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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11713 ***
+
+THE WORLD'S GREAT SERMONS
+
+
+_COMPILED BY_
+
+GRENVILLE KLEISER
+
+Formerly of Yale Divinity School Faculty; Author of "How to Speak in
+Public," Etc.
+
+With Assistance from Many of the Foremost Living Preachers and Other
+Theologians
+
+
+INTRODUCTION BY LEWIS O. BRASTOW, D.D.
+
+Professor Emeritus of Practical Theology in Yale University
+
+
+VOLUME III
+
+MASSILLON TO MASON
+
+1908
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+VOLUME III
+
+
+MASSILLON (1663-1742).
+The Small Number of the Elect
+
+SAURIN (1677-1730).
+Paul Before Felix and Drusilla
+
+EDWARDS (1703-1758).
+Spiritual Light
+
+WESLEY (1703-1791).
+God's Love to Fallen Man
+
+WHITEFIELD (1714-1770).
+The Method of Grace
+
+BLAIR (1718-1800).
+The Hour and the Event of all Time
+
+DWIGHT (1752-1817).
+The Sovereignty of God
+
+ROBERT HALL (1764-1831).
+Marks of Love to God
+
+EVANS (1766-1838).
+The Fall and Recovery of Man
+
+SCHLEIERMACHER (1768-1834).
+Christ's Resurrection an Image of our New Life
+
+MASON (1770-1829).
+Messiah's Throne
+
+
+
+
+MASSILLON
+
+THE SMALL NUMBER OF THE ELECT
+
+BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
+
+
+Jean Baptiste Massillon was born in 1663, at Hyères, in Provence,
+France. He first attracted notice as a pulpit orator by his funeral
+sermons as the Archbishop of Vienne, which led to his preferment from
+his class of theology at Meaux to the presidency of the Seminary
+of Magloire at Paris. His conferences at Paris showed remarkable
+spiritual insight and knowledge of the human heart. He was a favorite
+preacher of Louis XIV and Louis XV, and after being appointed bishop
+of Clermont in 1719 he was also nominated to the French Academy. In
+1723 he took final leave of the capital and retired to his see, where
+he lived beloved by all until his death in 1742.
+
+
+
+
+MASSILLON
+
+1662-1742
+
+THE SMALL NUMBER OF THE ELECT
+
+_And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet;
+and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian_.--Luke iv.,
+27.
+
+
+Every day, my brethren, you continue to ask of us, whether the road to
+heaven is really so difficult, and the number of the saved really so
+small as we represent? To a question so often proposed, and still
+oftener resolved, our Savior answers you here, that there were many
+widows in Israel afflicted with famine; but the widow of Sarepta was
+alone found worthy the succor of the prophet Elias; that the number
+of lepers was great in Israel in the time of the prophet Eliseus; and
+that Naaman was only cured by the man of God.
+
+Were I here, my brethren, for the purpose of alarming, rather than
+instructing you, I had only to recapitulate what in the holy writings
+we find dreadful with regard to this great truth; and, running over
+the history of the just, from age to age, show you that, in all times,
+the number of the saved has been very small. The family of Noah alone
+saved from the general flood; Abraham chosen from among men to be the
+sole depositary of the covenant with God; Joshua and Caleb the only
+two of six hundred thousand Hebrews who saw the Land of Promise;
+Job the only upright man in the land of Uz; Lot, in Sodom. To
+representations so alarming, would have succeeded the sayings of the
+prophets. In Isaiah you would see the elect as rare as the grapes
+which are found after the vintage, and have escaped the search of the
+gatherer; as rare as the blades which remain by chance in the field,
+and have escaped the scythe of the mower. The evangelist would still
+have added new traits to the terrors of these images. I might have
+spoken to you of two roads--of which one is narrow, rugged, and the
+path of a very small number; the other broad, open, and strewed with
+flowers, and almost the general path of men: that everywhere, in the
+holy writings, the multitude is always spoken of as forming the party
+of the reprobate; while the saved, compared with the rest of mankind,
+form only a small flock, scarcely perceptible to the sight. I would
+have left you in fears with regard to your salvation; always cruel to
+those who have not renounced faith and every hope of being among the
+saved. But what would it serve to limit the fruits of this instruction
+to the single point of setting forth how few persons will be saved?
+Alas! I would make the danger known, without instructing you how to
+avoid it; I would allow you, with the prophet, the sword of the wrath
+of God suspended over your heads, without assisting you to escape the
+threatened blow; I would alarm but not instruct the sinner.
+
+My intention is, to-day, to search for the cause of this small number,
+in our morals and manner of life. As every one flatters himself he
+will not be excluded, it is of importance to examine if his confidence
+be well founded. I wish not, in marking to you the causes which render
+salvation so rare, to make you generally conclude that few will be
+saved, but to bring you to ask yourselves if, living as you live, you
+can hope to be saved. Who am I? What am I doing for heaven? And what
+can be my hopes in eternity? I propose no other order in a matter of
+such importance. What are the causes which render salvation so rare?
+I mean to point out three principal causes, which is the only
+arrangement of this discourse. Art, and far-sought reasonings, would
+be ill-timed. Oh, attend, therefore, be ye whom ye may. No subject can
+be more worthy your attention, since it goes to inform you what may be
+the hopes of your eternal destiny.
+
+Few are saved, because in that number we can only comprehend two
+descriptions of persons: either those who have been so happy as to
+preserve their innocence pure and undefiled, or those who, after
+having lost, have regained it by penitence. This is the first cause.
+There are only these two ways of salvation: heaven is only open to
+the innocent or to the penitent. Now, of which party are you? Are you
+innocent? Are you penitent?
+
+Nothing unclean shall enter the kingdom of God. We must consequently
+carry there either an innocence unsullied, or an innocence regained.
+Now to die innocent is a grace to which few souls can aspire; and to
+live penitent is a mercy which the relaxed state of our morals renders
+equally rare. Who, indeed, will pretend to salvation by the chain of
+innocence? Where are the pure souls in whom sin has never dwelt, and
+who have preserved to the end the sacred treasure of grace confided to
+them by baptism, and which our Savior will redemand at the awful day
+of punishment?
+
+In those happy days when the whole Church was still but an assembly of
+saints, it was very uncommon to find an instance of a believer who,
+after having received the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and acknowledged
+Jesus Christ in the sacrament which regenerates us, fell back to his
+former irregularities of life. Ananias and Sapphira were the only
+prevaricators in the Church of Jerusalem; that of Corinth had only one
+incestuous sinner. Church penitence was then a remedy almost unknown;
+and scarcely was there found among these true Israelites one single
+leper whom they were obliged to drive from the holy altar, and
+separate from communion with his brethren. But since that time the
+number of the upright diminishes in proportion, as that of believers
+increases. It would appear that the world, pretending now to have
+become almost generally Christian, has; brought with it into the
+Church its corruptions and its maxims.
+
+Alas! we all go astray, almost from the breast of our mothers! The
+first use which we make of our heart is a crime; our first desires.
+are passions; and our reason only expands and increases on the wrecks
+of our innocence. The earth, says a prophet, is infected by the
+corruption of those who inhabit it: all have violated the laws,
+changed the ordinances, and broken the alliance which should have
+endured forever: all commit sin, and scarcely is there one to be found
+who does the work of the Lord. Injustice, calumny, lying, treachery,
+adultery, and the blackest crimes have deluged the earth. The brother
+lays snares for his brother; the father is divided from his children;
+the husband from his wife: there is no tie which a vile interest does
+not sever. Good faith and probity are no longer virtues except among
+the simple people. Animosities are endless; reconciliations are
+feints, and never is a former enemy regarded as a brother: they tear,
+they devour each other. Assemblies are no longer but for the purpose
+of public and general censure. The purest virtue is no longer a
+protection from the malignity of tongues. Gaming is become either
+a trade, a fraud, or a fury. Repasts--those innocent ties of
+society--degenerate into excesses of which we dare not speak. Our age
+witnesses horrors with which our forefathers were unacquainted.
+
+Behold, then, already one path of salvation shut to the generality of
+men. All have erred. Be ye whom ye may, listen to me now, the time
+has been when sin reigned over you. Age may perhaps have calmed your
+passions, but what was your youth? Long and habitual infirmities
+may perhaps have disgusted you with the world; but what use did you
+formerly make of the vigor of health? A sudden inspiration of grace
+may have turned your heart, but do you not most fervently entreat
+that every moment prior to that inspiration may be effaced from the
+remembrance of the Lord?
+
+But with what am I taking up time? We are all sinners, O my God! and
+Thou knowest our hearts! What we know of our errors is, perhaps, in
+Thy sight, the most pardonable; and we all allow that by innocence
+we have no claim to salvation. There remains, therefore, only one
+resource, which is penitence. After our shipwreck, say the saints, it
+is the timely plank which alone can conduct us into port; there is no
+other means of salvation for us. Be ye whom ye may, prince or subject,
+high or low, penitence alone can save you. Now permit me to ask where
+are the penitent? You will find more, says a holy father, who have
+never fallen, than who, after their fall, have raised themselves by
+true repentance. This is a terrible saying; but do not let us carry
+things too far: the truth is sufficiently dreadful without adding new
+terrors to it by vain declamation.
+
+Let us alone examine as to whether the majority of us have a right,
+through penitence, to salvation. What is a penitent? According to
+Tertullian, a penitent is a believer who feels every moment his former
+unhappiness in forsaking and losing his God; one who has his guilt
+incessantly before his eyes; who finds everywhere the traces and
+remembrance of it.
+
+A penitent is a man instrusted by God with judgment against himself;
+one who refuses himself the most innocent pleasures because he had
+formerly indulged in those the most criminal; one who puts up with the
+most necessary gratification with pain; one who regards his body as an
+enemy whom it is necessary to conquer--as an unclean vessel which must
+be purified--as an unfaithful debtor of whom it is proper to exact to
+the last farthing. A penitent regards himself as a criminal condemned
+to death, because he is no longer worthy of life. In the loss of
+riches or health he sees only a withdrawal of favors that he had
+formerly abused: in the humiliations which happen to him, only the
+pains of his guilt: in the agonies with which he is racked, only the
+commencement of those punishments he has justly merited. Such is a
+penitent.
+
+But I again ask you--Where, among us, are penitents of this
+description? Now look around you. I do not tell you to judge your
+brethren, but to examine what are the manners and morals of those who
+surround you. Nor do I speak of those open and avowed sinners who have
+thrown off even the appearance of virtue. I speak only of those who,
+like yourselves, live as most live, and whose actions present nothing
+to the public view particularly shameful or depraved. They are sinners
+and they admit it: you are not innocent, and you confess it. Now are
+they penitent? or are you? Age, vocation, more serious employments,
+may perhaps have checked the sallies of youth. Even the bitterness
+which the Almighty has made attendant on our passions, the deceits,
+the treacheries of the world, an injured fortune, with ruined
+constitution, may have cooled the ardor, and confined the irregular
+desires of your hearts. Crimes may have disgusted you even with sin
+itself--for passions gradually extinguish themselves. Time, and
+the natural inconstancy of the heart will bring these about; yet,
+nevertheless, tho detached from sin by incapability, you are no nearer
+your God. According to the world you are become more prudent, more
+regular, to a greater extent what it calls men of probity, more exact
+in fulfilling your public or private duties. But you are not penitent.
+You have ceased your disorders but you have not expiated them. You are
+not converted: this great stroke, this grand operation on the heart,
+which regenerates man, has not yet been felt by you. Nevertheless,
+this situation, so truly dangerous, does not alarm you. Sins which
+have never been washed away by sincere repentance, and consequently
+never obliterated from the book of life, appear in your eyes as no
+longer existing; and you will tranquilly leave this world in a state
+of impenitence, so much the more dangerous as you will die without
+being sensible of your danger.
+
+What I say here is not merely a rash expression, or an emotion of
+zeal; nothing is more real, or more exactly true: it is the situation
+of almost all men, even the wisest and most esteemed of the world.
+The morality of the younger stages of life is always lax, if not
+licentious. Age, disgust, and establishment for life, fix the
+heart and withdraw it from debauchery: but where are those who are
+converted? Where are those who expiate their crimes by tears of sorrow
+and true repentance? Where are those who, having begun as sinners, end
+as penitents? Show me, in your manner of living, the smallest trace of
+penitence! Are your graspings at wealth and power, your anxieties
+to attain the favor of the great--and by these means an increase of
+employments and influence--are these proofs of it? Would you wish
+to reckon even your crimes as virtues?--that the sufferings of your
+ambition, pride, and avarice, should discharge you from an obligation
+which they themselves have imposed? You are penitent to the world, but
+are you so to Jesus Christ? The infirmities with which God afflicts
+you, the enemies He raised up against you, the disgraces and losses
+with which He tries you--do you receive them all as you ought, with
+humble submission to His will? Or, rather, far from finding in them
+occasions of penitence, do you not turn them into the objects of new
+crimes? It is the duty of an innocent soul to receive with submission
+the chastisements of the Almighty; to discharge with courage the
+painful duties of the station allotted to him, and to be faithful to
+the laws of the gospel. But do sinners owe nothing beyond this? And
+yet they pretend to salvation! Upon what claim? To say that you are
+innocent before God, your own consciences will witness against you. To
+endeavor to persuade yourselves that you are penitent, you dare not;
+and you would condemn yourselves by your own mouths. Upon what then
+dost thou depend, O man! who thus livest so tranquil?
+
+These, my brethren, as I have already told you, are not merely advices
+and pious arts; they are the most essential of our obligations. But,
+alas! who fulfils them? Who even knows them? Ah! my brethren, did you
+know how far the title you bear, of Christian, engages you; could you
+comprehend the sanctity of your state, the hatred of the world, of
+yourself, and of everything which is not of God that it enjoys, that
+gospel life, that constant watching, that guard over the passions, in
+a word, that conformity with Jesus Christ crucified, which it exacts
+of you--could you comprehend it, could you remember that you ought to
+love God with all your heart, and all your strength, so that a single
+desire that has not connection with Him defiles you--you would appear
+a monster in your own sight. How! you would exclaim. Duties so holy,
+and morals so profane! A vigilance so continual, and a life so
+careless and dissipated! A love of God so pure, so complete, so
+universal, and a heart the continual prey of a thousand impulses,
+either foreign or criminal! If thus it is, who, O my God! will be
+entitled to salvation? Few indeed, I fear, my dear hearers! At least
+it will not be you (unless a change takes place) nor those who
+resemble you; it will not be the multitude!
+
+Who shall be saved? Those who work out their salvation with fear and
+trembling; who live in the world without indulging in its vices. Who
+shall be saved? That Christian woman who, shut up in the circle of her
+domestic duties, rears up her children in faith and in piety; divides
+her heart only between her Savior and her husband; is adorned with
+delicacy and modesty; sits not down in the assemblies of vanity; makes
+not a law of the ridiculous customs of the world, but regulates those
+customs by the law of God; and makes virtue appear more amiable by her
+rank and her example. Who shall be saved? That believer who, in
+the relaxation of modern times, imitates the manners of the first
+Christian--whose hands are clean and his heart pure--who is
+watchful--who hath not lifted up his soul to vanity, but who, in the
+midst of the dangers of the great world, continually applies himself
+to purify it; just--who swears not deceitfully against his neighbor,
+nor is indebted to fraudulent ways for the aggrandizement of his
+fortune; generous--who with benefits repays the enemy who sought his
+ruin; sincere--who sacrifices not the truth to a vile interest, and
+knows not the part of rendering himself agreeable by betraying his
+conscience; charitable--who makes his house and interest the refuge of
+his fellow creatures, and himself the consolation of the afflicted;
+regards his wealth as the property of the poor; humble in
+affliction--a Christian under injuries, and penitent even in
+prosperity. Who will merit salvation? You, my dear hearer, if you will
+follow these examples; for such are the souls to be saved. Now these
+assuredly do not form the greatest number. While you continue,
+therefore, to live like the multitude, it is a striking proof that you
+disregard your salvation.
+
+These, my brethren, are truths which should make us tremble! nor are
+they those vague ones which are told to all men, and which none apply
+to themselves. Perhaps there is not in this assembly an individual who
+may not say of himself, "I live like the great number; like those of
+my rank, age, and situation; I am lost, should I die in this path."
+Now, can anything be more capable of alarming a soul, in whom some
+remains of care for his salvation shall exist? It is the multitude,
+nevertheless, who tremble not. There is only a small number of the
+just who work out severally their salvation with fear and trembling.
+All the rest are tranquil. After having lived with the multitude, they
+flatter themselves they shall be particularized at death. Every one
+augurs favorably for himself, and vainly imagines that he shall be an
+exception.
+
+On this account it is, my brethren, that I confine myself to you who
+are now here assembled. I include not the rest of men; but consider
+you as alone existing on the earth. The idea which fills and terrifies
+me is this--I figure to myself the present as your last hour, and the
+end of the world! the heavens opening above your heads--the Savior, in
+all His glory, about to appear in the midst of His temple--you only
+assembled here as trembling criminals, to wait His coming, and hear
+the sentence, either of life eternal, or everlasting death! for it is
+vain to flatter yourselves that you shall die more innocent than you
+are at this hour. All those desires of change with which you are
+amused, will continue to amuse you till death arrives. The experience
+of all ages proves it. The only difference you have to expect will
+most likely be only a larger balance against you than what you would
+have to answer for now; and from what would be your destiny, were you
+to be judged in this moment, you may almost decide upon what it will
+be at death. Now, I ask you--and, connecting my own lot with yours, I
+ask it with dread--were Jesus Christ to appear in this temple, in the
+midst of this assembly, to judge us, to make the awful separation
+between the sheep and the goats, do you believe that the most of us
+would be placed at His right hand? Do you believe that the number
+would at least be equal? Do you believe that there would even be found
+ten upright and faithful servants of the Lord, when formerly five
+cities could not furnish that number? I ask you! You know not! I know
+it not! Thou alone, O my God, knowest who belong to Thee.
+
+But if we know not who belong to Him, at least we know that sinners
+do not. Now, who are the just and faithful assembled here at present?
+Titles and dignities avail nothing; you are stript of all these in the
+presence of your Savior! Who are they? Many sinners who wish not to be
+converted; many more who wish, but always put it off; many others who
+are only converted in appearance, and again fall back to their former
+course; in a word, a great number, who flatter themselves they have no
+occasion for conversion. This is the party of the reprobate! Ah! my
+brethren, cut off from this assembly these four classes of sinners,
+for they will be cut off at the great day! And now stand forth ye
+righteous:--where are ye? O God, where are Thine elect! What remains
+as Thy portion!
+
+My brethren, our ruin is almost certain! Yet we think not of it! If in
+this terrible separation, which will one day take place; there should
+be but one sinner in the assembly on the side of the reprobate, and a
+voice from heaven should assure us of it, without particularizing him,
+who of us would not tremble, lest he be the unfortunate and devoted
+wretch? Who of us would not immediately apply to his conscience, to
+examine if its crimes merited not this punishment? Who of us, seized
+with dread, would not demand of our Savior, as did the apostles,
+crying out, "Lord, is it I?" And should a small respite be allowed
+to our prayers, who of us would not use every effort, by tears,
+supplication, and sincere repentance, to avert the misfortune?
+
+Are we in our senses, my dear hearers? Perhaps among all who listen to
+me now, ten righteous ones would not be found. It may be fewer still.
+What do I perceive, O my God! I dare not, with a fixt eye, regard the
+depths of Thy judgments and justice! Not more than one, perhaps,
+would be found among us all! And this danger affects you not, my dear
+hearer! You persuade yourself that in this great number who shall
+perish, you will be the happy individual! You, you have less reason,
+perhaps, than any other to believe it! You, upon whom alone the
+sentence of death should fall, were only one of all who hear me to
+suffer! Great God! how little are the terrors of Thy law known to the
+world? In all ages the just have shuddered with dread in reflecting on
+the severity and extent of Thy judgments, touching the destinies of
+men! Alas! what are they laying up in store for the sons of men!
+
+But what are we to conclude from these awful truths? That all must
+despair of salvation? God forbid! The impious alone, to quiet his own
+feelings in his debaucheries, endeavors to persuade himself that all
+men shall perish as well as he. This idea ought not to be the fruit of
+the present discourse. It is intended to undeceive you with regard to
+the general error, that any one may do whatever is done by others. To
+convince you that, in order to merit salvation, you must distinguish
+yourself from the rest; that in the midst of the world you are to live
+for God's glory, and not follow after the multitude.
+
+When the Jews were led in captivity from Judea to Babylon, a little
+before they quitted their own country, the prophet Jeremiah, whom the
+Lord had forbidden to leave Jerusalem, spoke thus to them: "Children
+of Israel, when you shall arrive at Babylon, you will behold the
+inhabitants of that country, who carry upon their shoulders gods of
+silver and gold. All the people will prostrate themselves and adore
+them. But you, far from allowing yourselves, by these examples, to be
+led to impiety, say to yourselves in secret, It is Thou, O Lord! whom
+we ought to adore."
+
+Let me now finish by addressing to you the same words.
+
+At your departure from this temple, you go to enter into another
+Babylon. You go to see the idols of gold and silver, before which all
+men prostrate themselves. You go to regain the vain objects of human
+passions, wealth, glory, and pleasure, which are the gods of this
+world and which almost all men adore. You will see those abuses which
+all the world permits, those errors which custom authorizes, and those
+debaucheries, which an infamous fashion has almost constituted as
+laws. Then, my dear hearer, if you wish to be of the small number of
+true Israelites, say, in the secrecy of your heart, "It is Thou alone,
+O my God! whom we ought to adore. I wish not to have connection with
+a people which know Thee not; I will have no other law than Thy holy
+law; the gods which this foolish multitude adore are not gods; they
+are the work of the hands of men; they will perish with them; Thou
+alone, O my God! art immortal; and Thou alone deservest to be adored.
+The customs of Babylon have no connection with the holy laws of
+Jerusalem. I will continue to worship Thee, with that small number
+of the children of Abraham which still, in the midst of an infidel
+nation, composes Thy people; with them I will turn all my desires
+toward the holy Zion. The singularity of my manners will be regarded
+as a weakness; but blest weakness, O my God! which will give me
+strength to resist the torrent of customs, and the seduction of
+example. Thou wilt be my God in the midst of Babylon, as Thou wilt one
+day be in Jerusalem above!"
+
+Ah! the time of the captivity will at last expire. Thou wilt call to
+Thy remembrance Abraham and David. Thou wilt deliver Thy people. Thou
+wilt transport us to the holy city. Then wilt Thou alone reign over
+Israel, and over the nations which at present know Thee not. All being
+destroyed, all the empires of the earth, all the monuments of human
+pride annihilated, and Thou alone remaining eternal, we then shall
+know that Thou art the Lord of hosts, and the only God to be adored.
+
+Behold the fruit which you ought to reap from this discourse! Live
+apart. Think, without ceasing, that the great number work their own
+destruction. Regard as nothing all customs of the earth, unless
+authorized by the law of God, and remember that holy men in all ages
+have been looked upon as a peculiar people.
+
+It is thus that, after distinguishing yourselves from the sinful on
+earth, you will be gloriously distinguished from them in eternity!
+
+
+
+
+SAURIN
+
+PAUL BEFORE FELIX AND DRUSILLA
+
+BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
+
+
+Jacques Saurin, the famous French Protestant preacher of the
+seventeenth century, was born at Nismes in 1677. He studied at Geneva
+and was appointed to the Walloon Church in London in 1701. The scene
+of his great life work was, however, the Hague, where he settled in
+1705. He has been compared with Bossuet, tho he never attained the
+graceful style and subtilty which characterize the "Eagle of Meaux."
+The story is told of the famous scholar Le Clerc that he long refused
+to hear Saurin preach, on the ground that he gave too much attention
+to mere art. One day he consented to hear him on the condition that he
+should be permitted to sit behind the pulpit where he could not see
+his oratorical action. At the close of the sermon he found himself in
+front of the pulpit, with tears in his eyes. Saurin died in 1730.
+
+
+
+
+SAURIN
+
+1677--1730
+
+PAUL BEFORE FELIX AND DRUSILLA
+
+_And before certain days, when Felix came with his wife Drusilla,
+which was a Jewess, he sent for Paul, and heard him concerning the
+faith of Christ. And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and
+judgment to come, Felix trembled, and answered, Go thy way for this
+time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee_.--Acts
+xxiv., 24, 25.
+
+
+My brethren, tho the kingdoms of the righteous be not of this world,
+they present, however, amidst their meanness, marks of dignity and
+power. They resemble Jesus Christ. He humbled Himself so far as to
+take the form of a servant, but frequently exercised the rights of a
+sovereign. From the abyss of humiliation to which He condescended,
+emanations of the Godhead were seen to proceed. Lord of nature, He
+commanded the winds and seas. He bade the storm and tempest subside.
+He restored health to the sick, and life to the dead. He imposed
+silence on the rabbis; He embarrassed Pilate on the throne; and
+disposed of Paradise at the moment He Himself was pierced with the
+nails, and fixt on the cross. Behold the portrait of believers! "They
+are dead. Their life is hid with Christ in God." (Col. iii., 3.) "If
+they had hope only in this life, they were of all men most miserable."
+(I Cor. xv., 19.) Nevertheless, they show I know not what superiority
+of birth. Their glory is not so concealed but we sometimes perceive
+its luster! just as the children of a king, when unknown and in
+a distant province, betray in their conversation and carriage
+indications of illustrious descent.
+
+We might illustrate this truth by numerous instances. Let us attend to
+that in our text. There we shall discover that association of humility
+and grandeur, of reproach and glory, which constitutes the condition
+of the faithful while on earth. Behold St. Paul, a Christian, an
+apostle, a saint. See him hurried from tribunal to tribunal, from
+province to province; sometimes before the Romans, sometimes before
+the Jews, sometimes before the high-priest of the synagog, and
+sometimes before the procurator of Caesar. See him conducted from
+Jerusalem to Caesarea, and summoned to appear before Felix. In all
+these traits, do you not recognize the Christian walking in the narrow
+way, the way of tribulation, marked by his Master's feet? But consider
+him nearer still. Examine his discourse, look at his countenance;
+there you will see a fortitude, a courage, and a dignity which
+constrain you to acknowledge that there was something really grand in
+the person of St. Paul. He preached Jesus Christ at the very moment
+he was persecuted for having preached Him. He preached even when in
+chains. He did more; he attacked his judge on the throne. He reasoned,
+he enforced, he thundered. He seemed already to exercise the function
+of judging the world, which God has reserved for His saints. He made
+Felix tremble. Felix felt himself borne away by a superior force.
+Unable to hear St. Paul any longer without appalling fears, he sent
+him away. "After certain days, when Felix came with his wife Drusilla,
+he sent for Paul, and heard him concerning the faith in Christ," etc.
+
+We find here three considerations which claim our attention: An
+enlightened preacher, who discovers a very peculiar discernment in the
+selection of his subject; a conscience appalled and confounded on the
+recollection of its crimes and of that awful judgment where they must
+be weighed, a sinner alarmed, but not converted; a sinner who desires
+to be saved, but delays his conversion: a case, alas! of but too
+common occurrence.
+
+You perceive already, my brethren, the subject of this discourse:
+first, that St. Paul reasoned before Felix and Drusilla of
+righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come; second, that Felix
+trembled; third, that he sent the apostle away; three considerations
+which shall divide this discourse. May it produce on your hearts, on
+the hearts of Christians, the same effects St. Paul produced on the
+soul of this heathen; but may it have a happier influence on your
+lives. Amen.
+
+Paul preached before Felix and Drusilla "on righteousness, temperance,
+and judgment to come." This is the first subject of discussion.
+Before, however, we proceed further with our remarks, we must first
+sketch the character of this Felix and this Drusilla, which will serve
+as a basis to the first proposition.
+
+After the scepter was departed from Judah, and the Jewish nation
+subjugated by Pompey, the Roman emperors governed the country by
+procurators. Claudius filled the imperial throne while St. Paul was
+at Caesarea. This emperor had received a servile education from his
+grandmother Lucia, and from his mother Antonia; and having been
+brought up in obsequious meanness, evinced, on his elevation to the
+empire, marks of the inadequate care which had been bestowed on his
+infancy. He had neither courage nor dignity of mind. He who was raised
+to sway the Roman scepter, and consequently to govern the civilized
+world, abandoned his judgment to his freedmen, and gave them a
+complete ascendency over his mind. Felix was one of those freedmen.
+"He exercised in Judea the imperial functions with a mercenary soul."
+Voluptuousness and avarice were the predominant vices of his heart. We
+have a proof of his avarice immediately after our text, where it is
+said he sent for Paul,--not to hear him concerning the truth of the
+gospel which this apostle had preached with so much power; not to
+inquire whether this religion, against which the Jews raised the
+standard, was contrary to the interest of the State; but because he
+hoped to have received money for his liberation. Here is the effect of
+avarice.
+
+Josephus recited an instance of his voluptuousness. It is his marriage
+with Drusilla. She was a Jewess, as is remarked in our text. King
+Azizus, her former husband, was a heathen; and in order to gain her
+affections, he had conformed to the most rigorous ceremonies of
+Judaism. Felix saw her, and became enamored of her beauty. He
+conceived for her a violent passion; and in defiance of the sacred
+ties which had united her to her husband, he resolved to become master
+of her person. His addresses were received. Drusilla violated her
+former engagements, and chose rather to contract with Felix an
+illegitimate marriage than to adhere to the chaste ties which united
+her to Azizus. Felix the Roman, Felix the procurator of Judea and the
+favorite of Caesar appeared to her a noble acquisition. It is indeed a
+truth, we may here observe, that grandeur and fortune are charms which
+mortals find the greatest difficulty to resist, and against which the
+purest virtue has need to be armed with all its constancy. Recollect
+these two characters of Felix and Drusilla. St. Paul, before those
+two personages, treated concerning "The faith in Christ"; that is,
+concerning the Christian religion, of which Jesus Christ is the sum
+and substance, the author and the end: and from the numerous doctrines
+of Christianity, he selected "righteousness, temperance, and judgment
+to come."
+
+Here is, my brethren, an admirable text; but a text selected with
+discretion. Fully to comprehend it, recollect the character we have
+given of Felix. He was covetous, luxurious, and governor of Judea. St.
+Paul selected three subjects, correspondent to the characteristics.
+Addressing an avaricious man, he treated of righteousness. Addressing
+the governor of Judea, one of those persons who think themselves
+independent and responsible to none but themselves for their conduct,
+he treated of "judgment to come."
+
+But who can here supply the brevity of the historian, and report the
+whole of what the apostle said to Felix on these important points? It
+seems to me that I hear him enforcing those important truths he has
+left us in his works, and placing in the fullest luster those divine
+maxims interspersed in our Scriptures. "He reasoned of righteousness."
+There he maintained the right of the widow and the orphan. There he
+demonstrated that kings and magistrates are established to maintain
+the rights of the people, and not to indulge their own caprice; that
+the design of the supreme authority is to make the whole happy by the
+vigilance of one, and not to gratify one at the expense of all; that
+it is meanness of mind to oppress the wretched, who have no defense
+but cries and tears; and that nothing is so unworthy of an enlightened
+man as that ferocity with which some are inspired by dignity, and
+which obstructs their respect for human nature, when undisguised by
+worldly pomp; that nothing is so noble as goodness and grandeur,
+associated in the same character; that this is the highest felicity;
+that in some sort it transforms the soul into the image of God; who,
+from the high abodes of majesty in which He dwells, surrounded with
+angels and cherubim, deigns to look down on this mean world which we
+inhabit, and "Leaves not Himself without witness, doing good to all."
+
+"He reasoned of temperance." There he would paint the licentious
+effects of voluptuousness. There he would demonstrate how opposite is
+this propensity to the spirit of the gospel; which everywhere enjoins
+retirement, mortification, and self-denial. He would show how it
+degrades the finest characters who have suffered it to predominate.
+Intemperance renders the mind incapable of reflection. It debases
+the courage. It debilitates the mind. It softens the soul. He would
+demonstrate the meanness of a man called to preside over a great
+people, who exposes his foibles to public view; not having resolution
+to conceal, much less to vanquish them. With Drusilla, he would make
+human motives supply the defects of divine; with Felix, he would
+make divine motives supply the defects of human. He would make this
+shameless woman feel that nothing on earth is more odious than a woman
+destitute of honor, that modesty is an attribute of the sex; that an
+attachment, uncemented by virtue, can not long subsist; that those who
+receive illicit favors are the first, according to the fine remark of
+a sacred historian, to detest the indulgence: "The hatred wherewith
+'Ammon, the son of David,' hated his sister, after the gratification
+of his brutal passion, was greater than the love wherewith he had
+loved her" (II Sam. xiii., 15). He would make Felix perceive that,
+however the depravity of the age might seem to tolerate a criminal
+intercourse with persons of the other sex, with God, who has called us
+all to equal purity, the crime was not less heinous.
+
+"He reasoned," in short, "of judgment to come." And here he would
+magnify his ministry. When our discourses are regarded as connected
+only with the present period, their force, I grant, is of no avail.
+We speak for a Master who has left us clothed with infirmities, which
+discover no illustrious marks of Him by whom we are sent. We have only
+our voice, only our exhortations, only our entreaties. Nature is not
+averted at our pleasure. The visitations of Heaven do not descend at
+our command to punish your indolence and revolts: that power was
+very limited, even to the apostle. The idea of a future state, the
+solemnities of a general judgment, supply our weakness, and St. Paul
+enforced this motive; he proved its reality, he delineated its luster,
+he displayed its pomp. He resounded in the ears of Felix the noise,
+the voices, the trumpets. He showed him the small and the great, the
+rich man and Lazarus, Felix the favorite of Caesar, and Paul the
+captive of Felix, awakened by that awful voice: "Arise, ye dead, and
+come to judgment."
+
+But not to be precipitate in commending the apostle's preaching. Its
+encomiums will best appear by attending to its effects on the mind of
+Felix. St. Jerome wished, concerning a preacher of his time, that the
+tears of his audience might compose the eulogy of his sermons. We
+shall find in the tears of Felix occasion to applaud the eloquence
+of our apostle. We shall find that his discourses were thunder and
+lightning in the congregation, as the Greeks used to say concerning
+one of their orators. While St. Paul preached, Felix felt I know not
+what agitations in his mind. The recollection of his past life; the
+sight of his present sins; Drusilla, the object of his passion and
+subject of his crime; the courage of St. Paul--all terrified him.
+His heart burned while that disciple of Jesus Christ expounded the
+Scriptures. The word of God was quick and powerful. The apostle,
+armed with the two-edged sword, divided the soul, the joints, and the
+marrow, carried conviction to the heart. Felix trembled, adds
+our historian, Felix trembled! The fears of Felix are our second
+reflection.
+
+What a surprizing scene, my brethren, is here presented to your view.
+The governor trembled, and the captive spoke without dismay. The
+captive made the governor tremble. The governor shuddered in the
+presence of the captive. It would not be surprizing, brethren, if we
+should make an impression on your hearts (and we shall do so, indeed,
+if our ministry is not, as usual, a sound of empty words); it would
+not be surprizing if we should make some impression on the hearts of
+our hearers. This sanctuary, these solemnities, these groans, this
+silence, these arguments, these efforts,--all aid our ministry, and
+unite to convince and persuade you. But here is an orator destitute of
+these extraneous aids: behold him without any ornament but the truth
+he preached. What do I say? that he was destitute of extraneous aids?
+See him in a situation quite the reverse,--a captive, loaded with
+irons, standing before his judge. Yet he made Felix tremble. Felix
+trembled! Whence proceeded this fear, and this confusion? Nothing is
+more worthy of your inquiry. Here we must stop for a moment: follow
+us while we trace this fear to its source. We shall consider the
+character of Felix under different views; as a heathen, imperfectly
+acquainted with a future judgment, and the life to come; as a prince,
+or governor, accustomed to see every one humble at his feet; as an
+avaricious magistrate, loaded with extortions and crimes; in short, as
+a voluptuous man, who has never restricted the gratification of his
+senses. These are so many reasons of Felix's fears.
+
+First, we shall consider Felix as a heathen, imperfectly acquainted
+with a future judgment and the life to come: I say, imperfectly
+acquainted, and not as wholly ignorant, the heathens having the "work
+of the law written in their hearts" (Rom. ii., 15). The force of habit
+had corrupted nature, but had not effaced its laws. They acknowledged
+a judgment to come, but their notions were confused concerning its
+nature.
+
+Such were the principles of Felix, or rather such were the
+imperfections of his principles, when he heard this discourse of St.
+Paul. You may infer his fears from his character. Figure to
+yourselves a man hearing for the first time the maxims of equity and
+righteousness inculcated in the gospel. Figure to yourselves a man who
+heard corrected the immorality of pagan theology; what was doubtful,
+illustrated; and what was right, enforced. See a man who knew of no
+other God but the incestuous Jupiter, the lascivious Venus, taught
+that he must appear before Him, in whose presence the seraphim veil
+their faces, and the heavens are not clean. Behold a man, whose
+notions were confused concerning the state of souls after death,
+apprized that God shall judge the world in righteousness. See a man
+who saw described the smoke, the fire, the chains of darkness, the
+outer darkness, the lake of fire and brimstone; and who saw them
+delineated by one animated by the Spirit of God. What consternation
+must have been excited by these terrific truths!
+
+This we are incapable adequately of comprehending. We must surmount
+the insensibility acquired by custom. It is but too true that our
+hearts--instead of being imprest by these truths, in proportion to
+their discussion--become more obdurate. We hear them without alarm,
+having so frequently heard them before. But if, like Felix, we had
+been brought up in the darkness of paganism, and if another Paul had
+come and opened our eyes, and unveiled those sacred terrors, how
+exceedingly should we have feared! This was the case with Felix. He
+perceived the bandage which conceals the sight of futurity drop in a
+moment. He heard St. Paul, that herald of grace and ambassador to the
+Gentiles, he heard him reason on temperance and a judgment to come.
+His soul was amazed; his heart trembled; his knees smote one against
+another.
+
+Amazing effects, my brethren, of conscience! Evident argument of the
+vanity of those gods whom idolatry adorns after it has given them
+form! Jupiter and Mercury, it is true, had their altars in the temples
+of the heathens; but the God of heaven and earth has His tribunal in
+the heart: and, while idolatry presents its incense to sacrilegious
+and incestuous deities, the God of heaven and earth reveals His
+terrors to the conscience, and there loudly condemns both incest and
+sacrilege.
+
+Secondly, consider Felix as a prince; and you will find in this second
+office a second cause of his fear. When we perceive the great men of
+the earth devoid of every principle of religion, and even ridiculing
+those very truths which are the objects of our faith, we feel that
+faith to waver. They excite a certain suspicion in the mind that our
+sentiments are only prejudices, which have become rooted in man,
+brought up in the obscurity of humble life. Here is the apology of
+religion. The Caligulas, the Neros, those potentates of the universe,
+have trembled in their turn as well as the meanest of their subjects.
+This independence of mind, so conspicuous among libertines, is
+consequently an art,--not of disengaging themselves from prejudices,
+but of shutting their eyes against the light, and of extinguishing the
+purest sentiments of the heart. Felix, educated in a court fraught
+with the maxims of the great instantly ridicules the apostle's
+preaching. St. Paul, undismayed, attacks him, and finds a conscience
+concealed in his bosom: the very dignity of Felix is constrained to
+aid our apostle by adding weight to his ministry. He demolishes
+the edifice of Felix's pride. He shows that if a great nation was
+dependent on his pleasure, he himself was dependent on a Sovereign in
+whose presence the kings of the earth are as nothing. He proves that
+dignities are so very far from exempting men from the judgment of God
+that, for this very reason, their account becomes the more weighty,
+riches being a trust which Heaven has committed to the great: and
+"where much is given, much is required." He makes him feel this awful
+truth, that princes are responsible, not only for their own souls,
+but also for those of their subjects; their good or bad example
+influencing, for the most part, the people committed to their care.
+
+See then Felix in one moment deprived of his tribunal. The judge
+became a party. He saw himself rich and in need of nothing; and yet he
+was "blind, and naked, and poor." He heard a voice from the God of the
+whole earth, saying unto him, "Thou profane and wicked prince, remove
+the diadem and take off the crown. I will overturn, overturn, overturn
+it, and it shall be no more" (Ezekiel xxi., 25-27). "Tho thou exalt
+thyself as the eagle, and tho thou set thy nest among the stars,
+thence will I bring thee down, saith the Lord" (Obadiah, 4). Neither
+the dignity of governor, nor the favor of Caesar, nor all the glory of
+empire shall deliver thee out of My hand.
+
+Thirdly, I restrict myself, my brethren, as much as possible in order
+to execute without exceeding my limits the plan I have conceived;
+and proceed to consider Felix as an avaricious man: to find in this
+disposition a further cause of his fear. Felix was avaricious, and St.
+Paul instantly transported him into a world in which avarice shall
+receive its appropriate and most severe punishment. For you know that
+the grand test by which we shall be judged is charity. "I was hungry,
+and ye gave me meat"; and of all the constructions of charity
+covetousness is the most obstinate and insurmountable.
+
+This unhappy propensity renders us insensible of our neighbor's
+necessities. It magnifies the estimate of our wants; it diminishes the
+wants of others. It persuades us that we have need of all, that others
+have need of nothing. Felix began to perceive the iniquity of this
+passion, and to feel that he was guilty of double idolatry: idolatry,
+in morality, idolatry in religion; idolatry in having offered incense
+to gods, who were not the makers of heaven and earth; idolatry in
+having offered incense to Mammon. For the Scriptures teach, and
+experience confirms, that "covetousness is idolatry." The covetous man
+is not a worshiper of the true God. Gold and silver are the divinities
+he adores. His heart is with his treasure. Here then is the portrait
+of Felix: a portrait drawn by St. Paul in the presence of Felix, and
+which reminded this prince of innumerable prohibitions, innumerable
+frauds, innumerable extortions; of the widow and the orphan he
+opprest. Here is the cause of Felix's fears. According to an
+expression of St. James, the "rust of his gold and silver began to
+witness against him, and to eat his flesh as with fire" (James v., 3).
+
+Fourthly, consider Felix as a voluptuous man. Here is the final cause
+of his fear. Without repeating all we have said on the depravity of
+this passion, let one remark suffice, that, if the torments of hell
+are terrible at all, they must especially be so to the voluptuous. The
+voluptuous man never restricts his sensual gratification; his soul
+dies on the slightest approach of pain. What a terrific impression
+must not the thought of judgment make on such a character. Shall I,
+accustomed to indulgence and pleasure, become a prey to the worm that
+dieth not and fuel to the fire which is not quenched? Shall I, who
+avoid pain with so much caution, be condemned to eternal torments?
+Shall I have neither delicious meats nor voluptuous delights? This
+body, my idol, which I habituate to so much delicacy, shall it be
+"cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, whose smoke ascendeth up
+forever and ever?" And this effeminate habit I have of refining on
+pleasure, will it render me only the more sensible of my destruction
+and anguish?
+
+Such are the traits of Felix's character; such are the causes of
+Felix's fear. Happy, if his fear had produced that "godly sorrow, and
+that repentance unto salvation not to be repented of." Happy if the
+fear of hell had induced him to avoid its torments. But, ah no! he
+feared, and yet persisted in the causes of his fear. He trembled,
+yet said to St. Paul, "Go thy way for this time." This is our last
+reflection.
+
+How preposterous, my brethren, is the sinner! What absurdities does
+he cherish in his heart! For, in short, had the doctrines St. Paul
+preached to Felix been the productions of his brain:--had the thought
+of a future judgment been a chimera, whence proceeded the fears of
+Felix? Why was he so weak as to admit this panic of terror? If, on the
+contrary, Paul had truth and argument on his side, why did Felix send
+him away? Such are the contradictions of the sinner. He wishes; he
+revolts; he denies; he grants; he trembles; and says, "Go thy way for
+this time." Speak to him concerning the truths of religion, open hell
+to his view, and you will see him affected, devout, and appalled:
+follow him in life, and you will find that these truths have no
+influence whatever on his conduct.
+
+But are we not mistaken concerning Felix? Did not the speech of St.
+Paul make a deeper impression upon him than we seem to allow? He sent
+the apostle away, it is true, but it was "for this time" only. And
+who can censure this delay? The infirmities of human nature require
+relaxation and repose. Felix could afterward recall him. "Go thy way
+for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will send for thee."
+
+It pains me, I confess, my brethren, in entering on this head of my
+discourse, that I should exhibit to you in the person of Felix the
+portrait of whom? Of wicked men? Alas! of nearly the whole of this
+assembly; most of whom seem to us living in negligence and vice,
+running with the children of this world "to the same excess of riot."
+One would suppose that they had already made their choice, having
+embraced one or the other of these notions: either that religion is
+a fantom, or that, all things considered, it is better to endure the
+torments of hell than to be restricted to the practise of virtue. Oh
+no! that is not their notion. Ask the worse among them. Ask whether
+they have renounced their salvation. You will not find an individual
+who will say that he has renounced it. Ask them again whether they
+think it attainable by following this way of life. They will answer,
+No. Ask them afterward how they reconcile things so opposite as their
+life and their hopes. They will answer that they are resolved to
+reform, and by and by they will enter on the work. They will say,
+as Felix said to St. Paul, "Go thy way for this time; when I have a
+convenient season, I will call for thee." Nothing is less wise than
+this delay. At a future period I will reform. But who has assured me
+that at a future period I shall have opportunities of conversion? Who
+has assured me that God will continue to call me, and that another
+Paul shall thunder in my ears?
+
+I will reform at a future period. But who has told me that God at a
+future period will accompany His word with the powerful aids of grace?
+While Paul may plant and Apollos may water, is it not God who gives
+the increase? How then can I flatter myself that the Holy Spirit
+will continue to knock at the door of my heart after I shall have so
+frequently obstructed His admission?
+
+I will reform in future. But who has told me that I shall ever desire
+to be converted? Do not habits become confirmed in proportion as they
+are indulged? And is not an inveterate evil very difficult to cure? If
+I can not bear the excision of a slight gangrene, how shall I sustain
+the operation when the wound is deep?
+
+I will reform in future! But who has told me that I shall live to
+a future period? Does not death advance every moment with gigantic
+strides? Does he not assail the prince in his palace and the peasant
+in his cottage? Does he not send before him monitors and messengers:
+acute pains, which wholly absorb the soul; deliriums, which render
+reason of no avail; deadly stupors, which benumb the brightest and
+most piercing geniuses? And what is still more awful, does He not
+daily come without either warning or messenger? Does He not snatch
+away this man without allowing him time to be acquainted with the
+essentials of religion; and that man, without the restitution of
+riches ill acquired; and the other, before he is reconciled to his
+enemy?
+
+Instead of saying "Go thy way for this time" we should say, Stay for
+this time. Stay, while the Holy Spirit is knocking at the door of my
+heart; stay, while my conscience is alarmed; stay, while I yet live;
+"while it is called to-day." The arguments confounded my conscience:
+no matter. "Thy hand is heavy upon me": no matter still. Cut, strike,
+consume; provided it procure my salvation.
+
+But, however criminal this delay may be, we seem desirous to excuse
+it. "Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will
+call for thee." It was Felix's business then which induced him to
+put off the apostle. Unhappy business! Awful occupation! It seems
+an enviable situation, my brethren, to be placed at the head of a
+province; to speak in the language of majesty; to decide on the
+fortunes of a numerous people; and in all cases to be the ultimate
+judge. But those situations, so happy and so dazzling in appearance,
+are in the main dangerous to the conscience. Those innumerable
+concerns, this noise and bustle, entirely dissipate the soul. While so
+much engaged on earth, we can not be mindful of heaven. When we have
+no leisure we say to St. Paul, "Go thy way for this time; when I have
+a convenient season, I will call for thee."
+
+Happy he who, amid the tumult of the most active life, has hours
+consecrated to reflection, to the examination of his conscience, and
+to insure the "one thing needful." Or, rather, happy he who, in the
+repose of the middle classes of society,--places between indigence and
+affluence, far from the courts of the great, having neither poverty
+nor riches according to Agur's wish,--can in retirement and quietness
+see life sweetly glide away, and make salvation, if not the sole, yet
+his principal, concern.
+
+Felix not only preferred his business to his salvation, but he
+mentions it with evasive disdain. "When I have a convenient season, I
+will call for thee." "When I have a convenient season!" Might we not
+thence infer that the truths discust by St. Paul were not of serious
+importance? Might we not infer that the soul of Felix was created
+for the government of Judea; and that the grand doctrines of
+righteousness, temperance, and a judgment to come ought to serve
+at most but to pass away the time, or merely to engross one's
+leisure--"when I have a convenient season?" ...
+
+Yes, Christians, this is the only moment on which we can reckon. It
+is, perhaps, the only acceptable time. It is, perhaps, the last day of
+our visitation. Let us improve a period so precious. Let us no
+longer say by and by--at another time; but let us say to-day--this
+moment--even now. Let the pastor say: I have been insipid in my
+sermons, and remiss in my conduct; having been more solicitous, during
+the exercise of my ministry, to advance my family than to build up the
+Lord's house, I will preach hereafter with fervor and zeal. I will be
+vigilant, sober, rigorous, and disinterested. Let the miser say: I
+have riches ill acquired. I will purge my house of illicit wealth. I
+will overturn the altar of Mammon and erect another to the supreme
+Jehovah. Let the prodigal say: I will extinguish the unhappy fires by
+which I am consumed and kindle in my bosom the flame of divine love.
+Ah, unhappy passions, which war against my soul; sordid attachments;
+irregular propensities; emotions of concupiscence; law in the
+members,--I will know you no more. I will make with you an eternal
+divorce, I will from this moment open my heart to the eternal Wisdom,
+who condescends to ask it.
+
+If we are in this happy disposition, if we thus become regenerate, we
+shall enjoy from this moment foretastes of the glory which God has
+prepared. From this moment the truths of religion, so far from casting
+discouragement and terror on the soul, shall heighten its consolation
+and joy; from this moment heaven shall open to this audience, paradise
+shall descend into your hearts, and the Holy Spirit shall come and
+dwell there. He will bring that peace, and those joys, which pass all
+understanding.
+
+
+
+
+EDWARDS
+
+SPIRITUAL LIGHT
+
+BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
+
+
+Jonathan Edwards, the New England divine and metaphysician, was born
+at East Windsor, Connecticut, in 1703. He was graduated early from
+Yale College, where he had given much attention to philosophy, became
+tutor of his college, and at nineteen began to preach. His voice and
+manner did not lend themselves readily to pulpit oratory, but his
+clear, logical, and intense presentation of the truth produced a
+profound and permanent effect upon his hearers. He wrote what were
+considered the most important philosophical treatises of his time. His
+place among the thinkers of the world is high and indisputable. He had
+many gifts of intellect and imagination, and a uniform gravity that
+left no doubt as to his deeply earnest nature. He was one of the
+greatest preachers of his age. His most widely quoted sermon, "Sinners
+in the Eyes of an Angry God," while powerful and impressive, does not
+do him justice. It is believed the sermon presented here discloses to
+greater advantage the tender and saintly side of his character. He
+died in 1758.
+
+
+
+
+EDWARDS
+
+1703-1758
+
+SPIRITUAL LIGHT
+
+_And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon
+Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my
+Father which is in heaven._--Matthew xvi., 17.
+
+
+Christ says these words to Peter upon occasion of his professing
+his faith in Him as the Son of God. Our Lord was inquiring of His
+disciples, who men said He was; not that He needed to be informed, but
+only to introduce and give occasion to what follows. They answer,
+that some said He was John the Baptist, and some Elias, and others
+Jeremias, or one of the prophets. When they had thus given an account
+of who others said He was, Christ asks them, who they said He was?
+Simon Peter, whom we find always zealous and forward, was the first to
+answer: he readily replied to the question, Thou art Christ, the Son
+of the living God.
+
+Upon this occasion Christ says as He does to him, and of him in the
+text: in which we may observe,
+
+1. That Peter is pronounced blest on this account. "Blessed art
+Thou."--"Thou art a happy man, that thou art not ignorant of this,
+that I am Christ, the Son of the living God. Thou art distinguishingly
+happy. Others are blinded, and have dark and deluded apprehensions, as
+you have now given an account, some thinking that I am Elias, and some
+that I am Jeremias, and some one thing and some another; but none of
+them thinking right, all of them misled. Happy art thou, that art so
+distinguished as to know the truth in this matter."
+
+2. The evidence of this his happiness declared; viz., that God, and He
+only, had revealed it to him. This is an evidence of his being blest.
+
+First. As it shows how peculiarly favored he was of God above others:
+"How highly favored art thou, that others that are wise and great men,
+the scribes, Pharisees, and rulers, and the nation in general, are
+left in darkness, to follow their own misguided apprehensions; and
+that thou shouldst be singled out, as it were, by name, that my
+heavenly Father should thus set His love on thee, Simon Barjona. This
+argues thee blest, that thou shouldst thus be the object of God's
+distinguishing love."
+
+Secondly. It evidences his blessedness also, as it intimates that this
+knowledge is above any that flesh and blood can reveal. "This is such
+knowledge as my Father which is in heaven only can give: it is too
+high and excellent to be communicated by such means as other knowledge
+is. Thou art blest, that thou knowest that which God alone can teach
+thee."
+
+The original of this knowledge is here declared, both negatively and
+positively. Positively, as God is here declared the author of it.
+Negatively, as it is declared, that flesh and blood had not revealed
+it. God is the author of all knowledge and understanding whatsoever.
+He is the author of the knowledge that is obtained by human learning:
+He is the author of all moral prudence, and of the knowledge and skill
+that men have in their secular business. Thus it is said of all in
+Israel that were wise-hearted, and skilful in embroidering, that God
+had filled them with the spirit of wisdom. (Exod. xxviii., 3.)
+
+God is the author of such knowledge; but yet not so but that flesh and
+blood reveals it. Mortal men are capable of imparting that knowledge
+of human arts and sciences, and skill in temporal affairs. God is the
+author of such knowledge by those means: flesh and blood is made use
+of by God as the mediate or second cause of it; he conveys it by the
+power and influence of natural means. But this spiritual knowledge,
+spoken of in the text, is that God is the author of, and none else:
+he reveals it, and flesh and blood reveals it not. He imparts this
+knowledge immediately, not making use of any intermediate natural
+causes, as he does in other knowledge. What has passed in the
+preceding discourse naturally occasioned Christ to observe this;
+because the disciples had been telling how others did not know Him,
+but were generally mistaken about Him, and divided and confounded in
+their opinions of Him: but Peter had declared his assured faith, that
+He was the Son of God. Now it was natural to observe, how it was not
+flesh and blood that had revealed it to him, but God: for if this
+knowledge were dependent on natural causes or means, how came it to
+pass that they, a company of poor fishermen, illiterate men, and
+persons of low education, attained to the knowledge of the truth;
+while the scribes and Pharisees, men of vastly higher advantages
+and greater knowledge and sagacity in other matters, remained in
+ignorance? This could be owing only to the gracious distinguishing
+influence and revelation of the Spirit of God. Hence, what I would
+make the subject of my present discourse from these words, is this
+doctrine. That there is such a thing as a spiritual and divine light,
+immediately imparted to the soul by God, of a different nature from
+any that is obtained by natural means.
+
+1. Those convictions that natural men may have of their sin and misery
+is not this spiritual and divine light. Men in a natural condition may
+have convictions of the guilt that lies upon them, and of the anger of
+God, and their danger of divine vengeance. Such convictions are from
+light or sensibleness of truth. That some sinners have a greater
+conviction of their guilt and misery than others, is because some have
+more light, or more of an apprehension of truth than others. And
+this light and conviction may be from the Spirit of God; the Spirit
+convinces men of sin: but yet nature is much more concerned in it than
+in the communication of that spiritual and divine light that is spoken
+of in the doctrine; it is from the Spirit of God only as assisting
+natural principles, and not as infusing any new principles. Common
+grace differs from special, in that it influences only by assisting
+of nature; and not by imparting grace, or bestowing anything above
+nature. The light that is obtained is wholly natural, or of no
+superior kind to what mere nature attains to, tho more of that kind be
+obtained than would be obtained if men were left wholly to themselves:
+or, in other words, common grace only assists the faculties of the
+soul to do that more fully which they do by nature, as natural
+conscience or reason will by mere nature, make a man sensible of
+guilt, and will accuse and condemn him when he has done amiss.
+Conscience is a principle natural to men; and the work that it doth
+naturally, or of itself, is to give an apprehension of right and
+wrong, and to suggest to the mind the relation that there is between
+right and wrong and a retribution. The Spirit of God, in those
+convictions which unregenerate men sometimes have, assist conscience
+to do this work in a further degree than it would do if they were left
+to themselves: He helps it against those things that tend to stupify
+it, and obstruct its exercise. But in the renewing and sanctifying
+work of the Holy Ghost, those things are wrought in the soul that are
+above nature, and of which there is nothing of the like kind in the
+soul by nature; and they are caused to exist in the soul habitually,
+and according to such a stated constitution or law that lays such
+a foundation of exercises in a continued course, as is called a
+principal of nature. Not only are remaining principles assisted to do
+their work more freely and fully, but those principles are restored
+that were utterly destroyed by the fall; and the mind thenceforward
+habitually exerts those acts that the dominion of sin has made it as
+wholly destitute of, as a dead body is of vital acts.
+
+The Spirit of God acts in a very different manner in the one case,
+from what He doth in the other. He may indeed act upon the mind of a
+natural man, but He acts in the mind of a saint as an indwelling vital
+principle. He acts upon the mind of an unregenerate person as an
+extrinsic, occasional agent; for in acting upon them, He doth not
+unite Himself to them; for notwithstanding all His influences that
+they may be the subjects of, they are still sensual, having not the
+Spirit (Jude 19). But He unites Himself with the mind of a saint,
+takes him for his temple, actuates and influences him as a new
+supernatural principle of life and action. There is this difference,
+that the Spirit of God, in acting in the soul of a godly man, exerts
+and communicates Himself there in his own proper nature. Holiness is
+the proper nature of the spirit of God. The Holy Spirit operates in
+the minds of the godly, by uniting Himself to them, and living in
+them, and exerting His own nature in the exercise of their faculties.
+The Spirit of God may act upon a creature, and yet not in acting
+communicate Himself. The Spirit of God may act upon inanimate
+creatures; as, the Spirit moved upon the face of the waters, in the
+beginning of the creation; so the Spirit of God may act upon the minds
+of men many ways, and communicate Himself no more than when He acts
+upon an inanimate creature. For instance, He may excite thoughts in
+them, may assist their natural reason and understanding, or may assist
+other natural principles, and this without any union with the soul,
+but may act, as it were, as upon an external object. But as He acts
+in His holy influences and spiritual operations, He acts in a way
+of peculiar communication of Himself; so that the subject is thence
+denominated spiritual.
+
+This spiritual and divine light does not consist in any impression
+made upon the imagination. It is no impression upon the mind, as tho
+one saw anything with the bodily eyes: it is no imagination or idea of
+an outward light or glory or any beauty of form or countenance, or a
+visible luster or brightness of any object. The imagination may be
+strongly imprest with such things; but this is not spiritual light.
+Indeed, when the mind has a lively discovery of spiritual things, and
+is greatly affected by the power of divine light, it may, and probably
+very commonly doth, much affect the imagination; so that impressions
+of an outward beauty or brightness may accompany those spiritual
+discoveries. But spiritual light is not that impression upon the
+imagination, but an exceeding different thing from it. Natural men
+may have lively impressions on their imaginations; and we can not
+determine but the devil, who transforms himself into an angel of
+light, may cause imaginations of an outward beauty, or visible glory,
+and of sounds and speeches, and other such things; but these are
+things of a vastly inferior nature to spiritual light.
+
+This spiritual light is not the suggesting of any new truths or
+propositions not contained in the Word of God. This suggesting of
+new truths or doctrines to the mind, independent of any antecedent
+revelation of those propositions, either in word or writing, is
+inspiration; such as the prophets and apostles had, and such as some
+enthusiasts pretend to. But this spiritual light that I am speaking
+of is quite a different thing from inspiration; it reveals no new
+doctrine, it suggests no new proposition to the mind, it teaches no
+new thing of God, or Christ, or another world, not taught in the
+Bible, but only gives a due apprehension of those things that are
+taught in the Word of God.
