no specula
tion. That he might attain to it, Paul pours out all the earnest
ness, and puts forth all the effort, of his soul. It may, then, be
proper to investigate those issues which it involves. We can
only learn them from an inspired authority. We proceed, there
fore, to enquire :

THE RESURRECTION OF THE JUST. 361
II. What are the scriptural representations of its
ACCOMPANIMENTS AND CONSEQUENCES ?
We are required to do little more than to attend to the colla
tion of certain passages, and the induction of certain facts, con
tained in the Sacred Writings. What will this august event
embrace ?
1. It is more than an inference that the saints in heaven shall
possess a power of recognising, at least, all those whom they
have known in holy fellowships on earth. We think that the
certainty of such recognition is divinely affirmed. But it may
not have occurred to some that every text, on which this truth is
commonly supported, stands in reference to the resurrection. We
deny it not of disembodied spirits. We think it may be inferred.
Is violence done to their memory, and can their love be changed ?
Can a spirit made perfect be wanting in sympathies which so
much purified it from imperfection ? Can that which was made
glad by pure affections be now robbed of that gladness ? We
must, however, allow that it is but a sound deduction drawn by
ourselves. It is not declared. How different are the declarations
which explain the remembrances, the greetings, the affections, of
those, who were associated on earth, when they shall arise at the
last day ! " Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus
shall raise us up also by Jesus, and shall present us with you."
" Then we which remain alive shall be caught up together with
them (for ' whom we sorrowed') in the clouds, to meet the Lord
in the air." "For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing?
Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his
coming ?" " That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of
God, without rebuke,  that I may rejoice in the day of Christ,
that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain." " Now
we beseech you by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our
gathering together unto him." It is only " when that which is
perfect has come," that we shall "see face to face," and "know
even as we are known."
2. The happiness of our future condition is made very chiefly
to depend upon the resemblance of our nature to Christ. We
are to be conformed to Him. In the perfection of this confor-

362 THE RESURRECTION OF THE JUST.
mity our reward will consist. The impress is strong undoubtedly
upon the soul at rest. But it is when the saint arises from his
grave that these lineaments shall receive their fullest expression
and latest grace. "As for me, I will behold Thy face in right
eousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness."
"We know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like him;
for we shall see him as he is." It is not the simple maturity of
moral resemblance, of that same mind in us which was also in
Christ Jesus : " it is the likeness of His resurrection."
3. There shall be a different acknowledgment of the disci
ples of Christ, in this event, than any which they have hitherto
obtained. Here they were unknown. The world hated them.
When they died, the angels were impalpable which bore their
spirits to heaven. Though precious in the sight of the Lord was
their death, no open honours were done them. It was not as the
rising up of a host. There was not a blowing of trumpets. They
seem to steal to bliss. Their dust is unrecorded. They are "out
of mind." Yet their names are to be confessed ! They shall shine
forth as the sun ! But this ratification is reserved until the event
which we now consider. It is " the manifestation of the sons
of God." They shall be publicly avowed to be " the children
of God, being the children of the resurrection." Thus " when
He shall appear we may have confidence and not be ashamed
before him at his coming."
4. High honour is destined for Christians. They shall be
glorified with their Master and Head. The idea is of their par
ticipation, as far as capacity will allow, in all His reward. They
sit down on his throne. They come to judgment with him.
But while the spirit is parted from the body, this cannot be.
In the reunion of these, they enjoy the complete fruition. "When
Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear
with him in glory." "When the Chief Shepherd shall appear, ye
shall receive a crown of glory which fadeth not away." " Hence
forth," cried the Apostle of the Gentiles, "there is laid up for
me a crown of righteousness," — he sees it, its glory dazzles him,
it is furnished with all its circlets,. it is studded with all its gems !
— still it is not at death, but at the resurrection, that it is to be

THE RESURRECTION OF THE JUST. 363
placed upon his brow, — " which the Lord, the righteous Judge,
shall give me at that day," — the day of " his appearing." We
see in the radiant forms which press upon our believing view,
and in the tributes rendered to them, the determination of Christ
to signalise his disciples. " Gather my saints together unto me ;
those who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice." How
are the poor enriched ! How are the feeble strengthened ! How
are the aged renovated ! How are the despised disabused !
5. Until then, the excellencies of the regenerate remain but
little known. They were the meek of the earth and the quiet of
the land. Patient was their continuance in well-doing. They
craved not to be seen of men. They lived in obscurity and
were covered with reproach. Their goodness often revealed itself,
but it was in partial exhibitions and with broken rays. Feeling
themselves, when they had done all, to be unprofitable servants,
— knowing that they could not be saved by works of righteous
ness which they had done, — every virtue was chastened by diffi
dence and shaded by humility. They cannot understand, in the
great day of their vindication, how the excellencies can attach to
them which are then rehearsed : " Lord, when saw we thee an
hungered, and fed thee? when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and
came unto thee?" In their mortal state, their principles were
subjected to constant test. Their deeds of benevolence were
exceeded by the deeds of suffering patience and humble meekness.
These shall now be resounded through the arches of the sky :
" That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than
of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be
found unto praise, and honour, and glory, at the appearing of
Jesus Christ."
6. This is the full reward. Only " then shall the King say
to them on the right hand, Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit
the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world."
" If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and
receive you unto myself ; that where I am, there ye may be also."
"Thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just."
" They go in to the wedding." " They enter through the gate
into the city." " To you who are troubled rest with us, when the

364 THE RESURRECTION OF THE JUST.
Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels."
Thus all connected with it is final. It is made the consummation
of hope and desire. " I pray God your whole spirit and soul and
body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ." The former part of the Book of Revelation seems laid
in heaven as it now is, — the heaven of disembodied spirits ; but
its latter scenes are represented in the heaven of glorified bodies
as restored to their spirits. How negative is the description of
the one in comparison with the other ! The first speaks more of
exemption: the second recites substantial and definite delight and
service ! While it is only a state of disparted existence, it is not
intimated that death has ceased : when it is the condition of inte
gral existence, the announcement is made, "There shall be no more
death !" Earth at that period exists : in this, it has passed away!
Then, when all present things are dissolved, the elements, the
ultimate essences, of things, — a scene shall open until then un
known, — "We look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein
dwelleth righteousness."
Many of the noblest portions of Scripture refer to this con
summation. " Then the end." Sometimes it is proposed in
argument, and the argument assumes an unexpected shape. It
stands in an inverted course. Instead of deducing the resurrec
tion from the facts of the evangelic history and the principles of
the evangelic doctrine, it is made the basis on which they are
built. " But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then Christ
is not risen. For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised."
At other times it is drawn out into beautiful description. " I
reckon that the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to
be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us by the
resurrection. For the earnest expectation of our present mortal
nature waiteth, straineth, for the manifestation of the sons of God
which shall be given by that event. For that physical condition
or nature was made subject to vanity or perversion in sin and
suffering and death, — not willingly, — it was in consequence of an
arrangement independent of it, leaving it unconsulted, — but by
the wise and just sentence of Him who thus visited the failure of
a federal probation, — not, however, without the Hope that this

THE RESURRECTION OF THE JUST. 365
human condition should be delivered from the bondage of corrup
tion, or the grave, and itself partake in the glorious liberty of the
children of God, — that the body should share the privileges of
adoption which the soul had already known. It is obvious that
such physical constitution of universal man groaneth and travail-
eth in pain together until now. Every where it lies under this
subjection. And not only is this true in general, but we, instead
of enjoying any respite because of being the sons of God, even
we, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, do groan within our
selves like other men, waiting for our perfect adoption, namely,
the redemption, the reclamation, of the body, until then held
by death."*
We, therefore, find that the righteous are described in Scrip
ture as earnestly seeking and exultingly hailing this resurrection.
They are represented to us in the attitude of imploring their
Lord's return. They have seen him go into heaven, and believe
that he shall so come in like manner. " For our conversation is
in heaven : from whence we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus
Christ." " Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious ap
pearing of the great God and our Saviour." " To all them that
love his appearing." " Looking for and hasting unto the coming
of the day of God." " The Lord direct your hearts into the love
of God and into the patient waiting for Christ." " Hope to the
end for the grace which shall be brought unto you at the revela
tion of Jesus Christ." " Behold He cometh with clouds ! Even
so, Amen." " He saith, surely I come quickly ! Amen. Even
so, come, Lord Jesus." It is plain, that this is the high foresight
of Christians, the throbbing hope they can scarcely chasten, the,
* Rom. viii. 18 — 23. This seems to me the true meaning. The word Ktws
occurs four times in tbe quotation. It is the word which, in Mark xvi. 15, is ren
dered " creature," that is, man. It here represents man in his present condition of
an outward kind, his body or flesh. The error of interpretation appears to be, in
taking for granted that it is a figure of speech. No prosopopoeia is to be understood.
Of course the translations, " creature" and " creation" cannot both be right. The
latter utterly misleads. We think at once of a terrestrial scene. We turn to some
change of the planet. I am aware that my paraphrase is diffuse. Perhaps "life"
might express the purport of xnms in this connection. But it would not convey
to most minds the meaning which the exegesis demands.

366 THE RESURRECTION OF THE JUST.
onward speed they can ill restrain. What justifies all this vehe
mence of desire and expectation ?
— It is the Triumph of Christ. We know that this is still a
hostile world. We see not yet all things put under him. One
enemy is peculiarly raging and powerful. It is the last that shall
be destroyed. It is conquered, it is doomed, but it exists, and,
in all visible effects, is what it was from the beginning. Our
defiance is premature. We cannot now insult over it and cry :
" O grave, where is thy victory ? O death, where is thy sting ?"
Its victory is marked by too fearful ensigns : its sting is attested
by too envenomed wounds. But then He shall have come who
of old exclaimed : " O death, I will be thy plagues ; O grave,
I will be thy destruction : repentance shall be hid from my eyes."
It shall be then abolished in reality as it is now by authority ; it
shall be swallowed up in victory as it is now baffled by it ; it shall
be cast out as an abominable thing. Trace of it shall not exist.
Memorial of it shall not endure. The Resurrection is its over
throw and its extirpation. We " know that our Redeemer liveth,
and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth : And
though after our skin worms destroy these bodies, yet in our
flesh shall we see God." It is the epoch of His glory. His
renown shall be full. His greatness shall be declared. All his
enemies are made his footstool. Satan has long since writhed,
and Death now grovels, beneath his tread. In this triumph well
may his followers rejoice. It is their deliverance. But for His
sake, whom they love, their rejoicing shall not be the less.
" That when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad with
.exceeding joy." "When he shall come to be glorified in his
saints, and admired in all them that believe." " That we may
be glorified together."
— It is the Redemption of the believer. " Ye are bought
with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your
spirit, which are God's." Our " outer," as well as " inner, man,"
is, then, a subject of this purchase. We are now " redeemed from
the curse of the law." We now " have redemption in the blood
of Christ, the forgiveness of sins." We now are "justified by the
redemption that is in Christ Jesus." We now have " the seal of

THE RESURRECTION OF THE JUST. 367
the Spirit and the earnest of the inheritance." These present gifts
look forward " unto the day of redemption." The body is now,
in the surviving effects of our fall, " carnal, sold under sin."*
The resurrection will be its "redemption." The body is now
" the purchased possession." Christ is, in this view, after he has
been set forth as " made unto us, wisdom, righteousness, sanc
tification," — blessings of the soul, — asserted to be " made unto
us redemption." He will subvert and destroy every tendency of
death. We shall live by him. Salvation, in its perfect accom
plishment, is thus spoken of as delayed. It is something more
than "the end of our faith, the salvation of our soul." " Unto
them that look for Him shall he appear the second time without
sin unto salvation."
— It is the Restitution of our entire nature. God made us
with a material conformation as well as intellectual principle.
We are aware of the one by sensation and of the other by con
sciousness. These were given for reciprocal help. Neither can
be properly independent. The dependence, indeed, is not equal.
The body cannot live at all without the soul : the soul can exist
without the body. But that separate existence is disadvanta
geous and imperfect. It is, indeed, rendered to the departed
Christian happy and glorious. But we must believe that a new
Power is at work upon it to make it this. Many embarrassments
must require to be overcome. It is not agreeable to the laws of
the first creation. It is the introduction of a new form of being.
It is to us very, if not altogether, unintelligible. We can frame
no idea of disembodied mind. We cannot conceive of it in its
solitary exercise. The body was given to assist it. Their dis-
severment is an evil to both. It is a maimed effect. They shall
be reinstated in that original unity which is now torn asunder.
* Rom. vii. 14. It has often perplexed the reader of this account of Paul's ex
perience, how he could thus designate himself. The inward contest, alas ! we all
find possible and true. But he especially rests his appeal upon the depraved instincts
and workings of his sentient nature, the seat of all concupiscence. It was like a
captive. It was sold to certain consequences of temptation and death " under sin."
He renews the figure (for as a figure must it be treated) in the next chapter, ver. 23.
" The Redemption of the body." It is not to be applied to the sanctified soul, but
only to our earthly and corporeal state.

368 THE RESURRECTION OF THE JUST.
Man shall stand up as God made him, in his first image and like
ness, and be taken a second time out of the ground. He shall be
again pronounced, " very good." What a thought of retribution
is this ! " Fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body
in hell." The two-fold distinction of the one person opens the
sources of a double penal woe. By the same reasoning it may be
proved that the body, when raised in " incorruption, power, and
glory," shall perfect the heavenly happiness of the isolated soul,
by restoring to it the implement of its action and the medium of
its being. Until the resurrection, the Christian, however favoured,
wherever placed, is not himself!
— Purposes will then be indicated which our present mixed
being has not hitherto revealed. The uses of the mind are sig
nificant and declared. We can understand that its capacities
may be always availing. Whithersoever it be translated, we can
conceive of its natural, unconstrained, occupation. The bodily
tenement, or organ, is as intelligible for its place and design in the
present life. It binds us to the external world. It is the only
channel of sensation and impression. In want of it, the mind
would be a nullity for all influence and agency. It would be
destitute of any reflected life. By a special dispensation, as we
suppose, it is fitted for separate existence until the resurrection. .
But what shall be the employment and appropriation of the body
in the celestial state ? What high ends can it subserve ? Its func
tions now are partly gross. " Meats for the belly, and the belly
for meats : but God shall destroy both it and them." All such
ideas are inadmissible in its future form. Yet is there not, even
now, a sacredness thrown around it ? The tongue can minister
grace. Our members may be instruments of righteousness unto
God. " The body is for the Lord, and the Lord for the body."
" Our bodies are the members of Christ." " Know ye not that
your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost ?" The inference is
easy, — that as the body upon earth is the only means by which the
useful activities of the soul can be made effectual, so in heaven it
is the instrument of all objective influence, of all benevolent
agency, of all access to the creatures who are dwelling there. Not
in solitude is the spirit of the redeemed simply to meditate and

THE RESURRECTION OF THE JUST. 369
adore. Heaven is a blessed society, — the city, the kingdom, the
household. Sympathy is its law. Fellowship is its constitution.
And the flesh, purified of taint and sublimated into imperisha-
bleness, shall be the willing and fitted sensorium for the exercise
of the deepest charities which the soul can know, and for the im
pression of corresponding charities from the like-minded multi
tudes by which it is surrounded.
— A congeniality will thus be established between the risen
saints and the materialism of their glorious abode. They who had
passed thither, — the Antediluvian saint, the Tishbite prophet, —
in their integrity of nature, doubtless had understood it most and
enjoyed it best. We believe it to be related to space. " That
Holy Thing," the Incarnate Christ, the Manhood of our Lord,
is there. Matter needs matter: embodiment requires a similar
externalism. The man, now made whole, can only be happy by
what answers to himself. Upon the order and texture of that
materialism, and upon that sense which ascertains it, we presume
not to speculate. But such must be the facts. Sun and star
cannot represent the one: our frail sensuousness can only very
imperfectly describe the other. It is enough for us to know that,
to perfect our nature, it is necessary to bring us back to what we
were, to realise the first intention of our being. Matter entered
largely into the character of it. Its good was intended, most
certainly, by the addition of that matter to the mere spirit. Until
that matter, whatever is its nucleus, be revived, we live not as
we were " fearfully and wonderfully" framed to live. That su-
perincumbence must suggest no thought of sickness, lassitude,
decay, oppression, resistance, death. It stands to the soul in
every relation of design, adjustment, affinity. It is a vesture of
light transparent to all its expressions ! It is the chariot of its
speed ! It is the shrine of its ministry ! It is the wing of its
immortality ! And what must be all that encircles it ! How fair
those scenes its eye- can behold ! How deep those harmonies its
ear can imbibe ! How pure those beams which shine around its
step ! How bright those skies which are spread out for its
expatiation ! The Forerunner hath for us entered ! He hath
gone to prepare a place for us !
b b

370 THE RESURRECTION OF THE JUST.
— In this reintegration of our manhood shall be displayed the
most perfect spectacle of the beauty of holiness. The mind has
been, since its conversion, in a course of sanctification. It has
passed at death to all the purity of which the liberated spirit can
partake. " He that is dead is free from sin." It was long de
pressed by the body, and has wearied of the conjunction. It saw
that this separation was necessary for itself to be made perfect.
But the Holy Ghost has taught us that, in this life, the " vessel
is to be kept in sanctification and honour." He has declared his
final purpose concerning it : " 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." Body cannot be intelligent, however it be
refined : it cannot, therefore, even in heaven, be sanctified as is
the soul. It is unsusceptible of holy motive. But its lower
appetites may be taken away. Its evil promptings may be tho
roughly rectified. It may be adapted to all the purity of that
which is its life and guest. It may be the becoming palace and
the worthy tabernacle of him who is king and priest unto God.
When such different entities shall combine not only in one person
but one effect, — when not a sin is possible in either, — when holi
ness, according to their laws, is common to both,— then shall we
be "sanctified wholly." Holiness will then be exemplified in all its
doings as well as in all its principles. We shall then know what
that scripture meaneth, — " To the end the Lord may establish
your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father,
at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints !"
— Pledge arises out of these assurances, that there shall be an
endless progression of meliorating and exalting dispensations in
the Divine conduct towards them who are glorified. Perpetual
youth may illustrate their strength : but theirs is ancient wisdom
and profound maturity. Yet the nature, which is developed in
them, forbids restriction. They follow on to know and to im
prove. They soar towards the infinite. Their heart and their
flesh crieth out for the living God.
This we receive as the scripture account of the Doctrine.
But we would not allow the supereminence which distinguishes

THE RESURRECTION OF THE JUST. 371
it, to shade down any other truth. It cannot be denied that
some persons have been so engrossed with it, that they have made
too light of the precious discovery which we possess concerning
the Christian's departed soul. They have spoken of the soul
when disembodied as existing in a dim and dreaming state.
Notwithstanding astute objection,* we are disposed to think
that the vision of Paul was one, and that he speaks of the third
heaven and of paradise as the same. Why should we set one
fact against the other ? The felicity of the separated soul is the
most desirable good, next to the Resurrection of the dead ! But
this must be our last ambition, our chief joy !
But this is not placed in the light of an independent, inevi
table, event. It is to be essayed. It is brought under the power
of certain means. While the simple act must occur, whatever
be our will, — its character and bearing depend upon ourselves.
"If by any means I may attain unto the resurrection of the
dead." III. What are the determinations by which it is to
BE WON? The Manner, or the Method, by which it is to be attained,
primarily supposes far higher means than those we can command.
We would not separate "Jesus and the resurrection." We can
only look to the Atonement of Christ. It is "the power of His
resurrection" which secures our confidence. " The God and Fa
ther of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to his abundant mercy,
hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of
Jesus Christ." But this hope pertains to that which is "reserved
in heaven :" and to a " salvation" which is only " ready to be
revealed in the last time." The means, however, in this connec
tion, refer not to the causative, but to the moral : to the influence
of our present character and conduct on this event.
We often mark the impression of our former conduct upon
our present condition. Every deed, however distant, seems to
be living on, not only in inducing habit but by entailing conse
quence. Those of childhood affect us still. And this connection
we must not confine to different portions of the same life ; we
* See Campbell's Dissertation on 'ASd; and Titmt.

372 THE RESURRECTION OF THE JUST.
must transfer the thought of such connection from our present
life to that which is to come. We exist and act for all the future
of our immortality. We now weave the robes with which our
nature shall be clad at the last day.
There is, therefore, a resurrection pourtrayed to us more
solemn than even that of our quickened flesh. The entire series
of all that has constituted responsible thought and word and
deed, shall reappear. " Every one shall receive the things done
in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good
or bad." " Every man shall find according to his ways." All
is not only to be brought to light, but is traced in its issue and
weighed in its effect. The whole past becomes suddenly animated ;
a searching out, as from their graves of oblivion, vivifies every
bidden thing; forgotten acts resume their former shape and teem
with their former motive ; they rise up on every side ; they press
upon their proper agents ; they point individually ; they testify
aloud. " Seeing that we look for such things, be diligent that ye
may be found of Him in peace, without spot, and blameless."
— What Prayer should we devote to this Attainment ! It
should spring forward to that morning in which the upright shall
have dominion, and the saints shall be arrayed in the comely
garments of their royal state. It should find motive, in that great
revolution of all things, for its warmest strength and boldest plea.
Is it possible that we have never given one petition to it ? Can
we think of corruption putting on incorruption, of mortal putting
on immortality, and not be excited to importunate desires that
we may thus attain unto the resurrection of the dead? Why
should we limit prayer while aught remains unperfected ? We
admit that this event follows in a certain course. The happy
soul shall receive a corresponding frame. But the degree of its
glory, the measure of its blessedness, are not unconditional.
And why should we not pour out our hearts in earnest supplica
tion for this the crowning blessing of all ? We should not know
what to pray for as we ought, but for promise: that which is
promised, instead of relaxing the ardour of prayer, is the direc
tory of its exercise and the assurance of its fulfilment. Every
holy aspiration now towards the resurrection will be remembered,

THE RESURRECTION OF THE JUST. 373
answered, and accomplished, in its fairer lustre and more glorious
dignity. — What Anticipation should familiarise this Attainment !
Rapt into no indefinite future, but all whose times and seasons
are under a divine charge, — following the dictates of a sure word
of prophecy, — we know that the just shall emerge from their
tombs in a condition of surpassing excellence and joy. It is the
rising of all the great and good that ever lived. They now live
by Christ. Their spirits have entered into peace, "each one
walking in his uprightness." But they, also, "rest in their
beds." They are "both dead and buried, and their sepulchres
are with us unto this day." When all start to life, when all
tower in majesty, when prophets and kings and righteous men
" appear in glory," then will the harvest of the earth be ripe, and
then shall the earth be reaped. And should not our minds be
filled with every image and every description which shadows the
event, — should we not throw ourselves upon the mighty scene, —
should we not seek to be carried out in the Spirit of the Lord,
that he wouldfcSet us down in the valley full of bones, and cause
us to pass by them round about ? It was in this vision, of the
Redeemer raising his saints, that the ancient prophet exclaimed,
— " Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold and
not another : my reins are consumed in me !" that is : All my
prayers are answered, all my desires are granted, all my inmost
intents, are realised ! Can we be indifferent to such jubilee, caa
we but reach forth to such a " weight of glory ?"
— What Preparation should facilitate this Attainment ! We
keep our heart, we watch our soul. But there is a sentient and
material fellowship to these. There is an outward volumen.
This at given periods declines. " The keepers of the house trem
ble and the strong men bow themselves. The silver cord is
loosed and the golden bowl is broken." At last it dies, it moul
ders, it disappears. This is the subject of the resurrection.
Moreover, this body instigates much sloth and evil. Would we
that it should rise, — the flesh which we never learnt to thwart
nor were habituated to subdue ? Would we embrace it in all its
waywardness and all its oppressiveness? A special discipline

374 THE RESURRECTION OF THE JUST.
does it require and will it repay. " Mortify therefore your
members which are upon the earth." "Yield your members
servants to righteousness unto holiness." " He that soweth to
his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption ; but he that soweth
to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting." Let
us guard and refine every grosser sense. Let us make a cove
nant with our eyes. Let us set a watch upon our lips. Should
we pamper for sin that which we hope shall be raised for holi
ness ? Should we pervert the proper powers of that which we
hope shall be raised for its original purpose ? Should we turn
into a foul and hateful tyrant of the soul that which we hope
shall be raised in perfect subjection to it ? Should we defile that
which we hope shall be raised as the instrument of a taintless
purity ? Shall we not harden it to resist unto blood striving
against sin ? Shall we not teach it to die daily, even crucifying
it with its affections and lusts ? Shall we not rather now train
it for exercise unto godliness, begin to attire it in its celestial
white, and prepare it for its noble destination ?
— What Counterpart should we exhibit of this Attainment !
We believe that after our bodies shall have slept, it may be, for
ages, a " calling from on high" shall be heard. We believe that
the Saviour has thus spoken, and will thus speak : " Thy dead
men shall live: as my dead body shall they arise. Awake and
sing, ye that dwell in dust : for thy dew is as the dew of herbs,
and the earth shall cast out the dead." What shall we be then !
What solemn forms shall throng the mighty surface of our earth !
All that are Christ's at his coming ! How strange shall we be to
ourselves ! What a beam shall fall on the outward shape as
though turning to the soul's essence ! It is the image of the
heavenly ! It is the similitude of God ! And shall our present
life be past as in ungraceful, indecorous, incoherence and con
trast ? What manner of persons ought we to be ! We may now
stand on the actual spot where our feet shall rest at the resurrec
tion ! These scenes which we now behold may be the witnesses
of our suddenly reunited elements of being ! Among our fellows,
in city and in church, the first flash of our splendour may break !
Should we not now declare ourselves? Should not our whole

THE RESURRECTION OF THE JUST. 375
conversation comport with such a prospect? Should we not
manifest that we are already risen with Christ, and that we now
sit with him in heavenly places? Should not the temple be so
unprofaned that, when taken down, it may be deposited and ar
ranged for the most easy erection again ? Should we not, as more
than conquerors, be so prepared for this triumph, that we may
have nothing left to do but to wipe the dust of death from our
deathless brows?
To incite us towards this Attainment there are two views,
which, must impress our minds.
The first is, the relation which the present happy spiritualism
of deceased saints bears to the resurrection. They exclaim:
" How long, O Lord, how long ?" This is not the precise refer
ence of their cry : but they seek, in this prayer, the evolution,
stage after stage, of the Divine plan which will then be fulfilled.
And this is probably the true comparison, — that as we now desire
to depart and be with Christ in a disembodied state, a blessing
immense in itself, — though a blessing granted with a humbling
reservation and condition, — so are they, to speak most cautiously,
not less intent, now that they have reached that prize, to attain
unto this consummation of all blessings. From the present
earth we " are confident and willing rather" to go forth in our
bodiless soul : from yonder heaven their bodiless soul even now
spreads its wings to go forth and meet the embraces of their
rising flesh. To us the resurrection is consequent upon a prior
change: to them it is proximate. "Blessed are the dead which
die in the Lord from henceforth" but from that point a new
hope begins and a higher purpose is projected.
The second thought, calculated to enlarge our ideas of the
resurrection, is furnished by the representation of that interme
diate state itself. It is a relic and disadvantageous condition of
death, though of death as far as possible mitigated. As a part
and consequence of death, it is personified as well as death !
Whithersoever Death may rush, " Hades follows with it :" that
is, the separation of the soul from the body is the necessary effect
of death. It is of Hades that we ask at the resurrection, "Where
is thy victory ?" - It has been a wrong unto the redeemed. It

376 THE RESURRECTION OF THE JUST.
shall be overthrown, that is, not only as a state, but as a sepa
rating power, in the destruction of death. " Death and Hades
shall be cast into the lake of fire, which is the second death."
Oh ! is not this a fulness of times for which all our sojourning
here should be spent ? Is not this a " glory to be revealed in
us," demanding and deserving the employment of all means to
attain unto it? What labour should we forego? What sacri
fice should we regret ? It cannot be too anxiously regarded, too
wistfully sought, too sedulously pursued.
And yet there is something in the death of those we mourn,
and in our own, which makes it difficult for us to anticipate the
perfect blessedness of the risen state, and to concentrate our whole
earnestness upon it. The last look of the beloved ! When we
saw the changing feature, the glazing eye^ the pallid cheek !
There is a more recoiling remembrance ! We took another and
another look of that countenance from which expression had
scarcely passed away. For a little we thought there was a smile.
We imagined that the spirit had left a trace of its rapture upon
the visage. Still came change. Death plied its work  We
"buried our dead out of our sight." That impression haunts
us still. In vain we would evoke the eye of youth and the ver-
muion of health. This thrusts away the vision of beauty. It is
a clinging memory from which we cannot escape. Thinking then
upon the resurrection, that transfixed face, that shrouded form,
seem to revive. We shrink from the embrace. — Faith comes to
our relief. Now we think of beauty touched into celestial grace,
and brightened by immortal radiance. The best estate on earth
is but a faint shadow of the present loveliness. It is a transfi
guration. What a delineation ! What an array ! — And now we
may muse on another view, more personal than relative, of the
resurrection. The body and the spirit are disunited at death.
It is often in struggle, and as amidst contention, that this separa
tion is accomplished. There is mutual weariness and, well-nigh,
disgust. The body is a load. Pains dart through it. Convul
sions seize upon it. The vigour of the soul is impeded. Its tran
quillity is marred. But the body may complain. The soul frets
it by its activity and exhausts it by its vigilance. They are

THE RESURRECTION OF THE JUST. 377
reconciled to part. They are not in their present conditions fitted
for each other. Shall that body be restored ? Can the soul
indulge the aspiration ? — Faith comes to our relief. When that
flesh shall rise, it shall be the perfect auxiliary of the soul. No
intellectual energies shall it depress and clog. Perfect sympathy
binds them. They are like the most exactly attuned chords, —
as two soft-swelling waves meeting on a sunlit sea, and amidst
their own brilliancy and with their own music mingling into one,
— twins of inborn and undivided love and will, — double stars
moving on one centre !
Let us, then, give all diligence to this end. Let us reject
from us every feeling of a low and abject contentedness with
religion as the simple means of safety. Give your spirits up to
a nobler ambition. He who loves not religion for its own sake,
shall never find even the safety which it proclaims. Think how
your soul can excel. Forbid not its emulation. Encourage it to
seek the station nearest to the throne. Pause not even then.
More remains for you to do. Secure a triumph for your dust !
As to every seed is given its own body, plant in the grave the
germ of glory, honour, and immortality. " Deck thyself now with
majesty and excellency ; and array thyself with glory and beauty."
Lay up a precious store for the soul when it is required of you,
that you may be "all glorious within ;" and for the outward man
when it must rise, that your " clothing may be of wrought gold."
Thus will you resemble them who bore all sufferings and perse
cutions, that " they might obtain a better resurrection" ! Thus
will you plead His assurance, — though in a humbler application,
yet scarcely with a restricted meaning, — who, foreseeing the dis
solution of His Human Nature by death, the division of his
soul from his body, and the resurrection of his body for the
return of his soul, — exclaimed : " Thou wilt not leave my soul
in that state of separation, nor suffer thy Holy One to see
corruption !"

SERMON XVI

THE LAST JUDGMENT,

Rev. xx. 11—13.
" AND I SAW A GREAT WHITE THRONE, AND HlM THAT SAT ON IT, FROM
WHOSE FACE THE EARTH AND THE HEAVEN FLED AWAY j AND THERE
WAS FOUND NO PLACE FOR THEM. And I SAW THE DEAD, SMALL AND
GREAT, STAND BEFORE GoD ; AND THE BOOKS WERE OPENED : AND
ANOTHER BOOK WAS OPENED, WHICH IS THE BOOK OF LIFE : AND THE
DEAD WERE JUDGED OUT OF THOSE THINGS WHICH WERE WRITTEN IN
THE BOOKS, ACCORDING TO THEIR WORKS. And THE SEA GAVE UP THE
DEAD WHICH WERE IN IT; AND DEATH AND HELL DELIVERED UP THE
DEAD WHICH WERE IN THEM ; AND THEY WERE JUDGED EVERY MAN
ACCORDING TO THEIR WORKS."
Suffer me to relieve emotions, which the recital of words like
these cannot fail to raise, by an allusion to a well known fact.
When Massillon pronounced one of those discourses, which
have placed him in the first class of orators, he found himself
surrounded by the trappings and pageants of a royal funeral.
The temple was not only hung with sable, but shadowed with
darkness, save the few twinkling lights of the altar. The beauty
and the chivalry of the land were spread out before him. The
censers threw forth their fumes of incense, mounting in wreaths
to the gilded dome. There sat Majesty, clothed in sackcloth and
sunk in grief. All felt in common, and as one. It was a breath
less suspense. Not a sound stole upon the awful stillness. The
master of mighty eloquence arose. His hands were folded on his
breast. His eyes were lifted to heaven. Utterance seemed denied
him. He stood abstracted and lost. At length, his fixed look
unbent; it hurried over the scene, where every pomp was mingled
and every trophy strewn. It found no resting-place for itself

THE LAST JUDGMENT. 379
amidst all that idle parade and all that mocking vanity. Again it
settled ; it had fastened upon the bier, glittering with escutcheons
and veiled with plumes. A sense of the indescribable nothingness
of man "at his best estate," of the meanness of the highest human
grandeur, now made plain in the spectacle of that hearsed mortal,
overcame him. His eye once more closed; his action was sus
pended ; and, in a scarcely audible whisper, he broke the long-
drawn pause — " There is nothing great, but God."
It would be in vain for me to attempt his power of impression ;
but it may not be wrong to covet his depth of feeling. And
while these words are yet vibrating on your ears, and are harrow
ing up your souls, I take the abrupt and sublimely affecting
sentence and mould it to the present theme, — There is nothing
solemn, but Judgment.
The thunder - storm is solemn : when the lightnings, " as
arrows, shoot abroad ;" when the peals startle up the nations ;
when the dread artillery rushes along the sky. But what is it to
that far-resounding crash, louder than the roar and bellow of ten
thousand thunders, which shall pierce the deepest charnels, and
which all the dead shall hear ?
The ocean-tempest is solemn : when those huge billows lift up
their crests ; when mighty armaments are wrecked by their fury ;
when the proudest barks are shattered, broken as the foam, scat
tered as the spray. But what is it to that commotion of the
deep, when "its proud waves" shall no more "be stayed," its
ancient barriers no more be observed, the largest channels be
emptied, and the deepest abyss be dried ?
The earthquake is solemn : when, without a warning, cities
totter, and kingdoms rend, and islands flee away. But what is
it to that tremour which shall convulse our globe, dissolving
every law of attraction, severing every principle of aggregation,
heaving all into chaos and heaping all into ruin ?
The volcano is solemn: when its cone of fire shoots to the
heavens, crimsoning the zenith with its portentous blaze ; when,
from its burning entrails, the lava rushes to overspread distant
plains and to overtake flying peoples. But what is that to
the conflagration, in which all the palaces and the temples and

380 THE LAST JUDGMENT.
the citadels of the 'earth shall be consumed; of which the universe
shall be but the sacrifice and the fuel ?
Great God ! must our eyes see — our ears hear — these desola
tions and distractions ? Must we look forth upon these devouring
flames ? Must we stand in judgment with Thee ? Penetrate us
now with Thy fear ; awaken the attention, which Thy trump shall
not fail to command ; surround our imagination with the scenery
of that great and terrible day ! Let us now come forth from the
graves of sin, of unbelief, of worldliness, to meet the overture of
Thy mercy, as we must perforce start then from our sepulchres
to behold the descending Judge ! Search and try us now, that
Thou mayest not condemn us then ! Let Thy terror now persuade,
that it may not then destroy, us !
Yes, it is no illusion. The heavens shall be as the scorched
scroll of parchment ; this solid earth shall stagger as the drunken
man, and cry as the travailing woman. The period was long since
determined, when time shall have completed its course, when
probation shall have run its measure, and when all the designs of
the present system shall be fulfilled: when the bright lights of
heaven shall die out and be for ever darkened, when " the heavens
shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt
with fervent heat," and " all these things shall be dissolved !"
Remember, that this Judgment can never be modified, can
never be remitted, can never be reversed. It is " Eternal Judg
ment !"
It is the day of God! It is "the judgment of the great day !"
" It is the time of the dead, that they should be judged !" " It
is the revelation of the righteous judgment of God !"
This Passage is full of terrific grandeur. It is the announce
ment of that Event in which we all possess the most momentous
interest. It is more : it is its vivid representation. It is more :
it is its action and evolution. The scene passes before us ! It
lives to us ! We are placed in the midst of it ! We recognise
the awakened throngs ! We hear their piercing cries ! We wit
ness the portending signs ! We behold their unfolding pomp !
How is Nature agitated ! The stars fall from heaven ! The
seas boil in fury ! The forests are charred with the enwrapping

THE LAST JUDGMENT. 381
blaze ! The mountains fall down before the fiery storm, as
shrivelled reeds ! The proudest works of man crumble into
dust ! The Judgment is set ! Its Seat is reared ! The Retinue
gathers ! The Trumpet sounds ! He cometh ! He cometh !
The Throne is filled ! He calleth to the heavens from above,
and to the earth that he may judge his people ! " He shall
judge the world with righteousness, and the people with his
truth." Let us consider the scenery, which shall illustrate this august
assize : the multitude, that shall be summoned to it : the process,
which must direct it.
I. Let us consider the scenery, which shall illus
trate THIS AUGUST ASSIZE.
The " throne" is the emblem of royal dignity. " Only," said
Pharoah to Joseph, "on the throne will I be greater than thou."
It is the symbol of Divine supremacy. " The Lord hath pre
pared His throne in the heavens, and His kingdom ruleth over
all." " His throne is as a fiery flame, and his wheels as burning
fire." It is a " throne of glory," which He will " not disgrace."
It is a " throne of holiness," which He will " remember." It is
a throne of mercy, to which we have access. It is a throne,
which " is for ever and ever." It is a throne, which is " high"
and which is "lifted up." Sometimes "He holdeth back the face
of this throne." Sometimes " clouds and darkness are round
about Him ;" " righteousness and judgment," however, are alike
its "habitation" and its base.
But this "throne" is new to heaven. It is specially furnished;
and He sitteth upon it, who judgeth right.
It is " a great white throne." Refulgent in its purity and
righteousness ; formed of the fleecy vapours, burnished with the
radiance of sun-beams, woven from the garniture of the sky.
Sunrise and sunset never imprinted that stately purple, that
glowing vermilion, that molten gold. It is vast, shadowy, un
defined. No rainbow of the covenant girdles it ; no suppliants
or penitents sue before it ; no pardons are issued from it. It is
a tribunal throne. "He hath prepared His throne for judg
ment."

382 THE LAST JUDGMENT.
It is occupied. There is One, that " sitteth upon it." This
is often characteristic and distinctive of the Father. There is no
manner of similitude. Nothing at first appears to guide us in
the present discrimination. There is no form. It seems Essen
tial, and not distinguished, Deity. But need we be at loss ?
"We must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ."
" When the Son of Man shall come in His glory, and all the
holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His
glory." He is now enshrined with all the splendour, as He ever
possessed all the fulness, of the Godhead. Sometimes He is
"seated with His Father on His throne ;" sometimes we look forth
on " the throne of God and of the Lamb." He now " thinketh
it no robbery to be equal with God," and as God he is " Judge
himself." And yet we are to be called the idolaters of the nine
teenth century, because we " honour the Son even as we honour
the Father !" This is to be made the grave charge against us.
This is to be the taunt upon our missions to the heathen. It is
said that we build up what we profess to throw down. It is the
stale conceit of the earliest persecutors of the Christians ! So
worn a quibble will not move us ! Blessed Jesus ! if we be idol
aters, who — what — are the multitudes bending around Thy
throne, casting their diadems at Thy feet, and crowning Thee
Lord of all?
" From the face" of Him, who sitteth upon the throne, " the
earth and the heaven flee away." Who can think of that Counte
nance and not associate with it pensive downcast, deepest afflic
tion, sweetest meekness? He "gave His cheeks to them who
plucked off the hair ;" " they struck Him with the palm of their
hand;" they "smote Him with a reed;" they " blindfolded Him;"
He " hid not His face from reproach and spitting." " His
visage was more marred than any man." Those temples were
lacerated with thorns ; those eyes overflowed with tears ; blood
trickled down those channels, which violence had furrowed and
grief had worn. Into what expressions must that countenance
have now kindled ! With what terrors must it now be clothed !
Things inanimate, insensible, smitten with a strange panic and
with a sudden dismay, start back ; and those refulgent heavens

THE LAST JUDGMENT. 383
and this fair earth shrink into ancient disorder and anarchy : they
rush into primaeval chaos and night. But not so can the sinner
" flee away ;" rocks — mountains — cannot cover him ; there is no
hiding-place for " the workers of iniquity." If he make his bed
in hell, there is the presence which he cannot shun !
Heaven and earth having fled away, " no more place is found
for them." It may denote the dissolution of the whole created
oeconomy : it may simply refer to the dissolution of our planetary
system, or only to our globe with its canopied atmosphere and
all that belongs to it. Of this we are not informed. Igno
rant are we of creation's wide extent and of the relations which
unite its mighty realms. It makes little difference, whether it be
the greater catastrophe or the inferior ; the larger could not strike
a deeper terror — the smaller could not induce a less. It is all to
us, though the universe is rolling onward in its path ; though
other suns and stars hold on their way ; though the other popu
lations share not the overthrow ; our world, our earth and our
heaven, " find no more place." What matters it to the ani
malcule, that noble streams are flowing, when its own drop is
exhaled? What matters it to the insect, that majestic forests
flourish, when its own leaf has decayed ? What matters it to the
emmet, that chains of magnificent mountain-height are mingling
with the skies, when its own hillock is overturned ?
And why do heaven and earth pass away ? and why is no
more place found for them ? They have realised their end.
They were but as the platform and the scaffolding; the erection
is complete. They are of no further use. They may be set
aside. They may be cast away. " The mystery of God" is
"finished." There is "the consummation." Time, therefore,
need " be no longer."
Let us not forget this mysterious fact. Its record is due to
the Personage who sends forth an aspect so strange, so glorious,
that even heaven and earth cannot endure the sight: He is the
crucified One. It is He, whose doctrine has been so long a
stumbling-block; it is He, who was put to death in weakness
and in shame. No reproach was withheld. No indignity was
restrained. He was nailed to the Tree ! Malefactors were his

384 THE LAST JUDGMENT.
companions ! He bore an accursed death ! The brand of heaven
and of earth was upon it ! Complex was His Person ; awful was
His investiture. But why is He the Judge ? "All judgment is
committed unto Him, because He is the Son of man." " God
hath appointed a day wherein to judge the world in righteousness
by that Man, whom He hath ordained :" of which He hath given
this notification, " that He hath raised Him from the dead."
The deep covering, which so long shrouded him, now unfolds;
that which was hidden, is proclaimed ; that which was perverted,
is disabused. Jesus is vindicated; every reproach is rolled away.
All will acknowledge, that He has made good each challenged
right, that He has made clear each suspected transaction, that
He has made honourable each aspersed attribute :. while the
Cross stands up as the very basis and index and trophy of all,
and He who now " comes the second time," throws the renown
and the triumph of His second coming over whatsoever was mis
understood and misconstrued in the first.
The contrast of his first and second advent forces itself upon
our view. When He came in the days of his flesh, there was
quiet greeting of his approach. A solitary star lighted up its
lamp. Angels glided down from heaven with a natal song, and
immediately returned. Peace was proclaimed among all the na
tions of the earth. Shepherds receive the tidings. Sages offer
the tributes. All the proper and natural magnificence is re
pressed. The descending God is clothed in an infant's form. He
is roofed by a stable and cradled in a manger. Poverty has
borne him. Lowliness is his attendant. Charity is his store.
His Life is sought. He flees. He survives for scorn. He is the
Nazarene. He is captured, arraigned, condemned, crucified
amidst execrations. He has gone into heaven. Serene was his
ascent. He now comes again. How unlike that Babe of Beth
lehem, that Victim of Calvary, is "this glorious appearing of
the Great God our Saviour !" " Lo ! this is our God" ! Not
the lonely star attests him, but all the constellations of heaven.
The seven thunders utter their voice. All kindreds of the earth
wail because of him. Their revelry is stilled. Their unbelief
is abashed. The sign of the Son of Man has confounded all.

THE LAST JUDGMENT. 385
His dying voice shook the earth, but now once more he shakes
not the earth only but also heaven. From that Face, which was
buffeted, scarred, outraged by the last contumely, heaven and
earth flee away !
Another remark is also due to the whole of this great and
singular scene : it is incapable of description and embellishment.
We take the scenery as it is delineated ; and with that we must
satisfy ourselves. It is unsusceptible of exaggeration. If any
of us could overleap the boundaries of time, and could see the
winding up of the great drama of human events and mortal inte
rests, would any of us report, that the judgment was too greatly
described ? that the clangour of the trumpet was not so piercing,
that the combustion of the elements was not so vehement, that
the apparition of the rising dead was not so appalling and so
strange? Could any of us say, that it was overdrawn, and that
it had been extravagantly represented ? Faint is every metaphor,
feeble is every description, unworthy is every imagining, when
compared — rather when contrasted — with that which the reality
shall prove.
When this Event is believed on the faith of Divine Revela
tion, then only can it be properly regarded. Until then it is sur
mise, whether reason has suggested, or imagination has painted,
it. We despise not any grounds on which its probability may
rest ; be it general analogy, conscientious intuition, or common
consent. We turn not aside from oracle, poetry, philosophy,
which may have taught it. We neglect no human inference or
tradition. All these may show that the Judgment is probable,
reasonable, desirable, necessary, just. All these may show that,
however men have dreaded it, they could not resist the over
whelming proofs. Yet only as we " have faith in God," speaking
to us by his word, do we know and feel that this anticipation is
true. There He certifies us. There He forewarns us. Hence
forth there is full and practical conviction. " So then every one
of us must give account of himself to God."
There is " a throne," " a great white throne." It is occupied
by Him, whom the people despised and the nations abhorred,
who was a prey and scoff. From His face, suddenly transformed
c c

386 THE LAST JUDGMENT.
and transfigured, " heaven and earth flee away ;" all the wonders
which hung in the expanse of the one, all the monuments which
covered the surface of the other, have perished. They are super
seded in every design and use. But Jesus is vindicated, behold
ing the honours of His tribunal ; while he reclines amidst glories
and revelations which it is not only impossible to exaggerate but
even, in the most measured manner, to describe.
II. We now, then, turn to the multitude that shall
BE SUMMONED TO THIS JUDGMENT.
When we have entered a Court of justice, there has been one
point of concentrated interest and attention. However splendid
the forms of its administration, however solemn the functionaries
of its exercise, whatever may have been the significance of its
types, whatever may have been the dreadness of its issues, until
Law seemed built up into a throned state and to have been
covered with a spotless robe, all, all were forgotten by us while
intent upon the prisoner at the bar. There he stood; and what a
spectacle ! The excess of feeling had confounded every feature,
until they had lost their power, and were incapable of their
expression. The face exhibited a haggard vacancy, and the
spirit sunk down to a torpid despair. And yet how keenly alive
was he to every glance that was directed, to every word that was
breathed, bearing upon his case ! Then how his eye riveted !
How attentive was his ear ! Every function and organ of sense
seemed to vibrate ! The representatives of magistracy, the
deathsman himself, were not half so dreadful, as that poor gasp
ing horror-stricken wretch, awaiting the verdict of his guilt,
foreboding the sentence of his condemnation !
We were spectators then ; we shuddered but from the force
of sympathy. We are now arraigned. We ourselves now are
cited. We ourselves must confront this inquest ; we ourselves
must stand before this judgment-seat. All are comprehended ;
all are summoned. Ye are no more by-standers. " Come to
judgment !" Ye who have ever lived, ye who have ever died, —
" the quick and the dead."
Oh ! this innumerable, this untold, crowd ! It were to insult
its vastitude, to compare it to any of the throngs of earth : the

THE LAST JUDGMENT. 387
millions which Elis attracted — which Godfrey marshalled — over
which Xerxes wept : when whole peoples have been stirred, when
mighty nations have risen up, when they have said "A confede
racy," when the appeal has been made to a contemporary race
and to a listening world !
Who knows the number of that generation of his species which
now fills this earth ? Say that it is five hundred millions, low as
is this computation. Begin not to reckon it for the first thousand
years from the creation. Then, from that epoch, you must mul
tiply it at least a hundred and fifty times. Arithmetic has no fic
titious figure, by which to include it; or, if it might find the num
ber or the sound, there the index might point, or there the sound
might be uttered, but the mind would not be travelling with it —
would not be informed by it. Yet some impression may be made
upon us, when we think of those that shall "stand in the judg
ment," by ascertaining the sources whence they are derived.
" The sea gave up its dead." What navies have been shat
tered, and have been devoured, by its rage ! — Pharaoh and his
host were engulphed in its waves. Ensign, chariot, steed, —
warrior, magician, prince, — were swept away by their fury.
" The sea covered them." " There remained not so much as one
of them." — The whole world perished in its overflow. The
wreck is on summit and in cave. It is traced far down in the
foundations of the earth. The flood-marks of elevation and
subsidence may be read as on a scale. — It is resistless. It has
encroached upon the kingdoms and the dwelling-places of men.
It is the very emblem of all that is insatiable : human cupidity,
aggrandisement, ambition. It conceals that which it has swal
lowed up. Who can extort its secrets ? Who can take its
spoils ? Who can fathom its depths ? Who can search its
caverns ? But He who said to the waves of Gennesaret, "Peace,
be still," shall control the multitudinous oceans of our earth,
and then every solitude shall be searched, and every depth shall
be sounded. Its prey shall be exacted of it. Each betrayal
shall be wrung from it, and all its captives be restored.
"Death delivered up the dead which were in it." This is
the power of the grave, it is the personification of Death. The

388 THE LAST JUDGMENT.
deep places of the earth, the dry land, are but its domain. Let
us think, however decorated this scene may be, that it is only
a painted sepulchre; we are only treading- on the dust of our
predecessors, as posterity will soon tread on ours. But He who
burst the barriers of the tomb, and made death bow before Him,
— He shall send forth His mandate, publish His behest; and
then the vaults, and the catacombs, and the mummy pits, and the
bone-houses, shall disgorge their relics ; and death shall yield,
¦confessing all it knows, stripped of all it boasts, and while the
whole of this earth shall seem to stir with motion and once more
to heave with life, The dead shall live. Death is no longer the
keeper of the prison-house, but delivers up the dead.
It was much, for the sea to obey Him who sitteth on the
throne ; it was more, for inexorable death — the grave — the sepul
chre — to yield its victims; but "hell" — the place of departed
spirits, where the disembodied soul of man is to be found, whe
ther in happiness or in woe — Hades* has listened to a voice,
until then unknown to it. The gates of "the shadow of death"
unbar, and its portals fly open. And now, there come — there
come — there come — clouds of spirits rolling upon clouds, in swift
succession, with impetuous rush ; sumless, but unmixed, but indi
vidualised ; the consciousness of each distinct, the character of
each defined, the memory of each unobliterated, and the sentence
of each foredoomed. And Hades sends back spirits to those
bodies, which the sea and the grave may no more retain.
" The small and the great stand before God." AU who have
been among the mighty, and would not " let go their prisoners,"
and who "destroyed the earth," — and all of minor state. Attila,
Jengis Khan, Aurengzebe, with their vassals : Cyrus, Alexander,
Caesar, with their battalions : Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, with
their disciples : all who ever achieved a name, and all who ever
perished without one. None are so great, that they can intimi
date : none so little, that they can escape.
And thinking of that mighty throng, there is a distinctive
circumstance, which must not be overlooked : " every man
* In the Hecuba of Euripides, Hades is the name given to Pluto, the mytho
logical god of the lower world. 'Iv' (A3>^ xui's w*'s*a' huv. — Lin : 2.

THE LAST JUDGMENT. 389
was judged." In so vast an occasion, in so massive an aggre
gate — can " every man" there find a place ? must " every man"
there pass an ordeal? Every man shall there stand apart,
bearing his own burden, occupying his own lot. Every man
shall there give the account for himself, and not for another.
Every man shall there feel, as though for him alone that trumpet-
blast was rung, and that blazing conflagration was kindled, and
all that sublime tragedy was performed. Every man shall feel,
that he is noticed, that he is espied, and that he must be judged
out of these books.
There is sometimes a deception we would practise upon our
selves : we think that we may be lost as in that multitude, con
founded as in that crowd. We are "judges of evil thoughts."
That objection is refuted ; all difficulty is defied. God can say,
"All souls are mine ;" and all souls, on that day, shall pass in
review before Him. Each of your "idle words:" each of your
" vain thoughts :" each of your impure desires : every bias of
your spirit, every movement of your heart, must reappear. All
will germinate afresh : all will develope anew. " For God shall
bring every work, with every secret thing, whether it be good,
or whether if be evil." Then will be understood the full doc
trine of consequences, and what is the entail in eternity of all we
speak, and all we think, and all we desire, and all we transact, in
time. " Be sure your sin will find you out."
III. Let us consider the process, which must deter
mine THIS JUDGMENT.
What a suspense have we felt, when we gazed at the flying
Scroll ! It was written with mourning, lamentation, and woe.
When we looked upon the seven-sealed Book ! It was covered
with awful hieroglyphics. But what were they to these registers,
on which all our fates depend ?
There is a "book of God's remembrance." It is accommo
dated language, that we may better understand that nothing is
forgotten by Him. "All our members" are in that book; and
in that book " are not even our tears ?" God " looks upon the
heart;" "God requireth that which is past." These are solemn
words : " If our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart,

390 THE LAST JUDGMENT.
and knoweth all things." " Thou hast set mine iniquities before
Thee, my secret sins in the light of Thy countenance." "Who
knoweth the power of Thine anger ? Even according to thy
fear, so is thy wrath."
But that we may more distinctly analyse the figure, let us
consider that these books may describe to us the requirements of
God's law. When Hilkiah found the law, and read it to the
people, they rent their clothes, terror-struck that they had com
mitted so many offences against a long-forgotten law. When
brought home by the Spirit, — who rebukes "of sin, of righteous
ness, and of judgment," — to the conscience of Saul of Tarsus, a
zealot and a persecutor, " sin revived," and, as to all hope and as
to all expectation, instantly " he died." Men make very light of
God's law, frame their excuses, offer their exceptions ; they have
little notion, that this law is "holy and just and good," that
it is necessary, that it is inevitable, that it results from infinite
perfection, that it is the very goodness as well as the rectitude of
the Deity which compels it. They have little notion, that it is
spiritual in its latitude and comprehensiveness. So that they do
not outwardly infringe it, they hold themselves freed from every
charge, though they lust in their heart — though they covet in
their heart— though their heart comprise every essence and every
root of sin. God " without respect of persons judgeth according
to every man's work." We may " see under the sun the place
of judgment, that wickedness was there; and the place of
righteousness, that iniquity was there." Equity may be warped
and truth corrupted among men. But this tribunal is higher
than the sun. " Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right ?"
" He is the God of judgment." " He is the God of truth."
"But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to
truth." But then that book, which is closed to so many, shall
"be opened:" shall be opened in all its injunctions, all its
penalties, all its sanctions. You will not then think, that its
bands are small; you will not then think, that its terrors are
weak. If the law, by one drop of its present fury, one flash of
its present power, causes the stoutest heart and the most rebel
conscience to quail, how will the stoutest heart be as tow in the

THE LAST JUDGMENT. 391
fire, and the most rebel conscience be as wax before the flame,
when this book shall be opened ! — shall be opened in all its con
tents, shall be opened in all its principles, shall be opened in all
its awards !
But are there no witnesses ? Let memory answer ! Let con
science attest !
Let memory speak. Now, very frequently we feel its weak
ness in the rapidity of its transitions, and in the crowd of its
images. Very much that we have known is effaced ; very much-
of former times and former seasons we cannot recall. Yet have
you not felt occasionally, that the past was renewed to you, that
you could live it over again ? There is a suggestive power, there
is an associating principle ; and one thing seemed to revive
another, and though you had not thought upon it and not dwelt
among it for years that had long ceased, you saw it all at once,
you felt it all again. And then, memory will indeed be a faith
ful chronicle. Memory will be a living present. What will
be the burst of all its lights, what will be the irruption of all
its facts, what will be the harvest of all its long-buried seeds !
Nothing can be lost ; nothing weakened as to impression ;
nothing overwhelmed in the mass ; but every line distinctly
drawn, the "jot and tittle" all fulfilled!
Let conscience speak. Life, with many, is but one prevari
cation with this monitor, and one endeavour to escape from it.
And yet they cannot always prevail. Conscience makes itself to
be heard. There are those who, in spite of themselves, are at
this moment " full of the fury of the Lord." Their " hearts
meditate terror :" they " roar for the disquietness of their souls."
" The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity ; but a wounded
spirit who can bear?" When all the arrows are barb-deep in
that conscience, when all "the indignation of the Lord" is poured
out on that conscience, when the grievous whirlwind of wrath is
pressing upon that conscience, oh ! it will distort no tale, it will
corrupt no testimony. While memory surely tells its facts,
conscience will impartially speak its testimonies !
Brethren, such a law is to be opened ; and memory will be an
unimpeachable witness then, and conscience will be an unim-

392

THE LAST JUDGMENT.

peachable witness then. How will you meet their report ? How
will you counterwork their evidence ?
But these "books" — (they are many, they are the unwindings
of a mighty Volume,) — may refer to the discoveries of the Gospel.
And these might indeed cheer, and these ought indeed to fortify,
if you have "won Christ and are found in Him." Yet if you
are unbelievers still, if you are "enemies in your minds by wicked
works," if you are not reconciled unto God, this book, the word
of reconciliation, is more portentous in its aspect against you, even
than the volume of the law. You will be judged "according to
this Gospel." Christ Himself exclaimed, concerning the unbe
lieving, impenitent, hearer of his word, — " I judge him not ; the
word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last
day." All the beseechings of mercy, all the remonstrances of
authority, all the pleadings of tenderness! — This book shall be
opened only the more terribly to convict and to condemn. Mercy
will in that day be more terrible than j ustice. The Cross will be
a sight, which the sinner shall be glad to eacape, though by
escaping it he sink deeper into the surrounding flame ! Calvary
will be a spectacle, more horror-smiting to him than the burning
heaven and the dissolving world !
Brethren, the law brings its condemnation : it is of its nature
to condemn the sinner ; but the Gospel brings its pardon, its
reconciliation, its peace : it is of its nature to justify the sinner.
Oppose it not — presume not on it. Trifle not with it, lest you
die in your sins.
And there is " another book." The thought of it inspires
the gladness of the Christian in this awful crisis. He would
tremble, " make haste," be " confounded," but for this. It is
like the bow in the cloud ; it is like the halcyon on the storm.
It is " the book of life." Then, if we be enrolled in it, it is an
act of grace. If we be enrolled in it, we now present a corre
spondence of character : we have life in us, it dwelle,th in us ; for
the apostle could say of his companions, " Their names are in
the book of life." And if we be enrolled in it, there is in that
inscription certainty and guarantee ; for it is " the hope of
eternal life, which God that cannot lie promised before the world

THE LAST JUDGMENT. 393
begun." And " the Lamb's book of life !" Our names written
in His precious blood ! It is the record of ineffable blessings :
it is the memorial of everlasting obligations. That Name of
sacrifice and love lends all its disclosures a perfect excellence,
and seals for its enumeration of the saints an imperishable
security. They shall be judged "according to their works." Not as
the foundations of their faith, but as its proofs : not as any thing
beyond the symptom, the test, and the trial. But " show me,"
says Christianity now — " show me thy faith by thy works."
Christianity, through the lips of its "Author and Finisher," will
say the same in judgment to every formalist and every professor:
" Show me ' thy faith by thy works." We shall, therefore, be
judged, every one according to our works — the form our cha
racter has assumed, the cast our life has taken, " what manner of
spirit we have been of," — what has been the whole state, spirit,
practice, of our conduct.
And this is most reasonable. The design of the gospel is to
recover us to holiness. All its other blessings are preparatory
and subordinate to our sanctification. This is its sweet influ
ence and professed end. We shall be judged according as this
influence has been exerted, and this end has been attained. The
enquiry is, whether we have received it or not. This is the test.
Judgment is, therefore, the final discrimination between the right
eous and the sincere : these being but the outward indexes of
faith in Christ or of his rejection. " That the righteousness of
the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh
but after the Spirit." " To the end, he may stablish your hearts
unblameable in holiness before God, at the coming of our Lord
Jesus Christ with his saints."
" I saw a great white throne, and Him that sat on it, from
whose face the earth and the heaven fled away ; and there was
found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great,
stand before God; and the books were opened," said the prophet.
He never forgot it. Had we caught a glimpse, surely we could
not forget it either. It would be our one thought ! Our one
care ! Our one intent ! It would be written upon every wall !

394 THE LAST JUDGMENT.
It would speak to us in every sound ! It would live to us in
every scene !
But men say, that it is distant. Distant ! " It is appointed
unto you once to die ;" when will that appointment come ?
" This night your soul" may be " required of you." " And after
death, the judgment." Immediately: not as to its public ratifi
cation, but as to its immediate impression and absolute effect.
Judgment distant ! An hour may place you there. The Lord is
at hand. The judge is at the door.
You say, that it is so vast ; that so many are included. But
your sin is distinct ; your spirit stands out from every other
spirit that the Divine inspiration ever breathed. And that self,
which you understand, however sophists may attempt 'to puzzle it
— that self of yours inheres in you, and lives in you. And it
shall be the same: so that if you should awaken up in your
thought after thousands and thousands of years, long after eter
nity has unfolded itself, you will be compelled to say — 'I am
the very same that I was ; this is the same instrument of thinking,
that I possessed before ; this is the same faculty of feeling, that I
possessed before ; I remember that world, in which 1 first received
my life ; I remember my passage through that world ; I am not
a transformed being ; there is nothing forgotten, nothing evaded,
nothing shuffled ; I am the same. Time is no longer. Judg
ment is past. Earth is burned ! All things are dissolved ! But I
endure ! I am what I was ! I was what I am ! Nothing wearies
that sense ! Nothing diverts that consciousness ! I am Mine
Own Self!' What a thought will that be in eternity, to each one
who dies in unbelief, and perishes in rejection of the Saviour !
* I am that unbeliever, and I am bearing the eternal consequen
ces of that my vile infatuated unbelief!'"
But you think it inconceivable. " Is it not painted too
strongly ? are not the colours overcharged ?" The sun rose upon
Sodom ; but the horrible tempest blasted the city ere that noon !
There were those, in the days of righteous Noah, who, as he
adjusted plank after plank for a hundred and twenty years,
taunted and scoffed at him ! But the world of the ungodly, not
withstanding, was destroyed. Put not your power to conceive,

THE LAST JUDGMENT. 395
against the " sayings faithful and true." Say not, " Where is
the promise of His coming ?" " He is not slack concerning His
promise, as some men count slackness" — as you likewise may be
coiinting it ! " Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove
thee, and thou be found a liar" !
And now, go to that Saviour, who shall then be the Arbiter
and Judge ; and bear with you all that you can bear — your poor,
your guilty, your miserable, self. Urge — plead the cause of
your immortal soul. Say to Him — ' It is unworthy of Thy notice,
it is encrusted with a leprosy of crime, but it is my all ; Jesus,
Son of David, have mercy on me.' Ah ! thou needest not tell
Him what is thine all ; thou needest not tell Him how precious
and how invaluable it is to thee as thine all. Has He not died
the death ? Knoweth He not, that " the redemption of the soul
is precious?" Thou hast found thy way, then, to Him, who
"receiveth sinners;" who " will in no wise cast out." Thine appeal
is to a heart of infinite compassion, and thou must prevail. As
thou art " yet a coming," let nothing " throw thee down and tear
thee :" or if thine Enemy should thus outrage thee, look but the
more fixedly on thy Saviour, call but the more importunately
for his help, and hasten but the more swiftly to his feet.
But what if there be those, who determinately resist the over
ture of mercy, and set themselves against Jesus as a Saviour,
and His Spirit as a Sanctifier? Dear Souls! for a moment pause;
for a moment bear with me. Did you ever think upon those
words — " the wrath of the Lamb ?" the wrath, not of " the Lion
of the tribe of Judah," but " of the Lamb ?" Not the wrath of
Him, who goeth forth in His indignation ; not the wrath of Him
who shall come and not keep silence, while a fire devours before
him, and it is very tempestuous round about him ; but " the
wrath of the Lamb" — the Lamb meek and gentle — the Lamb
who was "led to the slaughter" — "the Lamb that was slain."
" The wrath of the Lamb !" What ! that emblem of compas
sion, that incarnation of pity — can there be wrath in Him ?
Wrath in that eye, which wept over the perishing sinner ? wrath
on those lips, which only spake of kindness and of love ? wrath,
grasping its bolts with those hands which embraced the infant,

396 THE LAST JUDGMENT. v
blessed the mourner, and were extended on the cross? What
meaneth this combination ? " The wrath of the Lamb !" Ex
hausted patience ! Inflamed mercy ! Incensed love ! No more
compassion in infinite compassion ! No more love in inex
haustible love! The Cross no more propitiates; the blood of
expiation no more speaks of forgiveness ; " the door is shut ;"
the very office of Mediator is abdicated ; and now there is left
but " the wrath of the Lamb ! "
Go to Him, flee to Him, ere that wrath shall be "kindled
but a little." One flake of it would consume you ; one manifes
tation of it would destroy you. It will be too late, when all this
is realised — to say, "Rocks ! fall on us; hills ! cover us." "The
wrath of the Lamb" pierces all, exasperates all. And though
you might conceive of the sternness of the Judge, though you
might bear up under the conception of the severity and the
vengeance of the Almighty, though a very resistance to these
more fearful forms might bring with it a dread, however momen
tary, relief, — yet even such anticipations are debarred, such sup
ports are denied, — what a hell is reserved for you, — a hell where
all is strangely new, — a hell where all is necessarily unmitigated,
— not the hell whose everlasting fire is prepared for the devil and
his angels, — the fiercer hell, — the deeper hell, — your hell, — the
hell that shuts you up for ever, under " the wrath of the
Lamb !"

SERMON XVII.

THE FINAL HEAVEN.

2 Pet. iii. 13.

"Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new hea
vens AND A NEW EARTH, WHEREIN DWELLETH RIGHTEOUSNESS."
A Classic Poet,* describing the man of upright and steady pur
pose, says : " That were a crumbling world to burst around him,
the fragments would strike him undismayed." But while we
read our Text, this fiction becomes reality, the glowing imagi
nation turns pale and faint before the stronger colours of very
fact, the ideal is more than realised in living truth, — and we
behold the Christian triumphing amidst the ruins of the universe !
He has long awaited the catastrophe. It breaks upon him with
no surprise. He looks forth with serene composedness upon it.
It as much fulfils his desire as it agrees to his expectation. It is
the consummation of his hopes and of his prayers. For this he
has even longed. He knew that it must occur, and he has
hailed it. But what a Scene is that which he anticipates and
welcomes ! The trumpet peals its most piercing clangour. Fire
seizes upon all with its intensest fury. The mountains are heaped
into cinders. The forests lie scathed in their blackened trunks.
The seas evaporate. The works of men, their architecture, their
defences, their monuments, are all consumed. The flame catches
the skies. They burn. The orbs rush from their tracks. They
kindle. Still the conflagration spreads, and every where finds
fuel for its rage. It reaches to the largest masses and to the
* " Si fractus illabatur orbis
Impavidum ferient ruina?."
Horat : Carm : lib. iii. 3.

398 the final heaven.
minutest atoms. The heavens can as little resist it as could the
parchment scroll. The elements, the most latent particles, the
most hidden essences, are fused and melt with fervent heat. The
sun is turned into darkness, — the moon into blood, — the stars
fall from heaven. Oh the crash of those jostling spheres ! The
roar of those devouring flames ! The outburst of those disimpri
soned thunders ! Oh that furnace, that storm, that blast, of
fire ! What marvels of horror are here ! What spectacles of
awe crowd upon the sight ! What could louden the great noise
with which the heavens pass away ? What could fan into wilder
vehemence the fervours in which the elements dissolve ? What
could heighten the pomps of that great and terrible day of the
Lord ? That which is still more sublime than all material pro
digies ! Christian heroism and confidence ! The untrembling,
the unshaken, saint ! Looking for it ! Hastening to it ! Then
calmly surveying it ! Not a hope made ashamed ! Not afraid
with any amazement ! Collected in the remembrance, and firm
in the assurance, of Divine Promise, he is seen gazing on the
new heavens and the new earth which spread above, and which
stretch around, him ! From the awful pile of ruins, these new-
created regions instantly emerge in completest loveliness and
glory ! Out of the tremendous wreck of all, do the azure of
those heavens and the beauty of that earth arise, impossible to
all but omnipotence, unexpected to all but faith ! There was
but one Word between chaos and creation, — there need be but
one between the sustentation, and the dissolution, of the universal
frame, — there shall be but one between the last conflagration
and those fair and refulgent abodes of existence, which are dis
covered, certified, and hailed, in these inspired words !
And we are looking for these things ! To this promise we
hope to come ! It is the bound of all further change ! It is the
goal of consummated bliss ! Until that climax, there is always
suspense. There awaits a future progress. The living must die.
The dying are divided in the integrity of their personal being.
The spirit departs into a residence, such as befits spiritual exist
ence. The body is laid in the grave. The spirit anticipates the
resurrection of that body. The spirit desires a higher glory con-

THE FINAL HEAVEN. 399
sequent upon that resurrection. All hitherto is in gradation and
series. But beyond this new habitation of the righteous there is
nothing to be expected. It is ultimate. Of this state we would
now collect whatever information Scripture gives us. It is most
interesting to catch every glimpse of what we shall be for ever,
and of the sphere in which we shall for ever dwell.
We suppose that these words relate to the fact of such a final
heaven. But as they have been otherwise understood, it is proper
that they be more critically considered. Now they most obviously
point to a specific, recorded, Promise. It is directly contained
in ancient Prophecy. " For, behold, I create new heavens and
a new earth : and the former shall not be remembered, nor come
into mind."* "The new heavens and the new earth, which I will
make, shall remain before me."-j- If these be splendid figures of
speech, meaning simply the conversion of mankind to the true
faith, we cannot but observe a great singularity in them. It is
not for us to assert that they are too vast, for all material sym
bols, the greatest and most glorious, must be unworthy of such
a spiritual transformation. The doubt would arise from the cast
of the symbols. Two systems are brought together, the celestial
and terrestrial, to denote that which is a holy effect produced in
one only. — To this doubt, however, it might be replied, that
when Prophecy speaks of sublunary change, in the church or in
the nations, this coupling, of heaven and earth, is not infre
quent. " Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the hea
vens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; And I
will shake all nations, and the Desire of all nations shall come."
The event to which this prediction pointed has come to pass.
" Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.
And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those
things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those
things which cannot be shaken may remain." j The language may
thus be paraphrased : ' I will cause great excitement in my
Church among the Jews, which may be considered as a heaven
in comparison of the great constitutions of men around it, for it
• Isa. Ixv. 17- t Isa. lxvi. 22.
+ Heb. xii. 26, 27.