+
+It is not every affecting view that men have of the things of religion
+that is this spiritual and divine light. Men by mere principles of
+nature are capable of being affected with things that have a special
+relation to religion as well as other things. A person by mere nature,
+for instance, may be liable to be affected with the story of Jesus
+Christ, and the sufferings He underwent, as well as by any other
+tragical story; he may be the more affected with it from the interest
+he conceives mankind to have in it; yea, he may be affected with it
+without believing it; as well as a man may be affected with what he
+reads in a romance, or sees acted in a stage play. He may be affected
+with a lively and eloquent description of many pleasant things that
+attend the state of the blest in heaven, as well as his imagination
+be entertained by a romantic description of the pleasantness of
+fairy-land, or the like. And that common-belief of the truth of the
+things of religion, that persons may have from education or otherwise,
+may help forward their affection. We read in Scripture of many that
+were greatly affected with things of a religious nature, who yet are
+there presented as wholly graceless, and many of them very ill men. A
+person therefore may have affecting views of religion, and yet be very
+destitute of spiritual light. Flesh and blood may be the author of
+this; one man may give another an affecting view of divine things but
+common assistance: but God alone can give a spiritual discovery of
+them.
+
+But I proceed to show positively what this spiritual and divine light
+is.
+
+And it may be thus described: a true sense of the divine excellency of
+the things revealed in the Word of God, and a conviction of the truth
+and reality of them thence arising.
+
+This spiritual light primarily consists in the former of these--viz.,
+a real sense and apprehension of the divine excellency of things
+revealed in the Word of God. A spiritual and saving conviction of the
+truth and reality of these things arises from such a sight of their
+divine excellency and glory; so that this conviction of their truth is
+an effect and natural consequence of this sight of their divine glory.
+There is therefore in this spiritual light,
+
+1. A true sense of the divine and superlative excellency of the things
+of religion; a real sense of the excellency of God and Jesus Christ,
+and of the work of redemption, and the ways and works of God revealed
+in the gospel. There is a divine and superlative glory in these
+things; an excellency that is of a vastly higher kind, and more
+sublime nature than in other things; a glory greatly distinguishing
+them from all that is earthly and temporal. He that is spiritually
+enlightened truly apprehends and sees it, or has a sense of it. He
+does not merely rationally believe that God is glorious, but he has
+a sense of the gloriousness of God in his heart. There is not only a
+rational belief that is holy, and that holiness is a good thing, but
+there is a sense of the loveliness of God's holiness. There is not
+only a speculative judging that God is gracious, but a sense how
+amiable God is upon that account, or a sense of the beauty of this
+divine attribute.
+
+There is a twofold understanding or knowledge of good that God has
+made the mind of man capable of. The first, that which is merely
+speculative and notional; as when a person only speculatively judges
+that anything is, which, by the agreement of mankind, is called good
+or excellent, viz., that which is most to general advantage, and
+between which and a reward there is a suitableness, and the like. And
+the other is, that which consists in the sense of the heart: as when
+there is a sense of the beauty, amiableness, or sweetness of a thing;
+so that the heart is sensible of pleasure and delight in the presence
+of the idea of it. In the former is exercised merely the speculative
+faculty, or the understanding, strictly so called, or as spoken of in
+distinction from the will or disposition of the soul. In the latter,
+the will, or inclination, or heart is mainly concerned.
+
+Thus there is a difference between having an opinion that God is holy
+and gracious, and having a sense of the loveliness and beauty of that
+holiness and grace. There is a difference between having a rational
+judgment that honey is sweet, and having a sense of its sweetness. A
+man may have the former that knows not how honey tastes; but a man can
+not have the latter unless he has an idea of the taste of honey in
+his mind. So there is a difference between believing that a person is
+beautiful and having a sense of his beauty. The former may be obtained
+by hearsay, but the latter only by seeing the countenance. There is a
+wide difference between mere speculative rational judging anything
+to be excellent, and having a sense of its sweetness and beauty. The
+former rests only in the head, speculation only is concerned in it;
+but the heart is concerned in the latter. When the heart is sensible
+of the beauty and amiableness of a thing, it necessarily feels
+pleasure in the apprehension. It is implied in a person's being
+heartily sensible of the loveliness of a thing, that the idea of it is
+sweet and pleasant to his soul; which is a far different thing from
+having a rational opinion that it is excellent.
+
+2. There arises from this sense of divine excellency of things
+contained in the word of God a conviction of the truth and reality of
+them; and that either directly or indirectly.
+
+First, indirectly, and that two ways.
+
+(1) As the prejudices that are in the heart, against the truth of
+divine things, are hereby removed; so that the mind becomes susceptive
+of the due force of rational arguments for their truth. The mind
+of man is naturally full of prejudices against the truth of divine
+things: it is full of enmity against the doctrines of the gospel;
+which is a disadvantage to those arguments that prove their truth, and
+causes them to lose their force upon the mind. But when a person has
+discovered to him the divine excellency of Christian doctrines, this
+destroys the enmity, removes those prejudices, and sanctifies the
+reason, and causes it to lie open to the force of arguments for their
+truth.
+
+Hence was the different effect that Christ's miracles had to convince
+the disciples from what they had to convince the scribes and
+Pharisees. Not that they had a stronger reason, or had their reason
+more improved; but their reason was sanctified, and those blinding
+prejudices, that the scribes and Pharisees were under, were removed by
+the sense they had of the excellency of Christ and His doctrine.
+
+(2) It not only removes the hindrances of reason, but positively helps
+reason. It makes even the speculative notions the more lively. It
+engages the attention of the mind, with the more fixedness and
+intenseness to that kind of objects; which causes it to have a
+clearer view of them, and enables it more clearly to see their mutual
+relations, and occasions it to take more notice of them. The ideas
+themselves that otherwise are dim and obscure, are by this means
+imprest with the greater strength, and have a light cast upon them, so
+that the mind can better judge of them; as he that beholds the objects
+on the face of the earth, when the light of the sun is cast upon them,
+is under greater advantage to discern them in their true forms and
+mutual relations, than he that sees them in a dim starlight or
+twilight.
+
+The mind having a sensibleness of the excellency of divine objects,
+dwells upon them with delight; and the powers of the soul are more
+awakened and enlivened to employ themselves in the contemplation of
+them, and exert themselves more fully and much more to the purpose.
+The beauty and sweetness of the objects draw on the faculties, and
+draw forth their exercises; so that reason itself is under far greater
+advantages for its proper and free exercises, and to attain its proper
+end, free of darkness and delusion.
+
+Secondly. A true sense of the divine excellency of these things is so
+superlative as more directly and immediately to convince of the
+truth of them; and that because the excellency of these things is so
+superlative. There is a beauty in them that is so divine and godlike,
+that it greatly and evidently distinguishes them from things merely
+human, or that men are the inventors and authors of; a glory that is
+so high and great, that when clearly seen, it commands assent to their
+divinity and reality. When there is an actual and lively discovery of
+this beauty and excellency, it will not allow of any such thought
+as that it is a human work, or the fruit of men's invention. This
+evidence that they who are spiritually enlightened have of the truth
+of the things of religion, is a kind of intuitive and immediate
+evidence. They believe the doctrines of God's word to be divine,
+because they see divinity in them; _i.e._, they see a divine, and
+transcendent, and most evidently distinguishing glory in them; such a
+glory as, if clearly seen, does not leave room to doubt of their being
+of God, and not of men.
+
+Such a conviction of the truth of religion as this, arising, these
+ways, from a sense of the divine excellency of them, is that true
+spiritual conviction that there is in saving faith. And this original
+of it, is that by which it is most essentially distinguished from that
+common assent, which unregenerated men are capable of.
+
+I proceed now to show how this light is immediately given by God, and
+not obtained by natural means.
+
+1. It is not intended that the natural faculties are not made use of
+in it. The natural faculties are the subject of this light: and they
+are the subject in such a manner that they are not merely passive,
+but active in it; the acts and exercises of men's understanding are
+concerned and made use of in it. God, in letting in this light into
+the soul, deals with man according to his nature, or as a rational
+creature; and makes use of his human faculties. But yet this light is
+not the less immediately from God for that; tho the faculties are made
+use of, it is as the subject and not as the cause; and that acting of
+the faculties in it is not the cause, but is either implied in the
+thing itself (in the light that is imparted) or is the consequence of
+it; as the use that we make of our eyes in beholding various objects,
+when the sun arises, is not the cause of the light that discovers
+those objects to us.
+
+2. It is not intended that outward means have no concern in this
+affair. As I have observed already, it is not in this affair, as it is
+in inspiration, where new truths are suggested: for here is by this
+light only given a due apprehension of the same truths that are
+revealed in the word of God; and therefore it is not given without
+the word. The gospel is made use of in this affair: this light is the
+light of the glorious gospel of Christ. (II Cor. iv., 4.) The gospel
+is as a glass, by which this light is conveyed to us (I Cor. xiii.,
+12). Now we see through a glass.
+
+3. When it is said that this light is given immediately by God, and
+not obtained by natural means, hereby is intended that it is given by
+God without making use of any means that operate by their own power,
+or a natural force. God makes use of means; but it is not as mediate
+causes to produce this effect. There are not truly any second causes
+of it; but it is produced by God immediately. The Word of God is no
+proper cause of this effect: it does not operate by any natural force
+in it. The Word of God is only made use of to convey to the mind the
+subject matter of this saving instruction, and this indeed it doth
+convey to us by natural force or influence. It conveys to our minds
+these and those doctrines; it is the cause of the notion of them in
+our heads, but not of the sense of the divine excellency of them in
+our hearts. Indeed, a person can not have spiritual light without the
+Word. But that does not argue that the Word properly causes the light
+The mind can not see the excellency of any doctrine unless that
+doctrine be first in the mind; but the seeing of the excellency of the
+doctrine may be immediately from the Spirit of God; tho the conveying
+of the doctrine or proposition itself may be by the Word. So that the
+notions that are the subject-matter of this light are conveyed to the
+mind by the Word of God; but that due sense of the heart, wherein this
+light formally consists, is immediately by the Spirit of God. As for
+instance, that notion that there is a Christ, and that Christ is holy
+and gracious, is conveyed to the mind by the Word of God; but the
+sense of the excellency of Christ by reason of that holiness and
+grace, is nevertheless immediately the work of the Holy Spirit.
+
+This is the most excellent and divine wisdom that any creature is
+capable of. It is more excellent than any human learning; it is far
+more excellent than all the knowledge of the greatest philosophers or
+statesmen. Yea, the least glimpse of the glory of God in the face of
+Christ doth more exalt and ennoble the soul than all the knowledge of
+those that have the greatest speculative understanding in divinity
+without grace. This knowledge has the most noble object that is or
+can be, viz., the divine glory or excellency of God and Christ. The
+knowledge of these objects is that wherein consists the most excellent
+knowledge of the angels, yea, of God himself.
+
+This knowledge is that which is above all others sweet and joyful.
+Men have a great deal of pleasure in human knowledge, in studies of
+natural things; but this is nothing to that joy which arises from this
+divine light shining into the soul. This light gives a view of those
+that are immensely the most exquisitely beautiful, and capable of
+delighting the eye of the understanding. This spiritual light is
+the dawning of the light of glory in the heart. There is nothing so
+powerful as this to support persons in affliction, and to give the
+mind peace and brightness in this stormy and dark world.
+
+This light is such as effectually influences the inclination, and
+changes the nature of the soul. It assimilates the human nature to the
+divine nature, and changes the soul into an image of the same glory
+that is beheld (II Cor. iii., 18), "But we all with open face,
+beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the
+same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord."
+This knowledge will wean from the world, and raise the inclination
+to heavenly things. It will turn the heart to God as the fountain of
+good, and to choose him for the only portion. This light, and this
+only, will bring the soul to a saving close with Christ. It conforms
+the heart to the gospel, mortifies its enmity and opposition against
+the schemes of salvation therein revealed: it causes the heart to
+embrace the joyful tidings, and entirely to adhere to, and acquiesce
+in the revelation of Christ as our Savior: it causes the whole soul
+to accord and symphonize with it, admitting it with entire credit and
+respect; cleaving to it with full inclination and affection; and it
+effectually disposes the soul to give up itself entirely to Christ.
+
+This light, and this only, has its fruit in a universal holiness of
+life. No merely notional or speculative understanding of the doctrines
+of religion will ever bring us to this. But this light, as it
+reaches the bottom of the heart, and changes the nature, so it
+will effectually dispose to a universal obedience. It shows God's
+worthiness to be obeyed and served. It draws forth the heart in a
+sincere love to God, which is the only principle of a true, gracious,
+and universal obedience; and it convinces of the reality of those
+glorious rewards that God has promised to them that obey him.
+
+
+
+
+WESLEY
+
+GOD'S LOVE TO FALLEN MAN
+
+BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
+
+
+John Wesley was born at Epworth rectory in Lincolnshire, England,
+in 1703. He was educated at Charterhouse school and in 1720 entered
+Christ Church College, Oxford, where he graduated in 1724. He was
+noted for his classical taste as well as for his religious fervor, and
+on being ordained deacon by Bishop Potter, of Oxford, he became his
+father's curate in 1727. Being recalled to Oxford to fulfil his duties
+as fellow of Lincoln he became the head of the Oxford "Methodists," as
+they were called. He had the characteristics of a great general, being
+systematic in his work and a lover of discipline, and established
+Methodism in London by his sermons at the Foundery. His speaking style
+suggested power in repose. His voice was clear and resonant, his
+countenance kindly, and his tone extremely moderate. His sermons wore
+carefully written, altho not read in the pulpit. They moved others
+because he was himself moved. At an advanced age he preached several
+times a day, and traveled many miles on horseback. At seventy years
+of age he had published thirty octavo volumes. He composed hymns on
+horseback, and studied French and mathematics in spare hours, and was
+never a moment idle until his death, in 1791.
+
+
+
+
+WESLEY
+
+1703--1791
+
+GOD'S LOVE TO FALLEN MAN
+
+_Not as the transgression, so is the free gift_.--Romans v., 15.
+
+
+How exceedingly common, and how bitter is the outcry against our first
+parent, for the mischief which he not only brought upon himself, but
+entailed upon his latest posterity! It was by his wilful rebellion
+against God "that sin entered into the world." "By one man's
+disobedience," as the apostle observes, the many, as many as were then
+in the loins of their forefathers, were made, or constituted sinners:
+not only deprived of the favor of God, but also of His image; of all
+virtue, righteousness, and true holiness, and sunk partly into the
+image of the devil, in pride, malice, and all other diabolical
+tempers; partly into the image of the brute, being fallen under the
+dominion of brutal passions and groveling appetites. Hence also death
+entered into the world, with all his forerunners and attendants; pain,
+sickness, and a whole train of uneasy as well as unholy passions and
+tempers.
+
+"For all this we may thank Adam," has been echoed down from generation
+to generation. The self-same charge has been repeated in every age and
+every nation where the oracles of God are known, in which alone this
+grand and important event has been discovered to the children of men.
+Has not your heart, and probably your lips too, joined in the general
+charge? How few are there of those who believe the Scriptural relation
+of the Fall of Man, and have not entertained the same thought
+concerning our first parent? severely condemning him, that, through
+wilful disobedience to the sole command of his Creator,
+
+  Brought death into the world and all our wo.
+
+Nay, it were well if the charge rested here: but it is certain it does
+not. It can not be denied that it frequently glances from Adam to his
+Creator. Have not thousands, even of those that are called Christians,
+taken the liberty to call His mercy, if not His justice also, into
+question, on this very account? Some indeed have done this a little
+more modestly, in an oblique and indirect manner: but others have
+thrown aside the mask, and asked, "Did not God foresee that Adam would
+abuse his liberty? And did He not know the baneful consequences which
+this must naturally have on all his posterity? And why then did He
+permit that disobedience? Was it not easy for the Almighty to have
+prevented it?" He certainly did foresee the whole. This can not be
+denied. "For known unto God are all His works from the beginning of
+the world." And it was undoubtedly in His Power to prevent it; for He
+hath all power both in heaven and earth. But it was known to Him at
+the same time, that it was best upon the whole not to prevent it. He
+knew that, "not as the transgression, so is the free gift"; that the
+evil resulting from the former was not as the good resulting from the
+latter, not worthy to be compared with it. He saw that to permit
+the fall of the first man was far best for mankind in general; that
+abundantly more good than evil would accrue to the posterity of Adam
+by his fall; that if "sin abounded" thereby over all the earth, yet
+grace "would much more abound"; yea, and that to every individual of
+the human race, unless it was his own choice.
+
+It is exceedingly strange that hardly anything has been written, or
+at least published, on this subject: nay, that it has been so little
+weighed or understood by the generality of Christians: especially
+considering that it is not a matter of mere curiosity, but a truth of
+the deepest importance; it being impossible, on any other principle,
+
+  To assert a gracious Providence,
+  And justify the ways of God with men:
+
+and considering withal, how plain this important truth is, to all
+sensible and candid inquirers. May the Lover of men open the eyes
+of our understanding, to perceive clearly that by the fall of Adam
+mankind in general have gained a capacity,
+
+First, of being more holy and happy on earth, and,
+
+Secondly, of being more happy in heaven than otherwise they could have
+been.
+
+And, first, mankind in general have gained by the fall of Adam a
+capacity of attaining more holiness and happiness on earth than it
+would have been possible for them to attain if Adam had not fallen.
+For if Adam had not fallen, Christ had not died. Nothing can be more
+clear than this: nothing more undeniable: the more thoroughly we
+consider the point, the more deeply shall we be convinced of it.
+Unless all the partakers of human nature had received that deadly
+wound in Adam it would not have been needful for the Son of God to
+take our nature upon Him. Do you not see that this was the very ground
+of His coming into the world? "By one man sin entered into the world,
+and death by sin. And thus death passed upon all" through him, "in
+whom all men sinned." (Rom. v., 12.) Was it not to remedy this very
+thing that "the Word was made flesh"? that "as in Adam all died, so
+in Christ all might be made alive"? Unless, then, many had been made
+sinners by the disobedience of one, by the obedience of one many would
+not have been made righteous (ver. 18); so there would have been no
+room for that amazing display of the Son of God's love to mankind.
+There would have been no occasion for His "being obedient unto death,
+even the death of the cross." It would not then have been said, to the
+astonishment of all the hosts of heaven, "God so loved the world,"
+yea, the ungodly world, which had no thought or desire of returning to
+Him, "that he gave his Son" out of His bosom, His only begotten Son,
+to the end that "whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but
+have everlasting life." Neither could we then have said, "God was in
+Christ reconciling the world to himself"; or that He "made him to be
+sin," that is, a sin-offering "for us, who know no sin, that we might
+be made the righteousness of God through him." There would have been
+no such occasion for such "an advocate with the Father" as "Jesus
+Christ the Righteous"; neither for His appearing "at the right hand of
+God, to make intercession for us."
+
+What is the necessary consequence of this? It is this: there could
+then have been no such thing as faith in God, thus loving the world,
+giving His only Son for us men, and for our salvation. There could
+have been no such thing as faith in the Son of God, as loving us and
+giving Himself for us. There could have been no faith in the Spirit of
+God, as renewing the image of God in our hearts, as raising us from
+the death of sin unto the life of righteousness. Indeed, the whole
+privilege of justification by faith could have no existence; there
+could have been no redemption in the blood of Christ: neither could
+Christ have been "made of God unto us," "wisdom, righteousness,
+sanctification, or redemption."
+
+And the same grand blank which was in our faith, must likewise have
+been in our love. We might have loved the Author of our being, the
+Father of angels and men, as our Creator and Preserver: we might have
+said, "O Lord our Governor, how excellent is Thy name in all the
+earth!" But we could not have loved Him under the nearest and dearest
+relation, as delivering up His Son for us all. We might have loved
+the Son of God, as being the "brightness of his Father's glory," the
+express image of His person (altho this ground seems to belong rather
+to the inhabitants of heaven than earth). But we could not have loved
+Him as "bearing our sins in his own body on the tree," and "by
+that one oblation of himself once offered, making a full oblation,
+sacrifice, and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world." We would
+not have been "made conformable to his death," nor have known "the
+power of his resurrection." We could not have loved the Holy Ghost as
+revealing to us the Father and the Son, as opening the eyes of our
+understanding, bringing us out of darkness into His marvelous light,
+renewing the image of God in our soul, and sealing us unto the day of
+redemption. So that, in truth, what is now "in the sight of God, even
+the Father," not of fallible men "pure religion and undefiled," would
+then, have had no being: inasmuch as it wholly depends on those grand
+principles, "By grace ye are saved through faith"; and "Jesus Christ
+is of God made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification,
+and redemption."
+
+We see then what unspeakable advantage we derive from the fall of our
+first parent, with regard to faith: faith both in God the Father,
+who spared not His own Son, His only Son, but wounded Him for our
+transgressions and bruised Him for our iniquities; and in God the Son,
+who poured out His soul for us transgressors, and washed us in His own
+blood. We see what advantage we derive therefrom with regard to the
+love of God, both of God the Father and God the Son. The chief ground
+of this love, as long as we remain in the body, is plainly declared
+by the apostle, "We love him, because he first loved us." But the
+greatest instance of His love had never been given if Adam had not
+fallen.
+
+And as our faith, both in God the Father and the Son, receives an
+unspeakable increase, if not its very being, from this grand event, as
+does also our love both of the Father and the Son: so does the love of
+our neighbor also, our benevolence to all mankind: which can not but
+increase in the same proportion with our faith and love of God. For
+who does not apprehend the force of that inference drawn by the loving
+apostle, "Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one
+another." If God so loved us--observe, the stress of the argument lies
+on this very point: so loved us! as to deliver up His only Son to die
+a curst death for our salvation. "Beloved, what manner of love is
+this," wherewith God hath loved us? So as to give His only Son! In
+glory equal with the Father: in majesty coeternal! What manner of love
+is this wherewith the only begotten Son of God hath loved us, as to
+empty Himself, as far as possible, of His eternal Godhead; as to
+divest Himself of that glory, which He had with the Father before the
+world began; as to take upon Him "the form of a servant, being found
+in fashion as a man"! And then to humble Himself still further, "being
+obedient unto death, even the death of the cross"! If God so loved us,
+how ought we to love one another? But this motive to brotherly love
+had been totally wanting if Adam had not fallen. Consequently we could
+not then have loved one another in so high a degree as we may now.
+Nor could there have been that height and depth in the command of our
+blest Lord. "As I have loved you, so love one another."
+
+Such gainers may we be by Adam's fall, with regard both to the love of
+God and of our neighbor. But there is another grand point, which, tho
+little adverted to, deserves our deepest consideration. By that one
+act of our first parent, not only "sin entered into the world," but
+pain also, and was alike entailed on his whole posterity. And herein
+appeared, not only the justice, but the unspeakable goodness of God.
+For how much good does He continually bring out of this evil! How much
+holiness and happiness out of pain!
+
+How innumerable are the benefits which God conveys to the children of
+men through the channel of sufferings! so that it might well be said,
+"What are termed afflictions in the language of men, are in the
+language of God styled blessings." Indeed, had there been no suffering
+in the world, a considerable part of religion, yea, and in some
+respects, the most excellent part, could have no place therein: since
+the very existence of it depends on our suffering: so that had there
+been no pain it could have had no being. Upon this foundation, even
+our suffering, it is evident all our passive graces are built; yea,
+the noblest of all Christian graces, love enduring all things. Here is
+the ground for resignation to God, enabling us to say from the heart,
+and in every trying hour, "It is the Lord: let him do what seemeth him
+good." "Shall we receive good at the hand of the Lord, and shall we
+not receive evil?" And what a glorious spectacle is this? Did it not
+constrain even a heathen to cry out, "_Ecce spectaculum Deo dignum!_
+See a sight worthy of God: a good man struggling with adversity, and
+superior to it." Here is the ground for confidence in God, both with
+regard to what we feel, and with regard to what we should fear, were
+it not that our soul is calmly stayed on him. What room could there
+be for trust in God if there was no such thing as pain or danger? Who
+might not say then, "The cup which my Father hath given me, shall
+I not drink it?" It is by sufferings that our faith is tried, and,
+therefore, made more acceptable to God. It is in the day of trouble
+that we have occasion to say, "Tho he slay me, yet will I trust in
+him." And this is well pleasing to God, that we should own Him in the
+face of danger; in defiance of sorrow, sickness, pain, or death.
+
+Again: Had there been neither natural nor moral evil in the
+world, what must have become of patience, meekness, gentleness,
+long-suffering? It is manifest they could have had no being: seeing
+all these have evil for their object. If, therefore, evil had never
+entered into the world, neither could these have had any place in it.
+For who could have returned good for evil, had there been no evil-doer
+in the universe? How had it been possible, on that supposition, to
+overcome evil with good? Will you say, "But all these graces might
+have been divinely infused into the hearts of men?" Undoubtedly they
+might: but if they had, there would have been no use or exercise for
+them. Whereas in the present state of things we can never long want
+occasion to exercise them. And the more they are exercised, the
+more all our graces are strengthened and increased. And in the same
+proportion as our resignation, our confidence in God, our patience and
+fortitude, our meekness, gentleness, and long-suffering, together
+with our faith and love of God and man increase, must our happiness
+increase, even in the present world.
+
+Yet again: As God's permission of Adam's fall gave all his posterity
+a thousand opportunities of suffering, and thereby of exercising all
+those passive graces which increase both their holiness and happiness,
+so it gives them opportunities of doing good in numberless instances,
+of exercising themselves in various good works, which otherwise could
+have had no being. And what exertions of benevolence, of compassion,
+of godlike mercy, had then been totally prevented! Who could then have
+said to the lover of men,
+
+  Thy mind throughout my life be shown,
+    While listening to the wretches' cry,
+  The widow's or the orphan's groan;
+    On mercy's wings I swiftly fly
+  The poor and needy to relieve;
+    Myself, my all, for them to give?
+
+It is the just observation of a benevolent man,
+
+  --All worldly joys are less,
+  Than that one joy of doing kindnesses.
+
+Surely in keeping this commandment, if no other, there is great
+reward. "As we have time, let us do good unto all men;" good of every
+kind and in every degree. Accordingly the more good we do (other
+circumstances being equal), the happier we shall be. The more we deal
+our bread to the hungry, and cover the naked with garments; the more
+we relieve the stranger, and visit them that are sick or in prison;
+the more kind offices we do to those that groan under the various
+evils of human life; the more comfort we receive even in the present
+world; the greater the recompense we have in our own bosom.
+
+To sum up what has been said under this head: As the more holy we are
+upon earth, the more happy we must be (seeing there is an inseparable
+connection between holiness and happiness); as the more good we do to
+others, the more of present reward rebounds into our own bosom:
+even as our sufferings for God lead us to rejoice in Him "with joy
+unspeakable and full of glory"; therefore, the fall of Adam, first, by
+giving us an opportunity of being far more holy; secondly, by giving
+us the occasions of doing innumerable good works, which otherwise
+could not have been done; and, thirdly, by putting it into our power
+to suffer for God, whereby "the spirit of glory and of God rests upon
+us": may be of such advantage to the children of men, even in the
+present life, as they will not thoroughly comprehend till they attain
+life everlasting.
+
+It is then we shall be enabled fully to comprehend not only the
+advantages which accrue at the present time to the sons of men by the
+fall of their first parent, but the infinitely greater advantages
+which they may reap from it in eternity. In order to form some
+conception of this, we may remember the observation of the apostle,
+"As one star differeth from another star in glory, so also is the
+resurrection of the dead." The most glorious stars will undoubtedly
+be those who are the most holy; who bear most of that image of God
+wherein they were created. The next in glory to these will be those
+who have been most abundant in good works: and next to them, those
+that have suffered most, according to the will of God. But what
+advantages in every one of these respects will the children of God
+receive in heaven, by God's permitting the introduction of pain upon
+earth, in consequence of sin? By occasion of this they attained many
+holy tempers, which otherwise could have had no being: resignation
+to God, confidence in him in times of trouble and danger, patience,
+meekness, gentleness, long-suffering, and the whole train of passive
+virtues. And on account of this superior holiness they will then
+enjoy superior happiness. Again: every one will then "receive his
+own reward, according to his own labor." Every individual will
+be "rewarded according to his work." But the Fall gave rise to
+innumerable good works, which could otherwise never have existed, such
+as ministering to the necessities of the saints, yea, relieving the
+distrest in every kind. And hereby innumerable stars will be added to
+their eternal crown. Yet again: there will be an abundant reward in
+heaven, for suffering as well as for doing, the will of God: "these
+light afflictions, which are but for a moment, work out for us a far
+more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." Therefore that event,
+which occasioned the entrance of suffering into the world, has thereby
+occasioned to all the children of God, an increase of glory to all
+eternity. For altho the sufferings themselves will be at an end: altho
+
+  The pain of life shall then be o'er,
+    The anguish and distracting care;
+  The sighing grief shall weep no more;
+    And sin shall never enter there:--
+
+yet the joys occasioned thereby shall never end, but flow at God's
+right hand for evermore.
+
+There is one advantage more that we reap from Adam's fall, which is
+not unworthy our attention. Unless in Adam all had died, being in the
+loins of their first parent, every descendant of Adam, every child of
+man, must have personally answered for himself to God: it seems to
+be a necessary consequence of this, that if he had once fallen, once
+violated any command of God, there would have been no possibility of
+his rising again; there was no help, but he must have perished without
+remedy. For that covenant knew not to show mercy: the word was, "The
+soul that sinneth, it shall die." Now who would not rather be on the
+footing he is now; under a covenant of mercy? Who would wish to hazard
+a whole eternity upon one stake? Is it not infinitely more desirable,
+to be in a state wherein, tho encompassed with infirmities, yet we
+do not run such a desperate risk, but if we fall, we may rise again?
+Wherein we may say,
+
+  My trespass is grown up to heaven!
+    But, far above the skies,
+  In Christ abundantly forgiven,
+    I see Thy mercies rise!
+
+In Christ! Let me entreat every serious person, once more to fix his
+attention here. All that has been said, all that can be said, on these
+subjects, centers in this point. The fall of Adam produced the death
+of Christ! Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth! Yea,
+
+  Let earth and heaven agree,
+    Angels and men be joined,
+  To celebrate with me
+    The Saviour of mankind;
+  To adore the all-atoning Lamb,
+  And bless the sound of Jesus' name!
+
+If God had prevented the fall of man, the Word had never been made
+flesh: nor had we ever "seen his glory, the glory as of the only
+begotten of the Father." Those mysteries had never been displayed,
+"which the very angels desire to look into." Methinks this
+consideration swallows up all the rest, and should never be out of
+our thoughts. Unless "by one man, judgment had come upon all men to
+condemnation," neither angels nor men could ever have known "the
+unsearchable riches of Christ."
+
+See then, upon the whole, how little reason we have to repine at
+the fall of our first parent, since herefrom we may derive such
+unspeakable advantages, both in time and eternity. See how small
+pretense there is for questioning the mercy of God in permitting
+that event to take place, since therein, mercy, by infinite degrees,
+rejoices over judgment! Where, then, is the man that presumes to blame
+God for not preventing Adam's sin? Should we not rather bless Him from
+the ground of the heart, for therein laying the grand scheme of man's
+redemption, and making way for that glorious manifestation of His
+wisdom, holiness, justice, and mercy? If indeed God had decreed before
+the foundation of the world that millions of men should dwell in
+everlasting burnings, because Adam sinned, hundreds or thousands of
+yours before they had a being, I know not who could thank him for
+this, unless the devil and his angels: seeing, on this supposition,
+all those millions of unhappy spirits would be plunged into hell by
+Adam's sin, without any possible advantage from it. But, blest be God,
+this is not the case. Such a decree never existed. On the contrary,
+every one born of a woman may be an unspeakable gainer thereby; and
+none ever was or can be a loser, but by his own choice.
+
+We see here a full answer to that plausible account "of the origin of
+evil," published to the world some years since, and supposed to be
+unanswerable: that it "necessarily resulted from the nature of
+matter, which God was not able to alter." It is very kind in this
+sweet-tongued orator to make an excuse for God! But there is really no
+occasion for it: God hath answered for Himself. He made man in His own
+image, a spirit endued with understanding and liberty. Man abusing
+that liberty, produced evil, brought sin and pain into the world.
+This God permitted, in order to a fuller manifestation of His wisdom,
+justice, and mercy, by bestowing on all who would receive it an
+infinitely greater happiness than they could possibly have attained if
+Adam had not fallen.
+
+"Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!"
+Altho a thousand particulars of His judgments, and of His ways are
+unsearchable to us, and past our finding out, yet we may discern the
+general scheme running through time into eternity. "According to the
+council of his own will," the plan He had laid before the foundation
+of the world, He created the parent of all mankind in His own image.
+And He permitted all men to be made sinners by the disobedience of
+this one man, that, by the obedience of One, all who receive the free
+gift may be infinitely holier and happier to all eternity!
+
+
+
+WHITEFIELD
+
+THE METHOD OF GRACE
+
+BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
+
+
+George Whitefield, evangelist and leader of Calvinistic Methodists,
+who has been called the Demosthenes of the pulpit, was born at
+Gloucester, England, in 1714. He was an impassioned pulpit orator of
+the popular type, and his power over immense congregations was largely
+due to his histrionic talent and his exquisitely modulated voice,
+which has been described as "an organ, a flute, a harp, all in one,"
+and which at times became stentorian. He had a most expressive face,
+and altho he squinted, in grace and significance of gesture he knew
+perfectly how to "suit the action to the word." But he had not the
+style or scholarship of Wesley, and his printed sermons do not fully
+bear out his reputation. Whitefield died in 1770.
+
+
+
+
+WHITEFIELD
+
+1714--1770
+
+THE METHOD OF GRACE
+
+_They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly,
+saying, Peace, peace, when there is no peace_.--Jeremiah vi., 14.
+
+
+As God can send a nation or people no greater blessing than to give
+them faithful, sincere, and upright ministers, so the greatest curse
+that God can possibly send upon a people in this world is to give them
+over to blind, unregenerate, carnal, lukewarm, and unskilful guides.
+And yet, in all ages, we find that there have been many wolves in
+sheep's clothing, many that daubed with untempered mortar, that
+prophesied smoother things than God did allow. As it was formerly,
+so it is now; there are many that corrupt the word of God and deal
+deceitfully with it. It was so in a special manner in the prophet
+Jeremiah's time; and he, faithful to his Lord, faithful to that God
+who employed him, did not fail from time to time to open his mouth
+against them, and to bear a noble testimony to the honor of that
+God in whose name he from time to time spake. If you will read his
+prophecy, you will find that none spake more against such ministers
+than Jeremiah, and here especially in the chapter out of which the
+text is taken he speaks very severely against them. He charges them
+with several crimes; particularly he charges them with covetousness:
+"For," says he, in the thirteenth verse, "from the least of them even
+to the greatest of them, every one is given to covetousness; and from
+the prophet even unto the priest, every one dealeth falsely."
+
+And then, in the words of the text, in a more special manner he
+exemplifies how they had dealt falsely, how they had behaved
+treacherously to poor souls: says he, "They have healed also the hurt
+of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace, when
+there is no peace." The prophet, in the name of God, had been
+denouncing war against the people; he had been telling them that their
+house should be left desolate, and that the Lord would certainly visit
+the land with war. "Therefore," says he, in the eleventh verse, "I am
+full of the fury of the Lord; I am weary with holding in; I will pour
+it out upon the children abroad, and upon the assembly of young men
+together; for even the husband with the wife shall be taken, the aged
+with him that is full of days. And their houses shall be turned unto
+others, with their fields and wives together; for I will stretch out
+my hand upon the inhabitants of the land, saith the Lord."
+
+The prophet gives a thundering message, that they might be terrified
+and have some convictions and inclinations to repent; but it seems
+that the false prophets, the false priests, went about stifling
+people's convictions, and when they were hurt or a little terrified,
+they were for daubing over the wound, telling them that Jeremiah was
+but an enthusiastic preacher, that there could be no such thing as war
+among them, and saying to people, Peace, peace, be still, when the
+prophet told them there was no peace.
+
+The words, then, refer primarily unto outward things, but I verily
+believe have also a further reference to the soul, and are to
+be referred to those false teachers who, when people were under
+conviction of sin, when people were beginning to look toward heaven,
+were for stifling their convictions and telling them they were good
+enough before. And, indeed, people generally love to have it so; our
+hearts are exceedingly deceitful and desperately wicked; none but the
+eternal God knows how treacherous they are.
+
+How many of us cry, Peace, peace, to our souls, when there is no
+peace! How many are there who are now settled upon their lees, that
+now think they are Christians, that now flatter themselves that they
+have an interest in Jesus Christ; whereas if we come to examine their
+experiences we shall find that their peace is but a peace of the
+devil's making--it is not a peace of God's giving--it is not a peace
+that passeth human understanding.
+
+It is a matter, therefore, of great importance, my dear hearers, to
+know whether we may speak peace to our hearts. We are all desirous
+of peace; peace is an unspeakable blessing; how can we live without
+peace? And, therefore, people from time to time must be taught how far
+they must go and what must be wrought in them before they can speak
+peace to their hearts. This is what I design at present, that I may
+deliver my soul, that I may be free from the blood of all those to
+whom I preach--that I may not fail to declare the whole counsel of
+God. I shall, from the words of the text, endeavor to show you what
+you must undergo and what must be wrought in you before you can speak
+peace to your hearts.
+
+But before I come directly to this give me leave to premise a caution
+or two.
+
+And the first is, that I take it for granted you believe religion to
+be an inward thing; you believe it to be a work of the heart, a work
+wrought in the soul by the power of the Spirit of God. If you do not
+believe this, you do not believe your Bibles. If you do not believe
+this, tho you have got your Bibles in your hand, you hate the Lord
+Jesus Christ in your heart; for religion is everywhere represented
+in Scripture as the work of God in the heart. "The kingdom of God is
+within us," says our Lord; and, "he is not a Christian who is one
+outwardly; but he is a Christian who is one inwardly." If any of you
+place religion in outward things, I shall not perhaps please you this
+morning; you will understand me no more when I speak of the work of
+God upon a poor sinner's heart than if I were talking in an unknown
+tongue.
+
+I would further premise a caution, that I would by no means confine
+God to one way of acting. I would by no means say that all persons,
+before they come to have a settled peace in their hearts, are obliged
+to undergo the same degrees of conviction. No; God has various ways of
+bringing His children home; His sacred Spirit bloweth when, and where,
+and how it listeth. But, however, I will venture to affirm this: that
+before ever you can speak peace to your heart, whether by shorter or
+longer continuance of your convictions, whether in a more pungent or
+in a more; gentle way, you must undergo what I shall hereafter lay
+down in the following discourse.
+
+First, then, before you can speak peace to your hearts, you must be
+made to see, made to feel, made to weep over, made to bewail, your
+actual transgressions against the law of God. According to the
+covenant of works, "the soul that sinneth it shall die"; curst is that
+man, be he what he may, be he who he may, that continueth not in all
+things that are written in the book of the law to do them.
+
+We are not only to do some things, but we are to do all things, and we
+are to continue to do so, so that the least deviation from the moral
+law, according to the covenant of works, whether in thought, word,
+or deed, deserves eternal death at the hand of God. And if one evil
+thought, if one evil word, if one evil action deserves eternal
+damnation, how many hells, my friends, do every one of us deserve
+whose whole lives have been one continued rebellion against God!
+Before ever, therefore, you can speak peace to your hearts, you must
+be brought to see, brought to believe, what a dreadful thing it is to
+depart from the living God.
+
+And now, my dear friends, examine your hearts, for I hope you came
+hither with a design to have your souls made better. Give me leave to
+ask you, in the presence of God, whether you know the time, and if you
+do not know exactly the time, do you know there was a time when God
+wrote bitter things against you, when the arrows of the Almighty were
+within you? Was ever the remembrance of your sins grievous to you? Was
+the burden of your sins intolerable to your thoughts? Did you ever see
+that God's wrath might justly fall upon you, on account of your actual
+transgressions against God? Were you ever in all your life sorry for
+your sins? Could you ever say, My sins are gone over my head as a
+burden too heavy for me to bear? Did you ever experience any such
+thing as this? Did ever any such thing as this pass between God and
+your soul? If not, for Jesus Christ's sake, do not call yourselves
+Christians; you may speak peace to your hearts, but there is no peace.
+May the Lord awaken you, may the Lord convert you, may the Lord give
+you peace, if it be His will, before you go home!
+
+But, further, you may be convinced of your actual sins, so as to be
+made to tremble, and yet you may be strangers to Jesus Christ, you may
+have no true work of grace upon your hearts. Before ever, therefore,
+you can speak peace to your hearts, conviction must go deeper; you
+must not only be convinced of your actual transgressions against the
+law of God, but likewise of the foundation of all your transgressions.
+And what is that? I mean original sin, that original corruption each
+of us brings into the world with us, which renders us liable to God's
+wrath and damnation. There are many poor souls that think themselves
+fine reasoners, yet they pretend to say there is no such thing as
+original sin; they will charge God with injustice in imputing Adam's
+sin to us; altho we have got the mark of the beast and of the devil
+upon us, yet they tell us we are not born in sin. Let them look abroad
+and see the disorders in it, and think, if they can, if this is the
+paradise in which God did put man. No! everything in the world is out
+of order.
+
+I have often thought, when I was abroad, that if there were no other
+arguments to prove original sin, the rising of wolves and tigers
+against man, nay, the barking of a dog against us, is a proof of
+original sin. Tigers and lions durst not rise against us unless it
+were as much as to say, "You have sinned against God, and we take up
+our master's quarrel." If we look inwardly, we shall see enough of
+lusts and man's temper contrary to the temper of God. There is pride,
+malice, and revenge in all our hearts; and this temper can not come
+from God; it comes from our first parent, Adam, who, after he fell
+from God, fell out of God into the devil.
+
+However, therefore, some people may deny this, yet when conviction
+comes, all carnal reasonings are battered down immediately, and the
+poor soul begins to feel and see the fountain from which all the
+polluted streams do flow. When the sinner is first awakened, he begins
+to wonder, How came I to be so wicked? The Spirit of God then strikes
+in, and shows that he has no good thing in him by nature; then he
+sees that he is altogether gone out of the way, that he is altogether
+become abominable, and the poor creature is made to lie down at the
+foot of the throne of God and to acknowledge that God would be just to
+damn him, just to cut him off, tho he never had committed one actual
+sin in his life.
+
+Did you ever feel and experience this, any of you--to justify God in
+your damnation--to own that you are by nature children of wrath, and
+that God may justly cut you off, tho you never actually had offended
+Him in all your life? If you were ever truly convicted, if your hearts
+were ever truly cut, if self were truly taken out of you, you would be
+made to see and feel this. And if you have never felt the weight of
+original sin, do not call yourselves Christians. I am verily persuaded
+original sin is the greatest burden of a true convert; this ever
+grieves the regenerate soul, the sanctified soul. The indwelling of
+sin in the heart is the burden of a converted person; it is the burden
+of a true Christian. He continually cries out: "Oh! who will deliver
+me from this body of death, this indwelling corruption in my heart?"
+This is that which disturbs a poor soul most. And, therefore, if you
+never felt this inward corruption, if you never saw that God might
+justly curse you for it, indeed, my dear friends, you may speak peace
+to your hearts, but I fear, nay, I know, there is no true peace.
+
+Further, before you can speak peace to your hearts you must not only
+be troubled for the sins of your life, the sins of your nature, but
+likewise for the sins of your best duties and performances.
+
+When a poor soul is somewhat awakened by the terrors of the Lord,
+then the poor creature, being born under the covenant of works,
+flies directly to a covenant of works again. And as Adam and Eve hid
+themselves among the trees of the garden and sewed fig-leaves together
+to cover their nakedness, so the poor sinner when awakened flies to
+his duties and to his performances, to hide himself from God, and goes
+to patch up a righteousness of his own. Says he, I will be mighty good
+now--I will reform--I will do all I can; and then certainly Jesus
+Christ will have mercy on me. But before you can speak peace to your
+heart you must be brought to see that God may damn you for the best
+prayer you ever put up; you must be brought to see that all your
+duties--all your righteousness--as the prophet elegantly expresses
+it--put them all together, are so far from recommending you to God,
+are so far from being any motive and inducement to God to have
+mercy on your poor soul, that He will see them to be filthy rags, a
+menstruous cloth--that God hates them, and can not away with them, if
+you bring them to Him in order to recommend you to His favor.
+
+My dear friends, what is there in our performance to recommend us unto
+God? Our persons are in an unjustified state by nature; we deserve to
+be damned ten thousand times over; and what must our performance be?
+We can do no good thing by nature: "They that are in the flesh can not
+please God."
+
+You may do things materially good, but you can not do a thing formally
+and rightly good; because nature can not act above itself. It is
+impossible that a man who is unconverted can act for the glory of God;
+he can not do anything in faith, and "whatsoever is not of faith is
+sin."
+
+After we are renewed, yet we are renewed but in part, indwelling sin
+continues in us, there is a mixture of corruption in every one of our
+duties, so that after we are converted, were Jesus Christ only to
+accept us according to our works, our works would damn us, for we can
+not put up a prayer but it is far from that perfection which the moral
+law requireth. I do not know what you may think, but I can say that I
+can not pray but I sin--I can not preach to you or any others but
+I sin--I can do nothing without sin; and, as one expresseth it, my
+repentance wants to be repented of, and my tears to be washed in the
+precious blood of my dear Redeemer.
+
+Our best duties are so many splendid sins. Before you can speak peace
+to your heart you must not only be sick of your original and actual
+sin, but you must be made sick of your righteousness, of all your
+duties and performances. There must be a deep conviction before you
+can be brought out of your self-righteousness; it is the last idol
+taken out of our heart. The pride of our heart will not let us submit
+to the righteousness of Jesus Christ. But if you never felt that you
+had no righteousness of your own, if you never felt the deficiency of
+your own righteousness, you can not come to Jesus Christ.
+
+There are a great many now who may say, Well, we believe all this; but
+there is a great difference betwixt talking and feeling. Did you ever
+feel the want of a dear Redeemer? Did you ever feel the want of Jesus
+Christ, upon the account of the deficiency of your own righteousness?
+And can you now say from your heart Lord, thou mayest justly damn
+me for the best duties that ever I did perform? If you are not thus
+brought out of self, you may speak peace to yourselves, but yet there
+is no peace.
+
+But then, before you can speak peace to your souls, there is one
+particular sin you must be greatly troubled for, and yet I fear there
+are few of you think what it is; it is the reigning, the damning sin
+of the Christian world, and yet the Christian world seldom or never
+think of it. And pray what is that?
+
+It is what most of you think you are not guilty of--and that is, the
+sin of unbelief. Before you can speak peace to your heart, you must be
+troubled for the unbelief of your heart But can it be supposed that
+any of you are unbelievers here in this churchyard, that are born in
+Scotland, in a reformed country, that go to church every Sabbath? Can
+any of you that receive the sacrament once a year--oh, that it were
+administered oftener!--can it be supposed that you who had tokens for
+the sacrament, that you who keep up family prayer, that any of you do
+not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ?
+
+I appeal to your own hearts, if you would not think me uncharitable,
+if I doubted whether any of you believed in Christ: and yet, I fear
+upon examination, we should find that most of you have not so much
+faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as the devil himself. I am persuaded
+that the devil believes more of the Bible than most of us do. He
+believes the divinity of Jesus Christ; that is more than many who call
+themselves Christians do; nay, he believes and trembles, and that is
+more than thousands amongst us do.
+
+My friends, we mistake a historical faith for a true faith, wrought
+in the heart by the Spirit of God. You fancy you believe because you
+believe there is such a book as we call the Bible--because you go to
+church; all this you may do and have no true faith in Christ. Merely
+to believe there was such a person as Christ, merely to believe there
+is a book called the Bible, will do you no good, more than to believe
+there was such a man as Caesar or Alexander the Great. The Bible is a
+sacred depository. What thanks have we to give to God for these lively
+oracles! But yet we may have these and not believe in the Lord Jesus
+Christ.
+
+My dear friends, there must be a principle wrought in the heart by
+the Spirit of the living God. Did I ask you how long it is since you
+believed in Jesus Christ, I suppose most of you would tell me you
+believed in Jesus Christ as long as ever you remember--you never did
+misbelieve. Then, you could not give me a better proof that you never
+yet believed in Jesus Christ, unless you were sanctified early, as
+from the womb; for they that otherwise believe in Christ know there
+was a time when they did not believe in Jesus Christ.
+
+You say you love God with all your heart, soul, and strength. If I
+were to ask you how long it is since you loved God, you would say, As
+long as you can remember; you never hated God, you know no time when
+there was enmity in your heart against God. Then, unless you were
+sanctified very early, you never loved God in your life.
+
+My dear friends, I am more particular in this, because it is a most
+deceitful delusion, whereby so many people are carried away, that they
+believe already. Therefore it is remarked of Mr. Marshall, giving
+account of his experiences, that he had been working for life, and he
+had ranged all his sins under the ten commandments, and then, coming
+to a minister, asked him the reason why he could not get peace. The
+minister looked to his catalog. "Away," says he, "I do not find one
+word of the sin of unbelief in all your catalog." It is the peculiar
+work of the Spirit of God to convince us of our unbelief--that we have
+got no faith. Says Jesus Christ, "I will send the comforter; and when
+he is come, he will reprove the world" of the sin of unbelief; "of
+sin," says Christ, "because they believe not on me."
+
+Now, my dear friends, did God ever show you that you had no faith?
+Were you ever made to bewail a hard heart of unbelief? Was it ever the
+language of your heart, Lord, give me faith; Lord, enable me to lay
+hold on Thee; Lord, enable me to call Thee my Lord and my God? Did
+Jesus Christ ever convince you in this manner? Did he ever convince
+you of your inability to close with Christ, and make you to cry out to
+God to give you faith? If not, do not speak peace to your heart. May
+the Lord awaken you and give you true, solid peace before you go hence
+and be no more!
+
+Once more, then: before you can speak peace to your heart, you must
+not only be convinced of your actual and original sin, the sins of
+your own righteousness, the sin of unbelief, but you must be enabled
+to lay hold upon the perfect righteousness, the all-sufficient
+righteousness, of the Lord Jesus Christ; you must lay hold by faith
+on the righteousness of Jesus Christ, and then you shall have peace.
+"Come," says Jesus, "unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden,
+and I will give you rest."
+
+This speaks encouragement to all that are weary and heavy laden;
+but the promise of rest is made to them only upon their coming and
+believing, and taking Him to be their God and their all. Before we can
+ever have peace with God we must be justified by faith through our
+Lord Jesus Christ, we must be enabled to apply Christ to our hearts,
+we must have Christ brought home to our souls, so as His righteousness
+may be made our righteousness, so as His merits may be imputed to our
+souls. My dear friends, were you ever married to Jesus Christ? Did
+Jesus Christ ever give Himself to you? Did you ever close with Christ
+by a lively faith, so as to feel Christ in your hearts, so as to hear
+Him speaking peace to your souls? Did peace ever flow in upon your
+hearts like a river? Did you ever feel that peace that Christ spoke to
+His disciples? I pray God he may come and speak peace to you. These
+things you must experience.
+
+I am now talking of the invisible realities of another world, of
+inward religion, of the work of God upon a poor sinner's heart. I am
+now talking of a matter of great importance, my dear hearers; you are
+all concerned in it, your souls are concerned in it, your eternal
+salvation is concerned in it. You may be all at peace, but perhaps the
+devil has lulled you asleep into a carnal lethargy and security, and
+will endeavor to keep you there till he gets you to hell, and there
+you will be awakened; but it will be dreadful to be awakened and find
+yourselves so fearfully mistaken when the great gulf is fixt, when
+you will be calling to all eternity for a drop of water to cool your
+tongue and shall not obtain it.
+
+
+
+
+BLAIR
+
+THE HOUR AND THE EVENT OF ALL TIME
+
+BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
+
+
+Hugh Blair, the preacher and divine, was born in Edinburgh, 1718. He
+entered the university of his native town and graduated in 1739. Two
+years later he was licensed to preach; he was ordained minister of
+Colossie, Fife, in 1742, but returned to Edinburgh and in 1762
+was made regius professor of rhetoric and belles-lettres to the
+university. He became a member of the great literary club, the Poker,
+where he associated with Hume, A. Carlyle, Adam Ferguson, Adam Smith
+and others, and enjoyed a high reputation as a preacher and critic.
+The lectures he published on style are elegantly written, but weak in
+thought, and his sermons share the same fault. They are composed with
+great care, and sometimes a single discourse cost him a week's labor,
+but they are formal and destitute of feeling and sometimes even
+affected in style. Blair was notable for fastidiousness in dress and
+manners, and took very seriously the reputation he was given for
+refinement and common-sense as one of the moderate divines. He died in
+1800.
+
+
+
+
+BLAIR
+
+1718--1800
+
+THE HOUR AND THE EVENT OF ALL TIME
+
+_Jesus lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said, Father! the hour is
+come_.--John xvii., 1.
+
+
+These were the words of our blest Lord on a memorable occasion. The
+feast of the Passover drew nigh, at which He knew that He was to
+suffer. The night was arrived wherein He was to be delivered into the
+hands of His enemies. He had spent the evening in conference with His
+disciples, like a dying father in the midst of his family, mingling
+consolations with His last instructions. When He had ended His
+discourse to them, "he lifted up his eyes to heaven," and with the
+words which I have now read, began that solemn prayer of intercession
+for the Church, which closed His ministry. Immediately after, He went
+forth with His disciples into the garden of Gethsemane and surrendered
+Himself to those who came to apprehend Him.
+
+Such was the situation of our Lord at the time of His pronouncing
+these words. He saw His mission on the point of being accomplished.
+He had the prospect full before Him of all that He was about to
+suffer--"Father! the hour is come." What hour? An hour the most
+critical, the most pregnant with great events, since hours had begun
+to be numbered, since time had begun to run. It was the hour at which
+the Son of God was to terminate the labors of His important life by a
+death still more important and illustrious; the hour of atoning, by
+His sufferings, for the guilt of mankind; the hour of accomplishing
+prophecies, types, and symbols, which had been carried on through a
+series of ages; the hour of concluding the old and of introducing into
+the world the new dispensation of religion; the hour of His triumphing
+over the world, and death, and hell; the hour of His creating that
+spiritual kingdom which is to last forever. Such is the hour. Such are
+the events which you are to commemorate in the sacrament of our Lord's
+Supper.
+
+I. This was the hour in which Christ was glorified by His sufferings.
+The whole of His life had discovered much real greatness under a mean
+appearance. Through the cloud of His humiliation, His native luster
+often broke forth; but never did it shine so bright as in this last,
+this trying hour. It was indeed the hour of distress and of blood. He
+knew it to be such; and when He uttered the words of the text, He had
+before His eyes the executioner and the cross, the scourge, the nails,
+and the spear. But by prospects of this nature His soul was not to be
+overcome. It is distress which ennobles every great character; and
+distress was to glorify the Son of God. He was now to teach all
+mankind by His example, how to suffer and to die. He was to stand
+forth before His enemies as the faithful witness of the truth,
+justifying by His behavior the character which He assumed, and sealing
+by His blood the doctrines which He taught.
+
+What magnanimity in all His words and actions on this great occasion!
+The court of Herod, the judgment-hall of Pilate, the hill of Calvary,
+were so many theaters prepared for His displaying all the virtues of a
+constant and patient mind. When led forth to suffer, the first voice
+which we hear from Him is a generous lamentation over the fate of His
+unfortunate tho guilty country; and to the last moment of His life we
+behold Him in possession of the same gentle and benevolent spirit. No
+upbraiding, no complaining expression escaped from His lips during the
+long and painful approaches of a cruel death. He betrayed no symptom
+of a weak or a vulgar, of a discomposed or impatient mind. With the
+utmost attention of filial tenderness He committed His aged mother to
+the care of His beloved disciple. With all the dignity of a sovereign
+He conferred pardon on a fellow-sufferer. With a greatness of mind
+beyond example, He spent His last moments in apologies and prayers for
+those who were shedding His blood.
+
+By wonders in heaven and wonders on earth, was this hour
+distinguished. All nature seemed to feel it; and the dead and the
+living bore witness of its importance. The veil of the temple was rent
+in twain. The earth shook. There was darkness over all the land. The
+graves were opened, and "many who slept arose, and went into the holy
+city." Nor were these the only prodigies of this awful hour. The most
+hardened hearts were subdued and changed. The judge who, in order to
+gratify the multitude, passed sentence against Him, publicly attested
+His innocence. The Roman centurion who presided at the execution,
+"glorified God," and acknowledged the Sufferer to be more than man.
+"After he saw the things which had passed, he said, Certainly this
+was a righteous person: truly this was the Son of God." The Jewish
+malefactor who was crucified with Him addrest Him as a king, and
+implored His favor. Even the crowd of insensible spectators, who had
+come forth as to a common spectacle, and who began with clamors and
+insults, "returned home smiting their breasts." Look back on the
+heroes, the philosophers, the legislators of old. View them, in their
+last moments. Recall every circumstance which distinguished their
+departure from the world. Where can you find such an assemblage of
+high virtues, and of great events, as concurred at the death of
+Christ? Where so many testimonials given to the dignity of the dying
+person by earth and by heaven?
+
+II. This was the hour in which Christ atoned for the sins of mankind,
+and accomplished our eternal redemption. It was the hour when that
+great sacrifice was offered up, the efficacy of which reaches back
+to the first transgression of man, and extends forward to the end of
+time; the hour when, from the cross, as from a high altar, the blood
+was flowing which washed away the guilt of the nations.
+
+This awful dispensation of the Almighty contains mysteries which are
+beyond the discovery of man. It is one of those things into which "the
+angels desire to look." What has been revealed to us is, that the
+death of Christ was the interposition of heaven for preventing the
+ruin of human kind. We know that under the government of God misery
+is the natural consequence of guilt. After rational creatures had, by
+their criminal conduct, introduced disorder into the divine kingdom,
+there was no ground to believe that by their penitence and prayers
+alone they could prevent the destruction which threatened them. The
+prevalence of propitiatory sacrifices throughout the earth proclaims
+it to be the general sense of mankind that mere repentance was not of
+sufficient avail to expiate sin or to stop its penal effects. By the
+constant allusions which are carried on in the New Testament to the
+sacrifices under the law, as pre-signifying a great atonement made by
+Christ, and by the strong expressions which are used in describing the
+effects of His death, the sacred writers show, as plainly as language
+allows, that there was an efficacy in His sufferings far beyond
+that of mere example and instruction. The nature and extent of that
+efficacy we are unable as yet fully to trace. Part we are capable of
+beholding; and the wisdom of what we behold we have reason to adore.
+We discern, in this plan of redemption, the evil of sin strongly
+exhibited and the justice of the divine government awfully
+exemplified, in Christ suffering for sinners. But let us not imagine
+that our present discoveries unfold the whole influence of the
+death of Christ. It is connected with causes into which we can not
+penetrate. It produces consequences too extensive for us to explore.
+"God's thoughts are not as our thoughts." In all things we "see only
+in part"; and here, if anywhere, we see also "as through a glass.
+darkly."
+
+This, however, is fully manifest, that redemption is one of the most
+glorious works of the Almighty. If the hour of the creation of the
+world was great and illustrious, that hour when, from the dark and
+formless mass, this fair system of nature arose at the divine command,
+when "the morning-stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted
+for joy," no less illustrious is the hour of the restoration of the
+world; the hour when, from condemnation and misery, it emerged into
+happiness and peace. With less external majesty it was attended; but
+it is, on that account, the more wonderful that, under an appearance
+so simple, such great events were covered.
+
+III. In this hour the long series of prophecies, visions, types, and
+figures were accomplished. This was the center in which they all met:
+this the point toward which they had tended and verged, throughout the
+course of so many generations. You behold the law and the prophets
+standing, if we may speak so, at the foot of the cross, and doing
+homage. You behold Moses and Aaron bearing the Ark of the Covenant;
+David and Elijah presenting the oracle of testimony. You behold all
+the priests and sacrifices, all the rites and ordinances, all the
+types and symbols assembled together to receive their consummation.
+Without the death of Christ, the worship and ceremonies of the law
+would have remained a pompous, but unmeaning, institution. In the hour
+when He was crucified, "the book with the seven seals" was opened.