400 THE FINAL HEAVEN.
is of heaven, while they are of the earth. The same impression
shall seize upon them, until the universally hailed Messiah
appear. Whatever is of a mere polity, a nationalism, a tempo
rary import, in that Church, being inferior and perishable things
such as human art and power produce, shall be removed, — while
the truths it proclaims, the blessings it ensures, the excellences
it enshrines, shall emerge from every revolution, tower above
every shock, and endlessly endure as divine achievements in which
man has neither part to act nor fame to share.' The utmost,
however, that this use of the images would prove is, that they
are preparatory prophecies to a more sublime fulfilment than
that of which they themselves admit, taking the same phrase
ology in a subordinate sense and for a more special occasion, bor
rowing like morning - clouds the hues and beams of the yet
unrisen sun. For we are informed of all the antecedents to the
date of this "Promise." It is after "all these things shall be
dissolved." It follows the great doom which impends over the
present system. Once, ages since, " the world that then was,
being overflowed with water, perished." It was the judgment
of the Deluge. It was no difficult result, because, "by the
word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing
out of the water and in the water." This was its chaotic state.
It was easy to reduce it to this. The immense aqueous mass,
which had been divided and restrained, burst over it again.
" The heavens and the earth which are now, by the same
word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of
judgment and perdition of ungodly men." This is the judg
ment of the Conflagration. The immense body of hidden and
electric fire can readily consume all above and beneath. The
latent heat need only become active. Then is the coming of the
Lord. It is the coming of the day of God. It is then, after this
advent, this dissolution, this trial, that " we, according to the
promise, look for new heavens and a new earth." If, therefore,
other promises in which these terms occur allude to mystical
change or ecclesiastical revolution, this must be distinct, for it is
only effected at the conclusion of all mundane things, and " the
new heavens and the new earth" must be as real as the old which

THE FINAL HEAVEN. 40l
are burnt up. To this interpretation agrees the Apocalyptic
scene. " And I saw a new heaven and a new earth : for the first
heaven and the first earth were passed away ; and there was no
more sea." No constituent of the old system is left. All that
which marked it, such as the great separation of land and water,
has disappeared. This catastrophe has attended the erection of
" the great white throne." From the face of Him that sat upon
it, "the earth and the heaven fled away." "The sea has given up
the dead which were in it : and death and hell have delivered up
the dead which were in them : and they have been judged every
man according to their works." The new heaven and the new
earth now unfold themselves.* — It may be objected that this
directs our thoughts to earth. For it may be said, that John
testifies that he saw " the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down
from God out of heaven," — and that he heard a great voice out of
heaven, saying, " Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and
he will dwell with them." Does it not thus appear, it will be
asked, that the vision is still of the present state ? The Church
descends out of heaven from God, — and his Tabernacle is with
men. But from what heaven does the hovering spectacle stoop ?
Upon what earth does it light ? " The first heaven and the first
earth are passed away." " The former things are passed away."
It is from " the new heaven," that it dispreads itself pver " the
new earth." It is the type of the glorified Church, the glorious
Church. The answer to every difficulty, we think, will now be
felt complete. Every description which accompanies the pro
gressive disclosure of the scene seems demonstrative that the
everlasting glory of the saints can only be understood. " And
God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes ; and there shall
be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there
be any more pain." But among those descriptions a few have
been thought incongruous with this view. " The kings of the
earth do bring their glory and honour into it :" but this is only
figurative of its royal grandeur, — that all which was resplendent
in earthly state is surpassed by it. — " The gates shall not be shut
at all by day :" but this is only an elegant expression of its secu-
" Rev. xxi. 1 , &c.
D D

402 THE FINAL HEAVEN.
rity — that it needs no guard nor defence. — " The leaves of the
tree were for the healing of the nations :" but that is, they are
the health, not of the nations as on earth, but the only nations
spoken of, " the nations of the saved." From these premisses we
may then refute three very general notions.
1. The language of the Text, and of the corresponding vision
in the Apocalypse, cannot be prophetic of the Christian Church
on earth. It describes a state after that Satan has been bound a
thousand years and loosed again, — after the battle of Armaged
don, the great attack of the apostate world upon the saints, —
after the resurrection, the judgment, , and the last fire, — after
the disruption and disappearance of the firmament and the earth.
It is perfectly impossible, then, to deduce from it any theory of
physical changes in our planet during the glory of the Latter
Day. Be that true or be it unfounded, the opinion can derive
no support from this Promise. The sufficient answer is, that
this state is subsequent to " the end of all things."
2. This language cannot be of a Mystic character. If in
other instances it appears that heaven represents the church, and
the earth the unrenewed portion of mankind, yet the very pur
pose for which some would now apply it to an exalted state
of privilege, a millenial period, destroys itself. For what is that
blessed condition of things which we anticipate? The people
shall be all righteous. All shall know the Lord from the least
to the greatest. Will the church then be different from the
nations ? No, — it will comprehend and absorb them. The new
heaven and earth are not unequal and distinct departments, but
one oeconomy of holiness and bliss.
3. Another class of annotators have supposed that, as destruc
tion, as annihilation, seems no law of divine government, this
present world and sky may contain the embryo and rudiment of
the glorious system which is thus foretold. This planet is said
by Scripture to have been destroyed, to have perished, when it
was overflowed by water. Yet really, whatever were its decom
positions, it was preserved. So the great igneous, like the dilu-
vian, action may transform it without its utter ruin. It may be
the foundation of the sphere of future reward. The new heavens

THE FINAL HEAVEN. 403
may smile and brighten forth from the ashes of those which now
spread over us, and our earth, renovated into more than pristine
loveliness, may stand up the abode of equally renovated beings.
— Serious difficulties beset this hypothesis. The dimensions of
our residence oppose some ground of demur. But let that be
overlooked. There is no analogy between the destroying powers
of these two judicial agents. Water is plastic, expanding, vege
tative. It is a great supporter and habitation of animal life.
Fire, — though it does not in strictly philosophical sense annihi
late, for there are given forth from its fiercest consumptions other
invisible and imponderable forms of matter, — is destructive of all
life, produces changes which interfere with the maintenance of all
living things; and while it may purify, it is at the expense of
whatever outwardly and sensibly subsists. The olive rises beau
tiful from the deposits of the Flood : of the Fiery Retribution
we learn, that " the earth and the works which are therein shall
be burned up." Even were it left in a vitrified mass, there seems
little fitness in it for all the fair and verdant manifestations which
pourtray the celestial state. — If this planet remain as the nucleus
of our eternal residence, it must be held by its present laws : it
must still move in its orbicular and axine rotations. It must be
affected by seasons, by climates, by light and darkness. But in
the new heavens and the new earth, " they have no need of the
sun neither of the moon." Are all the mechanical powers of the
universe, so exactly coinciding with each other in the little and
the great, to be reversed to suit this motionless earth, — or is this
.earth to hang motionless among all that otherwise invariably
concentric movement, — or, if still moving, as it does now, shall it
be seen, in its celestial appropriation, careering, with an inferior
magnitude, and with a common bond, among the sisterhood of
planets and the host of stars ? — If we may construe the language
of inspiration with any certainty, we must infer that when " the
Lord Jesus shall be revealed with flaming fire," this world, in
every substantive idea, shall have ceased. It has terminated. It
has " fled away." " No place is found for it." — Whenever there
is reference made in Scripture to the future state in its order and
lpcality, we are described as going forth, and departing hence?

404 THE FINAL HEAVEN.
migrating to a different sphere. " But they which shall be
counted worthy to obtain that world." "The dead in Christ
shall rise first. Then we which remain alive shall be caught up
together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air :
and so shall we ever be with the Lord." These passages certainly
carry away our ideas from whatever is terrestrial, to some "land
which is far off," to the proper abode of Jesus Christ. The House
not made with hands is eternal in the heavens, while the earthly
house of our tabernacle shall be dissolved. And then may we
enquire: For what reason, the true heaven should be transferred
to this place of our present abode ? There is now a Heaven :
the high and holy place : God's holy heaven : where Christ is.
Whatever changes have been admitted into it, and may be still
admitted, — whatever may be necessary to " prepare that place for
us," — why should it be abandoned for this our humbler habita
tion ? Why should it bend to this field of space ?
But the disposal of these questions, leads to a last. The
present heaven might suffice for the introduction- of the risen
saints. Holy materialism subsists in it, and would meet a large
portion of their wants and capacities. The Incarnate God has
his dwelling in it : two human bodies, at least, are found already
there. Why should it be displaced for another ? Some answers
may occur. Since the universal character of its created inhabi
tants, with these exceptions, is now unmixedly spiritual, it may
be conceived that the peculiar adaptation of this heaven does not
commend itself to a corporeal kind of existence. The corporeal
susceptibility may not be as fully provided for as is the immate
rial. The exceptions might the rather confirm this idea. For
Enoch and Elijah are in all likelihood themselves prepared bodily
for the spiritualities of the scene. But when all holy spirits shall
be reembodied, it does seem probable that this great progression
in their being shall be accompanied by an adequate and counter
part change of abode, that the palace shall be enriched in pro
portion to the augmented dignities of its royal guest. — Heaven
as it is now revealed to us, is not only a seat of bliss but of sus
pense. It is filled with aspirations towards better things. Its
happy spirits are intent upon a more glorious hereafter. A

, THE FINAL HEAVEN. 405
consummation, which is never doubted, is still delayed. To
that fulfilment a new heaven may be supposed to form itself:
a more suitable sphere may be moulded for that more exalted
perfection. — The Mediation of Christ, that part of it which
consists in his Priestly Intercession and his Regal Headship,
selects the present heaven for its Temple and its Throne. He
hath obtained an excellent ministry, and the heavenly places
are its courts. We recognise the ark, the altar, the victim, the
censer, the laver, the smoke, the blood. There is subserviency to a
Dispensation still in force. That dispensation, of which the Savi
our is the Supreme Director, and whose centre is in the exeellent
glory, shall at last reach its end. " The Son shall have delivered
up the kingdom to God even the Father." That dispensation
having been conducted among redeemed spirits in their allotted
dwelling-place, it might be presumed that its glorious issues will
be celebrated in some more intensely celestial development, wor
thy of their higher appreciation and their mightier strain. — A
series of vicissitudes appears to affect the minds of the saints
made perfect. What passes on earth seems to be reflected upon
them. The medium of their acquaintance with it we cannot
determine. The condition of the Church below is the subject of
their deepest interest. There are souls which cry with a loud
voice, saying, "How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost Thou not
j udge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth ?"
Yet must we not suppose agitation and impatience. They know,
for they learnt the lesson while on earth, that it is "good that a
man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the
Lord." Amidst all their emotions "it is said unto them that
they should rest yet for a little season." More often are they
ascertained to rejoice. " There were great voices in heaven,
saying, The kingdoms of this' world are become the kingdoms of
our Lord and of his Christ." " I heard a great voice of much
people in heaven, saying, Alleluia; Salvation, and glory, and
honour, and power, unto the Lord our God : For true and righte
ous are his judgments." "Rejoice over her, Thou heaven, and
ye holy apostles and prophets." That glorious state, as though
sometimes darkened and jarred by mortal sorrows and collisions,

406

THE FINAL HEAVEN.

may ultimately be lost in that which is more transcendent and
supernal : where even the earthly guest, if such there were, caught
up thither, could know no suspense, mark no ominous wonder,
nor " weep much," — across which no shadow of an evil world
could pass !
This State of blessedness is, then, distinct from all that pre
ceded it : and when we read of the new heavens and the new earth,
we must not divide them, — for were we to speak of heaven, in its
happy sense, all this is heaven, — the perfect and the last. But
as they who dwell on earth behold the firmament above and
around them, — as it is a part of our system necessary for life and
for our most agreeable sensations and ideas, — so these new heavens
are to the new earth, which is the real abode, as its skies, its
lights, its atmosphere, its medium of vision and harmony, swell
ing in their mighty dome over the earth beneath, and that earth
filled with its architecture of precious ores and gems, — one vast
city containing its multitudes of the saved and resplendent in the
abundance of its glory.
Now scarcely can this be regarded as imagery. " In the
beginning God created the heaven and the earth." That one
creation, as roof and floor, is our present abode. It is to pass
away, and there shall be seen a new celestial canopy, and a new
abiding place, for the raised and glorified saints. They answer to
" this building," but are infinitely more elaborate. The original
type may still be traced, but it is amidst a consummate work
manship and a crowning magnificence.
I. Let us endeavour, from this description, to suggest
TO OUR MINDS THE TRUE NATURE OF THAT PERFECT FELICITY
AND SATISFACTION WHICH ARE RESERVED FOR THE PEOPLE OF
GOD. There is a Residence which they shall call their own, brighter
than any known heaven, more lovely than any known earth, — a pa
vilion, as though it had a firmament for its curtains and a world for
its foundations, yet the one of richer texture than the star-woven
skies, yet the other of firmer stability than the everlasting hills.
In the present heavens and earth there are diversified powers
and objects, — for pleasure and for pain, for good and for evil, for

THE FINAL HEAVEN. 407
safety and for harm. There are healthy and there are noxious
elements. New heavens and a new earth are foreshown : then
whatever is now excellent shall be inconceivably enhanced, and
whatever is injurious shall be entirely removed.
— We may pursue the reflections which rise out of similitude
and comparison. i In our heavens is there not something great ?
Something of augury and emblem to unveil eternal things ?
Something which raises us beyond ourselves ? A beautiful mar
vel ? An unwearying spectacle ? An awful mystery ? A vision
real as bright and lasting ? How they refine the imagination
which wanders through them ! How they attune, as with their
own music, the minstrelsy which sings of them ! How they
enlarge the enquiry which studies them ! They are made for
meditation ! Man, as he gazes on them, seems to mingle with
them and his soul to grow into them ! What is so far above, so
unutterably high, so dazzling, so vast, so alluring, as the heavens ?
That arch studded with its orbs and garnished with its constella
tions ? Its mighty expanse, its gorgeous mechanism, its harmo
nious order? Now like a symbolic web, then a regal embroidery !
Now like an embossed shield, then a molten mirror ! Now like
the cupola of a temple, then the pavement of a palace ! — " The
heavens declare the glory of God : and the firmament showeth
his handy-work. One day telleth another : and one night certi-
fieth another. There is neither speech nor language : but their
voices are heard among them. Their sound is gone out into all
lands : and their words into the ends of the world. In them He
hath set a tabernacle for the sun : which cometh forth as a bride
groom out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a giant to run his
course. It goeth forth from the uttermost part of the heaven,
and runneth about unto the end of it again."* Those skies are
for a tent to dwell in. " Look now toward heaven, and tell the
stars, if thou be able to number them." Their lights are for
signs and for seasons and for days and for years. They mark our
time, and guide us in our going out and our coming in. There
is always faithful witness in them. Precious are the things of
heaven. There are formed the rains and the dews. In the aereal
* English Prayer-Book Translation.

THE FINAL HEAVEN.
system is the source of life and health and vigour. Precious are
the fruits brought forth by the sun and precious things are put
forth by the moon. The stars twinkle not in vain. Where could •
we turn our weary, weeping, eyes, but to the sweet influences
which are shed upon us, but to the fair beams which shine before
us, from those eyes of heaven ? When we look away from earth,
vexed with its cares and distracted with its crimes, it is more
than poetic sentiment which the sight of that celestial vault
inspires, and more than fanciful delight which it affords. Where
could we fan and calm our heavy, burning, brow but with the
gales which breathe from thence ? The clouds of heaven are not
the least of its delectable things. How rich are the reflections of
their endless dyes ! How manifold are their forms ! At one
time they sleep as the lake, again they surge as a sea : here they
unfold into the peaceful arbour, there they stand an embattled
host : they seem to constitute a very land of their own, the birth
place of the rainbow, the womb of the morning, the theatre of
heaven, the path-way of the sun, the escutchioned and trophied
bier of the departing day. We were created to look upward,
and the heavens teach us why. — And is not ours a joyous world ?
Manifold are its charms. It is given to the children of men. It
is changed, indeed, from what it was, but the primitive outline is
not blotted out. The vestiges of its higher condition, at different
intervals, reappear. Though many are its ruins, they are monu
mental. The flowers of Eden still grow wild. The fountains of
Paradise still run truant. How obedient is its soil ! How trac
table are its lower tribes ! How variegated are its stored gratifi
cations ! What melodies are in its woods and waters ! What
hues bathe its horizon at the dawn and sunset ! When Spring
walks forth and renews the face of the earth, and scatters her
blossoms and paints her tints, and the vegetation again mantles,
and the foliage again teems, and the little hills rejoice on every
side,  when Autumn crowns the year- with goodness, and scatters
out plenty from her horn, and gives seed to the sower and bread
to the eater, and all the trees of the field clap their hands, — then
do we feel that God is in those seasons, that He doeth all these
things, that they are His riches of which the earth, and the great

THE FINAL HEAVEN. 409
and wide sea, are full, — that all the laws and cycles of this world
are but His open hand and but His tender mercies ! He has
not forsaken the earth. But refulgent as is the concave above
us, and exuberant as is the earth at our feet, we " look for new
heavens and a new earth." There shall be a more beautiful and
august firmament, not decorated with the glory of the sun and
the glory of the moon and the glory of the stars, not filled to
mark out the revolutions of time, not perishable itself but resting
on its own moveless pillars, that which is designed to proclaim
the notations of eternity, that which shall be spread forth over
our endless home. There shall be a more durable and more
lovely earth, a more appropriate abode, a more worthy stage of
life and action, a sphere in which we shall live and move and
have our being more intensely and perfectly, where all that is
now pictured shall be fulfilled, in which the brightest splendour
and garniture of the present shall be only remembered as the
shadows of that which there is realised, that archetype of what
ever is now to be enjoyed, and admired, and loved !
— We may follow the reflections which arise out of difference
and contrast. The heavens which now cover us are often charged
with elements of trouble and danger. Judgment is heard from
them. They may be unfurled as a hostile banner. They are
often shrouded in an impenetrable shade. The sun may smite
us by day and the moon by night. The stars may fight against
us. Strong wind, lightning, vapour, may deal out death. Fire
runs along the ground. Mildew and blasting may load the
air. We may inhale an atmosphere of disease and pest. — Earth
tells us not of unmixed bliss. Thorns and briers are its sponta
neous growth. As is the earthy, such are they that are earthy.
We are made out of its ground and built up from its dust.
Mortality is the law of all its inhabitants. Exhausting are its
toils and cares. Moral corruption has seized upon it. " It is
polluted." Every atom of it may be converted into a means of
destruction and a weapon of wrath. Poisons abound in it. There
are beasts of prey. It may heave beneath us and swallow us up
quick. Like the house of the leper, the vein of sin frets into our
dwelling, defiling and destroying it. There are many things for

410 THE FINAL HEAVEN.
which it is disquieted and which it cannot bear. The heavens
and the earth are each beneath a fearful doom. They rise up
before us as an awful pile. They await but the torch. They
are reserved unto fire. The trail of the Old Serpent every where
is discerned. The Prince of the power of the air has now a
mysterious lodgment in these elements. He who is the angel of
the bottomless pit, Abaddon, Apollyon, is the prince and god
of this world. It is the rallying place, the citadel, of whatever
evil is in the universe. It is the battlement behind which sin
protects itself, and from which it attacks all purity, goodness,
and truth. Here we have no continuing city. The world pass
eth away. All is vanity. — New heavens and a new earth must
reverse the evil characteristics and properties of the present sys
tem. We turn from those we know to those which we anticipate.
In that firmament there shall be no storm, no blight, no scathe.
Neither shall the sun light on us, nor any heat. And that earth !
. No violence shall be found in it, nor jar, nor deadly thing.
And the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick : the people that
dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity : they are as the
angels of God. The love of that world brings no snare and
involves no guilt. When man now dies, he returns to his earth:
but that earth lies not under the dominion of death. Pain and
sorrow, sighs and tears, are unknown to it. It is the realm of
eternal life. How little is there in this our residence which such
a future abode must not abrogate and contradict !
But there are more specific indications in words like these.
1. The scene we occupy was evidently intended for a great
system of life. There is scarcely spot or element in which it may
not be found. It is a great contrivance for all the forms and
kinds of existence. It would be unmeaning, running to waste,
sinking into decay, but for this intention. Air, land, water, are
crowded with their several tribes. The happiness of every one is
consulted, function and habitude agree most perfectly with the
province and support provided for them, and none who survey
and reason out the final causes of things can doubt the will of
the Great Master and Lord of all. Still he who was made the
last of all earthly creatures, is the greatest : to him they are all

THE FINAL HEAVEN. 411"
tributary and ministering : and God has given him dominion over
them. His creation alone can explain theirs. Their career seems
idle but as directed for his service or his warning. He stands
forth as the solution of whatever is otherwise perplexingly ob
scure. Man was not constituted for this heaven and earth, but
this heaven and earth were constituted for man. Their myste
rious Sabbath was hushed into its stillness and hallowed into
its rest for him. All animal types and germs meet in his form.
He is the pattern which all that is wonderful in sentience, in
organization, in instinct, just so far approaches. He can explore
the heavens. He can scan the earth. He is its rightful pro
prietor and its proper resident under the charter of the Only
Potentate. " For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens ;
God himself that formed the earth and made it ; he hath esta
blished it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited."
Then, assuredly, when there shall -be new heavens and a new
earth, man, the capital figure of the present system, shall still be
more prominently raised. He shall there need for help no infe
rior creatures. Their spirit has gone downward to that earth
which is no more. But he is not alone. The ministering spirits
which ministered to the heirs of salvation during this life shall be
their companions amidst these fairer fields. They may tend them
still, drawing their attention to brighter and brighter spectacle,
and showing them fountain after fountain of living water. But
not angelic being is most predominantly marked. Human Nature
is the exhibited interest and genius of the place. Its restoration,
its redemption, its glorified perfection, fix the admiration of all
other holy beings. They contemplate in it the subject and trophy
of an unexampled grace. They see a mighty ruin retrieved.
They rejoiced over one sinner that repented while there was space
to repent : now they witness the fruits and works of that repent
ance, a repentance unto life. They behold the countless multi
tude rescued from Destruction, from their mischievous perversion,
from their deep disgrace. And that the nature of the fallen
creature may be aggrandised beyond all comparison, it is that
which the Second Person of the glorious Trinity has united to
himself. Immanuel has taken it on him. He became incarnate

412 THE FINAL HEAVEN.
that he might offer himself a sacrifice for sin, and he is now
honoured and exalted in that Incarnation. Only is He, by this
change, the Lamb ! It is rewarded, glorified, enthroned ! Lo !
What has manhood become ! How is it awfully raised ! How is
it infinitely dignified ! The seraphim veil their faces before the
God- Man ! The principalities and powers and dominions yield
to them who can claim their own humanity on the Seat of Su
preme Divinity ! They give place to them for whom these new
heavens and this new earth are prepared ! Their lower rank in
this recently constituted dwelling, is higher than their pre
eminence in that state of which they were native spirits ! It is
more joyous here to be the least than there to have been the
greatest ! The Deity is by this means revealed to them as it
never could be before ! They draw nearer ! They gaze more
confidently ! They repine not that a later, and once an infe
rior, creature is preferred ! The younger brother is come ! The
prodigal has returned ! He that was dead is alive again, and he
that was lost is found ! There is a more vivid gladness in such
a recovery, though themselves had needed no repentance ! They
adore the mercy which has furnished this habitation, and appro
priated it to them who are " redeemed from among men !"
These are the sons who are brought to this glory ! These are
the heirs of this paternal home ! These are the entitled claimants
who shall people the realms than which eternity can unfold
nothing more divinely worthy and sublime! That land shall
never be forsaken of its inhabitants : they are immortal as itself !
The new heavens and earth would be lost to every design which
their names suggest, unless they were full of life, and that the
life of man !
2. The world in which we dwell, with all its proper appenda
ges of circumambient air and supernal light, is a material fabric.
It is strictly conformed to all the laws, it completely developes
all the properties, of that form of subsistence. Fluids, — gaseous,
inappreciable, are not less reducible to this category than the
granite rock. All is extended, resistive, measureable, holding
its undivided and undisplaced position. Whatever is material
must be related to space. It is somewhere. Taken away, it

THE FINAL HEAVEN. 413
leaves a proportionate void. Our only experience of matter is in
this portion of Creation. Here exclusively can we form its proper
idea. The heavens and the earth furnish us also with our only
notion of space. If, therefore, new heavens and a new earth shall
be constituted, they must be material and related to space, or the
figure does not hold. And every thing concerning that abode
would seem to confirm it. It has its entrances, its dimensions,
its boundaries, that which can be " shown," that which may be
" heard." The flesh of the risen saints is seen in those borders.
The Glorious Body of the Eternal Son is the centre of all the
beatific attractions and influences. We should refine away, we
should subtletise, into vagueness, all our most realised concep
tions, were we to think of this future simply as a state. A state,
thus predicated, supposes a being who is the subject of it. A
created being cannot be omnipresent. He must be related, by
some law, to a particular material condition. If the spirit of a
corporeal agent, he must be related to that body : that body must
be related to a fixed point in its excursive transitions. We now
think of this hereafter by the symbolism of the actual and the
present. A new heaven and a new earth must somewhat corre
spond to the tangible things above and around us. We think
they cannot be of opposite elements or of opposite relations.
Then may we confidently announce that they have such an exis
tence as we understand when we would denote that which our
external senses now ascertain and now allocate. It is a high, it
may be an attenuated, materialism, answering to the idea of the
spiritual body : it may be less gross and obtrusive than any with
which we are acquainted : but it is not less truly and substan
tively a subject and series of all such phsenomena. There is
nothing debased or sinful in them, — they consisted with a holy
structure and an unfallen creature : and " in the generations" of
the " new heavens and earth" we shall only see matter and space
reclaimed to their highest use and purest destiny.
3. The visible works of God are the means by which intel
ligent creatures rise in their thoughts to Him, and judge of him.
These are the monuments of His existence and natural perfections.
" For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world

414 THE FINAL HEAVEN.
are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made,
even his eternal power and Godhead." We see the most extra
ordinary indications of wisdom and benignity in all that we call
Nature. Adaptation is the universal law. If we speak of the
firmament, how is apparent irregularity redeemed and momentary
aberration indemnified, where these are seen to be the very niceties
of contrivance and provision ! If we speak of the human frame,
what a mechanism is unfolded in adjustments which no human
art could attempt and no human foresight could anticipate, to each
socket andjlexion, to each filament and pore. Nor less do we
find that the tender mercies of Deity are over all his works. The
stores which he provides for every living thing declare his good
ness, and yet there is a tenderness which is more exquisite than
all. We trace it in the protective instincts of the feeblest, in the
parental yearning which every where soothes and tends the ear
liest sorrow and helplessness of life, in the joy of which all the
humblest kinds partake. Heaven and earth but vary and mul
tiply the perfect demonstration of a First Cause, his skill, his
might, and his bounty. When we read, consequently, of " the
new heavens and the new earth," we cannot fail to infer that they
shall be impressed with the same designations. They who dwell
in them shall peruse the signatures of an infinite glory still.
Manifestations such as we now contemplate shall not be blotted
out, save to be written in more resplendent characters. The
operations of the Divine power shall not be forgotten amidst the
higher proceedings of the Divine government. They are blended
into one song : " Great and marvellous are Thy ivorks, Lord God
Almighty ; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints."
How shall the depths of those heavens, how shall the ever-
spreading horizons of that earth, be " sought out," and " con
sidered," and mused, and interpreted, for the praises of Him
whose glorious majesty shines forth from their incomparable
Frame !
4. The community of the saints is now a most pleasing fact :
they are one. They have a mutual bond. We all feel what that
is : " all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ
our Lord, both theirs and ours." But widely are they scattered

THE FINAL HEAVEN. 415
abroad. They are driven among all nations. The world does
not contain them. It is but the birth-place of their regeneration.
When they die, their spirits pass into the intimate presence of
Christ. There they abide as perfectly blessed as spirits can be
in their bodily deprivation. They are separated from many, for
a time, whom they loved on earth. Many have sprung up, and
are now springing, in the church below, whom they have never
known. All are hastening to one place. New and still newer
companies are meeting in it. But the time of the full gathering
has not come. It may be that some shall never there be seen.
They who do not die, but only shall be changed, will not need that
intermediate rest, nor will the suddenness of their transforma
tion admit of it. The recognition of the saints in their full and
distinct identity depends, also, upon the resurrection. Where
shall all the people of God be found ? They never yet dwelt,
except they were members of the first family, in the same world.
They never yet were seen at once. A new heaven and a new
earth shall now embrace their whole multitude. God hath pre
pared a habitation for them. They are all brought home.
" None of them is lost." They are not dispersed in distant
receptacles, but as earth with its heaven expresses one abode and
one oeconomy, so are they all now enclosed in one system of per
fect relationship and intercourse, going in and out among each
other, — walking as nations with their proper peculiarities, or as
those who were nations but are distinct no more, in that celestial
light, — one in joy, one in song, one in interest, the Common
wealth and Intercommunity of all the redeemed.
5. While the present state of our sojourn abounds in multi
tudinous life, while it is chiefly administrative to the life of man,
we cannot but be amazed at the contrivance and the fulness of
those provisions which give general life, and peculiarly that of
man, its greatest possible happiness and freest possible exercise.
All of death reminds us of it by necessarily presupposing it. The
heavens and the earth lend it continued support ; ever varying
its emotions, ever quickening its joys. Their breezes and their
streams, seasons, products, climates, all promote the vitalities which
swarm in every element and every nook. We, however, boast a

416

THE FINAL HEAVEN.

life of higher functions and aims. To be spiritually-minded
is life and peace. The Spirit of life breathes it into our soul.
Though the sky and earth cannot affect this new mode of being,
this life of faith, yet the passions and concernments of the pre
sent do war perpetually with it. This world offers no congenial
sphere for it, save for its power of contest, its opportunity of eiidu-
rance5 its test of strength. But " the new heavens and the new
earth" shall as much favour the inward life, the life of the spirit,
as these mundane conveniences and laws now sustain our infe
rior life. In that extra-mundane region, what will be its blessed
helps and resources ! What air shall it inhale ! On what fruits
of the tree of life shall it feed ! It is life more abundantly,
it is the intensest essence of life, — it is life in its range and expa-
tiation, — it is life in its unwearying activities, — it is life cir
cling within itself, — it is life incessantly renewing its youth, — it
is life eternal !
6. If the future condition of happiness and glory, which shall
be prepared for the redeemed, may be thus expressed, we may
expect that, notwithstanding the difference between it and " this
visible, diurnal sphere," there shall be certain points of resem
blance. Willingly we forego the thought of whatever arises out
of imperfection, out of animal wants and relations. " They shall
hunger no more, neither thirst any more." " Meats for the belly
and the belly for meats : but God shall destroy both it and them."
" They neither marry nor are given in marriage." But matter
is the same, corporeity is the same, mind is the same. What are
now the marks of our dwelling? Heavens, — earth. How is our
eternal abode described ? New heavens, — new earth. Is not
there in the former an analogue to the latter ? Is not the second
the reflex of the first ? Was there not a shadowing out of ideas
which shall seem familiar to the saints in that glory ? That which
is inferior in appetite and instinct is done away. But is there no
beauty in form and colour which the eye may behold ? Are there
no ravishing harmonies for the ear ? It may be said, that this
implies the existence of light and its prismatic laws ; of air and
its mechanical impulsions. The same effects might be produced
by other media : but we see nothing improbable in the retention

THE FINAL HEAVEN. 417
of these elements. They are forms or conditions of matter, but
they are the most ethereal. We may believe, therefore, that our
future being shall not reverse all our known ideas and feelings,
but that it shall rather supply their refinement and augmentation.
Every thing here may be but rudiment and cypher, to be evolved
and interpreted in far distant seats of the universe. By a gradu
ated scale we may now rise, through an ascending series of pro
gressive changes, until we reach the climax of all.
7. But this supposed parallelism, however unequal, between
these different scenes of existence, comprehends an exercise of
distinct and perfect memory. The language which borrows
figures from our system to signify " the life which is to come,"
which takes our heavens and earth to adumbrate the final bliss of
believers, makes certain that there shall be a constant reference
from the future to the past. The " terrible crystal" of the new
heavens, the fair paradise of the new earth, must recall the
old. Were it designed that all should be forgotten, no sug
gesting cause, no associating link, would be introduced, nor be
suffered to linger in the mind of the redeemed. Every memento
would certainly be withdrawn. But how much of that blessed
ness thus would be destroyed ! The recollection of sin, and that
they once were sinners, alone explains the grace which abounded
to them, and alone inspires them to sing the praise of its glory.
They must revert to the trials and conflicts of their sublunary
discipline, to Understand their triumph now that they have over
come. The retrospect of kindred, and tongue, and people, and
nation, in the anthem of their redemption, shows that nothing of
their moral history is obliterated from their spirits. Still they
look to the rock whence they were hewn, and to the hole of the
pit whence they were digged. And still they regard the holy
haunt, the pious home of the departed earth. " The pleasant
things" and scenes of "a worldly sanctuary" live in their
memory still. " And of Zion it shall be said, This and that
man was born in her. The Lord shall count when he writeth
up the people, that this man was born there." The everlasting
records of their former selves are engraven on these celestial
monuments of a perished world. All revives with them. All
E E

418

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attaches to them. The ancient heavens and earth speak by these.
There is reflected from them the vivid image of whatever by its
precedent or its foil can increase celestial delights.
8. The manner in which the present heavens and earth are
supplanted by the new, declares that a measure of happiness is en
sured by the exchange which perfectly corresponds to the solemn
revolution. Joy is the invariable fruit of a rightly appreciated
Christianity. Amidst terrestrial sorrows and temptations this
joy is the believer's strength. It is unspeakable and full of glory.
It is his token and badge, to be happy in God. He triumphs
in Christ. Yet it finds a limit. His present conditions are too
weak for its transport, and often fail beneath it. The lot of
earth is too confined, too infirm, too sinful, to contain its perfect
fulness. The weight of glory would overpower the creature of
flesh and blood, and would ill befit the world of contest, strife,
and sin. Were there not some better portion, some brighter
reversion, other scenery need not be sought. But there is a.
reward for which this is unsuited, and of which it is unsusceptible.
And in " looking for the new heavens and the new earth," we
must consider them as, not only the types, but the means, of a
sublime satisfaction with which the noblest enjoyments, that reli
gion can now inspire, may not be compared.
9. Nothing more distinctly marks the evil of sin, than the
variance which is often supposed in Scripture between man and
the scenes of his habitation. These are bid to rise up and declare
against him. He is represented as alone " coming short of the
glory of God." They are true to their first purpose, while he
has turned aside from the end for which he was created and en
dowed. Hence those awful apostrophes with which inanimate
objects are invoked, as if even they could but condemn him.
They are summoned, like so many witnesses and justicers, to de
nounce his crimes. " Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth !"
" Be astonished, O heavens, and be horribly afraid, be ye very
desolate !" Therefore does the Almighty Creator call to them.
They are weary, according to these descriptions, of sustaining
our guilty race. " The earth is defiled under the inhabitants
thereof." He himself complains of the abuse to which his own

THE FINAL HEAVEN. 419
sustentation of these things is turned. " Thou hast made me to
serve with thy sins." " Behold, I am pressed under you, as a
cart is pressed that is full of sheaves." A taint is upon all His
earthly works. They are wrested from Him. They are the un
willing instruments of our rebellion. We contradict and debase
them. The rebuke is in their order against our disorder, in their
quiet against our disturbance, in their peace against our war.
They retain their allegiance. They are still on the side of God.
He causes judgment to be heard from heaven. The earth trem
bles at his presence. It is the Lord's. But " the new heavens and
earth" shall environ nothing which can offend. They shall cor
respond with whatever they embrace. Their pure elements shall
only encompass the pure. Their inhabitants shall walk in them
with undeviating sympathy. Every use shall be pursued. Every
lesson shall be learnt. Every design shall be fulfilled. That
glorious creation shall smile upon all who people it, and shall
rejoice that, in them, its blessed skill and power are perfectly
explained. " The heavens shall declare His righteousness, and all
the people shall see his glory." " The skies shall pour down right
eousness." " The earth shall bring forth salvation." And so even
now, when there is a holy cause and a holy people on the earth,
the system of Nature is required to manifest its gladness. " Let
the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad." " Sing, O ye hea
vens, for the Lord hath done it : shout ye lower parts of the
earth !" All these His works were reared for the sake of Human
redemption. They were prepared for the saints. "And I have
put my words in thy mouth, and I have covered thee in the sha
dow of mine hands, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the
foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, Thou art my peo
ple." How shall that heaven and that earth, in which this people
shall for ever dwell, exult with them, — not as here over their
avengement, but in the triumphs and beatitudes of which they
partake, and to which themselves so abundantly minister.
10. Since heaven and earth combine all our ideas of the fair
and grand, since these complete our present sphere of life and
action, the continuance of such machinery in a future state must
intimate to us the diversity of its good. Herein is every con-

420

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stituent of our pleasure, whether sensuous or intellectual. From
above, or beneath, we derive all our gratifications. There is
endless variety. Our compound being is not forgotten, but sen
tience and mind are alike addressed and cherished. The well-
known sources of our temporal good shall more than be resto
red. The Lord shall be our everlasting light, and our God our
glory. There is heaven to which we may lift our eye, and earth
on which it may repose. All attractions are contained in the
one or the other. And does not this renovation of heaven and
earth declare the completeness of celestial delight, and the union
of all its essentials ? There are spirit and body, — contemplation
and activity, — complacency and usefulness, — deep conscious
ness and rapturous flight, — inner life and boundless association,
— all powers and all affections, — height and depth, — centre and
circumference, — wide as the expanse of heaven, variegated as
the beauties of earth. "At Thy right hand there are pleasures
for evermore !"
11. We have no such images of permanence as those works
of God concerning which we speak. " For ever, O Lord, thy
word is settled in heaven." " They shall fear Thee as long as
the sun and moon endure." " The earth abideth for ever." God
suspends the proof of his faithfulness upon these ordinances,
upon the covenant of day and night. Yet are we forewarned of
their wreck. " They shall perish ; and they all shall wax old as
doth a garment." " All the host of heaven shall be dissolved,
and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll." " Heaven
and earth shall pass away." We are assured of that which is
more lasting than they. " Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and
look upon the earth beneath : for the heavens shall vanish away
like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment : but my
salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be
•abolished." If, then, these monuments of whatever is durable
are themselves to be destroyed, if the azure fade and the globe
decay, how certainly may we regard, in the new heavens and
earth, the voucher of a proper immortality ! Their sun shall no
more go down. Their refulgent tissues shall not decay. They
are the perfect signals of a duration which admits no intervals

THE FINAL HEAVEN. 421
and wants no monitors, — which cannot be broken into ages nor
counted out by stars !
12. The power of God to protect and bless is not infrequently
rested upon his creative achievements. " My help cometh from
the Lord, which made heaven and earth." " The Lord that
made heaven and earth, bless thee out of Zion." " Happy is he
that hath the God of Jacob for his help, which made heaven and
earth." " Ah Lord God ! behold, thou hast made the heaven
and, the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and
there is nothing too hard for thee." The mourner, the oppressed,
the persecuted, have sought unto Him who had done all these
things, — his aid and benediction they could not henceforth dis
trust nor slight. The meek of the earth were safe beneath the
care of Him who made it. They, upon whose tears, only the
heavens looked, found their relief in Him that had stretched them
abroad. The new heavens and earth are fashioned by the same
Omnipotent Artificer, the God of truth and of salvation, and in
the same manner does he design that they should support the
quietness and assurance of his people for ever ! He who reared
them shall be their God so long as they endure. They are the
standard evidence and voucher of what he can and will work on
their behalf. As we now appeal to these skies and to these moun
tains, to these doings of God, to justify our utmost hope and
confidence, so shall the saints survey and interpret the glorious
wonders which encircle them with the same necessary inference
and infallible construction. How safely shall they abide, how
beatifically shall they exist, whose safeguard and gladness are
secured by incorruptible heavens and earth, amidst which God
is all in all !
Yet these are but intimations which we seize. We believe
them well warranted conclusions. But amongst them we speedily
are lost. We cannot realise them. They overpower and con
found. Though the similitudes be borrowed from our most
familiar impressions, yet are they but feeble helps to our minds.
We must still exercise our simplest faith. It is like a second
process. " Through faith we understand that the worlds were
framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were

422

THE FINAL HEAVEN.

not made of things which do appear." In like manner we must
believe that at the voice of Him who shall say, " Behold I make
all things new," a cerulean shall suddenly beam forth, a verdure
shall suddenly rise up, of which the heavens and the earth, which
now are, furnish not the very image but only the dim shadow and
feeble germ !
Two descriptions, however, are given, which aid our ideas.
The first is doubtless figurative. It pourtrays tbe future state
as a city of mighty boundaries, of gorgeous structures, of gol
den streets, — of walls and gates and foundations, built with the
most beautiful and precious stones, — the palatial residence of the
Church, the sanctified Bride, — no Temple rising in it, because the
Presence of the Deity is immediate and direct and every where suf
fused, — all brightening beneath an unsetting day, — diversified,
amidst this unfolded stateliness and grandeur and royalty of pile
and tower, with the fertility and living water of an Eden, the
pure river clear as crystal, the tree of life, — a city and a grove, —
a blending of a Jerusalem and a Paradise!* — But the second
description is more distinct. Our Text presents it : " Wherein
dwelleth righteousness." The corresponding Description repeats"
the same: "And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing
that defileth." We are not able to understand the splendours
which shall mantle those heavens, nor the plants and bowers of
that earth, — but this may be conceived. There was a heaven,
but righteousness did not dwell there. There was an earth, but
righteousness did not dwell in it. Angels rebelled. Man fell.
Holy loyalty has not found, until now, its chosen abode and
changeless home. In its greatest trials and in its largest scenes,
it had wavered and failed. At last it has entered its own sphere,
it has obtained its just claim and security. It has room in which
to dwell safely. It is not as something strange, a visitation, — it
strikes an indigenous root, it breathes a native air. Only the
* Rev. xxii. 1, &c. A wrong punctuation has introduced a confusion, which is
by no means in the passage. Thus it should be composed : " And he showed me a
pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and
of the Lamb in the midst of the street of it. And on either side of the river was
there the tree of life."

THE FINAL HEAVEN. 423
faultless stand before the throne ! The holy are renewed and
confirmed in indefectible purity ! They cannot sin ! They
adorn those heavens, shining as the brightness of the firmament
and as the stars for ever and ever ! They enrich that earth,
rising as pillars on which is written the name of God, and the
name of the city of their God, and, — added to all, is inscribed by
the Saviour his " new name." Happiness, in all thy forms, thou
art there ! Love in all thy ties, thou art there ! Devotion, in all
thine ardours, .thou art there ! Melody, in all thy chords, thou
art there ! But ye follow in the train of that which is greater
than you all ! Righteousness shall go before you, and shall set
you in the way of its steps ! Righteousness has there built its
dwelling-place, and throws open the portals for all that is kindred
to it ! Like Him, in whom it only perfectly and necessarily
exists, it shall inhabit eternity !
Our future happiness being thus compared to an earth yield
ing its increase with its sweet aether, with its hemisphere of glo
rious lights, — we are described as looking for the evolution of
the scene. The ground of this confidence must be considered.
II. Let us examine the evidence on which this firm
EXPECTATION RESTS.
To Abraham a covenant was given, in which were contained
many promises of a more than earthly kind. He had the seal of
righteousness by faith. From him was to descend a spiritual
seed. He and his patriarchal posterity saw not in an}' land of
our globe their inheritance : they sought " a better country, that
is, an heavenly." Beneath this broad and continuous and irrever
sible covenant we might plead our right. We are blessed with
him. They without us cannot be made perfect. We seem led
forth with the father of the faithful and to hear the Voice, Look
now towards heaven ! We believe in the Lord, and he counteth
it to us for righteousness ! We take this ancient warrant, which
no time can impair nor cancel, — a warrant distinct, successive,
cumulative, — and "according to His promise we look for new
heavens and a new earth in which dwelleth righteousness."
Other quotations have been already gathered from prophecy,
— of the very same language and metaphor, and in them may be,

424 THE FINAL HEAVEN.
found the seed of this thought and the earnest of this hope, —
until the language and the metaphor are by later descriptions
unspeakably simplified and aggrandised, swelling like new visions
upon us, always the more defined as they are the more expanded,
until they all combine into one pledge, but that like the many-
coloured bow of heaven, and we " according to promise look for
new heavens and a new earth in which dwelleth righteousness."
Christianity, which brings life and incorruption to light,
which is the promise of eternal life, exhibits the true and alone
hope of this surpassing condition. We may give doctrine all the
weight and warmth of inspired forecast, not only reasoning on it
but delighting in its presentiment and augury, — we may even
read in precept a voucher of this future, and draw from it fresh
yearnings towards it, — and while the gospel compresses and sums
up itself into a compact assurance, we according to this promise,
concentrated from the whole, " look for new heavens and a new
earth in which dwelleth righteousness."
Whether the Promise be constructive or literal, have respect
to strains of verbal resemblance or to general deductions from
Christianity, — its force is still the same, unless indeed that, being
the conclusion upon the entire Word of Life, its intensity be so
much increased. We have everlasting consolation and good hope
through grace. We depend upon the hope of eternal life, which
God, who cannot lie, promised before the world began.
Promise is a form of Scriptural revelation and encouragement
with which we are familiar. It is an infinite condescension in
God thus to bind himself, and to speak to his servants, " for
a great while to come." " There are given to us exceeding
great and precious promises." Their faithfulness is their first and
common character. " They are all Yea and Amen in Christ
Jesus." Their compass and variety are as ample and as applica
ble as the mental and outward trials which Christians can ever
know. They pass on from age to age unexhausted, and those of
one dispensation are transmitted to another in larger meaning and
wider scope. The original testament is cleared by new codicils
and is enriched by more munificent bequests. " Having these
promises," we thread our earthly journey, instructed for each

THE FINAL HEAVEN. 425
Strait and vexation, — for no conflict unfurnished, for no exigence
unprepared. But, then, Promise has hitherto only been fulfilled amidst
sorrows of earthly vicissitude. These, being known, can be borne.
In enduring them, though we need every holy support, we are
still surrounded with the sensible scenes which were always fami
liar to us. These heavens tell us whither the spirits of our
friends have soared, and this world yet contains their dust. We
gaze upon the same landscape and same sky which we beheld in
joy, and now explore in grief. It is the same house, though it is
a house of mourning. The only change is in ourselves. The
stars and the flowers may seem to assume another aspect : the
stars to twinkle with tears, the flowers to droop in the fragrance
of their sighs. It is an idle fancy. We look upon the same
objects. And powerful as is the influence of Divine Promises
upon our minds, the simple faith which regards them is not so
signalised, because we can yet look forth upon many of the ele
ments of their fulfilment. God judges. He makes a way. He
sends a deliverance. In the mount of the Lord shall it be seen.
The Promise, however, of which we speak, depends upon no
such test. It is not some provision for this mortal life. It is
not capable of any present demonstration. It supposes the ruin
and transition of all that we have known. Our heavens and our
earth have passed away, — they are no more ! There is sudden
void ! This is fearful extremity ! Yet then the Promise does
not fail us. We read it by the blaze of that universal confla
gration. And yonder, — whither we are rapt, — there bends a
firmament, there smiles an earth, whose arch is illumined with
unexampled glories, whose field is dispread with unimaginable
charms !
And can the sinner, the hater of Christ, the disbeliever of the
gospel, think of these things without dismay ? If he could keep
possession of this present system until then, then all is lost. The
world, the house of his idols, is consumed. All that he sought
and loved has perished. Where lies his own escape? Where
rises a refuge for him from this horrible tempest ? Where is his
ark that may surmount these billows of resistless flame ? They

426 THE FINAL HEAVEN.
light but his way to fiercer fires ! Ere that fiery indignation
shall burst upon these heavens and this earth, — Sinner ! Scoffer!
fly for pardon, acceptance, sanctification, to the Redeemer, before
He shall become thy Judge, — to the Spirit, before He shall
become thine Enemy and fight against thee !
It is to the Christian, not only a sweet prospect, it is an awful
issue ! What if — there is vile ingratitude in the most momentary
doubt. We may know suspense. Hope may be deferred. But our
hearts are assured. In this will we be confident. It is the word
of the Supreme. It is the oath of the Eternal. The Strength
of Israel will not lie. God cannot deny himself. There is no
sight by which to walk, there is no semblance on which to look.
These things are not seen. These things are not. There shines
not to us one point of those expected heavens, — there appears not
one particle of that intended earth. But they shall be! Not
more sure are their present images, than are those archetypes !
We trust in Him who calleth things which be not as though
they were ! We are shut up to this faith, but it suffices, — it can
want no support of the present and the external, — the absence of
every aid is its best might, — its true and sublimest victory is
when it despairs of all, save the Faithful Power of God ! We
shall not be ashamed ! All may sink beneath us, — all may
perish around us, — we may hear Nature's latest groans, — we
may behold Creation's dying embers, — the Trump of God may
have ceased to sound, — " Nevertheless we, according to His
Promise, look for new heavens and a new earth* in which dwelleth
righteousness."

SERMON XVIII

THE REVIVAL OF CHRISTIAN PIETY
AND EFFORT.

Hosea x. 12.

"Sow TO YOURSELVES IN RIGHTEOUSNESS, REAP IN MERCY; BREAK UP
YOUR FALLOW GROUND : FOR IT IS TIME TO SEEK THE LoRD, TILL He
COME AND RAIN RIGHTEOUSNESS UPON YOU.''
The methods of operation in the great (Economy of Nature are
so fixed and certain, that we call" them laws. Planets, in their
wide circuits, come back again to the same point at the given
moment. Light falls in an invariable direction. The seasons
succeed each other in a uniform course. Seed-time and harvest
cease not from the earth. We are so assured of what we thus
denominate the laws of nature, so confident of their issues, that
we form and found the rules of our own conduct upon them. It
has always proved a safe experiment thus to act: it would be
utter fatuity to go against them. These laws retain a majestic
constancy, — if ever seemingly deranged, easily repairing them
selves, — if ever interrupted for a little while, quickly renewed, —
meekly but irresistibly resenting every inroad upon their order
and every violence upon their sanctity. It is only proper to add,
that when we speak of Nature in this sense we intend Him who
is above all, and through all, and in all : and by these laws we
but denote His continued volition and agency. It is a fastidious
scruple that objects to this language as if it thrust away the Deity
from the superintendence and jurisdiction of His own works. It
finds its origin, and may plead its sanction, in Scripture. " If
those ordinances depart from before me, saith the Lord :" evi
dently implying their inflexibility, — the reasonableness of pre-

428 THE REVIVAL OF
suming on them, — and their distinctness so far from Him, who
first established and still maintains them, that they may become
proofs of his attestation and grounds of his appeal.
From these indications of things we derive much general
guidance, and we regulate ourselves conformably with them. We
compute our time by the splendid mechanism of the firmament. —
We attend to our health by ascertaining what our bodily consti
tution prompts, seeks, requires, rejects : we obey these sugges
tions as to congruity, capacity, and temperament. We cannot
seize this blessing independently, or in disregard of certain
physical principles. We must treat certain phenomena and affect
certain susceptibilities by particular agents and under particular
conditions. Life can be preserved, and its vigour be promoted,
only by what is agreeable to its own organization. — The tillage
of the earth is subjected to the same system. The soil has its
powers, the productive quality of the seed is evolved and germi
nates by those powers of the soil, — both are elicited by the influ
ence of light, warmth, moisture, and ventilation. The husband
man would be a maniac who should expect a crop from the soil
without seed or from the seed without soil, — or the active mani
festation of the properties belonging to either without the vivify
ing excitements of the atmosphere.
But in our spiritual relations we are often visionary. We are
guilty of a fanaticism which in other instances we should despise.
We anticipate effects without causes, and ends without means.
We are surprised and angry, if all do not immediately succeed.
Though we lay no plan, though we ply no effort, — we are bitterly
disappointed if we receive not the instantaneous reward. We
grasp the sickle when we ought to put our hand to the plough :
we would bind the sheaf when we are summoned to cleave the
furrow. We would reap that whereon we have bestowed no
labour. Yet in the one husbandry we may fail of recompense. Our
labour may be frustrated. Desolation may sweep our fields:
mildew and blasting may wither our harvests. That which is
stamped by experience with a general certitude, is not absolutely
sure. In the other, however, the connection between exertion and

CHRISTIAN PIETY AND EFFORT. 429
recompense is indissoluble. Nothing can be squandered here.
Nothing can run to waste. There spring up, from the rudest
ground and most scattered seed, noble germs and precious fruits.
The thought, the aim, the aspiration, are speedily modified, and
take bright shapes and enter enduring forms. All lives again,
and is multiplied to an indefinite extent. " For God is not
unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love which ye have
showed toward his name." We need be harassed by no sus
pense: we may be tried, our personal feelings may be thwarted,
our sanguine presentiments may be delayed, but there can be
no real nor final mortification. " Let us not be weary in well
doing : for in due time we shall reap if we faint not."
Now no one charges on them who cultivate the ground, any
act of profane arrogance in cooperating with God. The che
mical ingredients with which He has endowed the earth lie
dormant until then. Even upon those ingredients there might
be divine arrest. This cooperation with the processes of nature
is invited by them, and because ordained, is necessary to their
perfection. Man is as requisite as the ground which catches the
sweat of his brow. He is as much a part and instrument, as any
thing upon which he acts, in this vast magazine of contrivances
and laboratory of results. " Doth the ploughman plough all day
to sow ? doth he open and break the clods of his ground ? When
he hath made 'plain the face thereof, doth he not cast abroad the
fitches, and scatter the cummin, and cast in the principal wheat
and the appointed barley, and the rye in their place ?" — Is this
the stealth of some secret into which he should not dare to pry ?
Is it the usurpation of some forbidden power ? " His God doth
instruct him to discretion, and doth teach him." Nor is it an
unholy interference when, in the province of religion, we take all
pains and use all exertions to secure justly expected and certainly
promised accomplishments, — conscious at every step, and at every
instant, that the Infinite Power alone can crown our labour with
efficiency and bring it to maturity.
The Text lies closely to these remarks. Its analogies are
drawn from the most common pursuits, and most confident cal
culations, of agriculture. The glebe is to be prepared, the seed is

430 THE REVIVAL OF
to be deposited, the rain is to be awaited, the harvest is to be ga
thered, the God of all is to be sought and implored and blessed !
Every thing is in its place. One entire system is adjusted to
our view. It hangs with a perfect poise. Divine decretion encou
rages and directs human agency, — -the one is beheld in all its
peremptory prerogative, the other is traced in all its readiest free
dom. We must entertain no partial ideas, no disconnected opi
nions. We must think in the parallelism of these principles and in
the coordinateness of these rules. There must be neither rivalry
nor collision. Portions of the great scheme of truth, — they must
discover the most natural symmetry and agreement : they are of
the same essence and tendency. The imaginary discordance may
only remind us of certain repulsions which we observe -in the uni
verse, antagonisms which seem incapable of reconcilement, yet con
ducive to a real agreement, obeying an imperial attraction, holding
in the less that they be subjected to an ultimate law and be im
pelled in an harmonious march. " The shock of corn shall come
in its season," if we break up the ground, — pray for the rain,
— sow in righteousness, and diligently secure the harvest. At
successive intervals there shall be seen the riven clod, — the mel
lowed mould, — the sower going forth to sow, — the cloud dropping
fatness, — the blade, the ear, the full corn in the ear, — the sun
ripening it into its flush of gold, — the Lord of the harvest assign
ing the luxuriant spoil, — while "we shall not have planted and.
another eaten, but shall long enjoy the work of our hands."
We feel for the lost race of man. We would not turn aside
their right, nor subvert their cause. The claim has deeply fixed
itself upon our conscience. Our professed subjection to the
gospel of Christ leaves us no license for a hesitating judgment, —
no pretext for a doubtful course. Pastors are filled with a sus
pense of hope and fear whether their spirit can meet this exigent
crisis of Missions, and whether their people will respond to it.
There are great searchings of heart. The Church is stirring up
its strength. We may sin by impatience. We may forget our
duty in our hope. — Let us suggest those principles of action, —
those grounds of confidence, — those ripened results, — which this
inspired passage unfolds.

CHRISTIAN PIETY AND EFFORT. 431
We will, in the first place, explain the general terms
of this exhortation.
The word which will require the fullest explanation, as it
offers the greatest difficulty, is righteousness, — occurring twice in
the verse.
There can be no doubt that its radical idea is that of simple
equity, the righteousness which we ascribe to our Maker. This
is commonly coupled with judgment: "I am the Lord which
execute Judgment and Righteousness in the earth." " I will lay
judgment to the line, and righteousness to the plummet." But
in no use of a word is there so great a concordance between the
Old and New Testament writings, as in this. It has in each all
the exactness of a term of art : all the precision which belongs to
technology. It denominates, when connected with an exercise of
mercy, the method of pardon on the basis of a honourable trans
fer and a moral equivalent. It is the righteousness of God, — His
way of justifying the ungodly through a righteousness, — by
faith. He declares his righteousness in the remission of sins.
Mercy and Justice are not rival claims. Justice is a form of
good, the precaution of benevolence. Mercy is a safeguard of
rectitude, the boon of right. Justice has no vindictiveness to
appease : Mercy has no fondness to indulge. In them we behold
the oneness of the Divine Nature. There is no shadow of turn
ing. The rays of moral glory commingle. They shine with
equal lustre. They beam in the same direction. They create
a common light. Righteousness and salvation are, therefore,
often placed together and employed as convertible terms. The
garments of salvation and the robe of righteousness belong to the
same array. In the same vision righteousness goeth forth as
brightness, and salvation as a lamp which burneth. This is the
fitness, and beauty, of the theory of our religion. The sinner
never knows his deep offence but in his pardon. He never
recognises the grandeur of the Lawgiver until he experiences his
clemency. Every thing impresses his own unworthiness. Every
thing exalts the government beneath which the forgiveness is
vouchsafed. A holy effect is secured. Mercy grows awful, as
Justice becomes tender ! We fear the Lord and his goodness,

432 THE REVIVAL of
and the very forgiveness which is with Him causes Him to be
feared. This relative righteousness, — which is unto all and upon
all who believe, — is the surest pledge and strongest motive of
their obedience. The righteousness of the law is fulfilled in them.
They do the will of God from the heart. Justification is insepa
rable from Sanctification. As the mingled stream of the blood
and of the water flowed from the Saviour's side, so whom he
pardons he will also cleanse.
By Righteousness we may, then, understand the great truths
and blessings of the gospel. And we are the more confirmed in
this interpretation from the repetition of the same word at the
close of the Text: "He will rain down righteousness." For if
the word should mean, — as we might perhaps on the first view of
it have supposed, — simply duty, — " sow to yourselves in right
eousness," diligently do your duty, "reap in mercy," and you
shall be repaid, you shall find a reward, — how can it bear this
construction when occurring this second time? What promise
is it that he will rain down duty, or virtue, upon us ? It is not
denied that the same term may occasionally present different sig
nifications in very near connections, but then there must be a
necessity of case to dictate its double use. In this instance we
shall find that there is none.
To sow in righteousness is, then, to propagate the gospel, the
gospel of Christ, the power of God unto salvation to every one
that believeth, wherein is the righteousness of God by faith
revealed to faith : that gospel which is called, the word oi right
eousness. And nothing in this figure is forced : it agrees entirely
to the identical metaphor of our Lord : " The Seed is the Word
of God." He who sows may certainly predict the kind which he shall
reap. To every seed is given its own body. And if we sow in
righteousness, it is an intelligent act. We anticipate a specific
effect. This will bloom out in righteousness, peace, and joy in.
the Holy Ghost. Men will be fruitful in every good work. We
can foresee the harvest. There will be a perfect congruity and
uniformity. The gospel bringeth forth fruit, its own appropriate
and distinctive fruit, from the day we hear it, and know the grace

CHRISTIAN PIETY AND EFFORT. 433
of God in truth. Sow it through the earth, and the earth shall
yield the increase of an exact restitution, but to a hundred
fold! Extensive preparations are required for this great dissemina
tion of the truth. " Break up," cries the Prophet, " the fallow
ground." But the original word* is not thus precisely rendered :
it refers to any thing new and untried. The fallow is the means
by which an exhausted field is left to recover itself. There is this
retrieving power, — this vis medicatrix, — in most of the depart
ments of nature. It belongs peculiarly to the ground, though it
requires foreign help. The virgin soils are therefore most rife.
But if we were to imagine that this was true of human nature, —
that its wildest state was the most productive, — that being neg
lected for a time it Would teem with a richer luxuriance, — we
should be grossly deceived. This is not fallow : it is neglect. It
is not thrown out of cultivation, but is desert waste. Sometimes,
indeed, it does display a rank vegetation. It is prolific in mon
strous growths. But it only becomes, as thus abandoned, more
and more incapable of good. It increases in its stubbornness and
sterility. When has the mind of man, from its own prompting,
risen to the knowledge of God, attained his favour or emulated
his image ? When has it borne its fruit unto holiness ? Where
is the happy enclosure which banishes the curse ? Where virtue
springs spontaneously ? Where the heart, strengthened in its long
inertness, bursts out into that which is well-pleasing in the sight
of God ? It is barren, as though desolated by some conquering
horde : as if blasted by volcanoes, or heaped by earthquakes. It
must come under a culture the most severe. It must be " broken
up." " The dust groweth into hardness, and the clods cleave
fast together." The kneaded mass requires to be torn asunder
by the share and harrow. It wants to be broken and comminuted.
Thus are we taught that we must deal earnestly with human
nature, — its understanding, but specially its conscience. A people
may be thus made ready, prepared for the Lord. Predispositions
may be excited, which are of no mean account in the great trans
formation by the renewing of the mind. Then may we scatter

F F

434 THE REVIVAL OF
our seed on a tender and yielding surface; and on a ground
highly susceptible may sow our spiritual things.
The metaphor of our Text here for a little time is laid aside,
and literal statement is substituted: " For it is time to seek the
Lord." This furnishes us with the obligation of devotion and
the secret of success. Solemn passages and transactions must
take place between God and our souls. It must be as though in
comparison we never prayed before. A new weight must press
upon our bosom. An unknown solicitude must strike to our
heart. The continuance in the supplication must be day and
night. It^-must be effectual and fervent to avail much. It is no
mean suit. It is the salvation of the world. The intercessions
are for all men. Past neglect upbraids us. Present failure
shames us. Providence urges ! Christianity insists ! Oh let
prayer be made without ceasing of the Church unto God ! It
only can stand between the living and the dead ! It only hath
power with God and with man ! Jehovah will regard his Zion !
The Lamb will hear his Bride ! Is it not time to seek the Lord
when millions, and hundreds of millions, of souls, precious and
immortal as our own, are ready to perish ? are destroyed from
morning to evening ? perish for ever without any regarding it ?
Is it not time to seek the Lord when we are yet so little impressed
with the woe and danger of our perishing fellow-men, that we
only give of our abundance toward their conversion, and make
no sacrifice of even our luxury ? Is it not time to seek the Lord
when we expend so much of our attention and energy upon little
strifes and unedifying disputes, — keeping open our ranks instead
of serrying them, — presenting to the foe a thousand easy points
of annoyance and attack ? Is it not time to seek the Lord when
the largest empires and the most numerous peoples have not as
yet heard the Saviour's blessed name ? Is it not time to seek the
Lord when his manifestations are so dim and few in comparison
with those which his promise assures, when it shall be duly
pleaded? Is it not time to seek the Lord when Prophecy has
counted so many of its oracles, and already is standing out
so radiantly among its latest visions ? Is it not time to seek
the Lord when, only now, the means for the holy enterprise

CHRISTIAN PIETY AND EFFORT. 435
are becoming easy and abundant? Is it not time to seek the
Lord, when, from their mysterious significance, we learn that
these are the last times ? Is it not time to seek the Lord when
all proclaims the eve of a mighty crisis, when all awakes to
earnestness around, when the world is racked with suspense and
struck with awe, when the vials are overflowing with the odours
of prayer from the lips of the saints of all generations since the
world begun, when the days are breaking, — the days of the voice
of the seventh angel when he begins to sound ?
To these duties, promises are attached most graciously com
pensatory. They are written, that he " who plougheth should
plough in hope :" and that " he who reapeth may receive wages
and gather fruit unto life eternal."
The first promise is, that we shall "reap in mercy."
As " whatsoever a man soweth, that also he shall reap," so
righteousness developes itself in mercy. It is the descriptive
product. From the jealousy of the divine honour which "the
righteousness of God by faith" supposes,' — free, full, efficient,
mercy must result. It is built up for ever. Every objection to
it is met. Every obstacle to it is removed. It now has absolute
scope and unchecked exercise. It rejoiceth upon judgment. But
the idea which it presents to us is, that in preaching the way of
righteousness we lay the best and exclusive foundation of all
human happiness, the moral well-being of our nature. Nothing
else can give safety and peace. Men can only be blessed in
Christ. We know the bearing of all we teach and do. We
know that we are right. There is nothing holy, reasonable, and
lovely, — nothing kind, tender, and benevolent, — which our exer
tions do not favour ; only the impure, the hurtful, the debasing,
do they oppose ! We know, too, that the event of our Missions
is certain. Their tendency is prophetic, even if we possessed not
the sure word of prophecy shining in the dark place of futurity.
We are confident in the general benefits of knowledge, however
they may be occasionally abused. We are stout in the cause of
liberty, though we may fear its possible degeneracy and licence.
In all such enlargements of the mind, and improvements of the
state, of man, we must allow for an irregularity of action, for an

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THE REVIVAL OF

exception to rule, against which no prudence can guard, no fore
sight can provide. As these blessings are not necessarily grafted
on the religious principle, the tendency of depravity is to pervert
them. Their own tendencies, which are always to good, may be
overpowered to evil. But the propagation of the gospel is a
beneficence, not only of the purest order, but of the most unfail
ing success. This, therefore, makes us confident. We always
triumph in Christ. To know that we ought to overcome, — that
our cause deserves it, — to know that we must overcome, — that
our faith embraces an absolute certainty, — cannot but inspire
a healthy courage, a noble independence, in the soul. We
but aim and strive to render this a, happy world. Who, save
Christians, ever cherished such a thought? Who, but they,
were ever possessed of the means to accomplish it ? With them
it is a fixed idea, a determining course of conduct. It is the life
of their hope and the star of their travel. The conviction is
upon them, that man is to be restored. They are not disheart
ened by the apparent retrograde of truth or by the boastful
advance of error. Their expectation can bide disappointment.
Though their vision wait, they can tarry for it. They do not
abandon man, nor can they despair of him. They read his
glorious destiny. They prefigure him on his glorious way.
While Infidelity stands by and jeers, while Superstition shrinks
back and trembles, — they expatiate in a future which is all their
own. They desire no debased position for man : they exact no
vile service of him. They would raise, refine, and bless. This
is their sublime sentiment. It is worthy of the love we should
show our neighbour. It justifies us in honouring all men. Only
we may lift up our voice, — Hope for our nature ! Deliverance
for mankind ! Let the earth rejoice ! Hosanna in the highest !
— Nor shall our little, humble, part be forgotten. Men shall
call us benefactors. " Blessed are the merciful," shall they ex
claim. And when our eyes behold reclaimed this long apostate
world, when we see it purified of evil and hushed to repose, at
the foot and beneath the shadow of the Cross, — shall we not joy,
according to the joy of harvest, reaping in mercy the salvation
of our race ?

CHRISTIAN PIETY AND EFFORT. 43^
And this promise may have application to ourselves. When
we sow in righteousness, we labour not only for others. The
coincidence of duty and privilege in the entire range of morals,
in the whole system of the gospel, cannot fail to impress the
notice and excite the admiration of all them who study these sub
jects. " In keeping of them is great reward." And will not
individuals, churches, and communities, acknowledge the reflex
influence of Missions, whether domestic or remote, on their pros
perity ? Were not the things which remained, under the chilling
blight of sloth and neglect, "ready to die?" Within this bland
but invigorating influence, did not their "health spring forth
speedily?" We are richly repaid. While we scatter, we yet
increase. He that watereth shall be watered also himself. The
husbandman that laboureth, is first partaker of the fruits. We
cannot occupy any place, we cannot take any part, in holy
enterprises of benevolence, without reaping in mercy ! "Light
is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in
heart." The second promise is, that " the Lord will rain down right
eousness." The seed perishes not in the ground. It cannot be lost-
But a supernal influence is necessary to quicken it. Upon the
righteousness sown there shall be showered righteousness. In
other words, for the righteousness preached there shall be the
righteousness experienced. God will work by his servants, and
will give testimony to the word of His grace. And the allusion
to the producing power is most beautiful. We know that the
fruit is formed from the organised structure of the seed : that it
does not descend from heaven. But the skiey influences are the
excitements and nutritions of the plant. Let us think of some
season of drought. The dry and thirsty land droops. All seems
scorched and consumed. " Thou visitest the earth and waterest
it, thou greatly enrichest it, thou waterest the ridges thereof
abundantly, thou makest it soft with showers, thou blessest the
springing thereof." Immediately there is a sudden burst of fecun
dity. It seems rather to have fallen in the rain than to have been
released from the arid soil. " He will rain righteousness." So

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precious things, are said to be, brought forth by the sun. And
God worketh all this ! He giveth seed to the sower ! He keeps
that seed in dependence upon himself ! If he withhold his rain,
it comes to nought ! If it fructify, he will be acknowledged, —
From me is thy fruit found !
But this suggests to us a view of Christianity which is most
interesting. It is not merely a moral system, appealing to our
understanding for its truth, and to our conscious wants for the
value of its blessings, — it is to be regarded as a course of divine
operations. Pardon and sanctification are not in the power of an
inanimate theory, or scheme, of doctrines. The enunciations of
the gospel cannot achieve them. They involve a new relation
between the believing sinner and God ; and also the new birth of
the soul. The doctrines are declarative, and confirmatory, expla
nations, — they are the instruments, moreover, of whatever is
wrought in our state and disposition. But here their province
ends: " It is God that justifieth:" " It is the Spirit that quick-
eneth." While the gospel is objectively proposed to us, we see it
also in the act of being imparted and applied. There stands up
before us a practical counterpart. There is a living ministration.
It is not in word but in power. It comes in much assurance.
The very blessing is bestowed which is preached: We sow in
righteousness : The Lord rains down righteousness upon us !
Having completed the Exposition of the Terms included in
this admonition, we shall proceed to found certain reflec
tions upon IT.
The Text seems to refer to a gracious Revival of religion in
our hearts and in our churches ; and to point out the grounds
on which it may be expected, and the channels through which it
may be obtained.
It is impossible that the present degree of general piety can
satisfy us. We see much to awaken our gratitude. We launch
no indiscriminate invectives : we indulge no promiscuous com
plaints. But he can have little complacency in the things which
are excellent, little spiritual perception and taste, who can think
of such a state of things as true to our principles or worthy
of our pretensions. There are some general, primary, duties

christian piety and EFFORT. 439
and remonstrances of the New Testament which can scarcely be
touched but with a vein of irony. Can we seriously warn our
hearers against them " who will be rich," as against a singular
and dreadful form of character ? Can we console them as borne
down under the "afflictions of the gospel ?" Can we congratulate
them that they "bear the reproach of Christ," and are "counted
worthy to suffer shame for his name ?" Need we caution them
not to carry a principle of exclusion and a line of distinction too
far, for then must they be compelled to " go out of the world ?"
Need we beseech of God on their behalf that they may " be led
into a patient waiting for the coming of Jesus Christ ?" Is it
for us just to glance, — and it suffices, — on these moral truisms,
— " Ye are not your own ;" " Ye are of God ;" " Because ye are
not of the world, therefore the world hateth you ;" " It is more
blessed to give than to receive ?" We would with all fidelity
and affection enforce the following enquiries. In personal cha
racter does the Christian Church reveal its divine original ? Are
there not insinuations against many of its members that they
adopt a lax and conventional morality, that they are not unsus
pected in mercantile probity and strictness, that they are not
punctilious of the honour which general society treasures and
maintains? In its proper description, is the Christian Church
made visible ? Are its known and recognised virtues, — its humi
lity, its meekness, its spiritual-mindedness, its self-denial, its
avoidance of secularity, its withdrawment from strife, its charity,
to be " marked in them who walk so ?" Is the Christian Church
clear in its great office as to the world? How far does its salt
arrest the corruption which is still so widely infectious, or its
light relieve the darkness which still so sullenly prevails ? Holds
it forth the word of life ? Has it a voice to be heard ? Is it a
thing to be revered ? Wields it an influence that is felt ? Doth
the Bride sav, Come ?
And 'surely the Missionary question must very soon be re
garded by- us as paramount, as our high calling and special
designation. It must be placed by us in a far more serious light,
and obtain from us a far more adequate support. It were shame
to recede ! It is impossible to stand still ! The alternative is to

440 THE REVIVAL OF
fall back or to advance ! We have almost, as yet, every thing
to learn. We must devise what are liberal things. We must
seek to rear new structures, independently of other men's founda
tions. We must take a new scale, must seize a new spirit, of
devotement and sacrifice. " The field is the world." In some
instances it requires all the earliest arts of reclamation and
culture. In others, it awaits the seed. In a few the harvest
has begun. Even this but reminds us of disappointment: "the
labourers are few."
A fitter, a more corresponding, tone of piety and practical
holiness shall obtain among us. The earth shall be reduced to
the order, and flourish with the beauty, of the gospel ! We are
now called to investigate those sentiments of mind, those features
of duty, which become such an anticipation.
1, We should hail it with a lively faith.
The language of the Text is so assuring, as well as hortatory,
that it justifies and demands most unreserved and most unhesi
tating confidence. If it be always impossible without faith to
please God, — whatever doubt is entertained by us, concerning his
engagements, can only be most wrongful to his character, and
guilty in his sight. Enlarged expectation, unquestioning belief,
are the dispositions which He loves and fosters. There are cases
in which we can only exercise general reliance: "if haply we
may find him." We cannot certainly believe that God will con
vert, in answer to our prayers, this or that member of our house
holds or of our congregations. We have not the specific promise.
We only believe that such prayers are agreeable to the Mind of
Him who " will have all men to be saved by coming to the
knowledge of the truth ;" that they fall within the compass of a
by no means invariable efficacy ; that there may be reasons, aw
fully impenetrable, why they should not be fulfilled. We have
offered them in duty, and we have delivered our souls. Our faith
has only so far been mixed with these prayers, as to induce the
conviction that God could do it for us, that the salvation of the
soul is infinitely dearer to him than to ourselves, that he will
exercise the good and right. But even in these uncovenanted
instances we may sin greatly by unbelief. . What is this unbelief?

CHRISTIAN PIETY AND EFFORT. 441
It is not of God's promise, for that does not exist. But it is of
God's power and readiness to save. We look upon the Sabbath-
school. Here are rational minds, quickly forming characters,
blossoms, hastening to set. Yet we scarcely think it possible, —
assuredly not likely, — that a work of religion should appear
among these little groups, — that an anxiety should be manifested
by them concerning their immortal souls, — that they could be
sincere and steadfast in a public profession. — We look upon the
great congregation. We despair of the caviller, the trifler, the
formalist, whom we have long warned in vain. Our supplication
falters and returns upon us. We have no wing with which we
may speed it to heaven. All this argues the littleness of our faith
in God. We forget that with him all things are possible. Be
sides, it is most injurious. What we deem improbable we shall
but faintly ask, if we. ask at all. That which we do not ask,
we shall not ourselves attempt. If there be any soul of which
we say, " there is no hope for it in God," prayer and effort are
equally paralysed. Oh let us " prove God !" Let us trust in
him, and then we shall do good ! Let us seek the regeneration of
children at a much earlier age, that they may be willing from the
womb of their morning with all the dew of their youth ! Let us
seek the repentance of the most hardened and depraved and reck
less sinners, persuaded that there is not a heart which the Lord
cannot open, nor a rebel thought but he can bring into captivity
to the obedience of Christ ! Of stones he can raise up children
unto Abraham ! Only believe ! Welimifhim. He cannot do
his mighty works because of our unbelief! Even He marvels at
it ! Qualified as must be this faith, — seeing it regards no precise
testimony, — it will be most acceptable and impulsive. It is not
destitute of a strong hold. It takes hold upon the divine cha
racter, the divine purposes, the divine attributes ! It reasons
with them while it pleads !
But in the matter which now engages us, we possess an ample
and explicit security. Here is nothing vague and indistinct. If
we differ in our construction of any prophecy, enough remains
about which there can be no difference. We have but to survey
the obvious foreground. That all things shall be subdued to

442

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Christ, that at his name every knee shall bow, that the knowledge
of the Lord shall cover the earth, that men shall learn war no
more, that the saints of the Most High shall possess the kingdom
under the whole heaven, — are bright and assured outlines of the
future which require little guess. Do we believe ? clearly and
confidently are we convinced ? firmly and unblenchingly are we
persuaded ? Is ours a faith, which simplifies all like an infant's
lesson and encounters all like a martyr's dint ? Can it remove
mountains ? Against hope do we believe in hope ? Do we already
see, in our purview and planisphere, things not seen as yet ? To
our attentive and circumcised ear is there the sound of the abun
dance of rain ? Does the harvest, to our inspired sight, smile
in its plenty, over each present dreary tract? Until there be
more believing with the heart, the vision must tarry, the promise
must be withheld. Why do we consult about the probable, the
analogous, the indicated ? How dare we stagger at the promise
of God through unbelief? "Wherefore think ye evil in your
hearts ?" " Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have
believed." What want we more than these securities ? " Thus
saith the Lord." "The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform
this." How shallow will seem our doubt, how unworthy our
hesitation, when pointing to a converted world, the Saviour's
exultation and rebuke shall be heard together, — "Said I not
unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the
glory of God ?"
2. We should remember how much is in our power.
There is a morbid sensitiveness in many minds with respect
to all human agency, and chiefly when a character of cooperation
with the Deity is asserted. Were there the idea of concerted
counsel, of actual help and assistance, none would reject it more
loathingly than ourselves. But we only understand what is im
plied in subordination and subserviency, — and, thus limiting our
conceptions, we cannot doubt-that a part is required of us. It is
our duty to ;' stir up the gift which is in us :" having received
our " talents, to go and trade with them :" and we thus do, what
we are called to do, and are, what we are called to be. We
"help the truth," — we "call into the grace of Christ," — we

CHRISTIAN PIETY AND EFFORT. 443
"minister the Spirit," — we "save the soul from death," — we
" gain some," — we " work the work of the Lord :" our strongest
incentive and loudest call to "work" is, that "God worketh in us
to will and to do." Of the first preachers of the gospel, it is
recorded that "the Lord worked with them." Away with all
captious, quibbling, subterfuge for labour in the Lord. He
gives us a department, a deposit, and in some sort a precedence.
He can distinguish between diffidence and timidity, the modesty
of labour and its evasion. It seemed but humble and just, in so
dread a conjuncture, that Moses should speak to Israel on the
shore of the Red Sea : " Fear ye not, stand still, and see the
salvation of God ; the Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold
your peace." But did this view of the crisis find acceptance?
" Wherefore criest thou unto me ? speak unto the children of
Israel, that they go forward." In the day of Midian, a day
which reminds most strongly that the hand of man is powerless
and that God is supremely independent of him, was heard the
unoffending shout, " The sword of the Lord and of Gideon." The
series of these connective operations is told, with equal love of
order and fitness, by Paul. And you will remark how different
is the tone of his statement from its oft incorrect quotation. You
have frequently heard it as though it breathed a very slight of
means: "Paul may plant, Apollos may water, but it is only
God who can give the increase." The design of the writer is
thus injured. It is to prove the wisdom of an arrangement in
which duty is joined to success. " I have planted, Apollos
watered, but God gave the increase." As that planting and
watering could only receive from God that increase, so that
increase could only follow these previous labours. When Infinite
Will has decided the law of succession, it is quite as true that the
means are necessary to the end as that the end is consequent on
the means. If the Church were to obey the mandate, " Put on
thy strength, O Zion !" — were it to engage with all its ardour
and all its energy in this undertaking, we do not, cannot, hesitate
to affirm, that it would proceed with an inconceivable force and
celerity. The little one would become a thousand. Nations
would be born at once. " The end shall be in a day." " A short

444

THE REVIVAL OF

work shall the Lord make upon the earth." " The ploughman
shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that
soweth seed : the mountains shall drop sweet wine and all the
hills shall melt." If our gain and substance were consecrated
to the Lord, — if our intellect devoted its resources in this direc
tion, — if opinion thus held its sway, — if literature thus took its
stamp, — if thus we accounted ourselves debtors to the wise and the
unwise, — if for us to live were Christ, — if we sanctified Him the
Lord God in our hearts, — then, would not the days be at hand
and the effect of every vision ? the earth roll from its darkness
into glorious light ? man travail with universal regeneration ? —
Long before this, might not the world have been filled with our
holy and lovely Christianity ? Speak not to us of prophetic
dates. God can hasten it in his time. This would be its means
of fulfilment. This would be a beautiful portion of the event.
If we had hearkened unto God and had walked in His command
ments, He should soon have subdued our enemies. Consult not
the Calendar but the Code. " He that observeth the wind shall
not sow, and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap."
And each person should consider what he can do. No one
must lose himself in the aggregate. The man who surveys the
course of this world, who marks the mountains of difficulty which
upheave themselves in his way, who feels his own littleness and
impotence, in opposing them, may sometimes be seduced into
moods and schemes of pusillanimity. He may absolve himself
from effort and danger by the hopelessness of resistance. He
may think that all things are against him. He declares that it
is useless to stem the tide. He shuns encounter. He escapes
labour. He invites insignificance. He hides himself. Shame
on thee, thou the immortal, thou the Christian ! What means
this ignoble indifference and self- depreciation ? Thine is an
energy which must pervade an indefinite circle ! Thou canst
serve thy generation ! Thou canst stamp the impress of thy
moral figure upon the true and imperishable interests of thy
race ! Thou canst live in all posterity ! The anointing of thy
God is upon thee ! Turn from thy recreant purpose ! Blush
for thine unworthy excuse ! Act for thyself ! Combine with

CHRISTIAN PIETY AND EFFORT. 445
the Church ! Thy plea has hitherto been most selfish ! The
candle has been hidden, but where ? Under the bed, on which
thou wouldst indulge thy sloth ! Within the bushel, with
which thou dost measure thy pelf ! Art thou alive to God ?
Lovest thou Christ ? Art thou occupying till he come ? Know
thyself ! Thou hast received thine endowment ! No effort is
lost ! Thy judgment is with the Lord, and thy work with thy
God !
The time will come when he who winneth souls shall be
acknowledged wise : when this shall be felt to have been the
purest patriotism and the truest philanthropy : when at the head
of the muster-roll of all who have deserved well of their species
they shall be unanimously ranked that have called a guilty world
to repentance : when this spiritual benevolence shall assert its
just proportions, — exactly as the soul transcends the body, — pre
cisely in the ratio of time to eternity !
We have only to do with duty, and put into execution our
means. Our task is to be plied without any question of its
success. We are to go forth unto our work and to our labour.
We must sow : in the morning and in the evening we must not
withhold our hand, for we know not whether shall prosper, either
this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good. We must
plough up the fastness. We must break and deracinate the stony
places. We must drive deep the coulter through the blasted
heath and moor. Wherefore always abound in the work of the
Lord : forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in
the Lord !
3. We should place ourselves in a course of preparation.
Times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord, over-
shadowings of his power, visitations of his love, must not find
the Church in an unsusceptible and indisposed state. There
must be earnest prayer and watching, a subduing sense of un-
worthiness, a resolute determination to profit withal, an eagerness
to follow out every influence and to yield to every impression, or
the gracious communication would oppress and mock. Being a
blessing of a simply religious kind, — it requires for its reception
and improvement, a capacity as simply religious. There must

446 THE REVIVAL OF
be a congenial taste and adaptation. It is in this way that God
imparts his gifts. He excites first the desire and relish : " the
Spirit Himself maketh intercession instead of us with groanings
which cannot be uttered." Having promised to do it, He will
be enquired of to do it for us. This is his rule. He giveth more
grace. Out of the fulness of the Incarnate Word we receive the
grace which corresponds to an already received grace. " With
the merciful Thou wilt show thyself merciful, and with the up
right man thou wilt show thyself upright, with the pure thou
wilt show thyself pure." " To him that hath shall be given, and
he shall have more abundance." "Minister* to your faith virtue,
and minister" all the sweet couplets of each following grace, " so
an entrance shall be ministered-f to you abundantly into the ever
lasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ."
Now when God revives his work in the midst of the years,
when he shows the lighting down of his hand, he requires his
people to be found in a lowly and seeking attitude. They must
wait upon him. Their expectation must be from him. " I will
cause him to draw near, and he shall approach unto me ; for who
is this that engaged his heart to approach unto me, saith the
Lord ?" The Church must consider what are its becoming dispo
sitions. Let it wear sackcloth for its sins. Let it be clean while
it bears the vessels of the Lord. Let it arise and trim its lamps.
We are not ready for the fulness of the blessing of the gospel of
Christ ! We are not prepared for^the glory of God rising upon
us ! We are straitened in ourselves ! We could not use the
victory ! We should be perplexed and disconcerted with such
an investiture ! Ere then, and to discipline us for the consum
mation, what changes must we see ! With what a perfect heart
must we walk within our house ! What sabbaths must we keep !
How must they who fear the Lord speak often to one another !
What unions for prayer must be established ! What eradications
must there be of parsimony, and avarice; of partisanship, and
sectarianism ! What deeper insight must be obtained into the
necessity and power of the gospel ! What attention must be paid
to the interests of personal holiness and consistency ! What a
" EtriX'gH'ywn.. + Etnxogwyytririrai.

CHRISTIAN PIETY AND EFFORT. 447
different dependence must we place on the Spirit of glory and of
God ! Soon as we are capable of it, the blessing shall descend !
The vision shall burst upon the eye, soon as it is strong enough
to endure the splendour ! Pentecost shall fully come, and but
awaits the one accord of the Church ! The Great High Priest
shall tarry no longer in the temple than to give pause for the
whole multitude of the people to pray without, and to let forth
on them the rich gale of incense ! The marriage of the Lamb
shall come the moment his wife hath made herself ready !
Dear Christians ! be very jealous here. We cannot magnify
too greatly the importance of this preparation of the heart. . Let
us prove ourselves to be God's husbandry. Let our stability
evince that we have root in ourselves. Let us grow in grace.
Let not even our leaf wither. * Let us not be barren nor unfruitful
in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Then,
inverting the figure from ourselves, — let us by moral means pre
pare the world for its harvest. We must seek the Lord for that
feast of ingathering. We must implore that he would rain down
righteousness. But he will reject our prayer as sin, if we do not
break up the waste land, if we will not sow nor reap. The state
of our own mind is our first qualification for the labour, — the
employment of all appropriate means is the next security' for the
success !
4. We are bound deeply to lament the present desolateness.
Look round upon the scene we are called to cultivate. What
a sweep extends on every side, — far, far, vanishing away beyond
our power of thought, — of neglected wild. What is the garden
of the Church to the desert of the world ? Like the little oasis
amidst trackless sands : — or the fringe of vegetation, which skirts
the mountains of prey ! But this wilderness is not the solitary
place ! The barrenness is of mind. The desolation is of spiritual
life. Unnumbered millions of souls present and constitute this
frightful waste. They lie unnoticed, shooting only into evil,
prolific only in crime. The wilderness howls with misery and
despair. There is one blight of sin. There is one decay of
death. There is one whirlwind of perdition. How is it divided?
It is distributed into kingdoms and nations ! These are portions

448

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of the same wilderness-world, intersected with their fences of
varied ignorance and superstition ! Each has " his border of
wickedness." They but agree in bearing fruit unto themselves.
There is none for Him who has long come and sought fruit in
them. " Things rank and gross in nature possess it merely."
Let the sections of this living waste pass before us ! There is
many a region of Arctic rigour ! There are the steppes of the
Tartar range ! Syria and Arabia come into view ! There is
India, — still only dearth and death ! China spreads out before
us, — a level of ever-seeding and ever- withering weeds! And
where it is redeemed, — where the land is called by the Christian
name, — is there the well-watered garden ? Is there the smell of
the field which the Lord hath blessed ? Within these enclosures
do we witness much more than a few edges of verdure and a few
clusters of plantation ? Is not a greater portion of the soil stub
born in its consistence, noxious in its spontaneousness, as that
which is still without? Weep, weep, not for the ground, the
unconscious and insensate ground, though it is cursed for our
sake, — but for that which is of a nobler texture and of an impe
rishable capacity, once the grateful seed-plot where grew indige
nous all that is fair and good, — where, when renewed, amaranth
yet shall grow ! — which, now bearing thorns and briers, is rejected,
and is nigh unto cursing, whose end is to be burned ! But let
not the breadth of the desert, nor its sterility, dispirit us. Let
us only be moved with a stronger resolution to break it up. It
is not doomed to perpetual desolations. Its present vestiges of
culture are earnests of its entire subjection to this peaceful sway.
We are a kind of its first-fruits. " It shall blossom abundantly,
and rejoice even with joy and singing : the glory of Lebanon shall
be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall
see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God !"
5. We ought to define to ourselves the nature of our aim.
It requires no reasoning in the mind of the husbandman to
determine his expectation. He knows, from the species and qua
lity of the seed, what will be the character of the harvest. Our
Lord thus assimilated himself: "Verily, verily, I say unto
you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it

CHRISTIAN PIETY AND EFFORT. 449
abideth alone : but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." He
might have abode alone ! in the form of God, — and where he was
before, — blessed for ever ! He descended into the lower parts of
the earth. His body was covered in its grave ! His soul was
not left in Hades, but stooped thither ! The effect corresponded !
There was " much fruit," and it agreed with the august original.
So the seed of the gospel must bear after its kind. If we sow in
righteousness, we shall reap in mercy. We must alone look for
evangelical blessings. If tares be intermixed, an enemy hath
done it. If the fruit be dwarfed or ill-favoured, the imperfection
is not in the good seed, but in the ground which, though of the
most honest heart, is not yet perfectly cultivated. What look
we for, then, in the earth ? The influence of Christianity must
answer to its belief. It will be declared by the fruit of the Spirit.
It will be demonstrated by its characteristic virtues. Christianity
will produce Christians. But this does not suffice for some ! It
is little with them that the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace :
little, that the world shall be filled with saints, and the churches
of the saints : little, that spiritual religion shall pervade universal
society: little, that the gospel shall transcribe itself on all juris
prudence, government, and international diplomacy : little, that
the great salvation shall prevail over guilt and its remorse, sin and
its power : all availeth them nothing, unless an outward secular
glory and pomp may dazzle them, and unless they may entrench
themselves in a miraculous constitution of things. Whatever
may be the things which shall be hereafter, we trust it will be
our happy portion, our ready disposition, to take part, and to
rejoice, in them. We dogmatise not on the cast and shape of that
future. But we may be permitted to say that the harvest cannot
contradict the seed. It cannot comport with the dispensation
which is not of this world, to terminate in a worldly polity. It
cannot comport with a religion which knows no national differ
ences, anew to erect the wall of partition. It cannot comport with
that superiority which the gospel gives to faith above sight, to
place its triumph in the substitution of sight for faith. And while
we thus sow, we shall be able to vindicate our intentions. We
seek nothing more than the evangelising of mankind. When
G G

450 THE REVIVAL OF
they obey from the heart the word of truth, our work is done.
This is the whitening of our harvest. We are repaid ! Signal
are the failures of the legislator, the civiliser, the publicist, in
grappling with the evils of the human heart. They have nothing
with which to reach it or impregnate it. It is ploughing on a
rock. Vain theories, miserable attempts ! " Yea they shall not
be planted ; yea, they shall not be sown ; yea, their stock shall
not take root in the earth." Far other is the reward of the evan
gelical reformer. He is enabled to seam the heart with furrows,
— and he lodges there the seed of righteousness. He knows the
precise result into which it shall ripen. " Can the fig-tree bear
olive-berries? either a vine, figs?" By an equally certain law
we assure ourselves of the issue. " He that goeth forth and
weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with
rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him !"
6. We must depend upon the Divine Influence for all suc
cess. We are required to realise to ourselves the distinct power of
a distinct Person in the Holy Trinity, operating immediately
on the human mind, but always in connection with the truth
as it is in Jesus. He is the Spirit of truth, and the Spirit of
Christ. We neither insert Him in the word, nor detach Him
from it. The sword of the Spirit is the word of God. No repre
sentation of his influence is more frequent, none can be more
beautiful, than that of this meteor. He will "rain righteous
ness." It implies a copiousness and a genial refreshment. The
quality of the rain is really, almost, negative. It but deve-
lopes that which is already in the earth. So the influence of the
Spirit does not lead away from moral means and Christian doc
trine, — does not even add any thing to them, but simply awakens
our attention to them, — vanquishes our enmity against them, —
receiving the things of Christ and showing them to us. He will
" rain" none other effects than are akin to our natures as account
able agents, and to the genius and purport of this His own
ministration. "As the rain cometh down and the snow from
heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and
maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the

CHRISTIAN PIETY AND EFFORT. 451
sower, and bread to the eater ; so shall my word be which goeth
forth out of my mouth : it shall not return to me void, but it
shall accomplish that which I please, and prosper in the thing
'whereto I sent it." It is the word which is thus applied and
which is thus attended with success. Similar promises respect
the use of means, — " Drop down, ye heavens from above and let
the skies pour down righteousness : let the earth open, and let
them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring forth
together." The heavens, the skies, the earth, are all harmoni
ously associated and moved. The efficient agency cannot be over
looked, but the appointed method cannot be superseded : " For
as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth
the things that are sown in it to spring forth, so the Lord God
will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the
nations." Oh ! is there the abiding impression in our mind that
the Holy Ghost, the Lord and giver of life, alone can secure this
glorious event ? We deceive ourselves when we speak of the little
which we can do, of our insufficiency ; equally, when we speak
of the divine help and assistance. Our humility must cast from
it all phrase like this. It savours not the things that be of God,
but those that be of men. It qualifies that which must be singly
independent, and admixes that which is awfully supreme. "Upon
the land of my people shall come up thorns and briers, — until the
Spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness be a
fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest !"
7- Let us persevere in seeking this Divine Influence.
The richest promises have enough conditional in them, as to
manner and time, to task our faith and try our hope. They
show us what we should pray for as we ought. They are perfect
grounds of encouragement. But, little is intimated by them to
warrant any conclusion how they are to be fulfilled, and what
shall be the period of their performance. Our duty is to " wait
for the Lord," and to " seek Him till He come and rain right
eousness upon us." " Be patient, brethren, therefore, unto the
coming of the Lord. Behold the husbandman waiteth for the
precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he
receive the early and latter rain." We must pray and not faint.

452 THE REVIVAL OF
We must continue instant in prayer. If we be incredulous that
the spiritual rain will follow effectual fervent prayer, let us remem
ber that the elemental rain stayed for three years and six months
as prayer deprecated it, then gushed in torrents immediately it
was implored. Was the general system, through all its laws and
bearings, — were the evaporation of the clouds, — the composition
of the atmospheric fluids, — the balance of the electrical poles, —
the whole aerial oeconomy, — many of the operations of this planet
itself, — all controlled and affected because Elias prayed? — and
shall that influence be denied which is the subject of incessant
promise, whose gift involves no disturbance of any arrangement,
and which has a far greater affinity, as a moral element, than any
physical change can have, with the exercise of believing prayer ?
Prayer sets all in motion, touches every spring, pervades every
sphere. " I will hear, saith the Lord, I will hear the heavens,
and they shall hear the earth ; and the earth shall hear the corn
and the wine and the oil ; and they shall hear Jezreel."
" It is time to seek the Lord !" How many are there who
have yet to seek him for themselves ! " Seek ye the Lord while
he may be found." " His power and his wrath are against all
them that forsake him." The hoary-headed sinner is still found
in this contumacy. The young turn not at our call. " They
die in youth and their life is among the unclean." What uncon
cern prevails ! " And there is none that calleth upon thy name,
that stirreth up himself to take hold of Thee ! "
But it is time to seek the Lord in reference to the field, so
broad, so waste, which we are appointed to break up and cultivate.
If He have assigned the work to any and they neglect it, " what
will He do unto those husbandmen ?" On this score, have we
not heavy sins ? Is it not " the field of the slothful ?" Have
we not lightly surveyed it ? Have we not hypocritically be
moaned it ? Have we not idled in it ? Time calls aloud to us.
He checks not his pace. He inverts not his glass. He shoulders
not his scythe. Other mowers are there before him. It is not
that all flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof as the flower
of the field, that surely the people is grass, — it is idolatry com
mitting its havoc and breathing its taint, — it is the destroyer

CHRISTIAN PIETY AND EFFORT. 453
binding his bundles, — the course of nature is set on fire of hell !
All bids us go and labour. How sweep the wheels of Provi
dence, and we hear them roll ! How ring out the trumpets of
Prophecy, and all vibrates to them ! We must loiter no longer.
The rest of our time in the flesh must we redeem. We cannot
say that we are not hired. Nor can we say that our scanty
labour has been in vain. We have not spent our strength for
nought. The handful of corn, which was on the top of the
mountains, now shakes like Lebanon. What district of the field
does not encourage us ? What portion of our tillage does not
succeed ?
We are constantly reminded that the most diligent and useful
labourers are removed from the scene of their toil and success.
" The fathers, where are they ?" They have sunk under the
burden and the heat of the day. Some have set their hand to
the plough : they looked not back. Others have scattered their
store of seed: meekly they awaited the earliest green. Their
successions are withdrawn. But it is only that they may be
replaced. And there are the reapers also. They not only reap,
but gather and bind the sheaves.
We behold the most honoured of these labourers, in many
instances of increasing age or premature exhaustion, "earnestly
desiring the shadow." They have learned what is the rapid pro
gress of their day, and how swift is its decline. Many are our
advantages. We may praise the living more than the dead. We
witness an immense growth of our glorious work, and of its sub
lime satisfactions. Our departments vary, but our work is one.
" And herein is that saying true, one soweth and another reapeth."
We are resolved that the boundless field which we have entered
shall be more narrowly explored and more carefully tilled. We
will keep our station to the last, and, should our Father who is
the Husbandman please, far into the twilight of our eve. We
envy not another task. His work is honourable and glorious, and
we are employed upon it. As we have received mercy, we faint
not. We live for another age. It may be but the initial labour,
it may be but a weary land ; but when He reckoneth with us, we
shall not be less honoured with his plaudit than he who bindeth

454 THE REVIVAL OF CHRISTIAN PIETY, ETC.
the last sheaf, and to whom it shall be given to complete the
garner. Whatever of time may divide, whatever of labour may
distinguish, — he " that soweth and he that reapeth shall rejoice
together !"
What we desire to impress is, the advantageous position
which Christians now occupy. Our means of influence, our
opportunities of action, are terrible ! It is fearful to think how
much rests with us, how much may be done by us ! We have
access at every point of the Pagan world ! The " chief of the
nations" are subdued to us ! " Even the ancient high places are
ours in possession !" We are called to another kind of responsibi
lity than that which before was ever known ! " New things does
God declare." Speculative enquirers needed their day. They
have had their day. We are called to active obedience and zeal.
We must " have a mind to work." Our department is plainly
indicated to us. Can ambition crave one more glorious ? Is there
a field more rich in its peaceful trophies for us to harvest ?
" Now He that ministereth seed to the sower both minister
bread for your food, and multiply your seed sown, and increase
the fruits of your righteousness ! "

SERMON XIX,

THE GRANDEUR OF REDEMPTION.

Heb. ii. 10.

" For it became Him, for whom are all things, and by whom are
ALL THINGS, IN BRINGING MANY SONS UNTO GLORY, TO MAKE THE CaP-
TAIN OF THEIR SALVATION PERFECT THROUGH SUFFERINGS."
We may conceive of a summons to behold some new act of the
Creative power. We can suppose that we were caught up to
some distant star for our platform of observation. Imagination
will picture to us a few of the sentiments of awe and wonder with
which we should gaze on the tremendous scene. At the utterance
of the Almighty fiat the void of space fills and teems with sudden
glories. Worlds are built up in immediate maturity. Suns
flame forth with embodied splendour. Nothing is transformed :
all is made. It is the mass evoked from vacancy. It is the light
struck from darkness. It is the outbirth from nothingness. We
have but to multiply and enlarge our ideas and impressions, and
we approach to the proper thought of the spectacle, and to the
proper capacity of describing it. It is magnificence surpassing
whatsoever we have known in the processes of the Infinite Agency.
It may be magnificence unparalleled in its results. But the
characteristic types can be seized by us. The indicative prin
ciples can be appreciated by us. At the mode, indeed, we cannot
guess. Of the phaenomena, — the magnitude, the form, the
brightness, the extent, — we, notwithstanding, may entertain
some ideas. Wisdom there imprints its manifold marks. Power
there strews its grandest trophies. Authority there peals its
most absolute behests. We can, by the very constitution of our
senses and perceptions, understand and estimate wisdom, power,

456 THE GRANDEUR OF REDEMPTION.
and authority. Yet until now, this is only a material operation.
It is a lavish majesty. It is a gorgeous apparatus. It is no
more than a mechanical effect. It is the might of the Deity in
direct productions of outward, sensible, works. Even wisdom,
power, and authority, though thus far expressed, would hence
forth be questioned, if those works existed for themselves. They
must stand related to some subservient use. It may be said, that
when intelligent creatures behold them, they will acknowledge
these attributes. But, in this statement, something is premised,
an earlier act, a greater issue, namely, that intelligent creatures
have been called into being: something is, likewise, conceded,
— these works are now applied to a use independent of them, to
instruct and profit the intelligent creatures who are their specta
tors and panegyrists. And even when they think, how feebly is
the divine glory unfolded to them, and how feebly is their con
ception of it assisted ! From all this skill and strength, how
difficult and slow is the conclusion of the mind that they must be
associated with the love of happiness, order, and excellence !
How laboured is the inference that perfections, corresponding to
these, must necessarily inhere, and perfectly exist, in the First
Cause !
Let us now consider ourselves summoned to another exhibition.
It shall be to some illustration of the Creator's moral character
and government. There is no design to magnify his essential
power. If wisdom be within the scheme, it is no longer simple
skill and contrivance, but the resolution of relative and subjective
difficulties which no creative exercise could comprehend. The
authority is not the right to act, but legislative control. Other
properties must be displayed. Though their archetypes were
always in His mind, they are manifested to us by his administra
tions. He bears certain aspects to us, and we are proportionately
regarded by him. He is our King and Lawgiver: we are his
subjects. He must rule us in truth and justice, — and in these is
involved his holiness. We can only prove his truth in testimo
nies of his will : we can only establish his justice in deeds of recti
tude. This is a new phase of enquiry. It is a new complexion
of thought. Still it is not unnatural to us. As we can under-

THE GRANDEUR OF REDEMPTION. 457
stand wisdom, power, and authority, — so we can fix the meaning
of truth, justice, and holiness. Our minds are constituted to
take these distinctions. They easily combine with these princi
ples. They can follow them in their nobler, or humbler, degrees.
There is not the man who is incapable of defining them to himself.
Nothing can be more fallacious than the attempt to prove that
they are of different nature in God and in man. They are strict
ideas. They are truths. Every where they are the same. If
they were not, they would be no guides for our conduct, no
grounds for our conviction.
The Examples, proposed by us, are very diverse. In the
one instance you saw the interposition of Energy, of Design, of
Command. You witnessed adequate and worthy achievements.
There were size, weight, form, refulgence. They flashed upon
you at once. In the other instance, all depends upon thought.
You must reflect upon Law, Equity, Faithfulness, Purity, — you
must gather and unite all the principles of government and respon
sibility, — not the superficial but the more hidden, not the obvi
ous but the more transcendental,— and then the beam shines
inward, and a spiritual glory fills the soul.
Such was the fact, such is the doctrine, of our Lord's Cru
cifixion. In "that sight" is the climax, the ultimate, of all
moral manifestation. Here are not the skirts of the Divine
glory. Whatever is most properly to be suggested by it, — its
richest qualities, its mightiest measures, — are abundantly revealed.
Its splendours freely stream abroad. God is beheld in his judi
cial dignity : in his greatness as a ruler. " Dominion and fear are
with him." Nothing can demonstrate him to be more faithful,
more just, more holy. He can give no more signal proof. He
can add no more awful confirmation. And that which heightens
this perfection is, that where a religious triumph only was in
tended, even the natural attributes are most prominently elicited
and glorified : " For to them who are saved, Christ crucified is
the power of God and the wisdom of God."
There are subordinate views touching the necessity of the
Saviour's death, very appropriate and convincing. That point
may be argued upon a later consideration. Judaism with all

458 THE GRANDEUR OF REDEMPTION.
its preliminary institutes being given, it must follow that Christ
should die. If we " believe all that the prophets have spoken,"
we shall unhesitatingly allow that " Christ ought to suffer these
things." But the demonstration of the Text is founded on pre
misses more primary and independent. It carries us back to the
reasons of things. It places us among thoughts the earliest which
can fill our mind. Tbe antecedents must be the laws of all crea
tion, — that it is divinely ordered and divinely sustained.
And this is a glorious idea : the Atonement is bound together
with the design and preservation of the Universe. It is plain
that God is " He for whom are all things and by whom are all
things." He cannot seek a higher end than his own glory : no
inferior power can uphold^to that which made. Now the fitness
of this atonement is rested upon these two primordial facts. As
the Object and the Supporter of all created effects, — especially of
our earthly and human system, — it became him thus to interpose.
This course of conduct was congruous and condign. It agreed
to all that was supposed in his character. It comported with
whatever his works might lead us to expect.
But the argument is as guarded as it is bold. It alleges not
that Atonement was required by any such terms. It was not
imperative, because God made all things for himself, and because
he governed all things, that he should save. The terms bore
inversely. The punishment of the personal delinquent was the
natural and simple procedure. God's glory would have been thus
secured. God's superintendence would have been thus enforced.
It is good, and mere, pleasure, — unmixed sovereignty, — which
induces any other conduct. We can never esteem the salvation
of man aright but as we believe that it need not to have been, —
that it wholly depends on infinite benevolence that it is. The
difficulties are only on the side of salvation. It is only strange
that we have not perished. That which could only have been
expected, is such perdition.
Then how is the argument shaped ? On a presumed case.
God has an end, which he has purposed and fixed, — the bringing
of many sons to glory. For the fulfilment of that end, he has
provided a suitable arrangement, — the constituting of his own

THE GRANDEUR OF REDEMPTION. 459
Son as the Captain of their salvation. These are the postulates.
Being granted, — that God has so willed to save, and to save by
the intervention and substitution of another, — then is it necessary
for the maintenance of his character, design, and control, in
Creation, that he should regard and treat that great conductor
of salvation as the proper object of penal liability and judicial
infliction. The preparatory parts of the argument will only require a
rapid survey and illustration.
I. The design which is presupposed.
Adoption is not only a most important doctrine of the gospel,
but because it includes justification for its title and regeneration
for its disposition, it is most properly adduced as the compre
hension and pledge of every evangelic blessing, " God sent forth
his Son, born of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them
that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of
sons." The provision is to be made for their pardon and their
acceptance; and for their effectual calling and sanctification. Not
only is their security involved in their being sons, but all the sen
timents and feelings are produced which can indicate and fulfil that
relationship. They are no more enemies. Their hearts are not
enmity. They coalesce with all the great ends of Deity. They
sympathise with every holy movement of the universe. They
are obedient children. They are followers of God. They live
for all that he wills and does. — They are destined " unto glory."
This expresses a condition, local and definite, dignified and ex
alting, into which Christ was "received," — "the excellent glory"
which is the pavilion of the Infinite Essence, the light which is
full of glory. In that sphere they shall for ever dwell. It inti
mates the intelligence, the purity, the rapture, prepared for all
them to whom power is given to become sons of God. — They shall
be " brought" to this glory. They are marshalled for it. They
are put into array. They are " set in order for eternal life."
" The God of all grace hath not only called us to eternal glory
by Christ Jesus," — he has not only "called us to the obtaining
of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ," but that Saviour's work
respects their safe conduct, their continued progress, and their

460 THE GRANDEUR OF REDEMPTION.
triumphant consummation. — Nor is it a scantling band. The
host rose up from the beginning : it has been gathering ever since :
it still presses on. How majestic is the spectacle ! Many sons
have always been on their way to glory ! They are not always
known : and when known, reproach has been their portion, and
persecution has frequently opened their heaven. They go from
strength to strength. Large companies have passed the gates of
that glory, and now throng the hills of light and the streets of
gold. Others have just reached them, and are now entering in.
Still the far more numerous multitude is here on earth, in the
unborn generations of the people who shall be all holy, and who
shall praise the Lord. There is an awful interest in our children !
From posterity is to emerge the complement, the filling up,* of
the church. " The wicked might come in our stead." But the
security of our hope is in the purpose of the Most High. He
will take out of the nations a people. That people shall absorb
the nations. That people shall fill the earth. Then shall the
world openly be the Lord's and the fulness thereof. " Many
sons," shall then realise the numbers, sumless and unimaginable,
which are foretold. Let us gaze on the blessed throng ! If we
look forward, the precursors of this army stretch beyond our
sight. If we look behind, the train extends beyond our utmost
view. Still the procession waxes, the train sweeps forward, " the
Lord is at the head of them," Jesus the Forerunner leads them
on, and all their thousand thousands shall be sealed. Whatever
has been seen on earth of quiet excellence and humble usefulness
was but the gliding through it of these many sons on their way
to glory, as all that has been notably great and mightily bene
ficial has been their more daring muster and more resounding
march and more embodied strength ! " Who can count the dust
of Jacob, or number the fourth part of Israel ?"
The salvation of all men, — though there is provision for it,
though it is legislatively invited, though it is possible being
hindered by nothing but a sinfully inclined will, — does not form
the original design of God. There is limitation. That limitation
is not, consequently, failure. He did not decree the glorification
* Eph. i. 23. nx«js<^«.

THE GRANDEUR OF REDEMPTION. 461
of all. But a new constitution is founded upon this design as it
exists, and upon the means by which it is accomplished. It is the
kingdom of God preached to all. This is most merciful, most
reasonable, most consistent. Salvation is a full tender, a sincere
testimony, presented to every creature. It is interwoven with a
great moral system. Such a system only can contemplate the
real powers of mam It can only proceed on a basis of motive.
If God be pleased to overcome the only difficulty, the depraved
aversion of the human mind, by special interposition, by effica
cious influence, by a decree wholly of grace, by a course entirely
extrajudicial, — the moral system cannot be prejudiced nor the
freedom of the moral agent disturbed.
II. The design thus enunciated includes a particular
SCHEME OF MEANS.
Salvation is here made to represent all the blessings of which
man stands in need, his perfect deliverance from all the evils of
the fall. He who is saved is a " son," and he shall be " brought
to glory." The work of this " saving his people from their sins,"
is committed to the Lord Jesus Christ. A princely warriorship
is the chosen illustration. "Behold I have given Him," said
Jehovah in prophecy, " a leader and commander to the people."
"Behold thy King cometh unto thee; he is just and having
salvation." In the later scriptures, this form of figure is pre
served : " The Prince of life," " A Prince and a Saviour," " The
Author of our faith," The " Captain of their salvation."* The
meaning must be that the Messiah, in all the claims which re
quire to be satisfied, in all the merits which must be wrought in
order to our salvation, undertakes for us. As with a martial
equipment, he fighteth against all our enemies, — travelling in the
greatness of his strength, — zeal is his cloak and salvation his
helmet, — " The great prince which standeth for the children of
thy people." " Thou didst ride upon thy horses and chariots
of salvation." Yet is not the enterprise that of force. The war
is against sin. In righteousness He doth make war. Humilia
tion and death are the weapons of the war. We mark the con
sistency of the language where we might least expect it : " He
* In all these New Testament quotations the word is the same, A^xtys.

462 THE GRANDEUR of redemption.
hath spoiled principalities and powers, and made a show of them
openly, triumphing over them in his cross." But often are other
views introduced : " He became the author oi eternal salvation."
This is a different word.* The munitions and ensigns of battle
are no longer seen. In classic use, it commonly implies not only
responsibility, but inculpated responsibility. He is held in charge
for the fulfilment of the work. He has bound himself. He is
devoted. " Him hath God the Father sealed." A fearful liability
attaches to him. A work is given him to do. The honours of
Godhead, the interests of man, are committed to him. He has
thoroughly pleaded our cause. It is an everlasting salvation.-
While this emblematic designation of our Saviour compre
hends every part of his Mediatorial work, together with the care
and spiritual advancement of his redeemed, the sons of God, —
to keep them from every evil work and to preserve them to
his heavenly kingdom, — there can be little doubt that it is a
peculiar allusion. To Joshua, the Jesus of ancient Israel, a
visionary Chief appeared, with his sword drawn, and his name
was the Captain of the host of the Lord. The place of that
Apparition was holy ground, the scripture mark of a Divine
Descent. We cannot doubt who that Visitant was. He antici
pated the fulness of times. Even then was he girding for the
conflict. " Far off his coming shone."-}- He had gone forth for
the salvation of his people. Even then was he not only " glori
ous" but " red in his apparel." And now in the conduct of our
salvation he permanently wears a title in which all his honours
and triumphs are combined.
The allusion is not in itself more worthy than impressive. It
is of frequent use when Jehovah is described. " The Lord is a
man of war." Abijah, therefore, thus addressed the idolatrous
rebels who supported the usurpation of Jeroboam : "And, behold,
God himself is with us, for our captain."
So, in like manner, it is not improbable that there is a typic
reference in the chieftainship of Joshua to this mediatorial en
gagement of Messiah "in bringing many sons unto glory." That
great hero led the tribes through the " flood," and put them in
* Heb. v. 9. A'/ric;. -f- Milton.

THE GRANDEUR OF REDEMPTION. 463
possession of the covenanted land. The coincidence of the pro
per name which distinguished both can scarcely be unintended.
Canaan was the image of heaven. The patriarchs looked for a
" better country," and were assured of it by this. Jesus conducts
forth his redeemed out of all nations, destroys death, and in-
spheres them in his own regions of light and rest. Israel's cham
pion may present other features of resetablance, — being full of the
Spirit, — bearing the ark into the possession of the Gentiles, — stead
fast in purpose until the accomplishment of his work, — but we
have only to do with the cursory, though most beautiful, allusion,
— the Wilderness escaped, Jordan passed, Palestina won, — The
Archetype hath delivered us from this present evil world, hath
divided the cold and turbid river of death for our passage, and
now gathers into the Celestial the innumerable throng whose course
he guides and whose salvation he undertakes. " They shall never
perish, neither shall any one pluck them out of his hand."
Such design being then formed in the Divine mercy, and such
means being devised, — the purpose being to bring many sons unto
glory, and the suretyship for its fulfilmeut being devolved upon
the Eternal Son, — one necessity was found to exist, the means
could only be efficient as the Captain of our salvation was caused
to suffer. We know what were those sufferings, in their general
features, which he was called to endure. They were retributive,
not personally but vicariously. " He was made sin for us."
" He became a curse for us." "He suffered the just for the
unjust that he might bring us to God." The Captain of salvation
must be " perfected by sufferings." The idea is that of installa
tion. Aaron and his sons were consecrated to their priesthood
by sacrifice. Christ offered up himself, and thus was inaugurated
to his " excellent ministry." " The blood of the covenant" is that
" wherewith he was sanctified." " He is consecrated for ever
more." And another idea is thus suggested. He is now qualified
for the exigences of his task. He is able to save to the uttermost.
His blood cleanseth from all sin. " It is finished !" He is in
vested with official power. He has paid the price of ransom.
He has shed the blood of atonement. It is of anointed right that
he interferes. He is mighty to save !

464 THE GRANDEUR OF REDEMPTION.
But since the Purpose itself was infinitely benevolent, since
the appointment of the Saviour to its execution was equally
benevolent, we may ask, Why was it imperative to inflict suffer
ing ? Why need suffering be in any wise introduced ? Does it
not seem a foreign idea ? Is it not an unnatural element in such
a business of mercy ? Does it not appear an inharmonious intru
sion ? Is it not unrelated to a purpose so simply good, and to
means so entirely philanthropic ?
Here begins the mighty argument. Sin exists. The many
sons are to be redeemed from it. Christ pledges their salvation.
But is all to be achieved independently and directly ? Without
any condemnatory notice of sin ? Without any enforcement of
its due penalty ? Can the Captain of their salvation strike down
at a blow every difficulty which obstructs it ? Were the diffi
culty physical, he might : but it is moral, on which mere power
has none effect. Force, the most common or the most refined,
cannot render any question more or less rightful, or any principle
more or less just. This is the high, the exclusive, view. It is
not a problem of mere placability. How can that mercy be ex
tended without the counteraction of the Divine ends in creating
and governing the world? How can it consist with the final
causes of this Earthly System, and the claims of the Law which
is set over it ? It is decreed that the many sons shall be brought
to glory : it is decreed that the Second Person of the Trinity shall
conduct the whole undertaking of their salvation. But that
decree could not stand, that process could not avail, unless there
be as perfect an enforcement, at least, of punitive justice, — as
strong a demonstration, at least, against moral evil, — as otherwise,
without this intervention, there would and must have been.
III. THE NECESSITY OF THE ALLEGED PROCEDURE.
The child has often asked the parent and teacher, If God
would save, where was the hinderance? Others, that had not
the child's excuse, have demanded, Who hath resisted His will?
They only regard the Being, and not the Character, of Deity.
They ascribe no righteousness to him. Yet surely we may
conceive of a necessity, if we will forgive, to mark the offence,
whatever our sentiments towards the offender, with the same dis-

THE GRANDEUR OF REDEMPTION. 465
pleasure which we originally felt. In our treatment of him, we
would not compromise our opinions of the crime. This is as
incumbent on us with a regard to the moral impression and
advantage of his mind, as for the clearing of our own consistency.
Nothing could be more injurious to him than a mode of forgive
ness which quite kept out of view the sin with which he was
charged. By such a course, also, we should damage most seri
ously the claims of order and justice among others. Leniency
might become a great social wrong. Our character, in its public
influence, might derange the acting out of those principles which
we professed to have at heart. — In the governments of the world
this will be still more obviously necessary. No pardon can be
granted from fear, from weakness, from partiality, from indiffer
ence, without that state of law becoming despised. The dilemma
of private wishes opposing public obligations may be supposed.
We find in Scripture such a case. Darius passes an edict : " a
royal statute and a firm decree." The boast of his every law
is that " it altereth not." Daniel is the victim of the law. The
monarch " set his heart to deliver him, and he laboured until the
going down of the sun to deliver him." But he is held by his
own law. He could have abrogated it, but a principle of presu
med consistency prevailed.
We must conceive of Jehovah in a manner which shall present
him to us as necessarily holy. We intend by such necessity the
highest certainty of his holiness in all possible circumstances. In
man we see the difference between capacity and will. He can do
what, however, he will not do. God will only act, can only act,
according to an infinitely holy nature. We can conceive no
more. He must, then, be consistent. "And it became Him,"
these preliminaries being determined, " to make the Captain of
their salvation perfect," an effectual Saviour, " through suffer
ings." On what grounds ? They are stated, — " For whom are
all things, and by whom are all things." And the reasoning is
this : That as He for whom and by whom are all things, he was
morally necessitated to punish sin ; and that the design of creation
and the ends of government were equally consulted and pursued
when the demerits and liabilities of that sin were requited on the

466

THE GRANDEUR OF REDEMPTION.

Mediator who had undertaken for us, who was representative and
substitute for us. For this is a most important link in the argu
ment, or rather is the included essence of the whole. To speak
of the Mediation of Christ as only an interposition to arrange, to
adjust, to distribute, is most meanly to describe it. Christianity
speaks not of these cold negations. We know that they are too
current. It is fashionable to speak of it as that which should be
accepted in our total ignorance of its reasons. Are not its reasons
written as with a sunbeam ? Then, perhaps, it is allowed to be
an expedient. Is it then only a prudential scheme, and but one
of many ? Or it may be attenuated as a consideration shown to
the virtues of our Master. Is it only j ust as Israel was beloved
for their fathers' sake, or as the most wicked have been spared at
the intercession of the righteous ? These views, instead of ex
hausting, do not even touch, the theme. Substitution is the
ground-work of the whole. Christ suffers because he takes our
place. " He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all
of one." The imputation of our guilt and the transfer of our
punishment are the sole justification of his " sufferings."
1. It became God to punish sin, and equally so upon a sub
stitute, as the Object whom Creation was intended to glorify.
" For Him are all things." " Of him and through him and
to him are all things ; to whom be glory for ever." There can be
no higher destination for his works. This is their direct use.
If ever subservient to any end less than his immediate glory,
though more indirectly it is still what that end must ultimately
promote. Whatever exists, beyond him, he has made. Mind
and all its faculties, matter and all its developments, are but the
effects of his will. Though he " has given the earth to the chil
dren of men," he has not alienated it from himself. He has
adapted it to our benefit, but he has not cast it off. He cannot
forego his original intent concerning it, without exposing himself
to the charge that his intent was not right or that it was not
practicable. Too prone are we to suppose this planet ours, to
arrogate its entire lordship, to exact on every thing as intended
for. our gratification ; and it is seldom that we expand to the
noble conception which realises in "this building" a stage on

THE GRANDEUR OF REDEMPTION. 467
which the Divine character may be displayed, — where He, who is
excellent in counsel and wonderful in doing, may be acknow
ledged and adored. " The invisible things of him from the begin
ning of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things
that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead." " The earth
is full of his riches, as is the great and wide sea." " O Lord our
Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth ! who hast set thy
glory above the heavens." — Nor can this homage be restricted to
inanimate objects and irrational kinds, but must be far more
abundantly expected from man. He should lead the song. He
should gather the revenue. His soul should elicit the design, and
his tongue should articulate the meaning, of all. " I will bring
every one that is called by my name : for I have created him for
my glory, I have formed him, yea I have made him." He alone
can be conscious of such an appropriation: he alone can intelli
gently yield himself to it : he alone is morally responsible. He
can "glorify God as God." To him it is duty. All besides,
are but passive instruments, blind agents, ministering to that
which they never could understand. Yet only he has failed.
The sun is still a witness in heaven. The laws of the universe
exemplify their perfect fidelity and fitness. Ocean respects its
bounds. But we "have sinned and come short of the glory of
God." We have fallen away from the reasons of our existence.
It is not so palpable as though a star rushed from its orbit, but it
is as real. The disaster is not so sensible, but it is far more fatal.
Man is lost. He has undone himself. He holds the world
against its Maker. He is rebel and anarch. He spends the
tribute. He defies the law. God is not in all his thoughts.
He " offereth not praise," that he may " glorify Him." " The
God in whose hand thy breath is and whose are all thy ways,
hast thou not glorified !"
But the design of God cannot be frustrated : it hangs not
upon contingency ; it partakes of -the unchangeableness of its Au
thor. " The Lord of hosts has sworn, saying, Surely as I have
thought, so shall it come to pass ; and as I have purposed, so shall
it stand : for the Lord of hosts hath purposed, and who shall
disannul it ?" The rebellion of the creature may disturb a par^

468 THE GRANDEUR OF REDEMPTION
ticular moral plan : it is of the nature of the will in man that it
shall be uncoerced. He is free, then, to oppose and hate what the
Creator wills. He has resisted that Will. Sin has overturned
the oeconomy of innocence, has brought in a new condition of
things, has displeased and disobeyed the supreme power, has
effaced the inscription which once recorded that all was " very
good." The tendency of sin is to degrade the divine character.
It brings all its perfections into dispute. " Through breaking
the law, dishonourest thou God ?" Is there no injury done to
infinite excellence, because none can be done to its essence and
being ? In this lower sense we might, indeed, say : " If thou sin-
nest, what doest thou against Him ? or if thy transgressions be
multiplied, what doest thou unto him ? Thy wickedness may hurt
a man as thou." But is there no injury in wrong, in insult, in
scorn ? in distrust, in ingratitude, in falsification ? Is it nothing
of offence and harm to hate where we are bound to love, and to
withstand where we are bound to submit ? Is it nothing to
commit all unrighteousness and trespass and iniquity ? Is it
nothing to rob God ? To make him a liar ? To cause him to
serve with our sins ? May he not say, " I will ease me of mine
adversaries ?" May he not declare, that he is "fretted," "grieved,"
" vexed," " broken," and " wroth ?" Do not affections exist in
his mind transcending all that these terms of human emotion
suggest to us? Yet cannot the purpose, antecedent to all and
impressed upon all, be counteracted, though a particular plan be
deranged. Therefore even sin, in spite of its tendency, shall be
overruled to the proper end of all : " our unrighteousness shall
commend the righteousness of God :" " the truth of God shall
more abound, through our lie, unto his glory."
Must sin, then, tarnish his character as Creator ? Assuredly
it must if he connive at it, or show indifference to it. He would
then be inconsistent with himself. He has published a universal
law, though it had not been written on the tables of stone. He
has set against sin, consequences which have all the force of the
most terrible sanctions. It is the hostile opposite to all good.
It is a force of disturbance. It is the element of mischief. It is
the womb of every monstrous growth. It is the foulest leprosy.

THE GRANDEUR OF REDEMPTION. 469
It is the abominable thing which God hates. Accursed be those
theories, those suggestions, which would place it among the agents
of his plan, which would intimate that it is a means of his ad
ministration ; which would call evil, good, — and light, darkness !
Accursed be those refinements and extenuations which would
represent him covertly employing that which he publicly de
nounces, and exercising complacency in that upon which he heaps
every mark of reprobation !
But is his hatred of sin to be expressed by submission to it ?
Is it not to be counterworked ? Otherwise there has entered into
the world that which is independent, victorious, something para
mount to the divine will, something stronger than the divine
power. Shall no notice be taken of it ? Can no bounds be set to
it ? Must not the conduct of God towards it show his determi
nation against it ? Two methods we may expect : his punishment
of it, and such a control and subordination of it as shall cause it to
fall within the design he contemplated in the present system.
For to suppose that all things are " for God" merely so far as
man renders voluntary homage to his majesty and spontaneous
obedience to his law, is to declare that his purpose is subverted.
How must he then proceed ? It becomes him to resent the evil
by retributive principles. Sin shall entail present and everlasting
recompenses of misery and shame. This is the true alternative.
And there is a glory which He thus secures. " In very deed for
this cause," he spake of old unto Pharoah, " have I raised thee
up, for to show in thee my power, and that my name may be
declared throughout all the earth." He has punished ; in punish
ing he has vindicated himself. If proper in any instance, it is in
every instance. If his glory be promoted in one such act, it is in
all such acts. " Verily he judgeth in the earth." " He is known
by the judgments which he executeth." And the spirits of heaven
acknowledge with an awful applause that He is exalted by these
sternest deeds : " Thou art righteous, O Lord, because thou hast
judged thus." " Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righte
ous are thy judgments." They see light in light. They are puri
fied of our prejudice and selfishness. Things to them are unfolded
upon an enlarged scale. Solutions meet their sight which are with-

470 THE GRANDEUR OF REDEMPTION.
held from us. They are on the Lord's side without a warping of
disaffection. They are possessed of his mind and will without a
shadow of error or mistake. They sing, Halleluia ! There is none
other reparation of the catastrophe. He who gave a tone of har
mony to all his works, can he accept the frightful discord which
now jars all ? He who wound up the springs of the moral world
and pushed all its wheels into motion, can he look approvingly
upon its wild irregularity and hideous wreck ? There is a re
source. If He be not honoured by man in praise and loyalty, he
must be in his condemnation. He can only be consistent in this
manner of procedure. " I will repay, saith the Lord." No
other way is left. He is just, and therefore hates sin. Being
just, his justice must act against it. We see those acts in all
suffering. It is an evil thing and bitter. We gaze downward
into hell. There is the proof that the Creator cannot surrender
his design. " He that made them will not have mercy on them,
and he that formed them will show them no favour." His glory
is not eyaded. His purpose is kept. His truth pronounces ter
ribly its behest ! His justice flames high from its sacrifice ! The
possible joy of severity is marked : " And it shall come to pass,
that as the Lord rejoiced over you to do you good ; so the Lord
will rejoice over you to destroy you."*
Together with the alternative of punishment, there is another
which may be employed. But it could not be found separately.
Sin may be turned by infinite wisdom (which cannot itself alter
the nature of sin) to other occasions than it affects. This view
implies that God can never lose his power over his creatures,
whatever may be their dispositions. He foregoes not his right
in them. He has not made them in vain. They are not lost to
him. By fixed laws, though secret to us, he holds them to his
service. When their minds are filled with enmity, they often do
what " his hand and his counsel determined before to be done."
Their chain has but a certain range. They cannot escape from
his eye, purpose, and control. Their " wrath shall praise him."
" He hath made all things for himself; yea even the wicked
for the day of evil." " Deut. xxviii. 63.

THE GRANDEUR OF REDEMPTION. 471
The end of all, — whether the purpose~of creation stand, or
whether, on its infraction, the means of punishment and counter
action be adopted, — is the honour of God. No end can be so
high. Were another preferred by him, it would be less than
infinitely wise and holy and good. He would do that which is
unworthy of himself. But this world shall not be estranged from
such design. His name shall be declared in it. It shall be the
theatre of his mighty acts. It shall be a shrine, set in this far
space, filled with his glories.
How, then, can it be made to appear that, — as the original
scheme was violated, which is, the glorification of God in the
cheerful obedience of man, — these alternatives of punishment and
counteraction were enforced in constituting Christ the captain of
our salvation ; in other words, treating him as Substitute ? For
surely it is necessary that the end of creation should be answered
by the greatest event which could take place within its precincts ;
and that, as Jesus stood as its representative, as the first-born of
every creature, as heir of all things, he should be found in a
position with which the first law of all things may agree.
Let us then speak, in the first instance, oi punishment. Sin
has intruded on creation, and it must be visited in such a manner
that all may see that the Divinity regards it with intense dis
pleasure, that he will execute every threatening which he has
denounced against it and every consequence which he has involved
in it, that he will be true to himself and to the works of his hand,
that this destructive principle shall be requited by those severities
which are due and forewarned. If that punishment be inflicted
on another, on a substitute, we know that some exceptions must
be made. The character of the infliction must be somewhat
changed. The innocent cannot be strictly said to suffer punish
ment. Whatever sufferings such substitute could bear would be
unaccompanied with shame and remorse. His bosom would swell
with the consciousness of doing rightly and benevolently. We
cannot select the principles of this substitution from analogy.
No kindred example, in the nature of things, can be found.
The question is simply this : Since it was necessary to punish sin,
does the death of Christ instead of us, exhaust that necessity ?

472 THE GRANDEUR OF REDEMPTION.
In answer, we ask, In what the necessity to punish sin consists ?
It consists in the necessity of Infinite Purity to oppose, and to
mark its determination to oppose, whatever is contradictory to
itself. It is not hatred of being, or of any being. But if being
be discovered charactered with sin, the displeasure against the sin
must be carried to the person of the being who has sinned. The
punishment is not personally vindictive. If we can then conceive
of some single expression of displeasure against sin such as shall
be equivalent to what must otherwise be its expression against
every individual, the consistency of the Divine conduct and the
integrity of the Divine purpose will be secured. Justice is the
safeguard of holiness, and is the steady, unbending, obligation
to punish whatever contravenes it. It is not directed against
the criminal but the crime, and only through the crime against
the criminal.
Then can sin be abstracted from the sinner ? Sin cannot be,
but by the inworking of holy influence and principle; guilt,
however, may. Personal demerits cannot be transferred, but
liability to suffering can. This is allowed in the institutions of
universal society. This is interlaced with the structure and na
ture of things. It has its necessary bounds. The more serious
sentence cannot be devolved. The reason is plain. Man's life is
not his own. It belongs to his fellow-man. Could the situations
of the good and the wicked, in capital punishment, be exchanged,
the community would be wronged. The good would be destroyed
and the wicked spared. All the attributes of distributive and
retributive Justice would be revolted. None but the tyrant could
impose, or permit, the outrage.
But the Captain of our salvation, our substitute, thus consents
to bear our sins and to carry our sorrows. His Deity dignifies
the act, if it may be accepted, with an infinitely compensative
worth. He is independent to interpose: he took on him the form
of a servant and was found in fashion as a man. He came in the
flesh. He gave himself. He had power to lay down his life.
Death was not, could not be, final. Though most real, it was
only the briefest suspension of his active Mediatorial influence.
He was gained to us by it. It was not only the restoration of

THE GRANDEUR OF REDEMPTION. 473
that influence, but its transcendent increase. He is not dead.
He dieth no more. We are saved by his life.
In the Agony of the Garden, the foreshadowing of his death,
— in his death on the Cross, — we mark no common signals, but
those which answer to the case supposed. If he be delivered for
our offences, if he dies for our sins, the convulsions of his spirit
and of the material world around him, fearfully agree. These
are not common woes. A danger there may be in describing
them. We may forget, in his putting away sin, his infinite
alienation from it. We may forget, in his endurance of conse
quences which sinners had incurred, how he was necessarily sepa
rate from sinners. We may forget, in dwelling upon sufferings
which no simple views of moral discipline can explain, that
he was the most beloved object of the universe. We may forget,
while judicial tokens appear amidst the scene, — the insignia of
wrath and vengeance and retribution, — that therefore his Father
loved him because he laid down his life. We may forget, that
every correct sentiment and all just taste forbid the thought that
he was the victim, save as that of voluntary sacrifice, or that he
was the prey, save as the self-immolated lamb. Poetry may tempt
us to unchastened language, and feeling may dictate unguarded
phrase. We would renounce it all. It is no part of our theology.
We believe that there was a transposition of the relationships to
law, in its penalties, between the Mediator and man. But we
are shocked when we hear that he could be accounted sinful, that
he could be the mark for the divine displacence, that he was the
vessel of indignation and fury. His passion is more mysteriously
profound. There are shudderings, " Save me from this hour !"
There are overwhelmings, " Let this cup pass from me !" There
are depths, " Why hast Thou forsaken me ?" Never was sorrow
like unto his sorrow. His soul was troubled. His soul was
made an offering for sin. To its pure sensibility any such con
nection, any such bearing, was an inconceivable pang. There
were all the dark, bitter, fruits of sin, except the sense of blame.
It was eclipse, but the sun burnt bright as ever !
And now let us think of Him for whom are all things. Does
he look forth the indifferent spectator ? Does he carelessly survey

474 THE GRANDEUR OF REDEMPTION.
the inroads of sin upon his creation ? " He has so loved the
world that he gave his only-begotten son." " He has not sent
his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world
by him might be saved." His determination of mercy is formed.
His arrangement for effectuating it is established. Why should
that determination need a sacrifice ? Why may not that arrange
ment be conducted to its issue by fiat and prerogative ? Because,
then, the design of creation would be marred ! Because, then,
sin would be unexpiated ! Because, then, the character of the
Maker of all would be compromised ! Therefore it became Him,
for whom are all things, to make the Captain of this salvation
perfect through sufferings. " He has once suffered." What
sufferings were his ! How dread ! The awful affinity of the
nature which alone could suffer, the capacity of his spirit, its
taintless purity, its enlarged love, all and only deepened these
sufferings. " Whose Son was He ?" Could such fearful tokens
of hatred to sin have been manifested in any other way ? Could
the Universal Former have more strictly, impartially, specially,
vindicated and cleared himself? Is not the Lord our God a
jealous God ? Will He brook the profanation and the defilement
of his works ? Has he not risen up to avenge himself ? Has he
not purged his temple ? Has he not reconciled his house ? Na
ture itself stood aghast. Earth rocked to its foundation. The
sun refused to shine. Sin can never again boast its impunity !
Creation need never more groan for its redress !
But while punishment is a vindication of right, it is not an
original end of any constitution. It is not properly a remedy.
It does not go beyond the settlement and the enforcement of the
law. Still it looks beyond it. Its intention is ulterior. It seeks
to warn by example. It would repress future outbreak. This,
however, is not the supposed case of benefit to the individual
delinquent. Where the sentence is extreme, it cannot be. But
the faithful Creator, — faithful to his purpose in all that he has
made, — has meditated not only punishment but counteraction.
There is in some of the influences and effects of sin, that which
cannot be destroyed. It may be checked in all. In an important
sense Messiah when cut off, not for himself, " finished transgres-

THE GRANDEUR OF REDEMPTION. 475
sion and made an end of sin." Iniquity, nevertheless, abounds.
It shall find its prison-house in hell. But there is a new element
at work in the moral world. There is an antagonistic principle.
"The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus makes us free
from the law of sin and death." Except for the atonement the
earth itself could not have been preserved. The race of man
could not have been perpetuated. Now the lost creature is re
stored. The age hastens on when " the people shall all be right
eous," and when " the knowledge of the glory of the Lord shall
cover the earth as the waters cover the sea." Then shall our
abode, reclaimed from its abuse, break forth into joy and singing.
A holy movement shall pervade its inhabitants. They shall fall
down and worship their Deliverer. "At the name of Jesus every
knee shall bow of things in heaven and things in earth, and every
tongue shall confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory oi God
the Father." The end of Creation is thus triumphantly esta
blished !
But it became not only Him for whom are all things, but
Him by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to
make the Captain of their salvation perfect, fully to qualify him,
by sufferings. 2. It was necessary for God to punish sin, and equally so
upon a substitute, as the Governor by whom Creation is sus
tained and ruled.
" He spake and it was done : he commanded and it stood
fast." The mighty system lies in the hollow of his hand. He
adjusts its parts, touches its springs, impresses its operations.
His life lives in all. His activity actuates all. His power ener
gises all. He enacts one law for drop and for ocean, for atom
and for world. He keeps it in its path. He binds it to its order.
Equally, from his throne, does he survey his invisible empire, — ,
that which may be morally influenced, his world of mind, — and
even here, though agitated by contention and tossed by rebellion,
— He holds an uncontrolled reign, he wields an undisturbed au
thority. Providence and moral government cannot be separated.
As by Him are all things, so is he a "great king over all the
earth." He protects all that he has made. All wait upon him.

476 THE GRANDEUR OF REDEMPTION.
There is not a coil of the chain which weighs not from his hand.
Angel and insect does he alike support. His tender mercies are
over all his works. But sin is not a creature of God. It is an
obscene intruder into his works. It is the author of confusion.
It is a grand deformity. It is hateful and it hates. It perverts
and undoes all. It is monstrous. It is misrule and misdeed.
All unrighteousness is sin. It fastens itself wherever it touches :
it spreads itself wherever it enters : it perpetuates itself wherever
it infects. It is the invader and spoiler, bringing all evil with it.
Creatures who harbour it become its accomplices, and incur the
displeasure which it provokes. Whatever its origin, we give it
a hold and a subsistence. Our senses are its expressions and our
acts are its embodiments. It looks through our eyes, it speaks
by our tongues, it works by our hands, it moves by our feet. It
has arisen. Made as man was, we do not see how its possible
existence could be prevented. It is, in some view, permitted to
exist and to desolate. It is unmeaning to say that God could
exterminate it at once. Omnipotence could destroy life, but not
sin. This must be opposed and overcome, not by direct power,
but by moral antidote.
The Creator promulgates his law in the sympathies and ten
dencies of things. From the nature of our mind, from our rela
tionship to our fellows, from the general fitness or unfitness of
conduct, we infer his will. We are a law unto ourselves. But
the Governor will more distinctly articulate his law. Doubtless
man, in the beginning, received those statutes which soon he lost.
The commandment was holy, just, and good. It was always
fenced with sanctions. " The soul that sinneth, it shall die."
" The evil doer shall be cut off." " Though hand join in hand,
the wicked shall not be unpunished." There is an indissoluble
connection between sin and suffering. God wills it. But it does
not rest upon his will. It cannot but exist. It must always
have been, it must always be. It is essential and necessary. It
cannot supposeably be reversed. It is a part of the nature of
things. Still must we think of published, explicit, law. The
decree has passed. The edict has gone forth. In the day that
thou sinnest, thou shalt die !