+Every rite assumed its significancy; every prediction met its event;
+every symbol displayed its correspondence.
+
+The dark and seemingly ambiguous method of conveying important
+discoveries under figures and emblems was not peculiar to the sacred
+books. The spirit of God in presignifying the death of Christ, adopted
+that plan, according to which the whole knowledge of those early
+ages was propagated through the world. Under the veil of mysterious
+allusion, all wisdom was then concealed. From the sensible world
+images were everywhere borrowed to describe things unseen. More was
+understood to be meant than was openly exprest. By enigmatical rites
+the priests communicated his doctrines; by parables and allegories
+the philosopher instructed his disciples; even the legislator, by
+figurative sayings, commanded the reverence of the people. Agreeably
+to this prevailing mode of instruction, the whole dispensation of the
+Old Testament was so conducted as to be the shadow and figure of
+a spiritual system. Every remarkable event, every distinguished
+personage, under the law, is interpreted in the New Testament, as
+bearing reference to the hour of which we treat. If Isaac was laid
+upon the altar as an innocent victim; if David was driven from his
+throne by the wicked, and restored by the hand of God; if the brazen
+serpent was lifted up to heal the people; if the rock was smitten by
+Moses, to furnish drink in the wilderness; all were types of Christ
+and alluded to His death.
+
+In predicting the same event the language of ancient prophecy was
+magnificent, but seemingly contradictory: for it foretold a Messiah,
+who was to be at once a sufferer and a conquerer. The Star was to come
+out of Jacob, and the Branch to spring from the stem of Jesse. The
+Angel of the Covenant, the desire of all nations, was to come suddenly
+to His temple; and to Him was to be "the gathering of the people."
+Yet, at the same time, He was to be "despised and rejected of men"; He
+was to be "taken from prison and from judgment," and to be "led as a
+lamb to the slaughter." Tho He was "a man of sorrows, and acquainted
+with grief," yet "the Gentiles were to come to his light, and kings
+to the brightness of his rising." In the hour when Christ died, those
+prophetical riddles were solved: those seeming contradictions were
+reconciled. The obscurity of oracles, and the ambiguity of typos
+vanished. The "sun of righteousness" rose; and, together with the dawn
+of religion those shadows passed away.
+
+IV. This was the hour of the abolition of the law, and the
+introduction of the gospel; the hour of terminating the old and of
+beginning the new dispensation of religious knowledge and worship
+throughout the earth. Viewed in this light, it forms the most august
+era which is to be found in the history of mankind. When Christ was
+suffering on the cross, we are informed by one of the evangelists that
+He said, "I thirst"; and that they filled a sponge with vinegar, and
+put it to His mouth. "After he had tasted the vinegar, knowing that
+all things were now accomplished, and the Scriptures fulfilled, he
+said, It is finished"; that is, this offered draft of vinegar was the
+last circumstance predicted by an ancient prophet that remained to
+be fulfilled. The vision and the prophecy are now sealed: the Mosaic
+dispensation is closed. "And he bowed his head and gave up the ghost."
+
+"It is finished." When He uttered these words He changed the state of
+the universe. At that moment the law ceased, and the gospel commenced.
+This was the ever memorable point of time which separated the old and
+the new worlds from each other. On one side of the point of separation
+you behold the law, with its priests, its sacrifices, and its rites,
+retiring from sight. On the other side you behold the gospel, with
+its simple and venerable institutions, coming forward into view.
+Significantly was the veil of the temple rent in this hour; for the
+glory then departed from between the cherubim. The legal high priest
+delivered up his urim and thummim, his breast-plate, his robes, and
+his incense: and Christ stood forth as the great high priest of all
+succeeding generations. By that one sacrifice which He now offered, He
+abolished sacrifices forever. Altars on which the fire had blazed for
+ages, were now to smoke no more. Victims were no more to bleed. "Not
+with the blood of bulls and goats, but with his own blood he now
+entered into the holy place, there to appear in the presence of God
+for us."
+
+This was the hour of association and union to all the worshipers of
+God. When Christ said, "It is finished," He threw down the wall of
+partition which had so long divided the Gentile from the Jew. He
+gathered into one all the faithful out of every kindred and people.
+He proclaimed the hour to be come when the knowledge of the true God
+should be no longer confined to one nation, nor His worship to one
+temple; but over all the earth, the worshipers of the Father should
+serve Him "in spirit and in truth." From that hour they who dwelt
+in the "uttermost ends of the earth, strangers to the covenant of
+promise," began to be "brought nigh." In that hour the light of the
+gospel dawned from afar on the British Islands.
+
+During a long course of ages, Providence seemed to be occupied in
+preparing the world for this revolution. The whole Jewish economy
+was intended to usher it in. The knowledge of God was preserved
+unextinguished in one corner of the world, that thence, in due time,
+might issue forth the light which was to overspread the earth.
+Successive revelations gradually enlarged the views of men beyond the
+narrow bounds of Judea, to a more extensive kingdom of God. Signs and
+miracles awakened their expectation and directed their eyes toward
+this great event. Whether God descended on the flaming mountain, or
+spoke by the prophet's voice; whether He scattered His chosen people
+into captivity, or reassembled them in their own land, He was still
+carrying on a progressive plan, which was accomplished at the death of
+Christ.
+
+Not only in the territories of Israel, but over all the earth, the
+great dispensations of Providence respected the approach of this
+important hour. If empires rose or fell; if war divided, or peace
+united, the nations; if learning civilized their manners, or
+philosophy enlarged their views; all was, by the secret decree of
+Heaven, made to ripen the world for that "fulness of time," when
+Christ was to publish the whole counsel of God. The Persian, the
+Macedonian, the Roman conqueror, entered upon the stage each at his
+predicted period. The revolutions of power, and the succession of
+monarchies, were so arranged by Providence, as to facilitate the
+progress of the gospel through the habitable world, after the day had
+arrived, "when the stone which was cut out of the mountain without
+hands, should become a great mountain and fill the earth." This was
+the day which Abraham saw afar off, and was glad. This was the day
+which "many prophets, and kings, and righteous men desired to see,
+but could not"; the day for which "the earnest expectation of
+the creature," long opprest with ignorance, and bewildered in
+superstition, might be justly said to wait.
+
+V. This was the hour of Christ's triumph over all the powers of
+darkness; the hour in which He overthrew dominions and thrones, "led
+captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men." The contest which the
+kingdom of darkness had long maintained against the kingdom of light
+was now brought to its crisis. The period was come when "the seed of
+the woman shall bruise the head of the serpent" For many ages the
+most gross superstition had filled the earth. "The glory of the
+incorruptible God" was everywhere, except in the land of Judea,
+"changed into images made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and
+beasts, and creeping-things." The world, which the Almighty created
+for Himself, seemed to have become a temple of idols. Even to vices
+and passions altars were raised; and what was entitled religion, was
+in effect a discipline of impurity. In the midst of this universal
+darkness, Satan had erected his throne, and the learned and the
+polished, as well as the savage nations, bowed down before him. But at
+the hour when Christ appeared on the cross, the signal of His defeat
+was given. His kingdom suddenly departed from Him; the reign of
+idolatry passed away: He was beheld to fall "like lightning from
+heaven." In that hour the foundation of every pagan temple shook. The
+statue of every false god tottered on its base. The priest fled from
+his falling shrine; and the heathen oracles became dumb forever.
+
+As on the cross Christ triumphed over Satan, so He overcame His
+auxiliary, the world. Long had it assailed Him with its temptations
+and discouragements; in this hour of severe trial He surmounted them
+all. Formerly He had despised the pleasures of the world. He now
+baffled its terrors. Hence He is justly said to have "crucified the
+world." By His sufferings He ennobled distress; and He darkened
+the luster of the pomp and vanities of life. He discovered to His
+followers the path which leads, through affliction, to glory and to
+victory; and He imparted to them the same spirit which enabled Him to
+overcome. "My kingdom is not of this world. In this world ye shall
+have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."
+
+Death also, the last foe of man, was the victim of this hour. The
+formidable appearance of the specter remained; but his dart was taken
+away. For, in the hour when Christ expiated guilt, He disarmed death,
+by securing the resurrection of the just. When He said to His penitent
+fellow sufferer, "To-day thou shalt be with me in paradise," He
+announced to all His followers the certainty of heavenly bliss. He
+declared the cherubim to be dismissed and the flaming sword to be
+sheathed, which had been appointed at the fall, to keep from man "the
+way of the tree of life." Faint, before this period, had been the
+hope, indistinct the prospect, which even good men enjoyed of the
+heavenly kingdom. Life and immortality were now brought to light. From
+the hill of Calvary the first clear and certain view was given to the
+world of the everlasting mansions. Since that hour they have been the
+perpetual consolation of believers in Christ. Under trouble, they
+soothe their minds; amid temptation, they support their virtue; and in
+their dying moments enable them to say, "O death! where is thy sting?
+O grave! where is thy victory"?
+
+VI. This was the hour when our Lord erected that spiritual kingdom
+which is never to end. How vain are the counsels and designs of men!
+How shallow is the policy of the wicked! How short their triumphing!
+The enemies of Christ imagined that in this hour they had successfully
+accomplished their plan for His destruction. They believed that they
+had entirely scattered the small party of His followers, and had
+extinguished His name and His honor forever. In derision they addrest
+Him as a king. They clothed Him with purple robes; they crowned Him
+with a crown of thorns; they put a reed into His hand; and, with
+insulting mockery, bowed the knee before Him. Blind and impious men!
+How little did they know that the Almighty was at that moment setting
+Him as a king on the hill of Zion; giving Him "the heathen for his
+inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession"!
+How little did they know that their badges of mock royalty were at
+that moment converted into the signals of absolute dominion, and the
+instruments of irresistible power! The reed which they put into His
+hands became "a rod of iron," with which He was to "break in pieces
+his enemies," a scepter with which He was to rule the universe in
+righteousness. The cross which they thought was to stigmatize Him with
+infamy, became the ensign of His renown. Instead of being the reproach
+of His followers, it was to be their boast and their glory. The cross
+was to shine on palaces and churches throughout the earth. It was to
+be assumed as the distinction of the most powerful monarchs, and to
+wave in the banner of victorious armies when the memory of Herod and
+Pilate should be accurst, when Jerusalem should be reduced to ashes,
+and the Jews be vagabonds over all the world.
+
+These were the triumphs which commenced at this hour. Our Lord saw
+them already in their birth; He saw of the travail of His soul, and
+was satisfied. He beheld the Word of God going forth, conquering, and
+to conquer; subduing, to the obedience of His laws, the subduers of
+the world; carrying light into the regions of darkness, and mildness
+into the habitations of cruelty. He beheld the Gentiles waiting below
+the cross, to receive the gospel. He beheld Ethiopia and the Isles
+stretching out their hands to God; the desert beginning to rejoice
+and to blossom as the rose; and the knowledge of the Lord filling the
+earth, as the waters cover the sea. Well pleased, He said, "It is
+finished." As a conqueror He retired from the field, reviewing His
+triumphs: "He bowed his head and gave up the ghost." From that hour,
+Christ was no longer a mortal man, but "Head over all things to the
+Church," the glorious King of men and angels, of whose dominion there
+shall be no end. His triumphs shall perpetually increase. "His name
+shall endure forever; it shall last as long as the sun; men shall be
+blest in him, and all nations shall call him blest"
+
+Such were the transactions, such the effects, of this ever-memorable
+hour. With all those great events was the mind of our Lord filled,
+when He lifted His eyes to heaven, and said, "Father! the hour is
+come."
+
+From this view which we have taken of this subject, permit me to
+suggest what ground it affords to confide in the mercy of God for the
+pardon of sin; to trust to His faithfulness for the accomplishment of
+all His promises; and to approach to Him, with gratitude and devotion,
+in acts of worship.
+
+In the first place, the death of Christ affords us ground to confide
+in the divine mercy for the pardon of sin. All the steps of that high
+dispensation of Providence, which we have considered, lead directly to
+this conclusion, "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up
+for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?"
+This is the final result of the discoveries of the gospel. On this
+rests the great system of consolation which it hath reared up for men.
+We are not left to dubious and intricate reasonings concerning the
+conduct which God may be expected to hold toward His offending
+creatures: but we are led to the view of important and illustrious
+facts which strike the mind with evidence irresistible. For it is
+possible to believe that such great operations, as I have endeavored
+to describe, were carried on by the Almighty in vain? Did He excite
+in the hearts of His creatures such encouraging hopes, without any
+intention to fulfil them? After so long a preparation of goodness,
+could He mean to deny forgiveness to the penitent and the humble? When
+overcome by the sense of guilt, man looks up with an astonished eye to
+the justice of his Creator, let him recollect that hour of which the
+text speaks, and be comforted. The signals of divine mercy, erected in
+his view, are too conspicuous to be either distrusted or mistaken.
+
+In the next place, the discoveries of this hour afford the highest
+reason to trust in the divine faithfulness for the accomplishment of
+every promise which remains yet unfulfilled. For this was the hour of
+the completion of God's ancient covenant.
+
+It was the "performance of the mercy promised to the fathers." We
+behold the consummation of a great plan, which, throughout a course
+of ages, had been uniformly pursued; and which, against every human
+appearance, was, at the appointed moment, exactly fulfilled. No
+length of time alters His purpose. No obstacles can retard it. Toward
+the ends accomplished in this hour, the most repugnant instruments
+were made to operate. We discern God bending to His purpose the
+jarring passions, the opposite interests, and even the vices of men;
+uniting seeming contrarieties in His scheme; making "the wrath of man
+to praise him"; obliging the ambition of princes, the prejudices of
+Jews, the malice of Satan, all to concur, either in bringing forward
+this hour, or in completing its destined effects. With what entire
+confidence ought we to wait for the fulfilment of all His other
+promises in their due time, even when events are most embroiled and
+the prospect is most discouraging: "Altho thou sayst thou canst not
+see him, yet judgment is before him; therefore trust thou in him." Be
+attentive only to perform thy duty; leave the event to God, and be
+assured that, under the direction of His Providence, "all things shall
+work together" for a happy issue.
+
+Lastly, the consideration of this whole subject tends to excite
+gratitude and devotion, when we approach to God in acts of worship.
+The hour of which I have discust, presents Him to us in the amiable
+light of the deliverer of mankind, the restorer of our forfeited
+hopes. We behold the greatness of the Almighty, softened by the mild
+radiance of condescension and mercy. We behold Him diminishing the
+awful distance at which we stand from His presence, by appointing for
+us a mediator and intercessor, through whom the humble may, without
+dismay, approach to Him who made them. By such views of the divine
+nature, Christian faith lays the foundation for a worship which shall
+be at once rational and affectionate; a worship in which the light of
+the understanding shall concur with the devotion of the heart, and
+the most profound reverence be united with the most cordial love.
+Christian faith is not a system of speculative truths. It is not a
+lesson of moral instruction only. By a train of high discoveries which
+it reveals, by a succession of interesting objects which it places
+in our view, it is calculated to elevate the mind, to purify the
+affections, and by the assistance of devotion, to confirm and
+encourage virtue. Such, in particular, is the scope of that divine
+institution, the sacrament of our Lord's Supper. To this happy purpose
+let it conduce, by concentering in one striking point of light all
+that the gospel has displayed of what is most important to man.
+Touched with such contrition for past offenses, and filled with a
+grateful sense of divine goodness, let us come to the altar of God,
+and, with a humble faith in His infinite mercies, devote ourselves to
+His service forever.
+
+
+
+
+DWIGHT
+
+THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD
+
+BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
+
+
+Timothy Dwight was born at Northampton, Massachusetts, in 1752. He
+graduated from Yale in 1769, served as chaplain in the army during the
+Revolutionary War and was chosen president of his university in 1795.
+He died, after holding that office for twelve years, in 1817. Lyman
+Beecher, who attributed his conversion to him, says: "He was of noble
+form, with a noble head and body, and had one of the sweetest smiles
+that ever you saw. When I heard him preach on 'the harvest is passed,
+the summer is ended, and we are not saved,' a whole avalanche rolled
+down on my mind. I went home weeping every step."
+
+
+
+DWIGHT
+
+1752--1817
+
+THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD
+
+_O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in
+man that walketh to direct his steps_.--Jeremiah x., 23.
+
+
+Few of this audience will probably deny the truth of a direct
+Scriptural declaration. With as little reason can it be denied that
+most of them apparently live in the very manner in which they would
+live if the doctrine were false: or that they rely, chiefly at least,
+on their own sagacity, contrivance and efforts for success in this
+life and that which is to come. As little can it be questioned that
+such self-confidence is a guide eminently dangerous and deceitful.
+Safe as we may feel under its direction, our safety is imaginary. The
+folly of others in trusting to themselves we discern irresistibly. The
+same folly they perceive, with equal evidence, in us. Our true
+wisdom lies in willingly feeling, and cheerfully acknowledging, our
+dependence on God; and in committing ourselves with humble reliance to
+His care and direction.
+
+With these observations I will now proceed to illustrate the truth of
+the doctrine. The mode which I shall pursue will, probably, be thought
+singular. I hope it will be useful. Metaphysical arguments, which are
+customarily employed for the purpose of establishing this and several
+other doctrines of theology, are, if I mistake not, less satisfactory
+to the minds of men at large than the authors of them appear to
+believe. Facts, wherever they can be fairly adduced for this end,
+are attended with a superior power of conviction; and commonly leave
+little doubt behind them. On these, therefore, I shall at the present
+time rely for the accomplishment of my design. In the first place, the
+doctrine of the text is evident from the great fact that the birth and
+education of all men depend not on themselves.
+
+The succeeding events of life are derived, in a great measure at
+least, from our birth. By this event, it is in a prime degree
+determined whether men shall be princes or peasants, opulent or poor,
+learned or ignorant, honorable or despised; whether they shall be
+civilized or savage, freemen or slaves, Christians or heathens,
+Mohammedans or Jews.
+
+A child is born of Indian parents in the western wilderness. By his
+birth he is, of course, a savage. His friends, his mode of life, his
+habits, his knowledge, his opinions, his conduct, all grow out of this
+single event. His first thoughts, his first instructions, and all the
+first objects with which he is conversant, the persons whom he loves,
+the life to which he assumes are all savage. He is an Indian from the
+cradle; he is an Indian to the grave. To say that he could not be
+otherwise, we are not warranted; but that he is not is certain.
+
+Another child is born of a Bedouin Arab. From this moment he begins to
+be an Arabian. His hand is against every man; and every man's hand
+is against him. Before he can walk, or speak, he is carried through
+pathless wastes in search of food; and roams in the arms of his
+mother, and on the back of a camel, from spring to spring, and from
+pasture to pasture. Even then he begins his conflict with hunger and
+thirst; is scorched by a vertical sun; shriveled by the burning sand
+beneath; and poisoned by the breath of the simoom. Hardened thus
+through his infancy and childhood, both in body and mind, he becomes,
+under the exhortations and example of his father, a robber from
+his youth; attacks every stranger whom he is able to overcome; and
+plunders every valuable thing on which he can lay his hand.
+
+A third receives his birth in the palace of a British nobleman; and is
+welcomed to the world as the heir apparent of an ancient, honorable
+and splendid family. As soon as he opens his eyes on the light, he is
+surrounded by all the enjoyments which opulence can furnish, ingenuity
+contrive, or fondness bestow. He is dandled on the knee of indulgence;
+encircled by attendants, who watch and prevent alike his necessities
+and wishes; cradled on down; and charmed to sleep by the voice of
+tenderness and care. From the dangers and evils of life he is guarded
+with anxious solicitude. To its pleasures he is conducted by the
+ever-ready hand of maternal affection. His person is shaped and
+improved by a succession of masters; his mind is opened, invigorated
+and refined by the assiduous superintendence of learning and wisdom.
+While a child he is served by a host of menials and flattered by
+successive trains of visitors. When a youth he is regarded by a band
+of tenants with reverence and awe. His equals in age bow to his rank;
+and multitudes, of superior years acknowledge his distinction by
+continual testimonies of marked respect. When a man, he engages the
+regard of his sovereign; commands the esteem of the senate; and earns
+the love and applause of his country.
+
+A fourth child, in the same kingdom, is begotten by a beggar, and
+born under a hedge. From his birth he is trained to suffering and
+hardihood. He is nursed, if he can be said to be nursed at all, on a
+coarse, scanty and precarious pittance; holds life only as a tenant
+at will; combats from the first dawnings of intellect with insolence,
+cold and nakedness; is originally taught to beg and to steal; is
+driven from the doors of men by the porter or the house dog; and is
+regarded as an alien from the family of Adam. Like his kindred worms,
+he creeps through life in the dust; dies under the hedge, where he is
+born; and is then, perhaps, cast into a ditch, and covered with earth
+by some stranger, who remembers that, altho a beggar, he still was a
+man.
+
+A child enters the world in China; and unites, as a thing of course,
+with his sottish countrymen in the stupid worship of the idol Fo.
+Another prostrates himself before the Lama, in consequence of having
+received his being in Tibet, and of seeing the Lama worshiped by all
+around him.
+
+A third, who begins his existence in Turkey, is carried early to the
+mosque; taught to lisp with profound reverence the name of Mohammed;
+habituated to repeat the prayers and sentences of the Koran as the
+means of eternal life; and induced, in a manner irresistible, to
+complete his title to Paradise by a pilgrimage to Mecca.
+
+The Hindu infant grows into a religious veneration for the cow; and
+perhaps never doubts that, if he adds to this solemn devotion to
+Juggernaut, the Gooroos, and the Dewtahs, and performs carefully his
+ablutions in the Ganges, he shall wash away all his sins, and obtain,
+by the favor of Brahma, a seat among the blest.
+
+In our own favored country, one child is born of parents devoted
+solely to this world. From his earliest moments of understanding, he
+hears and sees nothing commended but hunting, horse-racing, visiting,
+dancing, dressing, riding, parties, gaming, acquiring money with
+eagerness and skill, and spending it in gaiety, pleasure and luxury.
+These things, he is taught by conversation and example, constitute all
+the good of man. His taste is formed, his habits are riveted, and the
+whole character of his soul is turned to them before he is fairly
+sensible that there is any other good. The question whether virtue and
+piety are either duties or blessings he probably never asks. In the
+dawn of life he sees them neglected and despised by those whom he
+most reverences; and learns only to neglect and despise them also. Of
+Jehovah he thinks as little, and for the same reason as a Chinese or
+a Hindu. They pay their devotions to Fo and to Juggernaut: he his to
+money and pleasure. Thus he lives, and dies, a mere animal; a stranger
+to intelligence and morality, to his duty and his God.
+
+Another child comes into existence in the mansion of knowledge and
+virtue. From his infancy, his mind is fashioned to wisdom and piety.
+In his infancy he is taught and allured to remember his Creator;
+and to unite, first in form and then in affection, in the household
+devotions of the morning and evening. God he knows almost as soon as
+he can know anything. The presence of that glorious being he is taught
+to realize almost from the cradle; and from the dawn of intelligence
+to understand the perfections and government of his Creator. His own
+accountableness, as soon as he can comprehend it, he begins to feel
+habitually, and always. The way of life through the Redeemer is early,
+and regularly explained to him by the voice of parental love; and
+enforced and endeared in the house of God. As soon as possible, he
+is enabled to read, and persuaded to "search the Scriptures." Of the
+approach, the danger and the mischiefs of temptations, he is tenderly
+warned. At the commencement of sin, he is kindly checked in his
+dangerous career. To God he was solemnly given in baptism. To God he
+was daily commended in fervent prayer. Under this happy cultivation he
+grows up "like an olive-tree in the courts of the Lord"; and, green,
+beautiful and flourishing, he blossoms; bears fruit; and is prepared
+to be transplanted by the divine hand to a kinder soil in the regions
+above.
+
+How many, and how great, are the differences in these several
+children! How plainly do they all, in ordinary circumstances, arise
+out of their birth! From their birth is derived, of course, the
+education which I have ascribed to them; and from this education
+spring in a great measure both character and their destiny. The place,
+the persons, the circumstances, are here evidently the great things
+which, in the ordinary course of Providence, appear chiefly to
+determine what the respective men shall be; and what shall be those
+allotments which regularly follow their respective characters. As,
+then, they are not at all concerned in contriving or accomplishing
+either their birth or their education; it is certain that, in these
+most important particulars, the way of man is not in himself. God only
+can determine what child shall spring from parents, wise or foolish,
+virtuous or sinful, rich or poor, honorable or infamous, civilized or
+savage, Christian or heathen.
+
+I wish it to be distinctly understood, and carefully remembered, that
+"in the moral conduct of all these individuals no physical necessity
+operates." Every one of them is absolutely a free agent; as free as
+any created agent can be. Whatever he does is the result of choice,
+absolutely unconstrained.
+
+Let me add, that not one of them is placed in a situation in which, if
+he learns and performs his duty to the utmost of his power, he will
+fail of being finally accepted.
+
+Secondly. The doctrine is strikingly evident from this great fact,
+also, that the course of life, which men usually pursue, is very
+different from that which they have intended.
+
+Human life is ordinarily little else than a collection of
+disappointments. Rarely is the life of man such as he designs it shall
+be. Often do we fail of pursuing, at all, the business originally
+in our view. The intentional farmer becomes a mechanic, a seaman,
+a merchant, a lawyer, a physician, or a divine. The very place of
+settlement, and of residence through life, is often different, and
+distant, from that which was originally contemplated. Still more
+different is the success which follows our efforts.
+
+All men intend to be rich and honorable; to enjoy ease; and to pursue
+pleasure. But how small is the number of those who compass these
+objects! In this country, the great body of mankind are, indeed,
+possest of competence; a safer and happier lot than that to which they
+aspire; yet few, very few are rich. Here, also, the great body of
+mankind possess a character, generally reputable; but very limited is
+the number of those who arrive at the honor which they so ardently
+desire, and of which they feel assured. Almost all stop at the
+moderate level, where human efforts appear to have their boundary
+established in the determination of God. Nay, far below this level
+creep multitudes of such as began life with full confidence in the
+attainment of distinction and splendor.
+
+The lawyer, emulating the eloquence, business, and fame of Murray or
+Dunning, and secretly resolved not to slacken his efforts, until all
+his rivals in the race for glory are outstript is often astonished, as
+well as broken-hearted, to find business and fame pass by his door,
+and stop at the more favored mansion of some competitor, in his view
+less able, and less discerning, than himself.
+
+The physician, devoted to medical science, and possest of
+distinguished powers of discerning and removing diseases, is obliged
+to walk; while a more fortunate empiric, ignorant and worthless, rolls
+through the streets in his coach.
+
+The legislator beholds with anguish and amazement the suffrages of his
+countrymen given eagerly to a rival candidate devoid of knowledge and
+integrity; but skilled in flattering the base passions of men, and
+deterred by no hesitations of conscience, and no fears of infamy, from
+saying and doing anything which may secure his election.
+
+The merchant often beholds with a despairing eye his own ships sunk in
+the ocean; his debtors fail; his goods unsold, his business cramped;
+and himself, his family and his hopes ruined; while a less skilful but
+more successful neighbor sees wealth blown to him by every wind, and
+floated on every wave.
+
+The crops of the farmer are stinted; his cattle die; his markets are
+bad; and the purchaser of his commodities proves to be a cheat, who
+deceives his confidence and runs away with his property.
+
+Thus the darling schemes and fondest hopes of man are daily frustrated
+by time. While sagacity contrives, patience matures, and labor
+industriously executes, disappointment laughs at the curious fabric,
+formed by so many efforts and gay with so many brilliant colors,
+and while the artists imagine the work arrived at the moment of
+completion, brushes away the beautiful web, and leaves nothing behind.
+
+The designs of men, however, are in many respects not infrequently
+successful. The lawyer and physician acquire business and fame; the
+statesman, votes; and the farmer, wealth. But their real success,
+even in this case, is often substantially the same with that already
+recited. In all plans, and all labors, the supreme object is to become
+happy. Yet, when men have actually acquired riches and honor, or
+secured to themselves popular favor, they still find the happiness,
+which they expected, eluding their grasp. Neither wealth, fame,
+office, nor sensual pleasure can yield such good as we need. As these
+coveted objects are accumulated, the wishes of man always grow faster
+than his gratifications. Hence, whatever he acquires, he is usually as
+little satisfied as before, and often less.
+
+A principal design of the mind in laboring for these things is to
+become superior to others. But almost all rich men are obliged to see,
+and usually with no small anguish, others richer than themselves;
+honorable men, others more honorable; voluptuous men, others who enjoy
+more pleasure. The great end of the strife is therefore unobtained;
+and the happiness expected never found. Even the successful competitor
+in the race utterly misses his aim. The real enjoyment existed, altho
+it was unperceived by him, in the mere strife for superiority. When
+he has outstript all his rivals the contest is at an end: and his
+spirits, which were invigorated only by contending, languish for want
+of a competitor.
+
+Besides, the happiness in view was only the indulgence of pride,
+or mere animal pleasure. Neither of these can satisfy or endure. A
+rational mind may be, and often is, so narrow and groveling as not to
+aim at any higher good, to understand its nature or to believe its
+existence. Still, in its original constitution, it was formed with a
+capacity for intellectual and moral good, and was destined to find in
+this good its only satisfaction. Hence, no inferior good will fill
+its capacity or its desires. Nor can this bent of its nature ever be
+altered. Whatever other enjoyment, therefore, it may attain, it will,
+without this, still crave and still be unhappy.
+
+No view of the ever-varying character and success of mankind in
+their expectations of happiness, and their efforts to obtain it, can
+illustrate this doctrine more satisfactorily than that of the progress
+and end of a class of students in this seminary. At their first
+appearance here they are all exactly on the same level. Their
+character, their hopes and their destination are the same. They are
+enrolled on one list; and enter upon a collegiate life with the same
+promise of success. At this moment they are plants, appearing just
+above the ground; all equally fair and flourishing. Within a short
+time, however, some begin to rise above others; indicating by a more
+rapid growth a structure of superior vigor, and promising both more
+early and more abundant fruit....
+
+Were I to ask the youths who are before me what are their designs
+and expectations concerning their future life, and write down their
+several answers, what a vast difference would ultimately be found
+between those answers and the events which would actually befall them!
+To how great a part of that difference would facts, over which they
+could have no control, give birth! How many of them will in all
+probability be less prosperous, rich, and honorable than they now
+intend: how many devoted to employments of which at present they do
+not even dream; in circumstances, of which they never entertained even
+a thought, behind those whom they expected to outrun, poor, sick, in
+sorrow or in the grave.
+
+First. You see here, my young friends, the most solid reasons for
+gratitude to your Creator.
+
+God, only, directed that you should be born in this land, and in the
+midst of peace, plenty, civilization, freedom, learning and religion;
+and that your existence should not commence in a Tartarian forest
+or an African waste. God, alone, ordered that you should be born of
+parents who knew and worshiped Him, the glorious and eternal Jehovah;
+and not of parents who bowed before the Lama or the ox, an image of
+brass or the stock of a tree. In the book of His counsels, your names,
+so far as we are able to judge, were written in the fair lines of
+mercy. It is of His overflowing goodness that you are now here;
+surrounded with privileges, and beset with blessings, educated to
+knowledge, usefulness and piety, and prepared to begin an endless
+course of happiness and glory. All these delightful things have
+been poured into your lap, and have come, unbidden, to solicit your
+acceptance. If these blessings awaken not gratitude, it can not be
+awakened by the blessings in the present world. If they are not
+thankfully felt by you, it is because you know not how to be thankful.
+Think what you are, and where you are; and what and where you just as
+easily might have been. Remember that, instead of cherishing tender
+affections, imbibing refined sentiments, exploring the field of
+science, and assuming the name and character of the sons of God, you
+might as easily have been dozing in the smoke of a wigwam, brandishing
+a tomahawk, or dancing round an emboweled captive; or that you might
+yourself have been emboweled by the hand of superstition, and burnt on
+the altars of Moloch. If you remember these things, you can not but
+call to mind, also, who made you to differ from the miserable beings
+who have thus lived and died.
+
+Secondly. This doctrine forcibly demands of you to moderate desires
+and expectations.
+
+There are two modes in which men seek happiness in the enjoyments of
+the present world. "Most persons freely indulge their wishes, and
+intend to find objects sufficient in number and value to satisfy
+them." A few "aim at satisfaction by proportioning their desires to
+the number and measure of their probable gratifications." By the
+doctrine of the text, the latter method is stamped with the name of
+wisdom, and on the former is inscribed the name of folly. Desires
+indulged grow faster and farther than gratifications extend.
+Ungratified desire is misery. Expectations eagerly indulged and
+terminated by disappointment are often exquisite misery. But how
+frequently are expectations raised only to be disappointed, and
+desires let loose only to terminate in distress! The child pines for
+a toy: the moment he possesses it, he throws it by and cries for
+another. When they are piled up in heaps around him, he looks at them
+without pleasure, and leaves them without regret. He knew not that
+all the good which they could yield lay in expectation; nor that his
+wishes for more would increase faster than toys could be multiplied,
+and is unhappy at last for the same reason as at first: his wishes
+are ungratified. Still indulging them, and still believing that the
+gratification of them will furnish the enjoyment for which he pines,
+he goes on, only to be unhappy.
+
+Men are merely taller children. Honor, wealth and splendor are the
+toys for which grown children pine; but which, however accumulated,
+leave them still disappointed and unhappy. God never designed that
+intelligent beings should be satisfied with these enjoyments. By his
+wisdom and goodness they were formed to derive their happiness and
+virtue.
+
+Moderated desires constitute a character fitted to acquire all the
+good which this world can yield. He who is prepared, in whatever
+situation he is, therewith to be content, has learned effectually the
+science of being happy, and possesses the alchemic stone which will
+change every metal into gold. Such a man will smile upon a stool,
+while Alexander at his side sits weeping on the throne of the world.
+
+The doctrine of the text teaches you irresistibly that, since you can
+not command gratifications, you should command your desires; and that,
+as the events of life do not accord with your wishes, your wishes
+should accord with them. Multiplied enjoyments fall to but few men,
+and are no more rationally expected than the highest prize in a
+lottery. But a well-regulated mind, a dignified independence of the
+world, and a wise preparation to possess one's soul in patience,
+whatever circumstances may exist, is in the power of every man, and is
+greater wealth than that of both Indies, and greater honor than Caesar
+ever required.
+
+Thirdly. As your course and your success through life are not under
+your control, you are strongly urged to commit yourselves to God, who
+can control both.
+
+That you can not direct your course through the world, that your best
+concerted plans will often fail, that your sanguine expectations will
+be disappointed, and that your fondest worldly wishes will terminate
+in mortification can not admit of a momentary doubt. That God can
+direct you, that He actually controls all your concerns, and that,
+if you commit yourselves to His care, He will direct you kindly and
+safely, can be doubted only of choice. Why, then, do you hesitate to
+yield yourselves and your interests to the guidance of your Maker?
+There are two reasons which appear especially to govern mankind in
+this important concern; they do not and will not realize the agency of
+God in their affairs; and they do not choose to have them directed
+as they imagine He will direct them. The former is the result of
+stupidity; the latter, of impiety. Both are foolish in the extreme,
+and not less sinful than foolish.
+
+The infinitely wise, great and glorious benefactor of the universe
+has offered to take men by the hand, lead them through the journey of
+life, and conduct them to His own house in the heavens. The proof of
+His sincerity in making this offer has been already produced. He has
+given His own Son to live, and die, and rise, and reign, and intercede
+for our race. "Herein is love," if there ever was love; "not that we
+have loved him, but that he has loved us." That He, who has done this,
+should not be sincere is impossible. St. Paul, therefore, triumphantly
+asks what none can answer: "He, that spared not his own Son, but
+delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely
+give us all things?" Trust, then, His word with undoubting confidence;
+take His hand with humble gratitude, and with all thy heart obey His
+voice, which you will everywhere hear, saying, "this is the way, walk
+ye therein." In sickness and in health, by night and by day, at home
+and in crowds, He will watch over you with tenderness inexpressible.
+He will make you lie down in green pastures, lead you beside the still
+waters and guide you in paths of righteousness, for His name's sake.
+He will prepare a table before you in the presence of your enemies,
+and cause your cup to run over with blessings. When you pass through
+the waters of affliction He will be with you, and through the rivers
+they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall
+not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle on you. From their
+native heavens He will commission those charming twin sisters,
+goodness and mercy, to descend and "follow you all your days."
+
+But if you wish God to be your guide and your friend, you must conform
+to his pleasure. Certainly you can not wonder that the infinitely Wise
+should prefer His own wisdom to yours, and that he should choose for
+His children their allotments, rather than leave them to choose for
+themselves. That part of His pleasure, which you are to obey, is all
+summed up in the single word duty, and it is perfectly disclosed in
+the Scriptures. The whole scheme is so formed as to be plain, easy,
+profitable, and delightful; profitable in hand, delightful in the
+possession. Every part and precept of the whole is calculated for this
+end, and will make you only wise, good, and happy.
+
+Life has been often styled an ocean, and our progress through it a
+voyage. The ocean is tempestuous and billowy, overspread by a cloudy
+sky, and fraught beneath with shelves and quicksands. The voyage
+is eventful beyond comprehension, and at the same time full of
+uncertainty, and replete with danger. Every adventurer needs to be
+well prepared for whatever may befall him, and well secured against
+the manifold hazards of losing his course, sinking in the abyss, or of
+being wrecked against the shore.
+
+These evils have all existed at all times. The present, and that
+part of the past which is known to you by experience, has seen them
+multiplied beyond example. It has seen the ancient and acknowledged
+standards of thinking violently thrown down. Religion, morals,
+government, and the estimate formed by man of crimes and virtues, and
+of all the means of usefulness and enjoyment, have been questioned,
+attacked, and in various places, and with respect to millions of
+the human race, finally overthrown. A licentiousness of opinion and
+conduct, daring, outrageous, and rending asunder every bond formed by
+God or man, has taken place of former good sense and sound morals, and
+has long threatened the destruction of human good. Industry, cunning,
+and fraud have toiled with unrivaled exertions to convert man into
+a savage and the world into a desert. A wretched and hypocritical
+philanthropy, also, not less mischievous, has stalked forth as the
+companion of these ravages: a philanthropy born in a dream, bred in a
+hovel, and living only in professions. This guardian genius of human
+interests, this friend of human rights, this redresser of human
+wrongs, is yet without a heart to feel, and without a hand to bless.
+But she is well furnished with lungs, with eyes, and a tongue. She can
+talk, and sigh, and weep at pleasure, but can neither pity nor give.
+The objects of her attachment are either knaves and villains at home,
+or unknown sufferers beyond her reach abroad. To the former, she
+ministers the sword and the dagger, that they may fight their way into
+place, and power, and profit. At the latter she only looks through a
+telescope of fancy, as an astronomer searches for stars invisible
+to the eye. To every real object of charity within her reach she
+complacently says, "Be thou warmed, and be thou filled; depart in
+peace."
+
+By the daring spirit, the vigorous efforts, and the ingenious cunning
+so industriously exerted on the one hand, and the smooth and gentle
+benevolence so softly profest on the other, multitudes have been,
+and you easily may be, destroyed. The mischief has indeed been met,
+resisted, and overcome; but it has the heads and the lives of the
+hydra, and its wounds, which at times have seemed deadly, are much
+more readily healed than any good man could wish, than any sober man
+could expect. Hope not to escape the assaults of this enemy: To feel
+that you are in danger will ever be a preparation for your safety. But
+it will be only such a preparation; your deliverance must ultimately
+and only flow from your Maker. Resolve, then, to commit yourselves
+to Him with a cordial reliance on His wisdom, power, and protection.
+Consider how much you have at stake, that you are bound to eternity,
+that your existence will be immortal, and that you will either rise to
+endless glory or be lost in absolute perdition. Heaven is your proper
+home. The path, which I have recommended to you, will conduct you
+safely and certainly to that happy world. Fill up life, therefore,
+with obedience to God, with faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and
+repentance unto life, the obedience to the two great commands of the
+gospel, with supreme love to God and universal good-will to men, the
+obedience to the two great commands of the law. On all your sincere
+endeavors to honor Him, and befriend your fellow men, He will smile;
+every virtuous attempt He will bless; every act of obedience He will
+reward. Life in this manner will be pleasant amid all its sorrows; and
+beams of hope will continually shine through the gloom, by which it
+is so often overcast. Virtue, the seed that can not die, planted from
+heaven, and cultivated by the divine hand, will grow up in your hearts
+with increasing vigor, and blossom in your lives with supernal beauty.
+Your path will be that of the just, and will gloriously resemble the
+dawning light, "which shines brighter and brighter, to the perfect
+day." Peace will take you by the hand, and offer herself as the
+constant and delightful companion of your progress. Hope will walk
+before you, and with an unerring finger point out your course; and
+joy, at the end of the journey, will open her arms to receive you. You
+will wait on the Lord, and renew your strength; will mount up with
+wings as eagles; will run, and not be weary; will walk, and not faint.
+
+
+
+
+ROBERT HALL
+
+MARKS OF LOVE TO GOD
+
+BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
+
+
+Robert Hall, Baptist divine, was born at Arnesby, near Leicester,
+England, in 1764. Destined for the ministry, he was educated at the
+Baptist Academy at Bristol, and preached for the first time in
+1779. In 1783 he began his ministry in Bristol and drew crowded
+congregations of all classes. The tradition of Hall's pupit oratory
+has secured his lasting fame. Many minds of a high order were
+fascinated by his eloquence, and his conversation was brilliant.
+His treatment of religious topics had the rare merit of commending
+evangelical doctrine to people of taste. Dugald Stewart declares that
+his writings and public utterances exhibited the English language in
+its perfection. He died in 1831.
+
+
+
+
+ROBERT HALL
+
+1764--1831
+
+MARKS OF LOVE TO GOD
+
+_But I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you._--John v.,
+42.
+
+
+The persons whom our Lord addrest in these words made a high
+profession of religion, valued themselves upon their peculiar
+opportunities of knowing the true God and His will, and proclaimed
+themselves as the Israel and the temple of the Lord, while they
+despised the surrounding pagans as those who were strangers to the
+divine law. Yet the self-complacent Pharisees of our Savior's age were
+as far from the love of God, he assures them in the text, as any of
+those who had never heard of His name. In this respect, many of "the
+first were last, and the last first." The rejection of the gospel
+evinces a hardness of heart which is decisive against the character;
+and, in the case of the Pharisees, it gave ample evidence that they
+possest no love of God. Had they really known God, as our Lord argues,
+they would have known Himself to be sent by God: whereas, in proving
+the bitter enemies of Christ, they proved that they were in a state of
+enmity against God. By parity of reason, we, my brethren, who know God
+and His Word in the way of Christian profession, ought not to take it
+for granted that we possess the love of God, and are in the way of
+eternal life: the same self-delusion may overtake us also; and similar
+admonitions may be no less necessary to many present, than to the
+Pharisees of old. Suffer then, my brethren, the word of exhortation,
+while I invite each individual seriously to consider this subject,
+with a view to the discovery of his real character.
+
+In proceeding to lay down certain marks of grace, let it be premised,
+that either these marks partake of the nature of true religion, or
+they do not. If they do, they must be identified with it, and here the
+mark is the thing: if they do not partake of its nature, some of
+them may exist as indications where genuine religion is not. It is
+necessary, then, that we combine a variety of particular signs of
+grace: any one taken by itself, may, or may not, exist, without true
+religion; but where many are combined, no just doubt can remain.
+
+Whether you have the love of God in your soul presents a most
+critical subject of inquiry; since the love of God will be
+acknowledged by all to be the great, the essential, principle of
+true religion. The simple question, then, to which I would call your
+attention, is this: "Am I, or am I not, a sincere lover of the Author
+of my being?"
+
+In endeavoring to assist you in the decision of this momentous
+question, as it respects yourselves. I shall entreat your attention
+while I suggest a variety of marks which indicate love to God; and
+supposing the conviction produced by the statement to be, that you
+have not the love of God, I shall point out the proper improvement of
+such a conviction.
+
+In suggesting various marks by which you may ascertain whether you
+love God or not, I would mention the general bent and turn of your
+thoughts, when not under the immediate control of circumstances; for
+these, you are aware, give a new and peculiar bias to our thoughts,
+and stamp them with an impress of their own. There is an infinite
+variety of thoughts continually passing through the mind of every
+individual: of these, some are thrown up by occasions; but others, and
+often the greater part, follow the habitual train of our associations.
+It is not to thoughts of the former kind that I refer; it is to those
+of the latter class--those involuntary thoughts which spring up of
+themselves in the mind of every person: it is these, not the former,
+that afford clear indication of the general temper and disposition.
+The question I would propose to you is, What is the bent of your
+thoughts when, disengaged from the influence of any particular
+occurrence, you are left to yourselves, in the intervals of retirement
+and tranquillity, in the silence of the midnight watches, and, in
+short, whenever your mind is left free to its own spontaneous musings?
+Are the thoughts most familiar to your mind, at such times, thoughts
+of God and the things of God--or are they thoughts that turn upon the
+present world and its transient concerns? Are they confined, for the
+most part, within the narrow circle of time and sense; or do they make
+frequent and large excursions into the spiritual and eternal world?
+The answer to this question will go far to decide whether you have, or
+have not, the love of God. It is impossible that such an object as the
+divine Being should be absent long from your thoughts; impossible
+that His remembrance should long remain merged in the stream of other
+imaginations; unless you are supposed chargeable with a decided
+indifference to divine things! Unless you are destitute of love to God
+you can never be so utterly uncongenial in sentiment and feeling with
+the psalmist, when he says, "My mouth shall praise thee with joyful
+lips, while I meditate upon thee in the night watches." "How precious
+are thy thoughts unto me, O God!" When that man of God gazed upon the
+starry heavens, his mind was not merely wrought into astonishment at
+the physical energy there displayed; he was still more deeply lost in
+grateful admiration of the mercy of Providence as manifested to man--a
+sinful child of dust, and yet visited by God in the midst of so
+magnificent a universe! But when day passes after day, and night after
+night, without any serious thoughts of God, it is plain that He is not
+the home of your mind, not your portion, center, and resting-place:
+and if this is the case, it is equally plain that you are not in a
+state of acceptance with Him; since nothing can be more certain than
+that, as our thoughts are, such must be our character. I do not ask
+what are your thoughts at particular times, or under the influence
+of some particular event: there may be little difference, on some
+occasions, between those who remember, and those who neglect, God
+habitually. The charge against the ungodly is, that "God is not in all
+their thoughts." If there are any here who feel this charge as bearing
+against themselves, let them take that solemn warning given by God
+himself at the close of the fiftieth psalm, "Oh, consider this, ye
+that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to
+deliver you!"
+
+Let me request you to consider seriously how you stand disposed to the
+exercises of religion. If God is the object of your love, you will
+gladly avail yourselves of the most favorable opportunities of
+cultivating a closer friendship with the Father of your spirits: on
+the contrary, he who feels no regard for these opportunities, proves
+that he has no love to God, and will never be able to establish the
+conviction that God is his friend. Wherever there exists a sincere
+friendship, opportunities of cultivating it are gladly embraced, and
+the opposite privations are regretted. Where a habitual neglect of
+sacred exercises prevails it must be interpreted as if it said, like
+those whom the prophet describes, "Cause the Holy One of Israel to
+cease from amongst us. Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge
+of thy way!" If your closets seldom witness your private devotions,
+if your moments in retirement are languid and uninteresting--your
+religion can have no hold on your heart; and the reason why your
+religion has no hold on your heart is because you have no love of God.
+There are some whose religion sits easy and delightful upon them; its
+acts and functions are free and lively: there are others who seem to
+bear their religion as a burden, to drag their duties as a chain--as
+no vital part of themselves, but rather a cumbrous appendage: this is
+a decisive and melancholy symptom of a heart alienated from God. There
+is no genuine religion, no real contact of the heart with the best of
+beings, unless it makes us continually resort to Him as our chief joy.
+The psalmist is always expressing his fervent desires after God: after
+the light of the divine countenance, and the sense of the divine
+favor: but do you suppose such desires peculiar to the state of
+believers under the Old Testament? No, my brethren; there exist more
+abundant reasons than ever, since the gospel of Christ has been
+displayed in all the glorious fulness of its blessings, why our souls
+should be inflamed with such feelings as those which inspired
+the psalmist, when he exclaimed, "As the hart panteth for the
+water-brooks, so longeth my soul after thee, O God!"
+
+If you would ascertain whether you love God, consider how you stand
+affected toward the Word of God. We can entertain no just thoughts of
+God, but such as we derive from His own Word: we can acquire no true
+knowledge of God, nor cherish any suitable affections toward Him,
+unless they are such as His own revelation authorizes. Otherwise we
+must suppose that revelation insufficient for its specific purposes,
+and set the means against the end. All, therefore, who sincerely love
+God, are students of His Word; they here, also accord in soul with the
+psalmist, and like him, can say, "O how I love thy word! in it is my
+meditation all the day:" they eat it as food for their souls, and find
+it sweeter than honey. They go to it as to an inexhaustible fountain,
+and drink from it streams of sacred light and joy. A neglected Bible
+is too unambiguous a sign of an unsanctified heart; since that blest
+book can not fail to attract every one that loves its divine Author.
+How is it possible to delight in God, and yet neglect that Word which
+alone reveals Him in His true and glorious character--alone discovers
+the way by which He comes into unison with us, and condescends to
+pardon us, to love us, and to guide us through all this mysterious
+state of being? It is observable that the only persons who are
+inattentive to their own sacred books are to be found among
+Christians. Mohammedans commit large portions of the Koran to memory;
+the Jews regard the Old Testament with reverence; the Hindu Brahmans
+are enthusiastically attached to their Shastra; while Christians alone
+neglect their Bible. And the reason is, that the Scriptures are so
+much more spiritual than the religious books received by others; they
+afford so little scope for mere amusement or self-complacency; they
+place the reader alone with God; they withdraw him from the things
+that are seen and temporal, and fix him among the things that are
+unseen and eternal; they disclose to his view at once the secret evils
+of his own condition, and the awful purity of that Being with whom he
+has to do. No wonder the ungodly man hates their light, neither comes
+to their light, but retires from it farther and farther into the
+shades of guilty ignorance. How melancholy the infatuation of such a
+character!
+
+Estimate your character in respect to your love of God, by reflecting,
+with what sentiments you regard the people of God. God has a people
+peculiarly His own: they are not of that world to which they outwardly
+belong--not conformed to it in the spirit of their mind; they stand
+apart, many of them at least, in conspicuous conformity to Jesus
+Christ, and in earnest expectation of the glory which He had promised.
+How, then, do you regard these decided followers of God? Do you shun
+their society with aversion and secret shame; or do you enjoy
+their communion as one of the most delightful among your Christian
+privileges? Are you content merely to be the companion of those who
+"have a name to live, but are dead": or can you say with the psalmist,
+"My delight is in the excellent of the earth"? or, with the beloved
+disciple, "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because
+we love the brethren"? for, as he adds, "He that loveth him that
+begot, loveth him that is begotten"; if you do not love the image
+which you have seen, how can you love the unseen original? If the
+features of holiness and grace in the creature are not attractive to
+your view, how can your affections rise to the perfect essence? How
+can you ascend to the very sun itself, when you can not enjoy even the
+faint reflection of its glory? He who knew the heart, could alone say
+to those around Him, "I know you, that ye have not the love of God
+in you": but tho none can address you now in the same tone of divine
+authority, yet we may hear it uttered by a voice--the voice of your
+own conscience: you may know, without any perturbations of hope or
+fear, by the spiritual insensibility and inaction of your soul--by
+this you may know, with equal certainty as by a voice from heaven,
+that you have not the love of God in you.
+
+Consider the disposition you entertain toward the person and office of
+the Son of God. "If ye had loved the Father, ye would have loved me
+also," was the constant argument of Jesus Christ to those Pharisees
+whom He addresses in the text For Jesus Christ is the express image of
+God: the effulgence of the divine character is attempered in Him, to
+suit the views of sinful humanity. In the life of Jesus Christ we see
+how the divine Being conducts Himself in human form and in our own
+circumstances: we behold how He bears all the sorrows, and passes
+through all the temptations, of flesh and blood. Such, indeed, is the
+identity, so perfect the oneness of character, between the man Christ
+Jesus and the divine Being--that our Savior expressly assures us, "He
+that hath seen me, hath seen the Father; I and my Father are one." The
+purpose for which God was manifested in the flesh was not to reveal
+high speculations concerning the nature of the Deity: it was to bear
+our sorrows, and to die for our sins. But can you contemplate Him,
+thus stooping to your condition, thus mingling with every interest of
+your own, and not be moved by such a spectacle?--not be attracted,
+fixt, filled with grateful astonishment and devotion--crucified, as
+it were, on the cross of Christ, to the flesh, and to the world? What
+mark, then, of our possessing no love of God can equal this, that we
+are without love to Jesus Christ?--that neither the visibility of His
+divine excellence, nor His participation of all our human sufferings,
+can reach our hearts and command our affections?
+
+In examining whether you love God, examine how you are affected by His
+benefits. These are so numerous and so distinguished that they
+ought to excite our most ardent gratitude: night and day they are
+experienced by us; they pervade every moment of our being. We know
+that favors from an enemy derive a taint from the hands through which
+they are received, and excite alienation rather than attachment: but
+the kindness of a friend, by constantly reminding us of himself,
+endears that friend more and more to our hearts; and thus, he that has
+no love to God receives all His favors without the least attraction
+toward their Author, whom he regards rather as an enemy than as a
+friend. But the Christian feels his love of God excited by every fresh
+goodness. The mercies of God have accompanied you through every
+stage of your journey; and they are exhibited to you in His word as
+stretching through a vast eternity. Are these the only benefits you
+can receive without gratitude, and suffer to pass unregarded How,
+then, can any love of God dwell in your bosom?
+
+Consider, in the next place, in what manner you are imprest by
+the sense of your sins. The question is not whether you have any
+sins,--none can admit a doubt on this point; the only inquiry is, how
+you are affected by those sins? Are they remembered by you with a
+sentiment of tender regret, of deep confusion and humiliation, that
+you should ever have so requited such infinite goodness? And is this
+sentiment combined with a sacred resolution to go and sin no more,--to
+devote yourself to the service of your divine Benefactor? If you
+can live without an habitual sense of penitential tenderness and
+reverential fear, be assured you can not love God; you have no
+experience of those Scripture declarations: "They shall fear the Lord
+and his goodness in the latter days;" "There is forgiveness with thee,
+that thou mayst be feared;" you know not that "the goodness of God
+leadeth to repentence." If the mind is softened by the love of God,
+all His favors serve to inflame its gratitude, and confirm its
+devotion to His will: but he who has no love of God in his soul,
+thinks of nothing but how he may escape from God's hand, and selfishly
+devours all His favors, without an emotion of gratitude to the Giver.
+
+Finally, let me remind you to consider how you are affected to the
+present world. If you could only be exempt from its afflictions, would
+you wish it to be your lasting home? If you could surround yourself
+with all its advantages and enjoyments, would you be content to dwell
+in it forever? Yet you know that it is a place of separation and exile
+from the divine majesty; that it is a scene of darkness, in comparison
+with heaven, very faintly illuminated with the beams of His distant
+glory; that its inhabitant is constrained to say, "I have heard
+of thee by the hearing of the ear, but mine eye hath not yet seen
+thee";--while heaven is the proper dwelling-place of God and His
+people! Could you then consent to remain here always, without ever
+seeing as you are seen--seeing light in His light--without ever
+beholding His glory; without ever drinking at the fountain,
+and basking in that presence which is fulness of joy, and
+life forevermore? always to remain immersed in the shadows of
+time--entombed in its corruptible possessions? never to ascend up on
+high to God and Christ and the glories of the eternal world? If such
+is the state of your spirit, you want the essential principle of a
+Christian--you want the love of God. The genuine Christian, the lover
+of God, is certain to feel himself a "stranger on the earth." No
+splendor, no emolument of this world,--not all the fascinations of
+sensual pleasure,--can detain his heart below the skies, or keep him
+from sympathizing with the sentiment of the psalmist: "As for me, I
+shall behold thy face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I
+wake in thy likeness." I do not ask whether you have, at present, "a
+desire to depart": perhaps you may not be as yet sufficiently prepared
+and established to entertain so exalted a desire; but still, if you
+have received a new heart, you will deprecate nothing so much as
+having your portion in this life,--as having your eternal abode on
+earth. It is the character of faith to dwell much in eternity: the
+apostle says, in the name of all real believers, "We look not at the
+things that are seen, but the things that are not seen; for the things
+that are seen are temporal, but the things that are not seen are
+eternal."
+
+And now, my brethren, supposing the preceding remarks to have produced
+in any of you the conviction that you have not the love of God in you,
+permit me very briefly to point out the proper improvement of such a
+conviction.
+
+First, it should be accompanied with deep humiliation. If you labored
+under the privation of some bodily organ, requisite to the discharge
+of an animal function, you would feel it as in some degree a
+humiliating circumstance; but what would be any defect of this kind,
+however serious, in comparison with that great want under which you
+labor--the want of piety, the calamity of a soul estranged from the
+love of God! What are the other subjects of humiliation compared with
+this--a moral fall, a spiritual death in sin: and this, unless it be
+removed, the sure precursor of the second death--eternal ruin! "This
+is a lamentation indeed, and it shall be for a lamentation."
+
+Suppose the children of a family, reared and provided for by the most
+affectionate of parents, to rise up in rebellion against their father,
+and cast off all the feelings of filial tenderness and respect; would
+any qualities those children might possess, any appearance of
+virtue they might exhibit in other respects, compensate for such
+an unnatural, such an awful deformity of character? Transfer this
+representation to your conduct in relation to God: "If I," says He,
+"am a father, where is my fear? if I am a master, where is my honor?"
+"Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth! I have nourished and brought
+up children, and they have rebelled against me: the ox knoweth his
+owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel doth not know, my
+people doth not consider."
+
+And let your humiliation be accompanied with concern and alarm. To be
+alienated from the great Origin of being; to be severed, or to sever
+yourself from the essential Author and element of all felicity, must
+be a calmity which none can understand, an infinite wo which none can
+measure or conceive. If the stream is cut off from the fountain, it
+soon ceases to flow, and its waters are dissipated in the air: and
+if the soul is cut off from God, it dies! Its vital contact with
+God,--its spiritual union with the Father of spirits through the blest
+Mediator, is the only life and beauty of the immortal soul. All,
+without this, are dead--"dead in trespasses and sins"! A living
+death--a state of restless wanderings, and unsatisfied desires! What
+a condition theirs! And, oh! what a prospect for such, when they look
+beyond this world! who will give them a welcome when they enter an
+eternal state? What reception will they meet with, and where? What
+consolation amid their losses and their sufferings, but that of the
+fellow-sufferers plunged in the same abyss of ruin? Impenitent sinners
+are allied to evil spirits, they have an affinity with the kingdom
+of darkness; and when they die, they are emphatically said to "go to
+their own place"!
+
+This is an awful state for any to be in at present; but, blest be God,
+it is not yet a hopeless situation. Let no person say, "I find by what
+I have heard, that I do not love God, and therefore I can entertain
+no hope." There is a way of return and recovery open to all. Jesus
+Christ, my dear brethren, proclaims to you all, "I am the way. No man
+can come to the Father but by me":--but every one that will may come
+by this new and living way; and, if you lose life eternal, you lose
+it because--according to his words just before the text--because "you
+will not come to Christ that you may have life." If you feel the
+misery, deformity, and danger of your state, then listen to His
+invitation, and embrace His promise. See the whole weight of your
+guilt transferred to His cross! See how God can be at once the just
+and the justifier! Take of the blood of sprinkling, and be at peace!
+His blood cleanseth from all sin: He will send that Spirit into your
+heart which will manifest Him to you; and where that Spirit is, there
+is liberty and holy love. He is the mystical ladder, let down from
+heaven to earth, on which angels are continually ascending and
+descending, in token of an alliance established between God and man.
+United by faith to Jesus Christ, you shall become a habitation of God
+through the Spirit; the Father will make you a partaker of His love,
+the Son of His grace, angels of their friendship; and you shall be
+preserved, and progressively sanctified, until, by the last change,
+all remains of the great epidemic source of evils shall be forever
+removed from your soul; and the love of God shall constitute your
+eternal felicity.
+
+
+
+
+EVANS
+
+THE FALL AND RECOVERY OF MAN
+
+BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
+
+
+Christmas Evans, a Welsh Baptist preacher, was born at Isgaerwen,
+Cardiganshire, South Wales, in 1766. Brought up as a Presbyterian,
+he turned Baptist in 1788, and was ordained the following year and
+ministered among the Baptists in Carmaerthenshire. In 1792 he became a
+sort of bishop to those of his denomination in Anglesey, where he took
+up his residence. After a somewhat stormy experience with those he
+undertook to rule, he removed to Carmaerthen in 1832. He distinguished
+himself by his debt-raising tours, in which his eloquence brought
+him much success. It is said that once when he was preaching on the
+subject of the prodigal son, he pointed to a distant mountain as he
+described the father seeing him while yet a great way off, whereupon
+thousands in his congregation turned their heads in evident
+expectation of seeing the son actually coming down the hills. He died
+in 1838.
+
+
+
+
+EVANS
+
+1766--1838
+
+THE FALL AND RECOVERY OF MAN
+
+_For if, through the offense of one, many be dead, much more the grace
+of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath
+abounded unto many._--Romans v., 15.
+
+
+Man was created in the image of God. Knowledge and perfect holiness
+were imprest upon the very nature and faculties of his soul. He had
+constant access to his Maker, and enjoyed free communion with Him, on
+the ground of his spotless moral rectitude. But, alas! the glorious
+diadem is broken; the crown of righteousness is fallen. Man's purity
+is gone, and his happiness is forfeited. "There is none righteous; no,
+not one." "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." But
+the ruin is not hopeless. What was lost in Adam is restored in Christ.
+His blood redeems us from the bondage, and His gospel gives us back
+the forfeited inheritance. "For if, through the offense of one, many
+be dead; much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is
+by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many." Let us consider,
+first, the corruption and condemnation of man; and secondly, his
+gracious restoration to the favor of his offended God.
+
+I. To find the cause of man's corruption and condemnation, we must go
+back to Eden. The eating of the "forbidden tree" was "the offense of
+one," in consequence of which "many are dead." This was the "sin," the
+act of "disobedience," which "brought death into the world, and all
+our wo." It was the greatest ingratitude to the divine bounty, and the
+boldest rebellion against the divine sovereignty. The royalty of God
+was contemned; the riches of His goodness slighted; and His most
+desperate enemy preferred before Him, as if he were a wiser counsellor
+than infinite wisdom. Thus man joined in league with hell against
+heaven; with demons of the bottomless pit against the almighty maker
+and benefactor; robbing God of the obedience due to His command and
+the glory due to His name; worshiping the creature instead of the
+creator; and opening the door to pride, unbelief, enmity, and all the
+wicked and abominable passions. How is the "noble vine," which was
+planted "wholly a right seed," "turned into the degenerate plant of a
+strange vine"!
+
+Who can look for pure water from such a fountain? "That which is born
+of the flesh is flesh." All the faculties of the soul are corrupted by
+sin; the understanding dark; the will perverse; the affections carnal;
+the conscience full of shame, remorse, confusion, and mortal fear. Man
+is a hard-hearted and stiff-necked sinner; loving darkness rather than
+light, because his deeds are evil; eating sin like bread, and drinking
+iniquity like water; holding fast deceit, and refusing to let it go.
+His heart is desperately wicked; full of pride, vanity, hypocrisy,
+covetousness, hatred of truth, and hostility to all that is good.
+
+This depravity is universal. Among the natural children of Adam, there
+is no exemption from the original taint. "The whole world lieth
+in wickedness." "We are all as an unclean thing, and all our
+righteousness is as filthy rags." The corruption may vary in the
+degrees of development, in different persons; but the elements are in
+all, and their nature is everywhere the same; the same in the blooming
+youth, and the withered sire; in the haughty prince, and the humble
+peasant; in the strongest giant, and the feeblest invalid. The enemy
+has "come in like a flood." The deluge of sin has swept the world.
+From the highest to the lowest, there is no health or moral soundness.
+From the crown of the head to the soles of the feet, there is nothing
+but wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores. The laws, and their
+violation, and the punishments everywhere invented for the suppression
+of vice, prove the universality of the evil. The bloody sacrifices,
+and various purifications, of the pagans, show the handwriting of
+remorse upon their consciences; proclaim their sense of guilt, and
+their dread of punishment. None of them are free from the fear which
+hath torment, whatever their efforts to overcome it, and however great
+their boldness in the service of sin and Satan. "Menel Tekel!" is
+written on every human heart. "Wanting! wanting!" is inscribed on
+heathen fanes and altars; on the laws, customs, and institutions of
+every nation; and on the universal consciousness of mankind.
+
+This inward corruption manifests itself in outward actions. "The tree
+is known by its fruit." As the smoke and sparks of the chimney show
+that there is fire within; so all the "filthy conversation" of men,
+and all "the unfruitful works of darkness" in which they delight,
+evidently indicate the pollution of the source whence they proceed.
+"Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." The sinner's
+speech betrayeth him. "Evil speaking" proceeds from malice and envy.
+"Foolish talking and jesting" are evidence of impure and trifling
+thoughts. The mouth full of cursing and bitterness, the throat an open
+sepulcher, the poison of asps under the tongue, the feet swift to shed
+blood, destruction and misery in their paths, and the way of peace
+unknown to them, are the clearest and amplest demonstration that men
+"have gone out of the way," "have together become unprofitable." We
+see the bitter fruit of the same corruption in robbery, adultery,
+gluttony, drunkenness, extortion, intolerance, persecution, apostasy,
+and every evil work--in all false religions; the Jew, obstinately
+adhering to the carnal ceremonies of an abrogated law; the Mohammedan,
+honoring an impostor, and receiving a lie for a revelation from God;
+the papist, worshiping images and relics, praying to departed saints,
+seeking absolution from sinful men, and trusting in the most absurd
+mummeries for salvation; the pagan, attributing divinity to the works
+of his own hands, adoring idols of wood and stone, sacrificing to
+malignant demons, casting his children into the fire or the flood
+as an offering to imaginary deities, and changing the glory of the
+incorruptible God into the likeness of the beast and the worm.
+
+"For these things' sake the wrath of God cometh upon the children of
+disobedience." They are under the sentence of the broken law; the
+malediction of eternal justice. "By the offense of one, judgment came
+upon all men unto condemnation." "He that believeth not is condemned
+already." "The wrath of God abideth on him." "Curst is every one that
+continueth not in all things written in the book of the law, to do
+them." "Wo unto the wicked; it shall be ill with him, for the reward
+of his hands shall be given him." "They that plow iniquity, and sow
+wickedness, shall reap the same." "Upon the wicked the Lord shall rain
+fire, and snares, and a horrible tempest; this shall be the portion of
+their cup." "God is angry with the wicked every day; if he turn not he
+will whet his sword; he hath bent his bow, and made it ready."
+
+Who shall describe the misery of fallen man! His days, tho few, are
+full of evil. Trouble and sorrow press him forward to the tomb. All
+the world, except Noah and his family, are drowning in the deluge.
+A storm of fire and brimstone is fallen from heaven upon Sodom and
+Gomorrah. The earth is opening her mouth to swallow up alive Korah,
+Dathan, and Abiram. Wrath is coming upon "the beloved city," even
+"wrath unto the uttermost." The tender and delicate mother is
+devouring her darling infant. The sword of men is executing the
+vengeance of God. The earth is emptying its inhabitants into the
+bottomless pit. On every hand are "confused noises, and garments
+rolled in blood." Fire and sword fill the land with consternation and
+dismay. Amid the universal devastation wild shrieks and despairing
+groans fill the air. God of mercy! is Thy ear heavy, that Thou canst
+not hear? or Thy arm shortened, that Thou canst not save? The heavens
+above are brass, and the earth beneath is iron; for Jehovah is pouring
+His indignation upon His adversaries, and He will not pity or spare.
+
+Verily, "the misery of man is great upon him"! Behold the wretched
+fallen creature! The pestilence pursues him. The leprosy cleaves to
+him. Consumption is wasting him. Inflammation is devouring his vitals.
+Burning fever has seized upon the very springs of life. The destroying
+angel has overtaken the sinner in his sins. The hand of God is upon
+him. The fires of wrath are kindling about him, drying up every well
+of comfort, and scorching all his hopes to ashes. Conscience is
+chastizing him with scorpions. See how he writhes! Hear how he shrieks
+for help! Mark what agony and terror are in his soul, and on his brow!
+Death stares him in the face, and shakes at him his iron spear. He
+trembles, he turns pale, as a culprit at the bar, as a convict on
+the scaffold. He is condemned already. Conscience has pronounced the
+sentence. Anguish has taken hold upon him. Terrors gather in battle
+array about him. He looks back, and the storms of Sinai pursue him;
+forward, and hell is moved to meet him; above, and the heavens are on
+fire; beneath, and the world is burning. He listens, and the judgment
+trump is calling; again, and the brazen chariots of vengeance are
+thundering from afar; yet again, the sentence penetrates his soul
+with anguish unspeakable--"Depart! ye accurst! into everlasting fire,
+prepared for the devil and his angels!"
+
+Thus, "by one man, sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and
+so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." They are
+"dead in trespasses and sins," spiritually dead, and legally dead;
+dead by the mortal power of sin, and dead by the condemnatory sentence
+of the law; and helpless as sheep to the slaughter, they are driven
+fiercely on by the ministers of wrath to the all-devouring grave and
+the lake of fire!
+
+But is there no mercy? Is there no means of salvation? Hark! amid all
+this prelude of wrath and ruin, comes a still small voice, saying:
+"Much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one
+man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many."
+
+II. This brings us to our second topic, man's gracious recovery to the
+favor of his offended God.
+
+I know not how to present to you this glorious work, better than by
+the following figure. Suppose a vast graveyard, surrounded by a lofty
+wall, with only one entrance, which is by a massive iron gate, and
+that is fast bolted. Within are thousands and millions of human
+beings, of all ages and classes, by one epidemic disease bending to
+the grave. The graves yawn to swallow them, and they must all perish.
+There is no balm to relieve, no physician there. Such is the condition
+of man as a sinner. All have sinned; and it is written, "The soul that
+sinneth shall die." But while the unhappy race lay in that dismal
+prison, Mercy came and stood at the gate, and wept over the melancholy
+scene, exclaiming--"Oh, that I might enter! I would bind up their
+wounds; I would relieve their sorrows; I would save their souls!" An
+embassy of angels, commissioned from the court of heaven to some other
+world, paused at the sight, and heaven forgave that pause. Seeing
+Mercy standing there, they cried:--"Mercy! canst thou not enter? Canst
+thou look upon that scene and not pity? Canst thou pity, and not
+relieve?" Mercy replied: "I can see!" and in her tears she added, "I
+can pity, but I can not relieve!" "Why canst thou not enter?" inquired
+the heavenly host. "Oh!" said Mercy, "Justice has barred the gate
+against me, and I must not--can not unbar it!" At this moment, Justice
+appeared, as if to watch the gate. The angels asked, "Why wilt thou
+not suffer Mercy to enter?" He sternly replied: "The law is broken,
+and it must be honored! Die they, or Justice must!" Then appeared
+a form among the angelic band like unto the Son of God. Addressing
+Himself to Justice, He said: "What are thy demands?" Justice replied:
+"My demands are rigid; I must have ignominy for their honor, sickness
+for their health, death for their life. Without the shedding of blood
+there is no remission!" "Justice," said the Son of God, "I accept thy
+terms! On me be this wrong! Let Mercy enter, and stay the carnival
+of death!" "What pledge dost thou give for the performance of these
+conditions?" "My word; my oath!" "When wilt thou perform them?" "Four
+thousand years hence, on the hill of Calvary, without the walls of
+Jerusalem." The bond was prepared, and signed and sealed in the
+presence of attendant angels. Justice was satisfied, the gate was
+opened, and Mercy entered, preaching salvation in the name of Jesus.
+The bond was committed to patriarchs and prophets. A long series of
+rites and ceremonies, sacrifices and obligations, was instituted to
+perpetuate the memory of that solemn deed. At the close of the four
+thousandth year, when Daniel's "seventy weeks" were accomplished,
+Justice and Mercy appeared on the hill of Calvary. "Where," and
+Justice, "is the Son of God?" "Behold him," answered Mercy, "at the
+foot of the hill!" And there He came, bearing His own cross, and
+followed by His weeping church. Mercy retired, and stood aloof from
+the scene. Jesus ascended the hill like a lamb for the sacrifice.
+Justice presented the dreadful bond, saying, "This is the day on which
+this article must be canceled." The Redeemer took it. What did He do
+with it? Tear it to pieces, and scatter it to the winds? No! He nailed
+it to His cross, crying, "It is finished!" The victim ascended the
+altar. Justice called on Holy Fire to come down and consume the
+sacrifice. Holy Fire replied: "I come! I will consume the sacrifice,
+and then I will burn up the world!" It fell upon the Son of God, and
+rapidly consumed His humanity; but when it touched His deity,
+it expired. Then was there darkness over the whole land, and an
+earthquake shook the mountain; but the heavenly host broke forth in
+rapturous song--"Glory to God in the highest! on earth peace! good
+will to man!"
+
+Thus grace has abounded, and the free gift has come upon all, and the
+gospel has gone forth proclaiming redemption to every creature. "By
+grace ye are saved, through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is
+the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast." By grace ye
+are loved, redeemed, and justified. By grace ye are called, converted,
+reconciled and sanctified. Salvation is wholly of grace. The plan, the
+process, the consummation are all of grace.
+
+"Where sin abounded, grace hath much more abounded." "Through the
+offense of one, many were dead." And as men multiplied, the offense
+abounded. The waters deluged the world, but could not wash away the
+dreadful stain. The fire fell from heaven, but could not burn out the
+accurst plague. The earth opened her mouth, but could not swallow up
+the monster sin. The law thundered forth its threat from the thick
+darkness on Sinai, but could not restrain, by all its, terrors, the
+children of disobedience. Still the offense abounded, and multiplied
+as the sands on the seashore. It waxed bold, and pitched its tents on
+Calvary, and nailed the Lawgiver to a tree. But in that conflict sin
+received its mortal wound. The victim was the victor. He fell, but in
+His fall He crusht the foe. He died unto sin, but sin and death were
+crucified upon His cross. Where sin abounded to condemn, grace hath
+much more abounded to justify. Where sin abounded to corrupt, grace
+hath much more abounded to purify. Where sin abounded to harden, grace
+hath much more abounded to soften and subdue. Where sin abounded to
+imprison men, grace hath much more abounded to proclaim liberty to
+the captives. Where sin abounded to break the law and dishonor the
+Lawgiver, grace hath much more abounded to repair the breach and
+efface the stain. Where sin abounded to consume the soul as with
+unquenchable fire and a gnawing worm, grace hath much more abounded to
+extinguish the flame and heal the wound. Grace hath abounded! It hath
+established its throne on the merit of the Redeemer's sufferings.
+It hath put on the crown, and laid hold of the golden scepter, and
+spoiled the dominion of the prince of darkness, and the gates of the
+great cemetery are thrown open, and there is the beating of a new
+life-pulse throughout its wretched population and immortality is
+walking among the tombs!
+
+This abounding grace is manifested in the gift of Jesus Christ, by
+whose mediation our reconciliation and salvation are effected. With
+Him, believers are dead unto sin, and alive unto God. Our sins were
+slain at His cross, and buried in His tomb. His resurrection hath
+opened our graves, and given us an assurance of immortality. "God
+commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners,
+Christ died for us; much more, then, being now justified by his blood,
+we shall be saved from the wrath through him; for if, when we were
+enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more,
+being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life."
+
+"The carnal mind is enmity against God; it is not subject to the law
+of God, neither indeed can be." Glory to God, for the death of His
+Son, by which this enmity is slain, and reconciliation is effected
+between the rebel and the law! This was the unspeakable gift that
+saved us from ruin; that wrestled with the storm, and turned it
+away from the devoted head of the sinner. Had all the angels of God
+attempted to stand between these two conflicting seas, they would have
+been swept to the gulf of destruction. "The blood of bulls and goats,
+on Jewish altars slain," could not take away sin, could not pacify the
+conscience. But Christ, the gift of divine grace, "Paschal Lamb by God
+appointed," a "sacrifice of nobler name and richer blood than they,"
+bore our sins and carried our sorrows, and obtained for us the boon
+of eternal redemption. He met the fury of the tempest, and the floods
+went over His head; but His offering was an offering of peace, calming
+the storms and the waves, magnifying the law, glorifying its Author,
+and rescuing its violator from the wrath and ruin. Justice hath laid
+down his sword at the foot of the cross, and amity is restored between
+heaven and earth.
+
+Hither, O ye guilty! come and cast away your weapons of rebellion!
+Come with your bad principles and wicked actions; your unbelief, and
+enmity, and pride; and throw them off at the Redeemer's feet! God is
+here waiting to be gracious. He will receive you; He will east all
+your sins behind His back, into the depths of the sea; and they shall
+be remembered against you no more forever. By Heaven's "unspeakable
+gift," by Christ's invaluable atonement, by the free, infinite grace
+of the Father and Son, we persuade you, we beseech you, we entreat
+you, "be ye reconciled to God"!
+
+It is by the work of the Holy Spirit with us that we obtain a personal
+interest in the work wrought on Calvary for us. If our sins are
+canceled, they are also crucified. If we are reconciled in Christ, we
+fight against our God no more. This is the fruit of faith. "With the
+heart man believeth unto righteousness." May the Lord inspire in every
+one of us that saving principle!
+
+But those who have been restored to the divine favor may sometimes be
+cast down and dejected. They have passed through the sea, and sung
+praises on the shore of deliverance; but there is yet between them
+and Canaan "a waste howling wilderness," a long and weary pilgrimage,
+hostile nations, fiery serpents, scarcity of food, and the river of
+Jordan. Fears within and fightings without, they may grow discouraged,
+and yield to temptation and murmur against God, and desire to return
+to Egypt. But fear not, thou worm Jacob! Reconciled by the death of
+Christ; much more, being reconciled, thou shalt be saved by His life.
+His death was the price of our redemption; His life insures liberty to
+the believer. If by His death He brought you through the Red Sea in
+the night, by His life He can lead you through the river Jordan in the
+day. If by His death He delivered you from the iron furnace in Egypt,
+by His life He can save you from all perils of the wilderness. If by
+His death He conquered Pharaoh, the chief foe, by His life He can
+subdue Sihon, king of the Amorites, and Og, the king of Bashan. "We
+shall be saved by his life." Because He liveth, we shall live also.
+"Be of good cheer!" The work is finished; the ransom is effected; the
+kingdom of heaven is open to all believers. "Lift up your heads and
+rejoice," "ye prisoners of hope!" There is no debt unpaid, no devil
+unconquered, no enemy within your hearts that has not received a
+mortal wound! "Thanks be unto God, who giveth us the victory, through
+our Lord Jesus Christ!"
+
+
+
+
+SCHLEIERMACHER
+
+CHRIST'S RESURRECTION AN IMAGE OF OUR NEW LIFE
+
+BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
+
+
+Friedrich Ernst Daniel Schleiermacher, German theologian and
+philosopher, was born at Breslau in 1768. He was brought up in a
+religious home and in 1787 went to the University of Halle, and in
+1789 became a Privat-Docent. In 1794 he was ordained and preached
+successively at Landsberg and Berlin. The literary and philosophical
+side of his intellect developed itself in sympathy with the
+Romanticists, but he never lost his passion for religion, a subject on
+which he published five discurses in 1799. We find in them a trace
+of the pantheism of Spinoza. His translation of Plato, accomplished
+between 1804 and 1806, gave him high rank as a classical scholar.
+In 1817 he joined the movement toward the union of the Lutheran and
+Reformed churches. As a preacher he was unprepossessing in appearance,
+being sickly and hunchbacked, but his simplicity of manner, and his
+clear, earnest style endeared him to many thousands. He died in Berlin
+in 1834.
+
+
+
+
+SCHLEIERMACHER
+
+1768--1834
+
+CHRIST'S RESURRECTION AN IMAGE OF OUR NEW LIFE
+
+_As Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father,
+even so we should walk in newness of life._--Romans vi., 4.
+
+
+It is natural, my friends, that the glorious festival of our Savior's
+resurrection should attract the thoughts of believers to a far remote
+time, and that it should make them rejoice to think of the time when
+they shall be with Him who, after He had risen from the dead, returned
+to His and our Father. But the apostle, in the words of our text,
+recalls us from what is far off to what is close to us--to the
+immediate present of our life here. He takes hold of what is the most
+immediate concern, of what we are at once to share in and which is to
+form us, even here, into the likeness of Christ's resurrection. We are
+buried with Him, He says, unto death, that as He was raised from the
+dead through the glory of the Father, we also might walk in newness of
+life. And this new life is that which, as the Lord Himself says, all
+who believe in Him possess even now as having passed through death to
+life. The apostle compares this with those glorious days of our Lord's
+resurrection; and how could we more appropriately keep this feast--a
+feast in which, above all others, many Christians draw renewed
+strength for this new life from the most intimate union with our
+heavenly Head--how could we better celebrate it than by endeavoring to
+receive this directly for ourselves from the words of the apostle?
+Let us then, according to the teaching of these words, consider the
+resurrection life of our Lord, as the apostle presents it to us, as a
+glorious, tho it may be unattainable, model of the new life in which
+we are all to walk through Him.
+
+1. This new life is like that of our risen Savior, first, in the
+manner of His resurrection. In order to appear to His disciples in
+that glorified form, which already bore in it the indications of the
+eternal and immortal glory, it was necessary that the Savior should
+pass through the pains of death. It was not an easy transformation;
+it was necessary for Him, tho not to see corruption, yet to have the
+shadow of death pass over Him; and friends and enemies vied with each
+other in trying to retain Him in the power of the grave; the friends
+rolling a stone before it, to keep the beloved corpse in safety, the
+enemies setting a watch lest it should be taken away. But when the
+hour came which the Father had reserved in His own power, the angel
+of the Lord appeared and rolled away the stone from the tomb, and the
+watch fled, and at the summons of omnipotence life came back into the
+dead form.
+
+Thus, my friends, we know what is the new life that is to be like the
+resurrection life of the Lord. A previous life must die; the apostle
+calls it the body of sin, the law of sin in our members, and this
+needs no lengthened discussion. We all know and feel that this life,
+which Scripture calls a being dead in sins, pleasant and splendid as
+may be the form it often assumes, is yet nothing but what the mortal
+body of the Savior also was, an expression and evidence of the power
+of death, because even the fairest and strongest presentation of this
+kind lacks the element of being imperishable. Thus with the mortal
+body of the Savior, and thus also with the natural life of man, which
+is as yet not a life from God.
+
+And this our old man must die a violent death in the name of the law,
+such as the Savior died, not without severe suffering and painful
+wounds. For if the body of sin dies out in a man of itself, through
+satiety of earthly things, and because no excitement can any longer
+affect his exhausted powers, that is a death from which we see no new
+life proceed. The power of sin must be slain in a man by violence; a
+man must go through the torture of self-knowledge, showing him the
+contrast between his wretched condition and the higher life to which
+he is called; he must hear the cry, and accept it as an irrevocable
+sentence; that an end is to be put to this life; he must groan and
+almost sink under the preparations for the execution of that sentence;
+all his accustomed habits of life must cease; he must be conscious of
+the wish that he were safely through it all, and it were at an end.
+
+And when he has yielded up the old life to a welcome death, and the
+old man is crucified with Christ, then the world, which knows nothing
+better than that previous life, if it only goes on well and easily,
+uses all kinds of efforts to hinder the rising up of the new life,
+some of them well-meaning, others self-interested and therefore
+hostile. Some, with good intentions, like those friends of the Savior,
+consult together, and try all in their power, keeping away all
+extraneous influences, to preserve at least the appearance of their
+friend from being defaced, and tho no joyful movement can ever again
+be awakened, to preserve the form of the old life. Others, seeking
+their own interest and pleasure in a way by which they almost
+certainly accuse themselves, try to prevent an abuse being practised
+in this state of things, and also to guard against the gay, merry life
+which they lead, and into which they like so much to lead others,
+being brought into contempt by a question of a new life arising after
+this dying off of the old man, when, as they think, there is really
+nothing else and nothing better here on earth and when it is a vain
+pretense for some to assert that they know this new life, and a
+mischievous delusion for others to attempt attaining it. Therefore
+wherever they perceive such a state of things, they have their spies
+to watch against every deception that might be practised about such
+a new life, or at least at once to discover and publish what kind of
+delusions prevail in connection with it.
+
+But when the hour has come which the Father has kept in His own power,
+then in one form or another His life-bringing angel appears to such a
+soul. Yet how little do we know about what part the angel had in the
+Savior's resurrection! We do not know if the Savior saw him or not; we
+can not determine the moment at which he rolled away the stone from
+the tomb and the reanimated Savior came forth; no one witnessed it,
+and the only persons of whom we are told that they might have been
+able to see it with their bodily eyes were smitten with blindness. And
+in like manner, neither do we know how the soul, lying, so to speak,
+in the tomb of self-destruction, is wrought upon by the angel of the
+Lord in order to call forth the life of God in it. It arises unseen in
+that grave-like silence, and can not be perceived until it is actually
+present; what is properly the beginning of it is hidden, as every
+beginning usually is, even from him to whom the life is imparted. But
+this is certain, as the apostle says, that the Lord was raised from
+the dead by the glory of the Father, and thus also, according to the
+words of the Savior, no man comes to the Son except the Father draw
+him; that same glory of the Father, which then called forth the Savior
+from the tomb, still awakens in the soul that has died to sin the new
+life, like the resurrection life of the Lord. Indeed, among all the
+proofs of the Father's glory in heaven and earth, there is none
+greater than this, that he has no pleasure in the death-like condition
+of the sinner, but that at some time or another the almighty,
+mysterious, life-giving call sounds in his ears--Arise and live.
+
+2. And, secondly, this new life resembles its type and ideal, the
+resurrection life of Christ, not only in being risen from death, but
+also in its whole nature, way and manner. First, in this respect, that
+tho a new life, it is, nevertheless, the life of the same man, and in
+the closest connection with his former life. Thus, with our Savior;
+He was the same, and was recognized by His disciples as the same, to
+their great joy; His whole appearance was the very same; even in
+the glory of His resurrection He bore the marks of His wounds as a
+remembrance of His sufferings and as the tokens of His death; and
+the remembrance of His former state was most closely and constantly
+present with Him. And just so it is with the new life of the Spirit.
+If the old man has died in sin, and we now live in Christ, and with
+Him in God, yet we are the same persons that we were before. As the
+resurrection of the Lord was no new creation, but the same man, Jesus,
+who had gone down into the grave, come forth again from it; so in the
+soul before it died the death which leads to life in God, there must
+have lain the capability of receiving that life when the body of sin
+should die and perish; and that life is developed in the same human
+soul amid the same outward circumstances as before, and with its other
+powers and faculties remaining unchanged. We are entirely the same
+persons, only that the fire of the higher life is kindled in us, and
+also that we all bear the signs of death, and that the remembrance
+of our former state is present with us. Yes, in manifold ways we are
+often reminded of what we were and what we did before the call to new
+life sounded in our hearts; and it is not so easy to efface the scars
+of the wounds, and the numberless traces of the pains under which the
+old man had to die that the new man might live. And as the glad faith
+of the disciples rested on the very fact that they recognized the Lord
+as being, in the glory of His resurrection, the same person that He
+was before; so also in us, the confidence in this new life, as a
+permanent and now natural state with us, rests only on this--that we
+recognize ourselves in it as the same persons that we were before;
+that there are the same faculties, lower and higher, of the human
+soul, which formerly served sin, but are now created anew as
+instruments of righteousness. Indeed, all the traces of that death,
+as well as of the former life, make us more vividly conscious of the
+great change that the life-giving call of God has produced in us, and
+call for the most heartfelt gratitude.
+
+And as the Savior was the same person in the days of His resurrection,
+so His life was also again of course a vigorous and active life;
+indeed, we might almost say it bore the traces of humanity, without
+which it could be no image of our new life, even in this, that it
+gradually grew stronger and acquired new powers. When the Savior first
+appeared to Mary, He said, as if His new life had been, as it were,
+timid and sensitive, "Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my
+God and your God." But after a few days He showed Himself to Thomas,
+and bade him boldly touch Him, put his hand in the Master's side, and
+his fingers into the marks left by the nails of the cross, so that He
+did not shrink from being touched even on the most sensitive spots.
+And also even in the earliest days, and as if the new life were to be
+fully strengthened by doing so, we find Him walking from Jerusalem to
+Emmaus, and from Emmaus back to Jerusalem, as well as going before His
+disciples into Galilee, and leading them back to Jerusalem, where He
+then ascended to heaven in their sight. And as He thus walked among
+them, living a life with them, human in every part, and exercising a
+human influence on them; so also His most important business was to
+talk with them of the kingdom of God, to reprove and rouse them up
+from their slowness of heart, and to open the eyes of their minds. Now
+so it is, my friends, with our new life--that is like the resurrection
+life of the Lord. Oh, how very gradually it gains its faculties in us,
+grows and becomes strong, only bearing still more than the new life
+of the Lord the traces of earthly imperfection. I can appeal on this
+point to the feeling of us all, for assuredly it is the same in all.
+How intermittent at first are the manifestations of this new life,
+and how limited the sphere of its action! How long does it retain
+its sensitive spots, which can not be touched without pain, or even
+without injurious consequences, and those are always the places in
+which the old man has been most deeply wounded in his dying hours! But
+in proportion as it becomes stronger, this new life ought the less to
+give the impression of being a mere fantom life,--the impression the
+Lord's disciples had when in the first moments they thought in their
+fear that they saw a spirit, so that He was obliged to appeal to the
+testimony of all their senses, that they might perceive He was no
+spirit, but had flesh and bones. And thus if our new life in God
+consisted in mere states of feeling and emotions, which were not in
+the least capable of passing into action, or perhaps did not even aim
+at doing so; which were too peculiar and special to ourselves to be
+actually communicated to others or to move them with good effect, but
+rather might touch them with a chill sense of awe; what would such
+a life be but a ghost-like apparition that would no doubt excite
+attention, but would find no credence, and would make men uneasy in
+their accustomed course, but without producing any improvement in it?
+No, it is a life of action, and ought to be ever becoming more so; not
+only being nourished and growing stronger and stronger through the
+word of the Lord and through heart-communion with Him, to which He
+calls us, giving Himself to us as the meat and drink of eternal life,
+but every one striving to make his new life intelligible to others
+about him, and to influence them by it. Oh, that we had our eyes more
+and more steadily fixt on the risen Savior! Oh, that we could ever be
+learning more and more from Him to breathe out blessing, as He did
+when He imparted His Spirit to the disciples! Oh, that we were more
+and more learning like Him to encourage the foolish and slow of heart
+to joyful faith in the divine promises, to active obedience to the
+divine will of their Lord and Master, to the glad enjoyment and use of
+all the heavenly treasures that He has thrown open to us! Oh, that we
+were ever speaking more effectively to all connected with us, of the
+kingdom of God and of our inheritance in it, so that they might see
+why it was necessary for Christ to suffer, but also into what glory He
+has gone! These are our desires, and they are not vain desires. The
+life-giving Spirit, whom He has obtained for us, effects all this in
+each in the measure that pleases Him; and if once the life of God is
+kindled in the human soul if we have once, as the apostle says, become
+like Him in His resurrection, then His powers are also more and more
+abundantly and gloriously manifested in us through the efficacy of His
+Spirit for the common good.
+
+But along with all this activity and strength, the life of the risen
+Savior was yet, in another sense, a secluded and hidden life. It is
+probable that when, in order to show Himself to His disciples, He went
+here and there from one part of the land to another, he was seen by
+many besides them, who had known Him in His previous life. How could
+it be otherwise? But the eyes of men were holden, that they did not
+recognize Him; and He made Himself known only to those who belonged
+to Him in faithful love. At the same time, however, He said to them,
+Blest are they who do not see, yet believe! And what was the little
+number of those who were counted worthy of seeing Him, even if we add
+to them the five hundred whom Paul mentions, compared with the number
+of those who afterward believed in their testimony to the Lord's
+resurrection? And thus it is also, my friends, with the new life in
+which we walk, even if it is, as it ought to be, strong and vigorous,
+and ever at work for the kingdom of God; yet it is at the same time an
+unknown and hidden life, unrecognized by and hidden from the world,
+whose eyes are holden; and he who should set himself to force
+the knowledge of it upon them, who should hit upon extraordinary
+proceedings in order to attract their attention to the difference
+between the life of sin and the resurrection life, would not be
+walking in the likeness of the Lord's resurrection. As the people
+in the time of Christ had opportunity enough to inquire about His
+resurrection, in seeing how His disciples continued to hold together,
+so our neighbors also see our close alliance, which has nothing to do
+with the affairs of this world; and if they, because of this, inquire
+about what unites us, the answer will not be lacking to them. But our
+inner history we will as little thrust upon them as the risen Christ
+thrust His presence on those who had slain Him, and who had therefore
+no desire to see Him. Instead of this, as He showed Himself only to
+His own, we also will make known our inner life only to those who are
+just in the same way our own; who, glowing with the same love, and
+cheered by the same faith, can tell us in return how the Lord has
+revealed Himself to them. Not by any means as if we followed some
+mysterious course, and that those only whose experiences had been
+entirely alike should separate themselves into little exclusive
+groups; for even the days of the Lord's resurrection present examples
+of various kinds of experience, and of one common inner fellowship
+connected with them all. And not only so, but even those who as yet
+have experienced nothing at all are not sent empty away. Only they
+must first become aware, by what they see without our thrusting
+it upon them, that here a spirit is breathing to which they are
+strangers, that here is manifested a life as yet unknown to them. Then
+will we, as was done then, lead them by the word of our testimony to
+the foundation of this new life; and as, when the word of preaching
+pierced men's hearts, when to some of them the old man began to appear
+as he really is, and they felt the first pangs that precede the death
+of the sinful man, there also sprang up faith in the resurrection of
+Him whom they had themselves crucified; so will it always be with the
+knowledge of the new life proceeding from Him who has risen. Therefore
+let us have no anxiety; the circle of those who recognize this life
+will always be widening, just because they are beginning to share in
+it. And as soon as even the slightest premonition of it arises in a
+man's soul, as soon as he has come only so far as to be no longer
+pleased and satisfied with the perishing and evil things of the world,
+as soon as his soul absorbs even the first ray of heavenly light, then
+his eyes are opened, so that he recognizes this life, and becomes
+aware what a different life it is to serve righteousness, from living
+in the service of sin.
+
+3. And lastly, my friends, we can not feel all these comforting and
+glorious things in which our new life resembles the resurrection life
+of our Lord, without being at the same time, on another side, moved
+to sorrow by this resemblance. For if we put together all that the
+evangelists and apostles of the Lord have preserved for us about His
+resurrection life, we still can not out of it all form an entirely
+consecutive history. There are separate moments and hours, separate
+conversations and actions, and then the Risen One vanishes again from
+the eyes that look for Him; in vain we ask where He can have tarried,
+we must wait till He appears again. Not that in Himself there was
+anything of this broken or uncertain life, but as to our view of it,
+it is and can not be but so; and we try in vain to penetrate into the
+intervals between those detached moments and hours. Well, and is
+it not, to our sorrow, with the new life that is like Christ's
+resurrection life? I do not mean that this life is limited to the few
+hours of social worship and prayer, glorious and profitable as they
+are; for in that case there would be cause to fear that it was a mere
+pretense; nor to the services, always but small and desultory,
+that each of us, actively working through the gifts of the Spirit,
+accomplishes, as it were, visibly and tangibly according to his
+measure, for the kingdom of God. In manifold ways besides these we
+become conscious of this new life; there are many quieter and secret
+moments in which it is strongly felt, tho only deep in our inmost
+heart. But notwithstanding this, I think all, without exception, must
+confess that we are by no means conscious of this new life as an
+entirely continuous state; on the contrary, each of us loses sight
+of it only too often, not only among friends, among disturbances and
+cares, but amid the commendable occupations of this world. But this
+experience, my dear friends, humbling as it is, ought not to make us
+unbelieving, as if perhaps our consciousness of being a new creature
+in Christ were a delusion, and what we had regarded as indications
+of this life were only morbid and overstrained emotions. As the Lord
+convinced His disciples that He had flesh and bones, so we may all
+convince ourselves and each other that this is an actual life; but in
+that case we must believe that, tho in a hidden way and not always
+present to our consciousness, yet it is always in existence, just as
+the Lord was still in existence even at the times when He did not
+appear to His disciples; and had neither returned to the grave, nor as
+yet ascended to heaven. Only let us not overlook this difference. In
+the case of Christ we do not apprehend it as a natural and necessary
+thing that during those forty days He led a life apparently so
+interrupted; but each of us must easily understand how, as the
+influence of this new life on our outward ways can only gradually
+become perceptible, it should often and for a long time be quite
+hidden from us, especially when we are very busy with outward work,
+and our attention is taken up with it. But this is an imperfection
+from which as time goes on we should be always becoming more free.
+Therefore always go back, my friends, to Him who is the only fountain
+of this spiritual life! If, ever and anon, we can not find it in
+ourselves, we always find it in Him, and it is always pouring forth
+afresh from Him the Head to us His members. If every moment in which
+we do not perceive it is a moment of longing, as soon as we become
+conscious of the void, then it is also a moment in which the Risen One
+appears to our spirit, and breathes on us anew with His life-giving
+power. And thus drawing only from Him, we shall attain to having
+His heavenly gifts becoming in us more and more an inexhaustible,
+continually flowing fountain of spiritual and eternal life. For this
+He rose from the dead by the glory of the Father, that we should be
+made into the likeness of His resurrection. That was finished in His
+return to the Father; our new life is to become more and more His and
+the Fathers return into the depths of our souls; there they desire to
+make their abode; and the life of God is to be ever assuming a more
+continuous, active and powerful form in us, that our life in the
+service of righteousness may become, and continue even here, according
+to the Lord's promise, an eternal life.
+
+
+
+
+MASON
+
+MESSIAH'S THRONE
+
+BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
+
+
+John Mitchell Mason, the eminent divine of the Reformed Presbyterian
+Church, was born in New York City in 1770. He completed his studies
+and took his degree at Columbia College and thence proceeded to take a
+theological course at Edinburgh. Ordained in 1793, he took charge of
+the Cedar Street Church, New York City, of which his father had been
+pastor. In 1807 he became editor of the _Christian Herald_, and in
+1821 was made president of Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
+He died in 1829.
+
+
+
+
+MASON
+
+1770--1829
+
+MESSIAH'S THRONE
+
+_Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever_.--Heb. i., 18.
+
+
+In the all-important argument which occupies this epistle, Paul
+assumes, what the believing Hebrews had already profest, that Jesus of
+Nazareth is the true Messiah. To prepare them for the consequences
+of their own principle--a principle involving nothing less than the
+abolition of their law, the subversion of their state, the ruin of
+their city, the final extinction of their carnal hopes--he leads them
+to the doctrine of their Redeemer's person, in order to explain the
+nature of his offices, to evince the value of his spiritual salvation,
+and to show, in both, the accomplishment of their economy which was
+now "ready to vanish away." Under no apprehension of betraying the
+unwary into idolatrous homage by giving to the Lord Jesus greater
+glory than is due unto His name, the apostle sets out with ascribing
+to Him excellence and attributes which belong to no creature.
+Creatures of most elevated rank are introduced; but it is to display,
+by contrast, the preeminence of Him who is "the brightness of the
+Father's glory and the express image of his person." Angels are great
+in might and in dignity; but "unto them hath he not put in subjection
+the world to come. Unto which of them said he, at any time, Thou art
+my son?" To which of them, "Sit thou at my right hand." He saith they
+are spirits, "ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them
+who shall be heirs of salvation. But unto the Son," in a style which
+annihilates competition and comparison--"unto the Son, he saith, Thy
+throne, O God, is for ever and ever."
+
+Brethren, if the majesty of Jesus is the subject which the Holy Ghost
+selected for the encouragement and consolation of His people, when He
+was shaking the earth and the heavens, and diffusing His gospel among
+the nations, can it be otherwise than suitable and precious to us on
+this occasion? Shall it not expand our views, and warm our hearts, and
+nerve our arm in our efforts to exalt His fame? Let me implore, then,
+the aid of your prayers, but far more importunately the aids of His
+own Spirit, while I speak of the things which concern the King: those
+great things contained in the text--His personal glory--His sovereign
+rule.
+
+His personal glory shines forth in the name by which He is revealed; a
+name above every name: "Thy throne, O God." ...
+
+Messiah's throne is not one of those airy fabrics which are reared by
+vanity and overthrown by time: it is fixt of old; it is staple, and
+can not be shaken, for it is the throne of God. He who sitteth on it
+is the Omnipotent. Universal being is in His hand. Revolution, force,
+fear, as applied to His kingdom, are words without meaning. Rise up in
+rebellion, if thou hast courage. Associate with thee the whole mass of
+infernal power. Begin with the ruin of whatever is fair and good in
+this little globe. Pass hence to pluck the sun out of his place, and
+roll the volume of desolation through the starry world. What hast thou
+done unto Him? It is the puny menace of a worm against Him whose frown
+is perdition. "He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh."
+
+With the stability which Messiah's Godhead communicates to His
+throne, let us connect the stability resulting from His Father's
+covenant.
+
+His throne is founded not merely in strength, but in right. God hath
+laid the government upon the shoulder of His holy child Jesus, and set
+Him upon Mount Zion as His King forever. He has promised and sworn to
+build up His throne to all generations; to make it endure as the days
+of heaven; to beat down His foes before His face, and plague them that
+hate Him. "But my faithfulness," adds He, "and my mercy shall be with
+him, and in my name shall his horn be exalted. Hath he said it, and
+will he not do it? Hath he spoken it, and shall it not come to pass?"
+Whatever disappointments rebuke the visionary projects of men, or the
+more crafty schemes of Satan, "the counsel of the Lord, that shall
+stand." The blood of sprinkling, which sealed all the promises made
+to Messiah, and binds down His Father's faithfulness to their
+accomplishment, witnesses continually in the heavenly sanctuary. "He
+must," therefore, "reign till he have put all his enemies under his
+feet." And altho the dispensation of His authority shall, upon this
+event, be changed, and He shall deliver it up, in its present form, to
+the Father, He shall still remain, in His substantial glory, a priest
+upon His throne, to be the eternal bond of our union, and the eternal
+medium of our fellowship with the living God.
+
+Seeing that the throne of our King is as immovable as it is exalted,
+let us with joy draw water out of that well of salvation which is
+opened to us in the administration of His kingdom. Here we must
+consider its general characters, and the means by which it operates.
+
+The general characters which I shall illustrate are the following:
+
+1. Mystery. He is the unsearchable God, and His government must be
+like Himself. Facts concerning both He has graciously revealed. These
+we must admit upon the credit of His own testimony; with these we must
+satisfy our wishes and limit our inquiry. To intrude into those things
+which he hath not seen because God has not disclosed them, whether
+they relate to His arrangements for this world or the next, is the
+arrogance of one vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind. There are
+secrets in our Lord's procedure which He will not explain to us in
+this life, and which may not perhaps be explained in the life to
+come. We can not tell how He makes evil the minister of good; how He
+combines physical and moral agencies of different kind and order, in
+the production of blessings. We can not so much as conjecture what
+bearings the system of redemption, in every part of its process, may
+have upon the relations of providence in the occurrences of this
+moment, or of the last. Such knowledge is too wonderful for us: it is
+high, we can not attain it. Our Sovereign's way is in the sea, and
+His path in the deep waters; and His footsteps are not known. When,
+therefore, we are surrounded with difficulty, when we can not unriddle
+His conduct in particular dispensations, we must remember that He is
+God--that we are to "walk by faith"; and to trust Him as implicitly
+when we are in the valley of the shadow of death, as when His candle
+shines upon our heads. We must remember that it is not for us to
+be admitted into the cabinet of the King of kings; that creatures
+constituted as we are could not sustain the view of His unveiled
+agency; that it would confound, and scatter, and annihilate our little
+intellects. As often, then, as He retires from our observation,
+blending goodness with majesty, let us lay our hands upon our mouths
+and worship. This stateliness of our King can afford us no just ground
+of uneasiness. On the contrary, it contributes to our tranquillity.
+
+2. For we know that if His administration is mysterious, it is also
+wise. "Great is our Lord, and of great power; his understanding is
+infinite." That infinite understanding watches over, and arranges,
+and directs all the affairs of His Church and of the world. We are
+perplexed at every step, embarrassed by opposition, lost in confusion,
+fretted by disappointment, and ready to conclude, in our haste, that
+all things are against our own good and our Master's honor. But "this
+is our infirmity"; it is the dictate of impatience and indiscretion.
+We forget the "years of the right hand of the Most High." We are slow
+of heart in learning a lesson which shall soothe our spirits at the
+expense of our pride. We turn away from the consolation to be derived
+from believing that tho we know not the connections and results of
+holy providence, our Lord Jesus knows them perfectly. With Him there
+is no irregularity, no chance, no conjecture. Disposed before His eye
+in the most luminous and exquisite order, the whole series of events
+occupy the very place and crisis where they are most effectually to
+subserve the purposes of His love. Not a moment of time is wasted, nor
+a fragment of action misapplied. What He does, we do not indeed know
+at present, but, as far as we shall be permitted to know hereafter, we
+shall see that his most inscrutable procedure was guided by consummate
+wisdom; that our choice was often as foolish as our petulance was
+provoking; that the success of our own wishes would have been our
+most painful chastisement, would have diminished our happiness, and
+detracted from His praise. Let us study, therefore, brethren, to
+subject our ignorance to His knowledge; instead of prescribing, to
+obey; instead of questioning, to believe: to perform our part without
+that despondency which betrays a fear that our Lord may neglect His,
+and tacitly accuses Him of a less concern than we feel for the glory
+of His own name. Let us not shrink from this duty as imposing too
+rigorous a condition upon our obedience.
+
+3. A third character of Messiah's administration is righteousness.
+"The scepter of his kingdom is a right scepter." If "clouds and
+darkness are around about him, righteousness and judgment are the
+habitation of his throne." In the times of old, His redeemed "wandered
+in the wilderness in a solitary way; but, nevertheless, he led them
+forth by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation."
+He loves His Church and the members of it too tenderly to lay upon
+them any burdens, or expose them to any trials, which are not
+indispensable to their good. It is right for them to go through
+fire and through water, that He may bring them out into a healthy
+place--right to endure chastening, that they may be partakers of His
+holiness--right to have the sentence of death in themselves, that they
+may trust in the living God, and that His strength may be perfect
+in their weakness. It is right that He should endure with much
+long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction; that He
+should permit iniquity to abound, the love of many to wax cold, and
+the dangers of His Church to accumulate, till the interposition of His
+arm be necessary and decisive. In the day of final retribution, not
+one mouth shall be opened to complain of injustice. It will be seen
+that the Judge of all the earth has done right; that the works of His
+hands have been verity and judgment, and done, every one of them, in
+truth and uprightness. Let us then think not only respectfully but
+reverently of His dispensations, repress the voice of murmur, and
+rebuke the spirit of discontent; wait, in faith and patience, till
+He become His own interpreter, when "the heavens shall declare his
+righteousness, and all the people see his glory."
+
+You will anticipate me in enumerating the means which Messiah employs
+in the administration of His kingdom:
+
+1. The gospel, of which Himself, as an all-sufficient and
+condescending Savior, is the great and affecting theme. Derided by the
+world, it is, nevertheless, effectual to the salvation of them who
+believe. "We preach Christ crucified: to the Jews a stumbling-block,
+and to the Greeks foolishness; but to them who are called, both Jews
+and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God." The
+doctrine of the cross connected with evangelical ordinances--the
+ministry of reconciliation; the holy Sabbath; the sacraments of His
+covenant: briefly, the whole system of instituted worship--is the rod
+of the Redeemer's strength, by which He subdues sinners to Himself,
+rules even in the midst of His enemies, exercises His glorious
+authority in His Church, and exhibits a visible proof to men and
+angels that He is King in Zion.
+
+2. The efficient means to which the gospel owes its success, and the
+name of Jesus its praise, is the agency of the Holy Ghost.
+
+Christianity is the ministration of the spirit. All real and
+sanctifying knowledge of the truth and love of God is from His
+inspiration. It was the last and best promise which the Savior made
+to His afflicted disciples at the moment of parting, "I will send the
+Comforter, the Spirit of Truth; he shall glorify me, for he shall take
+of mine and shall show it unto you." It is He who convinces the world
+of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment: who infuses resistless
+vigor into means otherwise weak and useless. For the weapons of our
+warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God, God the Spirit, to the
+pulling down of strongholds. Without His benediction, the ministry of
+an archangel would never convert one sinner from the error of his way.
+But when He descends with His life-giving influence from God out of
+heaven, then "foolish things of the world confound the wise; and weak
+things of the world confound the things which are mighty; and base
+things of the world, and things which are despised, yea, and things
+which are not, bring to naught things which are." It is this
+ministration of the Spirit which renders the preaching of the gospel
+to men dead in trespasses and sins a reasonable service. When I am set
+down in the valley of vision, and view the bones, very many and very
+dry, and am desired to try the effects of my own ability in recalling
+them to life, I will fold my hands and stand mute in astonishment and
+despair. But when the Lord God commands me to speak in His name, my
+closed lips shall be opened; when He calls upon the breath from the
+four winds to breathe upon the slain that they may live, I will
+prophesy without fear, "Oh, ye dry bones, hear the words of the Lord";
+and, obedient to His voice, they shall come together, bone to His
+bone--shall be covered with sinews and flesh--shall receive new life,
+and stand up upon their feet, an exceeding great army. In this manner,
+from the graves of nature, and the dry bones of natural men, does the
+Holy Spirit recruit the "armies of the living God," and make them,
+collectively and individually, a name, and a praise, and a glory to
+the Captain of their salvation.
+
+3. Among the instruments which the Lord Jesus employs in the
+administration of His government, are the resources of the physical
+and moral world.
+
+Supreme in heaven and in earth, "upholding all things by the word of
+his power," the universe is His magazine of means. Nothing which acts
+or exists, is exempted from promoting in its own place the purposes of
+His kingdom. Beings rational and irrational, animate and inanimate;
+the heavens above, and the earth below; the obedience of sanctified,
+and the disobedience of unsanctified men; all holy spirits; all damned
+spirits; in one word, every agency, every element, every atom, are but
+the ministers of His will, and concur in the execution of His designs.
+And this He will demonstrate to the confusion of His enemies, and the
+joy of His people, in that great and terrible day when He shall sit
+upon the throne of His glory, and dispense ultimate judgment to the
+quick and the dead.
+
+Upon these hills of holiness the stability of Messiah's throne, and
+the perfect administration of His kingdom, let us take our station,
+and survey the prospects which rise up before the Church of God.
+
+When I look upon the magnificent scene, I can not repress the
+salutation, "Hail, thou that art highly favored!" She has the prospect
+of preservation, of increase and of triumph.
+
+The long existence of the Christian Church would be pronounced, upon
+common principles of reasoning, impossible. She finds in every man a
+natural and inveterate enemy. To encounter and overcome the unanimous
+hostility of the world, she boasts no political stratagem, no
+disciplined legions, no outward coercion of any kind. Yet her
+expectation is, that she shall live forever. To mock this hope and
+blot out her memorial from under heaven, the most furious efforts of
+fanaticism, the most ingenious arts of statesmen, the concentrated
+strength of empires, have been frequently and perseveringly applied.
+The blood of her sons and her daughters has streamed like water; the
+smoke of the scaffold and the stake, where they won the crown of
+martyrdom in the cause of Jesus, has ascended in thick volumes to
+the skies. The tribes of persecutors have sported over her woes and
+erected monuments, as they imagined, of her perpetual ruin. But where
+are her tyrants, and where their empires? The tyrants have long since
+gone to their own place; their names have descended upon the roll of
+infamy; their empires have passed, like shadows over the rock--they
+have successively disappeared, and left not a trace behind.
+
+But what became of the Church? She rose from her ashes fresh in beauty
+and in might. Celestial glory beamed around her; she dashed down the
+monumental marble of her foes, and they who hated her fled before her.
+She has celebrated the funeral of kings and kingdoms that plotted
+her destruction; and, with the inscriptions of their pride, has
+transmitted to posterity the record of their shame. How shall this
+phenomenon be explained? We are, at the present moment, witnesses of
+the fact; but who can unfold the mystery? This blest book, the book of
+truth and life, has made our wonder to cease. The Lord her God in the
+midst of her is mighty. His presence is a fountain of health, and his
+protection a wall of fire. He has betrothed her, in eternal covenant,
+to Himself. Her living head, in whom she lives, is above, and His
+quickening Spirit shall never depart from her. Armed with divine
+virtue, His gospel, secret, silent, unobserved, enters the hearts of
+men and sets up an everlasting kingdom. It eludes all the vigilance,
+and baffles all the power of the adversary. Bars and bolts, and
+dungeons are no obstacle to its approach. Bonds, and tortures, and
+death can not extinguish its influence. Let no man's heart tremble,
+then, because of fear. Let no man despair, in these days of rebuke and
+blasphemy, of the Christian cause. The ark is launched, indeed, upon
+the floods; the tempest sweeps along the deep; the billows break over
+her on every side. But Jehovah-Jesus has promised to conduct her in
+safety to the haven of peace. She can not be lost unless the Pilot
+perish. Why, then, do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a
+vain thing? Hear, O Zion, the word of thy God, and rejoice for the
+consolation. "No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper,
+and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt
+condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their
+righteousness is of me, saith the Lord."
+
+Mere preservation, however, tho a most comfortable, is not the only
+hope of the Church; she has the prospect of increase.
+
+Increase--from an effectual blessing upon the means of grace in places
+where they are already enjoyed; the Lord saith, "I will pour water
+upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour
+my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offering; and they
+shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the watercourses."
+
+Increase--from the diffusion of evangelical truth through pagan lands.
+"For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness
+the people; but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be
+seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to
+the brightness of thy rising. Lift up thine eyes round about, and see:
+all they gather themselves together, they come to thee: thy sons shall
+come from far, and thy daughters shall be nursed at thy side. Then
+thou shalt see and flow together, and thy heart shall fear, and be
+enlarged; because the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto
+thee, the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee."
+
+Increase--from the recovery of the rejected Jews to the faith and
+privileges of God's dear children. Blindness in part has happened
+unto Israel; they have been cut off, for their unbelief, from the
+olive-tree. Age has followed age, and they remain to this hour spread
+over the face of the earth, a fearful and affecting testimony to the
+truth of God's word. They are without their sanctuary, without their
+Messiah, without the hope of their believing ancestors. But it shall
+not be always thus. They are still "beloved for the father's sake."
+When the "fulness of the Gentiles shall come in," they too shall be
+gathered. They shall discover, in our Jesus, the marks of the promised
+Messiah; and with from darkness to light, from the power of Satan unto
+God; it must make you meet for the inheritance of the saints, or it
+shall fearfully aggravate your condemnation at last. You pray, "Thy
+kingdom come." But is the "kingdom of God within you?" Is the Lord
+Jesus "in you the hope of glory?" Be not deceived. The name of
+Christian will not save you. Better had it been for you not to
+have known the way of righteousness; better to have been the most
+idolatrous pagan; better, infinitely better, not to have been born,
+than to die strangers to the pardon of the Redeemer's blood and
+the sanctifying virtue of His Spirit. From His throne on high He
+calls--calls to you, "Look unto me, and be ye saved; for I am God, and
+there is none else. Seek ye the Lord while he may be found; call ye
+upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the
+unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord, and
+he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly
+pardon."
+
+On the other hand, such as have fled for refuge to lay hold on the
+hope set before them, are commanded to be joyful in their King. He
+reigns, O believer, for thee. The stability of His throne is thy
+safety. The administration of His government is for thy good; and the
+precious pledge is, that He "will perfect that which concerneth thee."
+In all thy troubles, and in all thy joy, commit thy way unto Him. He
+will guard the sacred deposit. Fear not that thou shalt lack any good
+thing. Fear not that thou shalt be forsaken. Fear not that thou shalt
+fall beneath the arm of the oppressor. "He went through the fires of
+the pit to save thee." Sing, then, thou beloved, "Behold, God is my
+salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid; for the Lord Jehovah is my
+strength and my song; he also is become my salvation."
+
+And if we have "tasted that he is gracious"; if we look back with
+horror and transport upon the wretchedness and the wrath which we
+have escaped, with what anxiety shall we not hasten to the aid of our
+fellow men, who are sitting in "the region and shadow of death." What
+zeal will be too ardent, what labor too persevering, what sacrifice
+too costly, if, by any means, we may tell them of Jesus, and
+the resurrection, and the life eternal? Who shall be daunted by
+difficulties, or deterred by discouragement? If but one pagan shall be
+brought, savingly, by your instrumentality, to the knowledge of God
+and the kingdom of heaven, will you not have an ample recompense? Is
+there here a man who would give up all for lost because some favorite
+hope has been disappointed, or who regrets the wordly substance which
+he has expended on so divine an enterprise? Shame on thy coward
+spirit and thine avaricious heart! Do the holy Scriptures, does the
+experience of ages, does the nature of things justify the expectation
+that we shall carry war into the central regions of delusion and
+crime, without opposition, without trial? Show me a plan which
+encounters not fierce resistance from the prince of darkness and his
+allies in the human heart, and I will show you a plan which never came
+from the inspiration of God. If missionary effort suffer occasional
+embarrassment; if impressions on the heathen be less speedy, and
+powerful, and extensive than fond wishes have anticipated; if
+particular parts of the great system of operation be, at times,
+disconcerted; if any of the ministers of grace fall a sacrifice to the
+violence of those whom they go to bless in the name of the Lord--these
+are events which ought to exercise our faith and patience, to wean us
+from self-sufficiency, to teach where our strength lies, and where our
+dependence must be fixt; but not to enfeeble hope nor relax diligence.
+Let us not "despise the day of small things." Let us not overlook,
+as an important matter, the very existence of that missionary spirit
+which has already awakened Christians in different countries from
+their long and dishonorable slumbers, and bids fair to produce, in due
+season, a general movement of the Church upon earth. Let us not, for
+one instant, harbor the ungracious thought that the prayers, and
+tears, and wrestlings of those who make mention of the Lord, form no
+link in that vast chain of events by which He "will establish, and
+will make Jerusalem a praise in the earth." That dispensation which
+is most repulsive to flesh and blood, the violent death of faithful
+missionaries, should animate Christians with new resolution. "Precious
+in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints." The cry of
+martyred blood ascends the heavens: it enters into the ears of
+the Lord of Sabaoth. It will give Him no rest till He rain down
+righteousness upon the land where it has been shed, and which it
+has sealed as a future conquest for Him who "in his majesty rides
+prosperously because of truth, and meekness and righteousness."
+
+For the world, indeed, and perhaps for the Church, many calamities and
+trials are in store, before the glory of the Lord shall be so revealed
+that all flesh shall see it together. "I will shake all nations," is
+the divine declaration--"I will shake all nations, and the desire of
+all nations shall come." The vials of wrath which are now running, and
+others which remain to be poured out, must be exhausted. The "supper
+of the great God" must be prepared, and his "strange work" have its
+course. Yet the missionary cause must ultimately succeed. It is the
+cause of God and shall prevail. The days, O brethren, roll rapidly on,
+when the shout of the isles shall swell the thunder of the continent;
+when the Thames and the Danube, when the Tiber and the Rhine, shall
+call upon Euphrates, the Ganges, and the Nile; and the loud concert
+shall be joined by the Hudson, the Mississippi, and the Amazon,
+singing with one heart and one voice, "Alleluia, salvation! The Lord
+God omnipotent reigneth."
+
+Comfort one another with this faith and with these words.
+
+Now, "Blest be the Lord God, the God of Israel, who only doth wondrous
+things. And blest be his glorious name forever: Let the whole earth be
+filled with his glory. Amen and amen."