THE GRANDEUR OF REDEMPTION. 477
Can the " only Potentate" overlook the violation of his laws ?
Can he forbear to take cognizance of it ? Can he treat it with
indifference ? Could he then be true ? Could he then be just ?
Could he then be benevolent ? It is not only, though that is its
darkest complexion, an insult upon his character : it is the source
of unutterable sufferings to his subjects. It not only threatens,
but accomplishes, the extinction of all just ideas and of all orderly
relations involved in his government. To spare its proper sen
tence would be to encourage it. It would be to throw a protec
tion around it. It would be to have fellowship with it. It
would be to give it strength and sanction. The thought may
not be conceived. God cannot away with it. To show forbear
ance would be to cast down his sceptre. It would be the virtual
abdication of his throne.
There is a disadvantage under which we necessarily labour
when we speak of the Divine attributes. We must, in order to
give a perspicuity to our conceptions, view them separately and
distinctively. Yet they, even as we conceive of them, interchange.
They are the perfections of one infinite nature. They cannot be
considered comprehensively or truly if they be examined apart.
But the disadvantage belongs to our natural limitation. We
cannot pursue our examination with a disadvantage less than this.
It prevents confusion and perplexity more than any method
which, for its own sake, we might prefer. A greater practical
disadvantage would attend upon it, though it might seem a more
consistent theory and a more perfect rule.
Now in the admission of Christ as our substitute, in the
imputation of our guilt to him, is there a recognition and en
forcement of the moral dominion of God over this earth ? Does
He act agreeably with his avowed claim that "by him are all
things?" Would it have been truer to this representation to
have punished the sinner in person ? The answer still is two-fold.
We will speak, first, of the illustration which the Divine Perfec
tions receive from the method which has been chosen, — which
illustration is far more glorious than could have been afforded by
the original and more natural course of punishing each sinner for
his sin.

478 THE GRANDEUR OF REDEMPTION.
" God sitteth upon the throne of His Holiness." We may
scarcely call this his attribute. It is his nature in a sort of
peculiar sense. We could not say of all that they were his
nature as we may affirm of this. Yet though it pervades and
impresses every one, — is seen in all, — it is an aspect of the Divi
nity which we may distributively contemplate. It is his excel
lence, his beauty, his amiableness, his beatitude. Where is its
noblest display ? Shall we ascend up to heaven ? Shall we
listen to the responsive canticle of the six-winged Seraphim as
they utter the holy triplet-cry? Shall we gather, at an awful
distance, around mount Sinai, thronged with angels, reverbera
ting with thunders, pealing with trumpet-words, in honour and
attestation of the holy law ? Shall we survey the ceremonials of
the ancient Dispensation in all their minuteness, that not a bodily
taint might be endured, revealing the purity with which alone
the creature may appear before the Most Holy ? Go, and gaze
upon the Cross ! He who hangs upon it is the Holy One and
Just. He hath done no sin. Who accuseth him of sin ? He is
condemned of man without a cause. His death is compassed by
falsehood, and suborned by envy, and outraged by hate. But
this is only an instrumentality. " He is bruised for our iniqui
ties." " The Lord hath made to meet upon him the iniquity of
us all." From him so attached, placed in that mysterious rela
tion, Holiness withdraws ! It brings not its wonted succours
and consolations ! It leaves no brightness, — all is dark ! It
sheds no smile, — all is downcast ! It cheers no hope, — all is
despair ! Christ did its work, sought its honour, died for its vin
dication ! But the means so strangely transformed him from that
proper aspect in which he had been seen and reverenced until
then, had so removed him from that sphere to which he gave all
its loveliness and lustre, that Holiness, amidst his universal deser
tion, frowned and fled !
We connect with Holiness the kindred idea of Justice. This
latter is as the will and enforcement of the former, its safeguard
and operation. The form of which we speak is retributive. That
which supports right must equally resent wrong. It can, then, be
only a direction of goodness and benevolence to oppose the source

THE GRANDEUR OF REDEMPTION. 479
of all unhappiness. This is the character and work of justice.
But in its punitive acts it can only be most terrific. We still
seem to mark the track of light which tells us of the disarray
and casting down of heaven's rebel host. We still seem to watch
the dark ruins of the cities of the plain beneath the heavy waves
of the deep which engulphs them. We still seem to hear the
panic-cry of the whole land of Egypt, bursting from every house.
We still seem to trace the withered army of Assyria, rigid under
one blast of death. We still seem to wander among the wrecks
of Babylon and Nineveh. We know that this earth shall be
burnt up as the stage and hold of human transgression. Its
glowing ashes shall testify against sin. All these are fearful
proof of the "righteous judgment of God." " Is God unrighte
ous who taketh vengeance ?" " It is a righteous thing with God
to recompense tribulation." But would you see how He is a
" God without iniquity, just and right" ? Would you see how
" there is no respect of persons with him" ? Look on Him who
dies upon the cross ! What reasons might have urged themselves
for exemption in such a crisis ! Any suffering of such a Person
might have been pleaded to suffice ! Must he die ? Could he
be " made perfect" at no less account of suffering, by no infe
rior degree of humiliation ? " He is smitten of God." " It
pleased the Lord to bruise him." Here is the impartiality of
dealing ! Here is the irrespectiveness of party ! Here is the
disregard of occasion ! It is sin which justice only hates, pur
sues, condemns, revenges ! It is justice which sin only awa
kens, directs, provokes, arms ! " He spared not his own Son" !
" Smite the Shepherd" !
Neither Holiness nor Justice could have any subsistence but
as they stand in alliance with Truth. This is that which reveals
and assures all the statutes of the Divine law, which pledges and
certifies all the determinations of the Divine Lawgiver. This
rescues both from whatever could appear capricious in exercise
and arbitrary in disposition. The code is enunciated. It cannot
fail. It cannot pass away. It cannot be relaxed. One demur to
maintain it, one hesitation to execute it, would for ever shut up
intercourse between God and man. His faithfulness is the simple

480 THE GRANDEUR OF REDEMPTION.
basis of all covenant and of all appeal. He cannot deny himself.
But to convince us, he calls to heaven and to earth, to the sun
and moon, to the day and night, to the seed-time and harvest, as
the perpetual witnesses and signs that he abideth faithful. " Let
God be true, and every man a liar." We feel his infinite conde
scension in alleging any proof. Yet is there no condescension
when He shall summon us to this. It is the Godlike part. It is
worthy of himself. The inflexibility of his word is confirmed in
a manner which no material laws could express. The solemn,
silent, earnestness of truth, — its unbending dignity, its majestic
assurance, — are now seen in its calm and simple course ! What
must be its principle when in these circumstances it knows no
bias, feels no embarrassment, seeks no delay ! He whose eyes
are on the truth, beholds the liability of human guilt, where it
might not be expected, mysteriously associated with the Son of
his love, who always did the things which pleased him, and who
now had come forth from him to do his will ! And as if the
meanest case of obnoxiousness to punishment were only implied,
the Precept incorruptibly condemns, the Penalty unwaveringly
falls, "according to the saying of the Lord." It is his word
coming to pass. But now is it seen that this is not personal desert.
It could not be. It is representative. And unforgetting Truth
reckons the sum, meets the aggregate, and urges the redoubling
doom. But this is greatest of all, when truth is kept, — not when
all is easy, all is natural, all is common, — but when all is diffi
cult, all is strange, all is unprecedented, — when the perfection
of the act confounds by its. very perfection !
These are moral attributes : yet may it be predicated of Di
vine government that Benevolence will always direct it. To it,
nothing will be more agreeable than the happiness of its subjects.
But now a new form of benevolence is presented to us. And
Mercy must be glorifying to this government, if holiness, jus
tice, and faithfulness can be maintained at the same time with it.
" Mercy and truth preserve the king ; and his throne is upholden
by mercy." The same reasoning must apply to Him whose
throne is that before which all thrones are cast down, who is
Prince of the kings of the earth !

THE GRANDEUR OF REDEMPTION. 481
Now we need not attempt to show forth this mercy in its
magnitude of cost and difficulty. We need not endeavour to
extol it in its range and freeness of exercise. It has no cause but
in the will of Deity. It meditates nothing in man but his guilt
and misery. Only because he is undone, does it undertake for
him. Had he claim or merit, it could not exist. It begins at
the moment of his utter moral failure. It is the exclusive reason
for " bringing many sons unto glory." This is an immense good
in itself ! How honourable is it to the nature of Him who is love
and who delighteth in mercy, when no considerations of his cha
racter and law forbid ! It cannot be wanting in the most notable
and awful proofs. To it we owe the relaxation of that course
which is the rule of retribution. To it we trace the allowance of
a substitute when individual judgment might have been urged.
How did it prove itself ! The death of the cross, with all that
preceded and followed it, that death for sin, that death of curse,
is the demonstration that the way of mercy was not easy, — as is
that of creative power, — but that the most solemn preliminaries
must first be settled, and that the most ineffable agonies must
first be endured, ere it could take a step or bestow a blessing !
What a manifestation is thus given that the great legislative
principles of the universe are paramount, when the Mercy of God
awaits their most severe recognition and their most dread inflic
tion, and then only can, then only would, make its way to its
objects !
And thus is honour done to Mercy. While all the Divine
perfections, specially pertaining to moral government, are to be
satisfied before this attribute can be exercised, it moves them all,
it is upholden by them all, it is facilitated by them all. They are
set as seals to it. They are the channels for its stream. They
are the foundations on which it is built up for ever. Judgment
is its robe and diadem!
We are now prepared to see the Wisdom which is so fre
quently claimed for this method of salvation. There are no
higher acts of which it boasts, than the display of the divine glory
and the security of the moral agent's well-being. These acts
could never have been so combined. Had man perished, justice
i i

482 THE GRANDEUR OF REDEMPTION.
would have been appeased. There would have been the resort of
law, — punishment. In that punishment Holiness would have
been vindicated and Truth fulfilled. Goodness would also have
been maintained. But mercy, the noblest exemplification and
degree of goodness, would have remained unknown. But now
it is made preeminent. It has a regal sway. Grace reigns. The
method has been devised to exercise mercy and to satisfy justice;
to condemn the sin and to save the sinner ; to wield the terrors of
punishment and to dispense the blessings of pardon ; to exalt
holiness and to degrade evil ; to rectify the dishonour of God
and to retrieve the apostacy of man. " Glory to God in the
highest: on earth peace, good will unto men." "The Lord hath
redeemed Jacob and glorified himself in Israel." Mercy now
stands associated with every perfection of the Godhead. "Power
belongeth unto God: also unto thee, O God, belongeth mercy."
" For thy mercy and thy truth's sake." "Justice and judgment
are the habitation of thy throne : mercy and truth shall go before
thy face." " Mercy and truth are met together ; righteousness
and peace have kissed each other." This is the infinite advantage
of the redemption, over the abandonment, of the sinful creature !
The Deity finds occasion in it to reveal himself. " The light of
the knowledge of his glory is in the face of Jesus Christ." Now
the system of his perfections shines forth in the firmament of
salvation: the Sun of righteousness is the centre around which all,
like radiant spheres, move in their respective orbits and none
infringe on each other's tracks. Now the image of his character
is unfolded under the fullest light : every feature stands off in its
fairest relief, and all its proportions are emblazoned on equally
conspicuous grounds. "A just God and a Saviour"! "To
declare at this time his righteousness: that he might be just and
the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus" !
What principle of the Divine government has been foregone?
What sanctity of it has been sullied ? What pillar of it has
been weakened ? Can indifference be objected ? Can impunity
be pleaded? Can misprision be alleged? There is no conces
sion, no unsteadiness, no confusion, no delay. He who came to
" magnify the law and make it honourable," laid this government

THE GRANDEUR OF REDEMPTION. 483
only deeper in the principles and affections of our nature, and
preached, as he hastened to the cross, but a new and a more
enlarged modification of it, — -He sent forth his apostles, and still
commissions his ministers, to uplift the same proclamation, —
" The kingdom of heaven and of God." It is Christianity which
• is not only its manifesto, but its law, development, and organi
zation. It is the commandment of the everlasting God made
known for the obedience of faith. It is rule. That thought is
never lost. Its freest overture never betrays it into inconsistency
with the most perfect jurisdiction. Its universal establishment
will be the universal subjection of man. Rebellion will be rooted
out of the world. The Lord shall be king over it. All nations
shall serve him. " Halleluiah ! for the Lord God omnipotent
reigneth" !
The experience of this redemption secures the acknowledg
ment, on the part of its subjects, of all these attributes. They
taste that God is gracious. They give thanks at the remem
brance of his holiness. There is forgiveness with him that he
•may be feared.
It is only further necessary to add, that the government of
Him, "by whom are all things," has, in making "the Captain
of our salvation perfect by sufferings," acquired another advan
tage. To punish the individual is to destroy him, that is, for
all future obedience, — though God can rule in the midst of his
enemies. There is the loss of willing service, so comely and so
desirable. That creature is made in vain, save for indirect and
involuntary obligation. Better were it for that man that he had
never been born. But redemption is his recovery. He is now
the Lord's freeman. He glorifies God in his body and his spirit.
He serves the Lord Christ. His heart is won back to Him from
whom it had deeply revolted. " Nevertheless, it has turned to
the Lord." Motives of love and gratitude crowd upon it. Its vail
is taken away. Its enmity is slain. It revolves to its rest. It
is fixed on its God. This is but a specimen. Wherever these
specimens have most abundantly prevailed, it is but a begin
ning. So the world shall be renewed. All hearts shall beat
this response and make this music. There shall be one song of

484 THE GRANDEUR OF REDEMPTION.
praise. "All the ends of the world shall remember and turn
unto the Lord ; and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship
before him."
Had the Creator not punished sin, he would have put a slight
on his works, he would have reflected an injustice on himself,
that must have for ever placed his character beyond the power of«
esteem and veneration : had He punished every sinner, he would
have sate on a throne without worshippers, and amidst the ruins
of a bereft and smitten world. Had the Governor not punished
sin, his law would have been a byeword of connivance; had He
punished every sinner, his monarchy would have been dispeopled,
and rebellion, though rebuked, would have been perpetuated.
The vicarious principle furnished the scope for punishing sin and
for restoring the transgressor. The text is the voucher. And
lest a doubt should remain, whether the purpose of God in Crea
tion has stood, or the law of his Government has been asserted,
the Eternal now appears ! Holding in one hand the Scroll of his
creative plan, He, for whom are all things, shows that he has
fulfilled all his pleasure. In the other is held the Code of his
holy and righteous law, and He, by whom are all things, declares
it enforced in every award, kept in every tittle, avenged in every
infraction, while all the characters of his administration are illu
minated, in letters of glory, on his Throne.
And this is sublime generalization ! It is a perfect uniformity
on which we look, whether we mark the created system, or the
moral rule, of our earth, A mysterious suggestion, also, is inti
mated by it, that the Atonement may have its bearing on other
orders and relations of the universe. The consistency of His
conduct, whom it became thus to act, cannot be confined to the
fitness which arises out of the circumstances of our planet and
species: it must be worthy of his entire plan and universal cha
racter. Thence may be borne a lesson to instruct beings of
whom we possess no record. Thence may beam a light which
shall fill unknown centres of existence with joy. We cannot
favour any thought that it avails for others as for us. It is our
exclusive salvation. But in its principles and interests it is not
a thing of limitation. Angels learn from it the manifold wisdom

THE GRANDEUR OF- REDEMPTION. 485
of God. The devils also believe and tremble. Where may be
the far off world which this stupendous event cannot teach, warn,
affect ? Where is the corner of inhabited space but which it
may reach with some wave of its vibrations ?
Many are the illustrations which this broader construction of
the Atonement offers. It impresses us with a new view of the
evil of sin. How " exceeding sinful" is that which is committed
against all the purposes and laws of the First Cause and Sustain
ing Power of the Universe, against him in that very capacity !
It reveals an importance in the method which he has chosen which
the boundaries of our habitation cannot enclose. How great does
all connected with it become, when it is seen reflected from the
remotest abodes of life and intelligence! The objection, that our
orb is comparatively inferior, can have no force. Though it
were as the Bethlehem among those metropolitic worlds, — least
among the thousands of the sky, — the principles born in it must
give it all its significance. These can gain no strength from
material size and radiance. The first reason on account pf which
our earth was selected, that which chiefly concerns us, is, that
"God so loved the world !" It was the love of the guilty and the
wretched, and therefore it was the love of grace. But we may not
conclude that this was the exclusive end. It was comprehended
in that which is invariably and necessarily principal, His own
glory. That glory is not increase of what is His personal right
and excellence, but their manifestation. He shall be known, by
this event, as he could not otherwise be known. There shall go
forth "from this humble dwelling-place impressions of awe and
tenderness to thrill the highest heaven ! As the realms of creation
open to us, range swelling upon range, perspective opening after
perspective, there rises up no argument against our Doctrine,
but only the index to its importance and the scale of its magnifi
cence! The argument but takes greater amplitude, finds addi
tional proof, the more boundless the scene, the wider the theatre,
— " For it became Him for whom are all things, and by whom
are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the
Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings."

SERMON XX,

THE CLAIMS OF THE JEWS ON CHRISTIAN
COMPASSION.

Luke xxiv. 47.
" Beginning at Jerusalem."
Never were there circumstances more wonderful and memorable
than those which marked the utterance of these words ! The
History of the Man of sorrows is told. He has endured the
cross. In this announcement an infinite of woe is comprehended.
The cross, the death of the cross, are as nothing to His cross.
They are only as the sign and the memorial of a death which
takes this form and name, but which is unutterable, lying out of
all the known causes and relations of death, affected by consi
derations which could touch none other death, personally bound
to no law and subject to no sentence, yet itself a legally inflicted
death, that whose terrors a thousand crosses could not strike, and
whose sufferings a thousand crosses could not wreak. He has
endured it ! He hath died once. He dieth no more. It is
finished ! — All the fearful emblems of that deed have withdrawn
themselves. The cup no more seethes with its ingredients of asto
nishment and fury, — it is drained. The sword which has awa
kened, — quick, bright, consuming, as the lightning, — is satisfied,
is quiet, and has returned to its scabbard. The day of fierce
anger has gone down, settling into an eve of lovely peace. The
wine-press has been trodden, and the wine-fat has overflowed. —
The nail no more suspends His quivering flesh. The thorn no
more pierces his sinking brow. The lance no more buries itself
in his cloven heart. The law and the curse, — sin and death, —
heaven, earth, and hell, — have completed and spent their wrath,

THE CLAIMS OF THE JEWS, ETC. 487
— wrath most differing in its kinds and in its motives, — but,
whether retributive or malignant, most overwhelming in its inflic
tions. — For ever, too, are past the humiliations of the Grave, —
the cerements are burst, the barriers are prostrated, — the domi
nions of Death have been entered for conquest and spoliation, its
keys are seized and its strong-holds are shattered. For many
days he has come in and gone out, he has appeared and disap
peared, gliding ethereally from scene to scene, independently of
the local distance, unrestricted by the bolted door. And now the
moment of his Ascension hastens ! He knew that he went to
God ! The harps of heaven vibrate, as if impatient to send
forth their notes of welcome ! The companies of angels are
thronging to their stations, that they may on the instant swell the
triumph and ring out the plaudit ! The redeemed of every age
look down with eager and wistful eyes upon the mysterious pre
parations ! The cloud awaits the signal which shall bid it stoop !
The chariot, invisible to mortal eyes, is ill-restrained escaping
from the portals of heaven to bear the Conquerer thither ! The
cloud has gathered around him, and it begins to soar. The
chariot has rolled to his feet and is impatient for its burden.
Just caught up by that cloud, just bearing away in that chariot,
what are his parting regards ? — David denounced his enemies
with his dying breath, and charged it upon Solomon to bring
down the hoar hairs of Joab and Shimei with blood to the grave.
But does Messiah pass to his glory with the imprecation of
vengeance on his lips ? Does he speak of any with reserve ?
Does he set a limit, does he make an exception, to his mercy ?
Is there one hoarded resentment which he would indulge ?
Yonder City, is it not at least proscribed and branded ? Is it
not cut off remedilessly, hopelessly? The city which had spurned
his tears, when he wept over it? The city, out of which no
prophet could perish ? The city, whose walls had echoed with
the shriek, and whose streets had been dyed in the gore, of every
martyred saint ? The city, whose inhabitants had mocked his
miracles, called him blasphemer, proclaimed him demoniac, and
raged for his crucifixion ? ' The city, upon whose people his
instructions, his beseechings, his warnings, had all been poured

488 THE CLAIMS OF THE JEWS
in vain ? Nineveh could be saved ! Sodom might have been
spared ! But shall not fire come down, and burn up this den of
murderers ? Shall not its desolation come in a moment ? Shall
not the overflowing scourge sweep it away ? " O God, to whom
vengeance belongeth, show thyself!" Why dost thou not rise up?
Why is thy stroke withheld ? Why sleep thy bolts unhurled ?
Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered !
— That city of guilt, of blood, is not cast off ! It is not trod
den under foot ! Unconditional judgment has not gone forth
against it ! Its doom is not sealed ! Not for a small moment
will the Crucified forsake it ! Not in a little wrath will he hide
his face from it for a moment ! It shall not forfeit its ancient
precedence ! To none shall it be postponed ! " Beginning at
Jerusalem!" "Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem." "Go
and cry in the ears of Jerusalem," — to the chair of Moses and
to the scorners who fill it, — to the court of Sanhedrim and to
the malignants who constitute it, to the tribunal of Praetorium
and to the ruffians who enforce it, to the haunt of iniquity and
to the vilest wretches herding there, to Barabbas, to the Spear
man who pierced my side and transfixed my heart, to them who
gloatingly watched my tortures and who cruelly insulted my
wrongs, to Caiaphas and his ministering throng, to Pilate and
his relentless judicatory, to Herod and his ruthless soldiery, that
they may first, in the earliest possible instance, in very priority,
receive the virtues of that death they dealt, the blessings of that
blood they shed !
This has always been felt as a stroke in the pourtrayed charac
ter of Christ most admirable and lovely. It is in strictest consis
tency. He had implored the forgiveness of his murder. He pleaded
with heaven for those who perpetrated it. His heart yearns for
them still. He repents according to the multitude of his mer
cies. He remembers Abraham his servant. The sacred past
stands up before him. He had journeyed in the Pillar. He had
rested in the Holiest. The angel of the Covenant, he had gone
before this people. He had brought them into their inheritance.
He had given them this goodly and holy mountain. Upon the
ancient high-place of Melchisedek, the last priesthood of patri-

ON CHRISTIAN COMPASSION. 489
archal purity, he had planted the house of Aaron and the order
of Levi. He is mindful of his covenant. He will send yet
another message to the husbandmen of his vineyard. He sends
to them, who will not that he should rule over them, renewed
conditions of peace. And had those husbandmen yielded, had
those citizens submitted, Jerusalem would have been the eternal
city, mother of the universal church, fountain of all pure and
undefiled religion. The uncircumcised should not have gone
through it. The nations should not have trampled it into the
dust. It should have been still the city of righteousness, the
faithful city. Zion should have been redeemed with judgment
and her converts with righteousness. She should have been a
praise in all the earth !
Nor is this command to be considered only as the exponent
of an infinite grace. It raises the question of evidence. The
truth and authority of Christianity are not left to be determined
among nations or tribes ignorant of the premisses involved, and
unpossessed of the means of judgment. Imposture would have
courted the distant, would have wrought on the indifferent, —
would have avoided the focus of hostility, where the disproof
was every man's innocence, where the confirmation was every
man's guilt. " Go speak in the temple to the people all the
words of this life." What must be the fearless confidence, the
sublime assuredness, which dictate such a course ! The stake
and the prejudice of Jerusalem are against the gospel: all
its lore is arrayed to confute, all its power is confederated to
crush, it : there its founder has been executed in shame and
infamy: and the justest right would have been warranted in
asking any other bar than this for its adjudication. But the Truth
of heaven, in seeking no favour, shrunk from no disadvantage :
and a monumental proof of the certainty and power of that truth
is found in such a record as this: "And the word of God
increased ; . and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jeru
salem greatly ; and a great company of the priests were obedient
to the faith."
- Had Christianity been untrue, — not the religion of God, — not
a great episode in the history of His dispensations, — not the inter-

490

THE CLAIMS OF THE JEWS

preting cause of all, — but an imposture, never would its founder,
or founders, have placed it in any adhesion to Judaism. It
would have been madness in them to have taken a common and
gratuitous part with a system so despised. The Mosaic religion
was, at that time, an enervate and a powerless thing. Its course
was run. Its connection might encumber and impede, but could
not assist. A new class of opinions, occupying an original ground,
boasting an independent authority, might, according to circum
stances, have prevailed. Novelty was the passion of the age.
Every philosopher could create his sect. Now what was the con
duct of Christianity ? It sought no favourable position considered
as to this world. It anchored not itself amidst the grappling holds
of secular success. All its meaning it decyphered out of what
men called a weak superstition. All its truth it rested upon what
men accounted an idle forgery. All its power it derived from
what men regarded an exploded myth. It would stand or fall
with it. There is here the generosity of truth. Nothing is
compromised or evaded. A charge of heavy opprobrium is un
dertaken simply and cheerfully, because it is just. But there
might have been a thousand methods of disavowal. " A cun
ningly devised fable" would have been only hampered and
wrecked by this conjunction. For it was not only unpopular in
itself, — that to which it joined itself was most averse. The Jew
spurned the alliance. He utterly repudiated all sympathy with
it. How stood the case ? Christianity drew itself out of Judaism
as its fulfilment. It could not have claimed a more unattractive
source ! It could not have found a more contemptuous rejection !
Yet it persisted, and never once forsook this select and singular
argument. Such a religion, then, is seen in very purity of motive,
— free from collusion with that which is its fontal idea, — dis
owned by that to which it clings, — not rising up in the ends of
the earth, but inaugurating its outset on the most forbidden and
hostile ground, — "beginning at Jerusalem !"
Passing by other thoughts which might be suggested by this
arrangement, we may enquire : How far does it establish a prin
ciple! Similar phrase is not uncommon in Scripture. When
the terrors of law are threatened, it is said : " of the Jew first,

ON CHRISTIAN COMPASSION, 491
and also of the Gentile." When the rewards of law are promised
it is added : " to the Jew first and also to the Gentile." Now in
this, the order cannot be that of time. Law, such as is the
subject of that argument, is anterior to any distinction of Jew
and Gentile. But the Law of the one was far clearer and more
fixed than that of the other. It followed, that the threatenings
and the rewards must agree to the measure of accountability.
Instead of reading then, — -first, we should recommend the substi
tution of the word chiefly or principally, — to the Jew chiefly,
but not to the exclusion of all besides. But this reading cannot
be justified when the language is applied to the gospel: "it is
the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth, to
tbe Jew first, and also to the Greek." For it is fact, that it was
to the Jew first, first in time,— but it is not fact, that it was to
the Jew first, in any preeminence : " Seeing it is one God which
shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision
through faith." We may thus mark it simply as a sequence, and
then reason out our duty by it. Christ's ministry was not a
dispensation to the Gentiles. " He was not sent save to the lost
sheep of the house of Israel." " Let the children first be filled."
" It is not meet to take the children's bread and cast it unto
dogs." Yet was there no scorn in these words, he allowed them
to be withstood, he gave them as helps to faith and entreaties to
importunity, he pointed them not to wound but to awaken the
remonstrances and pleadings of the broken heart. Whom did he
of the banished ones reject or spurn ? " Galilee of the Gentiles"
contained his home and impressed his name ! Upon this under
standing the apostles proceeded. While their Master was with
them, his injunction had been, Go not into the way of the Gen
tiles. His commission to them, when he left them, was of the
amplest wording. It might not only be interpreted in favour of
the freest principles: it could admit of none other application.
What could be wider than " all the world ?" What could be
more comprehensive than " every creature ?" But their minds
were not as large and generous as their instructions. Deep-
seated prejudices were to be loosened. Narrow conceptions must
be enlarged. The manner, however, in which they declared their

492 THE CLAIMS OF THE JEWS
message showed that it was, even in their esteem, only an initia
tive. They saw that it was but a starting-point. <{ Unto you
first, God having raised up (or anointed) his Son Jesus, sent him
to bless you in turning away every one of you from his iniquities."
When they entered the cities and countries of Pagan idolatry,
they always repaired, if Jews were dwelling in them, to the syna
gogue. Their opening visit was to this people. They persuaded
out of the Scriptures, common to both parties, that Jesus of
Nazareth must needs be Christ. The principle then couched in
this fact, so far as it is elicited for our guidance, seems not
to be that we must uniformly attempt the salvation of the Jew
before that of the Gentile. Because such a principle would
abandon home and kindred and country for the sake of what is
often a distant and scattered nation : the very inversion of the
Apostolic feeling which was love as patriotism to Palestine, and
love as fellow-citizenship with the Jew. But when we stand among
the Gentiles, labouring for their Christian conversion, — as it might
be with our missionaries in the Indies, — the Jew may still be
found, then this principle throws a kindly sympathy around him,
points him out as no secondary object of prayer and teaching,
and commends the strong appeal to his sacred writings as the
essential advantage of the controversy and the main hope of the
success. But this we know, that there is dispersed among the Gentiles
" this ancient people," " even the people of the God of Abraham."
Thousands dwell among us, known, accessible, denizens of our
land, partners in our merchandise, yet governed by laws diverse
from all other people, insulated from the passions and interests
of the communities amidst whom they are cast, not reckoned
among the nations. We implore pity towards them. " Is it
nothing to you, all ye that pass by ? behold and see if there be
any sorrow like unto their sorrow." " Their sighs are many and
their heart is faint." Plagues and curses are upon them for a
sign and for a wonder. Jerusalem is in bondage with her chil
dren. She sitteth beneath her withered palm-tree, mourning and
desolate. Ashes are on her head. She is clothed in sackcloth.
She is mocked and jeered. None eye pities. No hand relieves.

ON, CHRISTIAN COMPASSION. 493
No voice soothes. Memory is busy. Hope has fled. She has
not learned to raise her eye to heaven, — it bends pensively and
despairingly upon the ground. Her former griefs are renewed.
She trembleth as a bird out of Egypt and as a dove out of the
land of Assyria. Only bitterness is wrung out for her. Yet
God, when the heathen were the sword of his judgment against
this people, "made them to be pitied of all those that carried
'them captives." And shall our bosoms be untouched and unmoved
when the wrongs of ages not only upbraid us, but when blood-
guiltiness, such as that which only can cry to heaven from the
dying soul, loudly accuses us ? But pity cannot suffice. We
owe not only reparation of past neglect and grievance. They
stand in a foremost place. They demand a primary consideration.
And upon this aspect of their case, if not the paramount claim
still the peculiar urgency of their case, we now ask your atten
tive thought and your keenest commiseration. " Beginning at
Jerusalem." 1. This would have been the natural order of ozconomy and
conversion. There is a respect paid to every stage and method of Divine
revelation. It is not dishonoured when it has ceased. There is
parting tribute. It is laid aside with care. Timely warning is
given of its expected end. It waxeth old and is ready to vanish
away. So earlier dispensations were gradually absorbed in Juda
ism. Let us look a little more closely into " the Jews' religion."
" The form of knowledge and of the truth was in the law." In
it are to be discerned " the principles, or rudiments, of the doc
trine of Christ." It is typic and predictive. " But I say, did
not Israel know ?" It made nothing perfect. It encouraged sus
pense and hope. It was a schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ.
The whole dispensation was designed in reference to this. Not
the moral law, viewed apart, but the entire oeconomy was that
schoolmaster, or paedagogue, not he that taught, but he who
led the children that they might be taught. The mere decalogue
never led to Christ, it can have no such tendency, it knows not
of him,— its simple demands are obedience or death. Our guilty
impressions of it never lead to Christ, but drive us far away.

494 THE CLAIMS OF THE JEWS
But the shadows and prophecies do thus conduct us. "The
body is Christ." " The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of pro
phecy." These anticipations are, therefore, called " the beggarly
elements." The allusion is to the outcry of the mendicant.
" The poor useth entreaties." All those " elements" petitioned
loudly and earnestly for completion. Judaism was incipient,
and partially developed, Christianity. Formal, oeconomic, Chris
tianity is its elaboration and climax. Now there was every pro
vision in " our gospel" to honour its preceding dispensation. It
sought not its downfall nor disgrace. It meditated but its tri
umph in its fulfilment. It sought for itself nothing but outbirth
from it. It would be the solution of its enigma, the doctrine of
its allusion, the filling up of its outline. The Jews ought to
have hailed it. They were the natural branches, and all would
have grown fruitfully upon them. They were the appointed
builders, and had they not refused the stone, what would have
been the symmetry of the architecture ! The less would have
been blessed of the greater. The one would have merged and
melted into the other. " Out of Zion would have gone forth the
law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem." The life-giving
waters would have issued from the threshold of the Temple.
And so we still regard it. The Jew ought to have no contest
with us. He was in Christ before us. We need his conversion
for the conversion of the world. He stops short of every best
conclusion. The key is in his hand, but he will not apply it to
the wards. The gospel was preached to him of old, but it is
buried in the ceremonies which are done away. Oh what a force
will our faith acquire when they who were earliest pledged and
baptised unto it, shall have embraced it as their own, shall have
put on the Lord Jesus ! " Men of Israel, help!" Ye now help
by a passive separation, — prophecy is accomplished in your
estrangement from all, estrangement more perfect than cities
walled to heaven could secure, — " Lo this people shall dwell
alone !" Help us by your suffrage that Messiah has come !
" Let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made
this same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ!"
What a stumbling-block will then be taken away ! What a

ON CHRISTIAN COMPASSION. 495
consolidated church shall be made visible ( It shall be as the
bringing back of the Ark to our camp !
But the claims of this people may be urged on account,
2. Of their illustrious heraldry and history.
Trodden as the mire and cheapened as the dust, we read not
the annals of these later ages and of these western nations to find
the origin of this oppressed race. We boast our antiquity. We
challenge our ancestral fame. And what is the European family?
What is its high kindred ? What is its proud descent ? A
drift of forgotten outcasts, — a settling down of hordes to which
no name of immigrant, no plan of colonisation, can be attached.
Restless ambition, insatiate cupidity, wild adventure, — vile as
are these motives, — did not root them up and send them forth
from their fastness or their marsh. They were dissocialised
masses, — a scum, — the riddance of overcloyed lands, — roving
murderers and marauders, — wherever they lighted, it was as the
devouring swarm, — wherever they moved, it was as the desolating
torrent. Civilisation, law, art, perished before their irruptions.
And what is our heraldry? That we have sprung from some
earlier invader, some spoiler who first taught pillage, some leader
of these barbarians, some chief of these robber bands ! Is this
our yore ? our chivalry ? our lineage ? our blood ? Now think of
"the nation scattered and peeled." What founder may they cite?
"The righteous man of the east," whom God "called to his foot,"
" giving the nations before him," — the impersonation of faith, —
the depositary of covenant, — the awful sacrificer, — patriarch of
the patriarchs, father of the fathers, — the heir of the world, — his
blood, the stream of Abrahamic blood, warms the heart and beats
in the pulse of that dark-eyed child, or this woe-bent menial !
The Jew can show an escocheon, a shield, of every glorious device.
What deeds are not in his records ? What memorials are not in
his archives? His urn is full of mighty names. He can draw forth
the scroll of heroes, kings, lawgivers, prophets, righteous men.
His is a sanctology like a vial full of odours. It is a diadem in
which Jehovah has set his jewels. " Moses and Aaron among his
priests, and Samuel among them that call upon his name." But
the entail of this renowned genealogy brightens it into its fullest

496 1HE CLAIMS OF THE JEWS
glory. " Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the
flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever." Abra
ham's seed ! David's son ! a pedigree to be traced in its forty-
two lineal generations, carrying us by a lowly path until in the
stable-cave and on its lair we find him who is born king of the
Jews ! Think now of that people from whom this mysterious
extraction rose. He will still be known by their association.
He is the rod from the stem of Jesse ! He is the lion of the
tribe of Judah ! Behold them a byeword among the heathen.
Behold them, in lands called Christian, slowly and insecurely
obtaining the most common rights. Who courts their alliance ?
Who seeks their intermixture? And yet were it only the churl
ish reverse of fortune that they endure, our heart might soften
towards them. Who would not bewail a nation's wreck? still
more, a nation's exile? From what an unrivalled height have
they fallen ! Of what incomparable trophies have they been
stripped ! Surely that faded greatness, that shorn magnificence,
cannot be contemplated without appealing to our sensibility, and
almost tempting us to enquire, " Lord wilt thou at this time
restore again the kingdom to Israel ?" "As concerning the gospel
they are enemies for your sakes : but as touching the election,
they are beloved for the fathers' sakes."
3. Our obligations to this people should prompt us earnestly
to promote their true welfare.
As their highest privilege consisted in possessing the oracles
of God, as their holy men spake as they were moved by the Holy
Ghost, so must the testimony be borne to them that their stew
ardship and custody have been most faithful. " The pen of the
ready writer" was scrupulously restrained and solemnly guided :
the scribe attained an accuracy which a life's study alone could
impart. When we read other narratives and poems, vainly pre
ferring the most distant title to the Mosaic epoch, how obvious is
the fable and how incoherent is the dream ! When we read other
professedly sacred books, we mark a littleness foreign to truth,
unworthy of benevolence : we see them self-condemned by the
want of all reason, by the absence of all proof. But the Hebrew
hagiographs could only have been written at their allotted periods :

ON CHRISTIAN COMPASSION. 497
they transmit one chain of connected characters and events : they
are informed by one mind : they are devoted to one purpose : by
collation and rescensus they were never, as a whole volume, more
perfect than they are now. The registrars of old weighed the
jot and tittle : in modern ages the most precious Manuscripts
have been discovered among their descendants, with which they
would not part for gold, but which were often wrested from them
by violence. Every critic must be struck with the fact, that the
Hebrew Scriptures are so correct, that they present such a com
paratively small variety of lections, — while the text of the Greek
Septuagint is so seriously unsettled that it is impossible to give
it a fixed authenticity or to place in it more than a general con
fidence. And who are they that have thus preserved inviolate
the word of God ? Who have been the keepers of this precious
record ? Who boldly discriminated between it and the apocryphal
forgeries when these might have elated by their tales of Asmonaean
exploit and by their maxims of moral wisdom ? Who separated
between the written and the oral, when tradition held sway among
the straitest sects? "Ye search the scriptures," said our Lord
to his countrymen : they have even exercised a sleepless guardian
ship over them : and " their debtors we are." When we remem
ber that " we are partakers of their spiritual things," — when we
specially recall this greatest of all trusts, — we shall not wonder
at the command, " Beginning at Jerusalem."
" Salvation is of the Jews." Who were the Priests to whom
it "was revealed that not unto themselves but to us they minis
tered," when they gave attendance at the altar, slaying the victim
and kindling the incense ? Who were the Seers on whose eye fell
the visions of good things to come, who prophesied beforehand
the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow ? Who
were the Apostles, those magistrates of the church and represen
tatives of its Head, whose conduct was precept and whose exam
ple was law ? Were they not of this despised stock ? Who was
Messiah, Lord of glory, everlasting Son of the Father, when he
came into the world, when he was made flesh, when he taberna
cled among us ? " He took on him the seed of Abraham ;" " he
was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to

498

THE CLAIMS OF THE JEWS

confirm the promises made unto the fathers;" it was from his
national visage that the proud Roman contumeliously drew back,
— « Am I a Jew ?"
4. The Divine interpositions in favour of this people will
justify this early regard towards them.
Though God did not set his love upon them because they
were more in number than any people, though their stiff-necked-
ness and even idolatry often provoked him to anger, yet he loved
the people, and scarcely is there miracle on record but which was
wrought on their behalf. For them he rends the heavens, now
hurling bolts at their enemies, then dropping manna for their
food. The stricken rock becomes the river-head whose stream
flows along their desert-track. For them river and sea divide,
and sun and moon stand still. Towered and fenced cities fall flat
that they may enter in. Their martyrs quench the violence of fire,
and stop the mouths of lions. Hostile hearts are bent to take
their side. Artaxerxes is their almoner, Ahasuerus their deli
verer, and Cyrus their restorer. Often their extermination seemed
inevitable. No help could arise. Yet was there deliverance. A
hidden vitality broke forth where all seemed dead. The bush,
which had burned so long, was yet unconsumed. — What prophets
were sent to them with burdens of awful import ! From these
messages what impressions spread around ! The Hope of Israel
became the Desire of all nations ! The inspired bard was an
swered from distant and meaner strings ! The heaven -lighted
altar diffused a far-reflected radiance ! " He had not dealt so
with any people !" — What scenes does their memory recall ! The
field of Zoan ! "That ancient river, the river Kishon !" The
camp of Midian ! The waters of Megiddo ! The palace of
Shushan ! The strands of Chebar ! And how were these inter
positions surpassed by the miracles of Immanuel through the
breadth of his own land ! There he cried to the cities of Judah,
Behold your God ! He healed all manner of disease. He gave
sight to the blind, wholeness to the maimed, life to the dead.
" If I do not (this was his probate) the works of my Father,
believe me not." — Towards this nation can our respect be too
profound, can our compassion be too tender, to whom heaven

ON CHRISTIAN COMPASSION. 499
and earth bore witness, in answer to whose claim the deep uttered
its voice and lifted up its hands on high, on behalf of whose
interests the stars fought in their courses ?
5. The qualities of the Hebrew mind' establish a title to
our admiration which is favourable to the religious claims of
this people.
There is no intellectual genus with which the true sublimity
so congenially combines. We may say, that this is the character
istic force of the language ; but can a language be great when they
who employ it are little ? We may say, that the psalmists and
prophets were of an order distinct from the many ; but they thus
addressed the many, sympathetically and convincingly, and must
have struck a chord in unison and raised them to their pitch.
It may be said, that direct and organic inspiration (the only
philosophical idea of inspiration) destroys the necessity of sup
posing the high condition of the inspired mind : but then it is
the mind inspired, its conceptions and its mediums supernaturally
informed, the mind receiving and adopting and appropriating the
divine suggestion, speaking the words which the Holy Ghost
teacheth, and therefore the just and intelligent words. And
when we take the most rapid survey of the poetry found in the
Old Testament scriptures, its drama, its ode, its prophetic chants,
this lofty style well-nigh overwhelms us. It is stupendous. It
is terrific. It swells to heaven. It inhabits the highest. What
descriptions of Deity ! What pictures of Nature ! What unco-
verings of Sheol! — Nor is the sense of beauty and tenderness
wanting in this national temperament. What exquisite strains
breathe out the inward heart ! How sweet is the pastoral reed !
It is in tune with the still waters gliding through the green pas
tures ! There are the lays of true delight ! There are the songs of
chastest love ! There are the elegies of severest woe ! — But as we
search into that mind, there are thoughts and discoveries reflected
upon us, which tell of virtue as well as of intellection. How noble
was their patriotism, giving its proofs in the anthems of con
quest and in the sighs of captivity ; impressing its examples
in a Joseph, a Nehemiah, a Zerubbabel ! How simply is their
domestic life delineated as their characteristic feature, while we

500 THE CLAIMS OF THE JEWS
look into the household with its vows and instructions and ame
nities and joys ! Where is female loveliness so admirably pour
trayed? "The son of thy hand-maiden," — the innocence of
Rebekah, the sweetness of Rachel, the humility of Hannah, the
devotion of Esther to her people, the simple piety of Mary,
the homestead kindness of Martha, the venerable example of
Lois, the maternal fidelity of Eunice ? But there is Motherhood
all alone, — it is ratified from the Cross ! These are individual
ities, the offspring of nature, the images of truth ! We seem to
look into the very dwellings of Jacob ! — And is all past ? But
then it is still a mighty past. It is not a vague antiquity. That
j urisprudence still rules every civilised people. That chronology
still guides every authentic calendar. That history still illus
trates every credible record. The psalmody echoes in every
Christian church. The prediction stretches forth to every glori
ous future. And thus we are reminded of the prophets : Isaiah
with his mystic imagery, Ezekiel with his vehement terror, Na-
hum with his tempestuous rebuke ! — The claims of such a mind
are not small, though it should not be found in the living gene
ration. If it be only that of forefathers, still we cannot overlook
the children. Who does not sympathise with the modern Greek
when we think of Hellas, and its classic shore and its wondrous
language and its freedom-loving race ? Yet is he degenerate,
and degenerate is his tongue. You speak thus of the Jewish
character. Remember at least the arrears due to it, long and
great, when that character was unfallen. But when did a people
number so many scholars in their own literature as this can
boast ? They will not corrupt their speech : they treat it as
sacred and forbear its common use. As a speech it is lost : but
it might have been retained adulterated and impure. They
themselves may be degraded. But who has cast them down ?
Speak to them of nation, of ancestry, of land ! Do you see the
slave ? Do you appeal to abjects ? " They are the children of
the prophets." Judah's eye lights up ;' it may be quenched in
tears ! They have not all passed away who kindle with historic
recollections, nor all who weep when they remember Zion ! An
cient organisms will reappear. Hair and complexion and contour

ON CHRISTIAN COMPASSION. 501
revisit and indicate very ancient lines. This may be seen in
" the mingled people."* The spirit is, however, lost. The cha
racter is gone. But the Jewish lineament not only still marks
the descendant of that people, but the mind is expressed by it.
There is the mould for the precious son of Zion. There is the
outbreathing spirit which Moses might have chastened into meek
ness or Saul have roused to battle !
6. The desolate and oppressed condition of this people en
forces the undeferred consideration of their moral case.
Where is there a nation that has no vernacular ? Israel speaks
every dialect of the strangers among whom he dwells. Where
is there a nation that has no government ? Israel is subjected to
the different rule of all the lands whither he is dispersed. Where
is there a nation that has no country ? Israel has for seven
teen centuries been driven from his pleasant land, and has never
obtained one since. Flying tribes find some resting-place. Fell,
forest, wilderness, make room for every fugitive. There is shel
ter for every rout. But where is place for the sole of this
wanderer's foot? What climate cherishes him? — Exiles often
enter countries which give them settlement, they are soon natu
ralised, they share all the privileges which the original inhabi
tants possess. But where is the asylum to which this sufferer
may flee ? Where is the intercommunity which will welcome
him ? — He would be faithful to his ideas of religion and wor
ship. But here is his most heart-breaking deprivation. He
has no priesthood. He has no place of sacrifice. He has no
oblation. He. has no temple towards which to pray. " Many
days has he abided not only without a king and without a prince,
but without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an
ephod, and without teraphim." No recital could declare a thou
sandth part of the cruel wrongs which have been heaped upon
this race. They have been given for a spoil and to the rob
bers. They have been a byeword among the heathen, who could
know no religious cause for their contempt. Cruelties the most
diabolical have been wreaked upon them. Upon them the last
oppression has fallen, the vindictive oppression of them who
• Jer. xxv. 20. ; Ezek. xxx. 5.

502 THE CLAIMS OF THE JEWS
were oppressed themselves. All other victims have made them
their victims. Theirs have been the dregs of every bitter cup.
They have been spurned by the spurned, they have been robbed
by the robbed, they have been enslaved by the enslaved, they
have been down-trodden by the down-trodden. " They have
been taken away for nought." Their feasts have returned, but
it was the bread of tears. They kept them with a fainting heart.
They are minished and brought low. Where is their multitude,
like the stars of heaven ? like the sands of the sea-shore innu
merable? It is a remnant, tossed to and fro. They have no
present, — theirs is only future and past. That which stirs the
manhood of all besides, is to them unknown. Political exis
tence, territorial tie, civic emulation, cannot move. Their life
hangs in doubt before them ! Yet have they never been crushed.
None could make a full end of them. The grass has grown
beneath the scythe. And that daughter of Zion which shook her
hand against her enemies and despised them, and laughed them
to scorn, far from the gates where she sate, still defies the fury of
the oppressor and survives the malice of the foe. Did we look
only upon their human fortunes, we might ask, Why are they
preserved? New humiliations await them. When will it be
evening to them, with its interval of rest? When will it be
morning to them, with its beam of promise?
" Tribes of the wandering foot and weary breast,
Where will ye fly away and be at rest ?
The wild dove hath her nest, the fox its cave, —
Mankind their country, — Israel but the grave !"*
7- We may be stimulated to these instant efforts by the place
which this people holds in the pages of prophecy.
We have not forgotten to ask : " Do not interpretations be
long to God ?" We have not ceased to maintain, that our inter
pretations cannot be the rules of conduct. But we must insist
that so large a portion of scripture is the proper subject of
humble study, and that its outlines may be reduced to reasonable
proof, if not to moral certainty. One feature of these writings is
apparent to all, the constant recurrence of Hebrew figure and
" Byron : Hebrew Melodies.

ON CHRISTIAN COMPASSION. 503
allusion, the basis of a uniform symbolism borrowed from the
commonwealth of Israel, the intertexture into a storied tapestry
of all its sacred and national images. What dooms roll like
thunders against Ammon, Edom, Moab, Egypt, Nineveh, Ba
bylon, — but their names would never have been rehearsed save as
the enemies who wasted Jehovah's heritage. Even the concluding
volume of the prophetic library continues the same language and
tenour, — the tribes are sealed, the holy city is measured, and on
the gates of the New Jerusalem are engraved the twelve patri
archal names of the children of Israel. As they without us could
not be made perfect, so without them the brightest glory of the
Gentile church would be dim and feeble. Of the twain there
shall be one. There is perfect parallelism in the visions of each,
and there is a united testimony to the incorporation of both.
But Christianity must be our guide in our prognostications of
Judaism, and not Judaism in our prognostications of Christianity.
A large part of the ancient series was fulfilled before the advent
of Messiah. That which seems to apply to their political state,
and which has not been literally fulfilled, really points, according
to the quotations of the New Testament, to their spiritual con
version. What time has been lost in dreams of an earthly mo
narchy, and in instigating the modern Jew to commit the error
of his progenitor, to take Jesus by force and to make him a
king ! What laborious trifling has been consumed upon the fate
of the ten tribes, as though they had always kept together, as if
multitudes had not at different times returned before the last dis
persion,* as if the remainder were of more miraculous interest than
Judah and Benjamin, as if an Israelite throughout the world
knew at this moment what was his tribual division ! Ezekiel's
temple, if Rabbi Bennet's measurements be correct, was built
hundreds of years before Christ, and in its porch he himself
stood : but if it be still to rise, then the ancient dispensation is to
be reconstructed, sacrifice is once more to be offered, Moses the
servant is to supersede Christ the Son, and " ye are come to the
mount that might be touched !" But let us take the reasonings
of Paul into our view. That " Hebrew of the Hebrews" would
* Ezra vi. 16,

504 THE CLAIMS OF THE JEWS
not lessen his argument nor betray his cause. How he loved his
nation ! How gladly would he have been accursed from Christ,
— crucified after the manner* of Christ, — for his brethren, his
kinsmen, according to the flesh ! But what was his heart's desire
and prayer to God for Israel? That they might recover the
land, which they must so soon vacate, in some far distant age ?
Any of our fond devices of transporting them in ships and on
swift beasts ? " That they might be saved !" We know what
he meant by salvation. What did he contemplate as his own
success ? " If by any means, I might save some of them !"
But now the future, the prophetic future, burst in rapturous
prospect upon him. If it contained the rescue of Canaan, the
repossession of Jerusalem, the restoration of Israel,- — if it involved
the literal exaltation of David's throne and Solomon's temple, —
surely he would not have passed such stirring topics by. But
his whole spirit is concentrated upon better blessings : " And so
all Israel shall be saved." In what does this salvation consist ?
In political deliverence ? Two quotations are cited, " He shall
turn away ungodliness from Jacob." " For this is my covenant
unto them when I shall take away their sins." We have flattered
the Jew in his keen desire to return to his father-land. We have
judaised Christianity in order to conciliate him. We have been
drawn into the strangest inconsistencies by our concession. We
have talked of miracle, when there never can be another miracle
until the last judgment. We have talked of Christian metropolis
and centralisation, when eighteen hundred years since the hour
had come in which men were no more to worship the Father in
Jerusalem. Apostles, though Christ in the scene and circum
stances of his nativity was known after the flesh, was known as
the Jew, — apostles, though they had long felt a patriotic interest
in him as the Jew, — yet henceforth they would know him, in this
relationship, no more. The wall of partition is broken down, — let
us not build it up again. There shall be one fold, — let us not
" Rom. ix. 3. A<r» nu Xfifw. This preposition does not primitively and
necessarily imply, separation, but rather descent and conformity. 2 Tim. i. 3.
For classical authorities, see Scapula. Consult, also, Huntingford's (afterwards
Bishop) Introduction to the Writing of Greek, for Winchester College.

ON CHRISTIAN COMPASSION. 505
separate it by divisions. In the new man there is neither Greek
nor Jew, — let us not revive them. We seek the salvation of this
people, — their spiritual and everlasting salvation, — nothing more
and nothing less.
8. The ready admission of Israel's claim is enhanced by the
spurious Christianity which is almost universally the only form
presented to them.
They have lived in states where the religion of the Crucified
One has been professed. Of that profession it was not difficult
for them to detect the enormous discrepances. They saw it
made a thing of political intrigue, of juggling imposture, of
inane superstition, of cruel rapacity. Let us think of our own
barons, and of their castle-prisons and of their fiery extortions,
wringing from these helpless captives the means of paying royal
fines and martial forays. Let us think of the militia of the
Papal Church in this country, how its knightly and sacerdotal
orders fastened upon these wretched victims as their constant
prey. Let us think of our cities and our towns, with their rich
immunities, brandishing their charters and their keys against
these humble suitors. But in other countries, there stands a
very Institute of persecution, — its eyes, its ears, its familiars, its
terrors, are every where. It is the Inquisition. It is organised
and ever-present oppression. The Jew is its original game.
Covetous as bloody, it seizes upon his wealth as much as on his
defencelessness. He must repair its revenues. He must feed its
fires. And this is the only aspect of the gospel which he ever
beheld ! This is the impression on his mind of the religion
which is full of mercy and easy to be entreated ! Where can he
learn Christianity, if he merely observes its outward forms ? In
Romanistic Countries? It is pomp without typic significance,
and mystery without holy awe. In countries where it is civilly
established ? He sees the ladder of ambition and the exchequer
of opulence in all such christianising pretensions. In countries,
and there his nation abounded, where Racovian Socinianism pre
vailed? There was he taught the only avowed idolatry which
ever passed under the name of our religion, that Christ was man
and that as such he ought to be worshipped. How does the duty

506 THE CLAIMS of the jews
lie upon us to make known to them, — who have been abused by
every Christian apostacy, corruption, and error, — the true sim
plicity which is in Christ, " the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Lord of glory."
9. We may be encited to the eager discharge of our duty
towards this people by a sense of obligation and by a desire of
recompense. God, from the time when men began to call upon the name
of the Lord, has had a witnessing people, a visible church. He
has had more : an Israel who were not thus honoured simply
because they were of Israel : they were Jews inwardly, circum
cised in heart : a people whom he foreknew, and who could not
be cast away. When the ancient visible church renounced its
allegiance to the Messiah, and fell from its privileges, there
was a new one formed, still the true circumcision, all the Israel
of God. There was nothing properly exclusive in Judaism : it
was guardianship and not proscription. But it operated to the
delay of Gentile comprehension. We know not how, had the
Jews believed, we should have been affected. This we do know,
that advantage accrued to us from their unbelief. This we do
know, that disadvantage has befallen them from our acceptance.
" Through their fall salvation has come unto the Gentiles."
" The diminishing of them was the riches of the Gentiles." "The
casting away of them was the reconciling of the world." Yet,
can we think of ourselves without being reminded, that Abraham
was ignorant of us, that we were far off, that we were ready to
perish, that we were carried away unto dumb idols, — when the
tribes went up to Jerusalem, when they kept holyday, when no
strange god was with them, when they walked to the house of
God in company, when they were a people near unto him, when
they sung the songs of Zion ? Israel was holiness unto the Lord.
Ephraim was his first-born. The natural olive tree waved with
its own branches. — What a reverse ! We are made nigh. We
sit at the feast to which they were first bidden. We have suc
ceeded them in the adoption. And while we enjoy their forfeited
inheritance, let us remember that it will not be diminished by
their restoration to it. The feast is still spread for them, and

ON CHRISTIAN COMPASSION. 507
they are invited guests. Oh that the salvation of Israel were
come out of Zion ! What will be their fulness ! What will be
the receiving of them but life from the dead ! Great shall be the
day of Jezreel ! The way shall be prepared for the kings of the
east ! Their conversion, shadowed by their return from exile,
shall be most gloriously distinct and convincing, winning them
back to that Jerusalem which is the mother of us all !
10. The duty enjoined upon us, and which supposes the
most ready promptitude, receives no mean enforcement by the
consideration of the moral responsibility of this people.
Half of revelation is in their hands : generally, they have
access to the whole. They are, in a very extensive sense, placed
under the Christian dispensation. This they may be sure of,
that the kingdom of God has come nigh unto them. Ingenious
theories have been suggested and argued on behalf of their reli
gious safety. They possess, it is said, the former Scriptures of
truth : by these the saints of old were enlightened, renewed, and
saved. Why may not these ends be still attained ? The answer
- is obvious. Their virtue was in their reference. They testified
of Christ. There is but one. He hath appeared. As they are
considered by us, they are fulfilled. " The things concerning
Him had an end." But our Jewish opponents, look for another.
They scorn the Nazarene. They rest upon an abuse, a hopeless
application, of their Scriptures. Thus our Lord upbraided them.
He forewarned them, if they did not believe on him, that they
should die in their sins. He declared that they had no cloak for
their sin. His words were most emphatic. Temporal and eternal
judgments did he denounce against his generation. In the same
manner did the apostles speak : " Lest that should come upon
you which is spoken in the prophets: Behold ye despisers and
wonder and perish." It is in the epistle to the Hebrews that
we read the solemn remonstrance : " How shall we escape if we
neglect so great salvation, which at the first began to be spo
ken by the Lord ?" It is written, " All Israel shall be saved,"
but it is spoken of their conversion, and is coupled with the salva
tion of the Gentiles on their faith, to which event it is postponed :
"until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in." In the mean

508 THE CLAIMS OF THE JEWS
while, every man who hears the gospel to reject it, whether of
the circumcision or the uncircumcision, is " condemned already,"
and "the wrath of God abideth on him." The Israelite must
fill his mind with all his terrible associations of Hinnom, Tophet,
and Gehenna, — and then think of " the everlasting fire" into
which the disbeliever, whatever his nation, shall be cast. Do
we believe it ? The Jew is within our gates. Let us testify to
him. Shall he perish unwarned ?
11. The facilities, which we possess for the conversion of
this people, ought to make us forward in the attempt.
It cannot be concealed that a contrary impression exists. It
cannot be denied that the influence of this impression is most fatal
to efforts such as we commend. There is a general incredulity.
The hope of success is decried as illusory. But this is preju
dice as baseless as it is injurious. The question is one of moral
means. With the dispositions of men we have no responsible
concern. We must speak whether they will hear or whether they
will forbear. Upon a very simple view we may rest our case.
Controversy is interminable except there be some common ground.
Now between us and the Jew there is much in agreement. No
state of mind can alter that fact. Our respective premisses are
the same. The only question between us is that proposed of old :
" Art thou He that should come, or look we for another ?" By
them it is denied : by us it is affirmed. We both coincide in the
matter and test of reference. The Pagan mind is, on the other
hand, destitute of almost every conviction to which we can appeal.
It is a chaos, " without form and void." We can hang scarcely
an analogy on the system which it adopts. It is an utter opposi
tion to all our views and principles. We must begin every thing.
We can call little to our aid. And this we find a serious diffi
culty. It is only varied at every access to the heathen world. Oh
could the Missionary be allowed to open his Bible, and to read
the thicker half to those who believed Moses and the prophets !
How could he apply the other ! And there is, however we be
baffled, a facility in the means and provisions for the gathering
of Israel to Christ. " For if thou wert cut out of the olive-tree,
which is wild by nature, and wert graffed contrary to nature into

ON CHRISTIAN COMPASSION. 509
a good olive tree ; how much more shall these, which be the
natural branches, be graffed into their own olive tree ?"
12. This people may prefer a ready title to our regard, by
the position in which they stand towards us.
They are a spiritual kindred. "We have Abraham to our
father." We call "ourselves by the name of Jacob, and sur
name ourselves by the name of Israel." " The promise is to all
them that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall
call." "All things are ours, whether Paul, or Apollos, or
Cephas." This nation may disclaim us and spurn us : but still
we take hold of the skirt of the Jew. And we remember that
they are left under our very charge. They are committed to us.
Let us be gentle in our efforts to convince. " Unto the Jews let
us become as a Jew, that we may gain the Jews." We find them
by the wayside, wounded and half-dead. Let us bind up their
wounds, pouring in oil and wine. If they see not their friend
in the Christian, who will pity them ? Their unbelief is the
stirring sight and the loud cry at which our hearts are bid to
bleed and our efforts to abound : " For as ye in times past have
not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their
unbelief : even so have these also now not believed, that through
your mercy they also may obtain mercy."
13. The effort we make on behalf of this people may well be
eager when the judgments, under which they suffer, more than
threaten ourselves.
Their Church-state is taken away. Their high relationship
is dissolved. Yet has there, in every age, been saved from among
them a " remnant according to the election of grace." And what
is Christendom ? What are its principal Churches ? Are they
not apostate and idolatrous and worldlike ? Yet is there a holy
seed rising in them, but as constantly going forth from them.
Yet were these churches once comparatively pure, — they boasted
their saints and martyrs. But a secret and insidious corruption
entered and pervaded them. They, like the Jewish Church, are,
in their turn, cast off. So shall every other be, great or small,
that assimilates to them. There is, at this moment, far more
rejected, than approved, Christianity in the world : there are far

510 THE CLAIMS OF THE JEWS
more fallen, than standing, churches. Let us not be high-minded
but fear. We bear not the root, but the root beareth us. Amidst
this declination and eclipse of communities once bright and fair,
we tremble for ourselves. We see exactly the same j udicial pro
cess dealing with Christendom as with Jewry, with the golden
candlestick of John as with that of Zechariah. Let our sympathy
be awakened, — and while we behold the vineyard of the Well-
Beloved, the hedge thereof taken away, and the wall thereof
broken down, — not pruned nor digged, — no cloud distilling rain
upon it, — may we take heed, and stand in awe of the same
desolations ! Let us pity them whose present state may soon be
our own !
14. The character of the Jewish convert has frequently
evinced an earnestness which furnishes good promise of his mis
sionary devotion.
The history of this nation speaks of determinateness. What
has been their liberality in rearing their tabernacle and temple !
What has been their steadfast addiction to the traditions of their
forefathers ! How firm has been their courage ! How undi
verted has been their aim ! How in each hand have been the
trowel and the spear ! How did they hold Jerusalem against all
but heaven ! We have tried the character in the Apostles of the
Lamb ! " The Lord gave the word ; great was the company of
those that published it." Multiply the convertite of Tarsus,
though only in his spirit, and in him we see the type of that
instrumentality which shall christianise the world ! To '•' begin"
with this people will be our highest wisdom, would we that " the
word of the Lord should have free course and be glorified."
The objections which are commonly raised to our attempts in
this matter command greater influence than they can boast argu
mentative weight : we are bound to meet them though we may
not respect them. The spirit of delay is generally despicable:
it is the spirit of evasion and self-sparing : "the time is not come,
the time that the Lord's house should be builded."
— It is supposed that there is a fatal bar to the conversion of
the Jews, because of their j udicial blindness. The supposed fact
rests upon an averment which ill supports it : " Blindness in part

ON CHRISTIAN COMPASSION. 511
is happened to Israel." Now this we are told " lest we be wise
in our own conceits." It is not, therefore, adduced that we may
think more favourably of ourselves than of them. The blindness
is " in part," — it is not universal. " The election hath obtained
that which it seeketh after, and the rest were blinded." There
is, then, room for effort. " It is happened," not as a chance, — but,
such is the meaning, through the force of circumstances. The
position in which they have placed themselves has engendered the
darkness. This is sufficient to account for it. There is wanted
no other explanation. " The vail is upon their heart." But long
before their rejection of Messiah, even in the days of Moses,
"their minds were blinded." In the time of Paul that vail "re
mained the same." Of what did it consist ? Misapprehension
of the true state of the case: "it was until that day untaken
away in the reading of the Old Testament." But it was a mis
apprehension which might be corrected : " which vail is done
away in Christ." The belief of Christ made all plain and clear.
And yet there are those who seem to think that the Jew is smit
ten by the ban of heaven with this blindness, the eye-balls of his
spirit seared, that a very shroud is let down by the hand of God
to cloke his heart. This is a theory which has been received
without distrust or examination. But it has not stance nor stay
in truth. It is unreasonable. The fact is the same as to all.
" The vail of the covering is on the face of all nations :" preju
dice, tradition, wickedness, idolatry, are the threads of which it
is woven, — the Jewish vail, from the warp of a more bigoted
nationalism and a more unrelenting enmity, is of thicker folds.
— The malediction which was self-denounced by this people
is supposed to render their conversion peculiarly difficult, to
almost an impossibility. They cried, " His blood be upon us and
upon our children !" Were they ever upbraided with this impre
cation ? They remembered it, — " And now ye would bring this
man's blood upon us," — but did the apostles ever charge it upon
them as their reason of exclusion from its pardon and its peace ?
They, in calling upon them to believe and repent, accuse them
of the murder, — " Ye with wicked hands have crucified and
slain," but that is all. If national participation in that deed be

512 THE CLAIMS OF THE JEWS
inexpiable, then this is our doom. " For of a truth against thy
holy Son Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pon-
tious Pilate with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel were
gathered together." This allegation is, therefore, inadmissible.
" They shall look on Him whom they have pierced and mourn."
" There is no difference between the Jew and the Greek : for the
same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him."
— To speak of some incapacity in the Jewish mind for conver
sion, is to beg the question. We know facts, strong and irre
fragable, in disproof. But the Scripture is explicit against such
an idea. " Nevertheless, when it," that is, the heart, " shall
turn unto the Lord, the vail shall be taken away." " And they
also, if they abide not in unbelief, shall be graffed in, for God is
able to graft them in again." What are these but the ordinary
conditions of. acceptance ?
— It is not denied that there was an abandonment, a casting
away, of this people for a time, — they were given up to their
own delusions, — "Make their heart gross, make their ears heavy,
and shut their eyes," — but we can compute the exact limitation.
It began, long after the ascension of Christ, when the Jew per
sisted in denying Christ and forbade that he should be preached
to the Gentile. This was the filling up of their sin, *and the
wrath came upon them to the uttermost. When did it end?
" Then said I, Lord how long ? And he answered, Until the
cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the land be utterly deso
late." That is, — the abandonment, the casting away, ceased at
the moment of their dispersion !
— Least of all are we called upon to carry out any predicted
judgment. God can control all instrumentality, but he cannot
alter the rules of Moral Agency. Assyria may be his rod. The
wicked may be his sword. But they are not less responsible.
Their very willingness was their crime. " I am very sore dis
pleased with the heathen that are at ease : for I was but a little
displeased and they helped forward the affliction." " And the
nation to whom they shall be in bondage, will I judge, said
God." " But thou shouldest not have looked on the day of thy
brother in the day that he became a stranger ; neither shouldest

ON CHRISTIAN COMPASSION. 513
thou have rejoiced over the children of Judah in the day of their
destruction ; neither shouldest thou have spoken proudly in the
day of distress. Thou shouldest not have entered into the gate
of my people in the day of their calamity ; yea, thou shouldest
not have looked on their affliction in the day of their calamity,
nor have laid hands on their substance in the day of their cala
mity." " Because thou hast had a perpetual hatred, and hast
shed the blood of the children of Israel by the force of the sword
in the time of their calamity, in the time that their iniquity had
an end : therefore, as I live, saith the Lord God, I will prepare
thee unto blood, and blood shall pursue thee : sith thou hast not
hated blood, even blood shall pursue thee." "All that found
them have devoured them : and their adversaries said, We offend
not, because they have sinned against the Lord, the habitation of
justice : even the Lord the hope of their fathers." Christians
cannot use such an argument : crusaders and slave-dealers may.
— We cannot refuse to admit, however reluctant, that this
people is in a state of much mental and moral degradation.
When we remember what they were, we mourn their present
degeneracy. Yet we may not always do them justice. They
have their philosophers and critics. The arts find in them patrons
and adepts. The spirit of harmony, which sate on their fathers,
has not deserted them. Their merchants are princes of a sway
that governs kings and impawns kingdoms. We, at least, have
no right of complaint against them. We have spit upon their
gaberdine. We have bowed them to the yoke, and have brought
the wheel over them. Are they hypocritical ? Who are truthful
that are never believed ? Are they avaricious ? What other
power have you left them but that of gold ? Are they dishonest ?
Do you not thus fasten the stigma upon them " even where the
merchants most do congregate ?" Are they ungrateful ? What
is the favour you expect them to requite? Are they servile ? Do
you make the slave, and then rebuke his bending ? Oppression
inflicts every where the same mischief. Do you hope to find
Sobieskis and Kosiuscos among the Poles, cut off from being
a nation ? The Jew only needs to be treated as the man, and he
shall soar to the region of his sires. The charge of sordidness is
L L

514 THE CLAIMS OF THE JEWS
brought against him with an outrage on truth. Who has forfeited
so much for his religion ? Why is he a fugitive on the face of
the earth?
There is no more dire discouragement, in this section of evan
gelic labour, than the duplicity which we experience in the pro
fessed subjects of our success. None, it may be, who have been
most active are ignorant of this failure. It disgusts to loathing :
it dispirits to despair. Something may be said in extenuation.
Jews have been so unaccustomed to all high disinterestedness, it
is to them so utterly new, that the ascription of pure and simple
motive to us seems beyond belief. — They have been so aggrieved,
that gratuitous good -will is unimaginable by them. — Their
poverty is so extreme, that the disposition becomes essentially
mercenary. — A false policy of inducements has often been tried
upon them. — A state of mind has been forced and flattered far
above its real convictions. — Early habits of prevarication are too
common. — A suspicion that proselytism is designed, for sinister
ends, instigates them to wear a mask. — They sometimes have
acted a part, but it was where all was pretence only.
I therefore exult in the enlightened policy of my eountry. I
long to see the Jew on the roll of its freemen. I trust that no
secular right shall be denied him long. Instead of seeing in his
enfranchisement the denial of a truly national Christianity, I
behold, in such measures, its proper influence and assertion. No
kingdom was ever great and prosperous, for any duration, which
wronged this people. "Blessed is he that blesseth thee, and
cursed is he that curseth thee !" " Thine hand shall be lifted up
upon thine adversaries, and all thine enemies shall be cut off!"
How have power and wealth and victory faded and "fallen before
the seed of the Jews !"
Most heartily do I thank God for the establishment of the
Institution* on behalf of which I plead. Until of late, for a long
" " The British Society for the Propagation of the Gospel among the Jews."
This Sermon was preached at its Anniversary, in Orange-Street Chapel, London,
on the 21st of March, 1845. Its publication was earnestly requested by the Com
mittee of that Institution, and the Author thus gratefully complies with their flat
tering vote.