+
+
+
+
+END OF VOL. III.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The world's great sermons, Volume 3
+by Grenville Kleiser
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11713 ***
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+Project Gutenberg's The world's great sermons, Volume 3, by Grenville Kleiser
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+Title: The world's great sermons, Volume 3
+       Massillon to Mason
+
+Author: Grenville Kleiser
+
+Release Date: March 25, 2004 [EBook #11713]
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+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WORLD'S GREAT SERMONS VOL 3 ***
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+THE WORLD'S GREAT SERMONS
+
+
+_COMPILED BY_
+
+GRENVILLE KLEISER
+
+Formerly of Yale Divinity School Faculty; Author of "How to Speak in
+Public," Etc.
+
+With Assistance from Many of the Foremost Living Preachers and Other
+Theologians
+
+
+INTRODUCTION BY LEWIS O. BRASTOW, D.D.
+
+Professor Emeritus of Practical Theology in Yale University
+
+
+VOLUME III
+
+MASSILLON TO MASON
+
+1908
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+VOLUME III
+
+
+MASSILLON (1663-1742).
+The Small Number of the Elect
+
+SAURIN (1677-1730).
+Paul Before Felix and Drusilla
+
+EDWARDS (1703-1758).
+Spiritual Light
+
+WESLEY (1703-1791).
+God's Love to Fallen Man
+
+WHITEFIELD (1714-1770).
+The Method of Grace
+
+BLAIR (1718-1800).
+The Hour and the Event of all Time
+
+DWIGHT (1752-1817).
+The Sovereignty of God
+
+ROBERT HALL (1764-1831).
+Marks of Love to God
+
+EVANS (1766-1838).
+The Fall and Recovery of Man
+
+SCHLEIERMACHER (1768-1834).
+Christ's Resurrection an Image of our New Life
+
+MASON (1770-1829).
+Messiah's Throne
+
+
+
+
+MASSILLON
+
+THE SMALL NUMBER OF THE ELECT
+
+BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
+
+
+Jean Baptiste Massillon was born in 1663, at Hyères, in Provence,
+France. He first attracted notice as a pulpit orator by his funeral
+sermons as the Archbishop of Vienne, which led to his preferment from
+his class of theology at Meaux to the presidency of the Seminary
+of Magloire at Paris. His conferences at Paris showed remarkable
+spiritual insight and knowledge of the human heart. He was a favorite
+preacher of Louis XIV and Louis XV, and after being appointed bishop
+of Clermont in 1719 he was also nominated to the French Academy. In
+1723 he took final leave of the capital and retired to his see, where
+he lived beloved by all until his death in 1742.
+
+
+
+
+MASSILLON
+
+1662-1742
+
+THE SMALL NUMBER OF THE ELECT
+
+_And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet;
+and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian_.--Luke iv.,
+27.
+
+
+Every day, my brethren, you continue to ask of us, whether the road to
+heaven is really so difficult, and the number of the saved really so
+small as we represent? To a question so often proposed, and still
+oftener resolved, our Savior answers you here, that there were many
+widows in Israel afflicted with famine; but the widow of Sarepta was
+alone found worthy the succor of the prophet Elias; that the number
+of lepers was great in Israel in the time of the prophet Eliseus; and
+that Naaman was only cured by the man of God.
+
+Were I here, my brethren, for the purpose of alarming, rather than
+instructing you, I had only to recapitulate what in the holy writings
+we find dreadful with regard to this great truth; and, running over
+the history of the just, from age to age, show you that, in all times,
+the number of the saved has been very small. The family of Noah alone
+saved from the general flood; Abraham chosen from among men to be the
+sole depositary of the covenant with God; Joshua and Caleb the only
+two of six hundred thousand Hebrews who saw the Land of Promise;
+Job the only upright man in the land of Uz; Lot, in Sodom. To
+representations so alarming, would have succeeded the sayings of the
+prophets. In Isaiah you would see the elect as rare as the grapes
+which are found after the vintage, and have escaped the search of the
+gatherer; as rare as the blades which remain by chance in the field,
+and have escaped the scythe of the mower. The evangelist would still
+have added new traits to the terrors of these images. I might have
+spoken to you of two roads--of which one is narrow, rugged, and the
+path of a very small number; the other broad, open, and strewed with
+flowers, and almost the general path of men: that everywhere, in the
+holy writings, the multitude is always spoken of as forming the party
+of the reprobate; while the saved, compared with the rest of mankind,
+form only a small flock, scarcely perceptible to the sight. I would
+have left you in fears with regard to your salvation; always cruel to
+those who have not renounced faith and every hope of being among the
+saved. But what would it serve to limit the fruits of this instruction
+to the single point of setting forth how few persons will be saved?
+Alas! I would make the danger known, without instructing you how to
+avoid it; I would allow you, with the prophet, the sword of the wrath
+of God suspended over your heads, without assisting you to escape the
+threatened blow; I would alarm but not instruct the sinner.
+
+My intention is, to-day, to search for the cause of this small number,
+in our morals and manner of life. As every one flatters himself he
+will not be excluded, it is of importance to examine if his confidence
+be well founded. I wish not, in marking to you the causes which render
+salvation so rare, to make you generally conclude that few will be
+saved, but to bring you to ask yourselves if, living as you live, you
+can hope to be saved. Who am I? What am I doing for heaven? And what
+can be my hopes in eternity? I propose no other order in a matter of
+such importance. What are the causes which render salvation so rare?
+I mean to point out three principal causes, which is the only
+arrangement of this discourse. Art, and far-sought reasonings, would
+be ill-timed. Oh, attend, therefore, be ye whom ye may. No subject can
+be more worthy your attention, since it goes to inform you what may be
+the hopes of your eternal destiny.
+
+Few are saved, because in that number we can only comprehend two
+descriptions of persons: either those who have been so happy as to
+preserve their innocence pure and undefiled, or those who, after
+having lost, have regained it by penitence. This is the first cause.
+There are only these two ways of salvation: heaven is only open to
+the innocent or to the penitent. Now, of which party are you? Are you
+innocent? Are you penitent?
+
+Nothing unclean shall enter the kingdom of God. We must consequently
+carry there either an innocence unsullied, or an innocence regained.
+Now to die innocent is a grace to which few souls can aspire; and to
+live penitent is a mercy which the relaxed state of our morals renders
+equally rare. Who, indeed, will pretend to salvation by the chain of
+innocence? Where are the pure souls in whom sin has never dwelt, and
+who have preserved to the end the sacred treasure of grace confided to
+them by baptism, and which our Savior will redemand at the awful day
+of punishment?
+
+In those happy days when the whole Church was still but an assembly of
+saints, it was very uncommon to find an instance of a believer who,
+after having received the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and acknowledged
+Jesus Christ in the sacrament which regenerates us, fell back to his
+former irregularities of life. Ananias and Sapphira were the only
+prevaricators in the Church of Jerusalem; that of Corinth had only one
+incestuous sinner. Church penitence was then a remedy almost unknown;
+and scarcely was there found among these true Israelites one single
+leper whom they were obliged to drive from the holy altar, and
+separate from communion with his brethren. But since that time the
+number of the upright diminishes in proportion, as that of believers
+increases. It would appear that the world, pretending now to have
+become almost generally Christian, has; brought with it into the
+Church its corruptions and its maxims.
+
+Alas! we all go astray, almost from the breast of our mothers! The
+first use which we make of our heart is a crime; our first desires.
+are passions; and our reason only expands and increases on the wrecks
+of our innocence. The earth, says a prophet, is infected by the
+corruption of those who inhabit it: all have violated the laws,
+changed the ordinances, and broken the alliance which should have
+endured forever: all commit sin, and scarcely is there one to be found
+who does the work of the Lord. Injustice, calumny, lying, treachery,
+adultery, and the blackest crimes have deluged the earth. The brother
+lays snares for his brother; the father is divided from his children;
+the husband from his wife: there is no tie which a vile interest does
+not sever. Good faith and probity are no longer virtues except among
+the simple people. Animosities are endless; reconciliations are
+feints, and never is a former enemy regarded as a brother: they tear,
+they devour each other. Assemblies are no longer but for the purpose
+of public and general censure. The purest virtue is no longer a
+protection from the malignity of tongues. Gaming is become either
+a trade, a fraud, or a fury. Repasts--those innocent ties of
+society--degenerate into excesses of which we dare not speak. Our age
+witnesses horrors with which our forefathers were unacquainted.
+
+Behold, then, already one path of salvation shut to the generality of
+men. All have erred. Be ye whom ye may, listen to me now, the time
+has been when sin reigned over you. Age may perhaps have calmed your
+passions, but what was your youth? Long and habitual infirmities
+may perhaps have disgusted you with the world; but what use did you
+formerly make of the vigor of health? A sudden inspiration of grace
+may have turned your heart, but do you not most fervently entreat
+that every moment prior to that inspiration may be effaced from the
+remembrance of the Lord?
+
+But with what am I taking up time? We are all sinners, O my God! and
+Thou knowest our hearts! What we know of our errors is, perhaps, in
+Thy sight, the most pardonable; and we all allow that by innocence
+we have no claim to salvation. There remains, therefore, only one
+resource, which is penitence. After our shipwreck, say the saints, it
+is the timely plank which alone can conduct us into port; there is no
+other means of salvation for us. Be ye whom ye may, prince or subject,
+high or low, penitence alone can save you. Now permit me to ask where
+are the penitent? You will find more, says a holy father, who have
+never fallen, than who, after their fall, have raised themselves by
+true repentance. This is a terrible saying; but do not let us carry
+things too far: the truth is sufficiently dreadful without adding new
+terrors to it by vain declamation.
+
+Let us alone examine as to whether the majority of us have a right,
+through penitence, to salvation. What is a penitent? According to
+Tertullian, a penitent is a believer who feels every moment his former
+unhappiness in forsaking and losing his God; one who has his guilt
+incessantly before his eyes; who finds everywhere the traces and
+remembrance of it.
+
+A penitent is a man instrusted by God with judgment against himself;
+one who refuses himself the most innocent pleasures because he had
+formerly indulged in those the most criminal; one who puts up with the
+most necessary gratification with pain; one who regards his body as an
+enemy whom it is necessary to conquer--as an unclean vessel which must
+be purified--as an unfaithful debtor of whom it is proper to exact to
+the last farthing. A penitent regards himself as a criminal condemned
+to death, because he is no longer worthy of life. In the loss of
+riches or health he sees only a withdrawal of favors that he had
+formerly abused: in the humiliations which happen to him, only the
+pains of his guilt: in the agonies with which he is racked, only the
+commencement of those punishments he has justly merited. Such is a
+penitent.
+
+But I again ask you--Where, among us, are penitents of this
+description? Now look around you. I do not tell you to judge your
+brethren, but to examine what are the manners and morals of those who
+surround you. Nor do I speak of those open and avowed sinners who have
+thrown off even the appearance of virtue. I speak only of those who,
+like yourselves, live as most live, and whose actions present nothing
+to the public view particularly shameful or depraved. They are sinners
+and they admit it: you are not innocent, and you confess it. Now are
+they penitent? or are you? Age, vocation, more serious employments,
+may perhaps have checked the sallies of youth. Even the bitterness
+which the Almighty has made attendant on our passions, the deceits,
+the treacheries of the world, an injured fortune, with ruined
+constitution, may have cooled the ardor, and confined the irregular
+desires of your hearts. Crimes may have disgusted you even with sin
+itself--for passions gradually extinguish themselves. Time, and
+the natural inconstancy of the heart will bring these about; yet,
+nevertheless, tho detached from sin by incapability, you are no nearer
+your God. According to the world you are become more prudent, more
+regular, to a greater extent what it calls men of probity, more exact
+in fulfilling your public or private duties. But you are not penitent.
+You have ceased your disorders but you have not expiated them. You are
+not converted: this great stroke, this grand operation on the heart,
+which regenerates man, has not yet been felt by you. Nevertheless,
+this situation, so truly dangerous, does not alarm you. Sins which
+have never been washed away by sincere repentance, and consequently
+never obliterated from the book of life, appear in your eyes as no
+longer existing; and you will tranquilly leave this world in a state
+of impenitence, so much the more dangerous as you will die without
+being sensible of your danger.
+
+What I say here is not merely a rash expression, or an emotion of
+zeal; nothing is more real, or more exactly true: it is the situation
+of almost all men, even the wisest and most esteemed of the world.
+The morality of the younger stages of life is always lax, if not
+licentious. Age, disgust, and establishment for life, fix the
+heart and withdraw it from debauchery: but where are those who are
+converted? Where are those who expiate their crimes by tears of sorrow
+and true repentance? Where are those who, having begun as sinners, end
+as penitents? Show me, in your manner of living, the smallest trace of
+penitence! Are your graspings at wealth and power, your anxieties
+to attain the favor of the great--and by these means an increase of
+employments and influence--are these proofs of it? Would you wish
+to reckon even your crimes as virtues?--that the sufferings of your
+ambition, pride, and avarice, should discharge you from an obligation
+which they themselves have imposed? You are penitent to the world, but
+are you so to Jesus Christ? The infirmities with which God afflicts
+you, the enemies He raised up against you, the disgraces and losses
+with which He tries you--do you receive them all as you ought, with
+humble submission to His will? Or, rather, far from finding in them
+occasions of penitence, do you not turn them into the objects of new
+crimes? It is the duty of an innocent soul to receive with submission
+the chastisements of the Almighty; to discharge with courage the
+painful duties of the station allotted to him, and to be faithful to
+the laws of the gospel. But do sinners owe nothing beyond this? And
+yet they pretend to salvation! Upon what claim? To say that you are
+innocent before God, your own consciences will witness against you. To
+endeavor to persuade yourselves that you are penitent, you dare not;
+and you would condemn yourselves by your own mouths. Upon what then
+dost thou depend, O man! who thus livest so tranquil?
+
+These, my brethren, as I have already told you, are not merely advices
+and pious arts; they are the most essential of our obligations. But,
+alas! who fulfils them? Who even knows them? Ah! my brethren, did you
+know how far the title you bear, of Christian, engages you; could you
+comprehend the sanctity of your state, the hatred of the world, of
+yourself, and of everything which is not of God that it enjoys, that
+gospel life, that constant watching, that guard over the passions, in
+a word, that conformity with Jesus Christ crucified, which it exacts
+of you--could you comprehend it, could you remember that you ought to
+love God with all your heart, and all your strength, so that a single
+desire that has not connection with Him defiles you--you would appear
+a monster in your own sight. How! you would exclaim. Duties so holy,
+and morals so profane! A vigilance so continual, and a life so
+careless and dissipated! A love of God so pure, so complete, so
+universal, and a heart the continual prey of a thousand impulses,
+either foreign or criminal! If thus it is, who, O my God! will be
+entitled to salvation? Few indeed, I fear, my dear hearers! At least
+it will not be you (unless a change takes place) nor those who
+resemble you; it will not be the multitude!
+
+Who shall be saved? Those who work out their salvation with fear and
+trembling; who live in the world without indulging in its vices. Who
+shall be saved? That Christian woman who, shut up in the circle of her
+domestic duties, rears up her children in faith and in piety; divides
+her heart only between her Savior and her husband; is adorned with
+delicacy and modesty; sits not down in the assemblies of vanity; makes
+not a law of the ridiculous customs of the world, but regulates those
+customs by the law of God; and makes virtue appear more amiable by her
+rank and her example. Who shall be saved? That believer who, in
+the relaxation of modern times, imitates the manners of the first
+Christian--whose hands are clean and his heart pure--who is
+watchful--who hath not lifted up his soul to vanity, but who, in the
+midst of the dangers of the great world, continually applies himself
+to purify it; just--who swears not deceitfully against his neighbor,
+nor is indebted to fraudulent ways for the aggrandizement of his
+fortune; generous--who with benefits repays the enemy who sought his
+ruin; sincere--who sacrifices not the truth to a vile interest, and
+knows not the part of rendering himself agreeable by betraying his
+conscience; charitable--who makes his house and interest the refuge of
+his fellow creatures, and himself the consolation of the afflicted;
+regards his wealth as the property of the poor; humble in
+affliction--a Christian under injuries, and penitent even in
+prosperity. Who will merit salvation? You, my dear hearer, if you will
+follow these examples; for such are the souls to be saved. Now these
+assuredly do not form the greatest number. While you continue,
+therefore, to live like the multitude, it is a striking proof that you
+disregard your salvation.
+
+These, my brethren, are truths which should make us tremble! nor are
+they those vague ones which are told to all men, and which none apply
+to themselves. Perhaps there is not in this assembly an individual who
+may not say of himself, "I live like the great number; like those of
+my rank, age, and situation; I am lost, should I die in this path."
+Now, can anything be more capable of alarming a soul, in whom some
+remains of care for his salvation shall exist? It is the multitude,
+nevertheless, who tremble not. There is only a small number of the
+just who work out severally their salvation with fear and trembling.
+All the rest are tranquil. After having lived with the multitude, they
+flatter themselves they shall be particularized at death. Every one
+augurs favorably for himself, and vainly imagines that he shall be an
+exception.
+
+On this account it is, my brethren, that I confine myself to you who
+are now here assembled. I include not the rest of men; but consider
+you as alone existing on the earth. The idea which fills and terrifies
+me is this--I figure to myself the present as your last hour, and the
+end of the world! the heavens opening above your heads--the Savior, in
+all His glory, about to appear in the midst of His temple--you only
+assembled here as trembling criminals, to wait His coming, and hear
+the sentence, either of life eternal, or everlasting death! for it is
+vain to flatter yourselves that you shall die more innocent than you
+are at this hour. All those desires of change with which you are
+amused, will continue to amuse you till death arrives. The experience
+of all ages proves it. The only difference you have to expect will
+most likely be only a larger balance against you than what you would
+have to answer for now; and from what would be your destiny, were you
+to be judged in this moment, you may almost decide upon what it will
+be at death. Now, I ask you--and, connecting my own lot with yours, I
+ask it with dread--were Jesus Christ to appear in this temple, in the
+midst of this assembly, to judge us, to make the awful separation
+between the sheep and the goats, do you believe that the most of us
+would be placed at His right hand? Do you believe that the number
+would at least be equal? Do you believe that there would even be found
+ten upright and faithful servants of the Lord, when formerly five
+cities could not furnish that number? I ask you! You know not! I know
+it not! Thou alone, O my God, knowest who belong to Thee.
+
+But if we know not who belong to Him, at least we know that sinners
+do not. Now, who are the just and faithful assembled here at present?
+Titles and dignities avail nothing; you are stript of all these in the
+presence of your Savior! Who are they? Many sinners who wish not to be
+converted; many more who wish, but always put it off; many others who
+are only converted in appearance, and again fall back to their former
+course; in a word, a great number, who flatter themselves they have no
+occasion for conversion. This is the party of the reprobate! Ah! my
+brethren, cut off from this assembly these four classes of sinners,
+for they will be cut off at the great day! And now stand forth ye
+righteous:--where are ye? O God, where are Thine elect! What remains
+as Thy portion!
+
+My brethren, our ruin is almost certain! Yet we think not of it! If in
+this terrible separation, which will one day take place; there should
+be but one sinner in the assembly on the side of the reprobate, and a
+voice from heaven should assure us of it, without particularizing him,
+who of us would not tremble, lest he be the unfortunate and devoted
+wretch? Who of us would not immediately apply to his conscience, to
+examine if its crimes merited not this punishment? Who of us, seized
+with dread, would not demand of our Savior, as did the apostles,
+crying out, "Lord, is it I?" And should a small respite be allowed
+to our prayers, who of us would not use every effort, by tears,
+supplication, and sincere repentance, to avert the misfortune?
+
+Are we in our senses, my dear hearers? Perhaps among all who listen to
+me now, ten righteous ones would not be found. It may be fewer still.
+What do I perceive, O my God! I dare not, with a fixt eye, regard the
+depths of Thy judgments and justice! Not more than one, perhaps,
+would be found among us all! And this danger affects you not, my dear
+hearer! You persuade yourself that in this great number who shall
+perish, you will be the happy individual! You, you have less reason,
+perhaps, than any other to believe it! You, upon whom alone the
+sentence of death should fall, were only one of all who hear me to
+suffer! Great God! how little are the terrors of Thy law known to the
+world? In all ages the just have shuddered with dread in reflecting on
+the severity and extent of Thy judgments, touching the destinies of
+men! Alas! what are they laying up in store for the sons of men!
+
+But what are we to conclude from these awful truths? That all must
+despair of salvation? God forbid! The impious alone, to quiet his own
+feelings in his debaucheries, endeavors to persuade himself that all
+men shall perish as well as he. This idea ought not to be the fruit of
+the present discourse. It is intended to undeceive you with regard to
+the general error, that any one may do whatever is done by others. To
+convince you that, in order to merit salvation, you must distinguish
+yourself from the rest; that in the midst of the world you are to live
+for God's glory, and not follow after the multitude.
+
+When the Jews were led in captivity from Judea to Babylon, a little
+before they quitted their own country, the prophet Jeremiah, whom the
+Lord had forbidden to leave Jerusalem, spoke thus to them: "Children
+of Israel, when you shall arrive at Babylon, you will behold the
+inhabitants of that country, who carry upon their shoulders gods of
+silver and gold. All the people will prostrate themselves and adore
+them. But you, far from allowing yourselves, by these examples, to be
+led to impiety, say to yourselves in secret, It is Thou, O Lord! whom
+we ought to adore."
+
+Let me now finish by addressing to you the same words.
+
+At your departure from this temple, you go to enter into another
+Babylon. You go to see the idols of gold and silver, before which all
+men prostrate themselves. You go to regain the vain objects of human
+passions, wealth, glory, and pleasure, which are the gods of this
+world and which almost all men adore. You will see those abuses which
+all the world permits, those errors which custom authorizes, and those
+debaucheries, which an infamous fashion has almost constituted as
+laws. Then, my dear hearer, if you wish to be of the small number of
+true Israelites, say, in the secrecy of your heart, "It is Thou alone,
+O my God! whom we ought to adore. I wish not to have connection with
+a people which know Thee not; I will have no other law than Thy holy
+law; the gods which this foolish multitude adore are not gods; they
+are the work of the hands of men; they will perish with them; Thou
+alone, O my God! art immortal; and Thou alone deservest to be adored.
+The customs of Babylon have no connection with the holy laws of
+Jerusalem. I will continue to worship Thee, with that small number
+of the children of Abraham which still, in the midst of an infidel
+nation, composes Thy people; with them I will turn all my desires
+toward the holy Zion. The singularity of my manners will be regarded
+as a weakness; but blest weakness, O my God! which will give me
+strength to resist the torrent of customs, and the seduction of
+example. Thou wilt be my God in the midst of Babylon, as Thou wilt one
+day be in Jerusalem above!"
+
+Ah! the time of the captivity will at last expire. Thou wilt call to
+Thy remembrance Abraham and David. Thou wilt deliver Thy people. Thou
+wilt transport us to the holy city. Then wilt Thou alone reign over
+Israel, and over the nations which at present know Thee not. All being
+destroyed, all the empires of the earth, all the monuments of human
+pride annihilated, and Thou alone remaining eternal, we then shall
+know that Thou art the Lord of hosts, and the only God to be adored.
+
+Behold the fruit which you ought to reap from this discourse! Live
+apart. Think, without ceasing, that the great number work their own
+destruction. Regard as nothing all customs of the earth, unless
+authorized by the law of God, and remember that holy men in all ages
+have been looked upon as a peculiar people.
+
+It is thus that, after distinguishing yourselves from the sinful on
+earth, you will be gloriously distinguished from them in eternity!
+
+
+
+
+SAURIN
+
+PAUL BEFORE FELIX AND DRUSILLA
+
+BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
+
+
+Jacques Saurin, the famous French Protestant preacher of the
+seventeenth century, was born at Nismes in 1677. He studied at Geneva
+and was appointed to the Walloon Church in London in 1701. The scene
+of his great life work was, however, the Hague, where he settled in
+1705. He has been compared with Bossuet, tho he never attained the
+graceful style and subtilty which characterize the "Eagle of Meaux."
+The story is told of the famous scholar Le Clerc that he long refused
+to hear Saurin preach, on the ground that he gave too much attention
+to mere art. One day he consented to hear him on the condition that he
+should be permitted to sit behind the pulpit where he could not see
+his oratorical action. At the close of the sermon he found himself in
+front of the pulpit, with tears in his eyes. Saurin died in 1730.
+
+
+
+
+SAURIN
+
+1677--1730
+
+PAUL BEFORE FELIX AND DRUSILLA
+
+_And before certain days, when Felix came with his wife Drusilla,
+which was a Jewess, he sent for Paul, and heard him concerning the
+faith of Christ. And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and
+judgment to come, Felix trembled, and answered, Go thy way for this
+time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee_.--Acts
+xxiv., 24, 25.
+
+
+My brethren, tho the kingdoms of the righteous be not of this world,
+they present, however, amidst their meanness, marks of dignity and
+power. They resemble Jesus Christ. He humbled Himself so far as to
+take the form of a servant, but frequently exercised the rights of a
+sovereign. From the abyss of humiliation to which He condescended,
+emanations of the Godhead were seen to proceed. Lord of nature, He
+commanded the winds and seas. He bade the storm and tempest subside.
+He restored health to the sick, and life to the dead. He imposed
+silence on the rabbis; He embarrassed Pilate on the throne; and
+disposed of Paradise at the moment He Himself was pierced with the
+nails, and fixt on the cross. Behold the portrait of believers! "They
+are dead. Their life is hid with Christ in God." (Col. iii., 3.) "If
+they had hope only in this life, they were of all men most miserable."
+(I Cor. xv., 19.) Nevertheless, they show I know not what superiority
+of birth. Their glory is not so concealed but we sometimes perceive
+its luster! just as the children of a king, when unknown and in
+a distant province, betray in their conversation and carriage
+indications of illustrious descent.
+
+We might illustrate this truth by numerous instances. Let us attend to
+that in our text. There we shall discover that association of humility
+and grandeur, of reproach and glory, which constitutes the condition
+of the faithful while on earth. Behold St. Paul, a Christian, an
+apostle, a saint. See him hurried from tribunal to tribunal, from
+province to province; sometimes before the Romans, sometimes before
+the Jews, sometimes before the high-priest of the synagog, and
+sometimes before the procurator of Caesar. See him conducted from
+Jerusalem to Caesarea, and summoned to appear before Felix. In all
+these traits, do you not recognize the Christian walking in the narrow
+way, the way of tribulation, marked by his Master's feet? But consider
+him nearer still. Examine his discourse, look at his countenance;
+there you will see a fortitude, a courage, and a dignity which
+constrain you to acknowledge that there was something really grand in
+the person of St. Paul. He preached Jesus Christ at the very moment
+he was persecuted for having preached Him. He preached even when in
+chains. He did more; he attacked his judge on the throne. He reasoned,
+he enforced, he thundered. He seemed already to exercise the function
+of judging the world, which God has reserved for His saints. He made
+Felix tremble. Felix felt himself borne away by a superior force.
+Unable to hear St. Paul any longer without appalling fears, he sent
+him away. "After certain days, when Felix came with his wife Drusilla,
+he sent for Paul, and heard him concerning the faith in Christ," etc.
+
+We find here three considerations which claim our attention: An
+enlightened preacher, who discovers a very peculiar discernment in the
+selection of his subject; a conscience appalled and confounded on the
+recollection of its crimes and of that awful judgment where they must
+be weighed, a sinner alarmed, but not converted; a sinner who desires
+to be saved, but delays his conversion: a case, alas! of but too
+common occurrence.
+
+You perceive already, my brethren, the subject of this discourse:
+first, that St. Paul reasoned before Felix and Drusilla of
+righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come; second, that Felix
+trembled; third, that he sent the apostle away; three considerations
+which shall divide this discourse. May it produce on your hearts, on
+the hearts of Christians, the same effects St. Paul produced on the
+soul of this heathen; but may it have a happier influence on your
+lives. Amen.
+
+Paul preached before Felix and Drusilla "on righteousness, temperance,
+and judgment to come." This is the first subject of discussion.
+Before, however, we proceed further with our remarks, we must first
+sketch the character of this Felix and this Drusilla, which will serve
+as a basis to the first proposition.
+
+After the scepter was departed from Judah, and the Jewish nation
+subjugated by Pompey, the Roman emperors governed the country by
+procurators. Claudius filled the imperial throne while St. Paul was
+at Caesarea. This emperor had received a servile education from his
+grandmother Lucia, and from his mother Antonia; and having been
+brought up in obsequious meanness, evinced, on his elevation to the
+empire, marks of the inadequate care which had been bestowed on his
+infancy. He had neither courage nor dignity of mind. He who was raised
+to sway the Roman scepter, and consequently to govern the civilized
+world, abandoned his judgment to his freedmen, and gave them a
+complete ascendency over his mind. Felix was one of those freedmen.
+"He exercised in Judea the imperial functions with a mercenary soul."
+Voluptuousness and avarice were the predominant vices of his heart. We
+have a proof of his avarice immediately after our text, where it is
+said he sent for Paul,--not to hear him concerning the truth of the
+gospel which this apostle had preached with so much power; not to
+inquire whether this religion, against which the Jews raised the
+standard, was contrary to the interest of the State; but because he
+hoped to have received money for his liberation. Here is the effect of
+avarice.
+
+Josephus recited an instance of his voluptuousness. It is his marriage
+with Drusilla. She was a Jewess, as is remarked in our text. King
+Azizus, her former husband, was a heathen; and in order to gain her
+affections, he had conformed to the most rigorous ceremonies of
+Judaism. Felix saw her, and became enamored of her beauty. He
+conceived for her a violent passion; and in defiance of the sacred
+ties which had united her to her husband, he resolved to become master
+of her person. His addresses were received. Drusilla violated her
+former engagements, and chose rather to contract with Felix an
+illegitimate marriage than to adhere to the chaste ties which united
+her to Azizus. Felix the Roman, Felix the procurator of Judea and the
+favorite of Caesar appeared to her a noble acquisition. It is indeed a
+truth, we may here observe, that grandeur and fortune are charms which
+mortals find the greatest difficulty to resist, and against which the
+purest virtue has need to be armed with all its constancy. Recollect
+these two characters of Felix and Drusilla. St. Paul, before those
+two personages, treated concerning "The faith in Christ"; that is,
+concerning the Christian religion, of which Jesus Christ is the sum
+and substance, the author and the end: and from the numerous doctrines
+of Christianity, he selected "righteousness, temperance, and judgment
+to come."
+
+Here is, my brethren, an admirable text; but a text selected with
+discretion. Fully to comprehend it, recollect the character we have
+given of Felix. He was covetous, luxurious, and governor of Judea. St.
+Paul selected three subjects, correspondent to the characteristics.
+Addressing an avaricious man, he treated of righteousness. Addressing
+the governor of Judea, one of those persons who think themselves
+independent and responsible to none but themselves for their conduct,
+he treated of "judgment to come."
+
+But who can here supply the brevity of the historian, and report the
+whole of what the apostle said to Felix on these important points? It
+seems to me that I hear him enforcing those important truths he has
+left us in his works, and placing in the fullest luster those divine
+maxims interspersed in our Scriptures. "He reasoned of righteousness."
+There he maintained the right of the widow and the orphan. There he
+demonstrated that kings and magistrates are established to maintain
+the rights of the people, and not to indulge their own caprice; that
+the design of the supreme authority is to make the whole happy by the
+vigilance of one, and not to gratify one at the expense of all; that
+it is meanness of mind to oppress the wretched, who have no defense
+but cries and tears; and that nothing is so unworthy of an enlightened
+man as that ferocity with which some are inspired by dignity, and
+which obstructs their respect for human nature, when undisguised by
+worldly pomp; that nothing is so noble as goodness and grandeur,
+associated in the same character; that this is the highest felicity;
+that in some sort it transforms the soul into the image of God; who,
+from the high abodes of majesty in which He dwells, surrounded with
+angels and cherubim, deigns to look down on this mean world which we
+inhabit, and "Leaves not Himself without witness, doing good to all."
+
+"He reasoned of temperance." There he would paint the licentious
+effects of voluptuousness. There he would demonstrate how opposite is
+this propensity to the spirit of the gospel; which everywhere enjoins
+retirement, mortification, and self-denial. He would show how it
+degrades the finest characters who have suffered it to predominate.
+Intemperance renders the mind incapable of reflection. It debases
+the courage. It debilitates the mind. It softens the soul. He would
+demonstrate the meanness of a man called to preside over a great
+people, who exposes his foibles to public view; not having resolution
+to conceal, much less to vanquish them. With Drusilla, he would make
+human motives supply the defects of divine; with Felix, he would
+make divine motives supply the defects of human. He would make this
+shameless woman feel that nothing on earth is more odious than a woman
+destitute of honor, that modesty is an attribute of the sex; that an
+attachment, uncemented by virtue, can not long subsist; that those who
+receive illicit favors are the first, according to the fine remark of
+a sacred historian, to detest the indulgence: "The hatred wherewith
+'Ammon, the son of David,' hated his sister, after the gratification
+of his brutal passion, was greater than the love wherewith he had
+loved her" (II Sam. xiii., 15). He would make Felix perceive that,
+however the depravity of the age might seem to tolerate a criminal
+intercourse with persons of the other sex, with God, who has called us
+all to equal purity, the crime was not less heinous.
+
+"He reasoned," in short, "of judgment to come." And here he would
+magnify his ministry. When our discourses are regarded as connected
+only with the present period, their force, I grant, is of no avail.
+We speak for a Master who has left us clothed with infirmities, which
+discover no illustrious marks of Him by whom we are sent. We have only
+our voice, only our exhortations, only our entreaties. Nature is not
+averted at our pleasure. The visitations of Heaven do not descend at
+our command to punish your indolence and revolts: that power was
+very limited, even to the apostle. The idea of a future state, the
+solemnities of a general judgment, supply our weakness, and St. Paul
+enforced this motive; he proved its reality, he delineated its luster,
+he displayed its pomp. He resounded in the ears of Felix the noise,
+the voices, the trumpets. He showed him the small and the great, the
+rich man and Lazarus, Felix the favorite of Caesar, and Paul the
+captive of Felix, awakened by that awful voice: "Arise, ye dead, and
+come to judgment."
+
+But not to be precipitate in commending the apostle's preaching. Its
+encomiums will best appear by attending to its effects on the mind of
+Felix. St. Jerome wished, concerning a preacher of his time, that the
+tears of his audience might compose the eulogy of his sermons. We
+shall find in the tears of Felix occasion to applaud the eloquence
+of our apostle. We shall find that his discourses were thunder and
+lightning in the congregation, as the Greeks used to say concerning
+one of their orators. While St. Paul preached, Felix felt I know not
+what agitations in his mind. The recollection of his past life; the
+sight of his present sins; Drusilla, the object of his passion and
+subject of his crime; the courage of St. Paul--all terrified him.
+His heart burned while that disciple of Jesus Christ expounded the
+Scriptures. The word of God was quick and powerful. The apostle,
+armed with the two-edged sword, divided the soul, the joints, and the
+marrow, carried conviction to the heart. Felix trembled, adds
+our historian, Felix trembled! The fears of Felix are our second
+reflection.
+
+What a surprizing scene, my brethren, is here presented to your view.
+The governor trembled, and the captive spoke without dismay. The
+captive made the governor tremble. The governor shuddered in the
+presence of the captive. It would not be surprizing, brethren, if we
+should make an impression on your hearts (and we shall do so, indeed,
+if our ministry is not, as usual, a sound of empty words); it would
+not be surprizing if we should make some impression on the hearts of
+our hearers. This sanctuary, these solemnities, these groans, this
+silence, these arguments, these efforts,--all aid our ministry, and
+unite to convince and persuade you. But here is an orator destitute of
+these extraneous aids: behold him without any ornament but the truth
+he preached. What do I say? that he was destitute of extraneous aids?
+See him in a situation quite the reverse,--a captive, loaded with
+irons, standing before his judge. Yet he made Felix tremble. Felix
+trembled! Whence proceeded this fear, and this confusion? Nothing is
+more worthy of your inquiry. Here we must stop for a moment: follow
+us while we trace this fear to its source. We shall consider the
+character of Felix under different views; as a heathen, imperfectly
+acquainted with a future judgment, and the life to come; as a prince,
+or governor, accustomed to see every one humble at his feet; as an
+avaricious magistrate, loaded with extortions and crimes; in short, as
+a voluptuous man, who has never restricted the gratification of his
+senses. These are so many reasons of Felix's fears.
+
+First, we shall consider Felix as a heathen, imperfectly acquainted
+with a future judgment and the life to come: I say, imperfectly
+acquainted, and not as wholly ignorant, the heathens having the "work
+of the law written in their hearts" (Rom. ii., 15). The force of habit
+had corrupted nature, but had not effaced its laws. They acknowledged
+a judgment to come, but their notions were confused concerning its
+nature.
+
+Such were the principles of Felix, or rather such were the
+imperfections of his principles, when he heard this discourse of St.
+Paul. You may infer his fears from his character. Figure to
+yourselves a man hearing for the first time the maxims of equity and
+righteousness inculcated in the gospel. Figure to yourselves a man who
+heard corrected the immorality of pagan theology; what was doubtful,
+illustrated; and what was right, enforced. See a man who knew of no
+other God but the incestuous Jupiter, the lascivious Venus, taught
+that he must appear before Him, in whose presence the seraphim veil
+their faces, and the heavens are not clean. Behold a man, whose
+notions were confused concerning the state of souls after death,
+apprized that God shall judge the world in righteousness. See a man
+who saw described the smoke, the fire, the chains of darkness, the
+outer darkness, the lake of fire and brimstone; and who saw them
+delineated by one animated by the Spirit of God. What consternation
+must have been excited by these terrific truths!
+
+This we are incapable adequately of comprehending. We must surmount
+the insensibility acquired by custom. It is but too true that our
+hearts--instead of being imprest by these truths, in proportion to
+their discussion--become more obdurate. We hear them without alarm,
+having so frequently heard them before. But if, like Felix, we had
+been brought up in the darkness of paganism, and if another Paul had
+come and opened our eyes, and unveiled those sacred terrors, how
+exceedingly should we have feared! This was the case with Felix. He
+perceived the bandage which conceals the sight of futurity drop in a
+moment. He heard St. Paul, that herald of grace and ambassador to the
+Gentiles, he heard him reason on temperance and a judgment to come.
+His soul was amazed; his heart trembled; his knees smote one against
+another.
+
+Amazing effects, my brethren, of conscience! Evident argument of the
+vanity of those gods whom idolatry adorns after it has given them
+form! Jupiter and Mercury, it is true, had their altars in the temples
+of the heathens; but the God of heaven and earth has His tribunal in
+the heart: and, while idolatry presents its incense to sacrilegious
+and incestuous deities, the God of heaven and earth reveals His
+terrors to the conscience, and there loudly condemns both incest and
+sacrilege.
+
+Secondly, consider Felix as a prince; and you will find in this second
+office a second cause of his fear. When we perceive the great men of
+the earth devoid of every principle of religion, and even ridiculing
+those very truths which are the objects of our faith, we feel that
+faith to waver. They excite a certain suspicion in the mind that our
+sentiments are only prejudices, which have become rooted in man,
+brought up in the obscurity of humble life. Here is the apology of
+religion. The Caligulas, the Neros, those potentates of the universe,
+have trembled in their turn as well as the meanest of their subjects.
+This independence of mind, so conspicuous among libertines, is
+consequently an art,--not of disengaging themselves from prejudices,
+but of shutting their eyes against the light, and of extinguishing the
+purest sentiments of the heart. Felix, educated in a court fraught
+with the maxims of the great instantly ridicules the apostle's
+preaching. St. Paul, undismayed, attacks him, and finds a conscience
+concealed in his bosom: the very dignity of Felix is constrained to
+aid our apostle by adding weight to his ministry. He demolishes
+the edifice of Felix's pride. He shows that if a great nation was
+dependent on his pleasure, he himself was dependent on a Sovereign in
+whose presence the kings of the earth are as nothing. He proves that
+dignities are so very far from exempting men from the judgment of God
+that, for this very reason, their account becomes the more weighty,
+riches being a trust which Heaven has committed to the great: and
+"where much is given, much is required." He makes him feel this awful
+truth, that princes are responsible, not only for their own souls,
+but also for those of their subjects; their good or bad example
+influencing, for the most part, the people committed to their care.
+
+See then Felix in one moment deprived of his tribunal. The judge
+became a party. He saw himself rich and in need of nothing; and yet he
+was "blind, and naked, and poor." He heard a voice from the God of the
+whole earth, saying unto him, "Thou profane and wicked prince, remove
+the diadem and take off the crown. I will overturn, overturn, overturn
+it, and it shall be no more" (Ezekiel xxi., 25-27). "Tho thou exalt
+thyself as the eagle, and tho thou set thy nest among the stars,
+thence will I bring thee down, saith the Lord" (Obadiah, 4). Neither
+the dignity of governor, nor the favor of Caesar, nor all the glory of
+empire shall deliver thee out of My hand.
+
+Thirdly, I restrict myself, my brethren, as much as possible in order
+to execute without exceeding my limits the plan I have conceived;
+and proceed to consider Felix as an avaricious man: to find in this
+disposition a further cause of his fear. Felix was avaricious, and St.
+Paul instantly transported him into a world in which avarice shall
+receive its appropriate and most severe punishment. For you know that
+the grand test by which we shall be judged is charity. "I was hungry,
+and ye gave me meat"; and of all the constructions of charity
+covetousness is the most obstinate and insurmountable.
+
+This unhappy propensity renders us insensible of our neighbor's
+necessities. It magnifies the estimate of our wants; it diminishes the
+wants of others. It persuades us that we have need of all, that others
+have need of nothing. Felix began to perceive the iniquity of this
+passion, and to feel that he was guilty of double idolatry: idolatry,
+in morality, idolatry in religion; idolatry in having offered incense
+to gods, who were not the makers of heaven and earth; idolatry in
+having offered incense to Mammon. For the Scriptures teach, and
+experience confirms, that "covetousness is idolatry." The covetous man
+is not a worshiper of the true God. Gold and silver are the divinities
+he adores. His heart is with his treasure. Here then is the portrait
+of Felix: a portrait drawn by St. Paul in the presence of Felix, and
+which reminded this prince of innumerable prohibitions, innumerable
+frauds, innumerable extortions; of the widow and the orphan he
+opprest. Here is the cause of Felix's fears. According to an
+expression of St. James, the "rust of his gold and silver began to
+witness against him, and to eat his flesh as with fire" (James v., 3).
+
+Fourthly, consider Felix as a voluptuous man. Here is the final cause
+of his fear. Without repeating all we have said on the depravity of
+this passion, let one remark suffice, that, if the torments of hell
+are terrible at all, they must especially be so to the voluptuous. The
+voluptuous man never restricts his sensual gratification; his soul
+dies on the slightest approach of pain. What a terrific impression
+must not the thought of judgment make on such a character. Shall I,
+accustomed to indulgence and pleasure, become a prey to the worm that
+dieth not and fuel to the fire which is not quenched? Shall I, who
+avoid pain with so much caution, be condemned to eternal torments?
+Shall I have neither delicious meats nor voluptuous delights? This
+body, my idol, which I habituate to so much delicacy, shall it be
+"cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, whose smoke ascendeth up
+forever and ever?" And this effeminate habit I have of refining on
+pleasure, will it render me only the more sensible of my destruction
+and anguish?
+
+Such are the traits of Felix's character; such are the causes of
+Felix's fear. Happy, if his fear had produced that "godly sorrow, and
+that repentance unto salvation not to be repented of." Happy if the
+fear of hell had induced him to avoid its torments. But, ah no! he
+feared, and yet persisted in the causes of his fear. He trembled,
+yet said to St. Paul, "Go thy way for this time." This is our last
+reflection.
+
+How preposterous, my brethren, is the sinner! What absurdities does
+he cherish in his heart! For, in short, had the doctrines St. Paul
+preached to Felix been the productions of his brain:--had the thought
+of a future judgment been a chimera, whence proceeded the fears of
+Felix? Why was he so weak as to admit this panic of terror? If, on the
+contrary, Paul had truth and argument on his side, why did Felix send
+him away? Such are the contradictions of the sinner. He wishes; he
+revolts; he denies; he grants; he trembles; and says, "Go thy way for
+this time." Speak to him concerning the truths of religion, open hell
+to his view, and you will see him affected, devout, and appalled:
+follow him in life, and you will find that these truths have no
+influence whatever on his conduct.
+
+But are we not mistaken concerning Felix? Did not the speech of St.
+Paul make a deeper impression upon him than we seem to allow? He sent
+the apostle away, it is true, but it was "for this time" only. And
+who can censure this delay? The infirmities of human nature require
+relaxation and repose. Felix could afterward recall him. "Go thy way
+for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will send for thee."
+
+It pains me, I confess, my brethren, in entering on this head of my
+discourse, that I should exhibit to you in the person of Felix the
+portrait of whom? Of wicked men? Alas! of nearly the whole of this
+assembly; most of whom seem to us living in negligence and vice,
+running with the children of this world "to the same excess of riot."
+One would suppose that they had already made their choice, having
+embraced one or the other of these notions: either that religion is
+a fantom, or that, all things considered, it is better to endure the
+torments of hell than to be restricted to the practise of virtue. Oh
+no! that is not their notion. Ask the worse among them. Ask whether
+they have renounced their salvation. You will not find an individual
+who will say that he has renounced it. Ask them again whether they
+think it attainable by following this way of life. They will answer,
+No. Ask them afterward how they reconcile things so opposite as their
+life and their hopes. They will answer that they are resolved to
+reform, and by and by they will enter on the work. They will say,
+as Felix said to St. Paul, "Go thy way for this time; when I have a
+convenient season, I will call for thee." Nothing is less wise than
+this delay. At a future period I will reform. But who has assured me
+that at a future period I shall have opportunities of conversion? Who
+has assured me that God will continue to call me, and that another
+Paul shall thunder in my ears?
+
+I will reform at a future period. But who has told me that God at a
+future period will accompany His word with the powerful aids of grace?
+While Paul may plant and Apollos may water, is it not God who gives
+the increase? How then can I flatter myself that the Holy Spirit
+will continue to knock at the door of my heart after I shall have so
+frequently obstructed His admission?
+
+I will reform in future. But who has told me that I shall ever desire
+to be converted? Do not habits become confirmed in proportion as they
+are indulged? And is not an inveterate evil very difficult to cure? If
+I can not bear the excision of a slight gangrene, how shall I sustain
+the operation when the wound is deep?
+
+I will reform in future! But who has told me that I shall live to
+a future period? Does not death advance every moment with gigantic
+strides? Does he not assail the prince in his palace and the peasant
+in his cottage? Does he not send before him monitors and messengers:
+acute pains, which wholly absorb the soul; deliriums, which render
+reason of no avail; deadly stupors, which benumb the brightest and
+most piercing geniuses? And what is still more awful, does He not
+daily come without either warning or messenger? Does He not snatch
+away this man without allowing him time to be acquainted with the
+essentials of religion; and that man, without the restitution of
+riches ill acquired; and the other, before he is reconciled to his
+enemy?
+
+Instead of saying "Go thy way for this time" we should say, Stay for
+this time. Stay, while the Holy Spirit is knocking at the door of my
+heart; stay, while my conscience is alarmed; stay, while I yet live;
+"while it is called to-day." The arguments confounded my conscience:
+no matter. "Thy hand is heavy upon me": no matter still. Cut, strike,
+consume; provided it procure my salvation.
+
+But, however criminal this delay may be, we seem desirous to excuse
+it. "Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will
+call for thee." It was Felix's business then which induced him to
+put off the apostle. Unhappy business! Awful occupation! It seems
+an enviable situation, my brethren, to be placed at the head of a
+province; to speak in the language of majesty; to decide on the
+fortunes of a numerous people; and in all cases to be the ultimate
+judge. But those situations, so happy and so dazzling in appearance,
+are in the main dangerous to the conscience. Those innumerable
+concerns, this noise and bustle, entirely dissipate the soul. While so
+much engaged on earth, we can not be mindful of heaven. When we have
+no leisure we say to St. Paul, "Go thy way for this time; when I have
+a convenient season, I will call for thee."
+
+Happy he who, amid the tumult of the most active life, has hours
+consecrated to reflection, to the examination of his conscience, and
+to insure the "one thing needful." Or, rather, happy he who, in the
+repose of the middle classes of society,--places between indigence and
+affluence, far from the courts of the great, having neither poverty
+nor riches according to Agur's wish,--can in retirement and quietness
+see life sweetly glide away, and make salvation, if not the sole, yet
+his principal, concern.
+
+Felix not only preferred his business to his salvation, but he
+mentions it with evasive disdain. "When I have a convenient season, I
+will call for thee." "When I have a convenient season!" Might we not
+thence infer that the truths discust by St. Paul were not of serious
+importance? Might we not infer that the soul of Felix was created
+for the government of Judea; and that the grand doctrines of
+righteousness, temperance, and a judgment to come ought to serve
+at most but to pass away the time, or merely to engross one's
+leisure--"when I have a convenient season?" ...
+
+Yes, Christians, this is the only moment on which we can reckon. It
+is, perhaps, the only acceptable time. It is, perhaps, the last day of
+our visitation. Let us improve a period so precious. Let us no
+longer say by and by--at another time; but let us say to-day--this
+moment--even now. Let the pastor say: I have been insipid in my
+sermons, and remiss in my conduct; having been more solicitous, during
+the exercise of my ministry, to advance my family than to build up the
+Lord's house, I will preach hereafter with fervor and zeal. I will be
+vigilant, sober, rigorous, and disinterested. Let the miser say: I
+have riches ill acquired. I will purge my house of illicit wealth. I
+will overturn the altar of Mammon and erect another to the supreme
+Jehovah. Let the prodigal say: I will extinguish the unhappy fires by
+which I am consumed and kindle in my bosom the flame of divine love.
+Ah, unhappy passions, which war against my soul; sordid attachments;
+irregular propensities; emotions of concupiscence; law in the
+members,--I will know you no more. I will make with you an eternal
+divorce, I will from this moment open my heart to the eternal Wisdom,
+who condescends to ask it.
+
+If we are in this happy disposition, if we thus become regenerate, we
+shall enjoy from this moment foretastes of the glory which God has
+prepared. From this moment the truths of religion, so far from casting
+discouragement and terror on the soul, shall heighten its consolation
+and joy; from this moment heaven shall open to this audience, paradise
+shall descend into your hearts, and the Holy Spirit shall come and
+dwell there. He will bring that peace, and those joys, which pass all
+understanding.
+
+
+
+
+EDWARDS
+
+SPIRITUAL LIGHT
+
+BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
+
+
+Jonathan Edwards, the New England divine and metaphysician, was born
+at East Windsor, Connecticut, in 1703. He was graduated early from
+Yale College, where he had given much attention to philosophy, became
+tutor of his college, and at nineteen began to preach. His voice and
+manner did not lend themselves readily to pulpit oratory, but his
+clear, logical, and intense presentation of the truth produced a
+profound and permanent effect upon his hearers. He wrote what were
+considered the most important philosophical treatises of his time. His
+place among the thinkers of the world is high and indisputable. He had
+many gifts of intellect and imagination, and a uniform gravity that
+left no doubt as to his deeply earnest nature. He was one of the
+greatest preachers of his age. His most widely quoted sermon, "Sinners
+in the Eyes of an Angry God," while powerful and impressive, does not
+do him justice. It is believed the sermon presented here discloses to
+greater advantage the tender and saintly side of his character. He
+died in 1758.
+
+
+
+
+EDWARDS
+
+1703-1758
+
+SPIRITUAL LIGHT
+
+_And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon
+Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my
+Father which is in heaven._--Matthew xvi., 17.
+
+
+Christ says these words to Peter upon occasion of his professing
+his faith in Him as the Son of God. Our Lord was inquiring of His
+disciples, who men said He was; not that He needed to be informed, but
+only to introduce and give occasion to what follows. They answer,
+that some said He was John the Baptist, and some Elias, and others
+Jeremias, or one of the prophets. When they had thus given an account
+of who others said He was, Christ asks them, who they said He was?
+Simon Peter, whom we find always zealous and forward, was the first to
+answer: he readily replied to the question, Thou art Christ, the Son
+of the living God.
+
+Upon this occasion Christ says as He does to him, and of him in the
+text: in which we may observe,
+
+1. That Peter is pronounced blest on this account. "Blessed art
+Thou."--"Thou art a happy man, that thou art not ignorant of this,
+that I am Christ, the Son of the living God. Thou art distinguishingly
+happy. Others are blinded, and have dark and deluded apprehensions, as
+you have now given an account, some thinking that I am Elias, and some
+that I am Jeremias, and some one thing and some another; but none of
+them thinking right, all of them misled. Happy art thou, that art so
+distinguished as to know the truth in this matter."
+
+2. The evidence of this his happiness declared; viz., that God, and He
+only, had revealed it to him. This is an evidence of his being blest.
+
+First. As it shows how peculiarly favored he was of God above others:
+"How highly favored art thou, that others that are wise and great men,
+the scribes, Pharisees, and rulers, and the nation in general, are
+left in darkness, to follow their own misguided apprehensions; and
+that thou shouldst be singled out, as it were, by name, that my
+heavenly Father should thus set His love on thee, Simon Barjona. This
+argues thee blest, that thou shouldst thus be the object of God's
+distinguishing love."
+
+Secondly. It evidences his blessedness also, as it intimates that this
+knowledge is above any that flesh and blood can reveal. "This is such
+knowledge as my Father which is in heaven only can give: it is too
+high and excellent to be communicated by such means as other knowledge
+is. Thou art blest, that thou knowest that which God alone can teach
+thee."
+
+The original of this knowledge is here declared, both negatively and
+positively. Positively, as God is here declared the author of it.
+Negatively, as it is declared, that flesh and blood had not revealed
+it. God is the author of all knowledge and understanding whatsoever.
+He is the author of the knowledge that is obtained by human learning:
+He is the author of all moral prudence, and of the knowledge and skill
+that men have in their secular business. Thus it is said of all in
+Israel that were wise-hearted, and skilful in embroidering, that God
+had filled them with the spirit of wisdom. (Exod. xxviii., 3.)
+
+God is the author of such knowledge; but yet not so but that flesh and
+blood reveals it. Mortal men are capable of imparting that knowledge
+of human arts and sciences, and skill in temporal affairs. God is the
+author of such knowledge by those means: flesh and blood is made use
+of by God as the mediate or second cause of it; he conveys it by the
+power and influence of natural means. But this spiritual knowledge,
+spoken of in the text, is that God is the author of, and none else:
+he reveals it, and flesh and blood reveals it not. He imparts this
+knowledge immediately, not making use of any intermediate natural
+causes, as he does in other knowledge. What has passed in the
+preceding discourse naturally occasioned Christ to observe this;
+because the disciples had been telling how others did not know Him,
+but were generally mistaken about Him, and divided and confounded in
+their opinions of Him: but Peter had declared his assured faith, that
+He was the Son of God. Now it was natural to observe, how it was not
+flesh and blood that had revealed it to him, but God: for if this
+knowledge were dependent on natural causes or means, how came it to
+pass that they, a company of poor fishermen, illiterate men, and
+persons of low education, attained to the knowledge of the truth;
+while the scribes and Pharisees, men of vastly higher advantages
+and greater knowledge and sagacity in other matters, remained in
+ignorance? This could be owing only to the gracious distinguishing
+influence and revelation of the Spirit of God. Hence, what I would
+make the subject of my present discourse from these words, is this
+doctrine. That there is such a thing as a spiritual and divine light,
+immediately imparted to the soul by God, of a different nature from
+any that is obtained by natural means.
+
+1. Those convictions that natural men may have of their sin and misery
+is not this spiritual and divine light. Men in a natural condition may
+have convictions of the guilt that lies upon them, and of the anger of
+God, and their danger of divine vengeance. Such convictions are from
+light or sensibleness of truth. That some sinners have a greater
+conviction of their guilt and misery than others, is because some have
+more light, or more of an apprehension of truth than others. And
+this light and conviction may be from the Spirit of God; the Spirit
+convinces men of sin: but yet nature is much more concerned in it than
+in the communication of that spiritual and divine light that is spoken
+of in the doctrine; it is from the Spirit of God only as assisting
+natural principles, and not as infusing any new principles. Common
+grace differs from special, in that it influences only by assisting
+of nature; and not by imparting grace, or bestowing anything above
+nature. The light that is obtained is wholly natural, or of no
+superior kind to what mere nature attains to, tho more of that kind be
+obtained than would be obtained if men were left wholly to themselves:
+or, in other words, common grace only assists the faculties of the
+soul to do that more fully which they do by nature, as natural
+conscience or reason will by mere nature, make a man sensible of
+guilt, and will accuse and condemn him when he has done amiss.
+Conscience is a principle natural to men; and the work that it doth
+naturally, or of itself, is to give an apprehension of right and
+wrong, and to suggest to the mind the relation that there is between
+right and wrong and a retribution. The Spirit of God, in those
+convictions which unregenerate men sometimes have, assist conscience
+to do this work in a further degree than it would do if they were left
+to themselves: He helps it against those things that tend to stupify
+it, and obstruct its exercise. But in the renewing and sanctifying
+work of the Holy Ghost, those things are wrought in the soul that are
+above nature, and of which there is nothing of the like kind in the
+soul by nature; and they are caused to exist in the soul habitually,
+and according to such a stated constitution or law that lays such
+a foundation of exercises in a continued course, as is called a
+principal of nature. Not only are remaining principles assisted to do
+their work more freely and fully, but those principles are restored
+that were utterly destroyed by the fall; and the mind thenceforward
+habitually exerts those acts that the dominion of sin has made it as
+wholly destitute of, as a dead body is of vital acts.
+
+The Spirit of God acts in a very different manner in the one case,
+from what He doth in the other. He may indeed act upon the mind of a
+natural man, but He acts in the mind of a saint as an indwelling vital
+principle. He acts upon the mind of an unregenerate person as an
+extrinsic, occasional agent; for in acting upon them, He doth not
+unite Himself to them; for notwithstanding all His influences that
+they may be the subjects of, they are still sensual, having not the
+Spirit (Jude 19). But He unites Himself with the mind of a saint,
+takes him for his temple, actuates and influences him as a new
+supernatural principle of life and action. There is this difference,
+that the Spirit of God, in acting in the soul of a godly man, exerts
+and communicates Himself there in his own proper nature. Holiness is
+the proper nature of the spirit of God. The Holy Spirit operates in
+the minds of the godly, by uniting Himself to them, and living in
+them, and exerting His own nature in the exercise of their faculties.
+The Spirit of God may act upon a creature, and yet not in acting
+communicate Himself. The Spirit of God may act upon inanimate
+creatures; as, the Spirit moved upon the face of the waters, in the
+beginning of the creation; so the Spirit of God may act upon the minds
+of men many ways, and communicate Himself no more than when He acts
+upon an inanimate creature. For instance, He may excite thoughts in
+them, may assist their natural reason and understanding, or may assist
+other natural principles, and this without any union with the soul,
+but may act, as it were, as upon an external object. But as He acts
+in His holy influences and spiritual operations, He acts in a way
+of peculiar communication of Himself; so that the subject is thence
+denominated spiritual.
+
+This spiritual and divine light does not consist in any impression
+made upon the imagination. It is no impression upon the mind, as tho
+one saw anything with the bodily eyes: it is no imagination or idea of
+an outward light or glory or any beauty of form or countenance, or a
+visible luster or brightness of any object. The imagination may be
+strongly imprest with such things; but this is not spiritual light.
+Indeed, when the mind has a lively discovery of spiritual things, and
+is greatly affected by the power of divine light, it may, and probably
+very commonly doth, much affect the imagination; so that impressions
+of an outward beauty or brightness may accompany those spiritual
+discoveries. But spiritual light is not that impression upon the
+imagination, but an exceeding different thing from it. Natural men
+may have lively impressions on their imaginations; and we can not
+determine but the devil, who transforms himself into an angel of
+light, may cause imaginations of an outward beauty, or visible glory,
+and of sounds and speeches, and other such things; but these are
+things of a vastly inferior nature to spiritual light.
+
+This spiritual light is not the suggesting of any new truths or
+propositions not contained in the Word of God. This suggesting of
+new truths or doctrines to the mind, independent of any antecedent
+revelation of those propositions, either in word or writing, is
+inspiration; such as the prophets and apostles had, and such as some
+enthusiasts pretend to. But this spiritual light that I am speaking
+of is quite a different thing from inspiration; it reveals no new
+doctrine, it suggests no new proposition to the mind, it teaches no
+new thing of God, or Christ, or another world, not taught in the
+Bible, but only gives a due apprehension of those things that are
+taught in the Word of God.