ON CHRISTIAN COMPASSION. 515
interval, we seemed to possess no opportunity for this kind of
benevolence. Heathendom was before us. We were not inactive
there. But we were severed from the Jew at our door. We
could establish no sympathy between him and ourselves. Who
could circumcise his ear to our instructions? Christian fellow
ships furnish us with the principle of evangelising man. This
field demands a distinct occupation. The claim is native and pa
triotic. They, for whom we plead, breathe our air and dwell upon
our soil. In a manner they are our own flesh. They help to sus
tain our commonwealth. They have long released us from obliga
tions of support which we profess to owe, and which we legislate
to pay, to all. Among them we observe no small portion of cheer
ful labour and content. Theirs are not the crimes which convulse
society. The vices of which they are guilty are explained by
their humiliations. If they were the monsters which our Stage
has represented and our Tragedy has described, — the Shy-
lock, the Barabbas,* — the very dramatic provocations supposed,
though not intended as any apologies, might cause us to forego
surprise. What is not desperate at bay ? Crushed to the earth,
what will not turn ? It is surely time that we acknowledged
our fellow-creatureship with him whom we have hitherto regarded
at something less : and invite to our Christian brotherhood him
whom we have hitherto treated as utterly estranged. Have the
fathers of this people scorned us, or have the children inherited
that hate ? We have retaliated beyond any merely earthly right
to remember or resent the wrong. Did they desire our exclu
sion ? Was the elder brother " angry" at the prodigal's return
and festal welcome, and " would he not come in ?" We have
perpetrated a worse injustice, — in the wrong of ages, — without
the excuse of first-born rights !
We cannot favour a geographical Christianity. We are
convinced that it is not a pure and spiritual conception of that
sublime religion. It may be picturesque, imaginative, sentimen
tal, but it loses, in the superaddition of these qualities, its own
simple essence. We are not indifferent, however, to the storied
interest of scenery nor to the associative genius of place. There
• Marlowe's Jew of Malta.

516 THE CLAIMS OF THE JEWS
is nothing in the gospel to contemn or abjure it. There is
poetry in every event, and it lives in the record of it. It gains
illustrations of its charm by all the incidents of locality and con
temporaneousness. We must feel, as we could no where else,
the Woe of Capernaum while standing on the shores of the Sea
of Tiberias, — the Transfiguration, could we climb "the holy
mount," — the Crucifixion, could we look upon the exact spot of
Calvary. But though pilgrimage, that of devout curiosity and
missionary zeal, might go forth most honourably to these theatres
of wondrous action and to these monuments of hallowed antiquity,
it is as destitute of efficacy as it is unnecessary to faith. The
testimony of the truth is our only hold. We might, while that
Country mapped itself out before us, be affected, — our fancy and
our sensibility might stir within us, — we might people many a void
and paint many a vacancy, — we might vivify the past. Still it
would be only an ideal, a vision of the mind, aided by physical
features of hill and plain and lake. It Would not be properly
even sense. At best, it would be merely a mental creation raised
upon a sensible ground. But we do anticipate the happy inhabi
tation of the Holy Land. It shall be covered with a Christian
population. " The Lord shall bring again the captivity of
Jacob's tents, and have mercy on his dwelling-places." That
population shall include Jew and Gentile, — free to both, —
hospitable to all, — but they shall be no more known by such
designations. The churches of Christ in Judea shall bear no
national device or name. Privileged shall they be ! It is not
improbable that many of all nations shall resort thither and join
themselves to a truly Christian race. We know nothing of its
future dynasty or political condition. We do not think that Pro
phecy in such matters affords us any guidance. It is not likely,
however, that such a region should be perpetually deserted of
man. It is not likely that its agricultural riches and mercantile
facilities, its water-courses and its havens, in the pressure of
human society, should be long neglected. It is not likely that
the emigrant should avoid its plains of Esdraelon and its gar
dens of Engedi. It is not likely that its fruitfulness should not
be restored, as erst its valleys waved with corn, its pastures

ON CHRISTIAN COMPASSION. 517
flowed with milk, its rocks exuded with honey, and its hills
melted with wine. It is not likely that it should be always
tributary, without a native government and jurisdiction. It is
not likely that Christians, of the farthest nations, should not
link their preferences to it. And will it be nothing for them
to whom the lines have fallen in these pleasant places, that
here they worship the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, as
beneath patriarchal palms ? That the footprint of the Incarnate
God was upon this soil ? That His shadow, when passing by, fell
upon these streets and fields ? That he stood upon these moun
tains ? That he drank of these wells ? The indigenous olive
pleased his eye. The native vine embowered his head. " He
came unto his own !" Can the remembrance of his visitation
ever be effaced ? Can that land be ever a common land ? O
Zion .' Blessed shall they be who meet upon thy summit, be it
under the lowliest roof, — thy dome never to be lifted up on high
again ! Thy dew, O Hermon ! yet gathers on thy slopes, and
shall continually flow the soft, pure, beautiful emblem of Chris
tian love. Thy balm still bleeds, O Gilead ! and henceforth shall
signify the inward cure of spiritual woe ! Carmel ! look forth
upon the sea, and bid its waves rejoice ! Tabor ! rise toward
heaven, and bear witness to its saints, as once they rested on thy
height ! Lebanon ! Let thy cedars clap their hands ! " Thou
whole Palestina ! " Triumph in thy redemption from thine ancient
desolation, — in the return of them who cannot be strangers in
thee, — in the fulfilment of thine own prophets, — in the observance
of thine own sabbaths, — honoured as the earliest scene of Christi
anity, — thy metropolis again graced with the mother-church of
Christians, — and all they who enter that city blessing it for that
which must ever refer to its beginning at Jerusalem !

SERMON XXI

MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE.

Rom. xv. 23.
"But now having no more place in these parts."
This, my Beloved Friend, is too solemn an hour, — this hour of
parting from home and country, — this hour of adjured record
and vow, — this hour which witnesses the pledges of life and
death, — this hour which suffers the mind to meditate only the
unselfish, — this hour of high and blessed triumph over yearning
and anguish, — this hour of willing sacrifice and cheerful daring,
— it is too solemn an hour, for me to think of any save Yourself.
The part you have taken shames back the apology which was
pressing to my lips. In your presence I can have no pretence of
right to refer to any feelings of mine own. To lose such a friend
is a bitter cost : to give him the right hand of fellowship that he
should go unto the heathen, — to give it him in silence, as has been
already done by his deeply-affected brethren, — to give it him with
a grasp in which a contracting heart is felt that can scarcely quit
its hold, — were an act which Christian fortitude might enable
the fondest affection to perform. But to break the silence ! To
chasten down the inmost emotions ! To rise up, amidst such a
pause, to offer counsel or even encouragement, — this is no small
task. You have laid it upon me. What could I weigh against
your request ?
There are considerations, it is not denied, which lighten the
present duty. You have preferred, my dear brother, that one
* This Discourse was addressed to the Rev. John Sugden, A.B., at his Ordina
tion as Missionary to Bangalore, March 20th, 1845.

missionary enterprise. 519
who has long known you, one whom you have consulted in the
most serious passage of your holy ministry, one who hailed your
missionary purpose from the first, but who advised also the test
and probation of more anxious thought and more patient delay,
— it is your preference which selects me to address you. I thus
relieve your mind by obeying its wish. I know the solicitudes of
a household far away, — what prayers, what tears, what devote-
ments, date themselves to this spectacle, how that kindred behold
in spirit what they could scarcely bear sensibly to behold, — I
represent to you them of whom you must, within a few short
days, take most probably a last farewell, parents in the decline
of life, the group of brothers and sisters, not knowing how to
give you up, but too conscientious to forbid. I come from the
province of which you are a native and from that favoured band
of churches of which you are the child, as their deputy to declare
that your praise is already among them, that they would have
gladly retained you, but through me they greet and cheer you
to your glorious work. There are present, honoured men at
whose feet I should be far happier to sit and listen than to speak
before them, — that great Semitic scholar and critic* whose pre
lections it has been your privilege to receive, — that beloved
man, -J- the pastor of this place, my fellow-student three and
thirty years ago, whose meekness of wisdom, whose ripeness of
piety, whose Oriental erudition and experience, — for he was the
Missionary ! would have eminently qualified him to advise, di
rect, and warn, — others, who by much thought, by official
insight, by sanctified learning, are most apt to teach, — but all in
their candour and in their brotherly-kindness, enforce your choice.
I bow to it. Hear what I offer to your attention only as a
younger brother might attend to the elder-born !
We feel at once that the words of the Text are remark
able words. They lay open no ordinary character. They
express no common mind. They represent that character in a
glorious activity, that mind in its boldest mood. They must
be your study. They point your way.
* The Rev. E. Henderson, D.D.
f The Rev. Henry Townley, Minister of Bishopsgate Chapel.

520 MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE.
There are minds, which, by their order and temperament,
are fitted to lead rather than to follow, to command more than to
obey. They cannot pursue the beaten track, but open out their
own high career. They cannot fill the inferior rank, but soon
achieve preeminence and spring to the front. These break the
dead level, and vary the dull monotony, of human character, —
their influence is felt upon all the great movements of society, —
their deeds fix the public eye, and furnish the materials of history,
— their renown is as a watch-tower, blazing on high and seen
from afar. They are full of energy. Their activity is unappeas
able. Their impulse is sleepless. But how few of these master
spirits are raised to bless mankind ! They are the corrupters of
knowledge, the pests of virtue, the spoilers of peace. Their
march is a trail of blood. They know no love of their species.
They hold their fellows as the valueless counters by which they
play the game of their own ambition. Theirs is an evil greatness.
They are placed aloft as stars, but they are stars of malignant
phase and disastrous omen. Nor can we anticipate for insatiate
qualities like these, unless they become sanctified by true religion,
a benevolent direction. They, ensnare their possessor. They bear
him to giddy heights of power. They surround him with the
intoxicating incense of flattery. They lead to many present dis
tinctions and rewards. Yet have there been, and there are now,
men of fire and might, — fashioned to acquire, and able to seize,
all the meeds which the world honours and presents, — men who
are to be allured by no such charms. Once these were their all.
In their minds there burned no loftier purpose. Suffering was
no sacrifice and daring no effort, if these aims might be fulfilled.
But they have learnt the wretched vanity and hollowness of
prizes such as these. They read the cheat. No more will they
be abused. Henceforth, by patient continuance in well-doing,
they seek for honour, glory, and immortality. They can afford
to let the bubble burst and the garland wither. They would
earn a purer fame. They would pile a more lasting monument.
To reach their true destiny, their path lies amidst derision and
reproach. Notwithstanding, they bear onward. Nothing can
tempt and nothing can appal. They would rather lose their life

MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 521
in advance than save it by a backward step. Christianity deve-
lopes this character. It gives this instinct all its own grandeur.
It provides an exercise and a field for it. It " lifts up and takes
away" such a man "in tbe heat of his spirit." He cannot be
restrained within common limits. He cannot tread a narrow
stage. He demands kingdoms for his confines, and a world for
his range !
That man was Paul. He was entitled to the honours of this
towering dignity, this forcible concentration, of soul. There
was no cold neutrality and inertness in it. It lived, it intensely
lived. It must take a side. Its decision once formed, it must
pursue it. It strengthened with difficulty and grew bold with
jeopardy. We have seen it in all its perversion. Even then
there was no compromise, no hypocrisy, no artifice. He was the
fearless persecutor. He showed how destructive these mental
gifts become in an unholy zelotism, how they rage like brands of
hell ! But when converted to the faith which he had laboured
to destroy, there the whole manhood of the convertite was seen, —
ingenuous, intrepid, heroic. " What things were gain to him,"
and how eager had been his quest ! — " them he counted loss for
Christ," and how uncomplaining was his abandonment ! He
holds in his bosom no divided thought. Each feeling is absorbed,
but only into one still more strong and deep than all. He turns
neither to the right hand nor to the left. Christian and Apostle,
Confessor and Martyr, life and death, are only so many forms
and expressions of his one governing principle, of his great heart.
Nevertheless there is nothing of imperiousness, of rude command,
of haughty mien. He is gentle as the nurse. He speaks as to
his children. To what low estate will he not stoop ? _ What
condescending office will he not undertake ? He seeks not domi
nion. Yet he was ambitious, ambitious of labour and sacrifice.
This is the cry of his spirit in the Text : " Having no more
"place in these parts." It is the shout of onset. It is the gauntlet
of defiance. He will not rest. He cannot stay. He would en
counter new foes. He would win distant fields. Past success,
present honour, do not satisfy. Were we to read such words in
forgetfulness of his high mood and bent of mind, we could not

522 MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE.
understand them. " Place," large and auspicious, was within
his reach. From the allusions in this Epistle, — to say nothing
of its epigraph, — there can be no doubt that it was written in
Corinth. His first call to preach there was accompanied with the
assurance of his Lord, " I have much people in this city." He
wanted not hospitality, for he found a Gaius, — he wanted not
distinguished proselyte, for he convinced Crispus, the chief ruler
of the synagogue, — he wanted not municipal patronage, for he
was sustained byErastus, the chamberlain of the city, — he wanted
not friendship, for he abode with Aquila and Priscilla, — he
wanted not trophies of extended usefulness, for many of the
Corinthians hearing, believed and were baptised, — he wanted not
earnests of future and far-reaching success, for he beheld in Ste
phanas the first fruits of Achaia. The city presented a sphere of
work congenial to his mind. There was multitudinous man,
there was civic man, there was intelligent man. Society was in
action. Thought was astir. Standing on the isthmus which
binds the Peloponnesus with the main land of Greece, — an empo
rium of the most wealthy commerce, the storehouse of the most
refined art, with its port of Cenchrea among whose maritime
inhabitants Christianity had spread and a Christian church had
arisen, — What could he require more? Here was population
enough, mind enough, facility enough. " Place" was this also,
could he indulge the thought, for ease; and did not his toils
deserve repose? " Place" was this for honour, and may he not
recline amidst laurels so arduously planted and trained ? "Place"
was this for congratulation, and is it wrong for him to listen to
the cheering sounds of triumph ? " Place" was it for all the
delights of tender sensibility, for hear its gush in his own
appeal, " O ye Corinthians ! our mouth is open unto you, our
heart is enlarged." This might have been a goal. It was a
fitting scene for retreat and rest from future operations. We
seem to behold his admiring fellow-soldiers gathered around
him, prepared to unloose his armour, to unhelm his galled brow,
to disencumber him of sword and shield, welcoming him to a
peaceful shade where he might refresh his weariness and enjoy
his reward. But he, with a voice of sovereign power, forbids

MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 523
their meddling. He puts them all aside. He spurns the idea
of security and peace. The very plea that he might now indulge
his eye with what he had achieved, that he might now improve
his victory, gained no favour with him. It utterly revolted all
his views and aims. Just as "place" became "pleasant," it
ceased to be the place in which he could tarry. Difficulties drove
others from their posts: they fled before the persecuting howl
and the fiery trial : he only felt impatience of his station when it
became smooth and gentle. Then did he gird up his loins to
depart. The more it was of home, the less was it of content.
The blander the refuge, the less was its accommodation for such
a spirit. Therefore, even in this great capital, with all its advan
tages, — though during his remaining life he might have sate
beneath the screen, and have eaten the fruit, of his own vineyard,
— because he had accomplished so much, because so much else
where was left to be accomplished, there was not foot-hold for
him. It was " no more place" for activity in its utmost stretch,
for suffering in its utmost intenseness, for zeal in its utmost
expatiations. But may not this be regarded as an excess of fervour ? May
it not stand by itself, as wondrous eccentricity ? May not the
closest imitator still be absolved from the authority of such a
course as an example ?
Now we contemplate in this Temper a moral taste, a feeling,
the most honourable to Christianity. It is not only true to the
purport of that religion, but a resplendent comment upon it. It
is only a specimen and an effect. It was a striving according to
Christ's working, which worked in him mightily. If it were
redundant, then is the gospel a redundance. If it were fanatic,
then is the gospel a fanaticism. If we call one of the household
on this accouiit Beelzebub, so must we blaspheme the Master of
the House. If Paul was beside himself, so did the kinsmen of
Jesus lay hold of him under the same charge. But look into the
character of Christ and into the genius of Christianity, and mark
their identity ; then look into the purpose of this servant of each
and markhis identity with both. It is their common transcript
and inspiration. Such a motive knows no earthly birth : it is

524 MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE.
not a baptism of men but from heaven. The doctrine of the
Cross alone could form and feed such an impulse. If any man
were ever thus beside himself, it must have been to God : his
soul must have been in contact with God to have caught the
enthusiasm, must have dwelt in communion with God to have
sustained it. None of the things of this world can move him.
Still it need not surprise us. If Christianity be true, this spirit
is only proper : if we believe Christianity, however far we come
short of the power of this spirit, we can approve it. For it
comports with
The Exclusive Salvation of the Gospel.
Should deliverance arise from any other source, should there
be any other name under heaven given among men whereby we
can be saved, apathy has its excuse. But there is not another
gospel. The atonement was not offered to put Christianity on a
level with other existing means. All the apparatus of prefigure-
ment, all the machinery of dispensation, for four thousand years,
were not expended to give it an equality with concurrent provi
sions. The Eternal Son of God took not on him our nature,
died not in our stead, that he might enter a fellowship of saviours,
and share with others the undertaking to rescue our race. In this
is the apology of him who " had no more place in those parts,"
even where he had succeeded so signally. He could only spare
time for an announcement of that on which hung the salvation of
the world. He was not sent to baptize. He was indifferent to the
credentials which had been subscribed in the third heavens. His
was a message, an errand, a charge. He run to and fro. Man
was dying and he had the trust of his cure. Man was perishing,
and he possessed the secret of his salvation. Having the ever
lasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and
to every nation and kindred and tongue and people, — how shall
not this angel fly through the midst of heaven ? This language
coincides with
The Universal Adaptation of the Gospel.
His own truly philosophic generalization, — " that God had
made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face
of the earth," came to his aid whenever he thought of his fellow-

MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 525
being. He saw in man, — whether of the wild, the forest, the
marsh, the mountain, the shore, the city, — the same creature of
degeneracy and of capability. He knew that this creature was
undone, that left to himself he was now, and for ever, lost. But
the salvation which the gospel brings meets his case whatever his
modification and whatever his extremity. It is characterised by
its applicable address to all, by its generous sufficiency for all.
These two views embraced each other in the mind of him who
said that there was "no more place for him," where now all
delectable things might have soothed him. Their union with his
mind gives his wonted ardour an irrepressibleness. He starts
up. He bears away. He carries an epistle to every man. He
would preach the gospel to eyery creature. Talk no more to
him of dwelling apart, of recruiting strength, of long enjoying
the work of his hands, — He is already far sped, and you hear
his voice as distance diminishes it, — " Necessity is laid upon me,
yea woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel !"
But this utterance harmonises with
The Inherent Tendencies of the Gospel.
Paul could contrast his own impediments with its free course ;
and when his fetters clanked, the iron only entered into his soul
to call forth its joy that the word of God was not bound. Its
onward course is its right of truth. It deserves the homage of
all peoples. It must be preached for a witness among all nations.
There is expansion in its principles. There is elasticity in its
developments. But its history is the record of progress and
diffusion. It is seed, it is germinant, — it is leaven, it is assimi
lating, — it is light, it is coruscating. He, who rejected "any
more place," yielded but to its law. He would follow it out.
For to him to live was Christ. His soul was wrapped up in his
cause. How could he pause at any point when his duty placed
him in the fore-front of this mighty march ?
But such an expression agrees with
The Predicted Extent of the Gospel.
Strains were native to his ear, — when a child his memory
received them, — and now, when converted to Christianity, his
faith construes them,— ^voices of the prophets, dark sayings on the

526

MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE.

harp which inspired bards loved to sweep, — and they were com
mands which he now obeyed. " Depart ye, depart ye, go ye
out from hence." " Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them
stretch forth the curtains of thy habitations." His very spirit is
anticipated : " The place is too strait for me : give place to me
that 1 may dwell." Athens would be a nook, Rome a corner,
for such a soul. The world only could contain it.
The words accord with
The Lofty Influence of the Gospel.
There is a formative- power in it, when sincerely believed,
which knits the soul into most varied virtues. It is the only
source of disinterestedness. Nothing else approaches the virtue.
Nothing else affects the idea. — It is the only school of courage.
It teaches a spiritual dint. It sustains the living martyrdom. —
It makes man great. It kindles the true heroism. Behold its
example ! " Having no more place in these parts," — Compose
thy limbs to peace ! Put off thy harness ! Seek the bower of
victory ! — In vain you reason ! His tomb alone can arrest
him ! He will lie down but in his grave ! Scarred, wounded,
aged, his first passion burns inextinguishably. He hears the
distant mustering of the host and preparation of the war, —
and all his youthful ardour wakes, and the veteran shouts for
the battle !
Was He unmindful of them whom he had called into the
grace of Christ ? Did he, in his ever-opening career, forget his
children in the faith ? Could he banish them from his thought
and care, as the ostrich of the wilderness ? How ready is he to
boast of them ! How does he solace himself with the hope of
returning to them ! How anxious is he that they may have the
second benefit of his renewed presence ! How he longs to be
filled with their company ! He, therefore, does not desire to act
solitarily in his projected mission to the world, but to draw them
into his plan and to give them a share in his reward. The kind
of labour which he prefers is most prominently avowed : " Yea,
so have I strived to preach the gospel, not where Christ was
named, lest I should build upon another man's foundation."
But he invites the cooperation of all : " Not boasting of things

MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 527
without our measure, that is, of other men's labours ; but having
hope, when your faith is increased, that we shall be enlarged by
you according to our rule abundantly, to preach the gospel in
the regions beyond you, and not to boast in another man's line
of things made ready to our hand." He felt that there was the
greatest usefulness, and the greatest dignity, in these new fields
of service ; and he but led the way that others might enter them
with him !
I need not point out the bearing of these principles, My
Dear Friend, upon your present conduct. Far be it from me to
present, far from you to entertain, exaggerated ideas of the
hazards it supposes and of the sacrifices it involves. I would
wish to discharge from it all rhetorical inflation, all romantic
trope. It has seemed to me that this really lessens the true
Missionary model. It is not for Christian men to make mountains
of inconveniences which every day the worldling braves. He
recks not of seas and deserts. Some appointment devolves upon
him, it must be promptly obeyed, a few days see the completion
of his arrangements, farewells the most bitter are pronounced,
and the functionary is hastening his way to the destination. He
counts the cost. He finds sufficient motive. Honour, loyalty,
public duty, high adventure, or sordid gain, may supply it.
Constantly is it done. The soldier, the diplomatist, the merchant,
crowd the highways of earth. On every ocean their barks are
traced. Manly sorrows may be felt as kindred is left and country
is forsaken, but that is all. These sensibilities are struggled with
and are overcome. We would not that the Missionary should
largely descant, or even intensely reflect, on trials such as these.
His heart will know its own bitterness, he will experience at no dis
tant time the conflict which many shall see and hear to be in him,
his Lord shall show him how great things he must suffer for his
name's sake. It is by throwing the common rupture of ties, the
every day occurrence of separation, the perils of voyaging across
the deep, the pangs of expatriation, disease, death, — it is by
throwing these into the shade, that we discriminate the Missionary
and magnify his office. — Nor would we speak in any wise, that
might imply the necessary superiority of the zeal which seeks

528 MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE.
foreign labour. You, my beloved brother, when in a remote
region of the globe, will have left behind you on your native
shores hundreds whose lot is far more severe, of whose privations
you cannot participate, and to whose toilsome exertions yours
will be light. In no spirit of this vaunting, with no unseemly
behaving, have you ever carried yourself. But you gave your
self freely to the ministry of Christ, with every earthly advantage
in your grasp. The honours of the liberal professions unfolded
themselves and hailed your acceptance. But all things were loss
in your esteem compared with this passion of your heart. Early
you selected the sphere of your ministry. You accounted your
self a debtor to all men, and you felt that the payment of the
debt was most due where it was most needed. It was no youthful
dream. You have stood no feeble ordeal. Academic read
ing, competition, — academic snares and temptations, — have not
quenched the, fire. And I do congratulate you, — when many a
scene of patriotic interest and endearment opened to you, — when
home might have held you fast, — when you might have rooted
yourself most honourably among the landscapes and histories of
your native soil, — that you have turned to that East which Paul
constantly aimed to approach, though the Spirit suffered him
not. And if your diffidence cause you to hesitate in the adoption
of the whole expression, — " Having no more place in these parts,"
— still may you find your sanction in Apostolic pattern and
temper, — you hasten to the realms where you reason that you
are most needed and where you believe that you can accom
plish most !
It has been an illusion, too long endured among us, that the
Missionary Character requires a supernatural, gigantic, Christi
anity. It is painted with all the colours of a curiosity or a marvel.
It is supposed to arise in some eventful order of times and cir
cumstances alone. It is placed in the heroic of all virtue and of
all greatness. We contend against the exaggeration. It is not
essentially different from the ordinary ministry. Many, though
not imbued with a piety or disinterestedness superior to others,
would prefer the foreign scene and the initial labour of the mis
sionary. The facility and love of acquiring language would

MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 529
strengthen the choice of some, — the novelty and adventure, de
termining on romantic, disposition, would direct that of others.
This is no disparagement of him who is true to his purpose.
Temperament ought to enter into it. But the more sober view
is most important. It teaches us that the motive of the candi
date is not so necessarily pure, that investigation is indecent. It
emboldens them, who have been discouraged by this rhapsodical
description, to give themselves to the duty upon simple and
common grounds. It honours religion, it being now professed
that danger and death are no magnified exceptions to its rule nor
large difficulties in its extension. But the Missionary character
may be great. It ought to be distinctive. It needs high quali
fications and elements. Only let it not be denaturalised of sensi
bility. Let not any requisite be demanded for it but strict
mental and religious endowment. Then give it, then urge it to
seek, all the transcendent it can grasp. The principle which is
common, cannot be too fully evolved, too earnestly stimulated !
We may argue here as in other relations. No hearer has the
right to look for more holiness in the minister than in himself:
but may not the minister turn to account this unreasonable
expectation ? No pastor has the right to look for more holiness
in the Missionary than in himself: but may not the Missionary
convert into motive the unwarranted demand ? You will not
fail to profit from even the unjust claims imposed upon you.
The single question with you will be, What ought I to be?
What may I become ?
There are peculiarities, then, which affect your "going far
hence unto the Gentiles," upon which it may be proper briefly to
insist. The expulsion from your mind of all the ordinary aims of
cupidity and ambition, strangely insulates you from others who
in your journey may be associated with you. There may be the
cadet of aristocracy, dazzled by his promised gold. There may
be the stripling warrior, wearied of the bloodless contests of this
quarter of the world, coveting to flesh his sword in those chival
ries of which the fame is so green and so dispread. There may
be the mineralogist, panting to enter the deep-sunk mine of dia-
M M

530

MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE.

mond, and to survey the table-land, or the ghaut, of those great
and ancient formations. There may be the botanist, who, to
augment his frail but beautiful collections, hastens to Himalaya
and the Nilgherries as to the noble haunt of his science and its
most gorgeous store. But when, among these your companions
of travel, you ask, What is my purpose? will it be to rise or
to fall? If you be found in the spirit of your calling, how
mean will all these secular ends appear ! How low do they
recede from yours ! What painted straws ! What spangled
gauds ! You could not thus live ! It would be descent ! It
would be degradation ! And yet when hilarity is heard, — when
the vanity of the present obtrudes, — when they all boast high
and loud of their exploits, — will it not be hard to say, — without
any shrinking, — any depression, — I am the Missionary ! Will it
bring no blush ? Will it ask no defence ? How indispensable is
the spirit of faith, — not to withstand torture and to defy death, —
but even to bear the jest of buffoonery and the sneer of disdain !
But you go not forth as does many a Missionary. He may
often stand in ecclesiastical relations which cover him with worldly
repute. Should he be the seminarist of the Papal hierarchy,
how is he flattered by visions of more than regal power ! How
he stands as one to whom monarchs bow, how he may hide in his
bosom the insignia before which the orders of martial merit dim,
how he wields the fearful keys ! He is never lonely, though he
be the hermit; he is never unnoticed, though he be the mendicant;
there is a throne in his cell and a revenue in his poverty ! Should
he be the clergyman of the English Church, he is invested with
the badges of a national authority, he commands a status and an
heraldic precedence, he meets his countrymen on the other side
of the world even more ready than on this to yield him respect
and support, he belongs to a great Institute and Establishment
in whose humbler ministry nobles take a part, and whose honours
overshadow all civil rank. Were you such "ambassador sent
unto the heathen," even the ordinary principles of your nature
might easily uphold. You would be employed in setting up a
kingdom of this world. We deny not to these officiaries better
motives, though the case does not compel us to do so. But

MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 531
what is your undertaking and enterprise ? You go not to build
up a part of some mysterious catholicity, of some cecumenic and
capitular community. Your first principle is personal conviction.
Your first labour is individual conversion. Your first success is
voluntary association. You will seek to rear a church, but it
will be a spiritual house. You will pray that the East may be
covered with these churches, but they will constitute only a
combination for mutual love and usefulness. The common con
ception of power, of organization, of ascendancy, cannot glance
upon your mind. You contemplate nothing physical, nothing
political. What simple principle will be required to keep your
mind steady, cheerful, while you attempt none other effects than
these !
When you arrive among the crowded millions to whom you
are sent, a sense of estrangement and of isolation will seize upon
you. The presence of the throng will the rather deepen it. Let
nature be round us, and we want not sympathy : but the multi
tude may press upon us, and sympathy be only more repelled.
With the European you will seldom find the intercourse which
would make him one with you ! Between you and the Asiatic
what a gulf will yawn ! You are plying a task unencouraged
by any, denounced by all. Your countrymen will call you
fanatic, and the people you would convert, intermeddler. You
will be identified in the native mind with all that is infidel and
profane. To it you will stand as unclean. You can scarcely
now understand with what abhorrence you will be esteemed. In
the moment of adulation, amidst the gesture of obsequiousness,
this will be the concealed sentiment. At the first escape from
your eye, it will be shown : soon as your ear cannot receive the
sound, it will be spoken. You will be a loathing. Not as spoiler
of their land, not as conqueror of their people, will they upbraid
you: they hate you as defiled, impious,. accursed. — In the few
companions of your Mission, you will find men like-minded caring
for the state of them who will thus requite your benevolence : it
will fortify you to know that, at wide intervals, others are placed
who compass the same work. But, — at least until all your pre
sent habits and tastes be changed, — it will be "a weary land."

532 MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE.
All the fresh springs of genial and spontaneous fellowship will be
cut off. Ties, which here twine and intertwine, can be there no
more reunited. " Separate from your brethren," a double por
tion of the Divine Spirit can alone keep alive your own soul, —
can alone, amidst this intellectual and moral alienship, preserve,
in its vigour, your so singular a purpose !
Nor must you be surprised if another bitter ingredient be
added to your cup. You could bear up against the Hindoo's jeer
and the Moslem's scowl. You are the invader, assailing all their
most sacred ideas. You are a sacrilegious foe. Your axe is at
the stock of their doctrine of vanities. You lay your account for
their resentment. You are prepared for the worst. But if joy
which can find no communication is almost as oppressive as the
grief which can obtain no compassion, how might it fret your
spirit, if not otherwise sustained, to witness in them, who profess
your very object, supercilious and scornful reserve ! You will
discover, where all ought to be union and concert, bold denial
of your office. Christian Missionaries will denounce you before
the heathen. They will warn all beneath their influence against
you. They will treat you- as disturber and recusant. We speak
not of the army of Loyola, — nor of the Anglo-Romanist, that
wretched antic imping the carriage and pretension which, how
ever elsewhere frightful, are only ridiculous in his puny imita
tions, — but good men will pass you by, and look down upon
you ! It is so. You must bear it. A fact and a reason, you,
in return, cannot but observe. All the good men, unincorpo
rated in Established Churches, will recognise and love you,
Briton or American, through the whole range of Christian de
nomination, upon generous and equal terms. On the other side
of this demarcation, — with rare exceptions, yet blessed ones, but
no more than to prove the rule, — you will encounter reproach or
slight. The fact must, contain a reason. Is it invariably seen
that this unjust bearing, wherever it exists, towards those with
out their pale, attaches to a State-Clergy ? Then is it a tendency
of that State-system from which many of the best of men cannot
clear themselves. You must be of good courage, — knowing that
you have wandered from no ancient path, — that you have inno-

MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 533
vated nothing, and experimented nothing, — that the true antiquity
of church history is with you, — and, if challenged to comparison,
take the Acts of the Apostles, then bring your Mission beside
theirs, collate them point by point, your church and their cathe
dral, your bishopric and their prelacy, your simplicity and their
ceremonial, — and those apostles may be left to decide between
you and your, censors, to challenge their lineage, and to authen
ticate your own.
The new direction of your studies will serve to bury you in
a deeper solitariness still. You are the accomplished linguist.
Into the philology of your own speech you have loved to dig.
The classic dialects have drawn you to them by their still richer
stores. You have looked through them, you have passed through
them, into the Grecian and Latin mind. What forms of intellect
are these ! They still are the archetypes of the lovely and the
great. Out of them has arisen a new mould, yet with much that
is original in character and raciness, — the Gothic mind. All
modern letters centre in it. The acquisition of language and its
analysis have hitherto repaid your toil. You now proceed to a
far different task. You must learn a vernacular tongue. You
must always be the foreigner in its use. You must always be
subjected to that imperfection which no effort can wholly coun
tervail. For many years you will need that allowance, which the
ignorant and the prejudiced talkers of a mother-tongue are little
inclined to make.. The drudgery of your first horn-book will
be immense. For converse, for translation, you must do your
utmost to conquer it. And what is the mind which it will throw
open to you ? The sordid, the superstitious, the puerile, the
feeble, the debased. And what is the literature which it will
spread at your feet ? Legends and myths without a name. In
other dialects, dead or living, you might find reward. You
might read science in them. The scholars of Germany have
begun to study the Sungscrit, to explain, if not to originate, the
ancient Attic. The Hebrew is even sought and cultivated in the
dialects of Afghanistan. Had your wanderings been along the
mysterious Ganges, an erudition, remote and deep, might have
been wrought out by you as the rich veins of an exhaustless

534 MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE.
mine. In Peninsular India such temptation could be but small.
Your engagement would bind you for a long while to resist it.
Your business is to master a character, an alphabet, a syntax.
It is probable that you will trace no analogy between the lan
guage you are learning and any you have already learnt. You
may find no other aid from them except the habits of patient
investigation which their conquest imposed. When it has become
a medium between you and the people, you will find a new diffi
culty. It is unbaptised with Christianity. It has no terminolo
gies to meet your wants. Its own circumlocution makes it weak,
every language requiring periphrasis is feeble, and your ideas
will be in danger of a still greater injury from your need of even
redoubled dilations. Yet at your desk must you pore, and com
mit, and copy, ere you can find one access to the Babel. And
never must you relax until you are furnished with the means of
transferring your thoughts to the understanding of your scholar,
and reader, and hearer, — the Pariah wanderer or child !
There will meet you, at your first sight, a colossal system of
iniquity. Of this you cannot possess too serious an impression.
It may present points of self-refuting absurdity. Its fictions
may call up the smile. But banter may not be trusted to every
lip even when idols are concerned. They are nothing in the
world. They are vanity. Yet is there resistance in them. Eli
jah's irony only provoked the votaries of Baal to more devoted
rites. The rival superstitions of Hindooism and Bhoudhism
may be gross. Still they contain that fraud which the blind
intellect of fallen man most readily receives, that license which
gains his heart, that self-righteousness which stupifies his con
science. It is no ill-cemented mass. It is not the iron and clay.
It is fused into one element. Like the classic mythology, it is
philosophic esoteric to the more privileged, — it is palpable
reality to the rude and poor. It is the artifice of hell. The
more you explore it, the more will you wonder at the concep
tion and genius of it. It is a terrible power. It is spiritual
wickedness in high places. Scarcely seems there aught to inter
vene. Satan works directly. You will be called to attack him
to the face. You must strike at his brow. There is his fortress.

MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. • 535
There is his palace. There he keepeth his goods in peace. There
are drawn up in full array the rulers of the darkness of this world.
You go as one of a little band to dispossess the adversary. Your
advance may be very slow. The trench is to be dug ere the
rampart can be scaled. But you must desire no other means save
the gospel for your success. Gaze upon those battlements, and
then take up these words against their loftiest tower and their
firmest bulwark, — " The weapons of our warfare are not carnal,
but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds."
You will find no susceptible population for your purpose. At
first you might suppose that they are only too supple and easy
for all you would impress. The lubricity of their national cha
racter may seem really to offer too little resistance. But the
fatal truth will quickly establish itself. There is a necessity
which no fate can express. You will be called to grapple with
an unseen tie which no chain can type. It is of a thousand links
and coils. Caste will spread before you as one snare and net.
Its meshes cannot be escaped. The native is held in them and
knows not his captivity. To yield to it is always a badge of
pride. It encourages a self-complacency and warrants a disdain.
Only a Missionary can know the prison-house which it builds.
He sees in it the destruction of all individuality, all indepen
dence, all responsibility. He knows its universal presence and
power, yet sees not where to aim his blow. It is so mean and
foolish, that he may at first wonder how it can overawe the
mind : but soon he learns what are the reasons which cause its
breach to be so much dreaded. Outlawry from all right, aban
donment by all kindred, only imperfectly reflect the debasement.
Scorn expends itself upon the victim. He is driven forth amidst
universal hate. No shelter receives him. No altar protects
him. He poisons the air. He pollutes the stream. He is dis
owned by parent and by child. All shun his look and flee his
approach. It is impossible to conceive the blast of execration
which pursues him. Oh should you find that hapless, perse
cuted, wretch, — that fugitive, — that outcast, — take him and tell
him of a new brotherhood, welcome him into the household of
faith, — speak to him of an honour and a line to which he may

536

MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE.

have free access, teach him that for his shame he shall have
double, — make known to him that for father and mother and
brother and sister and houses and lands he shall have a hundred
fold in this life, — replace his accursed bondage by the adoption
and liberty and the perfect bond of the gospel !
The Oriental world unfolds itself in all that is prolific and
vast. Its gigantic vegetation, its fearful zoology, its mountain-
ranges, its river-floods, its trackless plains, reveal to us nature
on its largest scale. For a while this magnitude may oppress.
It may seem to draw all human deeds into comparison with it,
and to throw its mockeries upon them. And so it may laugh to
scorn the ordinary pursuits of man. What does especially the
stranger there? How poor and worthless are the attempts of
his ambition ! But you, Dear Friend, are doing what such a
theatre cannot turn to contempt and put to shame. You illus
trate and confirm that which shall endure when all the vestiges
of those regions shall be effaced. Your work is greater than all
those physical wonders and all those teeming prodigies. You
work the work of the Lord.
The means of evangelical resistance to this idolatry are to be
found in the written and the preached word. The duty of ren
dering the Scriptures from their original idioms into the popular
language must very soon press upon you. No responsibility
can be more arduous and delicate. You will consult the highest
authorities and the most approved readings. If you know my
happiness, — a happiness with which I would not part for worlds,
of believing in the verbal and literal inspiration of these Blessed
Books, — how will your view of that employment be awfully
enhanced ! Your preaching will necessarily differ from your
present practice. The judgment which you will form of what it
should be, will probably as greatly differ. Our pulpit disserta
tions most likely will appear to you as too unreal and unliving.
When you stand in the gates of the city or amidst the throngs of
the bazaar, you will feel the requirement of whatever is most
pointed, arresting, stringent. But still you must preach. The
answer of objections and questions will not satisfy your duty.
You must cry aloud and spare not. Two temptations, in thus

MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 537
preaching Christ, must you avoid. You ought not to preach to
your hearers as if only idolaters, or as if your only desire was to
rescue them from idolatry. They are sinners, needing salvation
quite independently of this particular evil. Idolatry is not the
disease, — that lies deeper, — it is only a symptom and incident
of the disease. Still, on the other hand, you must not confine
your address to them as sinners, lost and perishing, — because,
though this is the fact, yet the idolatry, superinduced upon it, is
a dire aggravation, and blinds its dupe to his real case, which is
antecedent to idolatry, of guilt and perdition. Attack their sin
through their idolatry, and their idolatry through their sin. It
is but a work of the flesh, — that is, of our depraved nature and
fallen state !
There is much to encourage you. The civilization of that
land, whither you set your face, is, in many of its features, even
refined. The manners of the people are very polished and ami
able. You will suffer none of the privations which some of your
brethren have known amidst barbarian hordes. — Numbers will
crowd upon you, nor from your dwelling will you descry that
narrow horizon which not a few missionaries lament as it shuts in
their desert settlement or lonely isle. — You have not to begin
the work. The pioneer is there. The ruder obstacles are re
duced. You supply the broken rank of those who, few, yet fell
in victory. You are baptised in room of the dead. — Certain
experience has been gained. Of this you will avail yourself, and
so prevent mistakes which would be otherwise inevitable. — Holy
example is set apart, and the names of those who have preceded
you will fall on your ear as trumpet-notes. — The cause of Chris
tianity is confessed, on all sides, to move. Its principles begin
to enter the popular mind. They impress a large class of readers.
— The priesthoods have lost much of their power. Once they were
loved and feared, — then they were feared without being loved, —
they now are scarcely feared. — The Colonial government abjures
all connection with the evils which we hope utterly to subvert.
You have but to urge its consistency, not its reform. — The best
auspice is, that certain heathen parties, the craftsmen of the
shrines, have recently endeavoured to rally the indifferent multi-

538 MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE.
tude by hope and fear. We only dread stagnation : let the
mountain-breeze but descend, let the slumbering wave but heave,
— there is health and life and impulse in the visitation !
Among your personal encouragements, let me mention the
facility afforded by Mission for the cultivation of true piety.
Your life in yonder sultry clime must be much in-door. There
will be little interruption of it. Your pursuits will for a time
bear upon one point. Every thing will remind you of what you
are, and will force the thought upon you. You can command
seclusion. You may reach a most exalted devotion. What a
scope for meditation, for self-scrutiny, and for entering within the
vail ! Your oratory may be thus the holiest ! But you already
know that privacy is not necessarily devout : and, where it is
not, believe me, that no state of man is so full of temptation.
In giving up ourselves to any specific department of Christian
zeal, we have an indisputable right to reckon the probabilities of
usefulness. In our country we may commence full labour at
once: in a foreign, the necessity of preparation postpones it.
Here, life is so comparatively sure that it stands at a figure :
there, it is only accounted by a chance. But your life is not a
table of years. May you not do more in a few years than other
wise you could in many, by the alteration of circumstances?
There is close fighting. There is the brunt and thick of the
battle. It has been said that the Indian Missionary's single
year should stand for two. This, for the first, and perhaps
for the second, may be true and just. But afterward I would
give his years the geometric series. Should you fall early,
still, by a self-multiplying life, we should number your brief
years with a patriarchal renown ! We should remember, and
feel the illustration, that, while in the diurnal rotation of the
world, these cold regions revolve in the given time, the equa
torial climates to which you will approach, must travel far more
rapidly in order that they may overtake the poles of the sphere !
But that these encouragements may be enjoyed, serious cau
tions must be heeded. How soon are we disposed to regard with
extenuation and indifference, what at first we beheld with disgust
and horror ! Cherish your first impression of temple and pro-

MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 539
cession and festival and lustration and dance and revel. Let it
not wear out of your mind. Guard against its lessening effect.
Shudder at the suggestion of a momentary apology I — Your
position will be favourable to a deepening sense of all the truths
comprised in Christianity. You will be put to the proof whether
you believe them. They are your exclusive equipments. If
piety increasingly influence you, what new conceptions will you
speedily attain of human apostacy, of Satanic influence, of the
atonement by the God-man, of the regeneration which the Lord
the Spirit achieves, of the might of Scripture. You will esteem
these the riches of the gospel ! You would not weary yourself
for the carriage of any other ! If that piety, however, should
decline, you would soon tend to lighter views, to exceptions,
to reservations, becoming ashamed of the gospel of Christ ! —
Remember that never can an evil heart be more prolific, that
never can an irreligious state of mind be more dangerous, than
in such a country and in such a condition of society. What
would an impure imagination be, where all is so gross ! What
would a reckless spirit be, where all is so abandoned ! What
would a desultory habit be, where all is so voluptuous ! What
would a self- indulgent appetite be, where all is so sensual !
What would an exacting haughtiness be, where all is so abject !
What would a discontented weariness be, where all is so unman
ning ! "Learn not the way of the heathen:" the enervation of
their land is no mean snare !
While it is farthest from our purpose to depress your mind
by forebodings of your mortality, or by dwelling upon those
probabilities of death which the climate you are to inhabit too
commonly arrays against the settler, — you will not turn from a
serious consideration of one fact which this involves. It might
be supposed that, wherever life is most uncertain, wherever death
is most sudden, solemn reflection and preparation would abound.
There would not be trifling nor unconcern. But these are the
lands of recklessness, — and they are most reckless, who are most
exposed ! Even you might, without constant watchfulness, lose
the proper awe of death. Its frightful rapidity might sear your
tenderness. Its wide desolation might bewilder your attention.

540 MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE.
You might think less of death and less prepare for your own,
from the multitudes dying around you ! This is the invariable
effect upon the ungodly : this is a temptation to the most holy,
against which they must guard and pray !
I beg you to observe, with what a confidence your peculiar
theology should embue all your Missionary schemes and hopes.
It is supposed to be unmanageable and contradictory in this
enterprise. It is called a religion of decrees and restrictions.
We cannot see that any other hypothesis constitutes or presumes
a greater number of the saved. The universality of sacrifice,
the universality of overture, and the universality of obligation,
are its very bases. None in the mean while proceed farther in its
effects. But this prevents Christianity from becoming an entire
failure. The Divine purpose secures that it shall not return
void. Particular redemption secures an application of its virtues.
Efficient grace secures the willingness and conversion of its sub
jects. Final perseverance secures the consummation of its results.
What animating discoveries are these to the mind of the Mis
sionary ! Be not cheated of their motive and their support by
any of the pseudo-liberalities of the day !
Yes ! you are embarked on no sea of uncertainty ! You fight
not as one that beateth the air ! The doom of idolatry is sealed.
" Say ye unto the nations," so Jehovah of old commanded the
house of Israel, — and so far, it being their own language, they
could understand that there was something for them to say to
the nations ! But the sentence which they were to utter was
expressed in a different language. " The gods which have not
made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the
earth, and from under these heavens." This is in Chaldee. It is
thrown as into the heathen camp, a manifesto against idolatry,
translated, as proclamations to enemies are wont to be translated,
into their own tongue. The Assyrian Dialect at the time was
that of an almost universal monarchy. That Power has always
been set forth as the symbol of the most persecuting heathenism.
Therefore is there special defiance and denunciation of all the
vanities of the Gentiles, made in the speech which was as their
voice and to that kingdom which was as their pantheon, — and this

MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 541
is our warrant to render the same sovereign declaration, the same
divine decree, into all the idioms of human language, publish
ing the certain subversion of the uncreating aspirants to Divinity.
They shall "perish !" Let men every where hear and read it in
their own tongue wherein they were born. Bear it, my brother,
with you, — that its dauntless confidence, its prophetic fury, may
fill your soul. Take it and insert it in that strange speech and
hard language, your earliest essay and conquest of it, which
shall first engage your study. Syllable it in Tamil ! Aspirate
in Canarese ! Fling the writing of that malison, as a torch, into
the house of those gods which you go to hurl from their domina
tion ! Cry aloud that exterminating curse ! They shall perish !
Khalee, Brama, Vishnoo, Sheva, Juggernaut, they shall perish !
Boldly repeat the menace. They shall perish ! Revile them !
Torment them before their time ! They shall perish ! Let not
your eye pity ! Let not your hand spare ! They shall perish !
Let all hear that doom ! May you bring down their fate ! May
you speed their swift destruction !
You will soon leave us, and our island cliffs will disappear to
your eye. All here has shrunk into the diminutive before the
Pagan world. You have no more place in these parts. You
would not be shut in. Go, then, in the spirit of a meek ambition.
Go, where the clusters hang most full and ripe ! Go, where the
largest and most neglected harvests may be gathered ! Go,
where glory is in proportion to danger, where one sword is worth
the weapons of a host ! Go, mount the breach, and seize the
standard of the highest battlement though it fold around you as
your winding-sheet ! Go, — it may be to fall, but go, for, in
falling, you shall conquer ! We have hung over you, we have
joined hands with you, — we bid you forth, — we bid you farewell,
— other hearts are towards you, — your companions of study
crowd about you with love, and perhaps regard you with envy,—
parents dare not withhold you, — sisters cannot deplore you, —
and there is a heart which you not only share, — but it is that of
the Christian heroine which you could not share but as it claimed
to share your perils and your labours, — a heart which you could
never have possessed but upon these generous terms !

542 MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE.
The discouragement of the Indian Missions lies in their dis
proportion to the field. How can a few scores of the best men
influence a hundred millions of minds ? Yet the work proceeds,
and the success is great. But there cannot be a notoriety in it.
It is penetrative. It is invisible by its depth. It is not of the
surface. It is foundation- work. So the individual missionary
may often think, that all is lost by being swallowed up in so vast
a requirement. But the element of such an effect retains its
identity. Whatever surrounds it, it may change that mass, but
itself cannot be changed. Among the streams of the Mysore
you will discern the lotus spreading itself with its leaves and its
flowers, — but the seed, — wrapped in a little earth, was thrown
upon those waters, presently disappeared and sunk, yet to find in
their bed a receptacle for root and outgrowth, until it graces
and mantles the current in which it seemed overwhelmed.
Oceans will speedily separate us. But we shall not forget
each other. As we look up to the heavens, we shall remember
that one hemisphere holds us still. Some of our constellations
will shine on us as common points. When you mark those which
will still be visible to you, and follow them in their declination,
— you will think of us, while we watch them through our denser
atmosphere and in our severer clime. Then, turning to the Ori
ent, gazing upon those southern orbs which sparkle on the verge
of our night, we shall think of you, as they culminate on you in
receding from us, not without the recollection that you look into
a farther sky, — that you have left an inferior Crown* to gaze
upon a brighter, — no inapt sign, no uninstructive symbol, that
you have gone away from us in pursuit of a greater cause and
with the emulation of a more resplendent diadem !
* The comparison of the Corona Borealis and Australis is according to ancient
astronomy, — that which was maintained until nearly our times, — but not according
to latest discovery.

SERMON XXII

THE MINISTRY OF ANGELS.

Heb. i. 14.

" Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for
them who shall be heirs of salvation?"
When we look forth, still more when we think, upon the uni
verse, we are astonished at its immensity. As space recedes into
the illimitable, as imagination raises farther and farther back all
the boundaries and outposts it can conceive, as confine yields to
confine until none other can be supposed, we find characteristics
of the same design, monuments of the same power, proofs of the
¦ same beneficence, which we observe in our own habitation. There
- still flame out suns : there still circle round them tributary worlds.
We may speak of that system of which our dwelling forms a
part. We mark in the planets which constitute it, the change of
phase which denotes a separate revolution. We follow them in
their differently measured rounds. Some have lunar light, as is
apportioned to us. Manifestations are not wanting of seasons in
them. One of this fellowship has only been claimed to it within
modern years. Long had it wandered, at twice the distance of
the farthest planet, unnoticed yet not unrelated, obeying the
same centre with all the rest. The analogies of this system are
obvious. It is governed by uniform laws. One answers to all :
all answer to one. So perfect is the union, we call them a sister
hood : so unbroken is the harmony, we describe them as a choir.
But this is only narrow cycle and epicycle. We gaze upon
larger fields. Our sun no more rules. Mightier creations burst
upon our sight. Yet there is no violent departure from the
order we have hitherto ascertained. Still attraction and repulsion

544 the ministry of angels.
prevail. The shape is orb-like. The motion is rotatory. The
beam of the most remote fixed star reaches us by the very prin
ciple which cause the lamp to cast its light upon our page. Great
and little correspond. The inference is irresistible : the Creator
of all this must be one. The presumption is almost as certain :
the design of all this must be similar. Then, those worlds are
provinces of an undivided empire. Their outward arrangements
so fully agreeing, we may infer something which brings them into
a common use. We are confirmed, by every enquiry into the
course and condition of the physical structure which we inhabit,
that it was made for inhabitation. The argument as strongly
presses that it was contrived precisely for such creatures as are
found upon it. There is respect to their organs of life and of
enjoyment. There is adaptation to their every sense. How can
it be denied, that every probability favours the conclusion that
other worlds are abodes, that they are filled with their popula
tions, and that throughout the universe, as far as it may be ex
plored, there is the teeming of multitudinous life ? And how can
it be reasonably doubted, that such life bears traces coinciding
with our own ? Why are atmospheres, constellations, satellites,
concentricities, multiplied, repeated, and still evolved, but that
there is a resemblance of being? Notwithstanding this clear
analogy, we are soon made to feel the limits of our ignorance.
By a rigid demonstration of geometry we may guage those vast
spheres : we possess no means of information, no particles of
knowledge, in regard, if such exist, to their moral history.
In the absence of all discovery concerning other creatures,
the human fancy has not only been ingeniously fertile but impi
ously daring. Mythology is its conception. We cannot deny a
certain beauty to it. Its daemons implied very different ideas to
its disciples from what they can to us. The classic writings assume
that they were true and good beings, and therefore they are un
derstood in a favourable light : they were the lords many, and the
gods many, of their worship and of their heaven. The New
Testament, so far as it couples them with fallen angels, — consi
ders them as only wicked. It constantly shows that these angels
were the chief agents and supporters of idolatry. Hence the

THE MINISTRY OF ANGELS. 545
simple cause, that the Pagan poetry and even philosophy speak
of the daemon without exception in a reverential sense, and that
the inspired Volume as invariably speaks of him in that which
is abhorrent. Nor let us lose ourselves in the picturesque of
that superstition which crowded every scene with genii, — which
gave satyr to the desert, naiad to the stream, and faun to the
grove. They who have read these legends, — attuned by verse,
adorned by taste, — well know what is the design of such ma
chines. They are the very brood of vice. They are a rout of
wild debauch. Whatever interventions are narrated of them,
they were not the auxiliaries of innocence nor the defenders of
worth. No woodland was safe in which they roamed : no river
was pure in which they laved. The whole thought is one un-
chasteness. It is a defilement every where obtruding its taint.
The endeavour is to hide the grossness. Many of our age and
name would refine it into allegory. But the proofs of its utter
abomination are manifest. When lawless passion built its shrines
apart, there was restriction, there was check : but this was the
ubiquity of the evil, mingling pollution with every fairest copse
and every glassy spring. And when there was a bolder theory, —
when aeons and demigods were placed in the midway of earth
and the empyrean, — it became a vain incumbrance. No interest
of man was subserved. It was a glittering vision, explaining no
difficulty, bringing no help. A greater confusion was but intro
duced. None could say what was the Supreme control which
wielded and restrained them. It was the endless subdivision of
power. It wearied thought. It distracted hope. It was that
pantheism which is more revolting and sacrilegious than the
folly which says, There is no God !
Inspired Scripture is our only guide. Its informations are
clear. Heaven is inhabited by creatures. They are constituted
for it. It is their proper region. It meets all their capacities.
These are the angels. They are as proper to it, as men to earth.
Every creature has its habitation. That habitation is congenial.
So of these blessed existences, the celestial is the native home.
" The army of heaven" is as discriminate as " the inhabitants of
earth." Jehovah identifies himself with them, and takes a name
N N

546

THE MINISTRY OF ANGELS.

from them, " the Lord of hosts." Jacob, therefore, when the
angels of God met him, exclaimed : " This is God's host." When
the angel announced to the shepherds of Bethlehem the advent of
the Saviour, " suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of
the heavenly host." They may speed on errands of duty, but this
is their sphere. They are the singers of this temple, answering
each other in antiphonal bursts of praise. They are seen " walk
ing in their places" and " standing by." They are the princes
of this court. They swell its state and form its retinue. " I
am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God." " The angels
in heaven." " As the angels of God in heaven."
We thus find that there is another world filled with its race.
They are substantive beings. The Text affords a strong, though
implicit, argument. The question is proposed, and again pro
posed:. "Unto which of the angels said He at any time?" —
Their rivalry is to be debarred. Their competitorship must be
annihilated. Then they are real existences. Were they abstrac
tions, impersonations, figures, the argument would be denuded of
all its force. They are introduced with all the qualities of intel
ligence, motive, agency, rank. But what pretensions can they
challenge to equality with the Eternal Son ? Is not their confessed
position the reply ? " Are they not all ministering spirits, sent
forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation ?"
The phraseology of the Passage requires a brief attention.
These angels are spirits. This, of itself, might not be suffi
cient testimony to establish their incorporeal simplicity. For the
word is applied to the human spirit in its embodied state. God
is " the God of the spirits of all flesh." Men are now "blessed
who are poor in spirit ;" and Christ, manifest in the flesh,
" yielded up the ghost." It is, however, an auxiliary proof, and
prepares us generally for this whole conclusion.
These spirits are ministering, and are said to be sent forth to
minister. The reader of this translation might naturally suppose
that it was the rendering of the same word in either place.
But the original words are most different. In the first instance,
one is employed which expresses an intense devotion.* The
* Aurov^yixo; .

THE MINISTRY OF ANGELS. 547
natures, to which it is applied, are represented as incessantly
engaged in acts of profound homage to the Deity. " They shall
be still praising him." The term is of use among ourselves.
An ordinal of religious worship is called a liturgy. We find
it employed by them who seek bard-like strain, while they listen
to the great service of this lower sanctuary, to which all crea
tion lends itself; they speak of the liturgy of hills and forests
and seas. And these spirits are thus seen above, rapt in awe,
bending in humility, lost in ecstacy, absorbed in song : ever con
templating the Infinite Beauty, ever adoring the Eternal Good !
" Thousand thousands minister unto Him, and ten thousand
times ten thousand stand before him." " They rest not day and
night !"
These spirits are " sent forth." They are "ministers of the
Lord that do his pleasure." From that glory in which they are
insphered, they depart on commissions such as the state of this
earth requires, without any abdication of their dignity or aban
donment of their bliss. Their delight is to obey, their reward is
in obedience. He whom they serve is every where. Whither
shall they go from His spirit ? Or whither shall they flee from
his presence ? If they take the wings of the morning, and dwell
in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall his hand lead
them, and his right hand shall hold them. Their heaven is borne
with' them. Their song is chanted still. They are not separated
from their kindred company, nor alienated from a pure delight.
New transport awakens in them amidst these services, — compla
cency rises to activity, and gratitude seeks the proofs which may
confirm the ardour of its praise.
They are, however, occupied in a subordinate task. Their
bright ministry in the skies is far different from their ministra
tion* on earth. This is a humbler employ. It brings them to
a fallen species. It associates them with sin and infirmity. They
attend upon the convert and the redeemed, but what are the
imperfections which they cannot fail to detect among the most
sanctified ! The offices they perform must respect a condition
very immature. They must mark the struggle, the defeat, the

548

THE MINISTRY OF ANGELS.

contrition, the watch, the despondency, of them upon whom
they wait. They listen not to the harp of gold, but to that which
is hung on the willows. They behold not the white robe, but
that which bears the dust of encounter and the stain of fall.
They have to do with a creature of great aims, transcendent
principles, the partaker of a heavenly calling, and the adopted
heir of the heavenly state. The future, which is attached to
him, arouses all their attention and interest. They forbear his
weaknesses, they hail his aspirations, and contemplate a spiri
tual production through all its process to which no rudiments
of destined created systems can be compared. The service is
not that of " the high and lofty place," but its first appearance
of unworthiness is redeemed, all are elevated who are engaged
in it, and there are none but cheerfully obey the summons, when
they are "caused to fly swiftly," to yield to the renewed man
on earth all the assistance which their power provides and his
want suggests.
The subjects of this ministration are they " who shall be heirs
of salvation" or, more strictly rendered, " who shall inherit sal
vation." The difference is not very real. The language involves
futurition and certainty. Salvation is now nigh unto them.
They share its security, its deliverance, its peace. In their pre
sent condition, they are called " the saved." Upon this cri
terion, they are known to the angels. The medium of recogni
tion is not revealed. Those spirits, being assured of the saving
change in any man, anticipate with confidence its perfect evolu
tion. He " shall inherit salvation." By no management, by no
hyper-criticism, can this thought be struck out of the words.
Upon that which is begun is rested the assurance of the consum
mation. The good work shall be performed, it is still performing,
unto the day of the Lord Jesus. It is indicated, it is approved,
to these spirits. They hang over its progressive stages. They
see the end. They forecast the result. They will not fail them
" who shall inherit salvation," until danger be passed and sus
pense be terminated. Of that consummation, secured by divine
decree, they cannot despond.

THE MINISTRY OF ANGELS. 549
I. Let tjs endeavour to satisfy our minds touching
THE HISTORY AND NATURE OF THESE BEINGS.
In both Scriptures, the term denotes, of simple necessity,
only a messenger. It is, therefore, the name of office, in many
instances, and not of person. Its use is most general. It may
describe the elements of the physical world. But there is one
argument for this opinion which we abjure. The Psalmist has
said : " Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame
of fire." The following alteration has been proposed : " Who
maketh winds his angels, and a flame of fire his ministers." This
might be just in itself. But the verse is quoted in this chapter,
as that which is predicated of living things. To prove the ascen
dancy of Christ to the winds and to the flaming fire, is surely no
part of the inspired design. Other proof, however, offers itself.
We read of " the angel in the sun :" of " the angel of the waters."
These may be personifications, or they may signify that different
departments of nature are put under the control of different
tutelaries. In agreement with this general view, though by the
use of another word, it is declared of Jehovah : " He rode upon
a cherub and did fly : yea he did fly upon the wings of the wind."
— Singular interpositions are connected with those who are called
angels. Many conceive that the judgments on the first-born of
Egypt and on the forces of Sennacherib are thus described,
though really only some pestilence of the atmosphere or siroc of
the wilderness may have been employed. But they are repre
sented as intelligent, discriminating, agents. Their forms are
oftentimes discerned. We cannot, therefore, confound the agents
and their deeds. They are probably intended by the angel who
talked with the prophet : " These are the four spirits of the
heavens, which go forth from standing before the Lord of the
whole earth." Such may be either descriptions of particular Pro
vidential influences and visitations, or of those to whom they are
committed. — The word is applied to the officers of the Chris
tian Church. But it should always have been literally trans
lated. It is only expressive of some mission in which they are
engaged. " They are the messengers of the churches." No
thought is conveyed of any resemblance of property between

550 THE MINISTRY OF ANGELS.
them and other existences. The angels of the Asiatic churches
were their pastors, or mediums of communication. " The mighty
angel flying in the midst of heaven having the everlasting gospel
to preach to them that dwell upon the earth" supposes appoint
ment and speed, but by human agency, in which no allusion is
made to any higher order of beings. — Departed spirits are thus
called. Our Lord has sanctioned this acceptation : — " Take heed
that ye despise not one of these little ones ; for I say unto
you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face
of my Father which is in heaven." Now this would be spoken
as something well understood. The subject of guardian-angels
was not the popular idea. But that the souls of the righte
ous were so denominated, we are assured. The popular idea is
laid open in the proof. It is comprised in the account of Peter's
miraculous disimprisonment. When he stood and knocked at
the house "where many were gathered together praying," the
servant reported, knowing his voice, that it was he. They after
disbelieving her, proposed another explanation : " Then said
they, It is his angel." We know not the ground of this opinion.
Certainly it justifies no thought, that disembodied saints are con
verted into a new rank of existence. Certainly it can warrant no
theory, though fond affection has often brooded over it, that
the deceased may minister to the survivor in acts of service and
of love. — The Messiah is, in the ancient Scriptures, frequently
styled the Angel. He speaks as Jehovah, in his own person, — he
demands honour as Jehovah, in his own right, yet still as the
angel of the Lord. " Behold," said God to his people, " I send
an Angel before thee. Beware of him, and obey his voice, pro
voke him not ; for he will not pardon your transgressions : for my
name is in him." — Who can forgive sins but God only ? — This is
" the Angel of the Lord." This is " the Angel who redeems
from all evil." This is He of whom it is written : " The Lord
whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple, even the Mes
senger of the Covenant." There is no design in any of these
quotations to raise a comparison between Christ and the angelic
nature: to claim their attributes in an infinite measure for him.
The thought is simply of message or appointment : Christ is

THE MINISTRY OF ANGELS. 551
called Messenger or angel with an exclusive reference to his being
Sent of God !
With all these concessions, we do not see how it can be
doubted by any docile reader of Scripture, — that the word is
most commonly, by ordinary rule, by the use of writing, intended
to specify an immediate class of creatures, — a species, — of de
scriptive rank, — of distinct formation, — as much within themselves
as we are within ourselves. The word is raised out of a mere
etymology and becomes an appellative. No language can pos
sess terms for every idea and truth. These often are devoted to
different meanings. They retain their original purport. But
proper names may be selected from among them. It would be
foolish to understand, henceforth, without any distinction, the
function and the person, abstract and concrete, what might be
and what is.
To obtain just conceptions of any being, uncreate or deriva
tive, we must mark the qualities in which he stands out from
others. The knowledge which we possess of God is composed of
so many views which we have been led to form of his character
istics or essentials. We only know just so much of him as these
views unfold to us. " To whom can He be equal ?" In this dis
tinctiveness, far as we can appreciate it, consists all our know
ledge of God. Angels are a particular creation. They are not
men. They belong not to earth. They have received a proper
nature. They claim their own habitation. To know them, we
must distinguish them. We cannot distinguish them from other
creatures, except by those qualities which make them unlike to all
besides. How are they set forth in the Word of God ? How
may we, how ought we, to estimate them ?
— We certainly are authorised in ascribing to them a high
position in the created scheme. They are spoken of in a manner
which compels us to admit that they claim a high superiority
to our nature. The phrase, — "a little lower than the angels,"
— which David* in spirit predicts of the Saviour's incarnation,
and which he asserts of all humanity implicitly, — is not easily
explained. The term cannot signify, — "for a little time," since
* Psa. viii. 5, Iflyn. B?ax" *' — Septuagint.