+
+It is not every affecting view that men have of the things of religion
+that is this spiritual and divine light. Men by mere principles of
+nature are capable of being affected with things that have a special
+relation to religion as well as other things. A person by mere nature,
+for instance, may be liable to be affected with the story of Jesus
+Christ, and the sufferings He underwent, as well as by any other
+tragical story; he may be the more affected with it from the interest
+he conceives mankind to have in it; yea, he may be affected with it
+without believing it; as well as a man may be affected with what he
+reads in a romance, or sees acted in a stage play. He may be affected
+with a lively and eloquent description of many pleasant things that
+attend the state of the blest in heaven, as well as his imagination
+be entertained by a romantic description of the pleasantness of
+fairy-land, or the like. And that common-belief of the truth of the
+things of religion, that persons may have from education or otherwise,
+may help forward their affection. We read in Scripture of many that
+were greatly affected with things of a religious nature, who yet are
+there presented as wholly graceless, and many of them very ill men. A
+person therefore may have affecting views of religion, and yet be very
+destitute of spiritual light. Flesh and blood may be the author of
+this; one man may give another an affecting view of divine things but
+common assistance: but God alone can give a spiritual discovery of
+them.
+
+But I proceed to show positively what this spiritual and divine light
+is.
+
+And it may be thus described: a true sense of the divine excellency of
+the things revealed in the Word of God, and a conviction of the truth
+and reality of them thence arising.
+
+This spiritual light primarily consists in the former of these--viz.,
+a real sense and apprehension of the divine excellency of things
+revealed in the Word of God. A spiritual and saving conviction of the
+truth and reality of these things arises from such a sight of their
+divine excellency and glory; so that this conviction of their truth is
+an effect and natural consequence of this sight of their divine glory.
+There is therefore in this spiritual light,
+
+1. A true sense of the divine and superlative excellency of the things
+of religion; a real sense of the excellency of God and Jesus Christ,
+and of the work of redemption, and the ways and works of God revealed
+in the gospel. There is a divine and superlative glory in these
+things; an excellency that is of a vastly higher kind, and more
+sublime nature than in other things; a glory greatly distinguishing
+them from all that is earthly and temporal. He that is spiritually
+enlightened truly apprehends and sees it, or has a sense of it. He
+does not merely rationally believe that God is glorious, but he has
+a sense of the gloriousness of God in his heart. There is not only a
+rational belief that is holy, and that holiness is a good thing, but
+there is a sense of the loveliness of God's holiness. There is not
+only a speculative judging that God is gracious, but a sense how
+amiable God is upon that account, or a sense of the beauty of this
+divine attribute.
+
+There is a twofold understanding or knowledge of good that God has
+made the mind of man capable of. The first, that which is merely
+speculative and notional; as when a person only speculatively judges
+that anything is, which, by the agreement of mankind, is called good
+or excellent, viz., that which is most to general advantage, and
+between which and a reward there is a suitableness, and the like. And
+the other is, that which consists in the sense of the heart: as when
+there is a sense of the beauty, amiableness, or sweetness of a thing;
+so that the heart is sensible of pleasure and delight in the presence
+of the idea of it. In the former is exercised merely the speculative
+faculty, or the understanding, strictly so called, or as spoken of in
+distinction from the will or disposition of the soul. In the latter,
+the will, or inclination, or heart is mainly concerned.
+
+Thus there is a difference between having an opinion that God is holy
+and gracious, and having a sense of the loveliness and beauty of that
+holiness and grace. There is a difference between having a rational
+judgment that honey is sweet, and having a sense of its sweetness. A
+man may have the former that knows not how honey tastes; but a man can
+not have the latter unless he has an idea of the taste of honey in
+his mind. So there is a difference between believing that a person is
+beautiful and having a sense of his beauty. The former may be obtained
+by hearsay, but the latter only by seeing the countenance. There is a
+wide difference between mere speculative rational judging anything
+to be excellent, and having a sense of its sweetness and beauty. The
+former rests only in the head, speculation only is concerned in it;
+but the heart is concerned in the latter. When the heart is sensible
+of the beauty and amiableness of a thing, it necessarily feels
+pleasure in the apprehension. It is implied in a person's being
+heartily sensible of the loveliness of a thing, that the idea of it is
+sweet and pleasant to his soul; which is a far different thing from
+having a rational opinion that it is excellent.
+
+2. There arises from this sense of divine excellency of things
+contained in the word of God a conviction of the truth and reality of
+them; and that either directly or indirectly.
+
+First, indirectly, and that two ways.
+
+(1) As the prejudices that are in the heart, against the truth of
+divine things, are hereby removed; so that the mind becomes susceptive
+of the due force of rational arguments for their truth. The mind
+of man is naturally full of prejudices against the truth of divine
+things: it is full of enmity against the doctrines of the gospel;
+which is a disadvantage to those arguments that prove their truth, and
+causes them to lose their force upon the mind. But when a person has
+discovered to him the divine excellency of Christian doctrines, this
+destroys the enmity, removes those prejudices, and sanctifies the
+reason, and causes it to lie open to the force of arguments for their
+truth.
+
+Hence was the different effect that Christ's miracles had to convince
+the disciples from what they had to convince the scribes and
+Pharisees. Not that they had a stronger reason, or had their reason
+more improved; but their reason was sanctified, and those blinding
+prejudices, that the scribes and Pharisees were under, were removed by
+the sense they had of the excellency of Christ and His doctrine.
+
+(2) It not only removes the hindrances of reason, but positively helps
+reason. It makes even the speculative notions the more lively. It
+engages the attention of the mind, with the more fixedness and
+intenseness to that kind of objects; which causes it to have a
+clearer view of them, and enables it more clearly to see their mutual
+relations, and occasions it to take more notice of them. The ideas
+themselves that otherwise are dim and obscure, are by this means
+imprest with the greater strength, and have a light cast upon them, so
+that the mind can better judge of them; as he that beholds the objects
+on the face of the earth, when the light of the sun is cast upon them,
+is under greater advantage to discern them in their true forms and
+mutual relations, than he that sees them in a dim starlight or
+twilight.
+
+The mind having a sensibleness of the excellency of divine objects,
+dwells upon them with delight; and the powers of the soul are more
+awakened and enlivened to employ themselves in the contemplation of
+them, and exert themselves more fully and much more to the purpose.
+The beauty and sweetness of the objects draw on the faculties, and
+draw forth their exercises; so that reason itself is under far greater
+advantages for its proper and free exercises, and to attain its proper
+end, free of darkness and delusion.
+
+Secondly. A true sense of the divine excellency of these things is so
+superlative as more directly and immediately to convince of the
+truth of them; and that because the excellency of these things is so
+superlative. There is a beauty in them that is so divine and godlike,
+that it greatly and evidently distinguishes them from things merely
+human, or that men are the inventors and authors of; a glory that is
+so high and great, that when clearly seen, it commands assent to their
+divinity and reality. When there is an actual and lively discovery of
+this beauty and excellency, it will not allow of any such thought
+as that it is a human work, or the fruit of men's invention. This
+evidence that they who are spiritually enlightened have of the truth
+of the things of religion, is a kind of intuitive and immediate
+evidence. They believe the doctrines of God's word to be divine,
+because they see divinity in them; _i.e._, they see a divine, and
+transcendent, and most evidently distinguishing glory in them; such a
+glory as, if clearly seen, does not leave room to doubt of their being
+of God, and not of men.
+
+Such a conviction of the truth of religion as this, arising, these
+ways, from a sense of the divine excellency of them, is that true
+spiritual conviction that there is in saving faith. And this original
+of it, is that by which it is most essentially distinguished from that
+common assent, which unregenerated men are capable of.
+
+I proceed now to show how this light is immediately given by God, and
+not obtained by natural means.
+
+1. It is not intended that the natural faculties are not made use of
+in it. The natural faculties are the subject of this light: and they
+are the subject in such a manner that they are not merely passive,
+but active in it; the acts and exercises of men's understanding are
+concerned and made use of in it. God, in letting in this light into
+the soul, deals with man according to his nature, or as a rational
+creature; and makes use of his human faculties. But yet this light is
+not the less immediately from God for that; tho the faculties are made
+use of, it is as the subject and not as the cause; and that acting of
+the faculties in it is not the cause, but is either implied in the
+thing itself (in the light that is imparted) or is the consequence of
+it; as the use that we make of our eyes in beholding various objects,
+when the sun arises, is not the cause of the light that discovers
+those objects to us.
+
+2. It is not intended that outward means have no concern in this
+affair. As I have observed already, it is not in this affair, as it is
+in inspiration, where new truths are suggested: for here is by this
+light only given a due apprehension of the same truths that are
+revealed in the word of God; and therefore it is not given without
+the word. The gospel is made use of in this affair: this light is the
+light of the glorious gospel of Christ. (II Cor. iv., 4.) The gospel
+is as a glass, by which this light is conveyed to us (I Cor. xiii.,
+12). Now we see through a glass.
+
+3. When it is said that this light is given immediately by God, and
+not obtained by natural means, hereby is intended that it is given by
+God without making use of any means that operate by their own power,
+or a natural force. God makes use of means; but it is not as mediate
+causes to produce this effect. There are not truly any second causes
+of it; but it is produced by God immediately. The Word of God is no
+proper cause of this effect: it does not operate by any natural force
+in it. The Word of God is only made use of to convey to the mind the
+subject matter of this saving instruction, and this indeed it doth
+convey to us by natural force or influence. It conveys to our minds
+these and those doctrines; it is the cause of the notion of them in
+our heads, but not of the sense of the divine excellency of them in
+our hearts. Indeed, a person can not have spiritual light without the
+Word. But that does not argue that the Word properly causes the light
+The mind can not see the excellency of any doctrine unless that
+doctrine be first in the mind; but the seeing of the excellency of the
+doctrine may be immediately from the Spirit of God; tho the conveying
+of the doctrine or proposition itself may be by the Word. So that the
+notions that are the subject-matter of this light are conveyed to the
+mind by the Word of God; but that due sense of the heart, wherein this
+light formally consists, is immediately by the Spirit of God. As for
+instance, that notion that there is a Christ, and that Christ is holy
+and gracious, is conveyed to the mind by the Word of God; but the
+sense of the excellency of Christ by reason of that holiness and
+grace, is nevertheless immediately the work of the Holy Spirit.
+
+This is the most excellent and divine wisdom that any creature is
+capable of. It is more excellent than any human learning; it is far
+more excellent than all the knowledge of the greatest philosophers or
+statesmen. Yea, the least glimpse of the glory of God in the face of
+Christ doth more exalt and ennoble the soul than all the knowledge of
+those that have the greatest speculative understanding in divinity
+without grace. This knowledge has the most noble object that is or
+can be, viz., the divine glory or excellency of God and Christ. The
+knowledge of these objects is that wherein consists the most excellent
+knowledge of the angels, yea, of God himself.
+
+This knowledge is that which is above all others sweet and joyful.
+Men have a great deal of pleasure in human knowledge, in studies of
+natural things; but this is nothing to that joy which arises from this
+divine light shining into the soul. This light gives a view of those
+that are immensely the most exquisitely beautiful, and capable of
+delighting the eye of the understanding. This spiritual light is
+the dawning of the light of glory in the heart. There is nothing so
+powerful as this to support persons in affliction, and to give the
+mind peace and brightness in this stormy and dark world.
+
+This light is such as effectually influences the inclination, and
+changes the nature of the soul. It assimilates the human nature to the
+divine nature, and changes the soul into an image of the same glory
+that is beheld (II Cor. iii., 18), "But we all with open face,
+beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the
+same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord."
+This knowledge will wean from the world, and raise the inclination
+to heavenly things. It will turn the heart to God as the fountain of
+good, and to choose him for the only portion. This light, and this
+only, will bring the soul to a saving close with Christ. It conforms
+the heart to the gospel, mortifies its enmity and opposition against
+the schemes of salvation therein revealed: it causes the heart to
+embrace the joyful tidings, and entirely to adhere to, and acquiesce
+in the revelation of Christ as our Savior: it causes the whole soul
+to accord and symphonize with it, admitting it with entire credit and
+respect; cleaving to it with full inclination and affection; and it
+effectually disposes the soul to give up itself entirely to Christ.
+
+This light, and this only, has its fruit in a universal holiness of
+life. No merely notional or speculative understanding of the doctrines
+of religion will ever bring us to this. But this light, as it
+reaches the bottom of the heart, and changes the nature, so it
+will effectually dispose to a universal obedience. It shows God's
+worthiness to be obeyed and served. It draws forth the heart in a
+sincere love to God, which is the only principle of a true, gracious,
+and universal obedience; and it convinces of the reality of those
+glorious rewards that God has promised to them that obey him.
+
+
+
+
+WESLEY
+
+GOD'S LOVE TO FALLEN MAN
+
+BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
+
+
+John Wesley was born at Epworth rectory in Lincolnshire, England,
+in 1703. He was educated at Charterhouse school and in 1720 entered
+Christ Church College, Oxford, where he graduated in 1724. He was
+noted for his classical taste as well as for his religious fervor, and
+on being ordained deacon by Bishop Potter, of Oxford, he became his
+father's curate in 1727. Being recalled to Oxford to fulfil his duties
+as fellow of Lincoln he became the head of the Oxford "Methodists," as
+they were called. He had the characteristics of a great general, being
+systematic in his work and a lover of discipline, and established
+Methodism in London by his sermons at the Foundery. His speaking style
+suggested power in repose. His voice was clear and resonant, his
+countenance kindly, and his tone extremely moderate. His sermons wore
+carefully written, altho not read in the pulpit. They moved others
+because he was himself moved. At an advanced age he preached several
+times a day, and traveled many miles on horseback. At seventy years
+of age he had published thirty octavo volumes. He composed hymns on
+horseback, and studied French and mathematics in spare hours, and was
+never a moment idle until his death, in 1791.
+
+
+
+
+WESLEY
+
+1703--1791
+
+GOD'S LOVE TO FALLEN MAN
+
+_Not as the transgression, so is the free gift_.--Romans v., 15.
+
+
+How exceedingly common, and how bitter is the outcry against our first
+parent, for the mischief which he not only brought upon himself, but
+entailed upon his latest posterity! It was by his wilful rebellion
+against God "that sin entered into the world." "By one man's
+disobedience," as the apostle observes, the many, as many as were then
+in the loins of their forefathers, were made, or constituted sinners:
+not only deprived of the favor of God, but also of His image; of all
+virtue, righteousness, and true holiness, and sunk partly into the
+image of the devil, in pride, malice, and all other diabolical
+tempers; partly into the image of the brute, being fallen under the
+dominion of brutal passions and groveling appetites. Hence also death
+entered into the world, with all his forerunners and attendants; pain,
+sickness, and a whole train of uneasy as well as unholy passions and
+tempers.
+
+"For all this we may thank Adam," has been echoed down from generation
+to generation. The self-same charge has been repeated in every age and
+every nation where the oracles of God are known, in which alone this
+grand and important event has been discovered to the children of men.
+Has not your heart, and probably your lips too, joined in the general
+charge? How few are there of those who believe the Scriptural relation
+of the Fall of Man, and have not entertained the same thought
+concerning our first parent? severely condemning him, that, through
+wilful disobedience to the sole command of his Creator,
+
+  Brought death into the world and all our wo.
+
+Nay, it were well if the charge rested here: but it is certain it does
+not. It can not be denied that it frequently glances from Adam to his
+Creator. Have not thousands, even of those that are called Christians,
+taken the liberty to call His mercy, if not His justice also, into
+question, on this very account? Some indeed have done this a little
+more modestly, in an oblique and indirect manner: but others have
+thrown aside the mask, and asked, "Did not God foresee that Adam would
+abuse his liberty? And did He not know the baneful consequences which
+this must naturally have on all his posterity? And why then did He
+permit that disobedience? Was it not easy for the Almighty to have
+prevented it?" He certainly did foresee the whole. This can not be
+denied. "For known unto God are all His works from the beginning of
+the world." And it was undoubtedly in His Power to prevent it; for He
+hath all power both in heaven and earth. But it was known to Him at
+the same time, that it was best upon the whole not to prevent it. He
+knew that, "not as the transgression, so is the free gift"; that the
+evil resulting from the former was not as the good resulting from the
+latter, not worthy to be compared with it. He saw that to permit
+the fall of the first man was far best for mankind in general; that
+abundantly more good than evil would accrue to the posterity of Adam
+by his fall; that if "sin abounded" thereby over all the earth, yet
+grace "would much more abound"; yea, and that to every individual of
+the human race, unless it was his own choice.
+
+It is exceedingly strange that hardly anything has been written, or
+at least published, on this subject: nay, that it has been so little
+weighed or understood by the generality of Christians: especially
+considering that it is not a matter of mere curiosity, but a truth of
+the deepest importance; it being impossible, on any other principle,
+
+  To assert a gracious Providence,
+  And justify the ways of God with men:
+
+and considering withal, how plain this important truth is, to all
+sensible and candid inquirers. May the Lover of men open the eyes
+of our understanding, to perceive clearly that by the fall of Adam
+mankind in general have gained a capacity,
+
+First, of being more holy and happy on earth, and,
+
+Secondly, of being more happy in heaven than otherwise they could have
+been.
+
+And, first, mankind in general have gained by the fall of Adam a
+capacity of attaining more holiness and happiness on earth than it
+would have been possible for them to attain if Adam had not fallen.
+For if Adam had not fallen, Christ had not died. Nothing can be more
+clear than this: nothing more undeniable: the more thoroughly we
+consider the point, the more deeply shall we be convinced of it.
+Unless all the partakers of human nature had received that deadly
+wound in Adam it would not have been needful for the Son of God to
+take our nature upon Him. Do you not see that this was the very ground
+of His coming into the world? "By one man sin entered into the world,
+and death by sin. And thus death passed upon all" through him, "in
+whom all men sinned." (Rom. v., 12.) Was it not to remedy this very
+thing that "the Word was made flesh"? that "as in Adam all died, so
+in Christ all might be made alive"? Unless, then, many had been made
+sinners by the disobedience of one, by the obedience of one many would
+not have been made righteous (ver. 18); so there would have been no
+room for that amazing display of the Son of God's love to mankind.
+There would have been no occasion for His "being obedient unto death,
+even the death of the cross." It would not then have been said, to the
+astonishment of all the hosts of heaven, "God so loved the world,"
+yea, the ungodly world, which had no thought or desire of returning to
+Him, "that he gave his Son" out of His bosom, His only begotten Son,
+to the end that "whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but
+have everlasting life." Neither could we then have said, "God was in
+Christ reconciling the world to himself"; or that He "made him to be
+sin," that is, a sin-offering "for us, who know no sin, that we might
+be made the righteousness of God through him." There would have been
+no such occasion for such "an advocate with the Father" as "Jesus
+Christ the Righteous"; neither for His appearing "at the right hand of
+God, to make intercession for us."
+
+What is the necessary consequence of this? It is this: there could
+then have been no such thing as faith in God, thus loving the world,
+giving His only Son for us men, and for our salvation. There could
+have been no such thing as faith in the Son of God, as loving us and
+giving Himself for us. There could have been no faith in the Spirit of
+God, as renewing the image of God in our hearts, as raising us from
+the death of sin unto the life of righteousness. Indeed, the whole
+privilege of justification by faith could have no existence; there
+could have been no redemption in the blood of Christ: neither could
+Christ have been "made of God unto us," "wisdom, righteousness,
+sanctification, or redemption."
+
+And the same grand blank which was in our faith, must likewise have
+been in our love. We might have loved the Author of our being, the
+Father of angels and men, as our Creator and Preserver: we might have
+said, "O Lord our Governor, how excellent is Thy name in all the
+earth!" But we could not have loved Him under the nearest and dearest
+relation, as delivering up His Son for us all. We might have loved
+the Son of God, as being the "brightness of his Father's glory," the
+express image of His person (altho this ground seems to belong rather
+to the inhabitants of heaven than earth). But we could not have loved
+Him as "bearing our sins in his own body on the tree," and "by
+that one oblation of himself once offered, making a full oblation,
+sacrifice, and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world." We would
+not have been "made conformable to his death," nor have known "the
+power of his resurrection." We could not have loved the Holy Ghost as
+revealing to us the Father and the Son, as opening the eyes of our
+understanding, bringing us out of darkness into His marvelous light,
+renewing the image of God in our soul, and sealing us unto the day of
+redemption. So that, in truth, what is now "in the sight of God, even
+the Father," not of fallible men "pure religion and undefiled," would
+then, have had no being: inasmuch as it wholly depends on those grand
+principles, "By grace ye are saved through faith"; and "Jesus Christ
+is of God made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification,
+and redemption."
+
+We see then what unspeakable advantage we derive from the fall of our
+first parent, with regard to faith: faith both in God the Father,
+who spared not His own Son, His only Son, but wounded Him for our
+transgressions and bruised Him for our iniquities; and in God the Son,
+who poured out His soul for us transgressors, and washed us in His own
+blood. We see what advantage we derive therefrom with regard to the
+love of God, both of God the Father and God the Son. The chief ground
+of this love, as long as we remain in the body, is plainly declared
+by the apostle, "We love him, because he first loved us." But the
+greatest instance of His love had never been given if Adam had not
+fallen.
+
+And as our faith, both in God the Father and the Son, receives an
+unspeakable increase, if not its very being, from this grand event, as
+does also our love both of the Father and the Son: so does the love of
+our neighbor also, our benevolence to all mankind: which can not but
+increase in the same proportion with our faith and love of God. For
+who does not apprehend the force of that inference drawn by the loving
+apostle, "Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one
+another." If God so loved us--observe, the stress of the argument lies
+on this very point: so loved us! as to deliver up His only Son to die
+a curst death for our salvation. "Beloved, what manner of love is
+this," wherewith God hath loved us? So as to give His only Son! In
+glory equal with the Father: in majesty coeternal! What manner of love
+is this wherewith the only begotten Son of God hath loved us, as to
+empty Himself, as far as possible, of His eternal Godhead; as to
+divest Himself of that glory, which He had with the Father before the
+world began; as to take upon Him "the form of a servant, being found
+in fashion as a man"! And then to humble Himself still further, "being
+obedient unto death, even the death of the cross"! If God so loved us,
+how ought we to love one another? But this motive to brotherly love
+had been totally wanting if Adam had not fallen. Consequently we could
+not then have loved one another in so high a degree as we may now.
+Nor could there have been that height and depth in the command of our
+blest Lord. "As I have loved you, so love one another."
+
+Such gainers may we be by Adam's fall, with regard both to the love of
+God and of our neighbor. But there is another grand point, which, tho
+little adverted to, deserves our deepest consideration. By that one
+act of our first parent, not only "sin entered into the world," but
+pain also, and was alike entailed on his whole posterity. And herein
+appeared, not only the justice, but the unspeakable goodness of God.
+For how much good does He continually bring out of this evil! How much
+holiness and happiness out of pain!
+
+How innumerable are the benefits which God conveys to the children of
+men through the channel of sufferings! so that it might well be said,
+"What are termed afflictions in the language of men, are in the
+language of God styled blessings." Indeed, had there been no suffering
+in the world, a considerable part of religion, yea, and in some
+respects, the most excellent part, could have no place therein: since
+the very existence of it depends on our suffering: so that had there
+been no pain it could have had no being. Upon this foundation, even
+our suffering, it is evident all our passive graces are built; yea,
+the noblest of all Christian graces, love enduring all things. Here is
+the ground for resignation to God, enabling us to say from the heart,
+and in every trying hour, "It is the Lord: let him do what seemeth him
+good." "Shall we receive good at the hand of the Lord, and shall we
+not receive evil?" And what a glorious spectacle is this? Did it not
+constrain even a heathen to cry out, "_Ecce spectaculum Deo dignum!_
+See a sight worthy of God: a good man struggling with adversity, and
+superior to it." Here is the ground for confidence in God, both with
+regard to what we feel, and with regard to what we should fear, were
+it not that our soul is calmly stayed on him. What room could there
+be for trust in God if there was no such thing as pain or danger? Who
+might not say then, "The cup which my Father hath given me, shall
+I not drink it?" It is by sufferings that our faith is tried, and,
+therefore, made more acceptable to God. It is in the day of trouble
+that we have occasion to say, "Tho he slay me, yet will I trust in
+him." And this is well pleasing to God, that we should own Him in the
+face of danger; in defiance of sorrow, sickness, pain, or death.
+
+Again: Had there been neither natural nor moral evil in the
+world, what must have become of patience, meekness, gentleness,
+long-suffering? It is manifest they could have had no being: seeing
+all these have evil for their object. If, therefore, evil had never
+entered into the world, neither could these have had any place in it.
+For who could have returned good for evil, had there been no evil-doer
+in the universe? How had it been possible, on that supposition, to
+overcome evil with good? Will you say, "But all these graces might
+have been divinely infused into the hearts of men?" Undoubtedly they
+might: but if they had, there would have been no use or exercise for
+them. Whereas in the present state of things we can never long want
+occasion to exercise them. And the more they are exercised, the
+more all our graces are strengthened and increased. And in the same
+proportion as our resignation, our confidence in God, our patience and
+fortitude, our meekness, gentleness, and long-suffering, together
+with our faith and love of God and man increase, must our happiness
+increase, even in the present world.
+
+Yet again: As God's permission of Adam's fall gave all his posterity
+a thousand opportunities of suffering, and thereby of exercising all
+those passive graces which increase both their holiness and happiness,
+so it gives them opportunities of doing good in numberless instances,
+of exercising themselves in various good works, which otherwise could
+have had no being. And what exertions of benevolence, of compassion,
+of godlike mercy, had then been totally prevented! Who could then have
+said to the lover of men,
+
+  Thy mind throughout my life be shown,
+    While listening to the wretches' cry,
+  The widow's or the orphan's groan;
+    On mercy's wings I swiftly fly
+  The poor and needy to relieve;
+    Myself, my all, for them to give?
+
+It is the just observation of a benevolent man,
+
+  --All worldly joys are less,
+  Than that one joy of doing kindnesses.
+
+Surely in keeping this commandment, if no other, there is great
+reward. "As we have time, let us do good unto all men;" good of every
+kind and in every degree. Accordingly the more good we do (other
+circumstances being equal), the happier we shall be. The more we deal
+our bread to the hungry, and cover the naked with garments; the more
+we relieve the stranger, and visit them that are sick or in prison;
+the more kind offices we do to those that groan under the various
+evils of human life; the more comfort we receive even in the present
+world; the greater the recompense we have in our own bosom.
+
+To sum up what has been said under this head: As the more holy we are
+upon earth, the more happy we must be (seeing there is an inseparable
+connection between holiness and happiness); as the more good we do to
+others, the more of present reward rebounds into our own bosom:
+even as our sufferings for God lead us to rejoice in Him "with joy
+unspeakable and full of glory"; therefore, the fall of Adam, first, by
+giving us an opportunity of being far more holy; secondly, by giving
+us the occasions of doing innumerable good works, which otherwise
+could not have been done; and, thirdly, by putting it into our power
+to suffer for God, whereby "the spirit of glory and of God rests upon
+us": may be of such advantage to the children of men, even in the
+present life, as they will not thoroughly comprehend till they attain
+life everlasting.
+
+It is then we shall be enabled fully to comprehend not only the
+advantages which accrue at the present time to the sons of men by the
+fall of their first parent, but the infinitely greater advantages
+which they may reap from it in eternity. In order to form some
+conception of this, we may remember the observation of the apostle,
+"As one star differeth from another star in glory, so also is the
+resurrection of the dead." The most glorious stars will undoubtedly
+be those who are the most holy; who bear most of that image of God
+wherein they were created. The next in glory to these will be those
+who have been most abundant in good works: and next to them, those
+that have suffered most, according to the will of God. But what
+advantages in every one of these respects will the children of God
+receive in heaven, by God's permitting the introduction of pain upon
+earth, in consequence of sin? By occasion of this they attained many
+holy tempers, which otherwise could have had no being: resignation
+to God, confidence in him in times of trouble and danger, patience,
+meekness, gentleness, long-suffering, and the whole train of passive
+virtues. And on account of this superior holiness they will then
+enjoy superior happiness. Again: every one will then "receive his
+own reward, according to his own labor." Every individual will
+be "rewarded according to his work." But the Fall gave rise to
+innumerable good works, which could otherwise never have existed, such
+as ministering to the necessities of the saints, yea, relieving the
+distrest in every kind. And hereby innumerable stars will be added to
+their eternal crown. Yet again: there will be an abundant reward in
+heaven, for suffering as well as for doing, the will of God: "these
+light afflictions, which are but for a moment, work out for us a far
+more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." Therefore that event,
+which occasioned the entrance of suffering into the world, has thereby
+occasioned to all the children of God, an increase of glory to all
+eternity. For altho the sufferings themselves will be at an end: altho
+
+  The pain of life shall then be o'er,
+    The anguish and distracting care;
+  The sighing grief shall weep no more;
+    And sin shall never enter there:--
+
+yet the joys occasioned thereby shall never end, but flow at God's
+right hand for evermore.
+
+There is one advantage more that we reap from Adam's fall, which is
+not unworthy our attention. Unless in Adam all had died, being in the
+loins of their first parent, every descendant of Adam, every child of
+man, must have personally answered for himself to God: it seems to
+be a necessary consequence of this, that if he had once fallen, once
+violated any command of God, there would have been no possibility of
+his rising again; there was no help, but he must have perished without
+remedy. For that covenant knew not to show mercy: the word was, "The
+soul that sinneth, it shall die." Now who would not rather be on the
+footing he is now; under a covenant of mercy? Who would wish to hazard
+a whole eternity upon one stake? Is it not infinitely more desirable,
+to be in a state wherein, tho encompassed with infirmities, yet we
+do not run such a desperate risk, but if we fall, we may rise again?
+Wherein we may say,
+
+  My trespass is grown up to heaven!
+    But, far above the skies,
+  In Christ abundantly forgiven,
+    I see Thy mercies rise!
+
+In Christ! Let me entreat every serious person, once more to fix his
+attention here. All that has been said, all that can be said, on these
+subjects, centers in this point. The fall of Adam produced the death
+of Christ! Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth! Yea,
+
+  Let earth and heaven agree,
+    Angels and men be joined,
+  To celebrate with me
+    The Saviour of mankind;
+  To adore the all-atoning Lamb,
+  And bless the sound of Jesus' name!
+
+If God had prevented the fall of man, the Word had never been made
+flesh: nor had we ever "seen his glory, the glory as of the only
+begotten of the Father." Those mysteries had never been displayed,
+"which the very angels desire to look into." Methinks this
+consideration swallows up all the rest, and should never be out of
+our thoughts. Unless "by one man, judgment had come upon all men to
+condemnation," neither angels nor men could ever have known "the
+unsearchable riches of Christ."
+
+See then, upon the whole, how little reason we have to repine at
+the fall of our first parent, since herefrom we may derive such
+unspeakable advantages, both in time and eternity. See how small
+pretense there is for questioning the mercy of God in permitting
+that event to take place, since therein, mercy, by infinite degrees,
+rejoices over judgment! Where, then, is the man that presumes to blame
+God for not preventing Adam's sin? Should we not rather bless Him from
+the ground of the heart, for therein laying the grand scheme of man's
+redemption, and making way for that glorious manifestation of His
+wisdom, holiness, justice, and mercy? If indeed God had decreed before
+the foundation of the world that millions of men should dwell in
+everlasting burnings, because Adam sinned, hundreds or thousands of
+yours before they had a being, I know not who could thank him for
+this, unless the devil and his angels: seeing, on this supposition,
+all those millions of unhappy spirits would be plunged into hell by
+Adam's sin, without any possible advantage from it. But, blest be God,
+this is not the case. Such a decree never existed. On the contrary,
+every one born of a woman may be an unspeakable gainer thereby; and
+none ever was or can be a loser, but by his own choice.
+
+We see here a full answer to that plausible account "of the origin of
+evil," published to the world some years since, and supposed to be
+unanswerable: that it "necessarily resulted from the nature of
+matter, which God was not able to alter." It is very kind in this
+sweet-tongued orator to make an excuse for God! But there is really no
+occasion for it: God hath answered for Himself. He made man in His own
+image, a spirit endued with understanding and liberty. Man abusing
+that liberty, produced evil, brought sin and pain into the world.
+This God permitted, in order to a fuller manifestation of His wisdom,
+justice, and mercy, by bestowing on all who would receive it an
+infinitely greater happiness than they could possibly have attained if
+Adam had not fallen.
+
+"Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!"
+Altho a thousand particulars of His judgments, and of His ways are
+unsearchable to us, and past our finding out, yet we may discern the
+general scheme running through time into eternity. "According to the
+council of his own will," the plan He had laid before the foundation
+of the world, He created the parent of all mankind in His own image.
+And He permitted all men to be made sinners by the disobedience of
+this one man, that, by the obedience of One, all who receive the free
+gift may be infinitely holier and happier to all eternity!
+
+
+
+WHITEFIELD
+
+THE METHOD OF GRACE
+
+BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
+
+
+George Whitefield, evangelist and leader of Calvinistic Methodists,
+who has been called the Demosthenes of the pulpit, was born at
+Gloucester, England, in 1714. He was an impassioned pulpit orator of
+the popular type, and his power over immense congregations was largely
+due to his histrionic talent and his exquisitely modulated voice,
+which has been described as "an organ, a flute, a harp, all in one,"
+and which at times became stentorian. He had a most expressive face,
+and altho he squinted, in grace and significance of gesture he knew
+perfectly how to "suit the action to the word." But he had not the
+style or scholarship of Wesley, and his printed sermons do not fully
+bear out his reputation. Whitefield died in 1770.
+
+
+
+
+WHITEFIELD
+
+1714--1770
+
+THE METHOD OF GRACE
+
+_They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly,
+saying, Peace, peace, when there is no peace_.--Jeremiah vi., 14.
+
+
+As God can send a nation or people no greater blessing than to give
+them faithful, sincere, and upright ministers, so the greatest curse
+that God can possibly send upon a people in this world is to give them
+over to blind, unregenerate, carnal, lukewarm, and unskilful guides.
+And yet, in all ages, we find that there have been many wolves in
+sheep's clothing, many that daubed with untempered mortar, that
+prophesied smoother things than God did allow. As it was formerly,
+so it is now; there are many that corrupt the word of God and deal
+deceitfully with it. It was so in a special manner in the prophet
+Jeremiah's time; and he, faithful to his Lord, faithful to that God
+who employed him, did not fail from time to time to open his mouth
+against them, and to bear a noble testimony to the honor of that
+God in whose name he from time to time spake. If you will read his
+prophecy, you will find that none spake more against such ministers
+than Jeremiah, and here especially in the chapter out of which the
+text is taken he speaks very severely against them. He charges them
+with several crimes; particularly he charges them with covetousness:
+"For," says he, in the thirteenth verse, "from the least of them even
+to the greatest of them, every one is given to covetousness; and from
+the prophet even unto the priest, every one dealeth falsely."
+
+And then, in the words of the text, in a more special manner he
+exemplifies how they had dealt falsely, how they had behaved
+treacherously to poor souls: says he, "They have healed also the hurt
+of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace, when
+there is no peace." The prophet, in the name of God, had been
+denouncing war against the people; he had been telling them that their
+house should be left desolate, and that the Lord would certainly visit
+the land with war. "Therefore," says he, in the eleventh verse, "I am
+full of the fury of the Lord; I am weary with holding in; I will pour
+it out upon the children abroad, and upon the assembly of young men
+together; for even the husband with the wife shall be taken, the aged
+with him that is full of days. And their houses shall be turned unto
+others, with their fields and wives together; for I will stretch out
+my hand upon the inhabitants of the land, saith the Lord."
+
+The prophet gives a thundering message, that they might be terrified
+and have some convictions and inclinations to repent; but it seems
+that the false prophets, the false priests, went about stifling
+people's convictions, and when they were hurt or a little terrified,
+they were for daubing over the wound, telling them that Jeremiah was
+but an enthusiastic preacher, that there could be no such thing as war
+among them, and saying to people, Peace, peace, be still, when the
+prophet told them there was no peace.
+
+The words, then, refer primarily unto outward things, but I verily
+believe have also a further reference to the soul, and are to
+be referred to those false teachers who, when people were under
+conviction of sin, when people were beginning to look toward heaven,
+were for stifling their convictions and telling them they were good
+enough before. And, indeed, people generally love to have it so; our
+hearts are exceedingly deceitful and desperately wicked; none but the
+eternal God knows how treacherous they are.
+
+How many of us cry, Peace, peace, to our souls, when there is no
+peace! How many are there who are now settled upon their lees, that
+now think they are Christians, that now flatter themselves that they
+have an interest in Jesus Christ; whereas if we come to examine their
+experiences we shall find that their peace is but a peace of the
+devil's making--it is not a peace of God's giving--it is not a peace
+that passeth human understanding.
+
+It is a matter, therefore, of great importance, my dear hearers, to
+know whether we may speak peace to our hearts. We are all desirous
+of peace; peace is an unspeakable blessing; how can we live without
+peace? And, therefore, people from time to time must be taught how far
+they must go and what must be wrought in them before they can speak
+peace to their hearts. This is what I design at present, that I may
+deliver my soul, that I may be free from the blood of all those to
+whom I preach--that I may not fail to declare the whole counsel of
+God. I shall, from the words of the text, endeavor to show you what
+you must undergo and what must be wrought in you before you can speak
+peace to your hearts.
+
+But before I come directly to this give me leave to premise a caution
+or two.
+
+And the first is, that I take it for granted you believe religion to
+be an inward thing; you believe it to be a work of the heart, a work
+wrought in the soul by the power of the Spirit of God. If you do not
+believe this, you do not believe your Bibles. If you do not believe
+this, tho you have got your Bibles in your hand, you hate the Lord
+Jesus Christ in your heart; for religion is everywhere represented
+in Scripture as the work of God in the heart. "The kingdom of God is
+within us," says our Lord; and, "he is not a Christian who is one
+outwardly; but he is a Christian who is one inwardly." If any of you
+place religion in outward things, I shall not perhaps please you this
+morning; you will understand me no more when I speak of the work of
+God upon a poor sinner's heart than if I were talking in an unknown
+tongue.
+
+I would further premise a caution, that I would by no means confine
+God to one way of acting. I would by no means say that all persons,
+before they come to have a settled peace in their hearts, are obliged
+to undergo the same degrees of conviction. No; God has various ways of
+bringing His children home; His sacred Spirit bloweth when, and where,
+and how it listeth. But, however, I will venture to affirm this: that
+before ever you can speak peace to your heart, whether by shorter or
+longer continuance of your convictions, whether in a more pungent or
+in a more; gentle way, you must undergo what I shall hereafter lay
+down in the following discourse.
+
+First, then, before you can speak peace to your hearts, you must be
+made to see, made to feel, made to weep over, made to bewail, your
+actual transgressions against the law of God. According to the
+covenant of works, "the soul that sinneth it shall die"; curst is that
+man, be he what he may, be he who he may, that continueth not in all
+things that are written in the book of the law to do them.
+
+We are not only to do some things, but we are to do all things, and we
+are to continue to do so, so that the least deviation from the moral
+law, according to the covenant of works, whether in thought, word,
+or deed, deserves eternal death at the hand of God. And if one evil
+thought, if one evil word, if one evil action deserves eternal
+damnation, how many hells, my friends, do every one of us deserve
+whose whole lives have been one continued rebellion against God!
+Before ever, therefore, you can speak peace to your hearts, you must
+be brought to see, brought to believe, what a dreadful thing it is to
+depart from the living God.
+
+And now, my dear friends, examine your hearts, for I hope you came
+hither with a design to have your souls made better. Give me leave to
+ask you, in the presence of God, whether you know the time, and if you
+do not know exactly the time, do you know there was a time when God
+wrote bitter things against you, when the arrows of the Almighty were
+within you? Was ever the remembrance of your sins grievous to you? Was
+the burden of your sins intolerable to your thoughts? Did you ever see
+that God's wrath might justly fall upon you, on account of your actual
+transgressions against God? Were you ever in all your life sorry for
+your sins? Could you ever say, My sins are gone over my head as a
+burden too heavy for me to bear? Did you ever experience any such
+thing as this? Did ever any such thing as this pass between God and
+your soul? If not, for Jesus Christ's sake, do not call yourselves
+Christians; you may speak peace to your hearts, but there is no peace.
+May the Lord awaken you, may the Lord convert you, may the Lord give
+you peace, if it be His will, before you go home!
+
+But, further, you may be convinced of your actual sins, so as to be
+made to tremble, and yet you may be strangers to Jesus Christ, you may
+have no true work of grace upon your hearts. Before ever, therefore,
+you can speak peace to your hearts, conviction must go deeper; you
+must not only be convinced of your actual transgressions against the
+law of God, but likewise of the foundation of all your transgressions.
+And what is that? I mean original sin, that original corruption each
+of us brings into the world with us, which renders us liable to God's
+wrath and damnation. There are many poor souls that think themselves
+fine reasoners, yet they pretend to say there is no such thing as
+original sin; they will charge God with injustice in imputing Adam's
+sin to us; altho we have got the mark of the beast and of the devil
+upon us, yet they tell us we are not born in sin. Let them look abroad
+and see the disorders in it, and think, if they can, if this is the
+paradise in which God did put man. No! everything in the world is out
+of order.
+
+I have often thought, when I was abroad, that if there were no other
+arguments to prove original sin, the rising of wolves and tigers
+against man, nay, the barking of a dog against us, is a proof of
+original sin. Tigers and lions durst not rise against us unless it
+were as much as to say, "You have sinned against God, and we take up
+our master's quarrel." If we look inwardly, we shall see enough of
+lusts and man's temper contrary to the temper of God. There is pride,
+malice, and revenge in all our hearts; and this temper can not come
+from God; it comes from our first parent, Adam, who, after he fell
+from God, fell out of God into the devil.
+
+However, therefore, some people may deny this, yet when conviction
+comes, all carnal reasonings are battered down immediately, and the
+poor soul begins to feel and see the fountain from which all the
+polluted streams do flow. When the sinner is first awakened, he begins
+to wonder, How came I to be so wicked? The Spirit of God then strikes
+in, and shows that he has no good thing in him by nature; then he
+sees that he is altogether gone out of the way, that he is altogether
+become abominable, and the poor creature is made to lie down at the
+foot of the throne of God and to acknowledge that God would be just to
+damn him, just to cut him off, tho he never had committed one actual
+sin in his life.
+
+Did you ever feel and experience this, any of you--to justify God in
+your damnation--to own that you are by nature children of wrath, and
+that God may justly cut you off, tho you never actually had offended
+Him in all your life? If you were ever truly convicted, if your hearts
+were ever truly cut, if self were truly taken out of you, you would be
+made to see and feel this. And if you have never felt the weight of
+original sin, do not call yourselves Christians. I am verily persuaded
+original sin is the greatest burden of a true convert; this ever
+grieves the regenerate soul, the sanctified soul. The indwelling of
+sin in the heart is the burden of a converted person; it is the burden
+of a true Christian. He continually cries out: "Oh! who will deliver
+me from this body of death, this indwelling corruption in my heart?"
+This is that which disturbs a poor soul most. And, therefore, if you
+never felt this inward corruption, if you never saw that God might
+justly curse you for it, indeed, my dear friends, you may speak peace
+to your hearts, but I fear, nay, I know, there is no true peace.
+
+Further, before you can speak peace to your hearts you must not only
+be troubled for the sins of your life, the sins of your nature, but
+likewise for the sins of your best duties and performances.
+
+When a poor soul is somewhat awakened by the terrors of the Lord,
+then the poor creature, being born under the covenant of works,
+flies directly to a covenant of works again. And as Adam and Eve hid
+themselves among the trees of the garden and sewed fig-leaves together
+to cover their nakedness, so the poor sinner when awakened flies to
+his duties and to his performances, to hide himself from God, and goes
+to patch up a righteousness of his own. Says he, I will be mighty good
+now--I will reform--I will do all I can; and then certainly Jesus
+Christ will have mercy on me. But before you can speak peace to your
+heart you must be brought to see that God may damn you for the best
+prayer you ever put up; you must be brought to see that all your
+duties--all your righteousness--as the prophet elegantly expresses
+it--put them all together, are so far from recommending you to God,
+are so far from being any motive and inducement to God to have
+mercy on your poor soul, that He will see them to be filthy rags, a
+menstruous cloth--that God hates them, and can not away with them, if
+you bring them to Him in order to recommend you to His favor.
+
+My dear friends, what is there in our performance to recommend us unto
+God? Our persons are in an unjustified state by nature; we deserve to
+be damned ten thousand times over; and what must our performance be?
+We can do no good thing by nature: "They that are in the flesh can not
+please God."
+
+You may do things materially good, but you can not do a thing formally
+and rightly good; because nature can not act above itself. It is
+impossible that a man who is unconverted can act for the glory of God;
+he can not do anything in faith, and "whatsoever is not of faith is
+sin."
+
+After we are renewed, yet we are renewed but in part, indwelling sin
+continues in us, there is a mixture of corruption in every one of our
+duties, so that after we are converted, were Jesus Christ only to
+accept us according to our works, our works would damn us, for we can
+not put up a prayer but it is far from that perfection which the moral
+law requireth. I do not know what you may think, but I can say that I
+can not pray but I sin--I can not preach to you or any others but
+I sin--I can do nothing without sin; and, as one expresseth it, my
+repentance wants to be repented of, and my tears to be washed in the
+precious blood of my dear Redeemer.
+
+Our best duties are so many splendid sins. Before you can speak peace
+to your heart you must not only be sick of your original and actual
+sin, but you must be made sick of your righteousness, of all your
+duties and performances. There must be a deep conviction before you
+can be brought out of your self-righteousness; it is the last idol
+taken out of our heart. The pride of our heart will not let us submit
+to the righteousness of Jesus Christ. But if you never felt that you
+had no righteousness of your own, if you never felt the deficiency of
+your own righteousness, you can not come to Jesus Christ.
+
+There are a great many now who may say, Well, we believe all this; but
+there is a great difference betwixt talking and feeling. Did you ever
+feel the want of a dear Redeemer? Did you ever feel the want of Jesus
+Christ, upon the account of the deficiency of your own righteousness?
+And can you now say from your heart Lord, thou mayest justly damn
+me for the best duties that ever I did perform? If you are not thus
+brought out of self, you may speak peace to yourselves, but yet there
+is no peace.
+
+But then, before you can speak peace to your souls, there is one
+particular sin you must be greatly troubled for, and yet I fear there
+are few of you think what it is; it is the reigning, the damning sin
+of the Christian world, and yet the Christian world seldom or never
+think of it. And pray what is that?
+
+It is what most of you think you are not guilty of--and that is, the
+sin of unbelief. Before you can speak peace to your heart, you must be
+troubled for the unbelief of your heart But can it be supposed that
+any of you are unbelievers here in this churchyard, that are born in
+Scotland, in a reformed country, that go to church every Sabbath? Can
+any of you that receive the sacrament once a year--oh, that it were
+administered oftener!--can it be supposed that you who had tokens for
+the sacrament, that you who keep up family prayer, that any of you do
+not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ?
+
+I appeal to your own hearts, if you would not think me uncharitable,
+if I doubted whether any of you believed in Christ: and yet, I fear
+upon examination, we should find that most of you have not so much
+faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as the devil himself. I am persuaded
+that the devil believes more of the Bible than most of us do. He
+believes the divinity of Jesus Christ; that is more than many who call
+themselves Christians do; nay, he believes and trembles, and that is
+more than thousands amongst us do.
+
+My friends, we mistake a historical faith for a true faith, wrought
+in the heart by the Spirit of God. You fancy you believe because you
+believe there is such a book as we call the Bible--because you go to
+church; all this you may do and have no true faith in Christ. Merely
+to believe there was such a person as Christ, merely to believe there
+is a book called the Bible, will do you no good, more than to believe
+there was such a man as Caesar or Alexander the Great. The Bible is a
+sacred depository. What thanks have we to give to God for these lively
+oracles! But yet we may have these and not believe in the Lord Jesus
+Christ.
+
+My dear friends, there must be a principle wrought in the heart by
+the Spirit of the living God. Did I ask you how long it is since you
+believed in Jesus Christ, I suppose most of you would tell me you
+believed in Jesus Christ as long as ever you remember--you never did
+misbelieve. Then, you could not give me a better proof that you never
+yet believed in Jesus Christ, unless you were sanctified early, as
+from the womb; for they that otherwise believe in Christ know there
+was a time when they did not believe in Jesus Christ.
+
+You say you love God with all your heart, soul, and strength. If I
+were to ask you how long it is since you loved God, you would say, As
+long as you can remember; you never hated God, you know no time when
+there was enmity in your heart against God. Then, unless you were
+sanctified very early, you never loved God in your life.
+
+My dear friends, I am more particular in this, because it is a most
+deceitful delusion, whereby so many people are carried away, that they
+believe already. Therefore it is remarked of Mr. Marshall, giving
+account of his experiences, that he had been working for life, and he
+had ranged all his sins under the ten commandments, and then, coming
+to a minister, asked him the reason why he could not get peace. The
+minister looked to his catalog. "Away," says he, "I do not find one
+word of the sin of unbelief in all your catalog." It is the peculiar
+work of the Spirit of God to convince us of our unbelief--that we have
+got no faith. Says Jesus Christ, "I will send the comforter; and when
+he is come, he will reprove the world" of the sin of unbelief; "of
+sin," says Christ, "because they believe not on me."
+
+Now, my dear friends, did God ever show you that you had no faith?
+Were you ever made to bewail a hard heart of unbelief? Was it ever the
+language of your heart, Lord, give me faith; Lord, enable me to lay
+hold on Thee; Lord, enable me to call Thee my Lord and my God? Did
+Jesus Christ ever convince you in this manner? Did he ever convince
+you of your inability to close with Christ, and make you to cry out to
+God to give you faith? If not, do not speak peace to your heart. May
+the Lord awaken you and give you true, solid peace before you go hence
+and be no more!
+
+Once more, then: before you can speak peace to your heart, you must
+not only be convinced of your actual and original sin, the sins of
+your own righteousness, the sin of unbelief, but you must be enabled
+to lay hold upon the perfect righteousness, the all-sufficient
+righteousness, of the Lord Jesus Christ; you must lay hold by faith
+on the righteousness of Jesus Christ, and then you shall have peace.
+"Come," says Jesus, "unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden,
+and I will give you rest."
+
+This speaks encouragement to all that are weary and heavy laden;
+but the promise of rest is made to them only upon their coming and
+believing, and taking Him to be their God and their all. Before we can
+ever have peace with God we must be justified by faith through our
+Lord Jesus Christ, we must be enabled to apply Christ to our hearts,
+we must have Christ brought home to our souls, so as His righteousness
+may be made our righteousness, so as His merits may be imputed to our
+souls. My dear friends, were you ever married to Jesus Christ? Did
+Jesus Christ ever give Himself to you? Did you ever close with Christ
+by a lively faith, so as to feel Christ in your hearts, so as to hear
+Him speaking peace to your souls? Did peace ever flow in upon your
+hearts like a river? Did you ever feel that peace that Christ spoke to
+His disciples? I pray God he may come and speak peace to you. These
+things you must experience.
+
+I am now talking of the invisible realities of another world, of
+inward religion, of the work of God upon a poor sinner's heart. I am
+now talking of a matter of great importance, my dear hearers; you are
+all concerned in it, your souls are concerned in it, your eternal
+salvation is concerned in it. You may be all at peace, but perhaps the
+devil has lulled you asleep into a carnal lethargy and security, and
+will endeavor to keep you there till he gets you to hell, and there
+you will be awakened; but it will be dreadful to be awakened and find
+yourselves so fearfully mistaken when the great gulf is fixt, when
+you will be calling to all eternity for a drop of water to cool your
+tongue and shall not obtain it.
+
+
+
+
+BLAIR
+
+THE HOUR AND THE EVENT OF ALL TIME
+
+BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
+
+
+Hugh Blair, the preacher and divine, was born in Edinburgh, 1718. He
+entered the university of his native town and graduated in 1739. Two
+years later he was licensed to preach; he was ordained minister of
+Colossie, Fife, in 1742, but returned to Edinburgh and in 1762
+was made regius professor of rhetoric and belles-lettres to the
+university. He became a member of the great literary club, the Poker,
+where he associated with Hume, A. Carlyle, Adam Ferguson, Adam Smith
+and others, and enjoyed a high reputation as a preacher and critic.
+The lectures he published on style are elegantly written, but weak in
+thought, and his sermons share the same fault. They are composed with
+great care, and sometimes a single discourse cost him a week's labor,
+but they are formal and destitute of feeling and sometimes even
+affected in style. Blair was notable for fastidiousness in dress and
+manners, and took very seriously the reputation he was given for
+refinement and common-sense as one of the moderate divines. He died in
+1800.
+
+
+
+
+BLAIR
+
+1718--1800
+
+THE HOUR AND THE EVENT OF ALL TIME
+
+_Jesus lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said, Father! the hour is
+come_.--John xvii., 1.
+
+
+These were the words of our blest Lord on a memorable occasion. The
+feast of the Passover drew nigh, at which He knew that He was to
+suffer. The night was arrived wherein He was to be delivered into the
+hands of His enemies. He had spent the evening in conference with His
+disciples, like a dying father in the midst of his family, mingling
+consolations with His last instructions. When He had ended His
+discourse to them, "he lifted up his eyes to heaven," and with the
+words which I have now read, began that solemn prayer of intercession
+for the Church, which closed His ministry. Immediately after, He went
+forth with His disciples into the garden of Gethsemane and surrendered
+Himself to those who came to apprehend Him.
+
+Such was the situation of our Lord at the time of His pronouncing
+these words. He saw His mission on the point of being accomplished.
+He had the prospect full before Him of all that He was about to
+suffer--"Father! the hour is come." What hour? An hour the most
+critical, the most pregnant with great events, since hours had begun
+to be numbered, since time had begun to run. It was the hour at which
+the Son of God was to terminate the labors of His important life by a
+death still more important and illustrious; the hour of atoning, by
+His sufferings, for the guilt of mankind; the hour of accomplishing
+prophecies, types, and symbols, which had been carried on through a
+series of ages; the hour of concluding the old and of introducing into
+the world the new dispensation of religion; the hour of His triumphing
+over the world, and death, and hell; the hour of His creating that
+spiritual kingdom which is to last forever. Such is the hour. Such are
+the events which you are to commemorate in the sacrament of our Lord's
+Supper.
+
+I. This was the hour in which Christ was glorified by His sufferings.
+The whole of His life had discovered much real greatness under a mean
+appearance. Through the cloud of His humiliation, His native luster
+often broke forth; but never did it shine so bright as in this last,
+this trying hour. It was indeed the hour of distress and of blood. He
+knew it to be such; and when He uttered the words of the text, He had
+before His eyes the executioner and the cross, the scourge, the nails,
+and the spear. But by prospects of this nature His soul was not to be
+overcome. It is distress which ennobles every great character; and
+distress was to glorify the Son of God. He was now to teach all
+mankind by His example, how to suffer and to die. He was to stand
+forth before His enemies as the faithful witness of the truth,
+justifying by His behavior the character which He assumed, and sealing
+by His blood the doctrines which He taught.
+
+What magnanimity in all His words and actions on this great occasion!
+The court of Herod, the judgment-hall of Pilate, the hill of Calvary,
+were so many theaters prepared for His displaying all the virtues of a
+constant and patient mind. When led forth to suffer, the first voice
+which we hear from Him is a generous lamentation over the fate of His
+unfortunate tho guilty country; and to the last moment of His life we
+behold Him in possession of the same gentle and benevolent spirit. No
+upbraiding, no complaining expression escaped from His lips during the
+long and painful approaches of a cruel death. He betrayed no symptom
+of a weak or a vulgar, of a discomposed or impatient mind. With the
+utmost attention of filial tenderness He committed His aged mother to
+the care of His beloved disciple. With all the dignity of a sovereign
+He conferred pardon on a fellow-sufferer. With a greatness of mind
+beyond example, He spent His last moments in apologies and prayers for
+those who were shedding His blood.
+
+By wonders in heaven and wonders on earth, was this hour
+distinguished. All nature seemed to feel it; and the dead and the
+living bore witness of its importance. The veil of the temple was rent
+in twain. The earth shook. There was darkness over all the land. The
+graves were opened, and "many who slept arose, and went into the holy
+city." Nor were these the only prodigies of this awful hour. The most
+hardened hearts were subdued and changed. The judge who, in order to
+gratify the multitude, passed sentence against Him, publicly attested
+His innocence. The Roman centurion who presided at the execution,
+"glorified God," and acknowledged the Sufferer to be more than man.
+"After he saw the things which had passed, he said, Certainly this
+was a righteous person: truly this was the Son of God." The Jewish
+malefactor who was crucified with Him addrest Him as a king, and
+implored His favor. Even the crowd of insensible spectators, who had
+come forth as to a common spectacle, and who began with clamors and
+insults, "returned home smiting their breasts." Look back on the
+heroes, the philosophers, the legislators of old. View them, in their
+last moments. Recall every circumstance which distinguished their
+departure from the world. Where can you find such an assemblage of
+high virtues, and of great events, as concurred at the death of
+Christ? Where so many testimonials given to the dignity of the dying
+person by earth and by heaven?
+
+II. This was the hour in which Christ atoned for the sins of mankind,
+and accomplished our eternal redemption. It was the hour when that
+great sacrifice was offered up, the efficacy of which reaches back
+to the first transgression of man, and extends forward to the end of
+time; the hour when, from the cross, as from a high altar, the blood
+was flowing which washed away the guilt of the nations.
+
+This awful dispensation of the Almighty contains mysteries which are
+beyond the discovery of man. It is one of those things into which "the
+angels desire to look." What has been revealed to us is, that the
+death of Christ was the interposition of heaven for preventing the
+ruin of human kind. We know that under the government of God misery
+is the natural consequence of guilt. After rational creatures had, by
+their criminal conduct, introduced disorder into the divine kingdom,
+there was no ground to believe that by their penitence and prayers
+alone they could prevent the destruction which threatened them. The
+prevalence of propitiatory sacrifices throughout the earth proclaims
+it to be the general sense of mankind that mere repentance was not of
+sufficient avail to expiate sin or to stop its penal effects. By the
+constant allusions which are carried on in the New Testament to the
+sacrifices under the law, as pre-signifying a great atonement made by
+Christ, and by the strong expressions which are used in describing the
+effects of His death, the sacred writers show, as plainly as language
+allows, that there was an efficacy in His sufferings far beyond
+that of mere example and instruction. The nature and extent of that
+efficacy we are unable as yet fully to trace. Part we are capable of
+beholding; and the wisdom of what we behold we have reason to adore.
+We discern, in this plan of redemption, the evil of sin strongly
+exhibited and the justice of the divine government awfully
+exemplified, in Christ suffering for sinners. But let us not imagine
+that our present discoveries unfold the whole influence of the
+death of Christ. It is connected with causes into which we can not
+penetrate. It produces consequences too extensive for us to explore.
+"God's thoughts are not as our thoughts." In all things we "see only
+in part"; and here, if anywhere, we see also "as through a glass.
+darkly."
+
+This, however, is fully manifest, that redemption is one of the most
+glorious works of the Almighty. If the hour of the creation of the
+world was great and illustrious, that hour when, from the dark and
+formless mass, this fair system of nature arose at the divine command,
+when "the morning-stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted
+for joy," no less illustrious is the hour of the restoration of the
+world; the hour when, from condemnation and misery, it emerged into
+happiness and peace. With less external majesty it was attended; but
+it is, on that account, the more wonderful that, under an appearance
+so simple, such great events were covered.
+
+III. In this hour the long series of prophecies, visions, types, and
+figures were accomplished. This was the center in which they all met:
+this the point toward which they had tended and verged, throughout the
+course of so many generations. You behold the law and the prophets
+standing, if we may speak so, at the foot of the cross, and doing
+homage. You behold Moses and Aaron bearing the Ark of the Covenant;
+David and Elijah presenting the oracle of testimony. You behold all
+the priests and sacrifices, all the rites and ordinances, all the
+types and symbols assembled together to receive their consummation.