552 THE MINISTRY OF ANGELS.
it must be true to each reference, to man as well as to Christ.
It does not seem to be a sound rendering, " merely, or barely
lower," for the word includes a positive idea of imparity : dimi
nution in a decided sense. We cannot escape from this impres
sion. We are inferior to these sons of light. Their portraitures,
their actions, their descents to earth, fill us with such conviction.
And still more do we learn it from the promises which inspire
our hope. We shall " be equal with the angels." We see, in this
assured destiny, an elevation of our nature beyond whatever it
now is, and whatever it originally was. We shall not be con
founded with them, but be raised to their level. It is not iden
tity, but equality. But can this be a small elevation ? Is it the
acquisition of a humble rise, or the filling up of a narrow dispro
portion ? " They are greater in power and might."
— God is a spirit. He is the Father of spirits. He commu
nicates of himself. He imparts conditionally what dwells in his
nature essentially. He gives life, reason, immortality. He,
therefore, confers that in which these higher properties can alone
subsist. Mind is that substance. It may be allied, or not, to
corporeity. That corporeity may be an occasional vehicle or a
fixed conformation. Then God is a spirit as there is none other
spirit. He bestows a resemblance. Man is only perfect as his
spirit is clothed with flesh. The resurrection of the body makes
up the loss his soul suffers at death. Angels are only perfect as
they are spiritual. They have been beheld in various forms.
The cherub has been seen with its diverse countenances: it has
been in the wheel — the angel has worn our shape so truly that
he needed to be disabused : " according to the measure of a man,
that is, of the angel." But are " they not all spirits ?" When
they take to them a grosser mould, it is to converse with us, — a
badge and livery of condescension to our low estate. Nor can
.the highest of their ranks be aggrandised by any materialised
dimensions, — he is greater as a spirit than when standing, in
colossal form, upon the earth and upon the sea, and lifting up
his hand to heaven.
—Sin arose among them, and drew away many from their
steadfastness. These, however, were uncorrupted. They are

THE MINISTRY OF ANGELS. 553
" the holy angels." They sing, in trinal strain, the holiness of
Jehovah. They are indigenous to " His holy heaven." They are
" his saints." They have " kept their first estate." They have not
" left their own habitation." It is a home-idea which is presented
of them: "As the angels were gone away into heaven." They
are " the ministers of the Lord that do his pleasure." This is
their beauty. Colour and figure and lineament may express the
sensuous loveliness with which we would invest them. But a
more spiritual conception clothes them with the grace of excellence
and purity, the attraction of fidelity and truth. They are minds
resplendent in all goodness and rectitude. If in their embodiment
the sweetness of these attributes has ever taken correspondent sign,
they have owed nothing to it. It is only of man that it is the
dignified record, that his " face was seen as it had been the face
of an angel."
— But there is a glory attributed to them which we must
suppose to be independent of them. It is in some way extrinsic.
It is their array and state. They, when unadorned with their
ensigns, have struck an awe into the spectator which he could
neither define nor repress. When they have been seen in their
robes of brightness, it is to subserve the divinest pomp. Does
God come forth to deliver, to command, to avenge ? They are
his guards and his executioners. Is the last Judgment forewarned
and unfolded ? The Son of man " shall come in his own glory,
and in his Father's, and of the holy angels." That majesty must
be glorious, — when of one we read that " he was clothed with a
cloud, that a rainbow was on his head, that his face was as it
were the sun, that his feet were as pillars of fire."
— Power is a distinction by which they are confessed. " The
mighty angels." " They excel in strength." They have l_e done
wondrously." Prodigies are recounted of them. For terror,
what imprecation can be more potent than this, — " Let the Angel
of the Lord chase them ! Let the angel of the Lord persecute
them ?" For support, what promise can be more encouraging
than this, — " He that is feeble shall be as David, and the house
of David shall be as the angel of the Lord ?" To them it is a
light thing to roll away the rock, while the cohort protects it, —

554 THE MINISTRY OF ANGELS.
to open the prison-door, though the keepers stand before it, — to
smite the tyrant encircled with the pageantries of his palace and
the flatterers of his pride. Yet, we only first learn what is their
power, rather only may we guess it, when contemplating the
Saviour in his agony, — prostrate on earth, mantled with blood,
" there appeareth an angel strengthening him."
— Intellectual capacities must be prominent in beings thus
exalted. "Wise, according to the wisdom of an angel of God,"
seems to have been a very proverb of old. Though the Only
wise God may "charge them with folly," because all created
nature is ignorant and weak without his knowledge and his sus-
tentation, — yet their faculty must be vast, as their opportunity of
observation and reflection has been incessant. Their emblematic
picture is, " they are full of eyes !" When the new world rose
up before them, evolving through its mysterious week of wonders
and joys, did they not sing together? In its administration of
dark and light, good and evil, since the rebellion of its inhabitants,
have they not pursued the footsteps of its righteous Governor
and Judge? We cannot doubt the perspicuousness of intelli
gences which are so elevated in all other endowments, seeing that
this is indispensable to the perfection of all.
— Benevolence is necessary to all holy nature. " Thou art
good in my sight, as an angel of God." " Ye received me as an
angel of God." Upon the angelic spirit when fallen, sin has
produced a hideous change. " Evil angels" denote whatever is
cruel and destructive. They are lying, unclean, and seducing,
spirits. But this is the inversion of every natural idea. It is
the contrast to all that we expect. The history of the greatest
interpositions, — the sudden, life-restoring, fountain in the wilder
ness, the shutting of the lions' mouths, the harmlessness of the
seven-fold furnace, the miraculous healing of the pool, — is but
the recital of their love and pity. Their benevolence is holy, like
that of the Divine philanthropy : when no moral cause restricts,
it is free, ready, delighted, overflowing.
— The activities of these spirits, when their errands are con
nected with space, when they assume outward shape, fill us with
surprise. They rise on the flame of the altar to heaven. " The

THE MINISTRY OF ANGELS. 555
living creatures ran and returned as the appearance of a flash
of lightning." We know not the law of a spirit's motion, nor
how motion in its common ideas can attach to spirit : but finite
spirit must be related to locality, for it is not every where, since
that would be omnipresence, and as that relation must be every
moment defined, it must traverse from interval to interval, from
point to point. " The noise of their wings" is compared to " the
noise of great waters, as the noise of a host." Their plume never
droops : their fervour never sleeps. They with cheerful promp
titude fly forth on their Monarch's bidding, — through the circuit
of the heaven, unto the ends of the earth.
— Perfect allegiance gives our clearest view of the dispositions
of these celestial beings. They live and move in the mind of the
Deity. If his honour be insulted, they burn with indignation.
When he executeth his strange work, they are the solemn instru
ments of its infliction. His decrees of mercy they joyously per
form. " His will is done in heaven." To learn, to approve, to
obey, that will, are scarcely successive acts of these spirits.
Faithful have they stood amidst surrounding treasons, — and they
are loyal to the cause of righteousness, whatever its bearings or
whoever its subjects. Their thought cannot vibratingly swerve :
their purpose cannot momentarily falter.
Such being the properties and characteristics of Angels, we
may now consider their numbers and their orders.
A concourse, to indefiniteness, is often placed before us, —
with the manifest desire to impress upon our mind their countless
sum. " A great host" is " like the host of God." " The chariots
of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels." It is an
" innumerable company." Our Lord, deriding the impotence of
human malice against himself, and chiding all human interference
on his behalf, said : " Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to
my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve
legions of angels?" "And I beheld, and I heard," exclaimed
the prophet of Patmos, " the voice of many angels round about
the throne: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten
thousand, and thousands of thousands."* But a perfect equality
* Rev. v. 11, XiXixli; X'^"^"''

556 THE MINISTRY OF ANGELS.
does not seem to be their law. They are marshalled in degrees
and ranks. Many " names" are "named." There are thrones
and dominions and principalities and powers and might. Glo
rious offices unfold themselves. The Seraphim, refulgent in their
brightness, — the Watchers, jealous in their scrutiny, — the Holy
Ones, preeminent in their purity, — the Living Creatures, prox
imate to the Deity, — great Centres of authority, — delegated
Rulers over their myriads, — anointed Governors of their pro
vinces, — Leaders, with their glittering files, — Minstrels, with
their attendant choirs, — Hierarchs, with their votive trains, — press
upon our view. Each has his place. All are arranged in a
system of subordination. Yet need not all these offices be con
stituted in particular orders of this scale. They may be trans
ferred and interchanged. The contemplative may pass to the
active, the active may recede into the contemplative. He may
now fight for the Lord, and go forth in burning mail, who was
' lately seen walking serenely in white, and bowing the face before
the throne. He may blow the trumpet, who until now has
swept the harp. He may cry aloud with a great voice reverbe
rated by the seven thunders, who hitherto has kept silence in the
ecstacies of bliss.
But we must turn to the principal events of their history.
They were created probationary beings. They were subjected
to a law. That law was confirmed by sanctions. How long the
term endured, how long the test applied, we are not told.
" There was war in heaven." Some did disobey. We are war
ranted in the presumption that they were many. " Everlasting
fire was prepared for the Devil and his angels." Others, — we
may still feel warrant for the presumption, — a far more numerous
band held fast their integrity and fealty. They were faithful
among the faithless. The reward, we believe, of that adherence
was the cessation of probationary suspense. They are now con
stituted and established in holiness. They are placed beyond
the reach of taint and the danger of hostility. Theirs is a final
state of recompense. These reasonings are founded on the known
principles of Divine rule. They who do these things shall live
by them. And God is not unrighteous. But knowing what all

THE MINISTRY OF ANGELS. 557
created nature is, knowing that it is easy to account for its decline
from its very self, from what it only can be, — knowing, moreover,
that something more is necessary to explain its stability, — we
welcome an intimation which the Scripture gives. It speaks of
them as " the elect angels." We cannot doubt that this implies
that there was a favour towards them. They were chosen to their
bliss, and to the dispositions which secured it. If other creatures
be welcomed into heaven through the pure exercise of sovereign
mercy, having sinned, — angels can in part sympathise with them
in that obligation, and they record it, in every look and gesture
and song, for themselves are made to "differ from others, and
have nothing but what they have received."
In agreement with this established condition of angels and its
cause, we may observe the new regulations of their government.'
The sin of their apostate brethren is not defined. When an
apostle warns the novice of the Christian ministry, " lest he be
lifted up with pride," he subjoins, " and fall into the condemna
tion of the devil." We may associate the thoughts. Pride was
the guilt of that condemnation. It is only theory and poetry that
the revolt was against the Son of God as Mediatising and Incar
nate. All that is left us to know is, that Jesus Christ is now the
Head of these sinless existences. The fallen are his footstool.
But the holy are made subject to him. It is a part of his exal
tation. Of old was he prefigured, "the Captain of the Lord's
host." Again was he predicted, " the Prince of the host." We
read not of archangels. There is one. He has a name. It is
Michael, " He who is as God." He, the conqueror of death,
with noiseless power, took charge of the body of his servant, res
cuing it from the grasp of him who "had the power of death."
He fought, with his angels, against the dragon. He is the great
prince which standeth for the children of our people. His
" Voice" shall be heard in judgment. Jesus, the Jehovah of
hosts, the object of Seraphic acclaim and homage, — whose train
filleth the temple, (" These things said Esaias, when he saw his
glory and spake of him !") Jesus is this Michael,— thinking it
no robbery to be equal with God, — Jesus is this Archangel, the
head of all principality and power !

558 THE MINISTRY OF ANGELS.
II. The reasons of this their particular employment.
Indirect agency seems the principle of the divine operation.
Though no help can be involved in it, it is a great diffusion of
benevolence. It makes all who are consciously and voluntarily
employed, happy and honoured. This is seen to be the law of
every intellectual and moral system. It is illustrated and con
firmed by our present theme. God does not need these minister
ing spirits. But he thus blesses them. There are many advan
tages secured to us by their designation. The immediate contact
of Deity is dread. The medium of these kind and gentle natures
is soothing. They are the elder born, — leading the inexperienced,
guarding the defenceless, consoling the unhappy, strengthening
the weak. Their Lord worketh all in all. But He sends them
forth. They go to and fro in the earth. It is his mandate they
obey and his goodness they distribute. The purposes of their
subordination to human interests may be inferred without diffi
culty or arrogance.
1. To aggrandise the scheme of Redemption.
We observe an immediate determination in the word of God
to call attention to this as the cause, the design, and glory, of all
that it reveals. The whole finds its meaning and use in it. It
is the centre of the arch. It is the key-note of the song. With
out it there is nothing finished. Creation is a bewildering super
fluity. Human history is a painful suspense. We see around
us an immensity of labour, — magazines of contrivance, masses of
power, mighty effects, magnificent results, broken scenes and
acts of a drama, — but we seek in vain among them any self-inter
pretation. Something must be added, something supplied. What
is the moral of the entangled tale ? What is the catastrophe ?
The salvation of the gospel comes with its significance, — and there
is no depth of Nature but it illuminates, there is no relation of
Providence but it adjusts. And in order to magnify itself, it
constantly intimates that it is not exhausted of its potent influ
ences by what it lavishes on our earth and race. It is identified
with the universe. We cannot measure it by too vast a metewand.
We must not bound its discoveries by our limits and concerns.
We stand upon the margin of an ocean, bearing to us infinite

THE MINISTRY OF ANGELS. 559
riches, but beyond us there are other shores which it embraces
to bless. We look up to the everlasting hills, and precious
things are brought forth by them, but their forms are seen on
the other side, and their shadows sweep realms afar. And,
therefore, to impress this greatness and amplitude of our redemp
tion, other kinds of being are described taking the profoundest
interest in all that pertains to ransomed man. They have been
already occupied in the progress of the dispensations which are
completed by redemption. The Israelites "received the law by
the disposition of angels." " It was ordained by angels in the
hand of a mediator." How are they seen going in and going out
among that people ! How they tend and serve that ceconomy !
Their figures are on its ark ! Their likenesses are inwoven into
its tabernacle-hangings and painted on its temple-walls ! " But
unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come,"
the present ceconomy, " whereof we speak." Their position as to
this ceconomy is less commanding. Their Lord is the author
and finisher of our faith. It is not a " word spoken by angels."
And what is the purport of that faith ? That He became incar
nate, that he was subordinated to the conditions of our nature
and of our dwelling-place, — that he was made flesh, that he was
in the world though the world was made by him. Could these
facts have occurred,— could these things be, — without a deep
excitement on the part of all high and holy beings ? Could the
series of wonders be hidden from them ? Were those wonders a
little, trivial, passage in the history of our sphere, unworthy to
be engraven on the tablets, or to be built up among the monu
ments, of the general creation ? Was the universe unmoved"?
These intelligences, of every rank and glory, are represented as
gazing on the Incarnate God ! " He was seen of angels." He
did not enter into this Mysterious Manifestation to be lost to
them whose nature it is to love and whose delight it is to serve
him, to be eclipsed from their recognition and withdrawn from
their devotion, — but he rose upon their view more distinctly and
beatifically, the object of their adoring complacency, the centre
of their enraptured delight. They could not be ignorant, when
dajmons could say : " I know thee, who thou art, the holy One

560 THE MINISTRY OF ANGELS.
of God." They could not be indifferent, when daemons were
transfixed : " Art Thou come to torment us before the time ?"
And does not their'introduction as spirits which minister to the
predestinated heirs of salvation, — the redeemed out of every na
tion and kindred and tongue of earth, — give to the plan and
scope of that salvation an immeasurable greatness ? Is it not vin
dicated and retrieved from all the supposeable meanness of what
ever is local, marked by date, related to space, — just as the most
refulgent orb must have begun to shine and to roll from a certain
period of darkness and a fixed point of inertness, but which now
traverses the mightiest depths of the firmament and which now
challenges the admiration of the most distant worlds ?
2. To prove that all departments and orders of Creation are
designed to glorify the Eternal Son.
The exaltation and reward of Messiah presume his tempo
rary depression and official inferiority. He made himself of no
reputation. But even this is not the standard of his mediatorial
ascendancy. More than his voluntary, independent, deposition
must be repaired. He must not only be restored to the " form
of God," to the ensigns of Deity, but in Deity he must be dis
tinguished. He is entitled to a peculiar sway. Ever God, —
impossible that he should be more than God, — according to the
Divine Personalities he shall stand forth most prominently glo
rious, lovely, — while his humanity, instead of subduing his claim
to worship, shall, as the foundation of merit, only specialise and
magnify it. "In all things he shall have the preeminence."
We wonder not that the command is given to the redeemed
Church : " He is thy Lord, and worship thou him." But more
elevated impressions are borne in upon our minds when the Eter
nal Sire, bringing in his first-begotten into the world, saith :
" Let all the angels of God worship Him." And at what period
did they not minister to Him ? When Eden became the seat of
sin, and each flower shut never more to blow, and each fountain
sunk never more to play, and each tree withered never more to
flourish, and our first parents lay crouching in despair beneath the
thickets of the garden, and the sun was setting upon the dismal
ruin, and the night full of horror was creeping along the earth,

THE MINISTRY OF ANGELS. 561
— then the Voice of the Lord God was heard, and his Form was
discerned, as He walked among those glades sacred to innocence
and those bowers redolent of bliss. He came, — the Word, —
whose goings forth had been of old, — a Saviour of man the sin
ner, — but he appeared not without the cherubim ! — When the
Patriarchal tent was pitched beneath the oak of Mamre, again
He descended and conversed with his saints, yet accompanied by
angels ! — In the wonders of Egypt, in the terrors of Migdol, in
the denouncements of Meroz, we behold His continued presence,
— himself " the Messenger who spoke to Moses in the mount Sinai
and with the fathers," — but these are the angels which obey him,
he who smites the first-born of the oppressor while passing over
the chosen, he who looked out of the cloud and troubled the foe,
he who cursed them who "came not to the help of the Lord."
Such, however, were only His transient and shadowy visitations.
We must now contemplate His coming in the flesh and his impe
rishable humanity. The angel from heaven declares His speedy
advent to the virgin-mother, — (" The mother of my Lord !"
" Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy
womb !") The angel comes suddenly upon the shepherds, who
kept their watch by night, with the glad tidings of His birth !
The angel forewarns of His danger, and bids his flight ! The
angel summons his return ! He is carried into the wilderness
and transported to the temple-battlement, and rapt to the moun
tain-height, to be tempted of the Devil, — and when, emaciated
by fast and disgusted by taunt, he needs every help, angels min
ister unto him, — they may have prepared a table for him in the
presence of his enemies, they may have covered it with " angels'
food," they may have cheered his drooping heart and his faint
ing strength ! The Tempter has only departed for a season,
the conflict is renewed in Gethsemane, the Prince of this world
cometh, the hour and power of darkness lour in their deepest
gloom, — it is more than conflict, there is suffering, — the suffer
ing is punitive, — the Cup must not pass from him, — he cannot be
saved from that hour of retributive infliction, there is agony
and bloody sweat, he is " sore amazed," " his soul is exceeding
sorrowful even unto death," he sinks to the earth, he is prostrate
o o

562 THE MINISTRY OF ANGELS.
on the ground, and there arises succour, he is heard in that he
feared, and an angel bears to him the relief, — a relief so potent
that he immediately confronts the cohort and scatters its armed
warriors, so assuring that he no more declines until the last
impending cloud of fearful liability wrings from his spirit a cry
of despair, quickly followed by the calm confidence with which
he commends that spirit to God. We are not informed of the
presence of these ministers in the hall of judgment or through
out the tragedy of the crucifixion. Jesus must tread the wine
press alone. His God forsakes him, and they must forsake him
too. By justice must they stand. Yet surely on the outer verge
of the scene did they have pause, and, with other motives than
those of his disciples, follow him afar off. But when He had
borne the burden of atonement, — when he had by himself purged
our sins, — when only offices of greeting were required, — then how
do they burst upon our sight ! The mighty angel rolls away the
stone from his sepulchre and sits upon it in triumph : angels take
their station at the head and the feet where his body lay : they
tell the disciples of his resurrection : they describe the region
where they may see him. He ascends: and Olivet renews "the
mount which might be touched" in its ethereal equipage. The
mountain is full of chariots of fire and horses of fire. " The
Lord is among them as in Sinai, in the holy place." New sym
phonies resound. " Thou hast ascended on high !" " Be ye lift
up, ye everlasting doors, and the king of glory shall come in."
" The Lord of hosts, he is the king of glory !" Behold him
enthroned ! They surround him in spheres of light and with
songs of praise ! All the powers of heaven adore him ! All
their harps are struck to his name! Ever have they ascended
and descended on the Son of man. "Behold the Lord cometh
with ten thousands of his saints !" But how is their deference
to him marked when their service is demanded in ministry upon
them of an inferior species and of a fallen nature ! They, the
things in heaven, bow the knee, and their tongues confess that
he is Lord. They are made subject unto him. Their homage
is immediately rendered to him as the Redeemer of man. But
they love all whom he loves. They wait upon his saints. They

THE MINISTRY OF ANGELS. 563
do it unto Him. The objects of his compassion engage all their
interest. He is glorified in them. What motive can there be
like this to spread their plumes in flights of zeal and sympathy ?
What impulse warms their minds with such redoubled glow, as
this love of Christ in the love of his redeemed ?
3. To contrast, in the most descriptive manner, the Divine
conduct towards the fallen of angelic, and of human, beings.
We know that a host of angels, bright and numerous, under
a Chief of most consummate subtlety and most terrific daring,
apostatised from their allegiance and fell into endless condemnar
tion. They were abandoned to the consequences of that defection
in unmitigated wrath. No provision was suggested by which
those rebel-outcasts might be restored: no movement of recovering
mercy has taken place in their favour from the hour of their
being driven out of heaven until this. There has originated
nothing which approaches to a remission of their sentence. Not
a fetter has been lightened nor loosened : not a flame has been
relaxed nor assuaged. Never has Hope descended on the confines
of their prison, and it must be an eternal stranger there. They
lie under the seal, the brand, the rivet, of an inexorable, an irrer
versible, doom. No Redeemer, travelling in the greatness of his
strength, speaking in righteousness, mighty to save, has espoused
their cause or assumed their nature: no ambassadors of peace
have reached them, praying them to be reconciled to God. They
are not warned to escape, — it were to mock them. Repentance
can find no place. Despair sits heavy on every power and feeling.
He, against whom they have sinned, hath forgotten to be graci
ous, and his mercy is clean gone for ever ! — We have read a very
different history. Man, in defiance of that terrible example,—
ere yet the track of fearful glare had vanished which at once
attested the pristine resplendence and tremendous downfall of
these sons of light, — man, renounced his innocence and revolted
from the authority of the Most High. In this transgression,
there was the most guilty presumption, the most faithless treach
ery, the most unnatural ingratitude, the most horrible sacrilege,
Not an extenuating consideration could have been found. Not
a palliating pretext could be offered. A precedent .existed,— top

564 THE MINISTRY OF ANGELS.
recent to be forgotten, too solemn to be waived, — it was of instan
taneous punishment, — a precedent of as terrific force as of exact
application. " He spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them
down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be
reserved unto judgment." It seemed impossible that such a pre
cedent should not be rigorously followed. What departure from
it can be allowed ? What point of deviation can be admitted ?
It was peremptorily set aside ! It was utterly disregarded ! It
was neither advanced nor consulted ! It came not into remem
brance ! An issue more opposed to strict probability and reason
able expectation cannot be conceived. Justice finds its more
awful sacrifice in the perfect achievement of Mercy. He spared
not, but it was to spare. He would not pardon, but it was to
pardon. He would not pass by with impunity, but it was for
impunity. The displeasure against sin was the acceptance of the
sinner. The cloud, however it had previously burst in tempest,
now only distilled in dew ! The bow, however it had been made
quite naked and been bent to shoot its lightning-arrows against
us, was now inverted, the chord of the curve was turned towards
us, and was left in the firmament a sign of the covenant ! But
that the difference of conduct pursued by the Divine Conduct in
the instance of rebel-angel and rebel-man might be exhibited with
the most awful solemnity and most earnest effect, the holy, stead
fast, ones of heaven are required to hail the Redeemer, while he
abandons their guilty kindred, while he goes forth for their con
quest, while he stoops to save our world. They must wait, not
upon the recovered outcasts of their nature, but upon them wljo
were later-born, in rank inferior, more appallingly forewarned,
more daringly wicked, — with whom their affections could not be
so vitally entwined, of whom their hopes could not be so strongly
confident. No complaint is on their lip. They revere the Sove
reignty which will have mercy on them on whom it will have
mercy. They ask not its reasons. Their submission is not
reluctant. They see the heirs of salvation. They minister to
them. Amidst poverty and disease they are their attendants.
They delight over them. They know not the envy of the elder
brother towards the prodigal younger. Needing themselves no

THE MINISTRY OF ANGELS. 565
repentance, they rejoice over them who do repent. And their
whole treatment of us is the profound and ready acknowledgment
of God's ways, in respect of different sinning creatures, though
such be past finding out !
4. To enlarge the information and assist the progress of
their minds.
Their knowledge is necessarily from without, although their
wisdom is as necessarily, dependent upon their faculties. Their
growth of mental light is their increase of mental power. Their
knowledge and their wisdom are, therefore, gradual. These
constitute their bliss. That bliss is, then, equally capable of
increase. When the marvels of creation were first unfolded,
these " sons of God shouted for joy." But the evolution of Re
demption ever attracted their principal research. All that they
learned, filled them with delight. They were impatient to un
derstand more, the more they understood. " Which things the
angels desire to look into." What studies do those things afford !
Their desire to penetrate them has never faltered, their reflection
upon them has never wearied, from the first moment until now.
But not in averment or in deed can they best explore the mys
terious meanings of their theme. Mediums, like these, leave
them in suspense. " One saint spake, and another saint said
unto that certain saint which spake, How long shall be the vision
concerning the daily sacrifice ?" " How long shall it be to the
end of these wonders ?" But if there be opportunity to watch,
and field on which to prove, the realization of all, — if there be
embodiment and example, — if all can be transformed into fact, —
then may these blessed spirits make rapid proficiency in the inves
tigations which they love. Now " are they not all sent forth to
minister to them who shall inherit salvation ?" They are brought
into immediate contact and commerce with them. They read
what is salvation in them who are saved. Here is the fruit. The
Church, of which they are the escort in this world and the associ
ates in that which is to come, is the living demonstration. " We
are made a spectacle to angels." " To the intent that now unto
principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by
the church the manifold wisdom of God,"

566 THE MINISTRY OF ANGELS.
5. To express their true incorporation with human saints.
All holy beings are united by bonds of sympathy. They
love one another with a pure heart fervently. They are taught
of God to love one another. It is the instinct of their nature.
But angels and Christians are systematically related. They are
brought into an express fellowship. Constituted under the same
Head, destined to become the inhabitants of the same sphere,
their endless worship accorded, their moral complexion assimi
lated, — their oneness is not incidental. It is not the simple law of
complacency in goodness, whether unalienated or restored. It is
the effect of a purpose the most distinct and solemn. That pur
pose has its seat, its force, its life, in our redemption. It is of
primary law. " That in the dispensation of the fulness of times
He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which
are in heaven, and which are on earth ; even in him."* How
God has "gathered" these different portions of his creatures, is
intimated to us in another place of Scripture. "And having
made peace by the blood of his cross," — that is of the Son, it
being his mediatorial undertaking and merit, — "by him to recon
cile all things unto Himself: by him, whether they be things in
earth, or things in heaven. "•}• He would "gather" by "recon
ciling." " God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself."
He, then, is reconciled. He has made provision for the vindica
tion of his own honour and law. He has established a righteous
peace. When He stands apart from the sinner of any order,
when he acts against him, all holy creatures must alike stand
apart from that sinner, they must act against him too. There is
a just quarrel. There must be a consistent hostility. But when
the cause of quarrel is discharged, when the ground of hostilty is
removed, then relations of amity are reinstated. There is recon
ciliation. So angels and redeemed men are made to regard each
other according to their just position. They were formed for
intercourse and love. Sin divided them: angels from man,
because of their hatred to sin ; man from angels, because of his
enmity to goodness. But now every reciprocal disposition harmo
nises with the great intercommunity for which they are designed,
• Eph. i. 10. f Col. i. 20.

THE MINISTRY OF ANGELS. 567
the earlier stage of it has already begun, and the sublime con
summation shall lift both to the same heaven, and combine both
in the same worship, for ever ! Those brightest intelligences are
but « fellow-servants, and of the brethren the prophets, and of
them which keep the sayings of this book."
6. To invest the subjects of their custody with honour and
distinction. While the steadfast purpose of the Deity is to humble man
as to the conditions of acceptance, to cause him to see his crimi
nality and demerit, it never treats him as abject in his rebellion
or his redemption. Utterly undeserving, there are the remains
of greatness in his spirit. When he is renewed, these are ex
panded and refined. He is now covered with dignities which he
in his-innocence could never know. He is more than restored.
His is a large accession of rank and happiness. Even now he
sitteth in heavenly places. There worketh out for him an ex
ceeding and. eternal weight of glory. He is called to a kingdom.
There is laid up for him a crown of righteousness. It doth not
yet appear what he shall be. He shall be, in the resurrection,
assimilated to an angelic condition. He shall be seen rising as a
god out of the earth. But this by no means conveys the idea
that man is raised in his nature above these heavenly spirits,
The thought is absurd. The fact is impossible. If they were
once superior to us, they must be still superior. What could
stay their progress that we might overtake them? What have
they done that they should be postponed ? It is another thing,
if we attend to the question of affinities and relations. Man is
thus incomparably elevated above every other creature. The
Divine Nature has conjoined itself to his. A Body, which has
died, is raised to the throne of infinite supremacy. " Lord, what
is man, that thou shouldest magnify him ? and that thou should
est set thine heart upon him ?" " This honour have all the
saints." And to indicate it, higher natures are seen ministering
to them, who though unequal in nature, boast far nobler associa
tions. These are kings and priests unto God. These are the heirs
of God, and the joint-heirs of Jesus Christ. We now scarcely
wonder at their retinue. O ye immortal throng, ye proper inha-

568 THE MINISTRY OF ANGELS.
bitants of heaven, how mean am I in knowledge and in purity
when ye hover around me, and make your presence felt ! Yet
is there not one of you whom I can envy ! Yet is there not one
of you whose place I would accept ! — They, therefore, to mani
fest the dignity of the redeemed, are their guardians and attend
ants. And can attestation go farther than this, — while the
universe looks on, — that they must indeed be strangely exalted
to whom the princes of heaven yield in subordination and stoop
in service? 7- To prove the conformity of sentiment and feeling which
is secured to these respective creatures, whose circumstances
have been so diverse.
There is some debt, however we be unable to define it, which
angels owe to the Mediation of Christ. Is it, that their election
to be "kept from falling" is connected with him, is arranged in
honour of him, is committed to his charge? Is it, that they
might "be able to stand," that they are given — into his hands and
established together with him ? Is it, having taken on him a
nature lower than their own, that they are included in the free
access to the Deity which its assumption gives to such as partake
of that nature ? Is it, that they are more closely drawn towards
the divine favour and presence by their fellowship with the
redeemed ? Is it, that they claim an identity of interests with them
whose covenanted immunities so greatly exceed all their natural
birth-right ? Is it, that, by the same means, their holiness is as
much advanced as our evil is overcome ? The debt, whatever be
its kind, is gratefully avowed. It is to be noticed that, in the
visions of heaven, the angels are represented in their multitudes
standing round about the throne, unmixed with any other beings,
unaccompanied by any other tongues, saying with a loud voice,
"Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches,
and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing."
This is their own song. They encircle the living creatures and
the elders, — the prototypes of the heavenly inhabitants and the
redeemed church. They thus salute both. They congratulate
all others and themselves. They attribute to the immolated
Lamb every effect which preserves or saves. They crown him

THE MINISTRY OF ANGELS. 569
with every merit, every title, every claim. They do not, indeed,
celebrate the same strain with the redeemed. They sing not,
they could not sing, "Thou hast redeemed us to God by thy
blood."* But how near do they approach the style ! How much
of it do they rehearse ! Into how deep a portion of its spirit do
they enter ! No jar can ^disturb the praise of creatures who are
thus united in emotion, though different be the grounds of that
praise. If rivalry might be imagined, it is to outvie each other in
gratitude and zeal. " Praise ye him, all his angels : praise ye him
all his hosts." Oh what tribute can angels offer which the blood-
bought would refuse ! Oh what anthem can the blood-bought
sing which angels would not respond ! Their natures must be for
ever distinct, their histories can never blend, their obligations
can never interchange, — but each memory holds its own peculi
arity, each consciousness cherishes its own gratitude, each mouth
modulates its own canticle, — all honour the same Mediator, all
celebrate the same Mediation, — various as are the relations of
that Mediator, and the aspects of that Mediation, — and, though
it is not unison, the diversities of the worship are as the parts of
one chorus and the chords of one song ! They, therefore, now
minister to the heirs of salvation. They anticipate an eternal
fellowship with them. They seek each occasion of intimacy.
They may even now join in concert with their praise. And
while " before the gods we sing praise" unto our Saviour, they
can echo our notes and reciprocate our adorations.
III. We must now proceed to show what are the
SERVICES WHICH ANGELIC MINISTRY COMPREHENDS.
These have been visibly rendered : but the present dispensation
does not admit of this palpable evidence. They have been the
mediums of revelation: but spirit and angel cannot now thus speak
unto us. They have been the objects of a personal consciousness:
* It may be objected that the living creatures, infelicitously rendered, Beasts,
tux, are introduced as taking part in this song with the Elders. And it might
seem that they " had every one harps." But the gender of the participle, tfcov/es,
confines it to the Elders. There is a common action. Both " fall down before the
Lamb." Then there is a separate action. The Elders, representing the universal
Church (four and twenty, the reduplication of the twelve patriarchs and twelve
apostles) take their harps and swell the burden of their appropriating song.

570 THE MINISTRY OF ANGELS.
but such impression, like sight, is debarred by the walk of faith.
Still the doctrine of this ministry is fully declared, fraught with
sweet comfort, enlarging by its beautiful, conceptions, purifying
by its holy communions. And while we would not be led into
the most distant " worshipping of angels, intruding into those
things which we have not seen," yet as far be it from us sternly to
subdue, and frigidly to regard, this amiable belief: a belief which
is intimately entwined with all capital themes of Christianity !
We must remember that the doctrine, which we defend, sup
poses restriction. It is the ministration of angels on them who
shall inherit salvation. Some have maintained an angelic patron
age of countries. Others have argued that there is tutelary for
every individual. For no such views we plead. And it follows,
that these angels know who are such heirs. This cannot be learnt
by any knowledge of the human heart. That is not the prero
gative of creature. God reserves it to himself. From him the
informing process only can be derived. But this is certain.
They foresee the end of faith in the believer, even the salvation
of the soul. " There is joy," said the Saviour, " in the presence
of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth." They are
satisfied, by some infallible intimation, that he truly repents.
It is a consequence, that this repentance must be bound to this
effect. For repentance is " unto life." It is " unto salvation."
They argue no dubious, transient, change. They grasp the
futurity. They read a destiny. They see in them, upon whom
they wait, " the heirs of promise," — those who are " called to
inherit a blessing," — " begotten again to a lively hope of an
inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled, and which fadeth not away."
Why should they doubt ? Here is the principle and beginning
of spiritual life. Here is the rudiment of a divine seed. Here
is "a foundation of repentance from dead works not to be laid
again." Who "hath granted" this repentance? Who hath
wrought it ? " The work of the Lord is perfect." He " cannot
repent." No ! they would not rejoice, with all that jubilant
triumph, that overflowing ecstacy, — they would not so sweep
their harps and uplift their voices, — were it a precarious issue or
an equivocal result !

THE MINISTRY OF ANGELS. 571
There is a Collective interest, a commonwealth, to which
angels minister. The Church is the subject of their care. We
trace their agency in its movements and changes and histories.
They are the avengers of its persecutors. They are the directors of
its apostles. They are beheld, in the scenes of prophecy, breaking
the seals, outpouring the vials, and sounding the trumpets, which
forebode the judgments that shall befall the enemies of truth.
They watchfully direct our attention to the nascent corruptions
of Christianity, to the growth of those enormous secularities and
persecutions which utterly transform it — carrying us away, in the
spirit, until our eyes gaze on the Great Fornicatress, Mystery
on her brow, the Cup of abomination in her hand, and the Blood
of saints in her skirt. They hasten, "having great power," to
cry mightily with a loud voice that Babylon is fallen, — they cast
the millstone into the sea as the emblem of its prostration, efface-
ment, and oblivion, — they bear the key of the bottomless pit and
a great chain, to imprison and bind the dragon, the old serpent,
—they waft us to the great and high mountain that we may see
the Bride, the Lamb's wife, the new Jerusalem of the celestial
state, the Church cleansed, redeemed, glorified !
- But it is intimated to us that a special ministry is directed to
persons, to individual wants and dangers, — to each heir of salva
tion. Unless this be allowed, all that is tangible is frittered
away. Be it constant or limited, be its activities more or less
varying, it is never withheld when it can be of avail, it is a
settled system of perfect benevolence.
-—Our physical constitution is frail and mortal. " Our foun
dation is in the dust, and we are crushed sooner than the moth."
We are " as a leaf driven to and fro." " Changes and war are
against us." God is " the preserver of men." " He holdeth our
Soul in life." " His visitation reneweth our spirit." But he
guards us by his heavenly servants. " He shall give his angels
charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear
thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone."
— There is frailty in our bodies and spirits, — both weary,—
both require rest. It is a humbling law. It is probably a con
dition incident to sin. Since " the Lord God caused a deep sleep

572 THE MINISTRY OF ANGELS.
to fall upon Adam" when yet unfallen, we may suppose that he
was then a stranger to this necessity. The "second Adam,"
though he took not our sinful nature, assumed it in all its infir
mities, "the likeness of sinful flesh" — he slept. "And so he
giveth his beloved, sleep." And be the stone the only pillow
and the sky the only screen, the ladder is set upon the earth
and the top of it reaches to heaven, and the angels of God tra
verse its steps and thence protect mortal slumbers. The patri
arch but saw the evolutions which we, perhaps, enjoy. He "who
shall neither slumber nor sleep," then disdains us not, but sus
tains us, and "maketh us dwell in safety:" and the inference from
this vision is not unnatural, conjoined with the deep sleep of
prophets whom angels often cast into slumber, and whom they
again touched and waked, — that even in our ordinary repose, to
them is entrusted our defence.*
— Our bodies and our spirits are the possible subjects of ail
ment and disturbance while found in their earthly condition. It
is the continuous sense of Scripture that evil spirits have much to
do with all disease. The visitations of corporeal suffering which
Job and Paul experienced are directly ascribed to Satan. The
daughter of Abraham, whom the Saviour loosed, was bound by
that cruel tyrant. When sinners have been devoted to temporal
pains it is represented as " delivering such a one to Satan for the
destruction of the flesh," or, that " they may learn not to blas
pheme." There is a fearful class of mental disorders, which we
cannot but admit have, in some instances, a close analogy to the
ancient possessions. May not angels counterwork these effects by
the power and edict of Him who healeth all our diseases ? When
the prophet sunk beneath the vision, and his " comeliness was
turned into corruption and he retained no strength," then the
angel who spoke to him " strengthened him." When the crowd
of the diseased surrounded the pool of Bethesda, presenting
every ill and malady, an angel descended to give it virtue,
while his presence was signalised by its sudden waves. The dis
position and the authority are thus attested : angels have healed
* " Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth,
Unseen, both when we wake and when we sleep."  Milton.

THE MINISTRY OF ANGELS. 573
all manner of disease : they have been appointed to do so : this
may be still a part of their function and delight.
— We are exposed to many spiritual foes. Apostate angels
are our tempters. They are subtle as malignant. They may say,
" We are many." We wrestle with them. The enemy cometh
in like a flood. They seek our soul to destroy it. A host
encampeth against us. But have we no spiritual allies ? " The
angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him
and delivereth them." " The Lord of hosts is with us." " Fear
not : for they that be with us are more than they that be with
them." From such declarations and examples we conclude that
angels may interpose for our rescue, stand for our help, encircle
us with their array and cover us with their shield.
— " Yea, all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer
persecution." Satan originates and foments it. It was so from
the first: "Cain was of that wicked one, and slew his brother."
" He casts into prison :" Antipas can only be slain " where Satan
dwelleth." " He is not bound already." He hath " great wrath,
because he knoweth that he hath but a short time." Angels, in
contrast, have appeared on behalf of those who have suffered for
righteousness' sake. The faithful confessors of Dura are thrown
into the furnace. " The voice of the Lord divideth the flames of
fire." An angel's form accompanies them as they glorify the
Lord in the fires. A son of God arrests the sevenfold blast.
The Most High " hath sent his angel, and delivered his servants
that trusted in him." Daniel is thrown to the lions. " God sent
his angel, and shut the lions' mouths." If angels do not now
work these wonders of deliverance, may they not be the means of
soothing the pang and fortifying the courage of those who suffer
for Christ ?
—Depression is not unknown to the most cheerful piety.
" Within are fears." The boldest have trembled : the serenest
have drooped. By the shores of Ulai and Hiddekel angels com
forted the prophet: "Fear not: peace be unto thee, be strong,
yea, be strong." There stood by the tempest-tossed apostle in
the starless night, amidst the shivering bark and heaving ocean,
the angel of God, saying, " Fear not." Are we cast down ? Is

574 THE MINISTRY OF ANGELS.
our spirit desolate ? Is our heart overwhelmed ? Is not God
willing to show unto us the immutability of his counsel that we
may have strong consolation ? Would not angels be the ready
comforters? Why must they have abandoned their ancient office?
To be visible and audible, there was machine and apparatus, —
not to be seen nor heard, is to be themselves.
— Lamentable is the distress awakened in the mind when we
fear that we are reprobate, or destitute of the real proof of reli
gion. This fear has, it cannot be doubted, chilled every reflecting,
earnest, spirit. We fear that we are cut off from the congrega
tion of the Lord. Much of this apprehension is suggested by
infernal agency. " The Accuser of the brethren which accuseth
them before God day and night" acts but as the traducer in
engendering this suspicion. He lays charge against God's elect.
He condemneth. How assuring are angel-words like these !
" From the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand,
and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard. I
am come for thy words." How comforting are angel-actions like
these ! " And he showed me Joshua the high priest standing
before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right
hand to resist him. And the Lord said unto Satan, the Lord
rebuke thee, O Satan ; even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem,
rebuke thee : is not this a brand plucked out of the fire ? And
the angel of the Lord stood by. And the angel of the Lord
protested to Joshua." Why should it be thought incredible that
they are still employed on behalf of the saints, telling them that
they are heirs of salvation ? " They bring not railing accusation
against them before the Lord :" is it only a negative part ? a
forbearance, a silence ?
— Evil thoughts find entrance and passage and too often
lodgement in our hearts. Some of these, raised by no outward
object, linked by no associating law, are injected by him who is
the prince of the power of the air, — that is, of an influence wide
and circumambient as the atmosphere. " These are the fiery
darts of the wicked one." These vex and frequently defile.
" We are not ignorant of his devices." " He hinders." And is
the power of good angels utterly ineffectual to inspire holy images

THE MINISTRY OF ANGELS. 575
and suggestions ? Do they only minister to the bodily exigence
and exposure ? Are they alone forbidden the impression of spirit
by spirit ? The fact that thus they could assist the mind of their
Lord in -temptation and agony, renders it more than probable
that they are the potent auxiliaries of his disciples.
— They are the witnesses of Christian convocation and wor
ship, of all that is included in the order and discipline of the
church. Their presence may well check insincerity and dissimu
lation : " Neither say thou before the angel, that it was an error."
It should deepen awe: so that modest custom may be argued,
" the power of woman on her head," " because of the angels," or
even as the angels who cover their faces with their wings. Vow
becomes more solemn that they are near : " I charge thee before
God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the elect angels." Are they
only spectators ? Do they take no part ? Confer they no benefit ?
Minister they not to the heirs of salvation, cheering and stimula
ting them in their prayers, thanksgivings, and meditations ?
— The righteous must die. " The body is dead because of
sin, while the spirit is life because of righteousness." They feel
this to be a serious change. The thought of angels tinges it
with a lovely brightness. " And it came to pass, that the beggar
died and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom."
What humble charge, after conveying this, would these spirits
spurn ? What spirit, most unknown and most afflicted, would
they despise ? Why should we now distrust their ministry ?
Why may not the departing soul, in the acquisition of a new
sense hear them whisper, " Sister spirit come away ?"
— The consummation of glory which awaits the followers of
Christ depends upon the resurrection. They shall rise incorrup
tible and immortal at his call. " Then shall he send his angels,
and shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the
uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven."
"The reapers are the angels." They then shall minister to
the heirs of salvation in their last stage of imperfection : they
shall roll away the stone from their sepulchre: this act being
performed, danger remains not from which to deliver, nor weak
ness to strengthen, nor want to supply.

576 THE MINISTRY OF ANGELS.
Though we believe that this hypothesis is in no part gratui
tous and speculative, that scriptural precedent and intimation
bear it fully out, that the reasoning is most legitimate from the
former to the present and from the palpable to the spiritual, — we
are not heedless of the objection that angelic ministry, so defined,
may seem to trench upon the peculiar work of the Holy Ghost.
Especially may this objection be more strongly felt in every
instance which has supposed communication between these agents
and the mind of man. Who but the Third Person of the glorious
Triunity can command access to the human consciousness, can
search and try the heart ? — For nothing efficient and absolute in
this ministry do we contend. Simple instrumentality is all that
we assert. The objection might go too far and its denial prove
too much. God is the author of all holy comfort, he comforteth
those that are cast down, but this he may do by an indirect
process, he " comforted" Paul " by the coming of Titus." God
alone can give " the spirit of power and of a sound mind :" but
this he may bestow by circuitous means : and Paul the prisoner,
when he saw the brethren who came to meet him in his bonds,
"thanked God and took courage." Man, in these and other
cases, was made the medium of divine blessing to man. In the
communion of saints our inward souls are constantly excited and
refreshed. We receive light and purity and peace. Yet all is
of God. The angel is sent forth by Him to minister. But it is
" the angel of His presence." " Now I know of a surety, that
the Lord hath sent his angel and delivered me," is the confes
sion of Peter: "Jesus Christ sent and signified the Revelation
which God gave unto him by his angel to his servant John."
" I, Jesus, have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things
in the churches." It is mere service. He gives the " charge."
He impresses all its value and utility. Why does angel, the
instrument, more interrupt or hide the operation of Deity than
the instrument, man ?
Our ground of defence, — if we have at all extended the more
common view of the ministry of angels, — is this. We take the
Scriptures of truth. We find in them a very frequent notice of
it. They set it before us in manifold events. It is their inter-

THE MINISTRY OF ANGELS. 577
woven doctrine. Narrative speaks of it without surprise. It is
not reserved for poetry and description. It is wrought into the
whole composition. Every act of simple intervention which has
been, may be. " Whatsoever things were written aforetime were
written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort
of the Scriptures might have hope." These acts are, then, the
warrants for our continued belief. They are still in procedure.
The sensible signs have been presented : with them the evidence
has closed. But that evidence remains. It only devolves on us
to rest upon it. The great system of angelic auxiliaries is in
operation. Every end intended by the sensible sign, save that
of miracle, is in unbroken operation. What did these celestial
envoys that they do not still ? What assistance was ever granted
which we do not now receive ? Unseen hands minister to us, but
it is " the hand beneath the cherub's wing."
And we discover in the Text every proof that we can desire.
If our faith might require the most perfect kind of statement,
we here possess it. It is not laboured proof. It is not straitened
argument. The doctrine is taken for granted. Appeal supplies
the place of controversy. It is left for us to answer. We of our
ownselves must judge. Can it be denied? Does it admit of
question ? Is it reducible to even a supposititious, a momentary,
dispute ? " Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to
minister for them who shall inherit salvation ?" — If our faith might
require a solution of an obvious difficulty, it is furnished to us.
We think of the children of God scattered abroad. How remote
their habitations ! How multiplied their wants ! How can
these attentions be vouchsafed to each and all ? We are taught
to dismiss our fears. We survey the countless throng of these
intelligences. All their clouds of number, all their flights of
activity, are on our side. Not one of them is released from the
behest. Not one of them refuses the service. " Are they not all
ministering spirits?" — If our faith might require the strictest
confirmation that this is a present, an actual, conduct, — that it
is in constant evolution,— it is declared. It is not record of the
past. It is not prophecy of the future. At this hour, it is true.
At this instant, it is in force. The world is shadowed with their
p p

578 THE MINISTRY OF ANGELS.
wings. Their goings forth are of an unwearying benevolence.
" Are they not all ministering spirits?" — If our faith might
require a divine allegation, like unto a promise, it is declared.
We " obtain a promise," a promise exceeding great and precious !
"Thus saith the Lord," who " sendeth forth" all that host!
Enquire now of the Lord !
We are thus prepared to take a large view, and to experience
a constant enjoyment, of this most interesting truth. We would
bring no doubt, no reservation, to it. We give it our ready,
entire, confidence. We not only " see the Lord sitting on his
throne, and all the host of heaven standing by him on his right
hand and on his left," — to that host we have free access. We
"are come to them." We seem to behold them, as in the strain
of the bard, " Along the ground gliding meteorous." We are
united in common bonds. We share their sympathy. We yield
to their guidance. We lean on their friendship. They encou
raged our first tears of repentance, and shall not forego their hold
of us until we be confessed before them at the last great day.
" The tongues of men and of angels" shall sweetly blend in the
notes of eternal praise. We need not go even unto the sanctuary
to find them, as of old their eyes gazed on the ark and their
wings fanned the mercy-seat, — the archetypes of those figures are
with us. We have boldness to enter into the holiest, which
they love to penetrate, — and we find it whenever devotion raises
the veil and draws near to the Presence and the Glory. We
may cherish more familiar thoughts, — we may return to our own
vine and figtree, — we may prepare our home, — and, amidst its
quiet piety and cheerful vow, " entertain angels unawares."

SERMON XXllI.

THE FAITH OF DEVILS.

James ii. 19.
"The devils also believe, and tremble."
Little apology would be sought, were I now to marshal before
you the hosts of heaven, — thrones, dominions, principalities, au
thorities, powers, — in their mighty orders and burning files, with
all their heraldry and harmony, — radiant with purity, bursting
into song, plumed for flight ! For what objects of attention are
they, and how does their nature challenge our enquiry ! If
beauty has aught to attract, if worth to charm, if benevolence to
endear, — if beings so glorious can raise our amazement, if intelli
gences so piercing can excite our curiosity, if spirits so holy can
win upon our hearts, — then, assuredly, are these blessed creatures
deserving of our study and admiration. What objects are they,
likewise, of complacency ! With pleasure may we turn from the
spectacles of violence and pollution which fill our earth, and con
template these existences of light and joy. In such meditations
our minds find a repose, we catch the kindred love of virtue, we
yearn with new-sprung sensibilities, we " are come to an innume
rable company of angels," as to exemplary associates and friends.
For what objects are they, above all, of imitation ! They sur
round the seat of Deity, — they wait upon the guidance of his
eye, — they stand with outstretched wings to obey his behest, —
each look and attitude reveals the ardent readiness of their ser
vice, — they glance as the lightning with intensity and speed, —
they return as the sunbeam with unsullied brightness and undi
verted course, — their offices are their delight, their ministrations
are their reward, — " they bless the Lord, doing his command-

580 THE FAITH OF DEVILS.
ments, hearkening unto the voice of his word; they are his
ministers that do his pleasure."
But will not explanation, not to say excuse, be required,
when from the skies where these glad supernals dwell, when from
the glorious hierarchy of heaven, when from " the solemn troops
and sweet societies" with whom is endless praise and jubilee, I
transport your thoughts to an abode far distant and far different,
where angels, once fair and happy as these sons of God, once
celestials themselves, but who kept not their lofty estate, lie in
chains of darkness and despair? When I throw open the gate
which shuts in the outcasts who fled from the thunder of the
Omnipotent, and who now await, with dread expectation, the
infliction of their final doom ? When I unveil not only the
caverns of their prison but the recesses of their bosom, the con
vulsed pangs which tear them, the dire agitations which consume
them ? " A Dungeon horrible on all sides around
As one great furnace flames, yet from those flames
No light, but rather darkness visible
Serves only to discover sights of woe,
Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace
And rest can never dwell, hope never comes
That comes to all, but torture without end
Still urges and a fiery deluge —
Such place eternal Justice has prepared
For those rebellious."*
Ah, for no fierce pictures of the imagination, — for no delight,
strange but conceivable, in the terrible and the appalling, — for
no intense thrill and shock of tragic fright and consternation, —
for no breaking up of that mental vacancy which is far more
painful than any excess of feeling, — for no panic-excitement, which
every man prefers to that stupor which nothing can arouse and
that apathy which nothing can move, — is this scene to be now
impressed. Why, then, shall this revelation be made? Why
let escape the smoke of the pit ? Why pourtray these images
of woe? Why evoke from the fiery deep those lapsed, lost,
spirits whose sufferings fancy might tremble to describe and
* Milton.

THE FAITH OF DEVILS. 581
silence learn to forbear ? — That you may revise your scheme of
doctrine by their creed ! That you may assimilate your prac
tice to their conduct ! You shall learn of them how you ought
to regard truth, how to judge divine dispensation, how you
should be affected as well as convinced, how you should feel
as well as think ! Strange Example, and yet one which we must
follow, — Hateful Standard, but still one which we must con
sult ! Fiends rebuke all unbelief, all frivolity, all obduracy !
Fiends shame the sceptic, the trifler, the callous ! Fiends warn
us not to doubt and not to bravado ! Fiends adjure us not
to disobey and not to mock ! We may cast off fear, — we may
make our hearts as the adamant-stone, — we may talk exceeding -
arrogantly, — we may lift up our horn on high, — but fiends were
never proof against the influence of fear, and never so hardened
themselves in the day of their most guilty provocation as not to ,
tremble !
We, thus, advance to the recognition of a portion of creatures
whose character is most revolting and whose history is most
dread. " The angels that sinned" is the simple account which
we possess of their apostacy : they were " cast down to hell," is
the simple account of their doom. There is a Chief who incited
them to rebellion and still rules them, — " the angel of the bot
tomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but
in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon." Painful preemi
nence ! He keepeth his palace, but it is a prison : he is chained
to his throne. To suppose that these are representations, poetic
and figurative, of mere evil, — that they are abstractions, — is to
confound every quality of style and every province of truth.
When the sacred writers speak of " the devil and his angels,'
they invariably attach to them personal attributes. They call
him " the spirit which now worketh in the children of disobedi
ence :" they speak of them as " spirits," with various epithets of
wicked and unclean, this being their common nature. Such high
nature may, then, be turned to a greater depravity by sin. We
see in it, as it exists in them, but " spiritual wickedness." "We
wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities,
against powers," — then these principalities and powers are not

582 THE FAITH OF DEVILS.
human, but extraneous and distinct. The Tempter, therefore, is
branded as " the father of lies," " the murderer from the begin
ning," " the prince" and " the god" " of this world," " the accu
ser of the brethren," — he " devises," he " speaks," he " rails," he
" taunts," he " reasons," he " expostulates." — The Narrative of
Revelation is perfectly consistent. " Cain was of that Wicked
one and slew his brother." " God sent evil angels among them."
" Satan stood up to provoke David to number the people."
" After the sop Satan entered into Judas." They are " the rulers
of the darkness of this world." — The Events of Redemption in
volve the same fact. " For this purpose was the Son of God
manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil." "Jesus
was tempted of the devil." He " cast out devils," who acknow
ledged him with loud cries of deprecation. He was overwhelmed
by " the power of darkness." " He spoiled principalities and
powers and made a show of them openly, triumphing over them
in the cross." — Warnings and promises press to the same point.
"Neither give place to the devil." "That ye may be able to
stand against his wiles." " Resist him and he shall flee from you."
" The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly." —
The blessings of the gospel proceed on the same admission. " To
turn the people from the power of Satan unto God." " Giving
thanks unto the Father who hath delivered us from the power
of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear
Son." " Ye have overcome the wicked one."
It is not even a summary of the argument, in proof of these
existences, which we attempt. A particular exercise of infernal
intellect is our proper theme. We are summoned to look into
its workings. It is no return to a right mind. There is no
softened mood. The fell defiance of sin is unvanquished. No
relentings give pause to hate and rage. But there is the allow
ance of Divine supremacy. There is the sense of Divine punish
ment. It is not spiritual insensibility. "They believe and
tremble."
I. Let us examine their Creed.
Concerning some forms of error, which retain the name of
Christianity but to expel its essence, even their apologists have

THE FAITH OF DEVILS. 583
stated that their religion consists in "not believing." Looking
into these forms, we justify the description : the whole process
seems to be of doubt and rejection. Privatives and negations are
all that is left. This does not well agree, at least, with the letter
of the gospel : for it speaks much in favour of faith, and as much
in denouncement of unbelief. Truth is supposed, by it, to pos
sess a "present" character and an absolute existence. It makes
nothing vague, leaves nothing unreal, and accepts nothing indif
ferent. And, unlike any such representations, the convictions of
these fallen angels are positive and distinct. Their creed is most
scripturally just and sincere. It is void of error, distortion,
prejudice, evasion. It is light without darkness, — a scorching
light. No cloud obscures its clearness, no reflection diverts its
application. We read, indeed, of " the doctrine of devils," but
they hold it not. They are not beguiled and blinded by it. It
binds them in no delusion. They know it to be false, for they
have invented it. They know it to be false, for they have con
trived it as the instrument of insidious imposture and the vehicle
of moral poison. They know it to be false, for it is the engine
of their fatal and destructive influence over the minds of men.
Error they love, not to be soothed by it, not to forget themselves
in it, but as the means of perversion. Their understanding dis
cerns every line and particle of untruth. Liars they may be, but
they believe not their lie. They have not erred from the faith
nor concerning it.
And whence draw we our proofs, that these spirits judge
infallibly and retain inviolately all those things which ought
assuredly to be believed among us? That they cannot be charged
with obliquity and deflection as to the faith once delivered to the
saints ? By their attempts to conceal and deform it ! They
must know the glass in which men can only behold the glory of
the Lord, or they would not have flawed it ! They must know
the trumpet of glad tidings, or they would not have given it an
uncertain sound ! They must know the savour of life unto life,
or they would not haye corrupted it into the savour of death
unto death ! Their subtlety in dealing with it shows their per
fect conception of it. Their enmity labours to suppress it or to

584 THE FAITH OF DEVILS.
misrepresent it. They would turn it aside from its proper cha
racter and influence. They would despoil it by our vain philo
sophy, and urge the cunning craft and sleight of men to mould
it to every uncongenial shape. They would bring it down to the
elements of this world. They would destroy its vitality and
power. Full well they understand it. Hence their hostility in
all its divers manifestations. " But if our gospel be hid, it is
hid to them that are lost : in whom the god of this world hath
blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the
glorious gospel of Christ should shine unto them." "But I fear
lest by any means as the serpent beguiled Eve through his sub
tlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity
which is in Christ." " The coming of that Wicked," — that mon
strous usurpation over the rights of conscience, that crushing
tyranny, that bloody beast, is "after the working of Satan."
Knew he not what he thus scandalised and defaced? "The
spirits ofjxlevils" will endeavour to counterwork and frustrate
the gospel until the end : they will " gather men to the great
battle of Almighty God" for a final effort, for a deadly stand.
Yet those lying spirits are not bound by their own spells nor
intoxicated with their own sorceries. They stumble not while
they make us fall, they wilder not while they make us dream, —
they cannot be deceived, however they may cause us to err, and
however they may deride us after betraying us !
What do they believe? How may their creed be propounded?
— They " believe that there is one God," "the eternal, immor
tal, invisible ;" that " besides him there is none other ;" " the
Creator who is blessed for ever ;" " the only wise God." Their
existence attests it, — the wonders, over whose rising glory they
sung while innocent, proclaim it; the horrible tempest which
fell upon them, the remorse which preys within, place the fact
beyond a doubt. No atheist ever stood up amongst them.
None of them ever said in their heart, There is no God. Nor
do they raise difficulty against their faith. Jehovah in Trinity
of persons, as well as in unity of essence, do they acknowledge
as the God of their belief. The Eternal Son have they not
denied. " He suffered them not to speak, because they knew

THE FAITH OF DEVILS. 585
him." Still they often " cried out, saying, Thou art Christ the
Son of God." " What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou
Son of God ?" " I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of
God." — The Eternal Spirit is too necessarily opposed to them to
be denied. " Greater is He that is in you than he that is in
the world." "Hereby know we the Spirit of truth and the
spirit of error." What must they think of men " without God
in the world ?" who call not Jesus, Lord ? who know not that
there is a Holy Ghost ?
— They believe all the facts comprehended in the history of
the Incarnation. They were not unmoved by the general expec
tation of the ancient church. They were not indifferent to the
prophetic utterances breathed by the ancient saints. They were
stirred up : they stood on the country where the scene was to open
in thick array. They took possession of human body and mind.
They entrenched themselves deep, as in a pass, to resist Him who
came to subvert their reign. The anthem of Bethlehem fell
not on their heedless ear: nor rose the star of the Orient upon
their sealed eye. They were racked with a suspense on which
all was stretched. But each event awaked and marked their
interest. — The Temptation brought the Messiah full in view.
Their weapons failed. — His miracles dislodged them from their
strength, however their dupes reported that these deeds of omni
potence were compassed by themselves. Then Satan fell like
lightning from heaven. — In the Agony, " the prince of this world
came" to the Awful sufferer, with vile insults, with blasphemous
suggestions, but "found nothing in him." — By the Crucifixion
Jesus " destroyed him that had the power of death" and " bruised
his head." He rose and he ascended, — an enlargement and a
triumph which consummated his victory over those "enemies
which were now his footstool." He still " rules in the midst of
them." They remember all. They feel those events in their
ceaseless effects. They cannot slur them with a doubt. They
cannot weaken them by a suspicion. Whether " God manifest
in the flesh" be or be not " believed on in the world," devils
believe the total of " that mystery of godliness." They set no
example of human superciliousness, cavil, and sneer !

586 THE FAITH OF DEVILS.
— They believe the Deity and Atonement of the Redeemer.
If these discoveries gradually unfolded themselves to their minds,
they fell at last with decisive power. When the " world knew
him not," " received him not," " comprehended him not," little
hesitation withheld their fear that He it was who should come.
They bore early witness to him. They saw not in him the pea
sant, the mechanic, the carpenter's son, — the agent of Beelzebub,
the deceiver of the people, — the man of sorrows, the outcast who
had not where to lay his head, — but their Lord, " by whom were
all things created, visible or invisible, whether they be thrones or
dominions or principalities or powers," blasted as some of those
essences now might be. They had owned that creative fiat. They
had shone in that glorious outbirth. They had stood up in that
mighty spectacle. Again they knew their God ! " The glory of
the only Begotten of the Father" flashed forth upon them, which
erst they had beheld when He was " in the bosom of the Father,"
and when its splendours awakened their delight. " Let all the
angels of God worship him," was the mandate of heaven, and
doubtless it was heard by this revolt. When He had " been
declared the Son of God with power," when he had " been justi
fied by the displays of his divine nature," when raised to the right
hand of dominion, when seated in the midst of the throne, when
adored by all the spirits of light and love, well might they say, —
" Jesus we know !" The divided seat of the chief place on high,
— his reinstatement in the glory which he had with the Father
before the world begun, — combined with the jealousy of Deity
which will not give its glory unto another, — must satisfy all de
mur. They may " blaspheme," but they do not " contradict."
They may gnash at the Godhead of Him who avenges us on
them, but they do not impugn the fact. Mortals reserve that
wilfulness for themselves ! — They, alike, discern in the death of
the cross the Atoning Sacrifice for sin. It has other aspects.
To them is defeat and overthrow. " The prince of this world
was cast out." But this is its bearing upon ourselves. And
while they ponder it, they mark this new way of " condemning
sin," not on the offender but on his substitute. They see the
illustrations which are thus secured for the perfections of the

THE FAITH OF DEVILS. 587
divine character and the principles of the divine law. They see
the fountain opened for sin and uncleanness springing up in all
its waves of fulness, in all its virtues of purity and healing.
" It is finished." That cry smote upon them. Then that blood
spake, it has ever since been speaking, it speaketh still ! Then
that blood was sprinkled, it has ever since been sprinkling, it is
sprinkled yet ! " At this time !" Through all time ! Until
the end of time ! They know that it brought again from the
dead the Lord Jesus ! They know that it sendeth forth the
prisoners from the pit ! They trifle not with it ! They disallow
it not ! They, whatever may be the conduct of other creatures,
do not " count it a common thing !"
— They believe the conversion and salvation of fallen men.
Surprise must fill them at the patience and long-suffering which
have spared us, which have given a new probation to us, which
extend general life and opportunity, which build up an ceconomy
of- enjoyment and hope. But they learn that vessels of mercy
have been chosen, and they may well wonder at the purposes for
which these are prepared. " To take out of the nations this
people," is a design which most nearly concerns themselves. It
is to "recover from the snare of the devil those whom he has
taken captive at his will." It is to " lead captivity captive." It
is to " bind the strong man and to spoil his house." It is to
" take the prey from the mighty." Infernal malice opposes this.
" Our adversary goeth about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he
may devour." " He was the man-slayer from the beginning."
He, therefore, would obstruct and vitiate all the means of rescue.
" Then cometh the devil and taketh away the word out of their
hearts lest they should believe and be saved." They make no
question nor jest of regeneration. They know that it is real.
They have heard Jehovah say : " I have observed him !" Their
eyes have followed the direction to which every glance of heaven
has turned : " Behold he prayeth." They have caught the anthems
of the sky' in " the joy of angels over one sinner that repenteth."
They have listened to the thanksgivings of countless millions
disenthralled from guilt and ruin, — and while they have listened,
their own power has been shaken to the centre and their kingdom

588 THE FAITH OF DEVILS.
has departed from them. We deny not that there are creatures
who marvel at the new birth, who treat it as a ceremony, who
regard it as a nullity, who deride it as a dream,— but they belong
not to this order of beings, nor can be classed with these enemies
of righteousness. — They believe the sovereignty of the Divine Mercy. We
may account it arbitrary. We may deem its withholdment un
just. Seldom do we divest ourselves of a secret idea of moral
title. We raise a claim. But the Will that has mercy, or that
has not mercy, stands to them in no light of a theory, in no
form of a dispute. They prove it. They duly interpret it.
Grace was altogether denied to them. This takes the shape of
fact. It falls back into an intelligible first principle. Mercy can
owe nothing. The sinner can merit nothing of favour and good.
On no "hill apart" do they hold sophistical debate concerning
that which their own history leaves unquestionable. Their own
experience has incontrovertibly established it. It is forced upon
them. It fills up their thought. Strange must appear to them
the reasonings which we have among ourselves. They must be
amazed, in the distributions and exercises of distinguishing mercy
towards different persons of mankind, how the impression can
arise that there is in this any breach of equity, any injury done
to the creature, any inextricable dilemma of mystery and sus
pense. For all these depths of judgment they are prepared by
their own more soundless depth ! For all these problems of des
tiny they are prepared by their own darker problem !
— They believe that there shall be an ultimate overthrow of
evil. The first promise to us, — to them only a fearful menace, —
is not erased from their memory. They have watched its deve
lopment ever since. They recoiled from the presence and power
of the Saviour when on earth : " Art thou come to torment us
before the time ?" " The devil hath great wrath because he know
eth that his time is short." He shall be " bound," " shut up," and
" sealed," — and though, on the elapse of the thousand years, he
shall be " loosed," it shall only be " for a little season." He shall
be cast down for ever. The range of his rebellious activity shall
eternally cease. His central influence shall be destroyed. Their

THE FAITH OF DEVILS. 589
punishment presumes that they continue to exist and in a sinful
state : but they can rule and tempt no more.
— They believe that there shall be a universal judgment.
What they know of Christianity, — how perfectly they understand
it! — convinces them of its first principle, — eternal judgment.
Man is obviously a responsible candidate, nor could they inspect
his course without perceiving it : " Some men's sins are open,
going before to judgment, and some men they follow after."
They are not the scoffers who cry aloud : " Where is the promise
of His coming ?" They are too seriously interested in it. God
hath " delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved unto
judgment." " He hath reserved them under darkness unto the
judgment of the great day." And looking upon man, their
sense of judgment is but the more provoked : "Know ye not that
ye shall judge angels ?"
— They believe the eternity of future retribution. That which
is imminent upon them is inexorable as " everlasting chains" can
render it. The human sinner and unbeliever shall share it : " De
part, ye cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and
his angels." " And the devil was cast into the lake of fire, and
shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever." We may
fall into " his condemnation." Among the disputers of this world
the doctrine is exploded : they call to their aid the artifice of phi
losophy, the gloss of rationalism. But the daemon finds not in all
his force of intellect, in all his field of research, one hope to relieve
his foreboding, one abatement to calm his fear.
Let us, having thus far considered what devils believe,
II. Trace its Impression.
They are not wanting in that which we denominate, courage.
We may ascribe to them unshrinking prowess and fell dint.
Rancour and desperation have nerved their strife. Have they not
defied the Omnipotent ? Have they not stormed the battlements
of heaven? They still resist. We do not suppose, indeed, the
interval of momentary doubt. We cannot conceive the most
imaginable pause. They never asked, with surprise or suspense,
whether they might not succeed, whether "such astonishment
could seize eternal spirits?" The boast of resource, of future

590 THE FAITH of devils.
opportunity, of repaired disaster, of improved defeat, they could
never make. But they, at least, were bold. That boldness has
not failed them. They wage perpetual war against the cause and
will of God. They relent not at the desolations which their anar
chy has produced. Never once has their hostility slackened.
Never has their enmity assuaged. Still they cannot conceal
from themselves that dire ruin which they have brought upon
all their interests. It is self-confessed. Their temperament is
unequal to the continued contest, their position is most unreason
able and destructive, they feel the hopelessness of the quarrel,
they recoil from the shock. They stand aghast. They experi
ence an invincible dismay. They " tremble" !
And this to us is discovery. From all we know, we should
have presumed their state of mind to be fearless, reckless, hardi
hood. They vaunt themselves among the children of men. They
flatter us with hopes of liberty. They embolden us with assu
rances of impunity. They teach us lessons of pride and show us
examples of defiance. The attitude of their genius is that of
haughty triumph. Their shout is of victory. It is as though
every auspice was on their side. Their Chief could say : " All
this power, and the glory of all these kingdoms, is delivered
unto me." We have " delivered" it, and not God. The cession
is on our part. " For of whom a man is overcome, of the same
is he brought into bondage." We have yielded ourselves and
our world. " Our agreement is with hell." And who enlists the
multitude ? Who guides the course of this world ? He has a
throne of iniquity. He commands a multitudinous vassalage.
But he sways the will. Man cheerfully obeys his oppressor.
The human heart is his hold of power. The fashion and society
of earth declare his ascendancy. He prevails. He conquers.
The lures and bonds with which he seduces and captivates are
"the pleasures of sin for a season." He sheds a passionate joy
over all his scenes of influence. He induces his subjects to think
that they are happy. Could they but awake to the spell which
soothes them, they might infer that the Tempter was likewise
happy. " To-morrow shall be as this day, and much more abun
dant." It is one illusion of self-adulation by which he gathers

THE FAITH OF DEVILS. 591
and rules. Can he and his legions be differently affected ? Can
they juggle with our hopes, who know no hope themselves?
Can they bid us rejoice, while themselves shall tremble? It is
not only discovery most fearful, — like a flash of lightning sud
denly darting across some dark gulf or hideous ruin, revealing
that which though again hidden can never be forgotten, — it is
discovery of the greatest practical value. It lays open the deceit-
fulness of sin. It. convinces us how hollow are its fascinations.
We see the very authors of evil. We mark our tempters. These
promise us every delight if we will follow them. The prizes are
not only before us, but they who bid for our souls. And what
do we detect ? What advantage have they gained ? What hath
it profited them ? Are they happy ? Can they bear up under
their condition ? " Dearly they abide the boast so vain." Satan
can no longer " transform himself into an angel of light." We
discern these spirits. We search their consciousness. The canker
is within. It strikes. It gnaws. It consumes. Their feeling
is true. Their anguish is sincere. Effrontery no longer serves
them. Cunning has no place nor purpose here. They are alone.
They are on their own ground. Nature resumes. Earnestness
prevails. And they " tremble" !
But if we would, by any approach, to any degree, understand
this condition of mind, — we must recall to our memory, we must
constitute' before our judgment, certain principles and circum
stances which attach to the beings of whom it is averred. It is
not only terror, it is the terror of peculiar creatures: it is the
shrinking of a vast capacity, of a mighty sense. It is not the
timidity of a little, inferior, nature : it is the giving way of a
deep-most strength : it is the downfall of a celestial birth. The
star of heaven sets in the sides of the pit. All their energies
impart but the more frightful convulsion to their alarms. What
an abyss of being, of power, of emotion, heaves !
— Their nature is high and noble. They are exposed to no
death. According to the purpose and the law of their creation,
— not of themselves, but of Him who will be consistent with such
purpose and law,— they cannot be physically injured nor ulti
mately annihilated. External inflictions cannot affect them.

592 THE FAITH OF DEVILS.
They are simple spirits. Mountains heaped on them could not
crush them. Oceans loosed on them could not whelm them.
These things could not harm. Of such visitations they cannot
be afraid. No part of their nature is objective to them. Light
ning cannot scathe. Thunderbolt cannot pierce. Then the
ground of dismay must be consonant to the complexion and sus
ceptibility of their being. Though there be found an external
cause, its operation is not so much upon that being as in it.
The cause works through that being's faculties. Its misery must
be its own dark, troubled, mind. What a consciousness is that
which every moment rises from the depths of such a spirit, like a
shoot of fire ! What a memory is that which sends back upon
it the full image of its pristine glory, like a faithful mir
ror ! Sin, taking occasion of our corporeal constitution and
terrestrial externalism, often weakens the human intellect. It
always corrupts its finer tastes and better judgments. But this
is only necessarily true in the province of religion. In other
departments it may leave the intellect unrestricted. It may even
heighten and quicken some of its operations. So angels need
not be blinded by their sin. The rebellious and malignant qua
lities of that sin may stimulate their powers. What they have
lost of repose they acquire of activity. Their sword is kept
bright. They are posted on a sleepless watch. We must, then,
endeavour to think of them as retaining all the great dimensions
of their original being. That being is the subject of this horror.
It is the full resistance of that being which quails. It is the
largest apprehension of the threatening which can overtake that
being. It is the mighty fallen ! Mighty still as ever, but only
mighty to endure ! Could hurt smite them from without, they
would belong to an inferior race of creatures. But internal suf
fering only can they know. What can compare with this ? " A
wounded spirit who can bear ?" This is their living agony.
This is their intensity of suffering. It is self-acting and self-
revolved. Uncompounded spirits as they are, impervious to
external violence as they must be, — they " tremble"!
— Their knowledge of the nature, their experience of the evil,
of sin, must not be overlooked, while we scan the terror of this

THE FAITH OF DEVILS. 593
apostate class of creatures. All unrighteousness is deceivable:
in their first act they may have been deceived. Every sinner
" flattereth himself in his own eyes until his iniquity be found to
be hateful." All is not seen by him at the first. " Sin" has not
" found him out." It wears to him a flattering disguise. In vain
may he have been warned that it " is an evil thing and bitter."
He has sown, but he has not reaped. Sin assumes not as yet its
proper frown. There is a retribution which fallen angels forebode.
They tremble while it overshadows them. But many of the
effects and punishments of sin they not only survey but suffer.
These are actually realised. They need not look around on the
mischiefs they have done to others. They need not gaze at a
desecrated heaven or on a blighted world. Their own glory has
departed. In themselves they read the lesson, they see the memo
rial, of what sin entails. It has made them the outlaws of the
universe. It has set a mark upon them, to be shunned of all.
They have not forgotten the thrones from which they were cast.
They do not despise the innocence which they have sullied. They
do not slight the vengeance which they have provoked. Like
"doleful creatures," they live among the ruins of all that was great
and fair and glad. How must the unreasonableness of sin strike
their mind ! How must its desolation impress their attention !
How must its malignancy condemn their course ! They appreciate
its fruit, — it's harvest, — as we cannot. With sin exposed in its
consequences, — past and future, — they are seized with terror at
what they have perpetrated ! They see a species lost ! They see
creation cursed ! They see "nature set on fire of hell" ! They
do not "make a mock at sin," — they dare not, — they cannot, —
and they, therefore, " tremble" !
— To these fallen angels, the results of action cannot but
clearly define themselves. They may reason upon them as strictly
just : they may dwell upon them as already fulfilled. These
results are in continued succession and evolution. They point to
a more general and certain catastrophe. Judgment shall be heard
from heaven. Every ?'work shall be brought into judgment."
They await it. Our apprehensions are often more painful than
the event, which they respect, can warrant. From this excess

594 THE FAITH OF DEVILS.
of former fear we control the present. We have imagined too
much and painted too strongly, and may be doing so again.
We, therefore, check our more gloomy thoughts. Sometimes,
also, when our fear seems too well grounded, there is, at least,
possibility that it may be disappointed. What preventives may
arise! What strange interruptions of ordinary tendency may
cross reasonable expectation ! To us, consequently, there is, in
ordinary circumstances, some relief. We can, with some con
sistency, argue against the extreme, and against the certainty,
of our forebodings. We should be most differently affected did
we shape the future in all the hideousness which culprit- fear
might lend or sternest truth forecast. There is much which flat*
ters us, which encourages us, perhaps which blinds us. But to
the spirits of hell all the issues of their conduct, all the arrears
of their retribution, stand out in the prospect and purview of an
eternal duration. Nothing interposes. Nothing can contravene.
They see them from afar. They are constantly approaching
them. They cannot divert their eye. They cannot dissipate
their conviction. Punishment long since begun : it has ever since
augmented: it is still increasing: it hastens to its climax. It
cannot be forgotten, questioned, prevaricated, overlooked. Cer
tainty is their rack ! It is in the knowledge of their doom that
they " tremble" !
— There are no circumstances known to us which peremp
torily and absolutely forbid an exercise of hope. It often betrays
us, but we cannot reject all its witcheries. Even if life opens
not another glimpse of light, another streak of beauty, hope may
live in death. Despair is thus driven from the most sinking,
undone, wretch. One gate secures his disenthralment. The an
chor, which here can find no hold, is within the veil. This hope
finds a strength even in this despair. And when hope cannot
soothe, when it cannot survive, relief may come in the excess of
grief. Exhaustion superinduces insensibility. The darkest hour,
too, suggests the dawn. The last disaster sometimes brings re
trieval with it of all that has gone before. Moreover, there, is
in the temperament of our mind not only a power, but an incli
nation, to give ourselves to pleasing visions. We would be dupes..

THE FAITH OF DEVILS. 595
Though prudence restrain and experience warn, we would hot
wake from such a dream. But in these thoughts are only fierce
contrasts to mark the dread which devils feel. They cannot
hope ! They cannot be deceived by any of its arts. They do not
die. There is no alternative which to others despair might bring.
Nor does the anguish of their mind lose its keenness. The over
flow of the vessel only leaves it always full. — There is no self-
infatuation. — Not an antidote, not a respite, hot a remission,
rises up between them and their fears, and they " tremble" !
— The possibility of success, slender and doubtful as it may
be, inspires the mind with the fortitude of endurance and incites
it to the hazard of attempt. Difficulty and danger arouse the
resources of the brave. But all is depressed and withered where
no chance exists, and no effort can prevail. There is strength in
the spirit of revenge. In wilfulness it may contend against, neces
sary defeat. It is as phrenzied as impotent. Yet thus a foe
may be weakened, and revenge be done upon him, when he cannot
be overcome. The resistance at bay may be hurtful though not
effectual. Life may be sold dear. The defender of himself
may not fall single. But we now contemplate adverse powers
which must be overthrown. Only discomfiture can attend them.
They foresee their certain ruin. It shall not be allowed to them,
when thinking of their foes, to " scatter them in the imagination
of their hearts." They shall be trodden in anger and trampled
in fury. Their place shall be no more found. Flight shall not
be left them. Their weapons of war shall perish. They know it,
— they know that all their assaults must turn upon themselves,
— they know that they must fall upon their own swords, — and
they "tremble"!
-—Defeat does not necessarily involve disgrace. No created
agent can command success. Truth may fall in the street. The
saints may be overcome. But no passion more paralyses all the
springs of courage than shame. To know that we are wrong, —
that we ought not to succeed, — that our every motive is corrupt,
^ — Is to shorten our arm for all enterprise. It is impossible to
suppose that these malignants can encourage themselves with a
sentiment of self-respect. Theirs is not truth, theirs is not equity,

596 THE FAITH OF DEVILS.
theirs is not benevolence. Spirits, like these, must sink in the
consciousness of such career. Nor can they expect a plaudit
from any other creature. Man, the lost, will endlessly upbraid.
Man, the redeemed, will endlessly condemn. Confusion will seize
them. Shame and Everlasting Contempt will cover them. They
shall be cut off from all sympathy. They shall abhor them
selves. When every support has failed, — nothing from within
to sustain, nothing from without to cheer, — justly may they
" tremble" !
— Seldom is it that, in our intensest suffering, we find no
means of withdrawing our attention from it, no momentary obli
vion, no power of transition, no ideal of melioration. The mind
is not often lost in itself. The trouble but rarely presses upon it
but it rebounds. Prospects shine before our dungeon bars. But
when these spirits think, there is for them but one thought ;
when they feel, there is for them but one feeling; when they
fear, there is for them but one fear. Their punishment is greater
than they can bear. There is an immitigableness in it. It is a
concentrated emphasis of despair. Nothing divides it. Nothing
perplexes it. Nothing alleviates it. It is the whirlwind of the;
Lord which falls grievously upon them. " So he persecutes them
with his tempest, and makes them afraid with his storm." Be
neath the unbroken accumulation, the undiverted force, of his,
judgments, they " tremble" !
The Effect of this belief having been traced in its circum
stances and aggravations, it is proper that we
III. Justify the Consistency and Fitness of such Im
pression. Common dangers fall short of them. Slight grounds of alarm
they can disdain. Their nature turns aside ordinary evil.' From
their pure essence every weapon glances pointless. Pusillanimity
is not their port. There is but one anger which can invade them.
There is but one power which they fear. They have pondered
their circumstances. They know themselves. They know what
they cannot repel nor mate. They must stand in judgment with
Him who has access to spiritual existence, " who can kill the
soul in hell:" they have to do with the Omnipotent. Not to

the faith of devils. 597
fear him would be unreasonable. To fear him, as they are neces
sitated to fear, is not piety nor contrition. The case compels
them. It is not the exercise of will. It is instinctive law.
" Thou even thou art to be ,feared : and who can stand in thy
sight when once thou art angry ?" Inanimate things bear
witness : " The pillars of heaven tremble, and are astonished at
his rebuke." " He looketh on the earth and it trembleth : he
toucheth the hills and they smoke." "The mountains saw thee,
and they trembled : the overflowing of the water passed by : the
deep uttered his voice, and lifted up his hands on high.. The
sun and moon stood still in their habitation : at the light of thine
arrows they went, and at the shining of thy glittering spear."
Reasonable beings confess the terrors of the Almighty: "Who
knoweth the power of thine anger ? even according to thy fear so
is thy wrath." " My flesh trembleth for fear of thee, and I am
afraid of thy judgments." " Who can stand before his indigna
tion ? and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger ? His fury
is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him."
The annals of the universe confirm the hopelessness of resistance :
" Who hath hardened himself" against Him and prospered ?"
"Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker." "Say, hast
thou an arm like God, or canst thou thunder with a voice like
his?" " Lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way when his
wrath is kindled but a little." " A fire is kindled in mine anger,
and shall burn unto the lowest hell."
Now descriptions, like these, when verified to a spiritual crea
ture, — when they are seen pointed against him, — when they have
already taken effect in him, — must produce all that corresponds to
themselves. " The devils believe." They have proved that these
are not vain words. They know the reality which is in them.
But there is not only a present condemnation. A more tremen
dous sentence overhangs them : " and they tremble." There
shall be doubled unto them double. Their one exercise of mind
is that of a fearful looking for of more severe judgment and of a
more fiery indignation. It is wrath to come ! All tends to exas
perate their fate. The purpose and triumph of Redemption pre
destine this punishment. The prayer and hope of the Church

598 THE FAITH OF DEVILS.
urge it on. It is invoked by every voice. It is heaped by
every hand. They perish before universal disgust and execra
tion. None plead for them. Nothing rises up in their behalf.
The reign of good and happiness requires their everlasting de
struction, and owes its consummation to it. It is the blow for
which all things wait. It is the blow in which all things strike.
Then only shall "come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom
of our God, and the power of his Christ," in the climax of their
manifestations. That blow impends. How short will be its
delay ! How welcome^ shall be the signal of its descent ! How
crushing must be the violence of its fall ! Well may its victims
tremble ! Yet how shall it exceed even their anticipations J
Then their " fear cometh, their fear cometh as a desolation," as
though it had never been felt before. The faith of these fallen
spirits is the cause and strength of all those apprehensions with
which they regard the future. The language involves their dread
of that which is to come. They shrink within themselves, they
shudder, as they are convinced of its terrible truth. Believing
that " there is one God," they know that " he will in no wise clear
the guilty," that he is " of one mind and cannot be turned," that
" the great day of his wrath shall come," that their condemnation
shall furnish not the least of its solemn passages and awful issues.
Their faith descries all this as it is, in some form, revealed to
them. They beUeve the word of the Most High, though con
trary to them, though but a store of vengeance. And there is
an earnestness and a reason in this, a consistency and an order,
which should not be overlooked. We see, in this process and
operation, how mind is of the same uniform nature and laws,
whatever be its varying degrees and its individual distributions.
We see how the same principle may be common to different
intellectual beings. We see how intelligence is affected always
in a manner true to itself.
Their Belief is sincere. They hold not loose and ill-sup
ported notions. They are not ignorant of what they affirm. Evil,
enforced, and hostile, as is their " faith," — none can be more " un
feigned." Strange is it, that among men sincerity is supposed
to alter the moral complexion of principle and act. What is not

THE FAITH OF DEVILS. 599
sincere save hypocrisy ? The sinner is sincere : who is more in
earnest! The unbeliever is sincere: who is more determined!
Thus all vice and superstition entrench themselves. But no ele
ment of error thus becomes truth : no bearing of evil thus be
comes holiness. And so far as their own convictions are involved,
what can be more fixed and unshaken than this faith of daemons ?
It is not assumed, affected,— it is real, — the perfect mind and
heart. Their Belief is proportionate. They admit the whole tes
timony which extends to themselves. Much of the gospel is
included in that testimony. But it related to them as a judicial
instrument, a penalty, a curse. It is their casting away. It is
their exclusion from all mercy. It brings to them no good news,
no glad tidings. Like Israel's pillar of cloud, it is only the
obverse which the§e enemies see, and see to be troubled. It is
not a faithful saying to them, nor worthy of being accepted by
all of them, that Christ came to. save: the saying they must be*
lieve, and which must be accepted by all of them, is that he!
came to inflict ruin and punishment upon them. It is not an-!
nounced to them, " Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise
cast out," — but it is precluded them, to come, and in any wise
they must be rejected. To them it is pot proclaimed : "Whoso-,
ever believeth on me shall never perish, but have everlasting
life," — his arms are not open for their return, and they go into
perdition. Their faith is, then, only of alienation, of torment,
—they believe that they are lost for ever, — and the effect coin
cides with that assurance. It is exactly what is due. It agrees
to the every point. They "tremble," because they believe that
which must cause trembling.
Their Belief is influential. Flippant are the avowals of men
as to that religion which requires our faith, which is from
" faith to faith,"— that is, from the credibility of the testifier to
the conviction of him who is certified. They deal in large admis
sions and easy terms. Matters are unweighed. A very lightness
is used. Faith is, therefore, without works. The soul is listless
and lifeless. It is not real belief in God, nor in his exclusive
method of saving the sinner. It regards not the gospel witness

600 THE FAITH OF DEVILS.
as divine or all-important. It, consequently, does not stir the
soul, its powers, or its affections. Analysed, it is mere assent
to received opinion, or to existing institution. It concerns itself
not with God. It is no appreciation of the redemption which
is according to the riches of his grace. It veers with every wind
of doctrine. It is wanting in all power and genial influence.
Daemons believe after another sort. They are moved by all that
they believe, in its aspect upon their case. This .is their proper
faith, — it enforces itself upon them, — and, for all that respects
them, it is a living faith. There is no " dead faith" in hell !
Many reflections press upon the mind as this theme of grave
and harrowing interest unfolds itself.
1. When we look from this world, as from a platform, into far
space, we behold worlds and systems of worlds. We dwell apart,
but we exist not alone. There is vast magnitude, and doubtless
multiform life. Earth is but one of many earths. Our plane
tary ceconomy is but a part of a stupendous whole. So we find,
in strict resemblance to this arrangement, a far more solemn cre
ation. It is that of diversified mind. It is the universe of spirits.
It possesses its interests, its conflicts, its hopes, its fears. We
contemplate its beatitude and its despair. We are compassed
about by a cloud of witnesses. Heaven and hell are intent upon
us. Heaven and hell are in controversy respecting us. The
human soul is the stake. Its salvation or its loss is the issue.
The conviction that we are placed as in the centre of this spiritual
horizon, may justly tend to serious sentiment. An awe should
settle on us. One section of it has now cast its fearful glare
upon us. We have looked into a region of fallen and cruel spi
rits. We have marked their agitations. They are much to us.
They tempted us from our innocence. They would thwart our
redemption. We must count them our enemies. We must resist
them steadfast in the faith. Our religion is a perpetual remem
brance of the spiritualism of good and evil around us, and one
call to our sympathies and to our aversions.
2. A doctrine of revelation, so clear and so sustained, as that
of good and wicked angels, might be supposed to receive inva
riable credence. It might seem that there was no escape from it-

THE FAITH OF DEVILS. 601
When devils believe, it might be assumed that their actual being
would be admitted. The Sadducee still is seen among us. He
is not to be convinced by words and facts like these. Their per
sonality is denied. He calls them allegories and fictions. They
are but metaphors and tropes. Were their introduction only into
poetry, we might, perhaps, for a moment indulge the doubt.
But we find them the objects of history. They are the branded
authors of sensible evil, they are the fallen captives to redeeming
avengement, they are the declared interlocutors in mysterious
dialogue. We may be not behind the most imaginative of our
race. We may be as competent as they to take fancy's boldest
pitch. Yet cannot we understand nor conceive nor picture how
it should be, with any license, affirmed, soberly narrated, simply
expressed, — that mere figures exercise faith and fear. The Text
is a reproof. A man " believes that there is one God." This is
a narrow faith. What then? "The devils also believe, and
tremble." But then these are unreal ! Nonentities " also believe,
and tremble !" Does this lend shame to the reproof? Nothing
could be more palpably inconclusive. — The doctrine agrees with
the history of Redemption. On any other scheme it must be the
incumbrance of an unresolved problem and of an impracticable
difficulty. The theory which teaches that Christ is only man,
and that his death is only martyrdotn, cannot sustain a relation
ship like this. Could it cast out devils? Its command cannot
reach them, nor its exorcists prevail against them : " Who are
ye ?" Or, should it allow them existence, — A covenant would be
struck between its disciples and themselves. How would they
agree in casting down the Saviour from his excellency ! How
would they be reconciled in esteeming him not ! How would
hand join in hand to tear down the altar of atonement ! It were
a strange unity and alliance ! As it would be rather too inde
cent, better is it that their existence should be denied !
3. The conduct of God towards fallen angels and his conduct
towards fallen men, present a most signal difference. It is a dif
ference "past finding out." In vain we extenuate human offence.
In vain we put into the lips of mercy some partial plea. We
speak of Divine pleasure as the exclusive cause. "He will have

602 THE FAITH OF DEVILS.
compassion on whom he will have compassion." This pure voli
tion we call sovereignty. Unlike justice it may, or it may not,
be exercised. It can only be exercised when to proceed is not
more nor less just. It is a negative term. We intend not by it
that there is no reason for the preference, but that we do not
know it, and that it cannot consist of any moral recommendation
in ourselves. See here judgment and mercy, goodness and severity !
He might have saved fallen angels, and passed by fallen man.
All might have been reversed. He has made "known to us the
mystery of his will." The earlier, and less warned, transgressors
perish ! Though diminished condescension would have sufficed
to save them, while the greatest is required for our deliverance,
it is not exercised ! Though the creatures of heaven, needing no
change of nature for restoration to it, another species physically
as well as morally unfitted for it is elected, and shall take their
place ! They who were nearer God, they whose right hand was
skilled to strike the harp, they whose brow was native to the
crown, are swept away, — and the hand of man is trained, though
it must be slowly, to its strings, and the brow of man is encircled,
though it must be laboriously, with its splendours ! There is a
contrast terribly sublime in the records which we possess of this
divergent course : " God spared not the angels that sinned, but
cast them down to hell"! " He spared not his own Son, but
delivered him up for us all" ! " We joy in God through our
Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have received the Atonement" !
" The devils tremble" !
4. Personal sin finds ready excuse. We palliate it with a
kind of unconsciousness. It is intermixed with our entire being.
Nothing sets itself against it. Subterfuge need not be sought.
The whole life is an evasion of the charge. But when we see
the same in others, it is very differently adjudged. No self-
love now gives it advocacy. It is immediately condemned. And
God, who has said of sin, " Do not this abominable thing which
I hate," thus causes to stand out before us a fearful example.
Blind to our sinfulness, familiarised to the corruption that is in
the world, we shall be instructed by a remoter spectacle. Think
of these spirits! Once they were dwellers in heaven. They

THE FAITH OF DEVILS. 603
gathered its amaranth. They chanted its song. They stood
around the throne. They were rapt in holiness and praise. They
were not of inferior rank. None, — we may presume, — were more
gifted and more loyal than they. Think of these spirits ! With
what loathing must we regard them ! How odious they appear !
" Get thee behind me, Satan" ! " How art thou fallen from hea
ven, O son of the morning ! Thou art brought down to hell !"
What has wrought the change ! Sin, — sin has transformed that
beauty into deformity, that amiableness into cruelty, that obe
dience into rebellion, that purity into pollution, that felicity into
despair. Let us look beyond ourselves ! Let us see how devils
tremble ! Let us learn what sin is ! Let not this mighty revo
lution of evil be lost on us ! " Fear and the pit are upon thee,
0 inhabitant of the earth" !
5. The Scripture definition of faith is most simple : it is " the
belief of the truth." Its figurative language is as easy : " Setting
to our seal that God is true." It can have no quality of itself.
It takes its character from the testimony. As an exercise of
mind, a spiritual state, it must be always identical, whatever
its difference of vividness and degree. To believe, requires no
more elucidation than to hope, to sorrow, or to rejoice. A
Pagan never asks the Missionary what is meant by faith. If
Scripture employs the term, it must" be according to every man's
conscious interpretation. The effect of belief altogether depends
upon what is believed. There can be no distinction between the
faith of men and devils, but in this. As an act of mind it is one
and the same. We believe. What ? That there is a salvation pro
vided for us, full and free. We have joy and peace in believing.
They believe. What? That they are for ever excluded from
salvation. " They believe and tremble." To this many object,
' Is our faith no more than that of fiends ?' Weigh the objection.
Will you put it thus, only enouncing a little more clearly what
you mean ? 'Is our faith no better, no more excellent, no more
deserving ?' This is the root of error. You infix the power in
the belief. You treat it as though it were the doer of all. You
make it a very work. How opposite is the view of Scripture !
" It is of faith that it might be of grace." And we must be allowed

604 THE FAITH OF DEVILS.
objection in return. We hear, in current language, of " saving
faith." The only advance towards such a style of language in
Scripture is its refutation : " Can faith save him ?" It is the
gospel which saves, or rather, it is God who saves by the gospel.
" By grace are ye saved through faith." Instead of magnifying
faith, we ought to reduce it to the merest possible idea of medium
and instrumentality. It but allows and receives and relies. And
if another protest be raised, — that the belief of the gospel is a
divine effect and that therefore it distinguishes it from the faith
of devils, the premiss is gratefully and adoringly allowed. Our
" faith is of the operation of God." There is spiritual self-suf
ficiency to be overcome. We see not our need. The things of
the Spirit must be spiritually discerned. This influence is only
necessary to our state and disposition of mind. But the reve
lation to devils is that of punishment. Its certainty lies within
the scope of their capacity and their fear. In the same way the
"natural man," without any inward divine illumination, "trem
bles," when we "reason of judgment to come." Can we wonder
that such different truths, as severally fall under the belief of
devils and men, should produce such diverse effects ? The faith
of the one, " worketh wrath :" the faith of the other, " worketh
by love."
6. The Christian system, while solemn in all its bearings upon
us, is a system of tender mercy, and its purpose is to give us
strong consolation. It is our remedy for all evil, or our solace
under it. It is adapted to impart to the believer immediate
relief. Since we are justified at the moment of believing, — so
perfectly that we could not be more justified, — we are warranted
to look for an instantaneous peace. If we were not, we must
suppose that delay would qualify us for it. Alas, how does self-
righteousness defeat the grace of the gospel ! Devils exactly feel
in unison with that which they believe : " they tremble." Is
there as exact fidelity in our feelings to the mind of God, in his
gospel, concerning us ? Are there not those who believe it, who
profess to believe it, still only to tremble? Is this the appro
priate emotion ? There is, indeed, a hallowed awe, — we may
"tremble at the word of God," — we may "rejoice with trem-

THE FAITH OF DEVILS. 605
bling," — it is a chastened, but not less an overflowing, delight.
This, however, is " a spirit of bondage again to fear." Is it
honourable to the gospel ? Think not chiefly about your manner
of belief. Looking at your faith is to look upon the waters
rather than upon Him who treads their waves. Ask not prin
cipally how you believe. Seek your comfort in the truth, and in
the Saviour to whom it points. Oh what ought to be our "joy
of faith" ! What " our comfort of love" ! What our " triumph
in Christ"! What our "glorying in the cross"! What our
" rejoicing evermore" !
7- But there are some who ought to " tremble." This would
express a state of mind becoming them. They die ! They perish !
But they walk on in darkness. They are blinded by the igno
rance which is in them. They are past feeling. They reject the
counsel of God against themselves. " Their judgment lingereth
riot, and their damnation slumbereth not." But will "their
heart endure," when God shall "require their soul"? Will they
be " stout-hearted" in the " day of visitation"? Will their proud
spirit then refuse to bend ? Shall they not then tremble ? Rend
your hearts ! Repent and be converted ! Believe with your.
heart unto righteousness! But if "after your hard and impe
nitent heart you treasure up wrath against the day of wrath and
revelation of the righteous judgment of God," — one reflection
may move you yet ! Devils trembling and you not trembling !
They have not trifled with a Saviour, they are not guilty of his
blood, they do not despise so great salvation, — this guilt is not
on them, — but, they tremble ! They have not refused the recon
ciliation of the gospel, — still, they tremble ! They have not with
stood the beseechings of mercy, — notwithstanding, they tremble !
Oh greater cause is there that horror should seize on you ! For
them never was sacrifice for sin, — for you there was, — but there
is no more ! To them the door was never open, — it was for you,
— but it is henceforth shut !

SERMON XXIV.

THE INFLUENCE OF THE PIOUS UPON THE AGE
IN WHICH THEY LIVE.*

Acts xiii. 36.

"For David, after he had served his own generation by the
will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers,
and saw corruption."
—And "one generation passeth away, and another cometh."
There is nothing constant but vicissitude. Nothing abides but
the great law of change. It is with melancholy reflections that
we mark those ancient convulsions of our planet, in which whole
races of the inferior animals, once inhabitants of it, have perished,
leaving but their frail shell or huge skeleton behind, embalmed
as in their very destruction. But how far more sad and solemn
is the thought, that entire successions of our fellow-men, at nu
merous given points of time, have been swept into the dark
recesses of the earth, and been reconverted into its dust. They
lie not in the integrity and the inviolate security of such lower
tribes, — in majestic chambers, in the sarcophagus of deep-hid,
incorrodible, alabaster and marble. Our graves are not built,
like theirs, of the everlasting rocks. Our forms do not retain the
impression of our habits, and proclaim the history of our lives,
from untold ages. Man, in comparison, quickly sees corruption.
Yet, though his physical relics do not survive, though the granite
• This Sermon was preached in the Independent Meeting-House, Stepney, at
the Two Hundredth Anniversary from the Founding of the Church in that place,
October 24th, 1844. " Fani quidem Advena, Religionis autem Indigena.
Apuleius. Met : lib. xi.

THE INFLUENCE OF THE PIOUS, ETC. 607
and porphyry rest not as tombstone over his remains, though he
asks but a little earth, and that almost upon the surface of his
dwelling-place, he leaves memorials which attest his superior
greatness. Other creatures have perished, and some of their
kinds have not been renewed. Their analogues cannot be found.
But the human being lives on, however his generations die. He
constantly and identically reappears. Still, every one in those,
generations has found his time of dissolution and his place of rest.
This is an overwhelming meditation ! When we wander among
the ruins of olden cities, when the work of excavation brings to
light the traces of their life and the arts of their invention, what a
lesson does their present silence teach, what a dread sensation
strikes from their depopulated solitude! Here the craftsman
plied his toil ! Here the sage pursued his abstraction ! Here
the merchant accumulated his wealth ! Here the noble paraded,
his pomp ! Here sate the enthroned king ! Here mustered the
armies which went forth to war ! Here rose the clamour, and
swarmed the multitude, of the undistinguished masses in their
meanest conditions and humblest homes ! Where are they all ?
The once busy, crowding, actors of this deserted scene? And
this is but a contracted field of observation. It is only a small
specimen and instance. Ye, who ever saw the sun, who ever
lived on earth, who ever breathed this vital air, — ye mighty men
of old, men of renown, — ye nations, which have not bequeathed
a name, — ye kingdoms, which have not retained a shadow, —
ye buried hosts, — ye vassals of oppression and victims of cruelty,
— who can count your throng and conceive your number? Ye
are to us unknown and unnoted, as the exhaled dew-drops of the
morning, as autumn's fallen and withered leaves.
While these musings fill our minds, we may be tempted to
indulge unworthy sentiments. ' In this waste and ebb of exist
ence, these desolations, of many generations, of what consequence
is it, that I bear one character rather than another, that I pursue
this course in preference to that ? Little importance can attach
to the part which I perform on such a stage. I shall be speedily
forgotten, blotted out, lost in the common wreck. How can I
hope to be recognised and discriminated ? What avails all my

608 THE INFLUENCE OF THE PIOUS
influence? What means my utmost care? Let me anticipate
my insignificance, steal through the world, lie down in unrecorded
dust, a thing cast out and thrust aside, intended for no use,
capable of no service.'
Now it is, in opposition to such ignoble recklessness and self-
depreciation, that we may place the language of the Text. It
clothes us with an influence which must be felt. It enforces us
with an energy which traverses and pervades an indefinite circle.
It teaches us the true intent of life. It shows us how, though in
time past we were unprofitable, we may now be profitable to all.
It consecrates our full being to a great benevolence. It puts us
into a vast capacity of philanthropy. It commissions and anoints
us to exercise a power over the wide-spread family of contempo
rary man. It enables us to reflect upon ourselves many of the
actual results of what we do. It suffers not our spirits to droop
in cold suspense and amidst tedious process, but lays before our
sight some demonstrations of success. And it certifies us, wben
this evidence is necessarily withheld, that the effect of our conduct
is not the less decisive upon the living age. It abandons us not
to the memory which is blessed, to the slow working out of good,
to the cautious breaking forth of truth. And pleasant is the
conviction, that we now act upon those with whom we are running
the race of coeval existence. Posthumous gratitude shall not be
denied, — our descendants shall call us blessed, — our " works shall
follow" us. But this is the privilege, this the honour, of serving
our generation, that we not only stamp our impress upon the
true and imperishable interests of our race, but, in so doing, read
our own epitaph and gaze on our own monument, in the shape.
with which that generation rises up before us !
The duties of the present Solemnity are special. We rehearse
no ordinary commemoration. Though we invoke not hich anti
quity, as it is engraven on the calendar of our world, Two
Centuries are no mean account. And reckoning them from the
present to their past, they carry us back into the heart of the
greatest historic epochs and movements which were ever signalised
in this land. These it is our purpose to illustrate. But this is
a Religious Festival, a Church Celebration, to be sanctified by

UPON THE AGE IN WHICH THEY LIVE. 609
the rites of evangelic faith and worship. We have entered into
these gates with thanksgiving, and into these courts with praise.
It is a venerable House. Our fathers worshipped in this moun
tain. It would not be agreeable, therefore, to the purport of
this service, to overlook the proper doctrine and bearings of that
scripture which has been cited as the subject of your attention, —
a passage of holy writ which may suggest those very principles,
and inculcate those very lessons, which this ancient Anniversary,
this Bicentennial revolution, demands.
The case of David has long been the butt for the shafts of
infidelity. Were we called to examine it, we might say, that if
few men have so fallen, none ever so repented. That " matter"
is never lightly passed over, nor for a moment concealed. Long
after his " lamp" is extinguished, the beacon of his shame burns
on. It is an everlasting reproach. Ancestor as he is of Christ,
prophet of the kingdom of God, minstrel of the universal Church,
the comforter of every penitent, — this brand is never spared.
He did it " secretly," but the exposure and the punishment were
" before the sun." Even at that time, the enemies of the Lord
found their " great occasion," as since they have done, to " blas
pheme." We see the agonies of his remorse at every step of his
onward life. If "one know him," he "is in the terrors of the
shadow of death." Does Ahithophel join in the conspiracy
against him ? Ahithophel was the grandfather of Bathsheba,*
he sees the certainty of detection, he is paralysed with fear, and
can only pray to the Lord to turn the counsel of that crafty
statesman into foolishness. Does Shimei curse him with bitter
reviling and despiteful outrage? The man, the king, sinks
within him, — accusations have been' hurled at him which may
bear a double sense, but which his conscience points, — " son of
Belial" is too sure an aim, — and patiently he submits, saying,
" The Lord hath bidden him." There is at least one depositary
of the guilty secret : the thought haunts his death-bed : and he
dreads Joab far more on that account, than for all his treasons.
When we read, therefore, the eulogiums upon David,— that of
this passage, "He served his own generation by the will of God,"
* 2 Sam. xi. 3; xxiii. 34.

610 THE INFLUENCE OF THE PIOUS
— and that similar, though far stronger, one, when God gave
testimony to him and said, "I have found David the son of
Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my
will,"*— we shall see, that they do not apply to his personal
character, but to the spirit and fidelity of his reign, as the de
fender of Israel : as the conqueror of its enemies : as the uncom
promising foe and subverter of idolatry : as accomplishing that
which his predecessor had failed to do : as justifying his appoint
ment to that throne which was to be regarded as a vice-royalty
of heaven : as marking his reverence for that theocracy of which
he was only the earthly deputy and head. In this sense only was
"his heart perfect with the Lord his God." Yet while we are
convinced that this is the true purport of the testimony borne to
that illustrious prince, we allow but the exception which the
Judge of all alleged : " save in the matter of Uriah the Hittite."
We are not ashamed of his place and rank in holy history. We
mark its impartial fidelity in the narration of his fearful fall.
We acknowledge boundless obligations to him who is the harper
of a devout poetry, as prophetic of Christian event as it is reso
nant of Christian piety. When he cries out of the depths, we
would not turn from his woe. God casteth him down, and not
man. We still follow and honour his orb, when covered with
shadow and watered with grief.
Let us now consider this language more generally, as express
ing a most just and serious view of the Christian in that relation
which he bears to all passing interests, and to all living men.
It is the briefest exposition which we shall attempt : and only so
much, even of that, as may exemplify the chronicle of this time-
honoured day !
I. The Position which he occupies.
The most common thought becomes food to the contemplative.
That we are surrounded by a great number of fellow-existences,
that we are associated with them, that we interchange with them
help and defence, that the same times are going over us, is known
to all. But the reflection is susceptible of many pensive turns
and hues. Why was our lot cast for this period ? What is our
* Acts xiii. 22; 1 Sam. xiii. 14.

UPON THE AGE IN WHICH THEY LIVE. 611
adaptation to it ? What constitutes this hand-breadth of days
our fittest term ? What is the mission for which we are designed ?
Such a common, and it may be merely sentimental, thought, be
comes quite different when it enters the Christian's mind. To
the great majority of men, it is but the spring of selfish calcula
tion. They regard all who are in contact with them as instru
ments for their own rise and advantage. The surrounding mul
titude unfolds to them, simply, so many rivals and competitors,
whom they would outstrip. But when this thought is joined to
" the faith of the Lord Jesus," it is full of respect and tenderness.
None may we despise nor overlook. We honour all men. We
love our neighbour as ourselves. We are raised up, at this exact
season, to aid the true progress of mankind.
Our immediate influence is restricted to our own times. We
cannot affect the state of the dead, though we may practise their
counsels and complete their works. We cannot assure ourselves
of benefiting a future line, save in a manner necessarily indirect.
The present is the day in which we must work, bounded on both
sides by darkness. It is the time of our sojourning here, of
mysterious entrance and exit. There remains to us all, only
" the rest of our time in the flesh," of little security when that
flesh is but its fence. Our temptation is to envy the past, to
covet the future. We imagine what we might have done, or
what we would do. In the meanwhile, we squander the exclusive
period for action. Here, and now, is our only scope and pivot.
There are two portions of every generation. " The genera
tion of the upright is blessed." " This is the generation of them
that seek thee." " God is in the generation of the righteous."
 "A wicked, perverse, and faithless, generation." "The
children of this world are wiser in their generation than the
children of light." These go on together. They are not, how
ever, confounded. " The Lord knoweth them that are his."
" Thy hand shall find out all thine enemies." Should there be
but the solitary saint in his age, he is not contemned. " Thee,"
said Jehovah, to the only exception of guilt, to the only survivor
of judgment," — " Thee have I seen righteous before me in this
generation."

612 THE INFLUENCE OF THE PIOUS
We are all of the one section or the other. To the first we
have been all attached. Into the second we can only enter by a
distinct act of divine mercy, and by a distinct act of moral
resolve. " Ye are a chosen generation." " Save yourselves from
*his untoward generation."
And we are responsible, to an extent of which we can form no
conception, for the character, the happiness, and the eternal pros
pects, of that great aggregate of human beings who now teem
around us. We are now living among them, if we be Christians,
— to control them for good. The air swells our bosom, the sun
gladdens our way, for this high errand. " Therefore are we
sent." We are to be the " holy seed" of the earth, — its salt, —
its light, — " holding forth the word of life." " He who convert-
eth a sinner from the error of his way, shall save a soul from
death, and hide a multitude of sins !" What words are these !
The moments are flying, — the opportunities are escaping, — the
objects are perishing, — while we speak, the accepted time may
have past ! " Save a soul from death ! Hide a multitude of
sins !" What goads ! What lures ! What rewards ! Whose
soul can be at ease ? Which heart can resist the sublime ambi
tion ?
It must not be supposed that the characteristics of our age
will always meet our wishes, or favour our plans. It may know
us not. It may refuse any sympathy with us. It may oppose
us with scorn and violence. But we are not to be disheartened.
We are to urge on our way, and hold forward our career. Let
us think of them who were the inhabitants of the world, when
He, who made it, was in it ! " Who shall declare his genera
tion ?" Whatever there be uncongenial and unpropitious to our
plans of usefulness, in current opinion and fashion, we must
abide by our fixed purpose and adhere to our simple duty. We
are not to wait until men call us benefactors. " Being reviled,
we must bless : being persecuted, we must suffer it : being de
famed, we must entreat."
The necessary influence we exert upon each other, is a fact
for the philosopher, but, most of all, for the Christian. As we
come into proximate relations, this might be expected : it is true

UPON THE AGE IN WHICH THEY LIVE. 613
of our most casual intercourse. Something of good or evil is
transmitted from us, ere we are aware. Upon whom may " not
our iniquity pass ?" We may " minister grace." All this power
may be enlarged. The millions,' whom we have not seen, we
may still affect. Every one that is now affected by us, affects
others also : he is, therefore, the medium between us and them.
The impulse spreads. Where does it terminate ? The concen
tric circle only vibrates to larger and larger surfaces, urged from
the same impact still.
We are disposed to demur to the frequent inversion of this
argument. It is contended that the age produces the man, rather
than that the man impresses the age. We do not deny that it
provides the occasion. It often arouses and unfolds a peculiar
energy in its master spirits. But there is always found in them
an original greatness. They go before their fellows. They are
the standard-bearers. It is not uncommon that divers personages
shall arise for the same conjuncture. These pourtray varieties
of quality, albeit with an equal intentness on some public good.
He who sent forth his disciples by two and two, that there might
always be the concert and communion of mind in the service of
his gospel, seldom has left any chief actor in his cause alone.
The kindred spirit is drawn forth. And what may be done by a
very few ! No generation advances of itself. A tame monotony
leaves the many what their fathers were. It is some urgent,
some disturbing, some unresting, soul, — not obtaining credit,
during, it may be, a life, for worthier epithets than these,— r
which carries forward those, who long resist its power, with it
That man denounces an unsound principle. He strikes out a
vital truth. He exhibits different kinds of improvement. He
proves what society might be made. He becomes a renovator.
He casts some grand idea into the public mind. He is not only
the prototype, but the protoplast, of wide-spread opinion and
deed. Had his age formed him, he could only have resembled
it. But he has given it his own likeness. This seems too much
for the one spirit's particular lot. Still history furnishes rich
specimens and ample proofs. A single arm has shaken the king
doms of the earth. The force of a hidden intellect has created a

614 THE INFLUENCE OF THE PIOUS
nation's philosophy. An unassisted genius has moulded a coun
try's speech. A name, once humble, has consecrated and defended
a people's freedom. The Christian dares little hope palpable
results like these. But, though he will not attempt to magnify
himself, he is doing greater works. He may not be called to
stand forth as others, creating some want in the public mind,
and awakening some intense sympathy, but he is always contri
buting healthy influences and emanations. He comes not as the
lightning, but as a beam of the sun-rise : not as the whirlwind,
but as the breath of the life-sustaining air. His part in the
great social arrangement may be apparently most insignificant:
but it is determinate. Though the world recognise not his dig
nity, he is a king and a priest. Those offices will betray them
selves. He cannot step but with a majesty: he cannot offer
without the effusion of a sweet savour. He must pray always
that God would count him worthy of this calling. He has a
designation. He is "about a great work." He runs not in
vain, neither labours in vain. It may not be storied. It may
not " be counted to him for righteousness unto all generations
for evermore." He may not be " of note," nor his "praise be in
the churches." But though his operation be secret as any law
of nature, it is as constant, as beneficial, as necessary !
Every age is supposed to present its peculiar indications.
But there is no general age, save the merest measure of chrono
logy, to mankind. The term can only apply to the intellectual
and moral history of certain portions of our race. How many
periods have rolled over a deteriorating people ! How many
over a vacant and sluggish one ! It would be more than difficult
to fix the character of such times. Other aeras seem to be repe
titions of each other, they fall into the order and course of certain
parallelisms, they supply the observer with important presages
and rules. And we cannot doubt that too great an ingenuity
may be indulged, in looking for the supposed marks of any
generation. A few accidents will be seized. Not infrequently,
some one word is adopted to express all the moral and mental
manifestations. But it ought not to be forgotten that these are
revolutions of the same human nature. Costume makes as little

UPON THE AGE IN WHICH THEY LIVE. 615
difference to its form, as many of these outward appearances can
do to its constitution. The new thing in man, through all his
series, is very equivocal. " That which hath been is now ; and
that which is to be hath already been." And we urge this the
more fervidly, because serious and devoted Christian men are
frequently disconcerted by a certain style of observation. They
hear of our nature as transformed by new social combinations.
They are told that other appeals are required by its modern
advancement. They are thus perplexed. To them it must seem
intended, that our manhood has outgrown its former self; and
that Christianity, as past and obsolete, can apply no longer to its
case. We disdain this idolatry, with which a shallow philosophy
flatters the one and slights the other. We would call upon the
humblest agents to proceed as they have done. If they can
address refinement in its own manner, if they can pursue sophis
try with its own subtlety, it is well. But let them be persuaded
that the' true philanthropist will always find our nature the same,
and prove that Christianity is its proper and exclusive cure.
In the associative spirit of our age, we see the improbability
that great changes can any longer be brought about by insulated
minds and divided efforts. That mode of action is, henceforth,
superseded. The community now is taught to join its hands in
labour. This produces a level which is not so brilliant as the
former rare and wide-apart visitations. But it meets the exigence
far better. Earnestness alone is the hope of the present season.
God seems specially to address us : " Behold I work a work in
your days." Polemical Christianity is not so much our vocation,
as a stirring, energising, living, Christianity. The many are
needed now, — the scantling would not suffice. The quantity of
electric fluid may be collected by the larger, though the fewer,
plates: but these must be multiplied, however reduced, if we
would produce its intensity.
Our generation will stand more intimately connected with us
in eternity than any other. All our affinities were bound with
it. However we yearned toward "the people who should be
created," however horizon of the future unfolded after horizon,
 among the living was our sphere of charity and range of effort.

616 THE INFLUENCE OF THE PIOUS
For them only could we properly intercede. None besides them
were within the reach of our zeal. And if we be governed by
the benevolence of the gospel, we shall " seek the profit of many
that they may be saved." We would disciple all nations. We
would apply the Propitiation for the whole world, to all the
world. It is for this coetaneous part of the human family that
we owe, and must give, account. What a mysterious singularity
and interest marks out this section from all the other sums of
our race !
There is a generous care for the future. Being dead, we
may yet speak. Our example, perchance, may shine when we
have been long since withdrawn. Christian patriotism and mis
sioning look into the seeds of time and the visions of prophecy.
But such wisdom lies in serving our generation, that, in so doing,
we best prepare for those who shall come after us : we transmit
a previous work as we received it, and which has easily joined
itself to ours : while that which we have wrought, itself goes
forward as easily to blend with the next.
II. The Usefulness which the Christian seeks.
The etymon of the original word is one which means to row.
Its compound signifies to row from beneath,* in the lowest tier
of the galley. "Our generation" is thus compared to some
stately bark, like some ancient triereme, with lofty deck and
tackling, its prow still plunging forward, impelled and often
directed by the management of the meanest rower, and the stroke
of the feeblest oar.-f-
How many ply another aim. They care not for the general
good. They have no love of man. Their hearts are exercised
* Tirneiln'xs. It may just be remarked, in criticism, that some would translate
the passage : " David, in his own generation, served the will of God." Bloomfield
defends this rendering. He says that either is correct. But which is the more ?
The canon is, the word governed is generally collocated before the word which
governs it. Were' the balance even, elegance and natural fitness would certainly
require the authorised version.
f It was probably to this passage that the illustrious John Owen referred
when he wrote, on the day before he died, to Charles Fleetwood : "lam leaving
the ship of the Church in a storm : but while the great Pilot is in it, the loss of
a poor under-rower will be inconsiderable."

UPON THE AGE IN WHICH THEY LIVE. 617
with covetous practices. Their purposes have nothing grand in
them. All is private and partial in their endeavours. They
launch their petty skiff. They pursue their creeping way. They
find no heart to help the general cause of their species. They
embark in nothing great. They voyage not amidst venture and
peril for the commonwealth. They steer by no star of heaven.
They obey not the compass of earth. They will not row in the
yessel of their generation, for the general benefit, for the universal
advancement, of mankind. The world's sea is, therefore, covered
with miserable wrecks, while but the ark of salvation rides safely
and triumphantly on, leaving a wake of blessings, and bearing
the saints to heaven according to their generations.
This record of the royal patriarch, — that he served his own
generation, is confirmed by his own language. " Now also when
I am old and grey-headed, forsake me not ; until I have showed
Thy strength unto this generation, and Thy power to every one
that is to come."
But his Son and Lord is our exemplar, that Servant whom
the Father upholdeth, who took upon him the form of a servant,
— who not only bore that part in his Mediation, doing the will
of Him that sent him, — but said to his own sinful creatures :
" I am among you as one that serveth."
So Apostles taught : " But by love serve one another." So
they professed : " Ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake." So
they acted : " But though I be free from all men, I made myself
servant unto all, that I might gain the more."
We shall not be found acting in the spirit of this duty if we
keep ourselves back from all communion with the passing con
juncture. It is a haughty selfishness which stands aloof from
the interests of those around. Contempt of others is truly un
reasonable and inconsistent. Most necessary is it to enter with
full sympathy into the present condition of men, and to work
out their deliverance and weal. We can have no pretension to
withdraw from this agitation as unworthy of us. It does not
become us to sit upon some chosen summit, and scorn them as
little who are only diminished by the distance from which we are
pleased to behold them. It is to leave the battle in which our

618 THE INFLUENCE OF THE PIOUS
stake is not less than theirs. Who has told us that we may be
spectators? What illapse has lent us the illuminations which
have rapt seer and prophet into future times ? And when did
seer and prophet disdain the children of his people or the land of
his nativity ? Tell they not so much of their own times that we
can almost invariably arrange their place and fix their date?
It is too common to excuse our indifference and cowardice, by
pointing to the littleness of some question and to the unimportant
issue of some strife. We speak of party, as though it was neces
sarily an ignoble banding. But in a free and religious State
every man who is a man of principle must be an adherent of
party, or make a party for himself. Nothing, in such circum
stances, can be effected but by the fellowship of minds and the
union of measures. The love of science, the resolve of liberty,
the work of philanthropy, all suppose a party. The Church is
a formal and avowed party, under the charter of the Eternal
King. Let us not be frightened by words of impotent reproach.
Let us be men of our age, mixing in it, working with it, and yet
always instigating it to something greater than itself. " For to
him that is joined to all the living there is hope," — hope, not
only as to his personal probation, but that he may be the bless
ing to many among their countless throngs. " They shall not
build, and another inhabit ; they shall not plant, and another
eat ; for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and
mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands."
In order to serve our generation with proper power, it is
required not only to keep pace with it, but to march before it.
It wants constant incentives. It needs heralds and patterns. It
is poor only to tread in the beaten track. We ought to shame
it into something better. We ought to lead the way by estimates
and views of things, which must at first amaze and offend. It is
by setting the mark of human destiny farther and farther back,
that we shall kindle the zest and ambition of realising it. We
have but to be Christians, and there will be a strength, an enlar-
gedness, an ascendancy, about us, which will infuse the self
same qualities into our generation. No effort is lost. No ser
vice miscarries. Our work is with our God !

UPON THE AGE IN WHICH THEY LIVE. 619
III. The Rule which the Christian obeys.
It is no small advantage of the gospel, that, while it presup
poses a will of Deity concerning his creatures, while it interferes
not with any utterances and grounds of that which may, and
must, have anticipated this, and which can only be independent
of it, — itself collects and codifies that will, giving it a larger
bearing, and a more solemn authority.
Most important is it that we be found in harmony with the
revealed will of God. This acquaintance with it, and conformity
to it, impress such a consistency on all our ideas, impart such a
steady force to all our motives, that we see immediately how to
proceed in the great ends of our existence. " For this is the will
of God concerning you." "That ye might be filled with the
knowledge of his will." " Be not unwise, but understanding
what the will of the Lord is."
We apply these remarks. We would " serve our own gene
ration." In what manner is this to be done ? Granting that our
aims were most benevolent, we might easily mistake the means
of carrying them into execution. We might very probably heap
to ourselves vain and intangible theories. We most certainly
could not invent the true remedy for the sin of man. But now
all is shaped to us. It is the proclaimed will of Him who sent
his Son. We know that the doctrine of Christ can save. It is
not an experiment to be tried. It speaks with the majesty of its
Founder, — to the guilty, Thy sins be forgiven thee, — to the
depraved, Be thou clean, — to the wretched, Be thou made whole,
— to the dying, aye, to the dead, Live. The plainest will of
God justifies and dictates the method of " serving our genera
tion." It must follow, that His will is most favourable and
encouraging to our attempt. We, therefore, find that " He
willeth not the death of the sinner, but that he should turn from
his wickedness arid live." " He will have all men to be saved,
and to come unto the knowledge of the truth." " He is not will
ing that any should perish, but that all should come to repent
ance." The will of God, made known to us, and operating upon
us, can check no desire to deliver man from his ruin, can weaken
no confidence in the power of the gospel to save, can contract no

620 THE INFLUENCE OF THE PIOUS
emotion of the loving heart. It must be an expanding element
of conception and action. It is from Him that this desire of use
fulness descends. It is His good pleasure which corroborates it.
We henceforth know that we are right. " Thy will be done on
earth as it is in heaven." We move according to a divine plan.
We walk in a consecrated path. There is a heavenly vision which
we may not disobey. And in yielding ourselves to it, God but
" perfects us in every good work to do His will, working in us
that which is well-pleasing in His sight."
But He who ordereth all things, assigns to us our allotted
tasks. His revealed will not only shows what is the nature of
the service to be performed, but His dispensation of events
directs the period and scene of labour. Our times are in His
hand. He appoints the bounds of our habitation. He calls His
mighty ones. He discovers His hidden ones. He bids this man
Come, and he cometh, — that man Go, and he goeth. He is the
Sovereign Disposer. His will is the stream, and we " flow toge
ther" with it. And a new power of exertion braces the soul, when
we know that we are His instruments, that He suits us to His
purpose, that He adjusts us to that department which He has
provided for us, that we are working the work of the Lord. Each
has his standing, province, occupation, aptitude, charge.
IV. The Rest which the Christian awaits.
A common set of terms may, by a particular application of
them, or by their association with particular persons, rise out of
their ordinary meaning and use, and brighten into a beautiful
significance. Dwell upon those of the Text. Sacred history em
ploys all these, or similar expressions, when the most wicked die
and are deposited in the tombs of their ancestors. But if the
same style be quoted over the pious, our minds suggest some^
thing far more blessed : and by the funeral torch which Christi
anity puts into our hand, — this sleep, passes before our eye as a
gentle repose from labour and strife, calm as the dying lake-
wave, soft as the shutting flower; — this laying to our fathers,
opens to us a passage and a procession which shall bear the
departing spirit to the home where it shall recognise a lineage
and heraldry of the great and good, where it shall be welcomed

UPON THE AGE IN WHICH THEY LIVE. 621
by them, and received by them for ever, — whither they had only
a little while preceded it, themselves greeted by harbinger-spirits
too ; — this decay and dissolution, this seeing of corruption, pre
sents to us the first process of a renovation, out of which the
Wasted body shall emerge a spiritualised creature of splendour
and immortality !
Be our condition the most privileged, our lot the most plea
sant, heaven shall bring us rest. Peace may enervate, and we
must guard against its snare. No circumstances can take away
the warfare of the Christian life. But we may conceive of a con
trast between the present and the future more strongly bold.
" To them who are troubled rest with us," exclaimed the Apostle
Paul to his fellow-combatants. While he assures them of that
rest, we seem to behold their motions quicken and their blows
redouble and their columns advance. Theirs was warfare. What
would be their rest ! Harassed no more, assailed no more, they
entered into peace. And thus did they rest, — the fathers whose
memory we this day recall and whose excellence we embalm.
Their "soul was continually in their hand," — "without were
fightings and within were fears," — they were killed all the day
long." Well might they hail the declining shadow of their trou
bled day ! Well might they speak of taking rest by the sleep of
death ! Well might they anticipate the scene where the wicked
cease from troubling ! Well might their weary brows sink down
to their sleep in Jesus !
We, at this hour, recall far distant days, days strange and
eventful, days of fiery trial, battle-days : days of dark omen,
days of struggling light, days of victory. Our Separation is
scoffed as a modern thing. We are harshly censured for the
novelty of our position. It is cast as a rebuke upon us, that we
withdraw from the Catholic consent. It is laid to our charge
that we break off from all communion with past ages. The dark
scar of our excision from some common trunk is constantly expo
sed. We can only offer a momentary defence. Our present du
ties lead another way. But this we may surely say, We despise
not antiquity. We do not so cancel our nature, nor stifle its
yearnings. We hear in it an awful voice. We love its grave

622 THE INFLUENCE OF THE FIOUS
words, its hoary spoils, its wise teachings. We rise up before it
and give it reverence. We may even yield to the opposite preju
dice. Our jealousy may be of innovation. We may have dis
trusted even improvement. But though we know that " the age
of time is the youth of the world,"* our very passion is for the eld
of doctrine and practice in Christianity. No yore can satisfy us
but the primitive and the apostolic. Things of the third and fourth
centuries, things of the middle ages, we do indeed slight and dis-
esteem, not because they are ancient, but because they are late and
new. We ascend to that " which was from the beginning !"
We never decline the argument (of that we are not accused)
in behalf of the scriptural character and archetype of our Inde
pendent Churches. We might sometimes spare ourselves the trou
ble, — for others, and opponents, demonstrate it for us. If we,
therefore, can exhibit the narrative of any particular church, as
subsisting for a considerable period of years, this is no boast as
to the antiquity of our system. We should smile at such a boast.
We go to the first records, — the Church-Books of Jerusalem,
Corinth, Philippi, Thessalonica, — the Ordinals of Antioch, Ico-
nium, Lystra, Ephesus, Crete. But long before the age of Con-
stantine, — for if the corruption had not been deep and wide,
could he have done what he did, — could he have exercised such
interference, had Paul and Peter and John then survived ? — long
before his age, there had been a prevalent defection from this
platform. It is so simple, so divided from the world, so vital
only in truth and piety, that ambition and avarice felt it always
to be a stumbling-block lying in their way. The Apbcalypse
was soon given to the early Christians to forewarn them. Error
has sprung up after error, just as that mysterious prospectus
had intimated them. Whatever caused a new despotism, called
the Church, — first a spiritual, and then a political, confederacy,
— to recede from the self-regulated churches, which were at the
first in Christ Jesus, of course overwhelmed that peculiarity.
That peculiarity was proved to be the safeguard of their purity ;
for this, from the same hour, declined. Persecution rose, and,
with chains and fires, forbade their reconstruction. In the long
* Bacon.

UPON THE AGE IN WHICH THEY LIVE. 623
interval, the model was seldom followed. They who started
away from the Roman fable were not, after having always lived
in that gross error, prepared, at once, for this original. But
this we may affirm, that always, as reformation has advanced, it
has come nearer and nearer to it.
To.some it will seem, that if there be any break in the chain,
that if we cannot unrol an unintercepted genealogy of our minis
ters, that if we cannot trace an uninterrupted succession of our
churches, we have no apology at all. But we confess ourselves
undesirous of this kind of evidence, though we should have been
glad at such a perpetuity of what we esteem the truth. As evi
dence, we must have regarded it as worthless. Our one business
is with Scripture. There is Christianity. Elsewhere it never
was. It may be reflected thence, but that is all. You might
as well speak of the sun being elsewhere than in the heavens,
because it is diffusive of its influence, because its light paints the
flower and fires the gem. Continuousness proves nothing, at the
best, but in the descending line. The enquiry is, from what
point, from what staple, it begins. Suppose that there be a
wanting link. The Passover was a most solemn festival of the
Jews. It was as the trophied pillar of their history and religion.
It was their original inauguration as a people. It had fallen into
disuse. Hezekiah resolved to restore it. He found many diffi
culties to overcome. The reason is given : " for they had not
done it of a long time in such sort as it is written." Though so
many moons had waxed and waned, though the whole Temple-
service had been suspended for years, so that they shut up the
doors of the porch and put out the lamps, — yet when Passover
and Temple service were restored, these rites were deprived of
none of their authority and efficacy. — But we are not anxious to
find the majority, — could we hope to do so, — on our side. We
hold not this to ,be any test of right. If we consult the prophe
cies of Scripture, we shall always behold the Babylon, the Sor
ceress, the Harlot, supported by the kings and the many peoples
of the earth. And where shall we find the true Church,— -the
real disciples of Christ? In swelling numbers? In golden
halls? They are Two Witnesses, clothed in sack-cloth. They

624 THE INFLUENCE OF THE PIOUS
are represented by the affrighted and mourning Woman, wi
dowed and bereaved, who fled into the wilderness. Every com
munity which we are wont to revere has been first a small body
of Christians, amidst some great abuse and usurpation of Chris
tianity, complaining of it, protesting against it, and then a
separation from it. If it was a schism in the community, it neces
sarily ceased to be a schism when it had withdrawn. The justi
fication of these separating parties has always been, that the mass
which they have left has itself changed : they have but reverted
to what the pure, undeteriorated, Church originally was. From
every part of the Catholic Church, so called, there have sprung
frequent withdrawments: if we be reminded that we form such
a separatist community, we find ourselves in the predicament
merely of every Protestant Church. It is the dilemma in which
the holiest and best of men have always been indispensably, though
most unwillingly, placed.
We see in these frequent withdrawments from the most nume
rous profession of the gospel, nothing more than an obedience to
the command, " Come out of her, my people." We mark also
a series of dispensations, carrying forth the cause of Him whose
eyes are on the truth, and whose heart is. toward his people.
We would offer a few observations on them.
When we examine the great formations of our earth, or its
families of vegetable and animal tribes, we select what is called a
type, or particular indication, — we then search for what are called
groups, or multiplied instances of the type, — we then advance
to analogous phaenomena, what is like, or what is approximating,
by the guide of that which is called sequence. But no philoso
pher abandons his pursuit because the group of such type is
small, or because the sequence of such type is lost. In far dis
tant places, that group may be inconceivably enlarged and that
sequence may be unexpectedly resumed. So we speak of certain
casts and orders of religious mind, constantly rising up in the
history of Christianity, the great impulses and defences of that
evangelic doctrine which we enjoy. Not all at once was Anti
christ engendered. It is of monster growth. The Latin Church
could not be utterly corrupt which canonised an Augustine, nor

UPON THE AGE IN WHICH THEY LIVE. 625
the Greek when it gave the same honour to Chrysostom. We
find springing up, — though sometimes only to be crushed, as were
the martyrs of Spain and Italy, — sects leaving the Papacy and
strongly opposing it. Such were the early Cathari, and the later
Paulicians, in the valleys of Turin and among the gardens of
Provence. To these may be added the Patares, the Iconoclasts,
and the Vigilantines. But we hasten to forms of mind which
our own history more familiarises to us, and which more nearly
affect us.
The Lollard Mind presents points of a peculiar interest It
is allied to many foreign manifestations. It will include the
efforts of John Huss and Jerome, and that spirit of enquiry and
expostulation which awoke in Bohemia and Poland. We are
generally supposed in our day to think that war is unlawful for
Christians, but they reasoned not so who fought for their liber
ties under Zisca and Procopius. The earlier Remonstrants of
Holland belong to the class of which We speak, and were visited
with cruel wrongs. But the Gueux, also, did not tamely yield.
The Albigenses and the refugees of the Piedmont Valleys, are,
likewise, thus described. They could arm against the siege, and
defend the mountain-pass. Wickliffe may be considered the head,
though not always the cause, of this movement. That noble con
fessor, armed with the word of God, cried aloud, and the nations
heard. How that holy people were oppressed and tormented,
let the tower of Lambeth's palace tell, let the ashes of Cobham
speak ! But they stirred our nation's intellect and conscience,
giving letters their proper rank, arousing the capacities for know
ledge, and placing true religion on the strictest ground of pri
vate responsibility and judgment.
There was much greatness in their conception. It was a
rebuke of tyranny which it had never known before. It was a
mighty stride towards the recovery of scriptural truth. Think
ing upon the theology involved in it, we are amazed at its clear
ness and purity. Instead of amending it, at this distance of
time we often amend by it our own. We have at least to learn
its strength.- We shall do well to imbibe its spirit. It was as a
sunburst of evangelic light upon the nations. The spirit was
s s

626 THE INFLUENCE OF THE PIOUS
inconquerable. Those men knew their danger, but to them it
only illustrated their high duty and mission. They were pre
pared for the cell and the faggot. The conditions of their under
taking were fully understood by them, and they asked nothing
better than tortures and flames.
In this intellection we cannot but observe a certain humour
which speaks power. It is the freedom of the mind at ease. It
is the lightness of the heart which is full of confidence. It is not
always agreeable to a stricter taste. But it is caustic and tren
chant. It exposes error and sophism. It mocks the arrogance of
the foe. It is like mirth before battle. It is a song in the night.
The very conceit, quaintly playful, proclaims a fearless courage :
even jest is only scorn of baseness and defiance of oppression.
Their soul was glad and made a merry noise.
There was concert and banding in this order of religionists,
which declares their superiority to local and sectarian restraints.
They were singularly pure of party bias. They felt that there
was a common cause in truth. Even when communication was
so difficult at home and in foreign parts, they corresponded and
travelled, cheering the disconsolate and relieving the oppressed.
Perhaps more than in any later development of the same principle,
they formed an intercommunity among the Christian freemen of
all nations. Truth and its sufferings made them one. They
took no partial ground : they stood on no extreme opinion.
The Puritan Mind is consecutive to the Lollard, and may
be considered just as a genus is related to a species. It was not
confined to this country. The Huguenot is a variety of it. The
differences between the French and the British forms, are partly
explained by the respective national qualities. Protestantism is
now brought before us in its declared shape. It was until now
rather the principle : it is henceforth the manifesto and the gage.
Hitherto there was a desire that Rome might reform itself: it
is now denounced as hopelessly apostate. Puritanism is Protes
tant : though Protestantism is not necessarily Puritan. Protes
tantism was the argument. Puritanism was the feeling. It is
almost impossible to think of the great Reformer of Saxony,
without an approach to the superhuman idea, without a reve-

UPON THE AGE IN WHICH THEY LIVE. 627
rence which it requires an effort to chastise. " Martin Luther,"
says Lord Bacon, "finding his own solitude, being no ways aided
by the opinions of his own time, was enforced to awake all anti
quity, and to call former times to his succour, to make a party
against the present time."* Never were fearlessness, indepen
dence, constancy, intensity, indomitableness, prudence, so knit
ted into the soul of man. They were in him as inspirations. He
gave intelligence and direction to many emotions of the Puritan
piety and to many opinions of the Puritan creed, which were
too little defined. His influence was, perhaps, no where so mighty
as in our land. In his own university and country he was sur
rounded by an array of princely alliance and protection; and,
shortly after his death, the Treaty of Passeau, called the Reli
gious Peace, gave even establishment to his sentiments and fol
lowers. But here, our Eighth Henry was his doughty antagonist.
Power and violence were enlisted against him. True, there was
a sudden revolution in the men who knew no rule but the pas
sions of that tyrant : but that there could be such a revolution,
proves how the opinions of men had previously changed. An
untimely compromise was made,— the bruise was healed slightly,
— and a hierarchy was constructed which gave its headship to
the monarch, and which renewed many of the ceremonies which
had been retrenched. None can assert that the Puritans sought
separation. The Separatists had long been the objects of even
their irony and invective. But now they found no other course
for themselves. Terms were imposed, requirements were obtru
ded, beyond their capacity of endurance. Their spirit, though
they were not always seen, filled the age. They certainly were
not indifferent to the honour of their country, it being their
favourite conviction that England should stand at the head of
the Protestantism of the world. So far were they averse from the
decent auxiliaries of religion, that they preferred its most splen
did abodes. William Strong formed his Independent Church
in the fane of Westminster Abbey ; and Edward Bowles was the
stated preacher in York Cathedral, whose then noble organ is
described by a contemporary, as assisting the psalm before ser-
" Advancement of Learning.

628 THE INFLUENCE OF THE PIOUS
mon : — which, says he, " being let out in all the fulness of stops,
together, with the quire, began, — but when that vast conchord-
ing unity of the whole congregational chorus came thundering,
so as to make the very ground shake under us, no room was left
for any thing but divine and heavenly raptures." Their learning
was polite, as it was profound, and they excelled in every kind
of erudition. Their courage has never been impeached. The
Puritan soul was dauntless. Whether the soldier or the martyr,
the man of that mould stood the same. Clad in steel, or wrapt
in fire, he knew not how to shrink. He was right earnest in his
cause. He full-heartedly devoted himself to it. It is easy to
pour ridicule upon a character which could be so rarely under
stood. There must be greatness in them who appreciate great
ness. If they called their children by names which our taste
declines, it showed that religion had taken entire possession of
their minds ; and if thus they erred, the Hebrew saints, in their
proper names, erred equally with them. They could not be
coarse and rude whom Milton made his chosen friends. They
could not be traitors to their country among whom Hampden
fell and died. It is said that ere the civil war begun, they exhi
bited a fastidiousness toward little things. Little things they
regarded them, as indifferent things they would have treated
them, until they were converted into tests and qualifications.
Then they could have borne racks far better. It is said that
their severity destroyed the mirth and cheerfulness which once
gave a very name to our countrymen, and which they have
never since regained. It banished much that is low and brutal
from the popular amusements: it warred with foolish conceit
and levity : it created occasions for thought, and urged on all to
think. There was sorrow in it, and staidness, — but its melan
choly was sweet, and its seriousness heavenly. It rebuked a
crooked generation. It suffered not the world to sleep without
disturbance, nor to sin without remorse. It prophesied evil, but
only to them who did evil. These holy men kept religion before
the eyes of them who desired to forget it, only just as the " two
prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth." It is of
them that the witling and sciolist still speak with pointless satire.

UPON THE AGE IN WHICH THEY LIVE. 629
Other authorities decide differently. " So absolute," writes the
infidel historian Hume, " was the authority of the crown, that
the precious spark of liberty had been kindled, and was pre
served, by the Puritans alone, and it was to this sect that the
English owe the whole freedom of their Constitution."* " Anima
mea," exclaimed the cold, the wily, the time-serving, Erasmus,
" sit cum Puritanis Anglicanis."
The Book of Sports seems to have called forth the real dis
tinction between faithful and wicked pastors. The effect of it,
impious as was its motive, was good. It discovered the two
great classes of those times. If a man had any worth in him,
he opposed it: sycophants and worldlings read it aloud to the
people and justified it. We have reason to think that it did
little to establish Sabbath profanation. The People were revolted
at it. It was intended to propitiate and win them by light
amusements, and thus to strengthen the Court and the Hierarchy
against Puritanism and Dissent. But it came too late. Another
spirit had entered into the nation. It hastened the crisis. It
provoked the storm. The following reign beheld and reaped
the bitter fruits of that vast insult to God, who gives us his
sabbaths for a sign and a covenant. No breach of His day does
he hold guiltless: the guilt he has often punished in this life.
The blow fell heavily. God vindicated himself. " Shall the
throne of iniquity have fellowship with Thee, which frameth
mischief by a law ?"
And yet Puritan is still a by-name. It is flung as a reproach.
It is left as a stain. If there be a category of glorious ideas and
principles, this name represents it. If there be a song of free
dom, this sound is its chord. It is not only a tradition or a his
tory. It is the index of living truth. It is the illustration of
operating fact. It is an influence, — a power. It still divides,
by the sympathy or the hostility it awakens, the just from the
wicked. But a worldly virtue might seek its patronage and alli
ance. Where can the brave find such a hero ? Where can the
citizen find such a patriot ? Where can the freeman find such a
champion ? Where can the votary find such a martyr ? That
* Vol. v. 134.