+Without the death of Christ, the worship and ceremonies of the law
+would have remained a pompous, but unmeaning, institution. In the hour
+when He was crucified, "the book with the seven seals" was opened.
+Every rite assumed its significancy; every prediction met its event;
+every symbol displayed its correspondence.
+
+The dark and seemingly ambiguous method of conveying important
+discoveries under figures and emblems was not peculiar to the sacred
+books. The spirit of God in presignifying the death of Christ, adopted
+that plan, according to which the whole knowledge of those early
+ages was propagated through the world. Under the veil of mysterious
+allusion, all wisdom was then concealed. From the sensible world
+images were everywhere borrowed to describe things unseen. More was
+understood to be meant than was openly exprest. By enigmatical rites
+the priests communicated his doctrines; by parables and allegories
+the philosopher instructed his disciples; even the legislator, by
+figurative sayings, commanded the reverence of the people. Agreeably
+to this prevailing mode of instruction, the whole dispensation of the
+Old Testament was so conducted as to be the shadow and figure of
+a spiritual system. Every remarkable event, every distinguished
+personage, under the law, is interpreted in the New Testament, as
+bearing reference to the hour of which we treat. If Isaac was laid
+upon the altar as an innocent victim; if David was driven from his
+throne by the wicked, and restored by the hand of God; if the brazen
+serpent was lifted up to heal the people; if the rock was smitten by
+Moses, to furnish drink in the wilderness; all were types of Christ
+and alluded to His death.
+
+In predicting the same event the language of ancient prophecy was
+magnificent, but seemingly contradictory: for it foretold a Messiah,
+who was to be at once a sufferer and a conquerer. The Star was to come
+out of Jacob, and the Branch to spring from the stem of Jesse. The
+Angel of the Covenant, the desire of all nations, was to come suddenly
+to His temple; and to Him was to be "the gathering of the people."
+Yet, at the same time, He was to be "despised and rejected of men"; He
+was to be "taken from prison and from judgment," and to be "led as a
+lamb to the slaughter." Tho He was "a man of sorrows, and acquainted
+with grief," yet "the Gentiles were to come to his light, and kings
+to the brightness of his rising." In the hour when Christ died, those
+prophetical riddles were solved: those seeming contradictions were
+reconciled. The obscurity of oracles, and the ambiguity of typos
+vanished. The "sun of righteousness" rose; and, together with the dawn
+of religion those shadows passed away.
+
+IV. This was the hour of the abolition of the law, and the
+introduction of the gospel; the hour of terminating the old and of
+beginning the new dispensation of religious knowledge and worship
+throughout the earth. Viewed in this light, it forms the most august
+era which is to be found in the history of mankind. When Christ was
+suffering on the cross, we are informed by one of the evangelists that
+He said, "I thirst"; and that they filled a sponge with vinegar, and
+put it to His mouth. "After he had tasted the vinegar, knowing that
+all things were now accomplished, and the Scriptures fulfilled, he
+said, It is finished"; that is, this offered draft of vinegar was the
+last circumstance predicted by an ancient prophet that remained to
+be fulfilled. The vision and the prophecy are now sealed: the Mosaic
+dispensation is closed. "And he bowed his head and gave up the ghost."
+
+"It is finished." When He uttered these words He changed the state of
+the universe. At that moment the law ceased, and the gospel commenced.
+This was the ever memorable point of time which separated the old and
+the new worlds from each other. On one side of the point of separation
+you behold the law, with its priests, its sacrifices, and its rites,
+retiring from sight. On the other side you behold the gospel, with
+its simple and venerable institutions, coming forward into view.
+Significantly was the veil of the temple rent in this hour; for the
+glory then departed from between the cherubim. The legal high priest
+delivered up his urim and thummim, his breast-plate, his robes, and
+his incense: and Christ stood forth as the great high priest of all
+succeeding generations. By that one sacrifice which He now offered, He
+abolished sacrifices forever. Altars on which the fire had blazed for
+ages, were now to smoke no more. Victims were no more to bleed. "Not
+with the blood of bulls and goats, but with his own blood he now
+entered into the holy place, there to appear in the presence of God
+for us."
+
+This was the hour of association and union to all the worshipers of
+God. When Christ said, "It is finished," He threw down the wall of
+partition which had so long divided the Gentile from the Jew. He
+gathered into one all the faithful out of every kindred and people.
+He proclaimed the hour to be come when the knowledge of the true God
+should be no longer confined to one nation, nor His worship to one
+temple; but over all the earth, the worshipers of the Father should
+serve Him "in spirit and in truth." From that hour they who dwelt
+in the "uttermost ends of the earth, strangers to the covenant of
+promise," began to be "brought nigh." In that hour the light of the
+gospel dawned from afar on the British Islands.
+
+During a long course of ages, Providence seemed to be occupied in
+preparing the world for this revolution. The whole Jewish economy
+was intended to usher it in. The knowledge of God was preserved
+unextinguished in one corner of the world, that thence, in due time,
+might issue forth the light which was to overspread the earth.
+Successive revelations gradually enlarged the views of men beyond the
+narrow bounds of Judea, to a more extensive kingdom of God. Signs and
+miracles awakened their expectation and directed their eyes toward
+this great event. Whether God descended on the flaming mountain, or
+spoke by the prophet's voice; whether He scattered His chosen people
+into captivity, or reassembled them in their own land, He was still
+carrying on a progressive plan, which was accomplished at the death of
+Christ.
+
+Not only in the territories of Israel, but over all the earth, the
+great dispensations of Providence respected the approach of this
+important hour. If empires rose or fell; if war divided, or peace
+united, the nations; if learning civilized their manners, or
+philosophy enlarged their views; all was, by the secret decree of
+Heaven, made to ripen the world for that "fulness of time," when
+Christ was to publish the whole counsel of God. The Persian, the
+Macedonian, the Roman conqueror, entered upon the stage each at his
+predicted period. The revolutions of power, and the succession of
+monarchies, were so arranged by Providence, as to facilitate the
+progress of the gospel through the habitable world, after the day had
+arrived, "when the stone which was cut out of the mountain without
+hands, should become a great mountain and fill the earth." This was
+the day which Abraham saw afar off, and was glad. This was the day
+which "many prophets, and kings, and righteous men desired to see,
+but could not"; the day for which "the earnest expectation of
+the creature," long opprest with ignorance, and bewildered in
+superstition, might be justly said to wait.
+
+V. This was the hour of Christ's triumph over all the powers of
+darkness; the hour in which He overthrew dominions and thrones, "led
+captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men." The contest which the
+kingdom of darkness had long maintained against the kingdom of light
+was now brought to its crisis. The period was come when "the seed of
+the woman shall bruise the head of the serpent" For many ages the
+most gross superstition had filled the earth. "The glory of the
+incorruptible God" was everywhere, except in the land of Judea,
+"changed into images made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and
+beasts, and creeping-things." The world, which the Almighty created
+for Himself, seemed to have become a temple of idols. Even to vices
+and passions altars were raised; and what was entitled religion, was
+in effect a discipline of impurity. In the midst of this universal
+darkness, Satan had erected his throne, and the learned and the
+polished, as well as the savage nations, bowed down before him. But at
+the hour when Christ appeared on the cross, the signal of His defeat
+was given. His kingdom suddenly departed from Him; the reign of
+idolatry passed away: He was beheld to fall "like lightning from
+heaven." In that hour the foundation of every pagan temple shook. The
+statue of every false god tottered on its base. The priest fled from
+his falling shrine; and the heathen oracles became dumb forever.
+
+As on the cross Christ triumphed over Satan, so He overcame His
+auxiliary, the world. Long had it assailed Him with its temptations
+and discouragements; in this hour of severe trial He surmounted them
+all. Formerly He had despised the pleasures of the world. He now
+baffled its terrors. Hence He is justly said to have "crucified the
+world." By His sufferings He ennobled distress; and He darkened
+the luster of the pomp and vanities of life. He discovered to His
+followers the path which leads, through affliction, to glory and to
+victory; and He imparted to them the same spirit which enabled Him to
+overcome. "My kingdom is not of this world. In this world ye shall
+have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."
+
+Death also, the last foe of man, was the victim of this hour. The
+formidable appearance of the specter remained; but his dart was taken
+away. For, in the hour when Christ expiated guilt, He disarmed death,
+by securing the resurrection of the just. When He said to His penitent
+fellow sufferer, "To-day thou shalt be with me in paradise," He
+announced to all His followers the certainty of heavenly bliss. He
+declared the cherubim to be dismissed and the flaming sword to be
+sheathed, which had been appointed at the fall, to keep from man "the
+way of the tree of life." Faint, before this period, had been the
+hope, indistinct the prospect, which even good men enjoyed of the
+heavenly kingdom. Life and immortality were now brought to light. From
+the hill of Calvary the first clear and certain view was given to the
+world of the everlasting mansions. Since that hour they have been the
+perpetual consolation of believers in Christ. Under trouble, they
+soothe their minds; amid temptation, they support their virtue; and in
+their dying moments enable them to say, "O death! where is thy sting?
+O grave! where is thy victory"?
+
+VI. This was the hour when our Lord erected that spiritual kingdom
+which is never to end. How vain are the counsels and designs of men!
+How shallow is the policy of the wicked! How short their triumphing!
+The enemies of Christ imagined that in this hour they had successfully
+accomplished their plan for His destruction. They believed that they
+had entirely scattered the small party of His followers, and had
+extinguished His name and His honor forever. In derision they addrest
+Him as a king. They clothed Him with purple robes; they crowned Him
+with a crown of thorns; they put a reed into His hand; and, with
+insulting mockery, bowed the knee before Him. Blind and impious men!
+How little did they know that the Almighty was at that moment setting
+Him as a king on the hill of Zion; giving Him "the heathen for his
+inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession"!
+How little did they know that their badges of mock royalty were at
+that moment converted into the signals of absolute dominion, and the
+instruments of irresistible power! The reed which they put into His
+hands became "a rod of iron," with which He was to "break in pieces
+his enemies," a scepter with which He was to rule the universe in
+righteousness. The cross which they thought was to stigmatize Him with
+infamy, became the ensign of His renown. Instead of being the reproach
+of His followers, it was to be their boast and their glory. The cross
+was to shine on palaces and churches throughout the earth. It was to
+be assumed as the distinction of the most powerful monarchs, and to
+wave in the banner of victorious armies when the memory of Herod and
+Pilate should be accurst, when Jerusalem should be reduced to ashes,
+and the Jews be vagabonds over all the world.
+
+These were the triumphs which commenced at this hour. Our Lord saw
+them already in their birth; He saw of the travail of His soul, and
+was satisfied. He beheld the Word of God going forth, conquering, and
+to conquer; subduing, to the obedience of His laws, the subduers of
+the world; carrying light into the regions of darkness, and mildness
+into the habitations of cruelty. He beheld the Gentiles waiting below
+the cross, to receive the gospel. He beheld Ethiopia and the Isles
+stretching out their hands to God; the desert beginning to rejoice
+and to blossom as the rose; and the knowledge of the Lord filling the
+earth, as the waters cover the sea. Well pleased, He said, "It is
+finished." As a conqueror He retired from the field, reviewing His
+triumphs: "He bowed his head and gave up the ghost." From that hour,
+Christ was no longer a mortal man, but "Head over all things to the
+Church," the glorious King of men and angels, of whose dominion there
+shall be no end. His triumphs shall perpetually increase. "His name
+shall endure forever; it shall last as long as the sun; men shall be
+blest in him, and all nations shall call him blest"
+
+Such were the transactions, such the effects, of this ever-memorable
+hour. With all those great events was the mind of our Lord filled,
+when He lifted His eyes to heaven, and said, "Father! the hour is
+come."
+
+From this view which we have taken of this subject, permit me to
+suggest what ground it affords to confide in the mercy of God for the
+pardon of sin; to trust to His faithfulness for the accomplishment of
+all His promises; and to approach to Him, with gratitude and devotion,
+in acts of worship.
+
+In the first place, the death of Christ affords us ground to confide
+in the divine mercy for the pardon of sin. All the steps of that high
+dispensation of Providence, which we have considered, lead directly to
+this conclusion, "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up
+for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?"
+This is the final result of the discoveries of the gospel. On this
+rests the great system of consolation which it hath reared up for men.
+We are not left to dubious and intricate reasonings concerning the
+conduct which God may be expected to hold toward His offending
+creatures: but we are led to the view of important and illustrious
+facts which strike the mind with evidence irresistible. For it is
+possible to believe that such great operations, as I have endeavored
+to describe, were carried on by the Almighty in vain? Did He excite
+in the hearts of His creatures such encouraging hopes, without any
+intention to fulfil them? After so long a preparation of goodness,
+could He mean to deny forgiveness to the penitent and the humble? When
+overcome by the sense of guilt, man looks up with an astonished eye to
+the justice of his Creator, let him recollect that hour of which the
+text speaks, and be comforted. The signals of divine mercy, erected in
+his view, are too conspicuous to be either distrusted or mistaken.
+
+In the next place, the discoveries of this hour afford the highest
+reason to trust in the divine faithfulness for the accomplishment of
+every promise which remains yet unfulfilled. For this was the hour of
+the completion of God's ancient covenant.
+
+It was the "performance of the mercy promised to the fathers." We
+behold the consummation of a great plan, which, throughout a course
+of ages, had been uniformly pursued; and which, against every human
+appearance, was, at the appointed moment, exactly fulfilled. No
+length of time alters His purpose. No obstacles can retard it. Toward
+the ends accomplished in this hour, the most repugnant instruments
+were made to operate. We discern God bending to His purpose the
+jarring passions, the opposite interests, and even the vices of men;
+uniting seeming contrarieties in His scheme; making "the wrath of man
+to praise him"; obliging the ambition of princes, the prejudices of
+Jews, the malice of Satan, all to concur, either in bringing forward
+this hour, or in completing its destined effects. With what entire
+confidence ought we to wait for the fulfilment of all His other
+promises in their due time, even when events are most embroiled and
+the prospect is most discouraging: "Altho thou sayst thou canst not
+see him, yet judgment is before him; therefore trust thou in him." Be
+attentive only to perform thy duty; leave the event to God, and be
+assured that, under the direction of His Providence, "all things shall
+work together" for a happy issue.
+
+Lastly, the consideration of this whole subject tends to excite
+gratitude and devotion, when we approach to God in acts of worship.
+The hour of which I have discust, presents Him to us in the amiable
+light of the deliverer of mankind, the restorer of our forfeited
+hopes. We behold the greatness of the Almighty, softened by the mild
+radiance of condescension and mercy. We behold Him diminishing the
+awful distance at which we stand from His presence, by appointing for
+us a mediator and intercessor, through whom the humble may, without
+dismay, approach to Him who made them. By such views of the divine
+nature, Christian faith lays the foundation for a worship which shall
+be at once rational and affectionate; a worship in which the light of
+the understanding shall concur with the devotion of the heart, and
+the most profound reverence be united with the most cordial love.
+Christian faith is not a system of speculative truths. It is not a
+lesson of moral instruction only. By a train of high discoveries which
+it reveals, by a succession of interesting objects which it places
+in our view, it is calculated to elevate the mind, to purify the
+affections, and by the assistance of devotion, to confirm and
+encourage virtue. Such, in particular, is the scope of that divine
+institution, the sacrament of our Lord's Supper. To this happy purpose
+let it conduce, by concentering in one striking point of light all
+that the gospel has displayed of what is most important to man.
+Touched with such contrition for past offenses, and filled with a
+grateful sense of divine goodness, let us come to the altar of God,
+and, with a humble faith in His infinite mercies, devote ourselves to
+His service forever.
+
+
+
+
+DWIGHT
+
+THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD
+
+BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
+
+
+Timothy Dwight was born at Northampton, Massachusetts, in 1752. He
+graduated from Yale in 1769, served as chaplain in the army during the
+Revolutionary War and was chosen president of his university in 1795.
+He died, after holding that office for twelve years, in 1817. Lyman
+Beecher, who attributed his conversion to him, says: "He was of noble
+form, with a noble head and body, and had one of the sweetest smiles
+that ever you saw. When I heard him preach on 'the harvest is passed,
+the summer is ended, and we are not saved,' a whole avalanche rolled
+down on my mind. I went home weeping every step."
+
+
+
+DWIGHT
+
+1752--1817
+
+THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD
+
+_O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in
+man that walketh to direct his steps_.--Jeremiah x., 23.
+
+
+Few of this audience will probably deny the truth of a direct
+Scriptural declaration. With as little reason can it be denied that
+most of them apparently live in the very manner in which they would
+live if the doctrine were false: or that they rely, chiefly at least,
+on their own sagacity, contrivance and efforts for success in this
+life and that which is to come. As little can it be questioned that
+such self-confidence is a guide eminently dangerous and deceitful.
+Safe as we may feel under its direction, our safety is imaginary. The
+folly of others in trusting to themselves we discern irresistibly. The
+same folly they perceive, with equal evidence, in us. Our true
+wisdom lies in willingly feeling, and cheerfully acknowledging, our
+dependence on God; and in committing ourselves with humble reliance to
+His care and direction.
+
+With these observations I will now proceed to illustrate the truth of
+the doctrine. The mode which I shall pursue will, probably, be thought
+singular. I hope it will be useful. Metaphysical arguments, which are
+customarily employed for the purpose of establishing this and several
+other doctrines of theology, are, if I mistake not, less satisfactory
+to the minds of men at large than the authors of them appear to
+believe. Facts, wherever they can be fairly adduced for this end,
+are attended with a superior power of conviction; and commonly leave
+little doubt behind them. On these, therefore, I shall at the present
+time rely for the accomplishment of my design. In the first place, the
+doctrine of the text is evident from the great fact that the birth and
+education of all men depend not on themselves.
+
+The succeeding events of life are derived, in a great measure at
+least, from our birth. By this event, it is in a prime degree
+determined whether men shall be princes or peasants, opulent or poor,
+learned or ignorant, honorable or despised; whether they shall be
+civilized or savage, freemen or slaves, Christians or heathens,
+Mohammedans or Jews.
+
+A child is born of Indian parents in the western wilderness. By his
+birth he is, of course, a savage. His friends, his mode of life, his
+habits, his knowledge, his opinions, his conduct, all grow out of this
+single event. His first thoughts, his first instructions, and all the
+first objects with which he is conversant, the persons whom he loves,
+the life to which he assumes are all savage. He is an Indian from the
+cradle; he is an Indian to the grave. To say that he could not be
+otherwise, we are not warranted; but that he is not is certain.
+
+Another child is born of a Bedouin Arab. From this moment he begins to
+be an Arabian. His hand is against every man; and every man's hand
+is against him. Before he can walk, or speak, he is carried through
+pathless wastes in search of food; and roams in the arms of his
+mother, and on the back of a camel, from spring to spring, and from
+pasture to pasture. Even then he begins his conflict with hunger and
+thirst; is scorched by a vertical sun; shriveled by the burning sand
+beneath; and poisoned by the breath of the simoom. Hardened thus
+through his infancy and childhood, both in body and mind, he becomes,
+under the exhortations and example of his father, a robber from
+his youth; attacks every stranger whom he is able to overcome; and
+plunders every valuable thing on which he can lay his hand.
+
+A third receives his birth in the palace of a British nobleman; and is
+welcomed to the world as the heir apparent of an ancient, honorable
+and splendid family. As soon as he opens his eyes on the light, he is
+surrounded by all the enjoyments which opulence can furnish, ingenuity
+contrive, or fondness bestow. He is dandled on the knee of indulgence;
+encircled by attendants, who watch and prevent alike his necessities
+and wishes; cradled on down; and charmed to sleep by the voice of
+tenderness and care. From the dangers and evils of life he is guarded
+with anxious solicitude. To its pleasures he is conducted by the
+ever-ready hand of maternal affection. His person is shaped and
+improved by a succession of masters; his mind is opened, invigorated
+and refined by the assiduous superintendence of learning and wisdom.
+While a child he is served by a host of menials and flattered by
+successive trains of visitors. When a youth he is regarded by a band
+of tenants with reverence and awe. His equals in age bow to his rank;
+and multitudes, of superior years acknowledge his distinction by
+continual testimonies of marked respect. When a man, he engages the
+regard of his sovereign; commands the esteem of the senate; and earns
+the love and applause of his country.
+
+A fourth child, in the same kingdom, is begotten by a beggar, and
+born under a hedge. From his birth he is trained to suffering and
+hardihood. He is nursed, if he can be said to be nursed at all, on a
+coarse, scanty and precarious pittance; holds life only as a tenant
+at will; combats from the first dawnings of intellect with insolence,
+cold and nakedness; is originally taught to beg and to steal; is
+driven from the doors of men by the porter or the house dog; and is
+regarded as an alien from the family of Adam. Like his kindred worms,
+he creeps through life in the dust; dies under the hedge, where he is
+born; and is then, perhaps, cast into a ditch, and covered with earth
+by some stranger, who remembers that, altho a beggar, he still was a
+man.
+
+A child enters the world in China; and unites, as a thing of course,
+with his sottish countrymen in the stupid worship of the idol Fo.
+Another prostrates himself before the Lama, in consequence of having
+received his being in Tibet, and of seeing the Lama worshiped by all
+around him.
+
+A third, who begins his existence in Turkey, is carried early to the
+mosque; taught to lisp with profound reverence the name of Mohammed;
+habituated to repeat the prayers and sentences of the Koran as the
+means of eternal life; and induced, in a manner irresistible, to
+complete his title to Paradise by a pilgrimage to Mecca.
+
+The Hindu infant grows into a religious veneration for the cow; and
+perhaps never doubts that, if he adds to this solemn devotion to
+Juggernaut, the Gooroos, and the Dewtahs, and performs carefully his
+ablutions in the Ganges, he shall wash away all his sins, and obtain,
+by the favor of Brahma, a seat among the blest.
+
+In our own favored country, one child is born of parents devoted
+solely to this world. From his earliest moments of understanding, he
+hears and sees nothing commended but hunting, horse-racing, visiting,
+dancing, dressing, riding, parties, gaming, acquiring money with
+eagerness and skill, and spending it in gaiety, pleasure and luxury.
+These things, he is taught by conversation and example, constitute all
+the good of man. His taste is formed, his habits are riveted, and the
+whole character of his soul is turned to them before he is fairly
+sensible that there is any other good. The question whether virtue and
+piety are either duties or blessings he probably never asks. In the
+dawn of life he sees them neglected and despised by those whom he
+most reverences; and learns only to neglect and despise them also. Of
+Jehovah he thinks as little, and for the same reason as a Chinese or
+a Hindu. They pay their devotions to Fo and to Juggernaut: he his to
+money and pleasure. Thus he lives, and dies, a mere animal; a stranger
+to intelligence and morality, to his duty and his God.
+
+Another child comes into existence in the mansion of knowledge and
+virtue. From his infancy, his mind is fashioned to wisdom and piety.
+In his infancy he is taught and allured to remember his Creator;
+and to unite, first in form and then in affection, in the household
+devotions of the morning and evening. God he knows almost as soon as
+he can know anything. The presence of that glorious being he is taught
+to realize almost from the cradle; and from the dawn of intelligence
+to understand the perfections and government of his Creator. His own
+accountableness, as soon as he can comprehend it, he begins to feel
+habitually, and always. The way of life through the Redeemer is early,
+and regularly explained to him by the voice of parental love; and
+enforced and endeared in the house of God. As soon as possible, he
+is enabled to read, and persuaded to "search the Scriptures." Of the
+approach, the danger and the mischiefs of temptations, he is tenderly
+warned. At the commencement of sin, he is kindly checked in his
+dangerous career. To God he was solemnly given in baptism. To God he
+was daily commended in fervent prayer. Under this happy cultivation he
+grows up "like an olive-tree in the courts of the Lord"; and, green,
+beautiful and flourishing, he blossoms; bears fruit; and is prepared
+to be transplanted by the divine hand to a kinder soil in the regions
+above.
+
+How many, and how great, are the differences in these several
+children! How plainly do they all, in ordinary circumstances, arise
+out of their birth! From their birth is derived, of course, the
+education which I have ascribed to them; and from this education
+spring in a great measure both character and their destiny. The place,
+the persons, the circumstances, are here evidently the great things
+which, in the ordinary course of Providence, appear chiefly to
+determine what the respective men shall be; and what shall be those
+allotments which regularly follow their respective characters. As,
+then, they are not at all concerned in contriving or accomplishing
+either their birth or their education; it is certain that, in these
+most important particulars, the way of man is not in himself. God only
+can determine what child shall spring from parents, wise or foolish,
+virtuous or sinful, rich or poor, honorable or infamous, civilized or
+savage, Christian or heathen.
+
+I wish it to be distinctly understood, and carefully remembered, that
+"in the moral conduct of all these individuals no physical necessity
+operates." Every one of them is absolutely a free agent; as free as
+any created agent can be. Whatever he does is the result of choice,
+absolutely unconstrained.
+
+Let me add, that not one of them is placed in a situation in which, if
+he learns and performs his duty to the utmost of his power, he will
+fail of being finally accepted.
+
+Secondly. The doctrine is strikingly evident from this great fact,
+also, that the course of life, which men usually pursue, is very
+different from that which they have intended.
+
+Human life is ordinarily little else than a collection of
+disappointments. Rarely is the life of man such as he designs it shall
+be. Often do we fail of pursuing, at all, the business originally
+in our view. The intentional farmer becomes a mechanic, a seaman,
+a merchant, a lawyer, a physician, or a divine. The very place of
+settlement, and of residence through life, is often different, and
+distant, from that which was originally contemplated. Still more
+different is the success which follows our efforts.
+
+All men intend to be rich and honorable; to enjoy ease; and to pursue
+pleasure. But how small is the number of those who compass these
+objects! In this country, the great body of mankind are, indeed,
+possest of competence; a safer and happier lot than that to which they
+aspire; yet few, very few are rich. Here, also, the great body of
+mankind possess a character, generally reputable; but very limited is
+the number of those who arrive at the honor which they so ardently
+desire, and of which they feel assured. Almost all stop at the
+moderate level, where human efforts appear to have their boundary
+established in the determination of God. Nay, far below this level
+creep multitudes of such as began life with full confidence in the
+attainment of distinction and splendor.
+
+The lawyer, emulating the eloquence, business, and fame of Murray or
+Dunning, and secretly resolved not to slacken his efforts, until all
+his rivals in the race for glory are outstript is often astonished, as
+well as broken-hearted, to find business and fame pass by his door,
+and stop at the more favored mansion of some competitor, in his view
+less able, and less discerning, than himself.
+
+The physician, devoted to medical science, and possest of
+distinguished powers of discerning and removing diseases, is obliged
+to walk; while a more fortunate empiric, ignorant and worthless, rolls
+through the streets in his coach.
+
+The legislator beholds with anguish and amazement the suffrages of his
+countrymen given eagerly to a rival candidate devoid of knowledge and
+integrity; but skilled in flattering the base passions of men, and
+deterred by no hesitations of conscience, and no fears of infamy, from
+saying and doing anything which may secure his election.
+
+The merchant often beholds with a despairing eye his own ships sunk in
+the ocean; his debtors fail; his goods unsold, his business cramped;
+and himself, his family and his hopes ruined; while a less skilful but
+more successful neighbor sees wealth blown to him by every wind, and
+floated on every wave.
+
+The crops of the farmer are stinted; his cattle die; his markets are
+bad; and the purchaser of his commodities proves to be a cheat, who
+deceives his confidence and runs away with his property.
+
+Thus the darling schemes and fondest hopes of man are daily frustrated
+by time. While sagacity contrives, patience matures, and labor
+industriously executes, disappointment laughs at the curious fabric,
+formed by so many efforts and gay with so many brilliant colors,
+and while the artists imagine the work arrived at the moment of
+completion, brushes away the beautiful web, and leaves nothing behind.
+
+The designs of men, however, are in many respects not infrequently
+successful. The lawyer and physician acquire business and fame; the
+statesman, votes; and the farmer, wealth. But their real success,
+even in this case, is often substantially the same with that already
+recited. In all plans, and all labors, the supreme object is to become
+happy. Yet, when men have actually acquired riches and honor, or
+secured to themselves popular favor, they still find the happiness,
+which they expected, eluding their grasp. Neither wealth, fame,
+office, nor sensual pleasure can yield such good as we need. As these
+coveted objects are accumulated, the wishes of man always grow faster
+than his gratifications. Hence, whatever he acquires, he is usually as
+little satisfied as before, and often less.
+
+A principal design of the mind in laboring for these things is to
+become superior to others. But almost all rich men are obliged to see,
+and usually with no small anguish, others richer than themselves;
+honorable men, others more honorable; voluptuous men, others who enjoy
+more pleasure. The great end of the strife is therefore unobtained;
+and the happiness expected never found. Even the successful competitor
+in the race utterly misses his aim. The real enjoyment existed, altho
+it was unperceived by him, in the mere strife for superiority. When
+he has outstript all his rivals the contest is at an end: and his
+spirits, which were invigorated only by contending, languish for want
+of a competitor.
+
+Besides, the happiness in view was only the indulgence of pride,
+or mere animal pleasure. Neither of these can satisfy or endure. A
+rational mind may be, and often is, so narrow and groveling as not to
+aim at any higher good, to understand its nature or to believe its
+existence. Still, in its original constitution, it was formed with a
+capacity for intellectual and moral good, and was destined to find in
+this good its only satisfaction. Hence, no inferior good will fill
+its capacity or its desires. Nor can this bent of its nature ever be
+altered. Whatever other enjoyment, therefore, it may attain, it will,
+without this, still crave and still be unhappy.
+
+No view of the ever-varying character and success of mankind in
+their expectations of happiness, and their efforts to obtain it, can
+illustrate this doctrine more satisfactorily than that of the progress
+and end of a class of students in this seminary. At their first
+appearance here they are all exactly on the same level. Their
+character, their hopes and their destination are the same. They are
+enrolled on one list; and enter upon a collegiate life with the same
+promise of success. At this moment they are plants, appearing just
+above the ground; all equally fair and flourishing. Within a short
+time, however, some begin to rise above others; indicating by a more
+rapid growth a structure of superior vigor, and promising both more
+early and more abundant fruit....
+
+Were I to ask the youths who are before me what are their designs
+and expectations concerning their future life, and write down their
+several answers, what a vast difference would ultimately be found
+between those answers and the events which would actually befall them!
+To how great a part of that difference would facts, over which they
+could have no control, give birth! How many of them will in all
+probability be less prosperous, rich, and honorable than they now
+intend: how many devoted to employments of which at present they do
+not even dream; in circumstances, of which they never entertained even
+a thought, behind those whom they expected to outrun, poor, sick, in
+sorrow or in the grave.
+
+First. You see here, my young friends, the most solid reasons for
+gratitude to your Creator.
+
+God, only, directed that you should be born in this land, and in the
+midst of peace, plenty, civilization, freedom, learning and religion;
+and that your existence should not commence in a Tartarian forest
+or an African waste. God, alone, ordered that you should be born of
+parents who knew and worshiped Him, the glorious and eternal Jehovah;
+and not of parents who bowed before the Lama or the ox, an image of
+brass or the stock of a tree. In the book of His counsels, your names,
+so far as we are able to judge, were written in the fair lines of
+mercy. It is of His overflowing goodness that you are now here;
+surrounded with privileges, and beset with blessings, educated to
+knowledge, usefulness and piety, and prepared to begin an endless
+course of happiness and glory. All these delightful things have
+been poured into your lap, and have come, unbidden, to solicit your
+acceptance. If these blessings awaken not gratitude, it can not be
+awakened by the blessings in the present world. If they are not
+thankfully felt by you, it is because you know not how to be thankful.
+Think what you are, and where you are; and what and where you just as
+easily might have been. Remember that, instead of cherishing tender
+affections, imbibing refined sentiments, exploring the field of
+science, and assuming the name and character of the sons of God, you
+might as easily have been dozing in the smoke of a wigwam, brandishing
+a tomahawk, or dancing round an emboweled captive; or that you might
+yourself have been emboweled by the hand of superstition, and burnt on
+the altars of Moloch. If you remember these things, you can not but
+call to mind, also, who made you to differ from the miserable beings
+who have thus lived and died.
+
+Secondly. This doctrine forcibly demands of you to moderate desires
+and expectations.
+
+There are two modes in which men seek happiness in the enjoyments of
+the present world. "Most persons freely indulge their wishes, and
+intend to find objects sufficient in number and value to satisfy
+them." A few "aim at satisfaction by proportioning their desires to
+the number and measure of their probable gratifications." By the
+doctrine of the text, the latter method is stamped with the name of
+wisdom, and on the former is inscribed the name of folly. Desires
+indulged grow faster and farther than gratifications extend.
+Ungratified desire is misery. Expectations eagerly indulged and
+terminated by disappointment are often exquisite misery. But how
+frequently are expectations raised only to be disappointed, and
+desires let loose only to terminate in distress! The child pines for
+a toy: the moment he possesses it, he throws it by and cries for
+another. When they are piled up in heaps around him, he looks at them
+without pleasure, and leaves them without regret. He knew not that
+all the good which they could yield lay in expectation; nor that his
+wishes for more would increase faster than toys could be multiplied,
+and is unhappy at last for the same reason as at first: his wishes
+are ungratified. Still indulging them, and still believing that the
+gratification of them will furnish the enjoyment for which he pines,
+he goes on, only to be unhappy.
+
+Men are merely taller children. Honor, wealth and splendor are the
+toys for which grown children pine; but which, however accumulated,
+leave them still disappointed and unhappy. God never designed that
+intelligent beings should be satisfied with these enjoyments. By his
+wisdom and goodness they were formed to derive their happiness and
+virtue.
+
+Moderated desires constitute a character fitted to acquire all the
+good which this world can yield. He who is prepared, in whatever
+situation he is, therewith to be content, has learned effectually the
+science of being happy, and possesses the alchemic stone which will
+change every metal into gold. Such a man will smile upon a stool,
+while Alexander at his side sits weeping on the throne of the world.
+
+The doctrine of the text teaches you irresistibly that, since you can
+not command gratifications, you should command your desires; and that,
+as the events of life do not accord with your wishes, your wishes
+should accord with them. Multiplied enjoyments fall to but few men,
+and are no more rationally expected than the highest prize in a
+lottery. But a well-regulated mind, a dignified independence of the
+world, and a wise preparation to possess one's soul in patience,
+whatever circumstances may exist, is in the power of every man, and is
+greater wealth than that of both Indies, and greater honor than Caesar
+ever required.
+
+Thirdly. As your course and your success through life are not under
+your control, you are strongly urged to commit yourselves to God, who
+can control both.
+
+That you can not direct your course through the world, that your best
+concerted plans will often fail, that your sanguine expectations will
+be disappointed, and that your fondest worldly wishes will terminate
+in mortification can not admit of a momentary doubt. That God can
+direct you, that He actually controls all your concerns, and that,
+if you commit yourselves to His care, He will direct you kindly and
+safely, can be doubted only of choice. Why, then, do you hesitate to
+yield yourselves and your interests to the guidance of your Maker?
+There are two reasons which appear especially to govern mankind in
+this important concern; they do not and will not realize the agency of
+God in their affairs; and they do not choose to have them directed
+as they imagine He will direct them. The former is the result of
+stupidity; the latter, of impiety. Both are foolish in the extreme,
+and not less sinful than foolish.
+
+The infinitely wise, great and glorious benefactor of the universe
+has offered to take men by the hand, lead them through the journey of
+life, and conduct them to His own house in the heavens. The proof of
+His sincerity in making this offer has been already produced. He has
+given His own Son to live, and die, and rise, and reign, and intercede
+for our race. "Herein is love," if there ever was love; "not that we
+have loved him, but that he has loved us." That He, who has done this,
+should not be sincere is impossible. St. Paul, therefore, triumphantly
+asks what none can answer: "He, that spared not his own Son, but
+delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely
+give us all things?" Trust, then, His word with undoubting confidence;
+take His hand with humble gratitude, and with all thy heart obey His
+voice, which you will everywhere hear, saying, "this is the way, walk
+ye therein." In sickness and in health, by night and by day, at home
+and in crowds, He will watch over you with tenderness inexpressible.
+He will make you lie down in green pastures, lead you beside the still
+waters and guide you in paths of righteousness, for His name's sake.
+He will prepare a table before you in the presence of your enemies,
+and cause your cup to run over with blessings. When you pass through
+the waters of affliction He will be with you, and through the rivers
+they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall
+not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle on you. From their
+native heavens He will commission those charming twin sisters,
+goodness and mercy, to descend and "follow you all your days."
+
+But if you wish God to be your guide and your friend, you must conform
+to his pleasure. Certainly you can not wonder that the infinitely Wise
+should prefer His own wisdom to yours, and that he should choose for
+His children their allotments, rather than leave them to choose for
+themselves. That part of His pleasure, which you are to obey, is all
+summed up in the single word duty, and it is perfectly disclosed in
+the Scriptures. The whole scheme is so formed as to be plain, easy,
+profitable, and delightful; profitable in hand, delightful in the
+possession. Every part and precept of the whole is calculated for this
+end, and will make you only wise, good, and happy.
+
+Life has been often styled an ocean, and our progress through it a
+voyage. The ocean is tempestuous and billowy, overspread by a cloudy
+sky, and fraught beneath with shelves and quicksands. The voyage
+is eventful beyond comprehension, and at the same time full of
+uncertainty, and replete with danger. Every adventurer needs to be
+well prepared for whatever may befall him, and well secured against
+the manifold hazards of losing his course, sinking in the abyss, or of
+being wrecked against the shore.
+
+These evils have all existed at all times. The present, and that
+part of the past which is known to you by experience, has seen them
+multiplied beyond example. It has seen the ancient and acknowledged
+standards of thinking violently thrown down. Religion, morals,
+government, and the estimate formed by man of crimes and virtues, and
+of all the means of usefulness and enjoyment, have been questioned,
+attacked, and in various places, and with respect to millions of
+the human race, finally overthrown. A licentiousness of opinion and
+conduct, daring, outrageous, and rending asunder every bond formed by
+God or man, has taken place of former good sense and sound morals, and
+has long threatened the destruction of human good. Industry, cunning,
+and fraud have toiled with unrivaled exertions to convert man into
+a savage and the world into a desert. A wretched and hypocritical
+philanthropy, also, not less mischievous, has stalked forth as the
+companion of these ravages: a philanthropy born in a dream, bred in a
+hovel, and living only in professions. This guardian genius of human
+interests, this friend of human rights, this redresser of human
+wrongs, is yet without a heart to feel, and without a hand to bless.
+But she is well furnished with lungs, with eyes, and a tongue. She can
+talk, and sigh, and weep at pleasure, but can neither pity nor give.
+The objects of her attachment are either knaves and villains at home,
+or unknown sufferers beyond her reach abroad. To the former, she
+ministers the sword and the dagger, that they may fight their way into
+place, and power, and profit. At the latter she only looks through a
+telescope of fancy, as an astronomer searches for stars invisible
+to the eye. To every real object of charity within her reach she
+complacently says, "Be thou warmed, and be thou filled; depart in
+peace."
+
+By the daring spirit, the vigorous efforts, and the ingenious cunning
+so industriously exerted on the one hand, and the smooth and gentle
+benevolence so softly profest on the other, multitudes have been,
+and you easily may be, destroyed. The mischief has indeed been met,
+resisted, and overcome; but it has the heads and the lives of the
+hydra, and its wounds, which at times have seemed deadly, are much
+more readily healed than any good man could wish, than any sober man
+could expect. Hope not to escape the assaults of this enemy: To feel
+that you are in danger will ever be a preparation for your safety. But
+it will be only such a preparation; your deliverance must ultimately
+and only flow from your Maker. Resolve, then, to commit yourselves
+to Him with a cordial reliance on His wisdom, power, and protection.
+Consider how much you have at stake, that you are bound to eternity,
+that your existence will be immortal, and that you will either rise to
+endless glory or be lost in absolute perdition. Heaven is your proper
+home. The path, which I have recommended to you, will conduct you
+safely and certainly to that happy world. Fill up life, therefore,
+with obedience to God, with faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and
+repentance unto life, the obedience to the two great commands of the
+gospel, with supreme love to God and universal good-will to men, the
+obedience to the two great commands of the law. On all your sincere
+endeavors to honor Him, and befriend your fellow men, He will smile;
+every virtuous attempt He will bless; every act of obedience He will
+reward. Life in this manner will be pleasant amid all its sorrows; and
+beams of hope will continually shine through the gloom, by which it
+is so often overcast. Virtue, the seed that can not die, planted from
+heaven, and cultivated by the divine hand, will grow up in your hearts
+with increasing vigor, and blossom in your lives with supernal beauty.
+Your path will be that of the just, and will gloriously resemble the
+dawning light, "which shines brighter and brighter, to the perfect
+day." Peace will take you by the hand, and offer herself as the
+constant and delightful companion of your progress. Hope will walk
+before you, and with an unerring finger point out your course; and
+joy, at the end of the journey, will open her arms to receive you. You
+will wait on the Lord, and renew your strength; will mount up with
+wings as eagles; will run, and not be weary; will walk, and not faint.
+
+
+
+
+ROBERT HALL
+
+MARKS OF LOVE TO GOD
+
+BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
+
+
+Robert Hall, Baptist divine, was born at Arnesby, near Leicester,
+England, in 1764. Destined for the ministry, he was educated at the
+Baptist Academy at Bristol, and preached for the first time in
+1779. In 1783 he began his ministry in Bristol and drew crowded
+congregations of all classes. The tradition of Hall's pupit oratory
+has secured his lasting fame. Many minds of a high order were
+fascinated by his eloquence, and his conversation was brilliant.
+His treatment of religious topics had the rare merit of commending
+evangelical doctrine to people of taste. Dugald Stewart declares that
+his writings and public utterances exhibited the English language in
+its perfection. He died in 1831.
+
+
+
+
+ROBERT HALL
+
+1764--1831
+
+MARKS OF LOVE TO GOD
+
+_But I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you._--John v.,
+42.
+
+
+The persons whom our Lord addrest in these words made a high
+profession of religion, valued themselves upon their peculiar
+opportunities of knowing the true God and His will, and proclaimed
+themselves as the Israel and the temple of the Lord, while they
+despised the surrounding pagans as those who were strangers to the
+divine law. Yet the self-complacent Pharisees of our Savior's age were
+as far from the love of God, he assures them in the text, as any of
+those who had never heard of His name. In this respect, many of "the
+first were last, and the last first." The rejection of the gospel
+evinces a hardness of heart which is decisive against the character;
+and, in the case of the Pharisees, it gave ample evidence that they
+possest no love of God. Had they really known God, as our Lord argues,
+they would have known Himself to be sent by God: whereas, in proving
+the bitter enemies of Christ, they proved that they were in a state of
+enmity against God. By parity of reason, we, my brethren, who know God
+and His Word in the way of Christian profession, ought not to take it
+for granted that we possess the love of God, and are in the way of
+eternal life: the same self-delusion may overtake us also; and similar
+admonitions may be no less necessary to many present, than to the
+Pharisees of old. Suffer then, my brethren, the word of exhortation,
+while I invite each individual seriously to consider this subject,
+with a view to the discovery of his real character.
+
+In proceeding to lay down certain marks of grace, let it be premised,
+that either these marks partake of the nature of true religion, or
+they do not. If they do, they must be identified with it, and here the
+mark is the thing: if they do not partake of its nature, some of
+them may exist as indications where genuine religion is not. It is
+necessary, then, that we combine a variety of particular signs of
+grace: any one taken by itself, may, or may not, exist, without true
+religion; but where many are combined, no just doubt can remain.
+
+Whether you have the love of God in your soul presents a most
+critical subject of inquiry; since the love of God will be
+acknowledged by all to be the great, the essential, principle of
+true religion. The simple question, then, to which I would call your
+attention, is this: "Am I, or am I not, a sincere lover of the Author
+of my being?"
+
+In endeavoring to assist you in the decision of this momentous
+question, as it respects yourselves. I shall entreat your attention
+while I suggest a variety of marks which indicate love to God; and
+supposing the conviction produced by the statement to be, that you
+have not the love of God, I shall point out the proper improvement of
+such a conviction.
+
+In suggesting various marks by which you may ascertain whether you
+love God or not, I would mention the general bent and turn of your
+thoughts, when not under the immediate control of circumstances; for
+these, you are aware, give a new and peculiar bias to our thoughts,
+and stamp them with an impress of their own. There is an infinite
+variety of thoughts continually passing through the mind of every
+individual: of these, some are thrown up by occasions; but others, and
+often the greater part, follow the habitual train of our associations.
+It is not to thoughts of the former kind that I refer; it is to those
+of the latter class--those involuntary thoughts which spring up of
+themselves in the mind of every person: it is these, not the former,
+that afford clear indication of the general temper and disposition.
+The question I would propose to you is, What is the bent of your
+thoughts when, disengaged from the influence of any particular
+occurrence, you are left to yourselves, in the intervals of retirement
+and tranquillity, in the silence of the midnight watches, and, in
+short, whenever your mind is left free to its own spontaneous musings?
+Are the thoughts most familiar to your mind, at such times, thoughts
+of God and the things of God--or are they thoughts that turn upon the
+present world and its transient concerns? Are they confined, for the
+most part, within the narrow circle of time and sense; or do they make
+frequent and large excursions into the spiritual and eternal world?
+The answer to this question will go far to decide whether you have, or
+have not, the love of God. It is impossible that such an object as the
+divine Being should be absent long from your thoughts; impossible
+that His remembrance should long remain merged in the stream of other
+imaginations; unless you are supposed chargeable with a decided
+indifference to divine things! Unless you are destitute of love to God
+you can never be so utterly uncongenial in sentiment and feeling with
+the psalmist, when he says, "My mouth shall praise thee with joyful
+lips, while I meditate upon thee in the night watches." "How precious
+are thy thoughts unto me, O God!" When that man of God gazed upon the
+starry heavens, his mind was not merely wrought into astonishment at
+the physical energy there displayed; he was still more deeply lost in
+grateful admiration of the mercy of Providence as manifested to man--a
+sinful child of dust, and yet visited by God in the midst of so
+magnificent a universe! But when day passes after day, and night after
+night, without any serious thoughts of God, it is plain that He is not
+the home of your mind, not your portion, center, and resting-place:
+and if this is the case, it is equally plain that you are not in a
+state of acceptance with Him; since nothing can be more certain than
+that, as our thoughts are, such must be our character. I do not ask
+what are your thoughts at particular times, or under the influence
+of some particular event: there may be little difference, on some
+occasions, between those who remember, and those who neglect, God
+habitually. The charge against the ungodly is, that "God is not in all
+their thoughts." If there are any here who feel this charge as bearing
+against themselves, let them take that solemn warning given by God
+himself at the close of the fiftieth psalm, "Oh, consider this, ye
+that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to
+deliver you!"
+
+Let me request you to consider seriously how you stand disposed to the
+exercises of religion. If God is the object of your love, you will
+gladly avail yourselves of the most favorable opportunities of
+cultivating a closer friendship with the Father of your spirits: on
+the contrary, he who feels no regard for these opportunities, proves
+that he has no love to God, and will never be able to establish the
+conviction that God is his friend. Wherever there exists a sincere
+friendship, opportunities of cultivating it are gladly embraced, and
+the opposite privations are regretted. Where a habitual neglect of
+sacred exercises prevails it must be interpreted as if it said, like
+those whom the prophet describes, "Cause the Holy One of Israel to
+cease from amongst us. Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge
+of thy way!" If your closets seldom witness your private devotions,
+if your moments in retirement are languid and uninteresting--your
+religion can have no hold on your heart; and the reason why your
+religion has no hold on your heart is because you have no love of God.
+There are some whose religion sits easy and delightful upon them; its
+acts and functions are free and lively: there are others who seem to
+bear their religion as a burden, to drag their duties as a chain--as
+no vital part of themselves, but rather a cumbrous appendage: this is
+a decisive and melancholy symptom of a heart alienated from God. There
+is no genuine religion, no real contact of the heart with the best of
+beings, unless it makes us continually resort to Him as our chief joy.
+The psalmist is always expressing his fervent desires after God: after
+the light of the divine countenance, and the sense of the divine
+favor: but do you suppose such desires peculiar to the state of
+believers under the Old Testament? No, my brethren; there exist more
+abundant reasons than ever, since the gospel of Christ has been
+displayed in all the glorious fulness of its blessings, why our souls
+should be inflamed with such feelings as those which inspired
+the psalmist, when he exclaimed, "As the hart panteth for the
+water-brooks, so longeth my soul after thee, O God!"
+
+If you would ascertain whether you love God, consider how you stand
+affected toward the Word of God. We can entertain no just thoughts of
+God, but such as we derive from His own Word: we can acquire no true
+knowledge of God, nor cherish any suitable affections toward Him,
+unless they are such as His own revelation authorizes. Otherwise we
+must suppose that revelation insufficient for its specific purposes,
+and set the means against the end. All, therefore, who sincerely love
+God, are students of His Word; they here, also accord in soul with the
+psalmist, and like him, can say, "O how I love thy word! in it is my
+meditation all the day:" they eat it as food for their souls, and find
+it sweeter than honey. They go to it as to an inexhaustible fountain,
+and drink from it streams of sacred light and joy. A neglected Bible
+is too unambiguous a sign of an unsanctified heart; since that blest
+book can not fail to attract every one that loves its divine Author.
+How is it possible to delight in God, and yet neglect that Word which
+alone reveals Him in His true and glorious character--alone discovers
+the way by which He comes into unison with us, and condescends to
+pardon us, to love us, and to guide us through all this mysterious
+state of being? It is observable that the only persons who are
+inattentive to their own sacred books are to be found among
+Christians. Mohammedans commit large portions of the Koran to memory;
+the Jews regard the Old Testament with reverence; the Hindu Brahmans
+are enthusiastically attached to their Shastra; while Christians alone
+neglect their Bible. And the reason is, that the Scriptures are so
+much more spiritual than the religious books received by others; they
+afford so little scope for mere amusement or self-complacency; they
+place the reader alone with God; they withdraw him from the things
+that are seen and temporal, and fix him among the things that are
+unseen and eternal; they disclose to his view at once the secret evils
+of his own condition, and the awful purity of that Being with whom he
+has to do. No wonder the ungodly man hates their light, neither comes
+to their light, but retires from it farther and farther into the
+shades of guilty ignorance. How melancholy the infatuation of such a
+character!
+
+Estimate your character in respect to your love of God, by reflecting,
+with what sentiments you regard the people of God. God has a people
+peculiarly His own: they are not of that world to which they outwardly
+belong--not conformed to it in the spirit of their mind; they stand
+apart, many of them at least, in conspicuous conformity to Jesus
+Christ, and in earnest expectation of the glory which He had promised.
+How, then, do you regard these decided followers of God? Do you shun
+their society with aversion and secret shame; or do you enjoy
+their communion as one of the most delightful among your Christian
+privileges? Are you content merely to be the companion of those who
+"have a name to live, but are dead": or can you say with the psalmist,
+"My delight is in the excellent of the earth"? or, with the beloved
+disciple, "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because
+we love the brethren"? for, as he adds, "He that loveth him that
+begot, loveth him that is begotten"; if you do not love the image
+which you have seen, how can you love the unseen original? If the
+features of holiness and grace in the creature are not attractive to
+your view, how can your affections rise to the perfect essence? How
+can you ascend to the very sun itself, when you can not enjoy even the
+faint reflection of its glory? He who knew the heart, could alone say
+to those around Him, "I know you, that ye have not the love of God
+in you": but tho none can address you now in the same tone of divine
+authority, yet we may hear it uttered by a voice--the voice of your
+own conscience: you may know, without any perturbations of hope or
+fear, by the spiritual insensibility and inaction of your soul--by
+this you may know, with equal certainty as by a voice from heaven,
+that you have not the love of God in you.
+
+Consider the disposition you entertain toward the person and office of
+the Son of God. "If ye had loved the Father, ye would have loved me
+also," was the constant argument of Jesus Christ to those Pharisees
+whom He addresses in the text For Jesus Christ is the express image of
+God: the effulgence of the divine character is attempered in Him, to
+suit the views of sinful humanity. In the life of Jesus Christ we see
+how the divine Being conducts Himself in human form and in our own
+circumstances: we behold how He bears all the sorrows, and passes
+through all the temptations, of flesh and blood. Such, indeed, is the
+identity, so perfect the oneness of character, between the man Christ
+Jesus and the divine Being--that our Savior expressly assures us, "He
+that hath seen me, hath seen the Father; I and my Father are one." The
+purpose for which God was manifested in the flesh was not to reveal
+high speculations concerning the nature of the Deity: it was to bear
+our sorrows, and to die for our sins. But can you contemplate Him,
+thus stooping to your condition, thus mingling with every interest of
+your own, and not be moved by such a spectacle?--not be attracted,
+fixt, filled with grateful astonishment and devotion--crucified, as
+it were, on the cross of Christ, to the flesh, and to the world? What
+mark, then, of our possessing no love of God can equal this, that we
+are without love to Jesus Christ?--that neither the visibility of His
+divine excellence, nor His participation of all our human sufferings,
+can reach our hearts and command our affections?
+
+In examining whether you love God, examine how you are affected by His
+benefits. These are so numerous and so distinguished that they
+ought to excite our most ardent gratitude: night and day they are
+experienced by us; they pervade every moment of our being. We know
+that favors from an enemy derive a taint from the hands through which
+they are received, and excite alienation rather than attachment: but
+the kindness of a friend, by constantly reminding us of himself,
+endears that friend more and more to our hearts; and thus, he that has
+no love to God receives all His favors without the least attraction
+toward their Author, whom he regards rather as an enemy than as a
+friend. But the Christian feels his love of God excited by every fresh
+goodness. The mercies of God have accompanied you through every
+stage of your journey; and they are exhibited to you in His word as
+stretching through a vast eternity. Are these the only benefits you
+can receive without gratitude, and suffer to pass unregarded How,
+then, can any love of God dwell in your bosom?
+
+Consider, in the next place, in what manner you are imprest by
+the sense of your sins. The question is not whether you have any
+sins,--none can admit a doubt on this point; the only inquiry is, how
+you are affected by those sins? Are they remembered by you with a
+sentiment of tender regret, of deep confusion and humiliation, that
+you should ever have so requited such infinite goodness? And is this
+sentiment combined with a sacred resolution to go and sin no more,--to
+devote yourself to the service of your divine Benefactor? If you
+can live without an habitual sense of penitential tenderness and
+reverential fear, be assured you can not love God; you have no
+experience of those Scripture declarations: "They shall fear the Lord
+and his goodness in the latter days;" "There is forgiveness with thee,
+that thou mayst be feared;" you know not that "the goodness of God
+leadeth to repentence." If the mind is softened by the love of God,
+all His favors serve to inflame its gratitude, and confirm its
+devotion to His will: but he who has no love of God in his soul,
+thinks of nothing but how he may escape from God's hand, and selfishly
+devours all His favors, without an emotion of gratitude to the Giver.
+
+Finally, let me remind you to consider how you are affected to the
+present world. If you could only be exempt from its afflictions, would
+you wish it to be your lasting home? If you could surround yourself
+with all its advantages and enjoyments, would you be content to dwell
+in it forever? Yet you know that it is a place of separation and exile
+from the divine majesty; that it is a scene of darkness, in comparison
+with heaven, very faintly illuminated with the beams of His distant
+glory; that its inhabitant is constrained to say, "I have heard
+of thee by the hearing of the ear, but mine eye hath not yet seen
+thee";--while heaven is the proper dwelling-place of God and His
+people! Could you then consent to remain here always, without ever
+seeing as you are seen--seeing light in His light--without ever
+beholding His glory; without ever drinking at the fountain,
+and basking in that presence which is fulness of joy, and
+life forevermore? always to remain immersed in the shadows of
+time--entombed in its corruptible possessions? never to ascend up on
+high to God and Christ and the glories of the eternal world? If such
+is the state of your spirit, you want the essential principle of a
+Christian--you want the love of God. The genuine Christian, the lover
+of God, is certain to feel himself a "stranger on the earth." No
+splendor, no emolument of this world,--not all the fascinations of
+sensual pleasure,--can detain his heart below the skies, or keep him
+from sympathizing with the sentiment of the psalmist: "As for me, I
+shall behold thy face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I
+wake in thy likeness." I do not ask whether you have, at present, "a
+desire to depart": perhaps you may not be as yet sufficiently prepared
+and established to entertain so exalted a desire; but still, if you
+have received a new heart, you will deprecate nothing so much as
+having your portion in this life,--as having your eternal abode on
+earth. It is the character of faith to dwell much in eternity: the
+apostle says, in the name of all real believers, "We look not at the
+things that are seen, but the things that are not seen; for the things
+that are seen are temporal, but the things that are not seen are
+eternal."
+
+And now, my brethren, supposing the preceding remarks to have produced
+in any of you the conviction that you have not the love of God in you,
+permit me very briefly to point out the proper improvement of such a
+conviction.
+
+First, it should be accompanied with deep humiliation. If you labored
+under the privation of some bodily organ, requisite to the discharge
+of an animal function, you would feel it as in some degree a
+humiliating circumstance; but what would be any defect of this kind,
+however serious, in comparison with that great want under which you
+labor--the want of piety, the calamity of a soul estranged from the
+love of God! What are the other subjects of humiliation compared with
+this--a moral fall, a spiritual death in sin: and this, unless it be
+removed, the sure precursor of the second death--eternal ruin! "This
+is a lamentation indeed, and it shall be for a lamentation."
+
+Suppose the children of a family, reared and provided for by the most
+affectionate of parents, to rise up in rebellion against their father,
+and cast off all the feelings of filial tenderness and respect; would
+any qualities those children might possess, any appearance of
+virtue they might exhibit in other respects, compensate for such
+an unnatural, such an awful deformity of character? Transfer this
+representation to your conduct in relation to God: "If I," says He,
+"am a father, where is my fear? if I am a master, where is my honor?"
+"Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth! I have nourished and brought
+up children, and they have rebelled against me: the ox knoweth his
+owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel doth not know, my
+people doth not consider."
+
+And let your humiliation be accompanied with concern and alarm. To be
+alienated from the great Origin of being; to be severed, or to sever
+yourself from the essential Author and element of all felicity, must
+be a calmity which none can understand, an infinite wo which none can
+measure or conceive. If the stream is cut off from the fountain, it
+soon ceases to flow, and its waters are dissipated in the air: and
+if the soul is cut off from God, it dies! Its vital contact with
+God,--its spiritual union with the Father of spirits through the blest
+Mediator, is the only life and beauty of the immortal soul. All,
+without this, are dead--"dead in trespasses and sins"! A living
+death--a state of restless wanderings, and unsatisfied desires! What
+a condition theirs! And, oh! what a prospect for such, when they look
+beyond this world! who will give them a welcome when they enter an
+eternal state? What reception will they meet with, and where? What
+consolation amid their losses and their sufferings, but that of the
+fellow-sufferers plunged in the same abyss of ruin? Impenitent sinners
+are allied to evil spirits, they have an affinity with the kingdom
+of darkness; and when they die, they are emphatically said to "go to
+their own place"!
+
+This is an awful state for any to be in at present; but, blest be God,
+it is not yet a hopeless situation. Let no person say, "I find by what
+I have heard, that I do not love God, and therefore I can entertain
+no hope." There is a way of return and recovery open to all. Jesus
+Christ, my dear brethren, proclaims to you all, "I am the way. No man
+can come to the Father but by me":--but every one that will may come
+by this new and living way; and, if you lose life eternal, you lose
+it because--according to his words just before the text--because "you
+will not come to Christ that you may have life." If you feel the
+misery, deformity, and danger of your state, then listen to His
+invitation, and embrace His promise. See the whole weight of your
+guilt transferred to His cross! See how God can be at once the just
+and the justifier! Take of the blood of sprinkling, and be at peace!
+His blood cleanseth from all sin: He will send that Spirit into your
+heart which will manifest Him to you; and where that Spirit is, there
+is liberty and holy love. He is the mystical ladder, let down from
+heaven to earth, on which angels are continually ascending and
+descending, in token of an alliance established between God and man.
+United by faith to Jesus Christ, you shall become a habitation of God
+through the Spirit; the Father will make you a partaker of His love,
+the Son of His grace, angels of their friendship; and you shall be
+preserved, and progressively sanctified, until, by the last change,
+all remains of the great epidemic source of evils shall be forever
+removed from your soul; and the love of God shall constitute your
+eternal felicity.
+
+
+
+
+EVANS
+
+THE FALL AND RECOVERY OF MAN
+
+BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
+
+
+Christmas Evans, a Welsh Baptist preacher, was born at Isgaerwen,
+Cardiganshire, South Wales, in 1766. Brought up as a Presbyterian,
+he turned Baptist in 1788, and was ordained the following year and
+ministered among the Baptists in Carmaerthenshire. In 1792 he became a
+sort of bishop to those of his denomination in Anglesey, where he took
+up his residence. After a somewhat stormy experience with those he
+undertook to rule, he removed to Carmaerthen in 1832. He distinguished
+himself by his debt-raising tours, in which his eloquence brought
+him much success. It is said that once when he was preaching on the
+subject of the prodigal son, he pointed to a distant mountain as he
+described the father seeing him while yet a great way off, whereupon
+thousands in his congregation turned their heads in evident
+expectation of seeing the son actually coming down the hills. He died
+in 1838.
+
+
+
+
+EVANS
+
+1766--1838
+
+THE FALL AND RECOVERY OF MAN
+
+_For if, through the offense of one, many be dead, much more the grace
+of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath
+abounded unto many._--Romans v., 15.
+
+
+Man was created in the image of God. Knowledge and perfect holiness
+were imprest upon the very nature and faculties of his soul. He had
+constant access to his Maker, and enjoyed free communion with Him, on
+the ground of his spotless moral rectitude. But, alas! the glorious
+diadem is broken; the crown of righteousness is fallen. Man's purity
+is gone, and his happiness is forfeited. "There is none righteous; no,
+not one." "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." But
+the ruin is not hopeless. What was lost in Adam is restored in Christ.
+His blood redeems us from the bondage, and His gospel gives us back
+the forfeited inheritance. "For if, through the offense of one, many
+be dead; much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is
+by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many." Let us consider,
+first, the corruption and condemnation of man; and secondly, his
+gracious restoration to the favor of his offended God.
+
+I. To find the cause of man's corruption and condemnation, we must go
+back to Eden. The eating of the "forbidden tree" was "the offense of
+one," in consequence of which "many are dead." This was the "sin," the
+act of "disobedience," which "brought death into the world, and all
+our wo." It was the greatest ingratitude to the divine bounty, and the
+boldest rebellion against the divine sovereignty. The royalty of God
+was contemned; the riches of His goodness slighted; and His most
+desperate enemy preferred before Him, as if he were a wiser counsellor
+than infinite wisdom. Thus man joined in league with hell against
+heaven; with demons of the bottomless pit against the almighty maker
+and benefactor; robbing God of the obedience due to His command and
+the glory due to His name; worshiping the creature instead of the
+creator; and opening the door to pride, unbelief, enmity, and all the
+wicked and abominable passions. How is the "noble vine," which was
+planted "wholly a right seed," "turned into the degenerate plant of a
+strange vine"!
+
+Who can look for pure water from such a fountain? "That which is born
+of the flesh is flesh." All the faculties of the soul are corrupted by
+sin; the understanding dark; the will perverse; the affections carnal;
+the conscience full of shame, remorse, confusion, and mortal fear. Man
+is a hard-hearted and stiff-necked sinner; loving darkness rather than
+light, because his deeds are evil; eating sin like bread, and drinking
+iniquity like water; holding fast deceit, and refusing to let it go.
+His heart is desperately wicked; full of pride, vanity, hypocrisy,
+covetousness, hatred of truth, and hostility to all that is good.
+
+This depravity is universal. Among the natural children of Adam, there
+is no exemption from the original taint. "The whole world lieth
+in wickedness." "We are all as an unclean thing, and all our
+righteousness is as filthy rags." The corruption may vary in the
+degrees of development, in different persons; but the elements are in
+all, and their nature is everywhere the same; the same in the blooming
+youth, and the withered sire; in the haughty prince, and the humble
+peasant; in the strongest giant, and the feeblest invalid. The enemy
+has "come in like a flood." The deluge of sin has swept the world.
+From the highest to the lowest, there is no health or moral soundness.
+From the crown of the head to the soles of the feet, there is nothing
+but wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores. The laws, and their
+violation, and the punishments everywhere invented for the suppression
+of vice, prove the universality of the evil. The bloody sacrifices,
+and various purifications, of the pagans, show the handwriting of
+remorse upon their consciences; proclaim their sense of guilt, and
+their dread of punishment. None of them are free from the fear which
+hath torment, whatever their efforts to overcome it, and however great
+their boldness in the service of sin and Satan. "Menel Tekel!" is
+written on every human heart. "Wanting! wanting!" is inscribed on
+heathen fanes and altars; on the laws, customs, and institutions of
+every nation; and on the universal consciousness of mankind.
+
+This inward corruption manifests itself in outward actions. "The tree
+is known by its fruit." As the smoke and sparks of the chimney show
+that there is fire within; so all the "filthy conversation" of men,
+and all "the unfruitful works of darkness" in which they delight,
+evidently indicate the pollution of the source whence they proceed.
+"Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." The sinner's
+speech betrayeth him. "Evil speaking" proceeds from malice and envy.
+"Foolish talking and jesting" are evidence of impure and trifling
+thoughts. The mouth full of cursing and bitterness, the throat an open
+sepulcher, the poison of asps under the tongue, the feet swift to shed
+blood, destruction and misery in their paths, and the way of peace
+unknown to them, are the clearest and amplest demonstration that men
+"have gone out of the way," "have together become unprofitable." We
+see the bitter fruit of the same corruption in robbery, adultery,
+gluttony, drunkenness, extortion, intolerance, persecution, apostasy,
+and every evil work--in all false religions; the Jew, obstinately
+adhering to the carnal ceremonies of an abrogated law; the Mohammedan,
+honoring an impostor, and receiving a lie for a revelation from God;
+the papist, worshiping images and relics, praying to departed saints,
+seeking absolution from sinful men, and trusting in the most absurd
+mummeries for salvation; the pagan, attributing divinity to the works
+of his own hands, adoring idols of wood and stone, sacrificing to
+malignant demons, casting his children into the fire or the flood
+as an offering to imaginary deities, and changing the glory of the
+incorruptible God into the likeness of the beast and the worm.
+
+"For these things' sake the wrath of God cometh upon the children of
+disobedience." They are under the sentence of the broken law; the
+malediction of eternal justice. "By the offense of one, judgment came
+upon all men unto condemnation." "He that believeth not is condemned
+already." "The wrath of God abideth on him." "Curst is every one that
+continueth not in all things written in the book of the law, to do
+them." "Wo unto the wicked; it shall be ill with him, for the reward
+of his hands shall be given him." "They that plow iniquity, and sow
+wickedness, shall reap the same." "Upon the wicked the Lord shall rain
+fire, and snares, and a horrible tempest; this shall be the portion of
+their cup." "God is angry with the wicked every day; if he turn not he
+will whet his sword; he hath bent his bow, and made it ready."
+
+Who shall describe the misery of fallen man! His days, tho few, are
+full of evil. Trouble and sorrow press him forward to the tomb. All
+the world, except Noah and his family, are drowning in the deluge.
+A storm of fire and brimstone is fallen from heaven upon Sodom and
+Gomorrah. The earth is opening her mouth to swallow up alive Korah,
+Dathan, and Abiram. Wrath is coming upon "the beloved city," even
+"wrath unto the uttermost." The tender and delicate mother is
+devouring her darling infant. The sword of men is executing the
+vengeance of God. The earth is emptying its inhabitants into the
+bottomless pit. On every hand are "confused noises, and garments
+rolled in blood." Fire and sword fill the land with consternation and
+dismay. Amid the universal devastation wild shrieks and despairing
+groans fill the air. God of mercy! is Thy ear heavy, that Thou canst
+not hear? or Thy arm shortened, that Thou canst not save? The heavens
+above are brass, and the earth beneath is iron; for Jehovah is pouring
+His indignation upon His adversaries, and He will not pity or spare.
+
+Verily, "the misery of man is great upon him"! Behold the wretched
+fallen creature! The pestilence pursues him. The leprosy cleaves to
+him. Consumption is wasting him. Inflammation is devouring his vitals.
+Burning fever has seized upon the very springs of life. The destroying
+angel has overtaken the sinner in his sins. The hand of God is upon
+him. The fires of wrath are kindling about him, drying up every well
+of comfort, and scorching all his hopes to ashes. Conscience is
+chastizing him with scorpions. See how he writhes! Hear how he shrieks
+for help! Mark what agony and terror are in his soul, and on his brow!
+Death stares him in the face, and shakes at him his iron spear. He
+trembles, he turns pale, as a culprit at the bar, as a convict on
+the scaffold. He is condemned already. Conscience has pronounced the
+sentence. Anguish has taken hold upon him. Terrors gather in battle
+array about him. He looks back, and the storms of Sinai pursue him;
+forward, and hell is moved to meet him; above, and the heavens are on
+fire; beneath, and the world is burning. He listens, and the judgment
+trump is calling; again, and the brazen chariots of vengeance are
+thundering from afar; yet again, the sentence penetrates his soul
+with anguish unspeakable--"Depart! ye accurst! into everlasting fire,
+prepared for the devil and his angels!"
+
+Thus, "by one man, sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and
+so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." They are
+"dead in trespasses and sins," spiritually dead, and legally dead;
+dead by the mortal power of sin, and dead by the condemnatory sentence
+of the law; and helpless as sheep to the slaughter, they are driven
+fiercely on by the ministers of wrath to the all-devouring grave and
+the lake of fire!
+
+But is there no mercy? Is there no means of salvation? Hark! amid all
+this prelude of wrath and ruin, comes a still small voice, saying:
+"Much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one
+man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many."
+
+II. This brings us to our second topic, man's gracious recovery to the
+favor of his offended God.
+
+I know not how to present to you this glorious work, better than by
+the following figure. Suppose a vast graveyard, surrounded by a lofty
+wall, with only one entrance, which is by a massive iron gate, and
+that is fast bolted. Within are thousands and millions of human
+beings, of all ages and classes, by one epidemic disease bending to
+the grave. The graves yawn to swallow them, and they must all perish.
+There is no balm to relieve, no physician there. Such is the condition
+of man as a sinner. All have sinned; and it is written, "The soul that
+sinneth shall die." But while the unhappy race lay in that dismal
+prison, Mercy came and stood at the gate, and wept over the melancholy
+scene, exclaiming--"Oh, that I might enter! I would bind up their
+wounds; I would relieve their sorrows; I would save their souls!" An
+embassy of angels, commissioned from the court of heaven to some other
+world, paused at the sight, and heaven forgave that pause. Seeing
+Mercy standing there, they cried:--"Mercy! canst thou not enter? Canst
+thou look upon that scene and not pity? Canst thou pity, and not
+relieve?" Mercy replied: "I can see!" and in her tears she added, "I
+can pity, but I can not relieve!" "Why canst thou not enter?" inquired
+the heavenly host. "Oh!" said Mercy, "Justice has barred the gate
+against me, and I must not--can not unbar it!" At this moment, Justice
+appeared, as if to watch the gate. The angels asked, "Why wilt thou
+not suffer Mercy to enter?" He sternly replied: "The law is broken,
+and it must be honored! Die they, or Justice must!" Then appeared
+a form among the angelic band like unto the Son of God. Addressing
+Himself to Justice, He said: "What are thy demands?" Justice replied:
+"My demands are rigid; I must have ignominy for their honor, sickness
+for their health, death for their life. Without the shedding of blood
+there is no remission!" "Justice," said the Son of God, "I accept thy
+terms! On me be this wrong! Let Mercy enter, and stay the carnival
+of death!" "What pledge dost thou give for the performance of these
+conditions?" "My word; my oath!" "When wilt thou perform them?" "Four
+thousand years hence, on the hill of Calvary, without the walls of
+Jerusalem." The bond was prepared, and signed and sealed in the
+presence of attendant angels. Justice was satisfied, the gate was
+opened, and Mercy entered, preaching salvation in the name of Jesus.
+The bond was committed to patriarchs and prophets. A long series of
+rites and ceremonies, sacrifices and obligations, was instituted to
+perpetuate the memory of that solemn deed. At the close of the four
+thousandth year, when Daniel's "seventy weeks" were accomplished,
+Justice and Mercy appeared on the hill of Calvary. "Where," and
+Justice, "is the Son of God?" "Behold him," answered Mercy, "at the
+foot of the hill!" And there He came, bearing His own cross, and
+followed by His weeping church. Mercy retired, and stood aloof from
+the scene. Jesus ascended the hill like a lamb for the sacrifice.
+Justice presented the dreadful bond, saying, "This is the day on which
+this article must be canceled." The Redeemer took it. What did He do
+with it? Tear it to pieces, and scatter it to the winds? No! He nailed
+it to His cross, crying, "It is finished!" The victim ascended the
+altar. Justice called on Holy Fire to come down and consume the
+sacrifice. Holy Fire replied: "I come! I will consume the sacrifice,
+and then I will burn up the world!" It fell upon the Son of God, and
+rapidly consumed His humanity; but when it touched His deity,
+it expired. Then was there darkness over the whole land, and an
+earthquake shook the mountain; but the heavenly host broke forth in
+rapturous song--"Glory to God in the highest! on earth peace! good
+will to man!"
+
+Thus grace has abounded, and the free gift has come upon all, and the
+gospel has gone forth proclaiming redemption to every creature. "By
+grace ye are saved, through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is
+the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast." By grace ye
+are loved, redeemed, and justified. By grace ye are called, converted,
+reconciled and sanctified. Salvation is wholly of grace. The plan, the
+process, the consummation are all of grace.
+
+"Where sin abounded, grace hath much more abounded." "Through the
+offense of one, many were dead." And as men multiplied, the offense
+abounded. The waters deluged the world, but could not wash away the
+dreadful stain. The fire fell from heaven, but could not burn out the
+accurst plague. The earth opened her mouth, but could not swallow up
+the monster sin. The law thundered forth its threat from the thick
+darkness on Sinai, but could not restrain, by all its, terrors, the
+children of disobedience. Still the offense abounded, and multiplied
+as the sands on the seashore. It waxed bold, and pitched its tents on
+Calvary, and nailed the Lawgiver to a tree. But in that conflict sin
+received its mortal wound. The victim was the victor. He fell, but in
+His fall He crusht the foe. He died unto sin, but sin and death were
+crucified upon His cross. Where sin abounded to condemn, grace hath
+much more abounded to justify. Where sin abounded to corrupt, grace
+hath much more abounded to purify. Where sin abounded to harden, grace
+hath much more abounded to soften and subdue. Where sin abounded to
+imprison men, grace hath much more abounded to proclaim liberty to
+the captives. Where sin abounded to break the law and dishonor the
+Lawgiver, grace hath much more abounded to repair the breach and
+efface the stain. Where sin abounded to consume the soul as with
+unquenchable fire and a gnawing worm, grace hath much more abounded to
+extinguish the flame and heal the wound. Grace hath abounded! It hath
+established its throne on the merit of the Redeemer's sufferings.
+It hath put on the crown, and laid hold of the golden scepter, and
+spoiled the dominion of the prince of darkness, and the gates of the
+great cemetery are thrown open, and there is the beating of a new
+life-pulse throughout its wretched population and immortality is
+walking among the tombs!
+
+This abounding grace is manifested in the gift of Jesus Christ, by
+whose mediation our reconciliation and salvation are effected. With
+Him, believers are dead unto sin, and alive unto God. Our sins were
+slain at His cross, and buried in His tomb. His resurrection hath
+opened our graves, and given us an assurance of immortality. "God
+commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners,
+Christ died for us; much more, then, being now justified by his blood,
+we shall be saved from the wrath through him; for if, when we were
+enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more,
+being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life."
+
+"The carnal mind is enmity against God; it is not subject to the law
+of God, neither indeed can be." Glory to God, for the death of His
+Son, by which this enmity is slain, and reconciliation is effected
+between the rebel and the law! This was the unspeakable gift that
+saved us from ruin; that wrestled with the storm, and turned it
+away from the devoted head of the sinner. Had all the angels of God
+attempted to stand between these two conflicting seas, they would have
+been swept to the gulf of destruction. "The blood of bulls and goats,
+on Jewish altars slain," could not take away sin, could not pacify the
+conscience. But Christ, the gift of divine grace, "Paschal Lamb by God
+appointed," a "sacrifice of nobler name and richer blood than they,"
+bore our sins and carried our sorrows, and obtained for us the boon
+of eternal redemption. He met the fury of the tempest, and the floods
+went over His head; but His offering was an offering of peace, calming
+the storms and the waves, magnifying the law, glorifying its Author,
+and rescuing its violator from the wrath and ruin. Justice hath laid
+down his sword at the foot of the cross, and amity is restored between
+heaven and earth.
+
+Hither, O ye guilty! come and cast away your weapons of rebellion!
+Come with your bad principles and wicked actions; your unbelief, and
+enmity, and pride; and throw them off at the Redeemer's feet! God is
+here waiting to be gracious. He will receive you; He will east all
+your sins behind His back, into the depths of the sea; and they shall
+be remembered against you no more forever. By Heaven's "unspeakable
+gift," by Christ's invaluable atonement, by the free, infinite grace
+of the Father and Son, we persuade you, we beseech you, we entreat
+you, "be ye reconciled to God"!
+
+It is by the work of the Holy Spirit with us that we obtain a personal
+interest in the work wrought on Calvary for us. If our sins are
+canceled, they are also crucified. If we are reconciled in Christ, we
+fight against our God no more. This is the fruit of faith. "With the
+heart man believeth unto righteousness." May the Lord inspire in every
+one of us that saving principle!
+
+But those who have been restored to the divine favor may sometimes be
+cast down and dejected. They have passed through the sea, and sung
+praises on the shore of deliverance; but there is yet between them
+and Canaan "a waste howling wilderness," a long and weary pilgrimage,
+hostile nations, fiery serpents, scarcity of food, and the river of
+Jordan. Fears within and fightings without, they may grow discouraged,
+and yield to temptation and murmur against God, and desire to return
+to Egypt. But fear not, thou worm Jacob! Reconciled by the death of
+Christ; much more, being reconciled, thou shalt be saved by His life.
+His death was the price of our redemption; His life insures liberty to
+the believer. If by His death He brought you through the Red Sea in
+the night, by His life He can lead you through the river Jordan in the
+day. If by His death He delivered you from the iron furnace in Egypt,
+by His life He can save you from all perils of the wilderness. If by
+His death He conquered Pharaoh, the chief foe, by His life He can
+subdue Sihon, king of the Amorites, and Og, the king of Bashan. "We
+shall be saved by his life." Because He liveth, we shall live also.
+"Be of good cheer!" The work is finished; the ransom is effected; the
+kingdom of heaven is open to all believers. "Lift up your heads and
+rejoice," "ye prisoners of hope!" There is no debt unpaid, no devil
+unconquered, no enemy within your hearts that has not received a
+mortal wound! "Thanks be unto God, who giveth us the victory, through
+our Lord Jesus Christ!"
+
+
+
+
+SCHLEIERMACHER
+
+CHRIST'S RESURRECTION AN IMAGE OF OUR NEW LIFE
+
+BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
+
+
+Friedrich Ernst Daniel Schleiermacher, German theologian and
+philosopher, was born at Breslau in 1768. He was brought up in a
+religious home and in 1787 went to the University of Halle, and in
+1789 became a Privat-Docent. In 1794 he was ordained and preached
+successively at Landsberg and Berlin. The literary and philosophical
+side of his intellect developed itself in sympathy with the
+Romanticists, but he never lost his passion for religion, a subject on
+which he published five discurses in 1799. We find in them a trace
+of the pantheism of Spinoza. His translation of Plato, accomplished
+between 1804 and 1806, gave him high rank as a classical scholar.
+In 1817 he joined the movement toward the union of the Lutheran and
+Reformed churches. As a preacher he was unprepossessing in appearance,
+being sickly and hunchbacked, but his simplicity of manner, and his
+clear, earnest style endeared him to many thousands. He died in Berlin
+in 1834.
+
+
+
+
+SCHLEIERMACHER
+
+1768--1834
+
+CHRIST'S RESURRECTION AN IMAGE OF OUR NEW LIFE
+
+_As Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father,
+even so we should walk in newness of life._--Romans vi., 4.
+
+
+It is natural, my friends, that the glorious festival of our Savior's
+resurrection should attract the thoughts of believers to a far remote
+time, and that it should make them rejoice to think of the time when
+they shall be with Him who, after He had risen from the dead, returned
+to His and our Father. But the apostle, in the words of our text,
+recalls us from what is far off to what is close to us--to the
+immediate present of our life here. He takes hold of what is the most
+immediate concern, of what we are at once to share in and which is to
+form us, even here, into the likeness of Christ's resurrection. We are
+buried with Him, He says, unto death, that as He was raised from the
+dead through the glory of the Father, we also might walk in newness of
+life. And this new life is that which, as the Lord Himself says, all
+who believe in Him possess even now as having passed through death to
+life. The apostle compares this with those glorious days of our Lord's
+resurrection; and how could we more appropriately keep this feast--a
+feast in which, above all others, many Christians draw renewed
+strength for this new life from the most intimate union with our
+heavenly Head--how could we better celebrate it than by endeavoring to
+receive this directly for ourselves from the words of the apostle?
+Let us then, according to the teaching of these words, consider the
+resurrection life of our Lord, as the apostle presents it to us, as a
+glorious, tho it may be unattainable, model of the new life in which
+we are all to walk through Him.
+
+1. This new life is like that of our risen Savior, first, in the
+manner of His resurrection. In order to appear to His disciples in
+that glorified form, which already bore in it the indications of the
+eternal and immortal glory, it was necessary that the Savior should
+pass through the pains of death. It was not an easy transformation;
+it was necessary for Him, tho not to see corruption, yet to have the
+shadow of death pass over Him; and friends and enemies vied with each
+other in trying to retain Him in the power of the grave; the friends
+rolling a stone before it, to keep the beloved corpse in safety, the
+enemies setting a watch lest it should be taken away. But when the
+hour came which the Father had reserved in His own power, the angel
+of the Lord appeared and rolled away the stone from the tomb, and the
+watch fled, and at the summons of omnipotence life came back into the
+dead form.
+
+Thus, my friends, we know what is the new life that is to be like the
+resurrection life of the Lord. A previous life must die; the apostle
+calls it the body of sin, the law of sin in our members, and this
+needs no lengthened discussion. We all know and feel that this life,
+which Scripture calls a being dead in sins, pleasant and splendid as
+may be the form it often assumes, is yet nothing but what the mortal
+body of the Savior also was, an expression and evidence of the power
+of death, because even the fairest and strongest presentation of this
+kind lacks the element of being imperishable. Thus with the mortal
+body of the Savior, and thus also with the natural life of man, which
+is as yet not a life from God.
+
+And this our old man must die a violent death in the name of the law,
+such as the Savior died, not without severe suffering and painful
+wounds. For if the body of sin dies out in a man of itself, through
+satiety of earthly things, and because no excitement can any longer
+affect his exhausted powers, that is a death from which we see no new
+life proceed. The power of sin must be slain in a man by violence; a
+man must go through the torture of self-knowledge, showing him the
+contrast between his wretched condition and the higher life to which
+he is called; he must hear the cry, and accept it as an irrevocable
+sentence; that an end is to be put to this life; he must groan and
+almost sink under the preparations for the execution of that sentence;
+all his accustomed habits of life must cease; he must be conscious of
+the wish that he were safely through it all, and it were at an end.
+
+And when he has yielded up the old life to a welcome death, and the
+old man is crucified with Christ, then the world, which knows nothing
+better than that previous life, if it only goes on well and easily,
+uses all kinds of efforts to hinder the rising up of the new life,
+some of them well-meaning, others self-interested and therefore
+hostile. Some, with good intentions, like those friends of the Savior,
+consult together, and try all in their power, keeping away all
+extraneous influences, to preserve at least the appearance of their
+friend from being defaced, and tho no joyful movement can ever again
+be awakened, to preserve the form of the old life. Others, seeking
+their own interest and pleasure in a way by which they almost
+certainly accuse themselves, try to prevent an abuse being practised
+in this state of things, and also to guard against the gay, merry life
+which they lead, and into which they like so much to lead others,
+being brought into contempt by a question of a new life arising after
+this dying off of the old man, when, as they think, there is really
+nothing else and nothing better here on earth and when it is a vain
+pretense for some to assert that they know this new life, and a
+mischievous delusion for others to attempt attaining it. Therefore
+wherever they perceive such a state of things, they have their spies
+to watch against every deception that might be practised about such
+a new life, or at least at once to discover and publish what kind of
+delusions prevail in connection with it.
+
+But when the hour has come which the Father has kept in His own power,
+then in one form or another His life-bringing angel appears to such a
+soul. Yet how little do we know about what part the angel had in the
+Savior's resurrection! We do not know if the Savior saw him or not; we
+can not determine the moment at which he rolled away the stone from
+the tomb and the reanimated Savior came forth; no one witnessed it,
+and the only persons of whom we are told that they might have been
+able to see it with their bodily eyes were smitten with blindness. And
+in like manner, neither do we know how the soul, lying, so to speak,
+in the tomb of self-destruction, is wrought upon by the angel of the
+Lord in order to call forth the life of God in it. It arises unseen in
+that grave-like silence, and can not be perceived until it is actually
+present; what is properly the beginning of it is hidden, as every
+beginning usually is, even from him to whom the life is imparted. But
+this is certain, as the apostle says, that the Lord was raised from
+the dead by the glory of the Father, and thus also, according to the
+words of the Savior, no man comes to the Son except the Father draw
+him; that same glory of the Father, which then called forth the Savior
+from the tomb, still awakens in the soul that has died to sin the new
+life, like the resurrection life of the Lord. Indeed, among all the
+proofs of the Father's glory in heaven and earth, there is none
+greater than this, that he has no pleasure in the death-like condition
+of the sinner, but that at some time or another the almighty,
+mysterious, life-giving call sounds in his ears--Arise and live.
+
+2. And, secondly, this new life resembles its type and ideal, the
+resurrection life of Christ, not only in being risen from death, but
+also in its whole nature, way and manner. First, in this respect, that
+tho a new life, it is, nevertheless, the life of the same man, and in
+the closest connection with his former life. Thus, with our Savior;
+He was the same, and was recognized by His disciples as the same, to
+their great joy; His whole appearance was the very same; even in
+the glory of His resurrection He bore the marks of His wounds as a
+remembrance of His sufferings and as the tokens of His death; and
+the remembrance of His former state was most closely and constantly
+present with Him. And just so it is with the new life of the Spirit.
+If the old man has died in sin, and we now live in Christ, and with
+Him in God, yet we are the same persons that we were before. As the
+resurrection of the Lord was no new creation, but the same man, Jesus,
+who had gone down into the grave, come forth again from it; so in the
+soul before it died the death which leads to life in God, there must
+have lain the capability of receiving that life when the body of sin
+should die and perish; and that life is developed in the same human
+soul amid the same outward circumstances as before, and with its other
+powers and faculties remaining unchanged. We are entirely the same
+persons, only that the fire of the higher life is kindled in us, and
+also that we all bear the signs of death, and that the remembrance
+of our former state is present with us. Yes, in manifold ways we are
+often reminded of what we were and what we did before the call to new
+life sounded in our hearts; and it is not so easy to efface the scars
+of the wounds, and the numberless traces of the pains under which the
+old man had to die that the new man might live. And as the glad faith
+of the disciples rested on the very fact that they recognized the Lord
+as being, in the glory of His resurrection, the same person that He
+was before; so also in us, the confidence in this new life, as a
+permanent and now natural state with us, rests only on this--that we
+recognize ourselves in it as the same persons that we were before;
+that there are the same faculties, lower and higher, of the human
+soul, which formerly served sin, but are now created anew as
+instruments of righteousness. Indeed, all the traces of that death,
+as well as of the former life, make us more vividly conscious of the
+great change that the life-giving call of God has produced in us, and
+call for the most heartfelt gratitude.
+
+And as the Savior was the same person in the days of His resurrection,
+so His life was also again of course a vigorous and active life;
+indeed, we might almost say it bore the traces of humanity, without
+which it could be no image of our new life, even in this, that it
+gradually grew stronger and acquired new powers. When the Savior first
+appeared to Mary, He said, as if His new life had been, as it were,
+timid and sensitive, "Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my
+God and your God." But after a few days He showed Himself to Thomas,
+and bade him boldly touch Him, put his hand in the Master's side, and
+his fingers into the marks left by the nails of the cross, so that He
+did not shrink from being touched even on the most sensitive spots.
+And also even in the earliest days, and as if the new life were to be
+fully strengthened by doing so, we find Him walking from Jerusalem to
+Emmaus, and from Emmaus back to Jerusalem, as well as going before His
+disciples into Galilee, and leading them back to Jerusalem, where He
+then ascended to heaven in their sight. And as He thus walked among
+them, living a life with them, human in every part, and exercising a
+human influence on them; so also His most important business was to
+talk with them of the kingdom of God, to reprove and rouse them up
+from their slowness of heart, and to open the eyes of their minds. Now
+so it is, my friends, with our new life--that is like the resurrection
+life of the Lord. Oh, how very gradually it gains its faculties in us,
+grows and becomes strong, only bearing still more than the new life
+of the Lord the traces of earthly imperfection. I can appeal on this
+point to the feeling of us all, for assuredly it is the same in all.
+How intermittent at first are the manifestations of this new life,
+and how limited the sphere of its action! How long does it retain
+its sensitive spots, which can not be touched without pain, or even
+without injurious consequences, and those are always the places in
+which the old man has been most deeply wounded in his dying hours! But
+in proportion as it becomes stronger, this new life ought the less to
+give the impression of being a mere fantom life,--the impression the
+Lord's disciples had when in the first moments they thought in their
+fear that they saw a spirit, so that He was obliged to appeal to the
+testimony of all their senses, that they might perceive He was no
+spirit, but had flesh and bones. And thus if our new life in God
+consisted in mere states of feeling and emotions, which were not in
+the least capable of passing into action, or perhaps did not even aim
+at doing so; which were too peculiar and special to ourselves to be
+actually communicated to others or to move them with good effect, but
+rather might touch them with a chill sense of awe; what would such
+a life be but a ghost-like apparition that would no doubt excite
+attention, but would find no credence, and would make men uneasy in
+their accustomed course, but without producing any improvement in it?
+No, it is a life of action, and ought to be ever becoming more so; not
+only being nourished and growing stronger and stronger through the
+word of the Lord and through heart-communion with Him, to which He
+calls us, giving Himself to us as the meat and drink of eternal life,
+but every one striving to make his new life intelligible to others
+about him, and to influence them by it. Oh, that we had our eyes more
+and more steadily fixt on the risen Savior! Oh, that we could ever be
+learning more and more from Him to breathe out blessing, as He did
+when He imparted His Spirit to the disciples! Oh, that we were more
+and more learning like Him to encourage the foolish and slow of heart
+to joyful faith in the divine promises, to active obedience to the
+divine will of their Lord and Master, to the glad enjoyment and use of
+all the heavenly treasures that He has thrown open to us! Oh, that we
+were ever speaking more effectively to all connected with us, of the
+kingdom of God and of our inheritance in it, so that they might see
+why it was necessary for Christ to suffer, but also into what glory He
+has gone! These are our desires, and they are not vain desires. The
+life-giving Spirit, whom He has obtained for us, effects all this in
+each in the measure that pleases Him; and if once the life of God is
+kindled in the human soul if we have once, as the apostle says, become
+like Him in His resurrection, then His powers are also more and more
+abundantly and gloriously manifested in us through the efficacy of His
+Spirit for the common good.
+
+But along with all this activity and strength, the life of the risen
+Savior was yet, in another sense, a secluded and hidden life. It is
+probable that when, in order to show Himself to His disciples, He went
+here and there from one part of the land to another, he was seen by
+many besides them, who had known Him in His previous life. How could
+it be otherwise? But the eyes of men were holden, that they did not
+recognize Him; and He made Himself known only to those who belonged
+to Him in faithful love. At the same time, however, He said to them,
+Blest are they who do not see, yet believe! And what was the little
+number of those who were counted worthy of seeing Him, even if we add
+to them the five hundred whom Paul mentions, compared with the number
+of those who afterward believed in their testimony to the Lord's
+resurrection? And thus it is also, my friends, with the new life in
+which we walk, even if it is, as it ought to be, strong and vigorous,
+and ever at work for the kingdom of God; yet it is at the same time an
+unknown and hidden life, unrecognized by and hidden from the world,
+whose eyes are holden; and he who should set himself to force
+the knowledge of it upon them, who should hit upon extraordinary
+proceedings in order to attract their attention to the difference
+between the life of sin and the resurrection life, would not be
+walking in the likeness of the Lord's resurrection. As the people
+in the time of Christ had opportunity enough to inquire about His
+resurrection, in seeing how His disciples continued to hold together,
+so our neighbors also see our close alliance, which has nothing to do
+with the affairs of this world; and if they, because of this, inquire
+about what unites us, the answer will not be lacking to them. But our
+inner history we will as little thrust upon them as the risen Christ
+thrust His presence on those who had slain Him, and who had therefore
+no desire to see Him. Instead of this, as He showed Himself only to
+His own, we also will make known our inner life only to those who are
+just in the same way our own; who, glowing with the same love, and
+cheered by the same faith, can tell us in return how the Lord has
+revealed Himself to them. Not by any means as if we followed some
+mysterious course, and that those only whose experiences had been
+entirely alike should separate themselves into little exclusive
+groups; for even the days of the Lord's resurrection present examples
+of various kinds of experience, and of one common inner fellowship
+connected with them all. And not only so, but even those who as yet
+have experienced nothing at all are not sent empty away. Only they
+must first become aware, by what they see without our thrusting
+it upon them, that here a spirit is breathing to which they are
+strangers, that here is manifested a life as yet unknown to them. Then
+will we, as was done then, lead them by the word of our testimony to
+the foundation of this new life; and as, when the word of preaching
+pierced men's hearts, when to some of them the old man began to appear
+as he really is, and they felt the first pangs that precede the death
+of the sinful man, there also sprang up faith in the resurrection of
+Him whom they had themselves crucified; so will it always be with the
+knowledge of the new life proceeding from Him who has risen. Therefore
+let us have no anxiety; the circle of those who recognize this life
+will always be widening, just because they are beginning to share in
+it. And as soon as even the slightest premonition of it arises in a
+man's soul, as soon as he has come only so far as to be no longer
+pleased and satisfied with the perishing and evil things of the world,
+as soon as his soul absorbs even the first ray of heavenly light, then
+his eyes are opened, so that he recognizes this life, and becomes
+aware what a different life it is to serve righteousness, from living
+in the service of sin.
+
+3. And lastly, my friends, we can not feel all these comforting and
+glorious things in which our new life resembles the resurrection life
+of our Lord, without being at the same time, on another side, moved
+to sorrow by this resemblance. For if we put together all that the
+evangelists and apostles of the Lord have preserved for us about His
+resurrection life, we still can not out of it all form an entirely
+consecutive history. There are separate moments and hours, separate
+conversations and actions, and then the Risen One vanishes again from
+the eyes that look for Him; in vain we ask where He can have tarried,
+we must wait till He appears again. Not that in Himself there was
+anything of this broken or uncertain life, but as to our view of it,
+it is and can not be but so; and we try in vain to penetrate into the
+intervals between those detached moments and hours. Well, and is
+it not, to our sorrow, with the new life that is like Christ's
+resurrection life? I do not mean that this life is limited to the few
+hours of social worship and prayer, glorious and profitable as they
+are; for in that case there would be cause to fear that it was a mere
+pretense; nor to the services, always but small and desultory,
+that each of us, actively working through the gifts of the Spirit,
+accomplishes, as it were, visibly and tangibly according to his
+measure, for the kingdom of God. In manifold ways besides these we
+become conscious of this new life; there are many quieter and secret
+moments in which it is strongly felt, tho only deep in our inmost
+heart. But notwithstanding this, I think all, without exception, must
+confess that we are by no means conscious of this new life as an
+entirely continuous state; on the contrary, each of us loses sight
+of it only too often, not only among friends, among disturbances and
+cares, but amid the commendable occupations of this world. But this
+experience, my dear friends, humbling as it is, ought not to make us
+unbelieving, as if perhaps our consciousness of being a new creature
+in Christ were a delusion, and what we had regarded as indications
+of this life were only morbid and overstrained emotions. As the Lord
+convinced His disciples that He had flesh and bones, so we may all
+convince ourselves and each other that this is an actual life; but in
+that case we must believe that, tho in a hidden way and not always
+present to our consciousness, yet it is always in existence, just as
+the Lord was still in existence even at the times when He did not
+appear to His disciples; and had neither returned to the grave, nor as
+yet ascended to heaven. Only let us not overlook this difference. In
+the case of Christ we do not apprehend it as a natural and necessary
+thing that during those forty days He led a life apparently so
+interrupted; but each of us must easily understand how, as the
+influence of this new life on our outward ways can only gradually
+become perceptible, it should often and for a long time be quite
+hidden from us, especially when we are very busy with outward work,
+and our attention is taken up with it. But this is an imperfection
+from which as time goes on we should be always becoming more free.
+Therefore always go back, my friends, to Him who is the only fountain
+of this spiritual life! If, ever and anon, we can not find it in
+ourselves, we always find it in Him, and it is always pouring forth
+afresh from Him the Head to us His members. If every moment in which
+we do not perceive it is a moment of longing, as soon as we become
+conscious of the void, then it is also a moment in which the Risen One
+appears to our spirit, and breathes on us anew with His life-giving
+power. And thus drawing only from Him, we shall attain to having
+His heavenly gifts becoming in us more and more an inexhaustible,
+continually flowing fountain of spiritual and eternal life. For this
+He rose from the dead by the glory of the Father, that we should be
+made into the likeness of His resurrection. That was finished in His
+return to the Father; our new life is to become more and more His and
+the Fathers return into the depths of our souls; there they desire to
+make their abode; and the life of God is to be ever assuming a more
+continuous, active and powerful form in us, that our life in the
+service of righteousness may become, and continue even here, according
+to the Lord's promise, an eternal life.
+
+
+
+
+MASON
+
+MESSIAH'S THRONE
+
+BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
+
+
+John Mitchell Mason, the eminent divine of the Reformed Presbyterian
+Church, was born in New York City in 1770. He completed his studies
+and took his degree at Columbia College and thence proceeded to take a
+theological course at Edinburgh. Ordained in 1793, he took charge of
+the Cedar Street Church, New York City, of which his father had been
+pastor. In 1807 he became editor of the _Christian Herald_, and in
+1821 was made president of Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
+He died in 1829.
+
+
+
+
+MASON
+
+1770--1829
+
+MESSIAH'S THRONE
+
+_Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever_.--Heb. i., 18.
+
+
+In the all-important argument which occupies this epistle, Paul
+assumes, what the believing Hebrews had already profest, that Jesus of
+Nazareth is the true Messiah. To prepare them for the consequences
+of their own principle--a principle involving nothing less than the
+abolition of their law, the subversion of their state, the ruin of
+their city, the final extinction of their carnal hopes--he leads them
+to the doctrine of their Redeemer's person, in order to explain the
+nature of his offices, to evince the value of his spiritual salvation,
+and to show, in both, the accomplishment of their economy which was
+now "ready to vanish away." Under no apprehension of betraying the
+unwary into idolatrous homage by giving to the Lord Jesus greater
+glory than is due unto His name, the apostle sets out with ascribing
+to Him excellence and attributes which belong to no creature.
+Creatures of most elevated rank are introduced; but it is to display,
+by contrast, the preeminence of Him who is "the brightness of the
+Father's glory and the express image of his person." Angels are great
+in might and in dignity; but "unto them hath he not put in subjection
+the world to come. Unto which of them said he, at any time, Thou art
+my son?" To which of them, "Sit thou at my right hand." He saith they
+are spirits, "ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them
+who shall be heirs of salvation. But unto the Son," in a style which
+annihilates competition and comparison--"unto the Son, he saith, Thy
+throne, O God, is for ever and ever."
+
+Brethren, if the majesty of Jesus is the subject which the Holy Ghost
+selected for the encouragement and consolation of His people, when He
+was shaking the earth and the heavens, and diffusing His gospel among
+the nations, can it be otherwise than suitable and precious to us on
+this occasion? Shall it not expand our views, and warm our hearts, and
+nerve our arm in our efforts to exalt His fame? Let me implore, then,
+the aid of your prayers, but far more importunately the aids of His
+own Spirit, while I speak of the things which concern the King: those
+great things contained in the text--His personal glory--His sovereign
+rule.
+
+His personal glory shines forth in the name by which He is revealed; a
+name above every name: "Thy throne, O God." ...
+
+Messiah's throne is not one of those airy fabrics which are reared by
+vanity and overthrown by time: it is fixt of old; it is staple, and
+can not be shaken, for it is the throne of God. He who sitteth on it
+is the Omnipotent. Universal being is in His hand. Revolution, force,
+fear, as applied to His kingdom, are words without meaning. Rise up in
+rebellion, if thou hast courage. Associate with thee the whole mass of
+infernal power. Begin with the ruin of whatever is fair and good in
+this little globe. Pass hence to pluck the sun out of his place, and
+roll the volume of desolation through the starry world. What hast thou
+done unto Him? It is the puny menace of a worm against Him whose frown
+is perdition. "He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh."
+
+With the stability which Messiah's Godhead communicates to His
+throne, let us connect the stability resulting from His Father's
+covenant.
+
+His throne is founded not merely in strength, but in right. God hath
+laid the government upon the shoulder of His holy child Jesus, and set
+Him upon Mount Zion as His King forever. He has promised and sworn to
+build up His throne to all generations; to make it endure as the days
+of heaven; to beat down His foes before His face, and plague them that
+hate Him. "But my faithfulness," adds He, "and my mercy shall be with
+him, and in my name shall his horn be exalted. Hath he said it, and
+will he not do it? Hath he spoken it, and shall it not come to pass?"
+Whatever disappointments rebuke the visionary projects of men, or the
+more crafty schemes of Satan, "the counsel of the Lord, that shall
+stand." The blood of sprinkling, which sealed all the promises made
+to Messiah, and binds down His Father's faithfulness to their
+accomplishment, witnesses continually in the heavenly sanctuary. "He
+must," therefore, "reign till he have put all his enemies under his
+feet." And altho the dispensation of His authority shall, upon this
+event, be changed, and He shall deliver it up, in its present form, to
+the Father, He shall still remain, in His substantial glory, a priest
+upon His throne, to be the eternal bond of our union, and the eternal
+medium of our fellowship with the living God.
+
+Seeing that the throne of our King is as immovable as it is exalted,
+let us with joy draw water out of that well of salvation which is
+opened to us in the administration of His kingdom. Here we must
+consider its general characters, and the means by which it operates.
+
+The general characters which I shall illustrate are the following:
+
+1. Mystery. He is the unsearchable God, and His government must be
+like Himself. Facts concerning both He has graciously revealed. These
+we must admit upon the credit of His own testimony; with these we must
+satisfy our wishes and limit our inquiry. To intrude into those things
+which he hath not seen because God has not disclosed them, whether
+they relate to His arrangements for this world or the next, is the
+arrogance of one vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind. There are
+secrets in our Lord's procedure which He will not explain to us in
+this life, and which may not perhaps be explained in the life to
+come. We can not tell how He makes evil the minister of good; how He
+combines physical and moral agencies of different kind and order, in
+the production of blessings. We can not so much as conjecture what
+bearings the system of redemption, in every part of its process, may
+have upon the relations of providence in the occurrences of this
+moment, or of the last. Such knowledge is too wonderful for us: it is
+high, we can not attain it. Our Sovereign's way is in the sea, and
+His path in the deep waters; and His footsteps are not known. When,
+therefore, we are surrounded with difficulty, when we can not unriddle
+His conduct in particular dispensations, we must remember that He is
+God--that we are to "walk by faith"; and to trust Him as implicitly
+when we are in the valley of the shadow of death, as when His candle
+shines upon our heads. We must remember that it is not for us to
+be admitted into the cabinet of the King of kings; that creatures
+constituted as we are could not sustain the view of His unveiled
+agency; that it would confound, and scatter, and annihilate our little
+intellects. As often, then, as He retires from our observation,
+blending goodness with majesty, let us lay our hands upon our mouths
+and worship. This stateliness of our King can afford us no just ground
+of uneasiness. On the contrary, it contributes to our tranquillity.
+
+2. For we know that if His administration is mysterious, it is also
+wise. "Great is our Lord, and of great power; his understanding is
+infinite." That infinite understanding watches over, and arranges,
+and directs all the affairs of His Church and of the world. We are
+perplexed at every step, embarrassed by opposition, lost in confusion,
+fretted by disappointment, and ready to conclude, in our haste, that
+all things are against our own good and our Master's honor. But "this
+is our infirmity"; it is the dictate of impatience and indiscretion.
+We forget the "years of the right hand of the Most High." We are slow
+of heart in learning a lesson which shall soothe our spirits at the
+expense of our pride. We turn away from the consolation to be derived
+from believing that tho we know not the connections and results of
+holy providence, our Lord Jesus knows them perfectly. With Him there
+is no irregularity, no chance, no conjecture. Disposed before His eye
+in the most luminous and exquisite order, the whole series of events
+occupy the very place and crisis where they are most effectually to
+subserve the purposes of His love. Not a moment of time is wasted, nor
+a fragment of action misapplied. What He does, we do not indeed know
+at present, but, as far as we shall be permitted to know hereafter, we
+shall see that his most inscrutable procedure was guided by consummate
+wisdom; that our choice was often as foolish as our petulance was
+provoking; that the success of our own wishes would have been our
+most painful chastisement, would have diminished our happiness, and
+detracted from His praise. Let us study, therefore, brethren, to
+subject our ignorance to His knowledge; instead of prescribing, to
+obey; instead of questioning, to believe: to perform our part without
+that despondency which betrays a fear that our Lord may neglect His,
+and tacitly accuses Him of a less concern than we feel for the glory
+of His own name. Let us not shrink from this duty as imposing too
+rigorous a condition upon our obedience.
+
+3. A third character of Messiah's administration is righteousness.
+"The scepter of his kingdom is a right scepter." If "clouds and
+darkness are around about him, righteousness and judgment are the
+habitation of his throne." In the times of old, His redeemed "wandered
+in the wilderness in a solitary way; but, nevertheless, he led them
+forth by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation."
+He loves His Church and the members of it too tenderly to lay upon
+them any burdens, or expose them to any trials, which are not
+indispensable to their good. It is right for them to go through
+fire and through water, that He may bring them out into a healthy
+place--right to endure chastening, that they may be partakers of His
+holiness--right to have the sentence of death in themselves, that they
+may trust in the living God, and that His strength may be perfect
+in their weakness. It is right that He should endure with much
+long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction; that He
+should permit iniquity to abound, the love of many to wax cold, and
+the dangers of His Church to accumulate, till the interposition of His
+arm be necessary and decisive. In the day of final retribution, not
+one mouth shall be opened to complain of injustice. It will be seen
+that the Judge of all the earth has done right; that the works of His
+hands have been verity and judgment, and done, every one of them, in
+truth and uprightness. Let us then think not only respectfully but
+reverently of His dispensations, repress the voice of murmur, and
+rebuke the spirit of discontent; wait, in faith and patience, till
+He become His own interpreter, when "the heavens shall declare his
+righteousness, and all the people see his glory."
+
+You will anticipate me in enumerating the means which Messiah employs
+in the administration of His kingdom:
+
+1. The gospel, of which Himself, as an all-sufficient and
+condescending Savior, is the great and affecting theme. Derided by the
+world, it is, nevertheless, effectual to the salvation of them who
+believe. "We preach Christ crucified: to the Jews a stumbling-block,
+and to the Greeks foolishness; but to them who are called, both Jews
+and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God." The
+doctrine of the cross connected with evangelical ordinances--the
+ministry of reconciliation; the holy Sabbath; the sacraments of His
+covenant: briefly, the whole system of instituted worship--is the rod
+of the Redeemer's strength, by which He subdues sinners to Himself,
+rules even in the midst of His enemies, exercises His glorious
+authority in His Church, and exhibits a visible proof to men and
+angels that He is King in Zion.
+
+2. The efficient means to which the gospel owes its success, and the
+name of Jesus its praise, is the agency of the Holy Ghost.
+
+Christianity is the ministration of the spirit. All real and
+sanctifying knowledge of the truth and love of God is from His
+inspiration. It was the last and best promise which the Savior made
+to His afflicted disciples at the moment of parting, "I will send the
+Comforter, the Spirit of Truth; he shall glorify me, for he shall take
+of mine and shall show it unto you." It is He who convinces the world
+of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment: who infuses resistless
+vigor into means otherwise weak and useless. For the weapons of our
+warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God, God the Spirit, to the
+pulling down of strongholds. Without His benediction, the ministry of
+an archangel would never convert one sinner from the error of his way.
+But when He descends with His life-giving influence from God out of
+heaven, then "foolish things of the world confound the wise; and weak
+things of the world confound the things which are mighty; and base
+things of the world, and things which are despised, yea, and things
+which are not, bring to naught things which are." It is this
+ministration of the Spirit which renders the preaching of the gospel
+to men dead in trespasses and sins a reasonable service. When I am set
+down in the valley of vision, and view the bones, very many and very
+dry, and am desired to try the effects of my own ability in recalling
+them to life, I will fold my hands and stand mute in astonishment and
+despair. But when the Lord God commands me to speak in His name, my
+closed lips shall be opened; when He calls upon the breath from the
+four winds to breathe upon the slain that they may live, I will
+prophesy without fear, "Oh, ye dry bones, hear the words of the Lord";
+and, obedient to His voice, they shall come together, bone to His
+bone--shall be covered with sinews and flesh--shall receive new life,
+and stand up upon their feet, an exceeding great army. In this manner,
+from the graves of nature, and the dry bones of natural men, does the
+Holy Spirit recruit the "armies of the living God," and make them,
+collectively and individually, a name, and a praise, and a glory to
+the Captain of their salvation.
+
+3. Among the instruments which the Lord Jesus employs in the
+administration of His government, are the resources of the physical
+and moral world.
+
+Supreme in heaven and in earth, "upholding all things by the word of
+his power," the universe is His magazine of means. Nothing which acts
+or exists, is exempted from promoting in its own place the purposes of
+His kingdom. Beings rational and irrational, animate and inanimate;
+the heavens above, and the earth below; the obedience of sanctified,
+and the disobedience of unsanctified men; all holy spirits; all damned
+spirits; in one word, every agency, every element, every atom, are but
+the ministers of His will, and concur in the execution of His designs.
+And this He will demonstrate to the confusion of His enemies, and the
+joy of His people, in that great and terrible day when He shall sit
+upon the throne of His glory, and dispense ultimate judgment to the
+quick and the dead.
+
+Upon these hills of holiness the stability of Messiah's throne, and
+the perfect administration of His kingdom, let us take our station,
+and survey the prospects which rise up before the Church of God.
+
+When I look upon the magnificent scene, I can not repress the
+salutation, "Hail, thou that art highly favored!" She has the prospect
+of preservation, of increase and of triumph.
+
+The long existence of the Christian Church would be pronounced, upon
+common principles of reasoning, impossible. She finds in every man a
+natural and inveterate enemy. To encounter and overcome the unanimous
+hostility of the world, she boasts no political stratagem, no
+disciplined legions, no outward coercion of any kind. Yet her
+expectation is, that she shall live forever. To mock this hope and
+blot out her memorial from under heaven, the most furious efforts of
+fanaticism, the most ingenious arts of statesmen, the concentrated
+strength of empires, have been frequently and perseveringly applied.
+The blood of her sons and her daughters has streamed like water; the
+smoke of the scaffold and the stake, where they won the crown of
+martyrdom in the cause of Jesus, has ascended in thick volumes to
+the skies. The tribes of persecutors have sported over her woes and
+erected monuments, as they imagined, of her perpetual ruin. But where
+are her tyrants, and where their empires? The tyrants have long since
+gone to their own place; their names have descended upon the roll of
+infamy; their empires have passed, like shadows over the rock--they
+have successively disappeared, and left not a trace behind.
+
+But what became of the Church? She rose from her ashes fresh in beauty
+and in might. Celestial glory beamed around her; she dashed down the
+monumental marble of her foes, and they who hated her fled before her.
+She has celebrated the funeral of kings and kingdoms that plotted
+her destruction; and, with the inscriptions of their pride, has
+transmitted to posterity the record of their shame. How shall this
+phenomenon be explained? We are, at the present moment, witnesses of
+the fact; but who can unfold the mystery? This blest book, the book of
+truth and life, has made our wonder to cease. The Lord her God in the
+midst of her is mighty. His presence is a fountain of health, and his
+protection a wall of fire. He has betrothed her, in eternal covenant,
+to Himself. Her living head, in whom she lives, is above, and His
+quickening Spirit shall never depart from her. Armed with divine
+virtue, His gospel, secret, silent, unobserved, enters the hearts of
+men and sets up an everlasting kingdom. It eludes all the vigilance,
+and baffles all the power of the adversary. Bars and bolts, and
+dungeons are no obstacle to its approach. Bonds, and tortures, and
+death can not extinguish its influence. Let no man's heart tremble,
+then, because of fear. Let no man despair, in these days of rebuke and
+blasphemy, of the Christian cause. The ark is launched, indeed, upon
+the floods; the tempest sweeps along the deep; the billows break over
+her on every side. But Jehovah-Jesus has promised to conduct her in
+safety to the haven of peace. She can not be lost unless the Pilot
+perish. Why, then, do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a
+vain thing? Hear, O Zion, the word of thy God, and rejoice for the
+consolation. "No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper,
+and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt
+condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their
+righteousness is of me, saith the Lord."
+
+Mere preservation, however, tho a most comfortable, is not the only
+hope of the Church; she has the prospect of increase.
+
+Increase--from an effectual blessing upon the means of grace in places
+where they are already enjoyed; the Lord saith, "I will pour water
+upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour
+my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offering; and they
+shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the watercourses."
+
+Increase--from the diffusion of evangelical truth through pagan lands.
+"For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness
+the people; but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be
+seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to
+the brightness of thy rising. Lift up thine eyes round about, and see:
+all they gather themselves together, they come to thee: thy sons shall
+come from far, and thy daughters shall be nursed at thy side. Then
+thou shalt see and flow together, and thy heart shall fear, and be
+enlarged; because the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto
+thee, the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee."
+
+Increase--from the recovery of the rejected Jews to the faith and
+privileges of God's dear children. Blindness in part has happened
+unto Israel; they have been cut off, for their unbelief, from the
+olive-tree. Age has followed age, and they remain to this hour spread
+over the face of the earth, a fearful and affecting testimony to the
+truth of God's word. They are without their sanctuary, without their
+Messiah, without the hope of their believing ancestors. But it shall
+not be always thus. They are still "beloved for the father's sake."
+When the "fulness of the Gentiles shall come in," they too shall be
+gathered. They shall discover, in our Jesus, the marks of the promised
+Messiah; and with from darkness to light, from the power of Satan unto
+God; it must make you meet for the inheritance of the saints, or it
+shall fearfully aggravate your condemnation at last. You pray, "Thy
+kingdom come." But is the "kingdom of God within you?" Is the Lord
+Jesus "in you the hope of glory?" Be not deceived. The name of
+Christian will not save you. Better had it been for you not to
+have known the way of righteousness; better to have been the most
+idolatrous pagan; better, infinitely better, not to have been born,
+than to die strangers to the pardon of the Redeemer's blood and
+the sanctifying virtue of His Spirit. From His throne on high He
+calls--calls to you, "Look unto me, and be ye saved; for I am God, and
+there is none else. Seek ye the Lord while he may be found; call ye
+upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the
+unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord, and
+he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly
+pardon."
+
+On the other hand, such as have fled for refuge to lay hold on the
+hope set before them, are commanded to be joyful in their King. He
+reigns, O believer, for thee. The stability of His throne is thy
+safety. The administration of His government is for thy good; and the
+precious pledge is, that He "will perfect that which concerneth thee."
+In all thy troubles, and in all thy joy, commit thy way unto Him. He
+will guard the sacred deposit. Fear not that thou shalt lack any good
+thing. Fear not that thou shalt be forsaken. Fear not that thou shalt
+fall beneath the arm of the oppressor. "He went through the fires of
+the pit to save thee." Sing, then, thou beloved, "Behold, God is my
+salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid; for the Lord Jehovah is my
+strength and my song; he also is become my salvation."
+
+And if we have "tasted that he is gracious"; if we look back with
+horror and transport upon the wretchedness and the wrath which we
+have escaped, with what anxiety shall we not hasten to the aid of our
+fellow men, who are sitting in "the region and shadow of death." What
+zeal will be too ardent, what labor too persevering, what sacrifice
+too costly, if, by any means, we may tell them of Jesus, and
+the resurrection, and the life eternal? Who shall be daunted by
+difficulties, or deterred by discouragement? If but one pagan shall be
+brought, savingly, by your instrumentality, to the knowledge of God
+and the kingdom of heaven, will you not have an ample recompense? Is
+there here a man who would give up all for lost because some favorite
+hope has been disappointed, or who regrets the wordly substance which
+he has expended on so divine an enterprise? Shame on thy coward
+spirit and thine avaricious heart! Do the holy Scriptures, does the
+experience of ages, does the nature of things justify the expectation
+that we shall carry war into the central regions of delusion and
+crime, without opposition, without trial? Show me a plan which
+encounters not fierce resistance from the prince of darkness and his
+allies in the human heart, and I will show you a plan which never came
+from the inspiration of God. If missionary effort suffer occasional
+embarrassment; if impressions on the heathen be less speedy, and
+powerful, and extensive than fond wishes have anticipated; if
+particular parts of the great system of operation be, at times,
+disconcerted; if any of the ministers of grace fall a sacrifice to the
+violence of those whom they go to bless in the name of the Lord--these
+are events which ought to exercise our faith and patience, to wean us
+from self-sufficiency, to teach where our strength lies, and where our
+dependence must be fixt; but not to enfeeble hope nor relax diligence.
+Let us not "despise the day of small things." Let us not overlook,
+as an important matter, the very existence of that missionary spirit
+which has already awakened Christians in different countries from
+their long and dishonorable slumbers, and bids fair to produce, in due
+season, a general movement of the Church upon earth. Let us not, for
+one instant, harbor the ungracious thought that the prayers, and
+tears, and wrestlings of those who make mention of the Lord, form no
+link in that vast chain of events by which He "will establish, and
+will make Jerusalem a praise in the earth." That dispensation which
+is most repulsive to flesh and blood, the violent death of faithful
+missionaries, should animate Christians with new resolution. "Precious
+in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints." The cry of
+martyred blood ascends the heavens: it enters into the ears of
+the Lord of Sabaoth. It will give Him no rest till He rain down
+righteousness upon the land where it has been shed, and which it
+has sealed as a future conquest for Him who "in his majesty rides
+prosperously because of truth, and meekness and righteousness."
+
+For the world, indeed, and perhaps for the Church, many calamities and
+trials are in store, before the glory of the Lord shall be so revealed
+that all flesh shall see it together. "I will shake all nations," is
+the divine declaration--"I will shake all nations, and the desire of
+all nations shall come." The vials of wrath which are now running, and
+others which remain to be poured out, must be exhausted. The "supper
+of the great God" must be prepared, and his "strange work" have its
+course. Yet the missionary cause must ultimately succeed. It is the
+cause of God and shall prevail. The days, O brethren, roll rapidly on,
+when the shout of the isles shall swell the thunder of the continent;
+when the Thames and the Danube, when the Tiber and the Rhine, shall
+call upon Euphrates, the Ganges, and the Nile; and the loud concert
+shall be joined by the Hudson, the Mississippi, and the Amazon,
+singing with one heart and one voice, "Alleluia, salvation! The Lord
+God omnipotent reigneth."
+
+Comfort one another with this faith and with these words.
+
+Now, "Blest be the Lord God, the God of Israel, who only doth wondrous
+things. And blest be his glorious name forever: Let the whole earth be
+filled with his glory. Amen and amen."
+
+
+
+
+END OF VOL. III.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The world's great sermons, Volume 3
+by Grenville Kleiser
+
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