630 THE INFLUENCE OF THE PIOUS
name should be heard in every record of magnanimity and pealed
in every hymn of liberty.
In all the Continental movements of this mind, the Reformers
of Switzerland must not be forgotten. Zuingle, Beza, Farel,
Viret, Bullinger, form a glorious constellation. But if we look
for power as the distinctive quality we would admire, it places
before us, intuitively as preeminently, the illustrious Calvin.
Contemporary with Luther, — while the robust and stalwart Monk
defied the decrees of the Emperor and the thunders of the Pontiff',
— the worn, emaciated, exile-Student pervaded Europe with a
profounder, because a more thinking, influence. He entered Ge
neva a mendicant, — he was banished thence as he had been from
his native France, — but in a few years returned to stamp on his
adopted city its sole enduring fame. The double outlawry made
his inheritance more sure. One deep blot rests upon him. It
is inexpiable. He accepted magistracy, and it was then gene
rally thought that its power was vested to suppress and punish
error. He was not disabused. That prejudice, that impiety, of
his age clave to him. Holding the keys and the fasces, he doomed
an accused heretic to death. We brand with unsoftened detesta
tion the horrid deed. Had the retribution of Cranmer fallen
upon him, we could not have been surprised. But how magni
ficent must be the holy genius which can survive this deep and
dark opprobrium ! His name, after three centuries, identifies and
signalises all. He makes all relics holy. He creates the past.
He dilates the present. There is none other memory. There is
none other interest. All breathes of him. All is storied with
him. Had he not lived, Jura would have towered as high but
not hallowed as the bulwark of this little sanctuary, — and Leman
would have flowed in its bright blue billow but not consecrated
as the guardian moat of this free state. There have arisen other
emulants. They have crowded hither. Voltaire, Rousseau,
Gibbon, De Stael, Byron, have made these precincts their abode.
But they have no acclimation here. They belong not to the
scene. They cannot mingle with it. They are aliens and intru
ders still. In One only is might, — to rule the mind, — not the
superficial, the romantic, the sentimental, but the deep-most,

UPON THE AGE IN WHICH THEY LIVE. 631
mind. He did rule it. His rule has but increased. His is as a
presence, living on and always to live. It is not known in what
house he died. It is not known in what grave he moulders. But
his greatness and ascendancy at once are felt. He inspires the
whole. All recedes at his approach. All dims before his glory.
Yet is it not merely as a local association and image that he is
renowned in his haunts. His fame is the trust and charge of far-
distant peoples. To him the Reformation owes its stability. He
digested it. He wielded the tumultuous elements. He composed
the excited spirits around him. He was formed for mastery and
sway. But we need only remember, in order to appreciate it, his
actual control. He teaches nations which did not in his life
time exist. He defends, with his silent weaponry, as does none
other human arm, the cause of truth. He is not like the dead.
His words are instinct. His utterances seem to swell from a yet
warm and beating heart. His soul has gone forth into countless
souls and continues to kindle them. All theology worth the name
bears his impress. He rises upon us as some mountain-wonder,
such as those to which he was wont to raise his eye, — some ma
jestic Alp, — known to be sublimely and incomparably lofty Jjy
its elevation above every other summit, — felt to be vast by its
out-bursting proportions on every research and contact, — the first
to catch and the last to retain the solar light, — mirroring itself
in distant waves, casting its shadow over kingdoms, and losing
itself in heaven !
The Nonconformist Mind is another stage of this moral his
tory. It is necessary to remember, that the exiles who fled from
the Marian persecution to Frankfort and Geneva, very generally
there became converts to the Presbyterian form of church govern
ment. They were more and more dissatisfied with the English
liturgy and ceremonies. The rapid progress of the Reformation
in Scotland, under this particular discipline, encouraged them,
on their return, to hope and attempt the same. The covenanting
which was so much insisted on by their northern brethren, seems
to have inspired them with the purpose of uniting both kingdoms
in one religious polity, and to bind them to it by one religious
oath. When the Tryers ejected hundreds of incompetent cler-

632

THE INFLUENCE OF THE PIOUS

gymen from the Establishment, and when many of the clergy
most honourably resigned of their own accord, — when Parlia
ment strongly expressed and enforced its preference of Presby
terianism to Episcopacy, — these men readily entered into the
New System. They approved always of the civil incorporation
of Christianity. They committed no inconsistency in this coali
tion. They were Conformists now, but only to a scheme which
they had all along avowed. Between their renouncement of
Episcopal government and their accession to the Presbyterian
establishment, they were Nonconformists. They were thus pre
pared to assume that character again. And when fell the morn
ing of Bartholomew day, 1662, — a day sufficiently dark with
enormity, and scathed with curse, ninety years before ! their first
Nonconformity was renewed, and the name yet shines around
them as a halo of glory ! We deny not that they had much to
unlearn. They were righteously and retributively taught the
misery of persecution. They were compelled to admit the incom-
patibleness of an Establishment with the rights of private judg
ment and conscience. They had passed through many ordeals
be&re, and each one purified them : now were they annealed !
It is impossible to reprobate in proper phrase their wrong. They
had been flattered by the royal power until the last. They were
betrayed. The most binding terms were flagitiously broken.
The most solemn promises were sneeringly forsworn. None could
ever doubt their learning, their worth, their religiousness. These
were their offence. And when the day of trial came, with little
knowledge of each other's counsel, with no preconcerted plan,
forth went the Two Thousand confessors, without pittance and
without shelter, worthy of their Lollard and Puritan forerunners,
as firm as they, but far advanced beyond many of them in the
consistency of their sentiments and the breadth of their views.
Were they stern ? The licentiousness of the age supplies the
justification of their severity, and imparts a grandeur to their
reserve. Were they not mild and gentle, though, it may be,
stern ? If firm as a rock, they were serene as a star. Never
was there a more transcendent spectacle ! Their distant spires
receded from their eye. Their grey hairs braved the storm.

UPON THE AGE IN WHICH THEY LIVE. 633
Their conscience was their all. O my country ! What a par
ricide was thine ! What contests didst thou prepare for thy
self! What delays hast thou set, by that deed, to thy destinies!
How slowly art thou recovering from that wound ! Let that
day be darkness : let it not be joined unto the days of the years :
let it not come into the number of the months !
But not so, while we denounce the wrong, do we deplore the
event itself. We could not have spared the spectacle. Our
world is too poor in such examples of sacrifice not to have needed
this. The history of those times is too dark for perusal, but for
such relief. It was a victory, by the side of which every other
pretence to the term is an abuse. Principle stood forth with a
promptitude and constancy which equalled and multiplied the
martyrdoms of any former age. It was a great deliverance.
It absolved not only the confessors themselves from restrictions
which certainly had not secured the quiet of their minds, — it
was, also, the magnificent sounding forth of Christian verity.
These holy men found a liberty of conscience which creeds can
little favour, and which national churches must generally impair.
The love of the truth was now made evident. Christianity was
disengaged from Court and Dynasty and Cabinet. It could be
surveyed in its proper self-dependence. It could stand and act
alone. Ye blessed champions of conscience and moral right !
The death of violence and shame was not wanted for your wit
ness : long persecutions were more excruciating than the stake :
your palm and crown of martyrdom were more severely won
than in the fires !
The Nonconformists had, doubtless, misunderstood, when in
power, the true principles even of toleration. Their conduct
towards us was often overbearing. They accused us of carrying
religious liberty too far. That the Independents greatly disap
proved of the arbitrary conduct pursued by the Presbyterians, is
clearly proved by contemporary averments and writings Jere
miah Burroughs, at the last meeting of " the grand Committee
of Accommodation," consisting of Lords, Commoners, and Di
vines, thus declared himself for his order : " If their congrega
tions might not be exempted from the coercive power of the

634 THE INFLUENCE OF THE PIOUS
classes or the synods,  they were resolved to suffer, or to go
to some other place of the world, where they might enjoy their
liberty." John Goodwin, calling himself " an aged minister of
Jesus Christ, and pastor to that remnant of His sheep usually
assembling in Coleman Street, London," published in 1657 his
" Basavisrai, or the Tryers (or Tormentors,) tried and cast." But
this cannot hinder our admiration of those future confessors, nor
our sympathy with their affliction. They were forgiven the mo
ment that they were called to suffer too.
Something may yet "be due in the contemplation of these
great intellectual and spiritual developments. Into their philo
sophy it would not be uninteresting to enter. Were we adequate
to the task, we must forbear. A slight vindication we do pro
pose. " My heart is toward" those heroes who subdued king
doms, and to whom was given power over the nations !
They have been upbraided by posterity, as well as by them
of their own age, as too politically affected. This has always
been the vampyre charge to infix itself upon the oppressed.
Who makes religion political ? an ingredient of this world ?
Not the Separatist, but the Domination from which he with
draws. The Huguenots were accused of meeting in secret, —
public worship was forbidden them. They were condemned for
discussing affairs of State, — their religion was made an affair of
State by the edicts of the Court. After the assassination of Co-
ligni, and the massacre of their brethren, whom could they trust?
Was it wrong to seek refuge within the walls, and beneath the
towers, of Rochelle? All these persecuted tribes, throughout
all countries, were the victims of State intrigue and oppres
sion. What fame of honour or honesty is due to the counsels
of Sully, or to the professions of the renegade Henry of Na
varre ? Walsingham, in our country, seemed to favour the
Puritans, but always for selfish purposes of his own. The pro
fligate Leicester availed himself of their eloquence, — and during
his Lieutenancy in Holland affected their plain apparel, diet,
and mien. Richelieu acted with the same double-minded policy :
persecuting his own Protestant compatriots, yet encouraging the
Reformers of Germany, that he might humble the House of

UPON THE AGE IN WHICH THEY LIVE. 635
Hapsburgh. Mazarine followed in his steps. And well might
the Protestants of Elizabeth's time be filled with alarm. Catha
rine de Medicis was doing her utmost for an English alliance.
When the Duke of Anjou was rejected, she even humbled her
self to press the acceptance of her third son, Alencon. Every
thing, even to the coquetry of England's queen, threatened the
introduction of Popery. Was patriotism to be indifferent to
these ominous warnings ? They who would have been the first
to suffer, must they be the last to resist ? Indeed, their unsus-
piciousness was alike their fault and misfortune. They were
only, and then but slowly, stung by perfidy and wrong into
open resentments. When their own yoke was broken, they felt
that they belonged to the great Protestant Family, — that pant
ing flock, killed all the day long, and accounted for the slaugh
ter. In a new order of things, against which they had solemnly
declared themselves, for the Protectorate was always denounced
by them, — though they had too much reason to believe, and did
believe, that Charles was accessary to the murder of their brethren
in Ireland, — in that new order of things, they cast about for the
suffering and aggrieved ; and it was their spirit which guided the
hand of the Bard of Paradise as it penned the demands in behalf
of the Savoyard Christians, and which wielded the thunders of
Blake against their Protestant Country's foes.
But if these apologies be just, — they are not required of our
connections, or of our principles. We look on these great pro
gressions, we cannot be uninterested in them, nor are we unaf
fected by them, — but, as expressing parties, they are nothing to
us. There were Independents when there were Lollards, when
there were Puritans, when there were Nonconformists. They
were not bound up with any of these, whether considered as sects
of Christian communion, or as indexes of current belief. The
Congregational organization went on, whatever might be the
vicissitudes around it. Others debated the question of Esta
blishments: it is scarcely necessary to say, that Independency
always opposed them, being incompatible with them. Others
debated whether the ordinances, called sacraments, could be
found in Separation : Independency always held, as its descrip-

636

THE INFLUENCE OF THE PIOUS

tive token, that each church was self-complete. When our mi
nisters freely communed with Presbyterians and Nonconformists,
they were always distinguished as "the Dissenting brethren."
Our objection has invariably been, not to this or that Establish
ment, but to any, to every, to all. That society which was
honoured by the pastoracy of Henry Jacob, 1616, has been
called our first church in Britain; but there was one, ambula
tory as its cruel enemies often made it, yet generally meeting in
Islington, which gave its minister Rough, and its deacon Simp
son, to the fires of Smithfield. The churches at Dukinfield,
Cheshire, and in Norwich, seem to have been of similar date
with this. The principles of Congregationalism were at that
time widely diffused, and many acted upon them privately, who
had not withdrawn from the services of the Established Prayer
and Preaching.* The manner of announcing the existence of
such churches, may warrant the conviction that there were many
others, and others anterior to them ; some of whose members,
doubtless, suffered as an equivalent and a bribe to those sangui
nary persecutors, who otherwise would not have yielded their
monastic treasure for the projected crusade of the Fourth Henry
to Palestine, and the gallant expedition of his chivalrous son into
the heart of France.
The Independents continue until this time little altered from
their original mould. They never fixed their faith otherwise
than in the word of God. They never supposed that their view
of it was final. " For my part," said John Robinson, that
ornament of our order, while the May-flower was rocking off'
Delfthaven, " I cannot sufficiently bewail the condition of the
Reformed Churches, who are come to a period in religion, and
will go, at present, no farther than the instruments of their
* Sir Walter Raleigh, in 1580, declared from his seat in Parliament : " In my
conceit, the Brownists are worthy to be rooted out of the commonwealth ; but
what danger may grow to ourselves if this law pass, it were fit to be considered.
For it is to be feared, that men not guilty will be included in it  If two or three
thousand Brownists meet at the sea, at whose charge shall they be transported, or
whither will you send them ? I am sorry for it, I am afraid there are near twenty
thousand of them in England, and when they be gone, who shall maintain their
wives and children ?"

UPON THE AGE IN WHICH THEY LIVE. 637
reformation  This is a misery much to be lamented, for
though they were burning and shining lights in their times, yet
they penetrated not into the whole counsel of God, but, were
they now living, would be as willing to embrace further light,
as that which they first received. I beseech you remember, it
is an article of your church-covenant, that you be ready to
receive whatever truth shall be made known to you from the
written word of God." But while they only adjured by the
Bible, they did not pervert that profession, as some who left
us have done since, into a mask to cover all that is unsettled
and untrue in speculation. It is common to speak of the Inde
pendents of the present age, as degenerate from their sires :
and the most self-conflicting imputations are heaped upon them.
What are the deteriorations alleged ? " We are more political."
We wish not to justify ourselves at the expense of men we so
much venerate, but surely if we be political, what were they?
None of our remotest partisans have charged with the Ironsides.
The offence, — I think it has been one, — is only as our little
finger to our fathers' loins. " We are litigious." It was the
reiterated attack upon our ancestors, that they were always dis
turbing their neighbours with their Reasons of Dissent. " We
now adopt confessions and creeds." They held their assembly
in the Savoy to form one, thinking that that of the Westminster
Assembly was not sufficient. We are charged with novelties.
What do we present of the new? Is it our Congregational
Union? This they sought, maintaining the intercommunity of
their churches, and Ainsworth particularly urges it in the 24th
chap, of his " Communion of Saints." Is it that we live a more
active and associative life? They formed their Book Societies,
for the purpose of circulating Bibles and religious publications.
Is it that we employ money more directly for the spread of our
principles ? They always could boast their fund for exhibitions
to help the poor student and the feeble church. Is it that we
have encouraged the appropriation of the Sabbath evening to
public worship, thereby injuring domestic religion? Early do we
find that they combined to support such lectures. Is it that we
gladly work together with other denominations ? They actually

638 THE INFLUENCE OF THE PIOUS
incorporated themselves with the Presbyterians, though without
any dereliction of their peculiar tenets. Is it our voluntaryism ?
This was their first principle. Is it our Missionary enterprise ?
The Pilgrim Fathers led the way ! In short, we know not of any
substantive disagreement between the ancestors and the children.
Let us be but understood in our pedigree. We are not the chil
dren of the Nonconformists, nor of the Puritans : many of these
joined us : our fathers were the Separatists ! If we must men
tion those worthies, if we must cite their names, though familiar
in our mouths as household words, — they are Barrowe, Penry,
Thacker, Copping, Greenwood, those early martyrs, caricatured
as Brownists, but in whom we see our principles first fully re
flected, and our practices first fully maintained.
It is no mean proof of the advantages of civic and municipal
life, of commercial and trading incorporation, that Religious
Freedom found in these institutions its safest refuge. The expa
triated confessors, who fled to our country, were generally the
inhabitants of foreign towns, — merchants and artizans. The Wal
loon brought to us his traffic and fabrications. The Revocation
of the Edict of Nantz placed in our Capital, and spread through
our larger seats of population, an industrious race and various
branches of manufacture. When our forefathers found " no vine
nor figtree" of their own beneath which they might worship God,
when to build the humblest conventicle would have provoked
against them the cruel wrath of their enemies, the Companies of
London opened to them their Halls. Those guilds contained
many Nonconformists and Dissenters. The smile almost invo
luntarily arises as their names are heard, — the appropriations of
some now being scarcely understood, or altogether superseded, —
Armourers', Girdlers', Loriners', — while others were occupied
within our own times, bearing far humbler designations.
In a Village-suburb of this great metropolis were found, two
centuries since, a few disciples of these principles. Excellent
men had preached in it, — Jeremiah Whitaker, and William
Bridge, a zealous Independent. This latter worthy is identified
with Dissent in Norfolk, where his name still is fragrant and his
memory blessed. That village had long been known by the

UPON THE AGE IN WHICH THEY LIVE. 639
name Stibenhede, or Heath. It is in the Doomsday-book. In
the reigns of Richard III. and Henry VII., it became notable
for a long dispute concerning its ecclesiastical benefice. Its
modern name of Stepney is far better known. In 1644, these
disciples made their first minute, which is the only record of
their origin as a church. "The Church," says this memorandum,
"being constituted by the mutual consent and agreement of
Henry Burton and his wife, William Parker, John Adingsell,
William Greenhill, and John Pococke, in the presence of Mr.
Henry Burton, Pastor of a church in London, to walk in all the
ways of Christ held out to them in the gospel, and having the
right hand of fellowship given them by the aforementioned, and
owned for a true Church of Jesus Christ, — there were added to
them, from time to time, as folio weth." Then follow the names
of twenty-four persons who were united to the Church that same
year. How beautifully simple is this transaction ! It is genuine
Independency. " Receive ye one another as Christ hath received
you to the glory of God." " They first gave their ownselves to
the Lord and unto us by the will of God." Carnal men cannot
see in this the kingdom foretold by the prophets, preached by
the apostles, solemnly claimed by the Redeemer. It cometh
not with observation. It is not of this world. Thus were the
primitive Churches gathered. Men and women were added to
the Lord, were added to the Church or Churches, as one or
more were found. — Among these signatures are two names which
cannot be passed by without honourable note. Henry Burton, —
he, who was the scourge and malleus of Antinomianism, — he,
who so explained our principles, that Baxter said that he had
never known what Independency was, until he read " The Pro
testation Protested," — he, who was the mutilated victim of the
Star-chamber, — he, who maintained his system against the objec
tions of Prynne and Bastwick, though they had been his fellow-
prisoners and fellow-sufferers, — he, who had to endure the loss
of many friends, because he would not forbear, in their language,
to preach "his Congregational way," — he, it was, who ordered
the Church in this place, and it was his right hand of fellowship
which your fathers grasped. What tortures and wrongs was he

640 THE INFLUENCE OF THE PIOUS
afterwards to know ! William Greenhill, also, appears upon
this roll. We think that there cannot be doubt that this was he
who is known to have been the first pastor. There is no diffi
culty in his being thus mentioned only as a private member. It
was a general practice among our Churches, — I have heard that
it is still retained in this, — that the pastor-elect should first join
the church, being demitted to it from that in which he stood
before, and then be anew called to his office. So was it here.
Palmer, in his " Nonconformists' Memorial," speaks of him as a
member of the Assembly of Divines, and that in 1644 he esta
blished a Society of Dissenters in Stepney. Real difficulties do
attend his consistency, and the continuity of his pastoral relation
ship. His preaching in the Parish Church, where he was called
by Hugh Peters, from being appointed to the Sabbath afternoon
lecture, " the Evening Star," — may seem strange to us, but we
must remember the period, and that the hierarchy had ceased.
If it was a course which a consistent Independent could not have
undertaken, Jeremiah Burroughs would assuredly have never
associated himself in the earlier lecture of the same place, whence
he was entitled, by the same authority, "the Morning Star."
The fact is, that many Independents did avail themselves of
these larger structures to address the multitudes which crowded
to hear them. That this was the case here is incidentally made
known to us. In Allin's and Shephard's Defence against Ball's
" Trial of the New Church Way," they have to meet the argu
ment of the Presbyterians, that, though there is only said to be
one Church in Jerusalem, many must have really existed, for the
converts could not have met in any one place, — and that thus
the word Church becomes comprehensive and generic. They
reply, that as that Church assembled in the Temple, there was
room enough ; but they add, that there are instances of as great
congregations "meeting for ordinary edification." After allusion
to that of Chrysostom, they specify " the assemblies of Stepney
in London, Yarmouth in Norfolk, and others in our experience."
Another testimony to the largeness of this congregation in those
times is, that of Daniel Neal, in his " History of the Puritans."
Speaking of the death of Jeremiah Burroughs, he says that he

UPON THE AGE IN WHICH THEY LIVE. 641
" became preacher to two of the largest and most numerous con
gregations about London, namely, Stepney and Cripplegate."
When Pastors accepted these appointments, it was only for
preaching : they carried on fellowship and its privileges, distinctly
and elsewhere. This may be shown by another local example.
Matthew Mead, while Lecturer at Stepney Parish Church, was
received into this society 1656, though he was not ordained as
its pastor until fifteen years after, nor even elected assistant until
the expiration of twelve. He thus enjoyed " sweet counsel" with
those who walked in the order and communion of the gospel,
while he was a preacher at large, officiating wherever he could
find the open door. How many of our brethren approach this
precedent, who still cleave to the Established Religion of this
country ! They have their select numbers meeting in the in
tercourse of prayer and Christian experience. They solemnise
early breaking of bread, that the participants may all be of one
spiritual bond and taste. It appears, however, that Greenhill
afterwards accepted the Ecclesiastical living of this hamlet, —
an act which we can only regard as most inconsistent. It is
no excuse that many others did the same. It is a rather better
extenuation, that the appointment was untrammeled by condi
tions, and that he was free to conduct worship as he pleased.
But I will not blunder an apology ! We can obtain little
record of his after life. It was holy and useful to the last..
He died the 29th of September, 1671. He was the author
of an elaborate work on the Prophecies of Ezekiel.* He was
superintendent of the young princes and princess during the
dispersion of the royal family. He has obtained, as might be
expected, the vituperations of Anthony Wood. He must have
been pitied had he received that slanderer's praise. John Howe,
preaching the Funeral Sermon of Matthew Mead, the successor,
and once the assistant, of William Greenhill, says : " His station
among you in this neighbourhood, when first he undertook the
pastoral charge of the Church, required a man of as much wis
dom and grace as any such station could be supposed to do :
* My estimable and useful friend, the Bev. James Sherman, has done excel
lent service by a new and splendid Republication of this Exposition,

642 THE INFLUENCE OF THE PIOUS
considering how numerous, how intelligent, and well instructed,
a people he was to take care of. I well remember, that about
three or four and forty years ago, being desired to give some
help, on a Lord's day, to that eminent servant of Christ, Mr.
Greenhill, whose praise is still in all the Churches, I then first
heard him preach." He then speaks of Mr. Mead's "conjunc
tion and society, for some years, with that excellent servant of
God before named." Now Mead died in 1699. He had known
much suffering from persecution. He was more than once obli
ged to flee. He seems to allude to himself in his Thanksgiv
ing Sermon for the deliverance of the nation by the Prince of
Orange : " A deliverance to him who is redeemed thereby from
nine years' incessant vexations, by suits, by fines, by illegal
housebreaking, by plundering and spoil, by imprisonments, by
prosecution for life, by wandering in a strange land," &c. It
was during his ministry that this spacious House of prayer was
erected, bearing the date of 1674. In that year he commenced
the May-day lecture to the young, which has continued ever
since, — one hundred and seventy years. The day was suggested
to him by a stranger, as a day of gross pastime and profligacy.
It is a holy catena between a former and the present age. Much
of its usefulness is on record : but far more awaits, and shall
receive, the honours of eternity. He was the author of many
valuable works. Among these, " The Almost Christian, or the
False Professor tried and cast," has certainly stood the most
known and popular. It is still passing through modern editions.
Some MSS., long hidden, have been recently published, as also
his Farewell Sermon on his ejectment.* He was the father of
the celebrated Dr. Richard Mead, and received him into this
Church in 1691. To him, however, we can only refer as the
illustrious physician and virtuoso. Against his name, in the cata
logue of members, is marked the solemn notice, — "Deserted."
The duellist would find no place among us. Another spirit had
entered him, ere his abandonment of our cause. He need not
have been ashamed of his patronymic or his pupilage. But fame
and riches too commonly corrupt the heart.
" See Original Sermons, edited by Sir Thomas W. Blomefield, Bart.

UPON THE AGE IN WHICH THEY LIVE. 643
With Matthew Mead, a striking peculiarity of this fine old
building is associated. These noble pillars, which support the
four corners of your roof, were given to him for this purpose by
the States of Holland, as a tribute of their respect for him during
his friendly captivity there. They rise as memorable columns
on which imagination may hang shield and write inscription.
They are not of jasper or bronze. They are but fir, until this time
full of turpentine and sound at heart. They are your doubled
Jachin and Boaz. They have for a century and a half been the
objects of something like a legendary curiosity. The thought of
the immortals, who, during that period, have gazed upon them
and congregated around them, impresses an interest upon them
which may be excused in us, who confess that antiquities of tem
ple and donatives of senate are not our proper boast. The
Rev. Richard Laurence was his assistant for some time, surviving
Mr. Mead, but laid aside for several years by infirmity, before his
venerated senior's death. The Rev. Mr. Galpine, son of the
ejected John Galpine of Ashpriors, Somersetshire, and the bio
grapher of Flavel, succeeded to the pastoracy in January, 1700.
Scarcely from age could he need an assistant so soon as 1703.
Yet in that year, one in whom I claim a collateral interest,
Thomas Bradbury, was appointed. He was preceded in the
assistantship, by Mr. Symonds and followed by Mr. Shollet.
He continued to help for four years in this pulpit, but unor-
dained. Previously to this, he had held the same office in con
nection with the Rev. Thomas Whitaker, minister of the still
surviving chapel, Call-Lane, Leeds.* Mr. Galpine died the
24th November, 1712. The Rev. Thomas Mitchell then fol
lowed, but his life of duty here was only of seven years' duration.
He demised 1720. A man, not to be so soon forgotten, filled his
place. The Rev. John Hubbard was settled here, 1722. He is
* The Church, which met in this place, was formed in 1672, and assembled at
first in the Main Riding-House, Water Lane. The building of Call-Lane Meeting
House was in 1691. It was Independent, but not in the strictest sense: the go
vernment and the electoral rights were not in the church, but in the seatholders.
It is now decidedly Arian, nearly the last of that order in this country. Thomas
Whitaker, the first — for there were three lineal ministers of that family — suffered
imprisonment for his Dissent in York Castle.

644 THE INFLUENCE OF THE PIOUS
well-known by the part he took in the Friday Morning Lecture,
founded in Little St. Helen's, by William Coward, 1726. This
excellent man was elected Theological Tutor to the Academy
then located in Plasterers' Hall, afterwards removed to Mile-
End, in room of Dr. Abraham Taylor, 1740, and, on the expi
ration of three years, resigned that office to Zephaniah Marryat,
— and, in the same year, 1743, yielded his spirit to God. He,
too, had an assistant, Thomas Paine. My honoured grandfather,
the Rev. Richard Winter, B. D. , whose name I bear, was
invited to succeed him, but declined, thinking himself physically
unsuited for so large a building, and so laborious a station. — A
name now appears in your sacred register which prefers every
title to love and veneration. Few men have lived so esteemed,
and died so lamented, as Samuel Brewer. He seems to have
possessed all the endowments of mind, purpose, and tendency, to
form a pastor. He was a man greatly beloved. He entered
upon the oversight of this Church when it was much reduced:
his zeal soon rallied it. In him was seen the junction-point be
tween the old Dissenter and a scholastic style, and that new life
of preaching which Whitfield originated, and which his name
not inaptly types. Brewer, like Hitchin and others, was less
artificial than his class. He- threw more earnestness into his
manner, more unction into his style, more point into his appeal.
He certainly belonged to a new school, — was not learned, — was
not always connected and methodical, — was not invariably in
taste, — but he was so acceptable, that he was in requisition for
the City Lectures. The Annual Sermon to the Young was his
best-preferred task. A respected minister now living heard his
forty-ninth.* He expressed in that discourse his wish that he
might preach the fiftieth. His prayer was heard. He died 1796,
completing his fifty years of constant, blameless, and most suc
cessful, work. He obtained an assistant in the Rev. George Ford,
and left his people to him as his successor. This arrangement
was secured, by the Church voting him pastor in remainder when
they called him to the coadjutorship. This worthy man was
brought up at Trevecca, the college of Lady Huntingdon. He
* Rev. E. A. Dunn, of Pimlico.

UPON THE AGE IN WHICH THEY LIVE. 645
pretended not to scholarship. He was, doubtless, in this view,
inferior to your whole line of pastors. But he was very diligent
in improving himself. He made up for accomplishments of po
lite learning, by a thorough reading and adoption of the old
Divinity. He continued in this place about twenty-five years,
retaining much respect and usefulness to the last. He died in
1821. And then was welcomed among you, one of whom I dare not
trust myself to speak: — the Rev. Dr. Fletcher. He has been
taken from us too recently to justify the hope that we can pro
nounce a dispassionate judgment, or limn a historic draught.
His ashes are scarcely cold. The soil of his grave still gives way
beneath our step. Who that knew, could forbear to love, him ?
Who has left a more reproachless memory ? There was a finish
in his character exquisitely beautiful. His intellectual qualities
were of no narrow order. The clearness and elegance of his dic
tion reflected the self-same characters of his mind. If he had
possessed as great a power of comprehension and generalization
as of analysis, — if he could have impressed as great warmth as
correctness on his composition, — had his imagination equalled his
judgment and his fulness of language his perspicuity, — he would
have stood in our first class of writers, as he certainly more than
approached our first class of preachers. He poured a clear light
over every theme. The outline and expression of his soul-
breathing countenance, the felicitousness of his rich and articu
late tones, blended with the better endowments of that transpa
rent sincerity and conviction, that self-betraying intensity and
earnestness, which prove to all that usefulness is the one thought
and care and aim, — often gave to his counsels a resistless force.
How well I remember the interest which he excited in a rising
succession of pastors a little junior to his own. He struck out
much of an original path for himself. We beheld him, and
panted to follow him. His high talents as a Divinity Professor
were not placed before you : but they will always be honoured
by his students, and be celebrated in the distant sphere which
they adorned. I doubt if any one man has exerted so great and
so beneficial an influence upon our rising ministry. But you
u u

646 THE INFLUENCE OF THE PIOUS
know his manner of life. His kindness, his sympathy with your
affliction, his assiduity for your edification, are indelibly written
on your recollection. Your tears are not yet dried up. Often
did he talk of this two-hundredth Anniversary ! With deep
emotion he anticipated this day ! Dear Friend ! If thou hadst
been spared to conduct this service, how wouldst thou have
swayed and subdued our hearts ! But another hand, far less
skilled and worthy, has been called to lift up and turn back
the veil of the past, and now its last folds fall as a drapery over
thy Funereal Urn !
We deem it a most unhappy misconception of History that
Independents should ever have recorded the 24th of .August,
1662, as their Memorable Day. They have nothing to do with
it. It affected them only contingently. It was not their Trial.
It was not the assertion of their distinctive principles. It might
never have touched their simplest interests. It in no wise mould
ed their views or usages. We gratefully acknowledge that it
brought a large amount of learning and excellence to our ranks.
But this was an incident. It was not of the event itself. A
Presbyterian Establishment was the wish, if not the hope, of the
Nonconformists. What sympathy can we hold with that Dis
ruption ? To us it only could show a choice of evils. Bartho
lomew Day was a great illustration of principle, and conscience,
and disinterestedness ! We do honour to it ! But we had no
share in it. It is no portion of our chronicle. It is robbery to
keep it as our Festival ! It is suicide, for it commits us to con
clusions at utter variance with our Profession, a profession going
back to far more ancient periods, finding ever in its retrocession
congenial spirits and confirmatory views. We feel it more con
sistent to begin at earlier dates, though not covered with the
grandeur of national vestige and historic note. We prefer the
humble tale which we now unfold.
Let us endeavour to picture to ourselves that little band of
Christians which, in 1644, united themselves into church-state
and order amidst then a rural scene, — unsubmerged, as now, by
the waves of metropolitan increase and its outlying population.
That city then shrunk into its olden features of wall and gate,

UPON THE AGE IN WHICH THEY LIVE. 647
the unlost characters of the ancient Lud. From the cinders of
its conflagration it had not sprung up in modern magnitude and
magnificence. It could not boast its streets and squares. Enclosed
in itself, the surrounding villages, as well as Westminster, the
city of palaces and courts, escaped the devouring flames. Step
ney was not even then, for the first time, a little sanctuary. Here
John Penry had found refuge, until his retreat was betrayed by
one who ought to have protected him.* And what a drama is
acting around these holy men ! The Civil Wars have begun.
The sword is drawn, which never can be drawn, without the
ruler's death, or the people's enslavement, and which is seldom
sheathed until the consummation of both. Only three years
since has Ireland flowed in its holiest blood. The recent retri
butions on Strafford and Laud, however just, threaten a terrific
recoil. The Legislature has divided against itself. The Mo
narch has abandoned his capital, and thrown himself upon the
valour of his troops and the loyalty of his provinces. The per
fidies of Charles and the cruelties of Rupert exasperate the land.
News soon is heard. The defeat of Naseby fills up the disasters
of Marston Moor. All is suspense and consternation. Some of
the best and wisest men, to whom this new-formed church might
have looked, are sheltered on foreign shores. Four and twenty
years have elapsed since the gallant crew of Congregational exiles
debarked on New- Plymouth rock. Many kindred churches
cannot be found. Thomas Goodwin is in Thames- Street with
a few fellow-members. Stephen More preaches in Deadman's-
Place. Joseph Caryl and Philip Nye are deeply engaged in
public concerns and solemn consultations. Here and there only
are such assemblies to be found. The martyrology of the saints
is still open, and long it may be ere its thousands shall be sealed.
Yet are there controversies rife among them who should be but
one. Differences of opinion are not to be blamed, but at this
conjuncture they are to be regretted. The Baptismal question,
admitting, as it does, such very possible difference of conclusion,
little disturbs. Henry Jesse, the successor of Lathorp and Jacob,
adopts the Antipaedobaptist practice, but forbearance is not vio-
« Hanbury, i. 75.

648 THE INFLUENCE OF THE PIOUS
lated. Among the first Separatist and Independent churches
in this kingdom, it was never made a question of communion.
Would to God that it never had been since ! The new Prose
lyte does not make it one. The unhappy law of strict commu
nion is unknown on either side. But the Presbyterial dispute
is far more baleful. It threatens a new persecution. It more
than divides brethren. — The Millenarian hypothesis, which asserts
the Personal reign of Christ, arises most inopportunely. John
Archer encounters a staunch opponent in Bishop Hall, who now
writes his " Revelation Unrevealed." Nor is this church left
quiet in its sequestered suburb. It knows interruption of service
and superintendence. It has no Bill of Rights, nor even Act of
Toleration, on which to rest. Indulgence is oftentimes denied.
Yet still does it flourish. It springs up like grass against the
scythe. The palm mounts higher by its weights. It holds its
fasts. It loves to renew its covenant. From it go forth the
excellent and learned ministers of Christ. " This and that man
is born in it." And as it survives commotion, it changes not in
its primal pattern. It continues Independent and Evangelic.
It stands midway between the unsound extravagances of Crisp,
and the cold cautions of Williams. It hails the divinity of the
Nonconformist, and imbibes the earnestness of Methodism. But
that Parent church lays down the rule for itself, and its every
generation has followed it, to look well to its pastors. Would
it have endured the disquisitions of a Foster ? Would it have
brooked a Caleb Fleming ? And this is your glory. It is a noble
inheritance. You, "the children's children, are the crown of
those old men ;" and surely you will add, " the glory of the chil
dren are their fathers !" Not one has fallen ! Not one has dis
graced you ! But if you cease to be valiant for the truth, and to
stand for the defence of the gospel, that glory will depart. And
may I urge upon you the maintenance of that full theology which
is the soul and life of those standard volumes in which our ances
tors rejoiced : which was their baptism of fire ! The doctrines 
of human depravity, involving not only a relative injury and
evil, but an inherent disposition to sin in every man ; of atone
ment by the death of Christ, not as a mere expedient, an honour

UPON THE AGE IN WHICH THEY LIVE. 649
done to him, a deference paid to him, the analogy of which
might be found in generous denial and in the reward of heroic
virtue, but by substitution, by sin-offering, and by satisfaction
of punitive justice; of justification by faith in Christ's mediato
rial merit, always preserving the strict forensic principle, and
that the sinner is accepted and treated as just on the ground of a
righteousness ; of effectual calling and conversion, of regeneration
and sanctification ; of that sovereign grace which alone can ac
count for saving effects; of that covenant which certifies the
complement of the Church and the reward of the Saviour.
Trained in, devoted to, this old school divinity from my youth,
I congratulate you that you can quote no one of your pastors as
faithless to it, and point to no one of your periods as breaking
from it. I believe this can be all but universally asserted of the
Independent Churches in our day. There is rather rally than
recreancy. But let us not be high-minded. Let us not glory in
men. The danger of deviation from our faith may not be past.
Error is insidious. The mountain falls not but wastes away. I
would, then, in all kindness, venture to ask: Whether, in our
day, the verbal inspiration of the Bible has not been, in some
instances, too indifferently argued, or too readily surrendered?
Whether, in our disclaimer of formularies and creeds, we have
not departed from the use of catechisms in our families and con
gregations, almost forgetting the Assembly's, which might well
keep the rank which our fathers gave it, until we had devised a
better? Whether, in our avowals of the Trinity, we have not
over-refined and subtletised, refusing words generally employed,
by which the sound terminology of the universal Church intends
but to express a fixed and necessary distinction ? Whether the
eternal Sonship of Christ be not slighted, if not disowned ? Whe
ther we have insisted sufficiently on the influence of the Holy
Ghost as immediate and direct ? Whether, in pleading the cause
of many Christian truths, we have not contented ourselves with
entangling the opponent in opposite difficulties, rather than ex
ulting in the truths themselves? Whether, in giving certain
views of any doctrine necessary to proper ideas of moral accoun
tability, we may not have held back other views necessary to

650 THE INFLUENCE OF THE PIOUS
proper ideas of decretive and distinguishing grace? Whether
we speak, as if we felt the certainty and danger of Satanic domi
nion over every unrenewed man, and of Satanic temptation upon
every Christian ? Whether, in opposing the lawlessness of man's
abuse of the gospel, we have not been ashamed to unfold, with
explicit freedom, the simple method of a sinner's salvation ?
Whether the everlasting punishment of the unbeliever be firmly
avouched and denounced ? There is a Neology which often
takes no questionable shape. It is an impalpable spirit. But it
lives. It exercises power. It is always jealous of miracle. It
is coy of mystery. It must be withstood. It is unreasonable in
its fetch and beggarly in its simplicity. It banters with truth
and integrity, not even respecting the sincerity of the Eternal
Word Himself. On one point I will boldly speak. We all main
tain, on scriptural ground, that the atonement, as an atonement, is
general, and the same to every man in its aspect and overture.
The doctrine of particular redemption we also hold. But of late
it has not been frequently preached. We have supposed it in
cluded in the truth of predestination, and in the fact of a parti
cular application. We have, somehow, shrunk from preaching
that Christ died for a people, as he did not die for all mankind.
What have we gained? Have we thereby illustrated final causes?
Have we cleared the difficulties of Sovereignty ? Made Christ's
death more reasonable ? What harm has it inflicted ! Look at
Scotland at this very moment. College and church are periled
by this faithless neglect. — But though I would not falter in these
remarks, nothing can be more unj ust than to charge any defec
tion from orthodoxy upon us, because the manner and composi
tion of this day are so different from those of the past. This can
be no fault : it can be no disadvantage. Every age has its style.
Your last pastor might not have been acceptable to the former
century : but not less so than your first would be to this.
We are, like our fathers, Dissenters. We could not belong
to any national establishment of religion. But our fathers never
lost their devotion, nor forgot their meekness, in Dissent. It
was to them only as a means to an end. It was a necessity. It
was that to which they were compelled to yield. They left hard

UPON THE AGE IN WHICH THEY LIVE. 651
words to their adversaries. They suffered the Rathbands to rail.
They did not write the Gangrasna. They could argue, but
they could not vituperate. And in all our present strifes, let
us follow them in their strength and sweetness of resistance.
Have we Truth on our side ? Let us keep by our side Her
spirit too. " Be ye courteous." "A Christian," says St. Francis
of Sales, " ought never to be outdone in good manners."
But not only are we bound to cherish their piety, — there are
many things in which we are as bound to excel them. Learning
is now far more liberal and polite. The means of information
are greatly extended. The facilities of usefulness have abun
dantly increased. There is set before us an open door. If we
sometimes employ another tone than theirs, it is becoming our
advanced age. Public opinion is gained to the cause of civil and
religious liberty. We are legally doomed to forego no rights, to
suffer no wrongs. We are free-born. Should we not stand
erect ? Should we not firmly grasp our privileges ? They
sought, what we claim. They asked an alms, where we sue an
inheritance. We cannot compromise our position. We cannot
throw ourselves back on the smatterings of political knowledge.
There is no field of science, where more glorious proficiencies
have been made than in that of government and legislation. We
should be ashamed to speak now as our ancestors spoke. In
moral courage they have left us far behind : the force of our cir
cumstances has advanced us beyond them incomparably in com
manding influence. Let us be true to our forward destiny, nor
let us tether ourselves by the restriction of any prejudice, or
swear by the words of any master. Our progenitors are patterns,
but not standards : we may preserve their images, without super
stitiously reverencing them as idols.
Seek the deep, warm, piety of your sainted elders,— by which
they obtained a good report. They were set in their ward whole
nights. What hours and days they gave to prayer ! Vigils
did they keep, — and still they wrestled until the day broke, and
the morning star chid them to their rest.
If any portion of the Holy Example set us by our forefathers
be more important than another, if there be one part of it more

652 THE INFLUENCE OF THE PIOUS
imperative upon us to imitate than all beside, it is their obser
vance of the Christian Sabbath. This has been imputed to them
in a ridiculous exaggeration. We know the worth of all such
satire. Romanism and its mimicries found in the Puritan con
ception of the Lord's Day, which was alike common to Noncon
formist and Separatist, an insuperable barrier to their proselyti
sing arts. If this entrenchment be once destroyed, they will still
find little to oppose them. Oh, let us guard this Divine Insti
tute as the ark of all our purity and liberty. The very thinking
of our nation, on this weekly pause from bodily labour, is alone
a precious result. The mind is drawn in upon itself. It is a
check upon vice. It is a respite upon sensuousness. It is an
interval in which the glad tidings of salvation sound with unbro
ken distinctness. It is a most powerful formative of character.
It gives principle its best monitor and guardian. It is a voice
heard from on high, perpetually renewing itself, and which we
are bound to aspirate with all its earliest emphasis. Let us de
clare aloud the Doctrine of the Sabbath : the Positive Law of
the Sabbath : the exclusive Religiousness of the Sabbath. Let
us contend for the Whole Sabbath. Let us urge a Sabbath strict
as that of which the trumpet of Sinai rung, the Sabbath of the
temple, the Sabbath in the gate, the Sabbath in the dwelling, —
and yet as sweet as " that first day of the week," which fell on
the Saviour's deserted tomb, and which saw him among his dis
ciples, " known of them in breaking of bread." In the Puritan
Sabbath will be the revival of Puritan piety : and in that piety
will be contained the only preservative of our nation from disre
gard to its liberties, and the only defence of our people against
the machinations of their foes. If we surrender our Sabbaths, we
shall presently become intellectual triflers and political slaves !
Let Protestant Dissent be maintained by us in its true prin
ciple. Other things need not be mixed with it. It is surely a
vain thing for a man to boast how attached he is to it, and how
true he is, because he rudely protests against the pulpit habits,
instrumental accompaniments to singing, and the use of the
Lord's Prayer. He may do all this, in all this he may be con
sistent, but these are mere accidents of the question, — and only

UPON THE AGE IN WHICH THEY LIVE. 653
of the question in its predicament among us, — what have they
to do with Dissent ? Cultivate brotherly love, and, if possible,
frequent communion with other Christian sections. Remember
that it was your Mead who preached on occasion of the Agree
ment of the Presbyterians and Congregationalists. " The Excel
lence of Unity" was his subject, and the Sermon does honour to
him ; while it suggests many enlarged and expansive views which
it were happy if we would all embrace.
Nor let any Church of our order take upon itself, as a neces
sary part of its character, the form of aggression. This is often
said to belong to it. If the calm and consistent presentation of
principles be the strong assault upon their opposites, then such
must be our offence. But it is no more. We need not seek to
condemn. To maintain the right is our duty. Against what
we deem wrong there may be, in this, an implicit rebuke. Yet
it is not for us to trouble other churches. We doubt if certain
success would compensate for all the evil the attack would pro
voke. To live for denominational purposes seems to us an un
worthy end. It is no ultimate good. It is no immortal triumph.
It is only an included benefit. It is only a subservient use.
Far be it from us so to bear ourselves as though we raised but
one stern protest against all who differ in any thing from us ; so
to set up the model of our church, as if, forsooth, we disallowed
the existence and acceptance of any other !
Equally do we deprecate the idea that the life of our churches
must mainly consist in the exhibition of our peculiar tenets.
Surely these are not our chief boast. Our agreements with other
Christian communities are far more considerable and precious
than our differences. Our external polity cannot constitute a
church. It is our confession of Christian truth, it is our piety and
devotedness and love, which furnish its idea. Congregationalism
is its external edifice. We make not light of it, — prepossession,
conviction, self-denying choice, will not suffer a momentary in
difference,  but we cannot confound essence and accident, the
indestructible and the temporary. The vitality of our Body
will be found in its cherished regard to evangelic theology and
practical religion. For these our polity is, we believe, best

654 THE INFLUENCE OF THE PIOUS
adapted as a medium of expression and a test of unworldliness.
We value it at nothing more.
Think, my brethren of this Church, how God has blessed
you above 3-our progenitors ! What a revolution has there been
during your times, in public opinion, in religious freedom, in
governmental responsibility, in educational means, in jurispru
dence, in civilization ! What a change has passed over your
native land .' How are its institutions amended, its laws cor
rected, and its manners refined ! What men have risen since
the aera to which we revert on this day !- Howe, Owen, and
Baxter, were scarcely known. Bunyan had not composed his
matchless Parable. Henry had not penned his devout Exposi
tion. Doddridge had not, like a tutelary spirit of our homes,
opened to your fathers the Scripture and taught it to their chil
dren and servants around the household altar: nor had Watts,
with a bard-like power, struck those notes which distant nations
answer and distant ages shall prolong. The founders of this
church had not caught the idea of a Sabbath School. They
had scarcely heard of Missionary success. Their brethren had,
indeed, crossed the sea. But hitherto their resources and labours
were required for colonization and self-defence. Mayhew had
only begun to preach to the American Indians in 1643, and Eliot
not until 1646. Their geographical knowledge was small. Be
yond their Christendom, there broke not a ray of light nor hope.
How different are your glad-tidings of the world ! From the
uttermost parts of the earth you hear songs, even glory to the
Righteous One ! His word runneth very swiftly ! It is glori
fied ! In one hundred and fifty-three dialects is it read. Seven
hundred Missionaries, at least, occupy the key-points of Pagan
ism. Oh our dull hearts i What a new song would this have
furnished to our sires ! With what joyful lips would they have
pealed it ! How would they have flung away their sackcloth
and put on the garment of praise ! They would have felt that
the Bridegroom was near ! How is it, that we fail to realise it ?
How is it, that we so sorrily and desultorily sustain this Mission-
work ? They would have proclaimed that " the days were at
hand and the effect of every vision" !

UPON THE AGE IN WHICH THEY LIVE. 655
It may well gladden us that we have received so large a De
nominational increase. Yet upon this we found but little. It
may not please our Master in heaven to make further use of our
community. Its only value is as a vehicle for certain princi
ples. It is better for us to triumph in their simple extension.
Of this we are assured. At Oxford, amidst the worst form of
error, the proper independence of the church on the world is a
distinctive dogma. With much that is incongruous, the Free
Church of Scotland proclaims the Crown-rights of the Son of
God. The voluntary method of supporting religion and educa
tion is far more practically carried out by large portions of the
English Church than among ourselves. A greater purity of
communion, our most solemn fundamental, forces itself upon all
Christian bodies. New names have sprung up among us, new
actions have arisen, holding much in common with us and greatly
advancing our most determinate views. God may supersede,
God may discharge, us: but will He not hear his elect, and
plead his own cause ? The vessel may be shivered : but the
treasure is imperishable.
Having slightly sketched the history of this famous Meeting
house, — for so it was to be regarded in its time, — we may pass
ingly observe, that it contains the proofs of the persecution
which your ancestors suffered. We point to the accommoda
tions of its roof. There are the hiding-places whither resorted,
for the purposes of devotion, the persecuted members of the
church. Trap-door and ladder were the means of escape. To
such shifts were they reduced, "of whom the world was not
worthy." They heard the footstep of the informer and the ma
rauder beneath. Yonder they cowered, but still " spake one to
another." Their whispered praise swelled to heaven. You walk
in a large and even place. No man forbids you. None make
you afraid. Ye reign like kings. Oh, remember your account
ability ! Be not high-minded, but fear. Let not your privi
leges elate you. Shun the spirit of formality and indifference.
Remember that persecution may again arise. The days of trial
may renew themselves. What is our purpose? What would
be our stand ?

656 THE INFLUENCE OF THE PIOUS
The lesson which many of these retrospects have taught us
is, that separation, though not a certain, is a presumptive, note
of the True Church. Truth is not with the multitude. The
saints have never possessed the sway. The visible and the ca
tholic are signs of Antichrist. The followers of Christ have been
always a harassed few, clothed in sackcloth, — a remnant, desti
tute, afflicted, forsaken, — their persecutors have been exalted in
power, " causing all to receive a mark in their right hand, or in
their foreheads." The popular argument may, then, be inverted.
The balance inclines to the disfavoured, the scantling, the ex
communicate, the anathematised, the outlawed, in those who
have withdrawn themselves.
We love not Separation for its own sake. " The Kingdom
of God is the perfect development of the Church of God."* We
are bound, therefore, by our allegiance to the one to insist on
the proper ordering of the other. The course we are obliged to
take is that which, in its ownself, we deplore. Our grief on
account of necessary Dissent from an Establishment, which con
tains so much doctrine which we hold and comprehends so many
whom we love, seeks whatever may alleviate it. And we do
find solace in looking beyond ourselves. Believing that God
has commanded us ,to withdraw from every Established Com
munion, assured that He 'has blessed that withdrawment to
great good in the salvation of men, we enquire, — Whether He
has visibly sanctioned any similar case ? And we find an example
the most imposing in its numbers and in its effects. It origin
ated and lives in a vast secession. Its extent in this country is
great, but it is four-fold throughout the world. It has not
descended from us, but it did from the Nonconformists. The
Rev. Bartholomew Wesley was ejected, by the Act of Unifor
mity, from the cure of Charmouth. His son, John Wesley,
studied at Oxford, under the kind notice and assistance of Dr.
Owen, who was then Vice-Chancellor of that University. He.
was astute as he was humble. He appears to have been a most
pious and zealous man. His persecutions were many and severe.
To him it was that his Ordinary said, in no spirit of prophecy,
¦ The late Rev. Dr. Arnold.

UPON THE AGE IN WHICH THEY LIVE. 657
" We must have no gathered Churches in England."* His son,
the Rev. Samuel Wesley, was educated in a Dissenting College,
but afterwards conformed, receiving the Rectory of Epworth.
He was the father of one whose name can never die. The vene
rable Founder of Methodism, the descendant of ejected minis
ters, long sympathised with High Church principles. At length
he was compelled to revise, to relax, to abandon, them. He
too went forth, as had his grandfather and great-grandfather.
His soul required a world for itself. Much in his theology we
cannot approve. Something in his discipline we may regret.
But far from us be blindness to his uncommon excellencies and
apostolic labours ! His system is a mighty power. It affects
the universal mind of Christendom. It is a visitation upon all
peoples. But remembering that Scripture in its biographies for
gets not to say of the hero and of the king, " And his mother's
name was," — proudly we utter the name of the admirable Susanna
Annesley, daughter of the Rev. Dr. Samuel Annesley, the Non
conformist, immortalised by his part and editorship of the Morn
ing Exercises. She was the mother of Wesley, disciplining his
mind and encouraging his work. His last scruples about the
general agency of the unordained, and the powers of those who
were not episcopally inducted, yielded to her argument and fell
before her rebuke. The reasons of the Methodist's withdraw-
ment from the Hierarchy may be different from our own. We
are not infrequently reminded that he is not a Dissenter, but
only a Separatist. We fraternise with him in this title. Thus
our fathers called themselves. And our notice is, not so much
for our vindication, but to place our early system of separation
from a Great Ecclesiastical Majority among the withdrawments
which have been so numerous in every religious age, — which still
proceed among every nation wheresoever conscience awakens and
piety revives and truth appeals, — which have always been as
..long procrastinated as light and conviction will allow, — which
have been invariably meek and forgiving under the insults with
which they were accomplished, — which contemplate no necessary
hopeless alienation among the disciples of Christ, but a Unity of
" See his Conversation with his Bishop, Palmer's Non: Mem: ii. 165.

658 . THE INFLUENCE OF THE PIOUS
profession and action, — as soon as men shall agree and declare,
that the Church can acknowledge no Head but Christ, that
Truth can brook no standard but Scripture, that Responsibility
can admit no force but conscience, that Religion can receive no
support but the Free-will Offering, that Profession can rest on
no process but a Personal Decision !
It is melancholy, thinking of two centuries, that they have
not only rolled on amidst passages of' conflict and agitation,
controversy and debate, — but that they have brought no pause.
We are dealing still with misrepresentation. We are still endea
vouring to explain and propound the elements of the Christian
system. Our own spirits may, perchance, be chafed. Ere this
we should have sung of peace. We might have hoped the set
tlement of questions which had so long librated in doubt. Alas !
we cannot yet tell of concord and quiet. We are summoned to
the field of battle. The cry is still, " to our tents." Oh when
will contest cease ! When shall the burden and heat of our toil
have ended ! When shall the times of refreshing come, — the
calm evening, the sweet cool, of the world's long, burning, day !
In whatever now tries us, we need not suppose that any new
thing has happened unto us. The charges brought against us
are exactly those which the original Separatists were called to
bear. The same false aims were imputed to them which are
insinuated against us. The evils but exist among us which they
deplored. Do our wealthier members withdraw from us, allured
by easier terms and more worldly associations ? This was their
complaint. Their most solemn sermons describe the irreligion
of children, the spiritual declensions of families, and the cutting
off of the holy line. The sons of their ministers sometimes
abjured the lowliness of Dissent, and of not a few, is it recorded
that they conformed. Nature only varies in counterparts, and
history only runs in cycles.
We ought to be prepared for a measure of ridicule in keeping
this holy convocation. The whole transaction, when most leni
ently considered by many, will be pronounced utterly unimportant.
So, as a Denominational event, we should adjudge it ourselves.
But we see in it a trial of long-calumniated principles, and a

UPON THE AGE IN WHICH THEY LIVE. 659
trial which has proved them holy and beneficent. We see in it
the true perpetuity of the Church, the real succession of pastors
and saints. We see in it how certain is the Divine Promise:
"Them that honour me, I will honour." We see in it the
health and vigour of Scriptural simplicity. The World disdains
the spectacle. A course of humble piety like this it turns from
with contempt. It seeks and applauds other deeds. For these
it reserves its blazonry and trophy. For the men who have
achieved them it rears the monumental effigy and pile. It is
not so with Heaven ! Its Hand comes forth and writes another
history. It records not victories nor warriors, — as though such
themes were unfitted for a remembrance and unworthy of a
thought. It fills its medallions with other names, it inscribes its
columns with other triumphs : " Here is the patience of the
saints : here are they that keep the commandments of God, and
the faith of Jesus."
There is " an appointed time" of life, as well as of death.
"We have had fathers," and still we "give them reverence."
"Our fathers, where are they?" They have "fulfilled their
course." We dishonour them if we lean upon their fame. We
have a part to take and a work to do. Let us yield ourselves to
it. Far be from us a vague and aimless effort. Like Him of
whom the Text has spoken in "his first ways,"* let us "serve
our own generation." Let us not say what we would have done
"if we had been in the days of our fathers." "Now is the
acceptable time." Our entire responsibility lies in it. Be it
ours to occupy it with quiet labour ! May our religion beam in
" the daily beauty of our life !" " Let us not be weary in well
doing !" Above all, we are bound to acquire " understanding
of the times to know what" the Churches " ought to do !" So
shall we possess the conscious dignity and satisfaction of being
engaged in that one cause of truth and righteousness which God
has ever maintained on this earth, in which all the holy take their
share and find their delight, which accumulates with advancing
time and is committed to successive man, which Infinite Purity
espouses and to which Omnipotence binds itself, for which alone
* 2 Chron. xvii. 3.

660 THE INFLUENCE OF THE PIOUS
the wheels of Providence roll and the foundations of Nature
stand ! " Who hath wrought and done it, calling the genera
tions from the beginning? I the Lord, the first, and with the
last; I am He." — "Lord, thou hast been our dwelling-place in
all generations !"
You are surrounded by holy dust. Ye are compassed about
by a cloud of witnesses. Others have laboured, and ye have
entered into their labours. Your motives to diligence and zeal
are not ordinary.* You have received an entail of fame and
usefulness which is owed to others, and of .which ye are but the
life-possessors. The heirloom is only in your keeping. Yours
is simply a trust. Remember them who have borne rule over you.
Live in the past. Revolve your period. Live in the future.
Renew your youth. Forecast your age. Shame not your fathers.
Rob not your children. Centuries, this day, speak to you with
their awful voice ! They open to you their dread remains !
Their shadow now revolves upon your dial ! They find an index
and circle in the legend of your history ! Learn from them how
short your individual time is, and how frail ye are. Make your
own day and generation memorable. Weave a bright link be
tween the second century which now closes and the third which
now begins. Let that new age find more than earnests in the
past. Let it roll along and be crowned with trophies such as the
other two have not won. You are not inactive. You press for
ward with your age. These are the holy deeds which bring
down, upon all engaged in them, a blessing and a reward.
Obey every call. Arouse every energy. Grapple every diffi
culty. Let the mantle of your fathers rest upon you. Be bap-
" O socii (neque enim ignari sumus ante malorum)
O passi graviora : dabit Deus his quoque finem.

. . . . Revocate animos, moestumque timorem
Mittite : forsan et haec olim meminisse juvabit.
Per varios casus, per tot discrimina rerum,
Tendimus ; . . . . sedes ubi fata quietas
Ostendunt : 
Durate, et vosmet rebus servate secundis."
Virg : .Eneid : Lib. i. lin. 202, &c.

UPON THE AGE IN WHICH THEY LIVE. 661
tised in the room, and instead, of the dead. Coeval as you have
been with strait and danger, you shall be coeval with fulness
and triumph ! Though former ages rose about you as dark and
stormy billows, the future shall glide at your side as the soft
swells of a summer-sea ! So shall your later annals be written
in the characters of a millenial glory ! So shall your Church
have rest, and enjoy the peace of a whole earth at rest and
quiet ! So shall your posterity be cheered by that sun which
shall shine with a seven-fold lustre, as the light of seven days !
Auspicious JEra. ! Then will your Company, undying because
constantly reintegrated, look forth on all the kingdoms of this
world and see in them kingdoms of our God and of his Christ,
and behold righteousness and praise springing forth before all
nations ! " Wherefore show ye before the churches, the proof
of our boasting on your behalf."
Amen.

NOTES.

Page 108, First Note.
" To me there is ample reason to believe that the Codex Alexandrinus
originally read ©C, God, in this place ; but the stroke becoming faint
by length of time and injudicious handling, of which the MS. in this place
has had a large proportion, some person has supplied the place, most
reprehensibly, with a thick black line. This has destroyed the evidence
of this MS., as now it can neither be quoted pro or con, though it is
very likely that the person who supplied the ink line, did it from a con
scientious conviction that 0C was the original reading of this MS. I
examined this MS. about thirty years ago, and this was the conviction
that rested then on my mind. I have seen the MS. several times since,
and have not changed my opinion." — Rev. Dr. Adam Clarke's Commen
tary in loco.
This MS. is of the Fifth Century, and is now in possession of the Bri
tish Museum. It is commonly esteemed the oldest extant, bearing the
note of Critical seniority, A. But that of the Vatican is older, and de
serves this Alphabetical distinction.
There is in Woide's Examination of the Codex Alexandrinus a curious
paragraph concerning the opinions of Richard Porson on this disputed
Text. 1 Tim. iii. 16. ©C- — Circulo O digitis detrito admodum et exoles-
cente biduum sese maceravit R. P. Pro virgula supra, ut solet, elegan-
tissime deducta, linea crassa profecto ac rudis comparet, et vice diametri
tenuis intra circulum venustissime depicti punctum pinguius et hodie fla-
vescens exit; acie vero intentissima illud curiose perlustranti lucida tela
diei adeo aberrare et omnia prorsus confundere coeperunt, ut oculis dolen-
tibus sese quicquam, quod vellet, vigilantem vidisse somniaret. Longe
aliter R. P. evenit; «&v kit 'AAA0EIA' A/ <iti<K~ka,<tij/inv in A/ig Igw?
ille textum OC€Cf>XN6pCJD0H a manu prima fuisse diserte
scriptum certo pronunciavit. Cum 0C ssepius desit quam abundet, mihi
in mentem venit ©C O C prse oculis librarium habuisse, et priorem incu-

664 NOTES.
ria omisisse : de hoc ne verbum quidem R. P. ; sed inter loca, quae vivida
quadam memoriae vi confestim et quasi sponte depromta, ad Eur. Ph. 5.*
non multo post enotabat, Suidam v. igvuuv citavit; et deleto la. hunc
articulum sequenti subjungendum monuit; deinde pro og maluit &ebg,
vel &ibg 6 sicut habent Scholiastes Soph, ad El. 698. et ipse Pindarus
Pyth. ii. 91. Vide infra QiSg ; in priore loco Suidse MS. Harl. vulgatam
exhibet."

Page 136, Twelve Lines from the Foot.
A very just and beautiful Essay on this Text may be found in "The
Remains of the late Rev. John More'll Mackenzie, A. M." His early fate
is not needed to give interest to his posthumous writings. They are all
the fruits of youth, — they were unintended for the public eye, — but there
is a masterly power in them all. What would he have been ? What
must he have become ? " Pauca quidem ingenii sui pignora reliquit, sed
egregia, sed admiranda."

Page 151, Ten Lines from the Top.
" Let us not for a moment blench from the mysteries of Revelation :
they are mysteries of godliness; and, however much they may surpass
human reason, bear the distinct impress of a Divine hand. We rejoice
that they are mysteries, so far from being ashamed of them on that
account; since the principal reason why they are, and must ever conti
nue such, is derived from their elevation, from their unsearchable riches
and undefinable grandeur." — Robert Hall.
To this admirable Writer may be well applied the language of Cicero
in his Claris Oratoribus: "Et erat oratio cum incitata ct vibrans, turn
etiam accurata et polita." 95.

Page 153, Ten Lines from the Foot, and Page 161,
Nine Lines from the Foot.
" The priesthood of Christ, and the tabernacle in the mount, were the
originals : of the former of which, the Levitical priesthood was a type ;
and of the latter, the tabernacle made by Moses was a copy. The doc
trine of the Epistle to the Hebrews, then, plainly is, that the legal sacri-
• Aristoph. Pac. 938. SV « Sso; tixv, Victorii Codex.

NOTES. 665
fices were allusions to the great and final atonement to be made by the
blood of Christ; and not that this was an allusion to those." — Butler's Ana
logy, Part ii., Chap. 5.
I felt peculiarly happy in incidentally meeting with this passage in so
profound an authority. The value of the distinction cannot be exagge
rated. A particular controversy early taught me the importance of in
sisting upon it. Otherwise the positive, the determining, character or
meaning subsists in the type, and the Sacrifice of Christ is only left a
contingent, figurative, accommodated, sense.

Page 497, Eleventh Line from the Foot.
"Istos inimicos meos ipsos qui me occiderunt noli tu occidere. Ma-
neat genus Judseorum ; certe victa est a Romanis ; certe deleta civitas
eorum ; non admittuntur ad civitatem suam Judaei, et tamen Judsei sunt.
— Manent cum signo : nee sic victi sunt ut a victoribus absorberentur.
Non sine causa. Per omnes gentes dispersi sunt Judaei testes iniquitatis
suse et veritatis nostrae. Ipsi habent Codices de quibus prophetatus est
Christus : et nos tenemus Christum. Et si forte aliquando aliquis Paga-
nus dubitaverit cum ei dixerimus prophetias de Christo, quarum eviden-
tiam obstupescit, et admirans putaverit a nobis esse conscriptas ; de
codicibus Judseorum probamus quia hoc totum ante predictum est, Videte
quemadmodum de inimicis nostris alios confundimus inimicos." — Augus
tine. Psa. loc. Ver 11.

Page 572.
The quotation from Milton, at the foot of the Page, seems to be little
more than a rendering from a distich of Hesiod in his Operum et Die-
rum : line 250. " Tgis yxg [/..vpioi eistv ttfi x^ovl TtivXv(&ov]H£y
AQxvx\ot Zqvos, (puXxttis Qvwrctiv xvUgwwcav.

Page 616, the first Note.

"The old interpreter distinguisheth it otherwise, and certain Greek
copies agree thereto, to wit, that David served the will of Ood in his time;
which reading, though it is to be allowed, yet it doth not cause me to
mislike the other. For it is neither superfluous nor cold, that he slept by
the will of God, or the counsel of God ; because the meaning thereof is,

666

NOTES.

that God, in the death of David, did not forget that prophecy ; as if he
should say that the body of David lay in the grave not without the
counsel or purpose of God, until it should rise again, that the effect of
the prophecy might be extended unto Christ. If no man mislike that
which I say, we are taught hereby to what end men live in the world, to
wit, that one man may help another. For every man doth not live, nei
ther is born, for himself, but mankind is knit together with a holy knot.
Therefore, unless we be disposed to overthrow the laws of nature, let us
remember that we must not live for ourselves, but for our neighbours.
"But here may a question be asked, whether we ought not also to
care for our posterity? I answer, that the ministry of the godly is also
profitable for the posterity, as we see that David, being dead, doth profit
us more at this day than a great part of those which live with us ; but
Paul meaneth simply, that the faithful during their whole life employ
themselves and their offices to help their neighbours, and that death is
unto them as a goal, because they have made an end then, when the
Lord calleth them out of the world. The sum is, that we must have
respect first to our time, that we may serve our brethren, with whom
and among whom we lead our life ; and, secondly, we must do our endea
vour that the fruit of our ministry may redound unto our posterity. See
ing that God prescribeth his servants this law, their rashness cannot be
excused who feign that the dead pray for us, and that they do no less
serve the Church than whilst they lived." — Calvin on Acts.

Page 623, Fifth Line from the Top.
"A memorable incident occurs, at an early period, in the separation
of the Albigenses from the Church of Rome. They considered the heads
and members of this Church as the grand Antichrist, and the Romish
Church to be so corrupt in its doctrine, priesthood, and worship, that it
was unlawful to communicate with it. On these grounds they formed
distinct societies, under the guidance of pastors who were independent on
any foreign jurisdiction." — Letter to the Bishop of Rochester (Horsley),
by the Rev. Thomas Zouch, D. D.

Page 624, Six Lines from the Top : " If it was a schism in the
community, it necessarily" &c.
Since we are greatly governed by words, and those blindly used are
often the most potential, it will be necessary for us to enquire into the
meaning of schism. 2^;s^,a, the Greek word from which our English one

NOTES. 667
is derived, taking the general though frequently the arbitrary sound of our
orthoepy, signifies in common application a rent. The Septuagint thus
employ it : " The clefts of the rocks." " The fissures of the mountains."'11
From this it rose into a metaphorical and conventional use. " There was
a division/' a schism, "among the people." In the church of Corinth
there were "contentions," or schisms. They distributed themselves into
different companies in the celebration of the Lord's Supper, and these are
the " divisions," or schisms, which Paul " heard were among them, and
which he partly believed." Enforcing the unity of the church under the
figure of the human frame, he enjoins "that there should be no schism
in the body, but that the members should have the same care one for
another." It is obvious, therefore, that, so far as scriptural prescription goes,
a schismatic is not one who leaves a Christian community, cannot be one
who was never in it, but is some present factious recusant member still
keeping his place within its pale. Schism is not somethiug without, it
must be contained and included. * Isa. ii. 21., Jonah ii. 6.

ANTHONY riCKABD, miNTER, LEEDS.

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